- "Hey Pete, quick question for you."
"Oh, what's up? What can I help you with?"
"How do you film yourself when you're
making coffee or doing your vlogs or videos?
I don't have anyone around to actually film me."
"That's a great question.
I actually get asked that question all the time."
Guess what folks?
That's today. Let's go.
(edgy rock music)
What's up everybody?
Peter McKinnon here and welcome back
to yet another tutorial, another video, and today,
you heard it, we are talking about how to film yourself.
Specifically, when you have nobody around to help you.
(phone ringing)
- Hello? - [Matti] Hello?
- Hey - [Matti] Hey.
- What are you doing right now?
- Working on some videos.
- Can you help me come film something?
- [Matti] Sorry I'm busy right now. I can't.
- Okay thanks. I love you. Bye.
(phone ringing)
- [Chris] Hey man, how's it going?
- Hey buddy. How's the family?
- [Chris] Hey, they're good.
- Good. Can you come help me film something?
- [Chris] I can't today. I'm busy
but yeah I'm doing something.
- Ah, no problem.
I love you anyway. 'Kay, bye.
- [Chris] 'Kay. See ya.
(phone ringing)
- [Gabriel] Hello.
- Hey I miss your face, what's going on?
- [Gabriel] Not much. How are you?
- I'm pretty good.
Can you come help me film something?
- [Gabriel] I'd love to but I'm busy today.
- You're busy?
- [Gabriel] Yeah sorry man.
- Nah, it's okay.
I still love your face. 'Kay bye.
(phone ringing)
- [Woman] Thanks for choosing Domino's.
Stay on the line to hear our great
money-saving specials then press the...
- [Man] Domino's, can I help you?
- Does anybody there know how to use a camera?
You don't have any friends that know
how to use cameras, or if you do
they don't live close, they're too far.
But you've got a creative idea you wanna execute,
and you just need to know how to do it
the best you can with only yourself.
Here's how to do it.
All right, we're breaking this down into three points.
Point number one, the gear that you need.
Number two, is going to be the
camera placement and creativity.
Number three, I'm gonna call pacing.
So, let's jump into number one.
The things that you use, the things that I use
are as follows.
Now a quick disclaimer, I'm gonna base some of
this video off of the B-roll segment that I used
in Wednesday vlog, which was me making coffee.
Which was very well-received, by the way.
So, thank you very much.
I had super fun time making it, and this is how
I did it and the things I used to do it.
Number one, Joby tripod.
Obviously goes without saying,
you need some way to mount the camera if you
are going to be in the scene doing something.
The camera needs to be somewhere.
So, a tripod, a Joby tripod like this
is great because they bend, and they flex,
and they wrap, and, you know, awesome.
If you're shooting on your smartphone,
you can use a Joby one that is specifically
made for smartphones to mount.
So, that is an option as well.
And then what I like to use is a friction arm.
We've talked about these in videos before.
This friction arm has a nice super clamp
mount on it, which means I can mount it
to the table and then I can mount my
big heavy camera to this plate here.
These are made in all sorts of different shapes and sizes.
I'll link a few different options below.
This is just the one that I like to use
because it's super heavy-duty.
The best part about it is when you
undo one clamp, all the different joints move.
So you can really move this around any which way
you want to get that optimal angle.
As much as I don't really, I'm not the biggest
fan of GoPros, they are an invaluable asset
for being able to fit into weird, awkward places
to give you that nice eclectic mix of shots that
you can't stick a massive heavy camera like this in.
So, that brings us to point number three,
which is camera placement.
Finding the most obscure, unique angles
to tell your story that people don't
usually get to see things from.
What do I mean by that?
Well, when I'm pouring water into
a Chemex, what would look cool?
If that lens was looking up at me
pouring the water into the Chemex.
What to use for that? You use a GoPro for that.
And a fun fact, that shot wasn't even a Chemex
because this wouldn't fit in the neck.
So, I just grabbed a different glass jar,
put this in, shot that, cut it together.
It was only in the frame for like two seconds
which means (swooshing sound) it goes over
most people's heads, no one's the wiser.
But now everyone's the wiser because
I just told you what I did.
Doesn't matter.
Fresh perspectives, that's what we're going for.
Finding those weird, uncommon places
to mount and clamp your camera.
Don't just think dead straight,
don't just think from the side, don't just think overhead.
Those are great angles to have,
but how can we get weird with it?
How do we put a long lens on, mount it
behind the monitor so it's just peaking through
the hole of the glass where you would hold it,
so that only the one spot of focus
is where the coffee's pouring out.
Get weird, get creative.
That's the most fun aspect of this
entire art form that we do.
We can do anything we want, so take advantage of that.
Now the third and final point is pacing,
and arguably the most important in my opinion.
Now you see, pacing is gonna help us distract
the viewer from realizing that that camera
isn't just locked off on a tripod.
That's what we want to avoid.
Having a camera on a tripod that's just filming
one angle for ten seconds, then maybe it moves
to the left, films it again for ten seconds.
That's a dead giveaway, it's boring,
there's not enough happening.
If you look back at that coffee segment that we
shot for Wednesday's vlog, things kept moving.
Moving from shot, to shot, to shot.
The angle was changing from above, to the side,
from forward, underneath, through the handle
of the mug, inside the Chemex using the GoPro.
We're using all these different tools.
We're using our creative angles, and we're pacing
them nicely through an edit, mixed in with some
handheld stuff so that you get some movement in there.
And that's essentially it.
That's how I build my scenes, that's how I film myself.
These are the things I use to do it and those are
the techniques I keep in mind when I'm actually filming.
If I had to give one last bonus point,
which is the glue that kind of brings everything together,
is finding the right music track.
It seems a little bit out of left field,
going over all this stuff, but if you notice,
that coffee segment was really well received,
and it felt really intense because the music was intense.
It was timed nicely to the music.
You add all these things together, wrapped up
into one nice little package, and you have
that coffee segment that I'm very proud of.
And I didn't need anybody's help for that.
I didn't need a crew, I didn't need a gimbal,
I didn't need a slider, I didn't need a drone.
I just needed some creative camera placement,
a fun idea, couple things to help me out
along the way, and a good edit.
That's it, folks.
That's all there is to it.
So hit that like button if you like this video.
Smash it if that's something that you're into, 2018 style.
Subscribe if you aren't already,
and I will see you in the next video.
Peace!
(GoPro clinking against glass)
(energetic upbeat funk)
(indie electronic music)