- Today we're gonna tell you what you gear you need
for your YouTube videos and we're startin right now.
(upbeat rap music)
- What is going on, my name is Nick,
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Okay, today I'm here with Danielle from the YouTube channel,
Creator Answers, Danielle how are you?
- Hi, I'm good thanks this is so bizarre
being on this side of that intro.
- Yeah crazy right?
So Danielle, she has two channels actually,
she has one called Creator Answers,
which we'll put links to her channel in the description.
And she has another channel as well called
Cutting the Caboose.
Where she's actually grown quite a bit.
- Yeah.
- Over the last 12 months or so.
- Yeah, it should be, yeah really.
- And basically during that process
and really just being a general gear head,
so to speak, in terms of camera equipment
and things like that,
she has just a wealth of knowledge when it comes to,
camera gear and audio gear and all that stuff.
So what we're gonna talk about today,
is we're gonna talk about what she recommends
that content creators do in terms of
the equipment that they use for their YouTube channel.
So when it comes to making videos,
what are some key things that content creators
need to keep in mind in terms of the equipment itself?
Because of course, we know that they need a camera.
- Yeah.
- We know they need microphones.
- Yeah.
- But what are some important elements
that they need to keep in mind when they're
making this kind of stuff?
- Honestly, keep it simple, so many creators,
myself included, have taken this view that
you have to get a DSLR,
and you have to get all the lights
and you have to get tons of gear.
When really what you need is
something in your hand to shoot with.
And it's bizarre, some of the worst videos,
the hinkiest videos I've put out have been on a cellphone.
And yet their views have been through the roof.
- Crazy how that works, right?
- I had this piece of rubbish, I didn't script them,
I didn't prep them, the sound was poor, the video was poor,
but it was in my hand and I shot something
that was immediate and it was great.
It just took off, out of my 10 biggest videos,
six are on a cellphone,
because they were immediate and intimate
and right there at that moment,
which you can't script.
If you're getting an event the best camera
is the one you have on you
- Yeah.
- Doesn't matter if you've got 10 grand
worth of DSLR at home,
and you're out and there's a story,
it doesn't matter how good your camera in the house is.
- Because it's at home, right, yeah sure sure.
- And the other thing is that,
I'm using the show, we work at VidCon.
- Yeah, VidCon 2018 is where we're at right now
and you're actually using a camcorder right now.
- Yeah, its a great example,
I'm seeing people walking around with expensive DSLR's
with big lenses, with Shotgun mics on top.
And these things weigh a ton,
they burn through batteries,
they can't record for long.
- Like this as an example, I think I get maybe
20 minutes of record time?
- Yeah.
- Maybe 30 minutes of record time maximum,
before the battery on this camera dies out.
- Absolutely, yeah exactly.
- I'm running a camcorder,
which you can't use a camcorder,
everyone knows you gotta use a Canon right?
You gotta use a DSLR.
I've got a camcorder on a stick.
- But it works, like I've seen the image quality on it,
I mean it looks fantastic-
- This is better than any DSLR you're gonna carry around,
cause you're gonna get fatigued carrying a DSLR.
- Yeah, so when it comes to actually buying this equipment,
what are some key factors that content creators
need to keep in mind?
Like as an example, like with this,
we have the option to go shoot over there by the window,
but we're able to come back here
and because of the lens that I have on there,
it allowed me to open it up so that allowed more light
to come into the camera, and things like that.
So we could still make it look okay.
- Yeah.
- So what are some really, very important factors
that people need to keep in mind,
when it comes to actually buying the gear.
I'm looking for a camera, what are some
really important things I need to keep in mind
in terms of flexibility and things like that?
- Well the point, I mean, so it's a good example,
until you understand what you just said, don't buy a camera.
- Great.
- So until you know why you need,
if things like aperture and focal depth
and resolution and sensor size,
if that means nothing to you,
then don't buy a camera where that's an important statistic.
- Sure, sure, but I can tell you this,
she actually has a video on sensors and,
- I do.
- She has videos on all the stuff that she just mentioned,
so you're definitely gonna wanna go check that out.
- Thanks, but its true, again people will jump in,
because if you ask a hundred YouTubers what camera to buy.
- A hundred different answers.
- Yeah, exactly, although that said,
most of them probably say a Canon.
Even though they have no idea why they're gonna say it.
- Right, yeah.
- Everyone has a Canon, it must be a Canon.
- Sure, sure.
- But they'll tell you different Canon's,
some will say an M50, some will say a Canon camcorder,
these are entirely different cameras,
but they'll see a brand.
Which is great for Canon obviously.
- Oh yeah, sure.
- So understand why that tech is important
before you go and buy it.
Cause so many people don't,
they'll say something like they want soft background.
- Yeah.
- And thats what you have on your phone.
- Sure, now what about audio, because you know,
audio's extremely important and right now
I'm using a Shotgun mic on top of the camera,
she's wired up right here with a Lavalier mic,
she's rollin around with a road interview mic,
Newscaster I think that's called.
So what about microphones?
Like, what are some thing they need to keep in mind
in terms of the surroundings, the settings that they're in,
when it comes to choosing
a good microphone for their YouTube?
- So, the most important thing with a microphone is
what do you want to use it for?
The second most important thing,
for almost every scenario, is get the microphone close.
- Okay.
- So you can get away with a very very cheap microphone,
as long as you're close,
and you can get the most expensive microphone in the world
but if its 10 feet, 20 feet away from you,
it'll sound garbage.
- Sure.
- An easy, quick win is a Lavalier microphone
and a mobile phone.
It's cheap, it's you know,
a hundred bucks will buy you a set up
that'll cover all that.
Shotgun mics are terrific using one right here,
because this mesh in a Shotgun mic reaches out
of the thing and sucks the sound in.
It does, and all a Shotgun is gonna do
is help reject what's happening in the background.
Like I don't know if you can hear this
but right now there's quite a big crowd over there.
The Shotgun mic will do a fairly good job
of blocking it from that direction,
but because that sound is bouncing off the wall behind us.
- You're still gonna get it.
- You're probably gonna get it on the soundtrack.
- Yeah, sure, so when it comes to recording
in a loud environment, what do you recommend for that?
- Close.
- Close?
- I mean close applies to almost everything with audio,
the term is called presence.
If you have a very present sound,
and you can do this yourself,
if you hold the microphone very close,
if you put a bucket over your head or something,
you're gonna get that no echo, presence sound.
That's where you want to start,
cause its easy to add an effect of background noise,
if you want that... slight room effect?
But its very hard to take a room effect and make it go away.
So, close, always close and then work from there.
Unless you're recording sounds effects,
- Sure, sure.
- So B-roll or something like that,
then that's fine you want some atmosphere,
but for your voice, because when you're having
a conversation with somebody,
you're sitting about this close.
What you aren't doing is having a conversation
with somebody that's 20 feet away.
And yet if you're recording that,
it will sound like the person on your recording
is 20 feet away from the camera.
- So unless you're doing that for effect,
then that's definitely something that you don't wanna do.
So with audio, you know, you have like,
dynamic microphones, you have condenser microphones.
For like a general range microphone for YouTubers,
because you know how it is, like, you know,
sometimes you're shooting in a room,
sometimes you're shooting in an office,
sometimes you're shooting at events like this,
what do you recommend the people keep in mind
when it comes to audio, for just like a general
all around microphone for something that,
you know, will get em' through most situations where,
and of course it might not be perfect,
but it'll be a lot better
than using just one type of microphone.
- So I would say don't worry about terms like condenser
and dynamic and XLR and omnidirectional and picker patterns,
that's really useful to know when
you're buying your second and your third mic,
but when you're just getting started, go with the pack.
So pick up something like Boya or the Rode Smartlav,
because everybody else uses those and they're right there.
This is the zoom bit.
Get a lav first before anything else.
- Yeah and they're cheap.
- They're cheap.
- You know, like to improve your audio,
you know, like a 20 dollar microphone
can make a world of difference,
in what your audio sounds like.
And the Boya that you're talking about, the BYM1?
- The Boya, yeah.
- The BYM1 is a great place to start, the Rod Smartlav,
I think that's under a hundred bucks as well.
- And it plugs into your phone.
- Yeah and it plugs right into your phone,
and that's another thing that
you can do with your audio as well,
is you can say okay well I'm gonna have a Lavalier mic
and I'm going to plug that Lavalier mic into my phone,
and then I'm actually going to sync it up later
with the video footage when I actually go to edit the video.
So you can also do things like that
to make your audio sound a lot better.
- Absolutely, the only thing I would say with that,
is it does add a level of complexity,
because you're separating your audio from your video,
so if you want to keep it really simple,
and perhaps sacrifice a little sound quality,
then maybe something like a Shotgun on your camera,
but bare that in mind that you're
gonna get ambient echo you may not want.
- Yeah.
- So you've gotta bring the noise level of your room down
and keep the microphone a little closer.
- Kinda like what you're hearing right now.
- Exactly.
- Yeah, like what you're hearing right now,
this is the example of the difference,
and what she, like her voice right here,
what you're saying, right now.
- Yeah, so yeah, so this is a reflect,
you can do this in editing.
- Yeah for sure.
- This is what we sound like using the Lavalier,
so we're present, we're close,
there's a lack of background noise,
and we switch over to the Shotgun mic.
- Yeah and its a much bigger difference,
so you know, that's a great example of the difference
you can get from using different types of microphones
and why its important to think about what type of content
it is that you're wanting to make,
what type of situations are you going to be in
when you are making the videos, and what microphone
is going to be best for you, in terms of Shotgun mic,
Lavalier and things like that
to make your stuff sound better.
So Danielle, first I wanna say thank you so much
for coming on the channel,
its awesome to have you on the channel
finally after all this time.
- It's crazy, I know!
- Also to meet you in person,
where can we find out more about you?
- So, there's my tech channel which is Creator Answers,
which is literally this sort of content.
And if you wanna find out more about me,
Cutting the Caboose, which is my video blog
and a bit of a lifestyle channel.
It's kind of a grab bag.
- But it's work in, you know,
like its a good and successful channel.
- It's a long hill, but its getting there.
- Sure, sure, right, it's a successful channel
and basically what she's done,
is she's taken her knowledge
of putting everything together for that channel,
now she's starting to share with the community
and share this type of information
in terms of things that will help you make better videos,
and learn how to do this stuff a little bit better.
So we'll put links to here down in the description,
of course there'll be a card at the top of the screen,
and there'll be a link to her in the end screen as well,
so make sure that you head over
and check her channel out right now.
And if you wanna learn more about growing your channel,
making videos and all types of other YouTube related stuff,
start now by hitting the round subscribe icon
so you don't miss anything.
- Nick's the guy.
- Thank you so much for watching, I'll see you next time.