Hello and welcome to ProAV TV, and believe it or not this is our 200th video on this
channel.
So today I'm going to do something a little different and take you through the equipment
which we've chosen to use to make these videos.
If your just starting out in the industry its definitely worth pointing out that equipment
of this level is by no means completely necessary if your planning on making youtube videos.
The last thing I’d want to do with this video is to put people off.
We sell plenty of more affordable equipment than what i’m going to show you here which
will easily create high quality videos.
But this isn't a video on what we recommend if your starting out, this is a video on what
we use ourselves.
So lets get started by taking a look at the beast of a camera that all of this is based
on.
This is the C300 mk2 from canon.
A 4K workhorse which gives a fantastic image with some really useful tools to make production
easier.
Theres a few main reasons we chose this camera.
Firstly we wanted the channel to become fully 4K, 4K is the future.
youtube displays 4K which looks fantastic and most importantly we review and show footage
from 4K cameras, we need to upload those videos in 4K in order for you to see them in as high
a quality as you can, so the rest of the video might as well be 4K too.
The second big reason to choose the C300 mk2 is that I am nearly always creating these
videos by myself.
I have to set everything up and leave the camera unattended while i’m doing my piece
to camera.
Several features of the C300 really help with this, the control panel on the top rotates
so that I can check settings and see what the camera is up while standing in front of
it, but the big advantage is the face detection autofocus.
This means I can pretty much forget about the focus and just stand in front of the camera
letting the c300 do all the work.
Really useful for what i’m doing.
The lens I nearly alway have on the front is the Sigma 18-35, its a nice focal length
for videos like this and the fast aperture means I can throw the showroom behind me out
of focus which is always nice.
For sound, I mainly use the sennheiser AVX system for convenience.
I love this product, its a really nicely designed system which is incredibly easy to use and
gets great sound.
We also have a sennheiser 416 mic which I mainly use for Voice Overs like this one,
or when I have a bit more time to get the best possible sound.
Unfortunately I’m not clever enough to remember everything I say in these videos myself, so
I write myself a script for each video and use the data video TP-300 iPad based teleprompter.
A simple product, but a lifesaver for videos like this.
It being iPad based means its quick and easy to get the scripts across from my mac to the
iPad and ready to read in the video.
On the side here I use an Atomos Shogun Flame to monitor the image while i’m in front
of the camera.
Yes the top control panel on the camera can spin around to face me but its often just
to far away to judge lighting, framing and exposure properly.
Plus the atomos shows audio levels and wave forms which are both very useful.
I do record into it for the on camera pieces.
Not because I need to for quality, the C300’s internal 4K is just as good really.
But because it means I can start and stop recording, and play back the last take without
going back and forth from the camera.
Its so much more convenient for me and means I can focus a bit more on the content of the
video.
I light the videos with the Lishuai lights in our showroom.
I nearly always use the Edge 700 now as my main key light because it gives out a fantastic
soft flattering light and lets face it I need all the help I can get to look decent on camera.
I love this light, its not the most powerful light out there but it makes up for it with
convenience, its beautiful soft light and accurate colours.
Then when I need a backlight or a fill I usually grab either the Square Edge 518 or the round
Edge 300.
Both are small and match well with the larger 700, and I can run all the lights off a mixture
of SWIT V-lock batteries and Sony NPF batteries.
Meaning I don't have to fuss about plugging the lights in and their aren't wires everywhere
for me to trip over while I'm in a rush.
When i’m done filming I take the footage back to my desk and start to edit away on
my 27 inch imac.
All the footage is stored on a 16tb G-Raid Studio unit from G-Tech which gives me 12
TB of storage with single drive redundancy.
This means that although the computer reads it as one hard drive, its actually got 4 hard
drives inside and it intelligently sorts the data so that any one of those hard drives
can fail and be replaced without me losing any of my work which is great for piece of
mind.
I edit on premiere pro CC, build my thumbnails in photoshop and titles in after effects.
Hopefully you all enjoyed seeing what I use here at ProAV TV, If you did make sure to
hit the like button below the video.
Its always useful for me to judge which videos your enjoying and which your not.
Feedback is also so useful so please do leave a comment below if you have any questions
at all.
It goes without saying that all the products mentioned in this video and much more are
available on our site, and the links you need are below.
Thanks for watching and I hope to see you in the next 200 videos.