One of the important stages to consider when starting a video series for your business is the production stage. For many people, this is the most important aspect, and they tend to spend a lot of time and money trying to decide on what kind of AV Setup to use.
Episodic content requires planning. From thinking about creating a video series to doing the actual production work, it can be quite the process. And so, we are going to be looking at how to set up your audio and visual channels. We would be splitting this into audio and video and will discuss the following:
VideoSo video is one aspect that a lot of people stress about. They think that it is a must to have the best gear and equipment before they even start creating their shows. They look at shows like Netflix, shows in cinemas that have high-quality and high production value, and think that they have to do the same. They forget that those movies probably had budgets running into millions of dollars and are quick to compare them with their shows. We’d be lying if we said that video quality didn’t make a difference because of course, it makes a huge difference but only to the extent that you have access to it.
One of our favorite quotes and words of wisdom comes from Casey Neistat who says “The best camera is the one that you just have access to at the moment, whether it's a smartphone, a Sony camera or a built-in webcam in your computer.” You could have just a smartphone camera but as long as your content is solid and you use your smartphone camera in the best way that you can, then you are good to go. The important thing is that you use whatever you have access to.
Before you start overthinking about how to buy the latest camera, you should probably keep in mind that your guests are there for the conversation and the entertainment value that they're going to be getting from your show. What is the point of getting the best camera if your content cannot hold its weight?
If you can get a better camera than the one you have presently, then by all means do but it is certainly not a requirement for you to do so. Especially if this is your first show as you definitely want to make sure that you're the one piloting it and that you're seeing some form of success before you invest further time and energy into it.
So when it comes to audio and video setup, the simplest way to get started is literally to use Zoom and figure out what works best for you and your guest(s). Zoom is usually great for remote conversations because you have your built-in webcam as well as a built-in microphone from your computer so it's the easiest and fastest way to get started. With Zoom, you do not need to worry about being in the same place as your guest and this is really great because this removes the distance barrier that prevented people from being able to have sessions with guests that they really wanted on their shows. If you would like to learn more about how to use Zoom, then you can read this beginner's guide to using Zoom.
One tip that we could give would be to maybe prop up your laptop so that your webcam is at eye level. Even though it's such a minor thing, this makes a huge difference for the end viewer because they feel like you're seeing them eye to eye or like you're at eye level with them both figuratively and literally.
Now beyond that, you could use your smartphone selfie camera or main camera and have that record while you're doing the Zoom recording, and then in post-production, you could just swap out the Zoom recording video for the video from your smartphone camera. This is a great hack and a very inexpensive way to get great footage from your smartphone. And naturally, since your guests will have smartphones as well ( maybe even run-of-the-mill like smartphones), their phones can also do the job which will be a lot better as well than a built-in webcam. So these are the options in terms of video.
When it comes to audio, one thing that you could do is to use a simple headset or you could also go on amazon and get a very inexpensive microphone for like twenty dollars or fifty dollars. There's actually no limit whatsoever to the price that you could pay for a microphone but you could actually get something very very decent for under a hundred dollars.
And if all else fails, should you have a second smartphone by any chance then you could actually turn on the sound recorder app on your second smartphone and have that really close to you so you can use that as your microphone. So in essence, you would have one phone as your microphone and the other one as your smartphone.
These are just some quick ideas on how to get a robust-like AV setup done quickly and fairly inexpensively. So if you have been sitting on the fence about your video podcast because you think you don’t have the right gear, then I think you know what to do after reading this article camera.
You’d be surprised at how many people have taken the plunge and are now hosting very successful video podcasts without using the latest microphones or the best video cameras for production.
In our next video, we are going to be talking about recording and publishing the videos for your show which are the rest of the steps inside the production stage. See you then!