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Ever watched a video where everything seems so blurry and it was a pain to watch? In today’s episode, YouTube Producer Nate Woodbury is going to discuss video quality and the different ways you can create stunning videos that’s sure to catch everyone’s attention.
Alright. Everybody wants to know how to improve their video quality. And don’t you want to know that? -Well I’m part of everyone. -Okay. So, clearly I must. -Everybody? -it’s a fairly general statement but we’re going to talk about how to make your videos higher quality. How to improve, tweak. -I know how to do it. So why don’t I tell you? -I’m stick around. -Okay, so the temptation to make your videos higher quality is to buy more expensive equipment. -What language was that lady singing in right there though by the way? ♫♪♪♫♫ That voice in there. It’s like… -I can’t… I can’t place this long so I… -Yeah, it’s just bizarre. Sorry. I just sometimes, you know, we sit here and we watch that with you. And we’re like that’s really got a catchy beat. -Oh, you’re talking about the video logo? I have no idea what you’re talking about. -Oh my gosh, we just watched it. Alright. But anyway, that’s the… It’s the illusion. -Digitized. -The illusion that we’ve watched. It was a digital voice? -I’ll put over, yeah. -Alright, you thought this was gonna be a short one and now I’m making it long. -I know. Okay, now we’re going get to the meet the exciting part that you all been waiting for/ What’s the topic of the video? -Improving video quality. -We talked about expensive equipment. Now, if we buy expensive equipment… I just, I just spent 5 grand on new lighting equipment. Is that going to make my videos better? -Yes. In some ways. -That’s why I bought it. Because I have a specific intention of how I’m gonna use it. -Yeah. -But if a person watching this video has been filming their YouTube videos on their iPhone… (Somebody sent me a message) If somebody’s been filming YouTube videos on their iPhone and then they go and they buy a DSLR with white aperture lens… -Quality. -…is that going to… Is that going to improve their quality? -Yes. -I’m going to say maybe actually. -Well, depends on the quality that you’re asking about. You’re talking about like physical quality of the final product or you talking about… -I am talking… -I’m talking production. I am talking production quality. -Know those iPhones do have some mighty good chips in them. -Yes. So let me tell you why my answer is maybe because you think, “Well yeah, you can get a better quality.” But I think it depends on what type of video you’re filming. -Well, now you’re just splitting hairs. -And it’s not splitting hairs. -But I mean you’re putting out qualifiers. You just asked is it going to be better and I’m saying yes because you have depth of field with those lenses. It just looks better. -Okay. So I filmed professional videos. Meaning, people paid me for the videos I was filming. Not with this phone but with the 2 years, 2 generations before the… iPhone 4s. I had an HD camera. People hired me to film professional videos with that camera. Had the lights, the teleprompter, the white backdrop. Filming with that phone. And it was… It was great. Now, I did not have a need to spend the big bucks. This is a $1,200 body. That this lends us $400. The lens on that camera that you’re seeing us in is a 1200, a $1500 lens. We don’t need to spend that money if you don’t have a reason. For filming videos with a bright white background that I was filming at the time, it would not have changed the quality of the video. And noticeably enough to make a difference for that investment. But then it came to a point where I wanted to blur the background. So… I mean watch this. If I come closer. See how, see how Scott. Oh… He’s… There you go. Now, it’s found my face.
Okay. So now, see how Scott blurry back there? Okay, that’s… And then the background behind this is blurred, right? That’s because we’ve got a higher-end lens. And to be able to… I wanted to be able to blur the background. And you can’t, you can’t do that in video so well on on these tech phones. You can if you’re like really close. -And I think that’s better quality. -Definitely. So kind of the moral of the story or my point is what do you mean by quality? Like are you saying, “I want to be able to blur my videos?” Well then, yeah, you’re equip… You’re going need better equipment and that will improve the quality of your videos. But if you’re thinking, “You know what? I want to have better lighting. So I’m going to buy a better camera that can have better lighting. It’s like, “No, you just need to stand in front of a window.”that will improve the quality of your video more than the camera because it… The lighting was the problem. I don’t know. Is that make sense? -No, I I agree. Well I think what you’re saying is, is it just depends on your needs but it also depends on your pocketbook. I mean truly, if you’re just getting started. There may not be a mitigating force behind “I must have a5 thousand dollar light kit.” And I must have a $1,500 lens with a fifteen hundred dollar body. You can work with what you have until you get to a point where you go, “No, this is a risk.” A financial liability. (So to speak) That I’m willing to take upon me because it is first of all, it’s a capital expenditure. You can write it off and you’re making better videos. So, I just thought of a story that’s going to switch gears. But I think you guys are going to really like this story. Do you guys know Grant Thompson, The King of Random? -I heard the name. -Totally cool guy, amazing channel. You gotta check it out. Like it’s family-friendly. He blows things up, makes rockets, makes arc welders out of microwaves. It’s pretty cool. Okay. So, he told this story a year… A little over a year ago. He was getting burned out because he was putting so much time into each of his videos. And we’re talking he would prototype things and spend hours and hours and I was making something prototyping it before even filming. Doing tons of hours of filming then all the editing. -Yeah. -Okay. He was getting burnt out. He decided to quit temporarily. It ended up being temporary. But at the time it’s like, “I’m going to quit.” In his frustration, he… This is an amazing story that he told. One of his commenters that said, “You are so dangerous with liquid nitrogen. What if that splashed in your face and melted your eyes?” Or whatever. You know, some comment like that. And he’s like… He knows safety about liquid nitrogen. So he pulled out his phone and he made a quick video. Just a selfie video on the phone like this. He had a cup of liquid nitrogen. He says, “Alright, I’m going to show you what would happen if you throw in liquid nitrogen in your face. It is totally safe for me to handle this stuff because I know what I’m doing. (Makes Splash Sounds) And he was totally fine. A bounce off his face, it didn’t hurt anything. And he… Then he just uploaded that video to his channel. He didn’t edit it or anything else. That video got millions and millions of views. When his other videos would get hundreds of thousands or sometimes millions. Somebody and he was just like, “What in the heck? This video performs so well.” So, that does that…? That’s like performance quality. If you’re saying, “How do I get make my better quality?” If you’re talking performance, do you need to buy expensive equipment for your video to perform better? It could help but not necessarily. -Yes. -I mean, in Grant’s case, it was the content. That video was like something that people really wanted to watch and it didn’t matter if it was filmed on a phone, a DSLR or on our red camera or you know, Hollywood whatever. -So, let’s talk specifically though about ways that we can’t improve that level of quality. If our contents up to snuff right. -So, here’s the questions that, that you should consider. Like, do you…? When you say quality, do you want to have smoother video? If smoother video will improve the quality, if you really need that then maybe you need to invest in a glidecam. Or the the last two series of GoPros have better image stabilization. So instead of going with the GoPro 3 or 4, go with the 5 or those that the 6 or the 7. I don’t know. I think… I think I just got the 6. So the 7 just bear that came out just last week. -But they have the 8. -Is that the 8? -Yeah. You know. -I should know. I’ve got in my bag or they… On the second to newest one. Okay. Um… Are you going to be using slow motion? Like this camera… No, not. Okay, this one, the fastest it can film is 30 frames per second. But the one that you’re watching us on can film at 60 frames per second which means I can cut the speed in half and it will be smooth as butter slow motion. Okay? But do you need to invest in that if you’re not going to use it? Like are you going to be using slow motion? -Right. -That’s the thing. -Like sitting here, we don’t need. -I mean team, just for a while, it’s not… We’re not filming at 60 frames a second. So we can’t really slow down and have it be smooth as butter but… Alright. 4k. Do you need to buy a 4k video? We’ve passed about this in a few other videos that I say, “No”, Don’t waste your money or don’t waste the space on 4k video. You might hear a lot of people telling you. You got to go 4k. 4k is the future. 4k will future proof your business. I think it’s a bunch of baloney. And it’s in my business and for my line of work, you get it over there. I’ll let you say… -You’re good. -Find out why. Why? Why is 4k going to improve your business? People are watching your videos on their phone, they’re watching in 4k. Anyway, I’m going to… Blurred background. Do you need a blurred background? Like our amazing backgrounds are? That was… That was a yes for me. That was the biggest reason why because I did not know how to use a DSLR. I mean, all these things I film in manual mode so I have to learn shutter speed, I have to learn like ISO which is sensitivity after you learn white balance and… I had to learn all that because I wanted to blur and that was how I improved the quality of my videos.
So, is that something that’s important to you? Now, drone shots. So many people over the years have said “Ooh, do you have a drone?” And I’ve only… Until recently started vlogging. Without vlogging, what do I need a drone for? You know, if I had a drone, would it improve the quality of my videos? Maybe if we had a drone up there it could… -Well, yeah. Not inside sights. -Almost my videos are insides that’s what I’m saying. Like I would film speaker videos and maybe in the… I don’t… I get in trouble with the arena or the hotel. -A flying one in the ballroom. -Yeah. -So, you know… -I would love that as a speaker. To have… -It would… You know, have you seen those boom arm cameras that are in the big… -Yeah. -Yeah, but yeah. In my case, would a drone improved the quality of my videos? No. Because it would really just be a play toy that wouldn’t even make it in my actual videos that make me a living. But now that I’ve started vlogging, I’ve considered it. Okay, maybe now is the time to vlog. You know, how I like to film 20 episodes in a day. You can’t film 20 vlogs in a day and I’ve just… I’m really struggling… -Yeah it’s true. -I’m really struggling with being consistent with vlogs. If you enjoy watching my vlogs, know that I enjoy making them but they’re not going to come as often my other videos. Okay, better lighting. Well, investing in better lighting can improve the quality of my videos? That’s that’s typically a yes. -I think so. -You… I talk about windows a lot because you already have windows but what if it’s nighttime, right? We’ve got… We’ve got lights kind of aiming and reflecting off to to help the lighting. Here we put some cool blue lights. -It’s daylight outside but we’re not anywhere near… -Yeah, there’s actually there’s no windows in this room. -All artificial. -So, we’re… We’re using some cool lighting. And I just invested five grand into new lighting. And I’m hoping that it’s going to improve the quality of my videos. I’m doing some cool things with it. I have some. -It’s not set up yet. -Yeah, hasn’t arrived yet. -It’s not this lighting. -It… It’s coming next Monday. -It’s coming. -Better audio. -Definitely. -Yes. Where’s my other one? -That a… That’s a no-brainer and a non-issue. I mean, unless you’re you know, doing funny videos where ha! ha! ha! Fall down. -So, if you’re filming on your phone and and it’s this far away, you’re going to have good quality audio. -Yeah. -Okay, but if even just going on arm’s length, the audio drastically changes. And if it’s on a tripod… On my camera, how far away is that? 8, 7? -8 feet yeah. -So, we’ve got a shotgun mic on top of the camera but we’re not using the audio from that. It’s just so that we can mix it right here. I’m touching. I don’t know if you can hear this. That, that’s the mic that we’re using the audio from. Just so… Because it really improves the quality of the video. You would notice a big difference if we weren’t using that. In fact, team, can you please play the audio from that mic just for a second? -Okay, now switch back to this one. That’s audio. All right. Now, second camera. So, I’ve got multiple cameras. I had… I had a reason. There’s no reason to have multiple cameras unless you have a reason. The reason was because I was putting on events where I had some people on stage and I was using one camera to film them and have people at the same time in another room being interviewed. And I needed 2 cameras for that. If you’re going to do a 2 camera shoot that’s more of an interview style and from different, different directions. But make sure you, you know why you’re going to do it before you you take that step in and buy a second camera. -Yeah. And make sure you white balance them. -Okay, to wrap up this video, I want to reference another video that we filmed on the title, “How to shoot a video that doesn’t suck?” Now, that’s actually a title of a book and we made a video to reference all the things that I’ve learned from that book and how they apply to YouTube. So you can go check out that book on Amazon or audible. but click the link right up there so that you can watch that video as well. Because what… What you’ll learn there is actually like the video filming that you’re doing that will drastically improve the quality of your videos. So, hopefully you found this video helpful and the other ones we’ve got here. Subscribe, so you we get all of those. And you can see my handsome face and Scott’s face. I’m trying to insult you. -It’s just bounces off. -I kind of job but he’s… He… He doesn’t… He doesn’t react. -I’m tired. -Okay. Well, we are on. This is video 18. We’ll see you tomorrow.