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  • - What's up, everybody?

  • Peter Mickinnon here, and today

  • we're talking about five ways

  • to instantly make better videos.

  • (cool rock music)

  • Welcome back, everybody, to another episode of

  • whatever it is that we're doing here.

  • I wanna tell you guys about five ways

  • to instantly make better videos

  • that you can start doing today.

  • They don't require money,

  • it doesn't require buying extra gear.

  • They're just five things that you can do,

  • five things that you can think about,

  • just to instantly up that quality,

  • up that video game quality.

  • Not the actual video games, we're talking about video,

  • like your game in, you get it.

  • Number one, lighting.

  • Okay, lighting is the most important thing

  • when it comes to photography, cinematography,

  • film, videos, photos.

  • Lighting controls all.

  • I'm not just talking about forced lighting,

  • or stuff that we're gonna set up,

  • or lights that we have to buy,

  • or DIY lighting setups, outdoor light,

  • just lighting as a whole,

  • be it that it's from natural light,

  • or that it's from something that you've bought

  • that you've set up in-studio,

  • nailing that and locking that down

  • is one of the most important aspects

  • of what it is that we're doing here.

  • And I've mentioned this before,

  • window light is the best light for run-and-gun,

  • get-it-done, have it look amazing, reliable.

  • You wanna shoot near a window, okay?

  • So, for instance, watch this.

  • Now, this is a great example of good window light.

  • The window is literally right here.

  • It's a nice, soft light coming in.

  • It's not too harsh, but it illuminates me nicely,

  • makes me nice and clear,

  • which means it's easy for you to understand,

  • and concentrate, and focus on

  • what it is that I'm saying.

  • Now, because this shot is so clean,

  • and the light is so even on my face,

  • it really gives me a good, wide range of capabilities

  • when it comes to color correcting this footage

  • and grading it, because it's lit so evenly and so nice.

  • Opposed to if I moved away from the window

  • in this same room,

  • you can see how that light loss is significantly different.

  • It's much darker over here,

  • which means you're gonna lose detail,

  • it's gonna look a little bit more muddy,

  • opposed to just standing close to the window

  • and having the whole scene well-lit.

  • This is also, this clip right here,

  • is gonna be more difficult to color grade,

  • and it's probably gonna come out

  • a little bit more grainy because

  • we don't have enough light on the image as a whole.

  • You see what a difference that makes?

  • We're in the same room right now,

  • lit by window light,

  • but just by moving closer to it,

  • or moving further away, or shooting in the corner of a room

  • opposed to closer to the window

  • makes all the difference in how the quality

  • is gonna be perceived in your videos.

  • And the same thing goes for if you're actually

  • setting up studio lights or using the light

  • that's just in your ceiling.

  • The difference is substantial.

  • If you wanna see more on how to do a DIY lighting setup,

  • I'll link the video below that I did.

  • Super budget, you can go to Home Depot,

  • buy everything you need for less than $50.

  • But being able to lock that down

  • and just think about where you wanna shoot in your house,

  • where you wanna shoot in whatever building

  • that you're in ahead of time,

  • it's gonna make your videos easier to watch,

  • it's gonna make that color grading easier.

  • The overall outlook of your videos

  • will be tenfold better

  • if you just think about the lighting first.

  • Use those windows.

  • Point number two is proper music and sound.

  • Now, don't worry, I get asked about 500 times a day

  • where I find my music, how I get music for my videos.

  • I'm going to do an entire video on that,

  • so don't worry guys, it's coming.

  • However, having the proper music and sound effects

  • will 100% change the way people view

  • and see your videos, yourself included.

  • If you use the wrong track for some incredible footage,

  • that footage could be very well perceived as

  • not as good, or not as epic, or not as sad.

  • It's all in the song choice.

  • If you've got some home footage

  • of a baby crawling across the floor

  • and it's some gangster rap,

  • probably not gonna set the tone as well

  • as something a little more family-friendly.

  • And vice-versa, that works as well.

  • If we've got footage of an R8 ripping down the streets,

  • or some people skateboarding,

  • some soft, happy piano might not be the way to go.

  • So song choice is a huge factor

  • when you're thinking about your videos.

  • If it's a cheesy song, your footage is gonna be viewed,

  • and the piece as a whole,

  • is gonna be viewed as cheesy.

  • (cheesy music)

  • If it's a really, really epic song,

  • but the footage doesn't match the epicness of the music,

  • then you're gonna have a disconnect.

  • (epic music)

  • That brings me to my next point is,

  • you wanna actually edit to the music.

  • A lot of times, in music,

  • there are some incredible things that happen audibly.

  • If you match the visuals to the audio,

  • you can enhance that tenfold.

  • It's one thing to have great music,

  • it's one thing to edit to the beat,

  • but when you have sounds of the forest,

  • or if you have the ambient noises of cars going,

  • or you have that egg cracking,

  • the typing, the shuffling of cards, paper being ripped,

  • it doesn't matter.

  • When you have those extra ambient sound effects

  • on top of the great music and great footage,

  • it's the full package, it's the full experience.

  • They're things that are often overlooked,

  • but having proper sound effects makes all the difference.

  • Okay, so what I've done here

  • to show you an example real quick

  • is plug this Road Video Micro.

  • I've mounted it to this external monitor arm

  • that I've clamped to the desk.

  • So in a second, I'm gonna bring that camera closer

  • and plug this directly in,

  • to give me a more rich sound source

  • to show and prove a point to how much better

  • even something random and mundane

  • or normal of a task can sound a lot better

  • when you have good, rich audio to it.

  • Now I'll show you a few of the same clips,

  • but without a microphone to show you that

  • you don't have as much immersion

  • into the clip that you're watching

  • when it does sound as rich.

  • Point number three is learning your software.

  • Look up tutorials, watch different videos,

  • attend seminars, buy training, find training, free training,

  • friends that know how to use the program better than you,

  • ask questions, do everything that you can

  • to learn that software,

  • because that's only gonna help you

  • when you're shooting in the field,

  • and what I mean by that is

  • you wanna plan those shots ahead of time,

  • so that you know how you're gonna edit.

  • So if I think to myself, okay,

  • I'm going to film my friend walking by the screen,

  • and then I'm gonna do a transition

  • that masks him out into the next clip.

  • So I'm gonna shoot accordingly to get those clips,

  • so that I can bring them into my editor,

  • and then edit that transition

  • to make it actually come to life and happen.

  • Now, if you don't know how to do that kind of stuff

  • in your editing software,

  • you might not know that you need to

  • shoot those clips ahead of time.

  • Or, if you have a mistake,

  • maybe something happened where

  • you forgot to pan up and pan down,

  • you can do that in your editing software.

  • Maybe you forgot a slider,

  • but you can digitally fake sliding moves

  • in the software.

  • So when you know your editing software

  • as best as you possibly can,

  • and the skill aside with a camera,

  • it really, really helps you figure out

  • how to get the most out of what is is that you just shot.

  • So learn that software, people.

  • Just get into it, dive in.

  • Lock the door, crack a Red Bull, and just go.

  • Point number four is motion in your shots.

  • This is one of my favorite things,

  • and probably one of the most overlooked things

  • by people who are just starting or more beginners.

  • A lot of people will just

  • set their camera up on a tripod,

  • film whatever it is they need to film,

  • and then move to the next shot.

  • But then you're left with a sequence

  • of static, still shots.

  • They may as well be images.

  • Or, if you're filming an event,

  • a lot of people just throw the camera on the tripod,

  • they hit record, they record for five minutes,

  • they move the tripod to somewhere else,

  • hit record again.

  • But you're really not filming anything.

  • You're not inviting us in to that atmosphere.

  • I don't know how it feels, I don't know what it looks like,

  • I'm just watching it from a distance.

  • I may as well be an outsider just looking in,

  • trying to see what's happening.

  • Oh, that looks fun.

  • Does it look fun?

  • No, not really.

  • Motion in shots is so important.

  • It could be the most mundane thing,

  • but if the camera's moving,

  • it's helping move the story along.

  • More motion is gonna give you more cinematic results,

  • more motion is gonna look more professional.

  • When you have moving shots, it looks like

  • you put more work into it,

  • and that's because you did.

  • And the results are definitely a massive improvement

  • over someone that just puts the camera on a tripod,

  • or you're only cutting from

  • static shot, to static shot, to static shot.

  • Point number five and the last point for this video

  • is the location and time of day.

  • Now, obviously with locations,

  • if you have an incredible landscape in front of you,

  • you're standing at the outlook

  • over the Golden Gate Bridge,

  • if you are in the mountains,

  • if you're canoeing through Lake Louise,

  • if you are at the tip of a volcano or deep in the jungle,

  • yes, that footage is gonna look good inherently

  • because where you are is just insane.

  • It's a magical landscape, it looks incredible.

  • However, these rules still apply

  • to even if you're just shooting in your own office.

  • Now, the angle of those shots in those locations

  • is important as well.

  • If you're in a nice jungle and you're shooting way too low

  • but you're missing all the nice trees above,

  • that's stuff you gotta think about.

  • If you're in your office filming a talking head sequence,

  • like what I'm doing right now,

  • if I was on a low angle,

  • this just doesn't look as good.

  • It's just fact.

  • There's way too much space above.

  • There's nothing interesting enough above

  • to justify why my camera is at

  • such a stupid angle.

  • If the angle was too high,

  • you would all instantly be like,

  • "Okay, pause one second, why is that camera

  • "so freaking high?"

  • All of these little adjustments make a big deal.

  • Another quick tip that I've seen a lot of people do

  • that drives me nuts is, clean up the background.

  • Take the stuff off your desk.

  • If you've got boxes in the corner,

  • move them out of the way for the shot.

  • Move them behind the camera.

  • So many people just leave (censored)

  • and garbage hanging around everywhere,

  • and that stuff just looks messy.

  • It looks cluttered.

  • It doesn't look like you took the time

  • to actually set this up nicely.

  • That kills the level of professionalism.

  • That kills some of the cinematic

  • or the quality feel of the video

  • that you're putting out.

  • And the time of day is also very important

  • when you're choosing a location

  • and what you're gonna shoot.

  • The best times of day, for me,

  • I like to shoot early in the morning

  • or in the evening to later at night.

  • Early in the morning and the evening because

  • the light is usually the softest.

  • The sun hasn't come all the way up,

  • the light isn't harsh yet,

  • the colors are usually really, really nice,

  • and in the evening, you get that nice sunset,

  • you've got golden hour right after sunset

  • where that residual light

  • is still kind of illuminating the sky.

  • You're not gonna have any shadows,

  • but the colors you're gonna get

  • are gonna pop significantly better

  • than they would if you were shooting at 12:00

  • or 1:00 pm on a really sunny day.

  • Okay, so to wrap it up, we want good light.

  • Find that window light or set up some studio lights.

  • We wanna have good music.

  • We wanna edit to the beat.

  • We wanna keep those sound effects in mind

  • for ambient noise.

  • We wanna know our editing software so that we know

  • what shots we wanna get when we come back and edit.

  • We wanna pick good locations, good time of day,

  • and we wanna keep motion in mind with our shots.

  • Try these tips.

  • If you're filming anything in the next couple of days,

  • change up the location, change the time of day,

  • film it near a window, look up a little bit more

  • on your editing software and learn how to do

  • a couple extra nifty things and think about those things

  • when you're shooting.

  • Your stuff's gonna go through the roof right away.

  • I 100% guarantee it.

  • So thanks for hanging out, guys.

  • Hit that like button, subscribe if you aren't already.

  • And, and, I'll see you guys in the next video.

  • It's gonna be a busy week.

  • (upbeat music)

- What's up, everybody?

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