New month

Happy February 1st, which means a new month on the date stamp. Really channelling my Austin Kleon here. 

Camera grades

I think about this post often, and by that I mean when I start to overthink how something will look as I balance my phone on a coffee cup. It doesn't matter what the camera can't see. If a chair on a coffee table works, then it works. Don't overthink it.

Do you want actual links to videos?

First of all, Happy New Year!

Back in October, I re-designed this blog. I host this on Blogger (which may be news to some that it still exists) and got a domain name via NameCheap.

One of my resolutions was to post at least 50 times on here. That sounds like a big task, which is good, because resolutions need to be just challenging enough. There are 52 weeks in a year, so 50 posts is an average one post a week, with 2 weeks off.

I'm also under the impression that blogs need to be just that: web logs. Just like it's the early 2000s all over again. Less fancy, less over-thought out, straight to the point. More "here is what's happening right now". 

As I was dusting off some ideas for blog posts and looking at all the unpublished drafts I have sitting here, I noticed I never updated the links at the top of the page.

Long story short, I did! 🎉 Now the Youtube, Pinterest and Outschool buttons actually go somewhere.

Speaking of Youtube, here's a link to one of the shorts I made that works great on a constant loop.

Blue screen before/after

I recently created an iMovie tutorial class on Outschool, and to summarize the windows in iMovie, I stood in front of an image of iMovie's main timeline and pointed out the important points like a news weatherperson.

But to do that, I needed to stand in front of a blue screen, so I could add the graphic behind me in iMovie.

And to do that, I hung a blue tablecloth on the wall. It was as low tech as possible. I didn't do any special lights! I was surprised at how well iMovie cleaned it up. 

The before:

The after:

Time to take some 'before' clips

It's peak Fall and tree leaves are changing colors daily. It may be getting colder out (and much windier), but it's worth walking out in nature and taking it all in. 

This is usually the time of year when I take a bunch of photos of trees and then remember to come back 1-2 or 4-5 months later and try to take a photo in the exact spot. Be prepared to be amazed at the difference!

In case you want to just skip ahead to the magic, here you go!

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A post shared by Joe | Video Editor (@hellosimplevideo)

Overhead video setup - Feb 2024

I have been stumped trying to figure out a setup that creates a good top-down video look. Here’s what I have so far:

It looks pretty random but the idea is 2 buckets hold a wire shelf over the counter. I put my phone on the shelf in between the grates. 

Unfortunately, my ceiling lights cast a shadow of the grates so I use a strong LED light to bounce off a white poster board. I also add a small LED light next to the phone to eliminate any other shadows.

The result:

Quick setup - Jan 2024

One of the things I've been working on is shooting more video in 2024. This was a quick setup I thought of and a reminder that not every video setup needs to be pretty, it just has to be good enough. 

In this case that meant leaning a phone against a jar to get the perfect angle. 👍

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A post shared by Joe | Video Editor (@hellosimplevideo)

Easily shoot a fancy “selfie” video with a DSLR or iPhone

Shooting a video of yourself by yourself can be tricky, time-consuming and you can end up with an out of focus video of half your face. Here's what I've figured out:

The one thing your video needs to succeed

What's the one thing your video needs to succeed?

You don't need an expensive camera, lights, microphones, music, graphics, a fancy set or hilarious jokes. 

It has to help answer someone's question.

How do I know this?  

For one, Youtube is one of the largest search engines in the world. According to Global Reach, Youtube is larger than Bing, AOL, Ask, and Yahoo combined. 

Second, thanks to Google, every time you search for something, there's usually a video, and that video has A LOT of views, even if the production value isn't great.

Learn by doing (and maybe creating something terrible)