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!

View this post on Instagram

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. 👍

View this post on Instagram

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)

The "Bird Color Generator" theory

I came across an Instagram post from @moe_designer on Instagram and it greatly changed the way I plan for designs.

In case you haven't seen it, here it is:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mohamed Elgendy (@moe_designer)

My reaction to reading this:

The idea is that if you use colors that occur in nature (like bird color), you can save yourself the headache and worry of using online color generators for your designs. I've also seen this from other designers using existing furniture colors or interior design posts.

To test it out, I googled "Rare Birds" and "American Birds" and grabbed a bunch of photos. I sorted each bird into 5 color samples. Using the eyedropper tool in any design software, grab a color that's the closest white or gray, a color at the top of the bird's wing, the bird's stomach, the darkest color, and the bird's beak color. 

Here's an example of a robin:

Here's an American Kestrel:

Setup an iPhone video quickly with these two simple tips

Trying to shoot a video or even setup a decent looking Zoom call setup? You don't need a lot of equipment to setup a "Talking Head" video shot. In fact, you might not need anything except a phone and a table or bookshelf.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Joe (@hellosimplevideo)

To get started, tilt your phone sideways and stack it on some books. I used 7 encyclopedias that ended up being 10" tall. With the top book pushed back, I leaned my phone at a 45 degree angle and created the perfect desktop tripod.

How to create easy animated titles in Premiere - Walkthrough #1

The quickest way to make a video look clean and professional is by adding add on-screen text, or titles. It also helps to get your message across without your viewer needing to turn the sound on.

It's not hard to create a title in Adobe Premiere. Here is a 12 step walkthrough so you can create a basic title you can copy+paste anywhere in your video.

How to create a basic title animation in Premiere’s Essential Graphics:

1. Create new sequence. Open Essential Graphics window and click the “New Layer”, and select “Text Layer” from the dropdown.