We remove corporate video for a penny

In my publications on Megamind and other sites, I urged people to use YouTube as an advertising platform. Video advertising in the modern world is a very cheap, but at the same time very effective tool. Here to this thesis there are many complaints from readers: how can it be cheap? Video advertising is one of the most expensive types of advertising, they say. And if the cost of placing on the same youtube is really inexpensive, then creating one video costs an annual advertising budget! In this manual, I will use my own experience in video production for personal needs and not only.

Immediately I want to stop at one point, at the beginning of each instruction I will give an example of a video, so that it is clear what quality results you should expect, and if it doesn’t suit you for some reason, then you should try to find a more professional solution. After describing the shooting process, we will analyze the tools used to shoot these clips.
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Filming

Equipment placement



Lighting devices are arranged so that there are no shadows in the background, and the light source is located at a distance of 1-1.5 meters from the master. On the left we put the light in 2 times less than on the right.
Background. Correctly select the distance from the background, it is better not to stand close to it, but to move at least 40-60 centimeters.
In order to avoid distortion of proportions, we put the camera not close to the subject, but a little further and use the approximation.



The camera must be installed at the level of a person’s eyes in the frame (when taking close-up shots), but shoot slightly at an angle so that the camera looks from top to bottom, if you shoot the other way around, the hero of the video will have a double chin.

I stress once again, I describe my experience, but I am not a professional operator. If you need more accurate instructions, it is better to watch the video on the Internet.

According to this type, we shot quite a lot, I will give a couple of examples:

Shooting the show with the background, you can say the studio:


For shooting used:
tripod
the camera
shine
background
sound (headset recording)
It's simple. The person does not learn the text in advance, but reads the phrase 5-10 times and immediately speaks it to the camera, and after reading the phrase, changes its position in the frame so that everything looks natural during editing. The shooting was done in a simple room (apartment, office), a large sheet of plastic was used as the background.
Pros:
in contrast to the teleprompter, it turns out quite lively.
Minuses:
long process of filming,
long installation: for 2-3 minutes the video takes 2-3 hours of recording and 1-3 hours of installation

Videoblog shooting, no background, teleprompter



For shooting used:
tripod
Shine
Teleprompter
Camera
Sound (from camera)
Teleprompter is a very good thing, but you have to get used to it. It is difficult to read not with the usual and convenient speed, but with the speed set on the teleprompter. There is speed regulation, but as a rule, if you read at a convenient speed, then it will be very fast. Need to practice before shooting.
Pros:
quick recording: 2-3 minutes of video is 20 minutes of recording and about an hour of editing
Minuses:
complexity of mastering the teleprompter

Tools

Tripod
This is a mandatory and very important attribute of shooting. When the camera doesn’t shake someone’s hands when shooting (unless this is the author’s idea), the video looks much better, doesn't it? Of course, you can use any flat surface, but agree, this adds a bunch of unnecessary problems. I searched the Internet and found a simple tripod for 920 p.

Camera
Paradoxically, the camera is far from the most important attribute in the video. In our commercials, we used 2 types of cameras: in the first video, this is the Canon 550 d, and in the second, it was shot on iPhone 5 (I think any smartphone with a camera of the same quality will work). With good lighting quality is almost indistinguishable. Naturally, these cameras are not suitable for dynamic shooting with heavy and varied lighting, but for a static video blog they will be suitable with a bang.

Shine
But this is the most important part of the shooting. If a camera or a phone with a good camera is not a problem to find at home or with friends, then trouble begins with light. People run for softboxes, which significantly increases the cost of filming. We, seeing prices of 15-20 thousand, decided that it was too much for our hobby and made the light ourselves.
The recipe is simple. We take 30-watt energy-saving lamps (6 pieces) and make 2 softboxes from ordinary boxes, wrapping them in foil. As you can see, the solution is very simple, and it cost us 970 p.



In working condition, we close the box with simple gauze so that the light does not hit the lead in the eyes, and indeed, a similar diffuser analogue will make the lighting softer.



Sound
An important element. The solution was again simple. We took the headset from the iPhone 5, attached it to the collar, like a lavalier microphone, and recorded the sound on a standard voice recorder. It turns out pretty high quality. By the way, if in the case of a camera the difference between the iPhone and other manufacturers is not noticeable, then it’s not about the smartphone itself, but about the headset. Similar from HTC did not cope with its task, and connecting iPhone to android-smartphones either did not work at all, or showed extremely poor recording quality.

Teleprompter
The teleprompter we made ourselves from cardboard, glass (or transparent plastic) and a cell phone with a large display. We used the dv prompter program (available on ios and android), there are many of its analogues, but many slow down with a large font size or have very few settings text speed and size.
Turn on some of the cardboard and scotch magic again. It is better to see here first:



Honestly, they thought not of themselves, but found a video on YouTube.
The technology is unsophisticated: we take glass or plastic, in our case we took plastic from the photo frame. We fix it at an angle of 45 ° to the surface, we cover it from above, so that no extra light gets on the glass. Behind the glass we set up the camera, i.e. shooting is conducted through the glass. Bottom we put the phone with a teleprompter, launch the camera and remove it.

Installation
As a rule, simple gluing is possible in any program for video editing. We used Adobe Premier and Final Cut Pro - there is no difference, use what you prefer. Adobe Premier will cost you from 600 rubles per month, now the software has become much more accessible than several years ago.

Background
As a background, you can use a piece of white plastic; if you want hromakey, then buy green plastic - sold in hardware stores, keep within 500-800 rubles.

If you have a camera of the level indicated above, or you can easily borrow it from friends / acquaintances (there is enough of this good now), then organizing a place for video filming will cost you from 1 to 3 thousand rubles.
The quality of the resulting video will be several times higher than what is mostly found on YouTube.
If you add a camera with satisfactory video quality, which costs about 15,000 new (second-hand - about 5-7), to the price of the video, it still comes out quite budget.

I will gladly answer all your questions in the comments.