Hey Chris, I wish you great success with this new and different project.

I personnally have good satisfaction to add video work to my toolbox.

I think you can start slow and grow along a good period of time if you get more and more involve in giving better quality..
Many could start with a cellphone and a lavalier mic.. many are made for phones.. You should make a few tests and determine if this is enough for you..

First, you got to think if you want to deal with doing montage, post sync audio and video, VO or other stuff like this .. OR a one shut deal - Recording then post directly.

If you want to go more pro, here's a few suggestion :
-Any DSLR with a zoom going f2.8 or less or prime 24mm and 40mm lens also f2.8 or less (it takes in more lights and allows to use lesser quality lights.) (Canon T7i or similare are great)
-Lavalier, there is so many choices but again, directly to the cam or independant recorder, you need to plan this
- 2 or 3 LED light pannels.
- Free Davinci resolve for post production - video and audio everything is there

Ask any question, it'll be my pleasure ! ;)

I'm currently helping a friend to start his youtube channel. https://www.youtube…
He gives tips and tricks on the guitar (in french)

We started to go outside of my studio and this what I now use :

• - Canon M50 with EF adapter and 40mm f2.8 STM lens (no stabilisation)
• - Canon T7i with Tamron 24-70mm f2.8 IS G2
• - 2 x Manfrotto MT290X with fluid heads
• - 3 x Aputure Amaran AL-528W with stands and batteries
• - Zoom F4 digital audio recorder with cables going to the camera for better post sync
• - Sennheiser wireless lav (connected to the F4)
• - SM81 to Zoom for more controlled environements or Guit to Di to Zoom

- 4 SD cards (the Zoom takes two for redundancy)

Yes, it's a bit overkill, but if doing a paying job, it's nice to be taken seriously ! ;)

Thank you for all the info, Marco!

pcrecord

Does a video screen need to have a certain spec or feature to be accurate for color correction? Just wondering if that needs to be added to the list too.

For the absolute best results, you might want to shoot the video relevant to the tutorial topic and then record a voicover track later with your narration of what we’re seeing. Distracting background noise and excessive reflections of your voice from the room will be under your control. The voiceover method can usually help you keep the video shorter and on-message in editing and more business-like.

If you’re into photography a DSLR with HD video capability makes great sense. If still photography isn’t something that interests you, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with using a dedicated camcorder. They’re ergonomically built for shooting video and the image quality on modern palmcorders in the $300-$800 range is remarkably good. The on-board mics are usually fair quality and most have inputs for external mics or audio sources.

The pixel count on a DSLR will be much higher than a camcorder and that’s meaningful in photography, but not in video. Anything you plan to upload that is shot at anything higher than Full HD (1080p) is overkill, in my opinion. 720p is generally very good and 1080p is great, assuming there is sufficient light and things are in focus. For reference, Full HD 1080p is the equivalent of a 2 megapixel camera and 4k video is the equivalent of an 8 megapixel camera. At the present time uploading 4k content is a waste of time, in my opinion (unless you’re showing your tutorial in an IMAX theater).:)

Using a POV camera like a GoPro would free up your hands to do the work, but would limit your audio capabilities somewhat. And they’re designed for wide angle views, so the barrel distortion - or fisheye effect would be a problem. Straight lines would all look curved, and that’s probably not what you want in your line of work.

Marco’s videos always look fantastic because they are always very well lit. You’ll want to consider having some portable light source if you want good results shooting indoors.

One more note; I’d worry about using anything delicate (expensive) anywhere someone is sanding floors, drywall, or anything else that makes a huge cloud of fine dust like that. Dust is the enemy of anything with lenses. And if I were taking something out in the field and dust clouds were unavoidable, I’d rather take an expendable $300 palmcorder. Some cameras have waterproof housings available for underwater photo/video. Something like that should also help keep dust out as well. In any case, a cheap skylight filter that threads on the front of your lens is always a smart first line of defense.

Best of luck, Chris!

kmetal, post: 462404, member: 37533 wrote: Does a video screen need to have a certain spec or feature to be accurate for color correction?

It depends on the level of accuracy you are looking for..
If someone wants to record and post without editing, there's no need for special screen but you are letting go images that might be off.

With some reference card and some knowledge about skin line metering, you maybe able to color correct footage without a tuned display but everything went easy for me when I bought my 2 rec.709 / full RGB screens. Full RGB means that it can display the full RGB spectrum which is rarely the case with standard displays.

So even if they are fantastic displays and are able to give the right colors, I still needed to calibrate them with a ColorMunki Display.
After all this, my results got way better.. but I still rely on metering to fine tune skin color and the contrats.
At this point we are very far from hitting record on an Iphone ! ;)

dvdhawk, post: 462405, member: 36047 wrote: The voiceover method can usually help you keep the video shorter and on-message in editing and more business-like.

Great suggestion for the action-showing part. I would also suggest some talking to the cam shots that you can do in a more controled place. It's more engaging for the listener to be directly talked to...

dvdhawk, post: 462405, member: 36047 wrote: The pixel count on a DSLR will be much higher than a camcorder and that’s meaningful in photography, but not in video.

Also true.
The thing with dslr is that you can change the lens which you can't do with a camcorder. So getting a nice blurred background isn't something you'll get with a camcorder.

For Chris project.. maybe a combinaison of 2 cams would be better, a gopro or similar solid cam for the action in the shop and another one for the commentary and cam talk in his home.
Presenting ourself and what the video is about is an important moment in the video. Also the ending when you ask people to subscribe and talk about what's coming ;)

pcrecord, post: 462407, member: 46460 wrote: I would also suggest some talking to the cam shots that you can do in a more controled place. It's more engaging for the listener to be directly talked to...

I agree 100%, you have to know your target audience. Are you trying to market your own specialized skills and services? Are you trying to train another professional or DIYer to do what you do? Are you selling a product the end-user has to install or maintain themselves after the sale?

Believe it or not, I think there is a risk of going overboard and making certain types of videos look too slick. A tutorial from a tradesman needs to be honest and relatable. It can have a nice short opening branding/title sequence and wrap up, but better get to work pretty quickly. The viewer wants to feel like A) the presenter is successful at their trade, B) knows what they're talking about from experience, and C) NOT just some corporate shill.

I'm sure all of us with DIY inclinations have watched our fair share of tutorials. I know I have. If it's important that I see WHAT you're doing, give me good clear footage of what you're doing and HOW you're doing it. Talk me through the tools and techniques, if it matters. If it's important that I know WHY you're doing it that way, take your time and educate me. Adding some of your own personality into it (as Marco does so well), makes it more interesting and much more enjoyable. But at the end of the video, I want to have learned something. I'm investing my time in your tutorial and will probably watch others. I'll soak up as much as I can from all of them and often go back to the one really good one and watch it another time or two. There is usually one that becomes the yardstick, by which all the other videos are measured.

Be prepared AND learn to edit. Nobody wants to watch a 5 minute video that includes 3 minutes of the presenter wandering around gathering up the things he needs for his/her demonstration.

My personal pet peeves:

For the love of all that is good and decent in the world, please do NOT put some obnoxious music bed under the whole thing when we can barely hear the voice of the presenter!!
If you DO use music, make sure the genre is appropriate and mixed way under the presenter.
And nobody wants to see a bunch of idiotic video transtions. Fade-in, fade-out, cross-fade, and a hard cut are all you need in your NLE for 99.99% of all video work.

Please feel free to add yours!

Here's the ideal new console for your video mixing, Chris.

pcrecord, post: 462407, member: 46460 wrote: The thing with dslr is that you can change the lens which you can't do with a camcorder. So getting a nice blurred background isn't something you'll get with a camcorder.

Very true. You can definitely get a more film-like look with a DSLR (in the hands of a pro like yourself). There's absolutely not any doubt about that at all. But if people would take their DSLRs and camcorders alike off the "Auto" setting, they'd be surprised how much depth of field and color balance they can get with existing light. For a one-man tutorial video, I'm less interesting in rack focus capability and cinema effects than I am one clear focal plane that shows the work being demonstrated.

dvdhawk, post: 462408, member: 36047 wrote: f it's important that I see WHAT you're doing, give me good clear footage of what you're doing and HOW you're doing it.

Thinking of a chess cam now ! ;)

dvdhawk, post: 462409, member: 36047 wrote: please do NOT put some obnoxious music bed under the whole thing

I get annoyed too when they do this.. Specially if it's to hide noises that are still perceived...
My videos may feel boring sometimes because I rarely put music on them.. Maybe on timelapses, yes !
I kinda give it more time and creative editing when I do videos for others.. lol

I don't mind music in the background as long as its appropriate, and unobtrusive as Dave alluded to. Since Chris is a lifelong mucisian it might be a fun part of the production to make some procederal music beds. A perfect task for the mpcx i would guess, since its got plenty of variety in sounds, and can track live stuff too. I like the music because it breaks things up, and my attention span barely lasts 5 min on videos with sound, never mind dead air. Again just imho.

For reference, this is a local PBS show i've been watching since i was a little kid. It was on before cartoons on Sat. mornings. They have a crew, but its a well done show with no frills and no bs. Dave might be familiar with this or "the new yankee workshop" since hes a couple states south of new england, where the show is based from. Anyway just figured id throw it out there. Just so happens a recent episode on my feed is building a record player stand. They do some episodes in the shop, some on site. Here's clips of each.

I'm sure we'd all agree that audio quality is as important as the video quality in a good tutorial. As experienced audio guys we can all predict exactly what the onboard mic on a camera or phone is going to sound like in an empty drywall room from 15ft. away. So as Marco has suggested, I'd strongly recommend a lavalier of some sort (preferably wireless) and as always, turn the camera's automatic gain setting OFF. I really like the Sennheiser wireless ENG system, but they aren't cheap. It gives me a lavalier with a wireless bodypack style transmitter and a bodypack style battery-powered receiver, plus a separate module you can attach to any available dynamic (or battery-powered condenser) mic with an XLR and make it wireless. I also have an interface [ Beachtek-DXA-4p ] that provides 2 passively mixed XLR or 1/8" mic/line inputs and plugs into the camera's 1/8" audio input for lavalier + shotgun, or lavalier + handheld, or lavalier + signal from a small mixer. I couldn't get along without it.
 

kmetal, post: 462414, member: 37533 wrote: I don't mind music in the background as long as its appropriate, and unobtrusive...

I don't mind music either, if it's appropriate - as you say. I'm thinking specifically of a series of "Here are our building products and how to use them" videos that featured really aggressive heavy metal as a thunderous bed that didn't fit the image of the company, the product, and probably didn't appeal to the majority of their contractor clients. It's probably a simple case of the owner of the company letting his nephew make his videos. Of course there are some general contractors who probably combine headbanging and pounding nails, but the majority of jobsites I wander through in my line of work around here are playing classsic rock and/or country - with the occasional crew who favors mariachi music blasting from their DeWalt boombox.

The This Old House franchise ought to have it together by now, they've been a pillar of the PBS weekend lineup for ages. The New Yankee Workshop is great too and always makes me wish I had half that many woodworking tools.

dvdhawk, post: 462416, member: 36047 wrote: I'm sure we'd all agree that audio quality is as important as the video quality in a good tutorial.

I'm guessing that people will forgive some bad images if the sound is good.
If Chris does record videos of the jobs and deal with the audio later, I'm pretty sure he already has everything needed to sound amazing.
I do have an old sennheiser wireless system and I also got the Tascam Dr10-L : https://tascam.com/us/product/dr-10l/top
This little thing is amazing, small and you can control the recording your self if while recording video and then post-sync the audio with the internal cam mic. It does need a bit of denoise and EQ but it's easy to make it sound good.
Post sync may scare some people but with most video editing software it's done automaticly. (Davinci Resolve does it very well)

You guys are awesome, thank you for all the info!

dvdhawk, post: 462408, member: 36047 wrote: Believe it or not, I think there is a risk of going overboard and making certain types of videos look too slick. A tutorial from a tradesman needs to be honest and relatable. It can have a nice short opening branding/title sequence and wrap up, but better get to work pretty quickly. The viewer wants to feel like A) the presenter is successful at their trade, B) knows what they're talking about from experience, and C) NOT just some corporate shill.

I agree on this 100%.

dvdhawk, post: 462409, member: 36047 wrote: For the love of all that is good and decent in the world, please do NOT put some obnoxious music bed under the whole thing when we can barely hear the voice of the presenter!!

Absolutely! I doubt I will ever use music in the background. I want all the tutorials to be to the point and specific to the trade. I suspect I will do many on location as well.
I am thinking I would want two ways to track these.

1. Having someone else hold a camera
2. something I can have on my head like a gopro?

I'm very much spontaneous and try not to sound too polished meaning: like I am over rehearsed or as Dave put... sounding like a shill but I also want everything to look and sound pro. I do want to show detail so I'm hoping however I accomplish this, I can get the sound in close too.

pcrecord, post: 462419, member: 46460 wrote: If Chris does record videos of the jobs and deal with the audio later, I'm pretty sure he already has everything needed to sound amazing.

Thanks Marco. I've unfortunately sold the mass of my gear but managed to keep a few gems however, I'm cool to buy new stuff that will fit for this new venture. Based on what we've all talked about taking into consideration of how simple but pro I want this... Please continue to suggest a list of what you would all choose!

pcrecord, post: 462419, member: 46460 wrote: Post sync may scare some people but with most video editing software it's done automatically. (Davinci Resolve does it very well)

Thanks for the suggestion, Marco.

Regarding A/V editing: I have little experience with video editing but suspect I should be able to get onto it after some major bloopers. Magix has provided Sequoia 15 and I believe I still have an older version of Movie Edit Pro. I'm very grateful for that but if something else fits, I want it.

Any video software suggestions, please share :)

Nice, thanks for the link, Bos! That's a bit more than my budget or current direction as I'm keeping this venture simple but who knows.... Maybe I will earn more money than expected from this.

pcrecord, post: 462402, member: 46460 wrote: I'm currently helping a friend to start his youtube channel. https://www.youtube…
He gives tips and tricks on the guitar (in french)

We started to go outside of my studio and this what I now use :

• - Canon M50 with EF adapter and 40mm f2.8 STM lens (no stabilisation)
• - Canon T7i with Tamron 24-70mm f2.8 IS G2
• - 2 x Manfrotto MT290X with fluid heads
• - 3 x Aputure Amaran AL-528W with stands and batteries
• - Zoom F4 digital audio recorder with cables going to the camera for better post sync
• - Sennheiser wireless lav (connected to the F4)
• - SM81 to Zoom for more controlled environements or Guit to Di to Zoom
• - 4 SD cards (the Zoom takes two for redundancy)

Yes, it's a bit overkill, but if doing a paying job, it's nice to be taken seriously ! ;)

Thanks for these suggestions! I'm going to start looking at stuff soon.

audiokid, post: 462429, member: 1 wrote: Nice, thanks for the link, Bos! That's a bit more than my budget or current direction as I'm keeping this venture simple but who knows.... Maybe I will earn more money than expected from this.

Shouldn't be too difficult, Chris. You only need the best part of $1M.

Boswell, post: 462433, member: 29034 wrote: Shouldn't be too difficult, Chris. You only need the best part of $1M.

:ROFLMAO:

Hey Chris, the DaVinci Resolve software Marco mentioned is great, or your friends at Magix would probably hook you up with a nice deal on Vegas. If I recall correctly, bouldersound uses Vegas for both video editing and his DAW, so it's audio capabilities must be significantly more advanced than Resolve, FinalCut Pro, or Premiere. I can't imagine doing any serious multi-track audio recording in any of those three. Maybe someone else could tell you if the tools or workflow on Vegas bear any resemblance to Samplitude, which I know you like.

dvdhawk, post: 462435, member: 36047 wrote: Hey Chris, the DaVinci Resolve software Marco mentioned is great, or your friends at Magix would probably hook you up with a nice deal on Vegas. If I recall correctly, bouldersound uses Vegas for both video editing and his DAW, so it's audio capabilities must be significantly more advanced than Resolve, FinalCut Pro, or Premiere. I can't imagine doing any serious multi-track audio recording in any of those three. Maybe someone else could tell you if the tools or workflow on Vegas bear any resemblance to Samplitude, which I know you like.

Cool.
I’ve had Vegas Pro 15 downloaded (Vegas 17 is now available) waiting for this but haven’t officially used it yet. The audio section in Vegas looks like I should be able to import standard audio tracks. If I recall.. I also have Sequoia 15 which has a video section that can do basic stuff (sync alignment) too. I should have basic video software covered but will have a lot of questions on video editing.

One thing worth note about avid media composer is you can use DAW pluggins for the audio within it. If you use a pluggin shell like akai vip, you can even run vst plugs within MC. This could save some time off the learning curve, and importing/exporting audio between nle and daw. An MC academic perpetual license is 295usd on studica vs 1400 for the non academic.

Premier also makes a low cost premier elements version that seems like more than enough power for tutorials.

One cool feature about vegas is its got macros, so you can program it to do repetitive processes with one key stroke.

Im not sure how long magix is going to continue their movie pro since the vegas acquisition but its a very full featured program. You can get a bundle with xara designer pro which, even a numbskull like me made a custom website easily, including capabilities like upload and download files from the site, posting audio and video, a video chat box. That might be a useful addition to your arsenal.

One thing i like about magix and xara is they arent constantly updating it. They are some of the very few titles i have which are still the most recent version 2 years later.

Instead or in addition to having a handheld, and go pro, a tripod might be useful to keep a steady shot on things like time lapses.

I do think people can over-do the glitz and shimmer on videos, but theres nothing worse than a tutorial thats poor quality. It amazes me how many audio education vids have bad audio and video!

Pretty cool about Avid media composer and plugins. Smart thinking there!

sounds like you’ve dabbled in a few programs, nice to know.

Tripod is a great idea.
Thanks Kyle.

dvdhawk, post: 462435, member: 36047 wrote: If I recall correctly, bouldersound uses Vegas for both video editing and his DAW, so it's audio capabilities must be significantly more advanced than Resolve, FinalCut Pro, or Premiere.

Davincy resolve Fairlight (their audio module) is very capable. Of course, you won't mix a band in it, but for voice over and a few sound effects, it's ok.
It's great to be able to do everything in 1 software. Oh and yes, Resolve support VSTs. It has an eq and dynamic section integrated, but if you want to use RX plugins or NS1 to remove some lav noise, it works perfectly. Their dynamic section even allow side chain compression (by activating a sender and a receiver.. can't have multiple tho)
I lost alot of time mixing in Samp when using premiere. Not that premiere can't do audio. . but it is easier with Davincy.. and... it's free !!

Resolve looks for my Waves plug-ins, but I usually have them licensed to my laptop - so 'skip' that step. But Waves would be helpful for sweetening audio if you needed it. I assume other 3rd party plug-ins would work too.

I'm a great fan of Alec Steele who is a modern blacksmith forger. His audio is always good. Labs for the quest bits and voice overs for noisy bits. The mics can't be seen easily and his camera work is pretty useful for what he does. He's a bit mad of course, and left the UK to work in the US, so it's interesting. His style is perhaps annoying sometimes but it works really well. Worth a YouTube.