I’m going to spend a month learning video production. I’m not talking about making movies or music videos. I have no aspirations to be the next Steven Spielberg or George Lucas. Although I do enjoy making short music videos. I’ll put links to a couple of my videos at the bottom just for fun.

What I want to learn is how to produce and edit short, good-quality instructional videos. This is an area of video production that will be most helpful to my brand and business. And with the popularity of social media sites like YouTube and Facebook, it’s a topic a lot of people are interested in.

If you are one of those interested in making short movies or music videos, many of the topics I will be talking about over the next 30 days will transfer over to other areas of video production.

What Video Knowledge Do I Need and Where Do I Get It?

I do have some training and rudimentary experience in motion media which includes motion picture and video, but it has never been my specialty. I do a lot of reading though, take the occasional course, and watch videos by some of the up-and-coming cinematographers.

A recent course I went through is by Caleb Wojcik. His course titled, DIY Video Guide, gives in-depth coverage about a lot of things I will be attempting to learn this month. If you are at all interested in learning more about video production, I would recommend taking his course. Subscribing to my blog would be good too.

An up-and-coming cinematographer I enjoy watching is Devin Graham, also known as Devin Super Tramp. He’s huge on YouTube and is known for his high-energy, high adventure videos. I enjoy watching his videos to study his treatment of the subject, how he shoots and edits the story, and to watch how he handles his Glidecam hand-held camera stabilizing system, which is the same as I use. Of course, Devin’s videos are outside the scope of what I want to learn this month, but I still learn a lot watching his videos.

What Video and Sound Equipment Do I Have and What Do I Need?

Today, almost any camera or cell phone has the ability to record video, some better than others. But I did mention that I want to produce good quality videos, so I had to take stalk of what I had in my arsenal of photographic gear.

For video cameras, I have two that I use. First, is my Nikon D7000 DSLR camera, which is capable of recording Hi-Definition video, as most of your better still cameras do in this day and age. Second is my GoPro Hero 2 that I use on land, air, and sea. I take my GoPro scuba diving, use it with various attachments on solid ground, and mount it to a radio control quad-copter to do aerial work.

For sound, I have a few microphones I’ve collected over the years including a Rode Videomic Pro, which mounts on top of my Nikon camera, and a fairly cheap Giant Squid Audio Lab lavalier. As far as recording the sound, each of my cameras has on-board sound recording, and I have a very underused sound recorder laying around that I plan on putting to good use.

For lighting, I have a large 5-in-1 set of collapsible reflectors to use. I also have a small LED light that can be mounted on top of my Nikon or on a stand. The only thing I purchased prior to the start of this month’s experiments, was an extremely affordable continuous lighting kit from Amazon. This kit comes complete with three light stands, three light heads with five daylight balanced compact fluorescent lights each, and three softboxes. It’s a cool source of light (temperature-wise) and can be used for both still photography and video work.

Lastly, there’s software to consider. There are a couple of free video editing software options available if you are on a budget. Specifically, iMovie for the Mac and Movie Maker for Windows. There are many paid programs, some reasonably priced and others costing an arm and leg. Like everything, the higher the cost, the more features, and convenience you get. A couple of midrange programs are Screenflow for Mac and PowerDirector for both Mac and PC. Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro are at the top of the heap, both in price and features. I’ve been using PowerDirector for several years now. I chose it based on reviews, price, and features, and have been very happy with it so far.

Let the Exploration Commence

To summarize where I am starting from on this first of twelve photographic adventures.

I want to learn to make instructional videos. I have a very basic understanding of videography but have recently taken a course on the subject at hand. I will be using my existing cameras, some cheap sound recording devices I had laying around, some lights and reflectors that I had, and purchased a cheap continuous light kit to augment my arsenal. All of my editing will be done with my existing Power Director software.

I’m looking forward to learning how to make instructional videos, but at the same time, have a little anxiety about it. Since I can’t afford to hire talent to be on camera, I’m going to have to be the talent myself. I have always hated being on camera and think I sound weird. But in listening to others talk, I’m in the majority. So I’ll just have to power through the fears.

I hope you decide to follow along in my journey. Maybe even try some of this stuff out for yourself. You really don’t need a lot of equipment to start. I’ve heard of one woman who is taping her iPhone to a sliding glass door with duct tape and making instructional videos for YouTube. You can’t go much more low tech than that, and yet she is still producing videos that people want to watch.

If you do decide to follow along and try some video production yourself, please share links to your videos in the comments section below this or any subsequent post.

Two Music Videos I Promised to Share With You