How to vlog with what you’ve got

Alice? Yeah? can I borrow your daughter'stablet to film something? Yeah.

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Cheers let's go!! hello welcome to this videoit's gonna be all about how to make your own vlog using the equipment you'vealready got but can we just take a second to look at this view absolutelyridiculous I've got a few cameras with me that Ithought might be good starting points for you you've got just a smartphonelike this this is a iPhone se 2 so it's quite basic but it does the job it's gotone camera wide angle lens on that one I've got my iPad which has a camera onthere as well so you know that's what you've got can film straight onto youriPad and then I've got this which I borrow from my girlfriend which is anAmazon fire it's actually her daughter's that she uses to play her little gameson so.

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all right let's start with the iPhonelet's see what we can get here of this view.

This is of course how I would holdthe phone, just like that for a landscape view but if you want tomake videos like that [portrait] why don't you do that?! If that's your new angle on it why not?! buthere we are this is the standard way that you would film stuff for YouTubeanyway and yeah so let's just see how that goes.

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just film a little bit of that there we go now we're getting a little bit shaky onthere aren't we, so I've got this ledge here that I'm just going to use toposition the camera on it is a little bit windy today so you might not be able toto do this but there we go so I've put the phone down like thatand then I press record let's see what we get there.

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so I'm just going to leavethe phone as it is and hopefully that'll get that nice view check that out I mean it isa bit lopsided you know we're not getting everything in but you can alwaysmove the cap phone so if I move the phone now to the to the to the edge ofthis ledge I'm still positioning my hand on the outside but I'm getting somestability, some stabilisation from the stone itself soif I can just do that I mean I could do a tilt here I can go from the canal upto the hills in the distance that's a nice shot and then in reverse, could do that.

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or we could do it really quickly to have lot some kind of.

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Idon't know.

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cool ending to the video something you might not be able to gethold of because they don't make them anymore is this case; you can getrubber cases for things, I really recommend them because they say they are better than plastic – they will eventually degrade quicker and they it's a slightly moreeco-friendly and also yeah it's just you've got that solid edge that youcould just prop up anywhere let's see what the iPad can do I have to admit this isthe first time I've ever used my iPad to film anything so I don't know what theresults are gonna be probably a bit shaky because it's just so much of it tohold isn't there so it's really hard to keep that steady especially in one handlet's put it down somewhere and see what we can do yeah as you could see even with myhand holding it down it's just a little bit too windy so it's justshaking all over the place – let's go down the hill and see if we can find the lockor something else to play around with before we walk down the hill this is theview from the Amazon fire cam and it's okay it's just a little bit wobbly isn'tit so it needs to be propped up against something just as we're walking down to thecanal I can point out where it sort of cuts through it comes from that way under the Gauxholme viaduct there all the way down there and carries on thatway that's that way, that's to Rochdale and then Manchester [west] and thatway Sowerby bridge, Halifax, Leeds you know that side of the country [east] the reason I tend to avoid using tripodsit's that I've got my camera with me all the time I don't necessarily have mytripod on me all the time and if I'm jumping out of a lockon the canal it's dangerous to carry allthis equipment with you so the safest and quickest way for me to get a shotsometimes, especially if something is happening and I've just got to captureit is by using an action camera like a GoPro or this iPhone here I also feelreally strongly that if you are struggling to be creative or if you'restuck like that somehow it's best to really pare everything back to thebare bones just to try and restrict yourself so that you haven'tgot too many effects to play with you haven't got too many little gizmos thatare going to take time out of your creative.

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take the energy out ofyour creative process – so if you've only got one camera to worry aboutyour mind is so much freer to think about the camera angles and telling thestory which is obviously the most important thing now a shot like that I could have missedit if I had a tripod and luckily the stabilisation on this camera is justenough that you could be forgiving that I haven't mounted it with a lotof cheap cameras if you're just if you're moving the camera aroundit's difficult to get a nice picture so I think I definitely recommend having astill shot rather than trying to move it around all over the place so let's getback to what you can substitute a tripod for well walls like this are absolutelyfantastic just putting your phone on top of thereor even just down into some kind of crevice where you can rest itit's just you know that's that's perfect like that but there are still somepretty cool effects you can get going so if I just press record there we canstart the camera like that and tilt up and actually we've also got a little bitof pull focus in there as well from the auto focus focusing on the stonebeautiful I'm going to leave sound for another vlog about video production vlogproduction because it is so important I don't wanna get into it right now soforgive me for that but if you've got any questions about anything I'mmentioning this video drop it into the comments below down on the canal itselfnow and I've just spotted one of these mooring bollards and these are quitegood to put your whatever camera you've got on top of but when it's windy thatwill fall off so what we could do is place it down here and then we can getthe whole hill in we've got all these dandelion seeds flowing around andthat's quite a cool thing to see especially with the light coming downfrom the top that should look pretty cool a lot of what I shoot isn't perfect, I thinkyou've got to try and let go of perfectionism if you want to beconsistent and keep making vlogs and being creative with it as well andsometimes you just come across brand-new techniques you haven't thoughtof just by accident because you haven't been so worried about doing it theproper way back on fire cam we've got a problem here because the cameras aren'tactually that great in direct sunlight like most cameras it can'tadjust to that harsh light this harsh sunlight it's causing a lotof shadows on my face so one tip to do is just to move into the shade and there you go that should be much better but the stabilisation on this camera is awful! if you are stuck for a proper camera and you have to use your girlfriend's child's Amazon fire tablet then you know, make a joke of it! It is difficult to put humor into blogs toforce it in, I never always say never try and be funny because the humorwill surely come out of whatever mishaps happen whilst you're telling your storyon camera right this lock is perfect to show yousome of the ways that I get around not having a tripod not having all the best equipment so I think we'll start with one that's farthest awaywhich is my iPhone SE2 and that's getting a lovely little shot of some daisies withthe lock in the background and you can see that I've just kept it from fallingover with some sticks.

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whatever you've got to hand you can just use to to propit up.

I could have put it against that bollard or even on top of it on topof the lock gate moving back to where I was I've got my incredibly expensive iPadin the dirt here leaning against the bollard and just looking along the lockso that might work if the boat was coming in might look quite good and thenright here on the lock itself I've got Alice's daughter's Amazon fire- the 'fire cam' – and that's just there on the lock gate itself being propped up byone of these metal brackets here that's just filming a nice little shotacross the lock dandelion seeds and blossom falling into the lock, nice! now when I'm filming for the BBC Now when I'm filming for the BBC I do use tripods a lot more, we try and make time for it because you just want that extra professional touchso if you don't have one these cases where you can lean it up againstsomething else or if you've got a camera like an SLR and that you wouldhave to mount on something I could recommend these magic arms; there's one here just filming on my my SE 2 camera so that's obviously that's set up for aniPhone but you can get adapters for this that would allow you to put any sort ofcamera on it really long as it had one of those mountsand that is getting a nice shot there very stable you do occasionally make mistakes, my biggest mistake is usually chopping the top of my head off! Andthat's because I'm not holding my camera away from myself enough, I'm not doingthe framing, I don't know if you've noticed but I never used the monitor side of it youknow the the selfie camera side, I always used the front – that camera's 12megapixels, it's better than the selfie camera so why wouldn't I use it it justtakes a little bit of practice framing yourself and making sure that you've youknow got the nice background behind you and that you don't sort of you know.

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it'sall about the angles of course but yeah making sure you've got enough space fromthe camera to your face is your main goal And sometimes you could use that [magic arm] to get you that extra little bit of difference or a selfie stick or something like thatwould help you and help you get enough of that distance that you need anywaybecause of course the problem with the selfie cam is that you're always sort ofchecking yourself out and then I don't know if you've noticed ifyou've watched any TV recently and the celebrities recording themselves onthese front facing cameras a lot of the time look a bit like they'renot even looking at you a bit boss eyed almost because they're staringthemselves in the camera vain vain very vain! Right I'm gonna walk back now, in my last video I joked that it's you know you get one hour ofexercise and that's of course just something that a cabinet ministersaid in a TV interview so you can have as much as you like apparently; as muchexercise you like, but this is my work – vlogging outside my work so we'retrying to keep those bills paid with thanks to my patreon supporters, my crankit crew members! this week I'd like to add Victoria Brown to my logbookwelcome to the Crank It Crew Victoria and then I've got DarrenIngs cheers for your support mate there you are in the book and then I've gotBen Whatmough who rejoins the crew and because now you've been such a long-termsupporter of the video I've actually put you in twice here's your second time in thelog book! And finally I've got Ken Boak – Ken is going in the log book as a producer, soI've got to add some little red flags by the side of his name – Ken thanks so much for supporting the videos and I do hope you and your boat in Hebden Bridge are well and good – Cheers! This is actually probablythe hardest thing for me to film in the vlogs; the names going into the book – I don't wanna get it wrong cuz I've got one shot on it just writing the names! right so asI'm making my way back home to my girlfriend's house I'm going to give youa few more tips along the way and also some homework coming up for anyone who'sworried to do this themselves Try something different – I haven't triedthis before look at me I'm just lying down in front of a real nice shotwill it work I have no idea but just try something new try something a bit mad another tip is to keep that lens cleanso just give it a wipe every now and Shoot from the hip and see whatkind of moments you capture A lot of the time I just leave the camera running because sometimes you go into tunnels like this and the soundchanges and something unexpected happens and yeah it can be quite magical for this shot I'm just literally restingthe phone against the brickwork of this bridge so I thought that might be quite a good idea and thenthis way I am tilting sideways out until I reach the canal and then it should focus onthe canal I think the biggest tip I could give you is just don't makeexcuses don't try and think well I've gotta buy the best camera or spend hundreds of quid on editing software just use what you've got usewhat you've got now – and just see where it takes you The toe path's getting a little bitbusy now so I'm gonna have to take a shortcut and get back home but I justwant to leave you with some homework so if you're not doing anything and you fancy having a go at your own vlog I want you to film a two-minute piece, don't worry about editing it just put something altogether from start tofinish even if you're just moving your phone around your home whatever and justtell me what you want your videos to be about you know what's your sort ofbackground what your name obviously is and what equipment you're using as welland tweet that to me at @RobbieCumming and I'll have a look through themand we'll make a video out of your submissions how about that? Anyway untilnext time thanks for watching this vlog and keep on cranking it! I thought I might add this on to the end of the video because since editingI've decided that although I did get some good shots with the iPhone se 2 -especially nice landscapes like that some of what I filmed was reallydisappointing look how out-of-focus that is and just the colors are lacking soI'm afraid that is going back to Apple and I'm getting my five hundred and fifty quid back which I actually need to pay my canal and river trust licence with so there you go!.