I Make Things

So you’ve got your camera and you’re shooting some special footage. How can you make it sound good?

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If you keep your subject within arm’s length, you can use the onboard (built in) mic to get passable audio. If you’re recording to tape, you’ll get some tape sound, but it’s likely that it will be usable audio. Photograpy cameras in movie mode sometimes have decent audio.  Test what you’ve got and see how it sounds! If your camera has audio monitoring levels, you’ll want to watch those as you record, too.

Improving your audio is as easy as getting a microphone. Even a $10 computer condenser microphone will improve your audio. A small mic gets closer to the subject and that’s always good.
As far as sources for audio options, I shop at B & H. If you’ve got another spot you like to shop, leave a note in the comments.

Here’s the breakdown of some of the microphones we use for the Storque.

Lavaliers: Here on the Etsy Media Awesome Team, we use a wired Audio Technica Pro 70 and a wireless Sony mic and they both work well. They are XLR, so if your camera doesn’t have an XLR input you’re going to have to get a converter cord or a Beachtek adapter. XLR is a way of hooking up mics that gives better quality sound than 1/8 inch jacks.

Shotgun: We use two Sennheissers. One is tiny and one is big.  They both work great. (The price I quoted for the big Sennheiser in the video is wrong. It’s more like $450. If you need a cheaper shotgun, I’ve shot with the Azden, and it’s fine, too.) To learn more about shotgun mics, check out this article.

Although it’s not in this video, if you’re looking for a basic old-skool handheld mic, I’ve had a good experience with this Shure.

If you’ve got a mic you’re happy with, make sure to leave a note in the comments! For more videos about making videos, keep reading our Getting Started in Video series!

Today I’m on Blip on Blip which is Blip.tv’s video program about the creative folks who publish videos there. We were going to shoot it in a white room, but decided instead to keep it fresh and show you NYC! Thanks to Justin for the interview and Bill for the awesome shooting and editing! MP4 Link

There is something special about video that you can’t get from writing or photographs.  Seeing someone on video is more personal. I really want to see more links to videos on the Etsy site, so I’m starting up this tutorial series to get you started making your own videos.  Making videos gives the world a chance to see the personality and process behind the things you make.

Let’s start with some super cheap cameras.  If you’re wanting to make video on a budget, you have a few options. The simplest option is to use what you’ve got. You may already have a video camera. Did you know that most digital photography cameras have a movie mode that takes great video? If you’ve got one of these, you’re done looking, start shooting! A lot of time you can even set these to 640×480 resolution which is good enough to make great web videos. If you’re buying something, the cheapest option is to use a flip camera.  These are pretty inexpensive and they are easy to use.  The resolution isn’t fantastic, but they are small and light and easy to carry around and shoot things with.

If you’re looking to step it up, the next level of video camera is a DV camera.You can find these for around 200-300 dollars. When you’re looking for a camera, check to make sure that it’s got a microphone jack and a headphone jack so that you can hook up an external mic and listen to the level of the sound as it’s recording. Make sure your computer has a firewire port before getting one of these or you won’t be able to transfer the video over.

If you’re feeling fancy, you can get an HD camera. You can get a camera like the Sony HC1 which records HD video to DV tape (little mini digital video cassette tapes). But my recommendation is that you skip recording to tape. I’m in favor of using cameras that record straight to an SD Card, which is similar to the little card your digital still camera uses.  If you’ve got somewhere between $600 and $1000 to spend, I’d recommend, the Sanyo Xacti HD2 which is a great little 720P camera or the Canon Vixia HF10. I’ve also played around with this Panasonic HSC1UP camera which is a bit more expensive, but has 3 chips in it which means the colors are a little snazzier. All of these record to SD cards. If you are going to be using iMovie (the video editing software that comes free with Macs), you’ll want to get the Sanyo Xacti which records to an easily convertable MP4 format. The Panasonic and Canon SD cams both record to AVCHD which is a wonderful format allowing a lot of hi-res info to fit on a card, but it’s not compatible with iMovie 7 at this time.

If you’ve got a serious budget and you’re thinking about shooting broadcast HD, you can get the Panasonic HVX200. We shoot our Handmade Video Portraits on this. This is a professional level camera and it’s awesome.There’s a bit of a learning curve to dealing with P2 cards though, so be prepared to spend a day or two reading the manual.A great place to go and learn more about cameras is creativecow.net. The forums there are really helpful and the community is great.

No matter what camera you get, I recommend getting an extra battery and separate battery charger.There is nothing worse than running out of batteries when you are shooting something special.

If a wide-angle lens is available for your camera, get it!  I love wide-angle shots to be able to show lots of a room in your frame. Again, the best thing to get started with is what you’ve got. 

In the forums I asked for camera recommendations and got this message.

My next video is about tips for shooting video.  If you’ve got an idea you can leave a comment, or leave a note in the forums or leave a message at 917-720-4197 and maybe I’ll post it with the next video.

This week, Christine (aka iheartmoustaches) breaks it on down and shows us how to use #6 plastic to create miniature moustaches! (Christine has made a bunch of these in the past, as she is a lover of the moustache in all its various forms.) #6 plastic is not recyclable in New York and so this is a great way to upcycle those strawberry containers and Chinese take out containers and keep them out of the landfill. This project is awesome for people who need a moustache on the go.

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She’s also open sourcing two of her moustache designs.  You can download "The Professor" and "The Lady’s Man" in this pdf

We did some measuring and the moustaches started out 6 inches wide and ended up 2 1/4 inches wide.  That means it shrunk to almost 1/3 its original size! 

Music by Barry London