10 Aug 6 tips on filming yourself at home
When Covid began locking Durham Region down in the spring of 2020, Durham Region went full steam ahead to try and promote and support small local businesses. Durham Region reached out to Empty Cup Media to help them make promotional material for the downtowns of Durham website (downtownsofdurham.ca). As part of the video project Colin proposed making a separate video series giving businesses video tips for making content themselves. Colin wrote 5 different videos to give local businesses video strategies but we only ended up making one of them. Other videos would have included filming food, small products, exteriors of your building and storytelling with b-roll.
Making quick video content has never been more accessible with smartphones and free editing apps but there are still lots of tiny lessons to make the videos entertaining. This short video covers basics for filming yourself at home (with any camera). The 6 rules are simple:
1. Use window light
2. Isolate your light
3. Film yourself at eye level
4. Create depth in your shot
5. Get a lav mic
6. Look into the lens (and not yourself on the screen)
Making video content yourself is like any other art form – it takes practice. Write, shoot, edit, repeat. If you want any suggestions to make your video content stronger then let us know! Send us a URL of your video and we’ll check it out and give you a compliment sandwich: something good, something that needs improving and something else good.
