- "Hey Pete, quick question for you." "Oh, what's up? What can I help you with?" "How do you film yourself when you're making coffee or doing
your vlogs or videos? I don't have anyone around
to actually film me." "That's a great question. I actually get asked that
question all the time." Guess what folks? That's today. Let's go. (edgy rock music) What's up everybody? Peter McKinnon here and welcome back to yet another tutorial,
another video, and today, you heard it, we are talking
about how to film yourself. Specifically, when you have
nobody around to help you. (phone ringing) - Hello?
- [Matti] Hello? - Hey
- [Matti] Hey. - What are you doing right now? - Working on some videos. - Can you help me come film something? - [Matti] Sorry I'm
busy right now. I can't. - Okay thanks. I love you. Bye. (phone ringing) - [Chris] Hey man, how's it going? - Hey buddy. How's the family? - [Chris] Hey, they're good. - Good. Can you come
help me film something? - [Chris] I can't today. I'm busy but yeah I'm doing something. - Ah, no problem. I love you anyway. 'Kay, bye. - [Chris] 'Kay. See ya. (phone ringing) - [Gabriel] Hello. - Hey I miss your face, what's going on? - [Gabriel] Not much. How are you? - I'm pretty good. Can you come help me film something? - [Gabriel] I'd love
to but I'm busy today. - You're busy? - [Gabriel] Yeah sorry man. - Nah, it's okay. I still love your face. 'Kay bye. (phone ringing) - [Woman] Thanks for choosing Domino's. Stay on the line to hear our great money-saving specials then press the... - [Man] Domino's, can I help you? - Does anybody there
know how to use a camera? You don't have any friends that know how to use cameras, or if you do they don't live close, they're too far. But you've got a creative
idea you wanna execute, and you just need to know how to do it the best you can with only yourself. Here's how to do it. All right, we're breaking
this down into three points. Point number one, the gear that you need. Number two, is going to be the camera placement and creativity. Number three, I'm gonna call pacing. So, let's jump into number one. The things that you use,
the things that I use are as follows. Now a quick disclaimer,
I'm gonna base some of this video off of the
B-roll segment that I used in Wednesday vlog, which
was me making coffee. Which was very well-received, by the way. So, thank you very much. I had super fun time
making it, and this is how I did it and the things I used to do it. Number one, Joby tripod. Obviously goes without saying, you need some way to
mount the camera if you are going to be in the
scene doing something. The camera needs to be somewhere. So, a tripod, a Joby tripod like this is great because they bend, and they flex, and they wrap, and, you know, awesome. If you're shooting on your smartphone, you can use a Joby one
that is specifically made for smartphones to mount. So, that is an option as well. And then what I like to
use is a friction arm. We've talked about these in videos before. This friction arm has a nice super clamp mount on it, which means I can mount it to the table and then I can mount my big heavy camera to this plate here. These are made in all sorts
of different shapes and sizes. I'll link a few different options below. This is just the one that I like to use because it's super heavy-duty. The best part about it is when you undo one clamp, all the
different joints move. So you can really move
this around any which way you want to get that optimal angle. As much as I don't really,
I'm not the biggest fan of GoPros, they
are an invaluable asset for being able to fit
into weird, awkward places to give you that nice
eclectic mix of shots that you can't stick a massive
heavy camera like this in. So, that brings us to point number three, which is camera placement. Finding the most obscure, unique angles to tell your story that people don't usually get to see things from. What do I mean by that? Well, when I'm pouring water into a Chemex, what would look cool? If that lens was looking up at me pouring the water into the Chemex. What to use for that?
You use a GoPro for that. And a fun fact, that
shot wasn't even a Chemex because this wouldn't fit in the neck. So, I just grabbed a different glass jar, put this in, shot that, cut it together. It was only in the frame
for like two seconds which means (swooshing sound) it goes over most people's heads, no one's the wiser. But now everyone's the wiser because I just told you what I did. Doesn't matter. Fresh perspectives, that's
what we're going for. Finding those weird, uncommon places to mount and clamp your camera. Don't just think dead straight, don't just think from the side,
don't just think overhead. Those are great angles to have, but how can we get weird with it? How do we put a long lens on, mount it behind the monitor so
it's just peaking through the hole of the glass
where you would hold it, so that only the one spot of focus is where the coffee's pouring out. Get weird, get creative. That's the most fun aspect of this entire art form that we do. We can do anything we want,
so take advantage of that. Now the third and final point is pacing, and arguably the most
important in my opinion. Now you see, pacing is
gonna help us distract the viewer from realizing that that camera isn't just locked off on a tripod. That's what we want to avoid. Having a camera on a
tripod that's just filming one angle for ten seconds,
then maybe it moves to the left, films it
again for ten seconds. That's a dead giveaway, it's boring, there's not enough happening. If you look back at that
coffee segment that we shot for Wednesday's
vlog, things kept moving. Moving from shot, to shot, to shot. The angle was changing
from above, to the side, from forward, underneath,
through the handle of the mug, inside the
Chemex using the GoPro. We're using all these different tools. We're using our creative
angles, and we're pacing them nicely through an
edit, mixed in with some handheld stuff so that you
get some movement in there. And that's essentially it. That's how I build my scenes,
that's how I film myself. These are the things I
use to do it and those are the techniques I keep in mind
when I'm actually filming. If I had to give one last bonus point, which is the glue that kind
of brings everything together, is finding the right music track. It seems a little bit out of left field, going over all this
stuff, but if you notice, that coffee segment was
really well received, and it felt really intense
because the music was intense. It was timed nicely to the music. You add all these things
together, wrapped up into one nice little package, and you have that coffee segment
that I'm very proud of. And I didn't need anybody's help for that. I didn't need a crew,
I didn't need a gimbal, I didn't need a slider,
I didn't need a drone. I just needed some
creative camera placement, a fun idea, couple things to help me out along the way, and a good edit. That's it, folks. That's all there is to it. So hit that like button
if you like this video. Smash it if that's something
that you're into, 2018 style. Subscribe if you aren't already, and I will see you in the next video. Peace! (GoPro clinking against glass) (energetic upbeat funk) (indie electronic music)
