My YouTube Setup: How I Make Videos with an iPhone - Starting a YouTube Channel!

hello everyone it's spawnpoint and welcome back to another video so i've been uploading to this channel for just over a year now and during that time i've received quite a few questions about how i create my content and that's what i'm going to do today i'm going to show you everything that i do to create these videos i'll be showing you how i record them all on my iphone the settings that i use what equipment i use how i come up with the ideas and how i edit them i'll even give you a rough idea of how long it takes me to create these videos each week they are roughly about 10 to 15 minutes long now the point of this video is to obviously show you how i make my videos but hopefully it'll give you some ideas and inspiration to create your own i'll also give you some advice at the end of how to start and the gear that i recommend using everything that i cover in today's video is linked in the description so feel free to check that out and if you've got any questions at all just drop those in the comments so first up what do i use to record the videos you're watching on my channel including this one right now well i'm actually using my iphone 12 pro max and before that i was using the 11 pro max that means every video in 2020 was filmed on an iphone and the reason i've been using my iphone over my sony camera is it's just so easy to use and it's always with me it also shoots in 4k the stabilization is brilliant and the video quality is pretty decent i mean it's never going to be as good as a three to five thousand dollar camera setup than most channels use but yeah it's not bad at all and it definitely hasn't stopped me from creating videos on my channel and it didn't stop me from growing to 51 000 subs in my first year so i usually shoot using the wide lens just the normal lens on the phone and the picture quality is great i mean the telephoto lens that i do use from times time as well is awesome for creating that kind of depth of field and it gives that crop to lens look as well and then the ultra wide lens i do use that as well and i tend to use that when i'm either walking around and i need the shot to be a little bit wider or i use it for my in-car shots like my point of view when i'm driving the issue with the ultra wide lens though is it's very noisy especially in low light and i'm not usually happy with the results but most of the time the iphone looks incredible especially in decent light now i always shoot in 4k 30 and i use the most compatible option in the settings now i did used to shoot in the high efficiency option instead but it always resulted in random glitches in the footage when i was editing so it was really frustrating so i then swapped over to most compatible and that definitely fixed it but it does mean that the file sizes are a little bit larger but that's obviously a compromise i'm willing to make so i went for the 256 gigabyte option now it's rare that i fill this before transferring or deleting the videos off the phone and when i'm not using my iphone i actually use my wife's 12 pro like now for example that's how i'm recording this shot of my own phone and as for the battery well i can use my iphone for anywhere between three and five hours shooting all of the content that i need for a video and that's without worrying about the battery at all but something i have been meaning to buy this year is a power bank and it means i've got one with me just in case i was to run out of battery when i was shooting so yeah every video on this channel is filmed with just an iphone so i'm using the iphone 12 pro max i was using the 11 pro max before that but to be honest any phone will do when it comes to creating the videos on this channel one of the most important accessories i use is a tripod is how i get the slow panning shots from side to side and it's useful for getting stable shots as well for one say i'm recording my car driving by or an unboxing video and so on so up until may last year i was just using a 15 tripod that did the job it was super light and then it broke on me and i thought you know what i'm gonna spend a little bit more and i'll get something decent so i picked up this i think it's called a manfrotto zero five five it was 150 pounds or about 200 which for an iphone is definitely overkill but it's lightweight compact fill solid and has the ability to flip between horizontal and vertical without having to remove my phone so it's got this cool kind of center piece here center column and as it pulls up it lets the arm move over and out and then you can use it for say flat lays or overhead shots and things like that but it doesn't come with a head though and that's the piece that you need to connect your camera or phone to the legs but as the cheap tripod that i've been using before that already had a head probably worth about two dollars i unscrewed that and actually just used this on the new legs so i might get a proper one in the future like a fluid head or something like that but they are about 150 and then to attach my phone to the tripod i just needed one of these adapters so i picked up a 20 kind of metal adapter off amazon now this feels really secure it's solid it screws the phone shot as opposed to being spring-loaded which you i know you can buy for a couple of dollars or so and plus there's a cold shoe mount on the top as well so if i wanted to attach say a microphone or a light i could do that and that's how i get these stable panning shots i use a tripod you don't need an expensive one like this though anything will do the 15 one that had before was absolutely fine but just make sure you always use a tripod so next up which is probably the second most used accessory that i have and this is the dji mobile gimbal so i'm still using the osmo mobile 3. i know there's a fourth version that's out now but it's not really worth me changing to it for the small tweaks and this cost me 120 or about 99 pounds for the combo kit so the iphone stabilization is pretty decent anyway you don't need one of these but this gimbal makes the footage that little bit smoother it also allows me to walk move and pan with very little juddering or vibration and it means i can also hold my iphone with one hand if needed it's kind of like a mini tripod and it definitely makes it easier for me to get those shots that i need so i will use this gimbal for any handheld shots at any point that's not on a tripod it's in the gimbal so here for example i'm doing a slow pan of my car mirror nothing special this is just a demonstrator and you can see here as i move the tripod up it kind of pans really really smoothly giving that real nice professional look to it it's also how i get every shot that you see in either my tv or my desk setups so hold the gimbal usually with two hands just for extra support and i just move really slowly so it isn't slowed down at all in post editing or anything like that it's just me moving to the side and it's really smooth and really stable it gives that nice look to it so yeah i really think this is an awesome accessory for anyone wanting to film on the phone especially if you're going to be doing it handheld and this isn't just for youtube this is for any videos in general so when it comes to creating some of the videos that you see on my channel usually unboxings of phones and drones and so on i do a flat lace shot from above so how i create these isn't using the tripod that i showed earlier it's actually using the shelf on my wall above my desk and one of these clamps so i clamp it onto my shelf i hang it off over my desk i fit my phone into it i'll line it up and then i hit record and that's it so it's a nice easy way to get these type of shots where i can unbox and show you from above without trying to work around a tripod in my way and if you've seen any of my tesla videos on the channel i often show an in-car or point of view angle now this is done using a sucker mount that i stick to the glass roof in my car and i put my phone in it now the mount itself was only about 15 pounds or 20 or so it's a great way of getting that gopro style shot now i know this isn't for everyone but if you're thinking of doing a road trip or you just fancy doing some driving and you want to record it this is an ideal way of doing it now most of the time i use natural light for my videos and the same goes for my instagram posts so whether that's my car videos my tv setup my desk setup i rarely use anything else other than natural light but sometimes i might be doing an unboxing at my desk and the light outside is too poor and i need a little bit of help so i use one of these soft box lights now i've got two of these i bought a pair for about 50 pounds or 70 dollars and they do an okay job for what i need it to do it's nothing special that's probably better out there but you can see here it does make a massive difference so if i needed that light today then obviously this makes a huge difference for that video now the next piece of kit that i use is for recording my audio i'll show you how i create and i'll record this a little bit later but i use a blue yeti mic for my voiceovers so it's a usb mic it just plugs straight into your computer there's no need for any kind of third-party accessories at all now this mic does come with a usb type a cable but i bought a usbc cable separately and that meant i could plug it straight to my macbook without any adapters now i've only had this since june last year so for about six months now and before that i was using the rode videomicro and before that i was using a cheap pair of astro a10 headphones and that was my first 20 videos so the first 20 videos on this channel were using the astro headset and recently i bought this 20 microphone arm and it means i can now have my blue yeti mic permanently attached to my desk whereas before i used to have it set on my desktop so just in front of my keyboard the blue yeti would sit there and then end up it just get in the way to be honest so i'd end up knocking it by mistake and i have to re-record whereas now it's on this arm i can move it out of the way and when i'm ready to start recording i just plug in the power cable which then goes into the mac and i'm ready to go and attach the arm i've got this pop filter and this is to prevent you from hearing popping in the audio as i'm talking and they are called plosives so this is me saying popping with a filter on and if i just move this away now and this is me saying popping pop pop with a filter removed so you can tell here it sounds pretty bad so i'm just going to move that back on now and hopefully you can hear the difference okay so popping pop pop pop and that was only about ten dollars so definitely worth it so when i'm either recording my audio or i'm actually listening back to it i use a pair of monitoring headphones now these are pretty flat with very little bass now i did a ton of research before buying these and they are very very good and ideal for listening to voiceovers so these are the sony mdr 7506 and they cost me 90 pounds or about 120 and as a blue yeti mic that has a headphone out port actually on the microphone itself it means i can actually listen to my own voice as i record so i know if my audio sounds okay so that's all of the equipment that i use to record the audio and video and next is what i use to store and edit it all so i'm using a 2018 macbook pro it's the 15 inch bass spec model so that's the six core i7 with 16 gig of ram no extras at all and i've edited every video on this mac now memory wise i'm currently using two one terabyte ssds and these are the sandisk extreme and they're really really small so they fit in my laptop sleeve quite nicely next i want to show you my workflow how i plan create and edit all of my videos okay so first up how do i come up with the ideas for my videos well i actually have a spreadsheet and that's where i put down all of my ideas and i just jot them down it could be something simple like desk setup or a rough idea of something i want to do plus one idea will always lead to more so for example desk setup are videos i've done in the past that could lead to a monitor review that's already on the desk setup a keyboard review or chair review so one video will always be a gateway to more i mean just look at my tesla videos for example i've somehow managed to create 27 videos about that car last year that's nearly half of my channel now most of the videos i create on my channel are things i actually buy and use myself i rarely buy things just to review them on here but failing that if i've got no ideas i don't know what to do next just turn to youtube for inspiration for every video that i've already created there are hundreds if not thousands of the same video already so i'm not unique and i'm not original at all just get an idea from someone else and kind of do your own thing so once i've got an idea i will then loosely plan what i want to do with it so i open up a template document that i've created and in here it's got everything that i need to create my content so i write down five to ten subheadings and they are headings i want to cover in the video then i take my notebook and i write down ideas i'd like to record so what i do is i will actually take this notebook with me when i'm doing my recordings now these would just be simple ideas they won't be kind of full walkthroughs of what i'm going to do and as such it means i won't forget what i want to record when i'm doing it on the day and on top of that i do have an obsession with writing lists and ticking them off as a go it makes me feel really productive so this is the fun part this is where i can actually start to create some content so i will take my iphone my tripod gimbal and notebook and i will make a start now usually this is on a weekend as i work during the week doing my day job now it depends what i'm actually recording so if it was a tesla video for example i could be out and about for three or four hours getting the shots i need sticking my phone in the tripod driving past jumping out moving it doing another shot i mean i could literally move my phone or the tripod three or four times just to get that one shot and then if i'm doing an unboxing or a tech video well these might take me about two hours or so of recording the different angles i need again i'm using the list that i created earlier to capture the footage that i need and once finished i just copy the files from my phone onto my macbook and obviously onto the external ssd and to do this it's really easy so i open up the camera roll i select the videos i've created and i send them across to the macbook using airdrop and that's it i then copy these files onto the ssd and i keep the files organized into folders so i know where to find them later and then once copied and backed up i just delete them off my phone okay so the next part is the script writing and that's probably the worst part for me not because i dislike it but because it takes so long to do and i'm always going back and rewriting what i've already written so if you didn't know already every video that i create on this channel is scripted by me so there are two reasons i'll write a script one is because it means i don't really have to worry about what i'm going to say and two because i proofread it afterwards and it means i can remove any of the things i repeat and i can cut out the fluff i mean i just want to get straight to the point i don't want to bore you with me saying the same thing again and again i don't want to bore you with me saying the same thing again and again then on to record my audio and as i mentioned before i used a blue yeti mic and although it's an awesome mic it's really really good it's very very sensitive and it picks up almost every bit of noise now i sit down open up audacity which is a free audio recording software and i read the script out that i wrote word for word now i always have my headphones on as well and it often means i can listen back to the sections just to make sure that they're okay as i record i actually leave long gaps or pauses so it means afterwards i can actually see where the subheadings start and end now once recorded i only do two things i run a noise reduction effect and it removes any unwanted noise or background noise and then i just export it ready for editing now this is the fun part for me i absolutely love editing the videos so taking the random video clips usually about 50 or more and the audio that i recorded and making it all fit so i edit everything on my macbook and i use final cut pro i only started using this at the end of 2019 so the first video that you see on my channel that was my first time using final cut pro and i just started kind of messing about with it really i don't do anything fancy as you know it's just kind of a few cuts here and there so i create a project first under either tesla or tech again using 4k 30 to match the videos i've recorded then i rename it so it makes sense to me i drag and drop the video and audio files in i created earlier and then from here i just create a base layer i drag the voiceover in and i color code it so i know which is the voiceover if i was to use music on top of this i also have some audio presets that i've created so i've actually done this by listening to my own voice and kind of tweaking the levels until i was happy with the result out of the box the blue yeti is pretty flat so it definitely needed some work i will then quickly go through and i'll find those audio gaps i mentioned before while i was using audacity and i will then cut it up into the sections and i can then see where each of the subheadings will start and end so if i decide to use music in my video i will use musicbed to source it it's a royalty-free music website if you're interested yourself there's a link in the description and we will both get a month for free once a video is edited which usually takes me about three to five hours realistically i will then add my intro and my outro text which is basically just my name and a subscribe button and then i will add my own custom lut preset and this is the filter or the color grading that you see on my videos i've had my own lightroom presets for a few years now and i've taken those presets and i've made my own luts as well so my videos kind of have a similar look to my instagram feed at least that was the plan now i might sell my lut and lightroom presets in the future if i get enough interest so if it is something you're interested in just drop those in the comments and it might be something i sell later this year okay so now i do a final run through just to make sure i'm happy with it and i export it so i use the computer option and i always choose 4k and then i export so if you want to see more about how i actually edit my videos let me know about that in the comments as well because what i might do is i might create a dedicated video on this alone so literally just my final cut pro editing process so now i create the thumbnail this is probably one of the most important parts as well so this is usually the image that people see before they even click the video so i create them all in lightroom i either use a photo that i took at the time or most of the time now i actually just take a screenshot from the exported video and that's a video uploaded i've got the title the description the tags and the image that i need and then once live i try and make sure that i'm available to reply to comments and engage with everyone i kind of treat it as if you've taken the time to watch my content and leave a comment i've definitely got the time to read and reply so how long does it take to create these videos well that varies depending on the subject and how long the video is going to be but i would say these averages you see on screen are probably about right for a 15 minute video now that's for everything that you see from planning all the way through to going live now if i did a talking head type video that most creators do and i didn't do any script writing i could probably create a 15 minute video in just a few hours so i'm definitely creating more work for myself by doing it this way but i create these videos because i enjoy the entire process i didn't start this channel to make money i did it because i wanted to do something creative definitely don't start a channel this year with the sole purpose of making money because that will come later if you put the effort in just enjoy making what you want to make review products do a vlog whatever your passion is just create content about that and in terms of where to start my advice would be use whatever phone that you're holding right now there's a good chance that it shoots in 4k and if it doesn't it doesn't matter just shoot in 1080p or whatever it does i didn't spend any money at the start of this i used what i had in my pocket so i had an iphone 11 pro i had an old tripod that i'd had for several years and i used an astro a10 gaming headset to do the audio and only then months and dozens of videos later did i start spending money to upgrade my accessories and even today a year later 55 000 subs 9 million views on this channel and i'm still using an iphone to create this content so if you're wanting to create some content or start a new channel in 2021 think of an idea write down some subheadings and go from there any questions just let me know in the comments and don't forget i've linked to my entire kit list in the description of everything that i've used in today's video and you've just made it to the end of this ridiculously long video so thank you for sticking with me well i really hope that this was useful i know i don't do anything crazy i'm not a crazy editor at all it's pretty straightforward and basic really but i wanted to give you some inspiration that if i can do it you can do it as well so if you drop in the comments i will give you a thumbs up as i know you've made it to the end as always i hope you enjoyed the video please hit that like button if you're this far in as it really helps me out and don't forget to subscribe to the channel if you haven't already you can also follow me on instagram and twitter until next time

Channel: SpawnPoiint

Views: 897,618

Keywords: How to make youtube videos, how to make youtube videos with a phone, how to make youtube videos with an iphone, how i make my youtube videos, how to make high quality videos, how to make better youtube videos, how to get more views on youtube, best microphone for youtube videos, how to make videos, how to make youtube videos, how to edit youtube videos, how I make my videos, recording with an iphone, iphone luts, how to film with an iphone, film like a pro with your phone

Id: wLsJXKuJUZ4

Length: 17min 59sec (1079 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 17 2021