- Vlogging Tips from YouTuber Shae-Lee from SketchShe
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“The beauty of shooting at home is that it allows you to try as many takes as you like. You can be as crazy as you want and there’s nobody there to judge you.”
Shae-Lee Shackleford
Vlogger Shae-Lee Shackleford is one of the three comedians behind the hit YouTube show SketchShe. Here in this suitably colourful video she shares her advice on filming quality video content, with practical tips on everything from what camera and lighting gear to use, to deciding on a theme for your channel.
Whether you’re a beginner just getting started or a seasoned YouTuber looking for ways to take your video content to the next level, this is everything you need to know.
The best advice I have for somebody that is starting out in the vlogging world is to just to do it. Some of our first videos were far from perfect, but we learnt from them and we got better from them. Keep going and eventually, you’ll get to a point where you’re actually making stuff that you like.
One of the hardest things that people struggle with is knowing what to make their videos about. I think the most important thing is finding something that is unique to you, or something that you are genuinely passionate about. The main thing is to have courage in going after it and doing it to your fullest ability.
A good starting point is to create content around topical ideas. It might be an event or a popular television show or something like Halloween or Christmas. The idea is to work with topics that people are already talking about and searching for online. That’s how you can gain extra viewers, by people just stumbling across your video because they were searching for something else.
“The best thing about this whole kit is that it’s really small and really portable.”
Shae-Lee Shackleford
As a vlogger you are going to need a camera setup that works for you. Here is a quick run through of my favourite setup:
• EOS M50 or EOS M50 Mark II Mirrorless Camera: The Canon EOS M50 and EOS M50 Mark II are both portable and light, making it ideal for vlog-style shooting. One of my favourite things about this series of camera is Canon’s amazing autofocus system which can track focus on moving subjects so it keeps up with you when you’re moving around. As well as the high-res viewfinder and touch screen, one of the stand out features that everyone is raving about is that the EOS M50 and EOS M50 Mark II shoots in 4K. That’s broadcast quality!
• Ring Light: Some vloggers use softboxes, but I find using a ring light is the easiest and quickest type of light to set up. It gives you great light that’s really nice for your eyes and provides a really flattering fill.
• Rode Shotgun Mic: Having good sound is probably even more important than having really good quality footage. It’s something that makes your videos so much more legitimate. Rode mics are really compact and give great sound, especially if you’re close up and shooting somewhere where you don’t have a lot of external noise.
The first thing to remember is that, ultimately, people just want to be entertained. So whatever type of content you create, make it fun and entertaining. Using humour and being self-deprecating is always a really good place to start. Finding relatable things that we all, as humans, laugh at or experience with our friends generally means that we’ll share the content.
Always keep in mind that people have such short attention spans these days. If it’s not engaging and entertaining, or vulnerable or something you can connect with, viewers are just going to keep swiping because that’s just the nature of online content. So make sure you grab you viewers’ attention in the first 10 to 20 seconds of your videos. That’s the real key time.
Once you have built up an audience, brands may want to work with you to make video content. It’s a key thing for you to make sure you stay true to what your content is all about. When brands approach you, you can educate them on what your audience likes and what will and won’t work. If the content you create together is too much like an ad then people will feel like they’re being sold to, which won’t work for either you or the brand.
I generally use Adobe Premiere Pro to edit my videos. It’s an industry standard editing tool used by a lot of professional video editors, as well as vloggers. This is useful if you want to create and edit your own videos and then get a pro to add a few final touches.
See more of Shae-Lee’s comedy vlogs on the SketchShe YouTube channel.
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