Timestamp:
1:04 – How my little bathroom mirror helped to film my video
1:49 – Went I start Clipscribe
2:15 – Shooting in-computer or in-camera?
3:34 – Benefits of shooting in-camera
6:10 – What is O.B.S
8:22 – Easily hook up a pro audio gear to your computer
Transcript
Hey everybody, it’s Craig with Clipscribe and at one point I was making video content using my smartphone, I thought that was the way that I wanted to go. And so today, I want to talk about why I stopped making video content and what I switched to, and why? So at one time, I was creating video content and a little office space that I had, it was actually at my home and I had the weirdest setup going on.
My little Bathroom mirror helped me to film my video…
I had a painting easel that I would set my smartphone app on, but because I wanted to film with the back of my phone because the camera was higher quality, especially back then because I think this was like an iPhone 7, but when I filmed that way, I couldn’t see myself, you know, in the screen so I had to rig like a mirror behind the phone, it was like a little bathroom mirror so I could look at myself in the reflection of the mirror as it was showing a kind of showing me what my screen looks like.
And then the audio was a whole another situation because I wanted to record audio with the microphone and because it was an iPhone that did no longer had a microphone input jack, I had to have this daisy chain of cables going on to try to get the audio to record at the same time as the video, it was just a bunch of drama.
When I start Clipscribe
And actually, the time that I really thought about starting Clipscribe was a time when I was also on my smartphone trying to manually type in subtitles into some app that I was using and that was when I was like there’s going to be an easier way to do this. So I eventually switched over and wanted to start recording my videos.
Shooting in-computer or shooting in-camera?
What I would call in a computer rather than in-camera. So what is the difference which is better shooting in a computer or shooting in-camera? And really what is the difference between those? So in cameras when you have either your smartphone or you have a video camera and you are recording straight into that device, you know it’s got a memory card in there it’s got something that’s storing the video on, and then once it’s done you have to get that video wherever you need it to go to work on it.
Shoot in a computer
So what does it mean to shoot in a computer and computer means that you’re shooting into a camera or a device but it’s going straight into your computer? I mean it could be your laptop or your desktop. So instead of it going into a mobile device it’s going to go into you know your big time, your big boy, you’re big boy computer, a big girl computer.
So what are the benefits of each of these? Why did I end up switching away from mobile really this is about which route you might want to pick or maybe you want to switch your maybe or die-hard in the camp that you’re already in.
Benefits of shooting in-camera
So what are the benefits of shooting in-camera? One thing is that most smartphones have better quality video capabilities than a webcam does.
And so a lot of times people are shooting on webcams and they asked me about it or they asked me about how they can improve their video and a lot of times I say shoot on your smartphone because webcams are notoriously bad and unless you have even the newer ones are often not that great. So you can often get a much better quality video out of a smartphone than out of a webcam and sometimes out of a smartphone than out of like a higher level like a video camera or DSLR so that’s 1 reason, another reason is that mobility, of course, mobility is an obvious one because especially if you’re the type of person that just you’re out and about and you need to make a video, okay and I know a lot of you are that person, there’s really nothing you can do about that.
Yeah, it’s unlikely you’re going to lug around a laptop and hook it up every time and I totally get that and if you’re the on the go person who’s shooting video content everywhere you are, it’s almost guaranteed that the smartphone is the right way to go for you. And that’s really about that, you know, there’s not really much else to say about it.
App Availability
The other reason would be what I call app availability. Obviously, smartphones have a lot of apps that you can use and some of you might heavily depend on some of those apps to shoot your video content and so that’s understandable as well and why you might want to use, you know, a smartphone overshooting in camera.
So as far as you’re in computer benefits, what are some of the reasons you might do in the computer? Okay? If you have a structured setup then shooting in the computer might be the way to go for you. If you have a little studio you’ve made. If you have a lighting setup, you have audio already set up and you don’t want to have to constantly be readjusting and setting that stuff up.
What is O.B.S?
Then, you know, shooting in a computer, a desktop laptop might be a better way to go for you. You can use apps like o. B. S. And I’m going to show you an example of that, that’s what I use. And I said like, o. B. S could be any kind of streaming or recording app, it could be you, you zoom, you know, you do a lot of interviews stream yard whatever.
You have access to those apps and I personally, as I said, I use O.B.S. It’s mainly a streaming app, but you can also record, yes, gives me all kinds of flexibility. You know the ability to do these kinds of things right here on the fly is huge for me because I’m just not a fan of having to add stuff after the fact I want to make my video and pretty much be done with it.
Apart from you know, putting it in Clipscribe and making a few edits. That’s all I really want to do because I’m not trying to make a Steven Spielberg film here. I’m trying to make content and reach an audience. And then if you use apps like Clipscribe, having your camera go straight into your computer so that you can then take that video and upload it straight to wherever you want to is a big thing because if it’s on your smartphone, you know, a lot of times, you need to transfer it off.
In my opinion, you need to prep it like if you’re shooting in a raw video on a smartphone or on a DSLR, that video is not portable. The raw video that really big video files, they’re really not meant to be uploaded or transferred through the web you really need to convert that into like an h. 264 codec and mp4.
And so it’s just some drama and steps, you’ve got you generally need to go through on your smartphone. However, on a desktop, like for instance, when I shoot my video like I’m doing now on O.B.S. when it finishes automatically, converts that video for me.
Easily hook up a pro audio gear to your computer
I have nothing I need to do, but just upload it to Clipscribe. So it’s very convenient. Okay, another thing, the fourth thing here is that you can easily hook up a pro audio gear to your computer, and like I said, it’s not as easy when you’re doing that with a smartphone for a number of reasons, depending on the type of phone I have professional, you know, I mean, I would say prosumer level audio gear, I’ve got my mixing board over here, my microphones go into it.
If I need to add something else into it, it’s easy and it all goes straight into my computer and it records it all at the same time. So I’m not having to go back later on and sync the audio up again. I’m looking for just the easiest way to create content, I don’t know about you, but creating video content is not easy for me.
It is something that I can easily put off and so getting rid of as much friction as possible is important to me. And then finally, and I kind of already mentioned this, you can easily utilize other apps and expand your hardware and software. And here’s another example where something else you can do with O. B. S that I use, I’m looking over here because that’s where my monitor is you can expand it in so many ways and I use O. B. S a lot of times as a virtual camera, which means my video will go into O. B. S.
And then I can send it over to zoom or I can send it over to stream yard and record it at the same time so I can get really great quality original video go into my hard drive while I’m also streaming that video, you know, to one of these other software platforms like zoom or stream yard, which is super convenient.
You know, I did a live video the other day and I’m able to record the original video without anything on it. But I also sent it over to stream yard and I was able to put, you know, the banner on it and my logo on it. I didn’t want that stuff on my original video.
So I’m able to get the best of both worlds there. So, what is best for you? Again, it really depends on what your goals are. Are you the mobile, are you the running gun type? Then shooting on your mobile is probably the way to go for you if you like to have a more structured setup, I highly recommend trying to have a space where you go and you make your video content every time you make videos.
It’s just it’ll make your life easier. You can set it and forget it and then you have access to these other software apps that yeah, can really help you kind of up your game and make things easy for you. So that’s why I stopped making video content with my smartphone. Let me know about you.
What do you do? Are you a mobile phone only? Are you a hybrid? What do you like to do? Let me know in the comments and also let me know if you have any questions below and if this video was helpful, please please like it. I’d appreciate it.
This is Craig Lillard with Clipscribe and thanks for watching. I’ll see you in another video.
