Get Rich Blogging. Zoe Griffin
lights, throws or artwork. However, don’t overdo it on the background elements as too many props could distract viewers. You don’t want people to spend too long looking at the background when you’re talking in the foreground.
In essence, you’re creating a mini TV set for yourself. Most vloggers choose to use the same set over and over again, as it creates brand repetition. If viewers see the same objects often enough, it starts to feel familiar and cosy, just like the Queen Vic on the TV soap Eastenders or the Rovers Return on Coronation Street. If viewers like your set, they’re more likely to want to hang out in it and listen to what you have to say.
The location has to be somewhere you can control completely. Public spaces are generally a bad idea because you can’t control passers-by or traffic noise. Also, some public spaces require a licence to film in. You may be able to come to an arrangement with a hotel or café, but bear in mind that they could change their minds at any time. Once you’ve built a following based on filming in a particular place, it’s not ideal to have to find somewhere else because of circumstances beyond your control. For this reason, many vloggers start off by filming at home. There you can section off an area of the house and make it into a mini-studio. It doesn’t matter how much mess or junk there is behind the camera as long as you can make up a tidy square in which to film yourself.
Think about what furniture you’re going to have in the shot. It’s not a great idea to have a blank space, as viewers’ attention will start to drift and they’ll end up, quite literally, staring into space. What does your target market have in their houses? What would they like in their houses? You can also look at some of your favourite vloggers for inspiration. What are their sets like? Notice that none of them are near windows. While you may think this is ideal for lighting purposes, it brings up continuity issues as the sun is constantly changing position in the sky and could cause shadows. Windows are also very noisy due to weather sounds and the buzz of traffic outside. I’ll discuss the important issues of light and sound in more detail in the next chapter.
When you’ve created a set, check to see how it looks on camera. Film the area on its own and with you sitting and performing in it. What looks great empty could appear cramped when you get started. Take a photo of it when you’re happy. If you have a small room, you may want to pack the set away each time. The photo will ensure you remember where everything goes when you want to build it again. Viewers are very eagle-eyed when it comes to spotting inconsistencies.
Repetition increases brand awareness when it comes to location, name, logo and music. Once you’ve decided what you want to do, you have to keep doing it as you work through the rest of the chapters in this book.
After working through this chapter, you should have:
Vlogging – unlike blogging – requires some start-up costs. You will need a camera, lighting, sound equipment and editing software, and these aren’t cheap items. However, do you really think your favourite vloggers could afford state-of-the-art equipment when they started making videos? I can tell you for a fact that they didn’t. Many of them were teenagers and bought basic equipment, which they learned to use well. They didn’t upgrade to better gear until their videos started to bring in some money.
This chapter will explain how to minimise start-up costs and use what little equipment you have to make the best possible videos. No prior knowledge is necessary. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never even switched on a camera before, let alone tried to frame a shot. Humans don’t come out of the womb with a video camera in hand and an innate knowledge of what to do with it. Zoella, Alfie, KSI, Tanya and Jim have another thing in common – they all had to learn how to be filmmakers.
CAMERAS
Go to your favourite vlogger’s YouTube channel and scroll back to look at the first videos they uploaded. Now look at a couple of recent ones. I bet you notice a huge difference in terms of camera quality, clarity of shot and perhaps even graininess.
In one of Zoella’s first videos, eleven-year-old Zoe is presenting the contents of her suitcase before going on a family holiday. She’s using a camcorder that is so out of date it could be in a museum. However, it still provides moving image and sound. She tries to improve the quality as much as possible by using the camera on a tripod to keep it steady and reduce blurriness. The video won’t win any prizes for creative beauty, but it allows her to talk to an audience and start finding her vlogging voice.
The SBTV YouTube channel (youtube.com/smokeybarz) has almost 700,000 subscribers tuning in for beautifully shot music videos and interviews with artists. However, the quality of the videos wasn’t always so high. The channel’s founder Jamal Edwards started making videos on a cheap camera, which he received as a Christmas present when he was fifteen. He used that basic camera to film up-and-coming music acts in his area, quickly gaining a following from other music fans in his neighbourhood. He had no formal training and no fancy equipment, but he had a great deal of passion and was determined to teach himself as much as he could about filmmaking. As he started to earn money from his videos through YouTube advertising, he invested it in better camera gear and editing software, and hired other people to help him market the channel and spread the word. What started out as a basic operation with Jamal and a cheap camera turned into a business enterprise employing twelve staff by the time Jamal turned twenty-three – eight years after shooting his first video. SBTV now produces branded clothing and manages artists, and Jamal has started dipping his toes into charity work and politics. He can afford to as it’s estimated he’s now worth more than £8 million. The equipment he started with is irrelevant. What matters is that he used it to express his passion, knew who his audience were and filmed content that they enjoyed watching.
Have you heard the saying ‘all gear and no idea’? It’s used as an insult to describe someone who throws money at problems, thinking that buying the best equipment will make them a star. The reverse is true. The less time you spend shopping and the more time you spend learning how to use your kit, the more successful you will be. No matter what camera you have, you will improve your shot if you learn the following techniques.
FRAMING YOUR SHOT
In the previous chapter, we talked about using the same setting or location for all your videos. Your setting is called ‘the background’ in film speak, and you are ‘the foreground’.
Make sure that the background is colourful, vibrant and exciting, as this adds atmosphere and makes people feel energised when they see the video. An empty set makes a video appear boring and lifeless, no matter how enthusiastic your voice sounds. Also, make sure that you, in the foreground, are better lit than the background. Lighting controls where people look at the screen, and you want them to focus on what you’re saying rather than looking at the set.