In this episode of the podcast I challenge you to make videos with what you have and think about whether gear really matters or not.
Read More
In this video we review the two best budget options for monitoring headphones, the Sony MDR-7506 and the Audio Technica ATH-M30X. Both of these headphones will serve you well. They are in the same price range and both include a leather pouch and adapter. Perhaps the biggest difference is the cord, straight vs coiled.
Read More
In this video we review the Sony MDR-7506. Long considered the industry standard you can find these from sets to sound rooms. Offering a frequency response that covers the range of human hearing, the MDR-7506 will allow you to hear every blip and pop of the edit.
Read More
The ATH-M30X comes in at $70 and delivers excellent flat frequency response that won’t break the bank.
Read More
Over the past couple months I have been looking for a better way to interact with my audience, the YouTubers, bloggers and video makers, in short – you guys.
To better connect, I decided to put more concentration into YouTube. Uploading more videos, being active in the comments and starting a new series AskLeb.
Read More
“Sitting is the new smoking”, that’s what people keep telling me anyway. If these people are to be believed then I’m a metaphorical chain-smoker. We all are. Apparently we average 9.3 hours a day sitting. If my math is correct that’s like smoking 37 and three quarters cigarettes a day. Not really but you get the point.
However I didn’t want to spend the $500-$1,000 it would cost to get a standing desk. Even if I did fork out the money and make the switch that would only solve my problem when I was at home. I work from multiple locations.
Read More
Today's episode brings you Levi Allen, a filmmaker out of British Columbia and Founder of Left Coast Media. Levi's most recent film 'Untethered' was featured as a Vimeo Staff Pick in December 2015.
In this episode Levi discusses how he started out making films, the importance of not letting gear stand in the way of creation, why he decided to begin vlogging, the story behind the making of Untethered and why he decided to release his film for free.
If you're recording video on a DSLR or mirrorless camera, you don't want to use the on-board mic for audio. You want to at least pick up a shotgun mic like this RODE VideoMicro, for around $60.
In this video above we review and walkthrough the RODE VideoMicro microphone.
Read More
One of my favorite parts of being friends with entrepreneurs is seeing how far they progress in just a year.
In this podcast episode I chat with Thomas Frank, a four-time guest on the show, to talk with him about how he has grown his YouTube channel to over 166,000 subscribers and almost 5,000,000 views by making weekly videos for just over a year.
Read More
Our last client project of 2015 was a Kickstarter video for John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur on Fire. The Freedom Journal campaign just launched last week and John's launch team, which includes us and the video we made, helped the campaign raise over $200,000 in the first week.
In this video we give a behind the scenes view on the entire production process. From storyboarding and scripting to filming and editing, we cover the entire project.
Read More
On Saturday I drove up to Canon in Hollywood, CA for an all-day workshop with the Canon C300 Mark II cinema camera. In this video I share why I went, show some of my favorite features of the camera, and share test footage that I shot on the camera.
I currently use a Canon C100 Mark II as my main video camera and it only shoots 1080p, so I'm looking at what my options are for upgrading to shooting in 4K in 2016 and the C300 Mark II is one of the main contenders.
Read More
2015 was a big year for me. It was the first full-year of being my own boss, making six figures, filming & editing hundreds of videos, and I also traveled a ton. In this video I share six things I learned specifically related to making so many videos last year.
I also wrote a full annual review with more lessons learned, stats, and financials here.
Read More
Looking back at 2015 gives me a lot of reasons to celebrate.
It was also very trying year though too. It started with my wife Jen's third round of surgery to remove cancer from her tongue. The success of that and no further appearances has helped fuel Jen's recovery back to almost full strength again.
Her health challenges have pushed me to work harder, think bigger, make more, and take plenty of time to enjoy life, friends, and family along the way.
But before I look back on the rest of 2015, it helps to look back even further, going five years back to when I start doing work online. Each year while I do my annual reviews I read through my previous ones and I say to my former self, "Oh how little you know."
Read More
If you record videos or livestream on your smartphone and want better audio, there are a ton of options. In this video I unbox, comparison test, and review the RODE VideoMic Me, a shotgun style microphone that plugs directly into a headphone jack.
You can watch the video in this post or on YouTube.
Read More
Dave Dugdale has been sharing his filmmaking journey on YouTube since he first got a Canon T2i in 2010. I stumbled across his videos a few years ago when I first bought a DSLR and was trying to figure out what camera settings to use.
In today's podcast episode I chat with Dave about how he transitioned from making videos about real estate to drive search traffic into teaching video production and making videos for a living instead.
We discuss why you might want to use a mirrorless camera like a Sony A7 series or Panasonic GH4 instead of a DSLR from Canon, give advice for making videos in a crowded niche, and why having a regimented release schedule for your videos might not be the best way to go.
Read More
Should you put a lot of effort into trying to make something perfect, even if that means you can only create videos irregularly? Or should you have a schedule and stick to it, even if you are releasing sub-par content?
In today's episode we debate consistancy vs. quality and which you should strive for most.
We also discuss how you can go about achieving both, if you should even attempt to do that, and how the types of content you make may decide it for you.
Read More
Live streaming video is all the rage. Periscope, Meerkat, Blab and YouTube Live are just a few of the platforms that people now use to live broadcast video after just a couple seconds of set-up.
In this episode we ask: is live streaming video just a fad? We chat with five guests, add our two cents, and as you can imagine, we don't all agree.
We also discuss ways to make your live broadcasts better, why you may want to incorporate live streaming into your business, and what we see as best way to use live streaming (even if your audience is tiny).
With all the pressures on "going viral" during an big announcement online, sales videos are becoming bigger productions and you could be leaving a lot on the table by not creating a video to accompany a launch.
However, if you are going to do it, you need to make sure you are doing it well.
In this episode we discuss whether or not sales videos are important, if you even need one, and how exactly it may benefit you and your audience. We also talk about how sales videos are just one part of a launch strategy and what else you should focus on.
Read More