Youtube toy review channel help.

D1craig

D1craig

D1craig

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I'm hoping to sometime in the future start reviewing some of my toys for youtube and having my 4 year old review some of his (he said he would want to so don't judge me lol) so I'm looking for some advice on setup. I dont need pc help, but I feel like I need some help with the likes of camera, room lighting, maybe surface etc etc.

I have a cannon camera I bought for a holiday trip about 5 or 6 years ago. I'm hoping that would be sufficient for recording with a tripod or something. Would it be a huge advantage to get a gopro and mount to my chest for easier recording?

What about software for editing the video and sound? Free software would be ideal.

Any other bits of advice would be greatly appreciated.

We will probably be hard to watch because we are scousers lol.
 
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Use natural lighting(for now)
Use your phone(as Raymond is going to suggest)
Use another camera mounted elsewhere such as a gopro for editing together multiple angles(keep the users engaged)
Download Davinci resolve(its free, loads of tutorials and i find it easier to edit with than Premier)
Try to use a fixed camera position(not a gopro on your chest)
Get a mic(sound quality makes all the difference)
 
D1craig said:
I have a cannon camera I bought for a holiday trip about 5 or 6 years ago. I'm hoping that would be sufficient for recording with a tripod or something. Would it be a huge advantage to get a gopro and mount to my chest for easier recording?
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The camera should be adequate to start with. Fixed frame shots are needed, you don't want the shot bouncing around and making viewers motion sick. A gopro would be good for action shots but not needed to begin with.
 
D1craig said:
Any other bits of advice would be greatly appreciated.
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Keep delivery reasonably upbeat and err towards uptempo.

Don't stick with the same shot for ages, this gets boring. Do vary the shot every so often to keep the viewer interested.

Don't have a very long intro sequence to your videos. Get straight to the point with highlights in the first 20s.
 
YT now is very saturated, so i'd say go big or bust if making the channel successful is your goal. You'll want to invest into sound production too, a camera mic won't cut it. The algorithm will only promote your videos so much, then just dump you if watchers don't stay focused on it. The search can't be relied on at all for exposure, and there's probably many videos covering this. Production style will depend on your preferred audience too.
 
D1craig said:
Galaxy s23
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Use this to film, edit and even upload.

As for lights, get some day light colour LED bulbs, put a big white lampshade on it and that's your diffused light source.

You can use the phone's multi camera set up to film, you will have to capture B-roll though, so you need to shoot separately and perhaps repeat yourself a couple of times unless you get multi camera set up. Or unless you are happy with a single camera set up. I would keep it on a tripod with a phone clip. Don't need anything expensive as the phone is light.

Since you have the phone already, cost will be LED light, lampshade, cheap £20 tripod, perhaps cost of an app (not sure).

MKBHD films his car review channel with an iPhone, 1 iPhone at that.
 
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OK thanx for all the tips. I am just hoping to somehow fund or contribute towards funding my toy collection with the videos.

I am just waiting for the room I'm going to move my pc into to be sorted then I can get to it. Can also just be for fun when I get it right with my son playing with the toys he has - paw patrol, rescue bots, jurassic world dinos and hot wheels cars. I've got some transformers and marvel toys, mostly build a figure collection's.

I've recently watched a few transformer toy videos and wow there are lots of people creating these.

I'll also have to work on being upbeat, I have a voice this isnt the most fun. Little depressing with Wayne Rooney mixed in.
 
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D1craig said:
OK thanx for all the tips. I am just hoping to somehow fund or contribute towards funding my toy collection with the videos.

I am just waiting for the room I'm going to move my pc into to be sorted then I can get to it. Can also just be for fun when I get it right with my son playing with the toys he has - paw patrol, rescue bots, jurassic world dinos and hot wheels cars. I've got some transformers and marvel toys, mostly build a figure collection's.

I've recently watched a few transformer toy videos and wow there are lots of people creating these.

I'll also have to work on being upbeat, I have a voice this isnt the most fun. Little depressing with Wayne Rooney mixed in.
Click to expand...

The S23 will be great as the camera, my advice is get a wireless lavalier mic that is compatible with Android.. The most noticeable negative I experience with some youtube channels is horrific audio that is just painful to listen to, having to turn it up/down as the person moves around or changes their direction.. when they get a lavalier mic its like an epiphany and I'm more likely to watch.

I agree with everyone, just get bright high CRI normal LED bulds and with lampshades etc and placement you can get things fairly good.. don't be too obsessed with getting high light levels, some do it for vanity reasons (i.e. no unflattering lines on their faces/neck) but in reality you don't notice that, but you do if all blown out with harsh lighting!

Delivery IMO doesn't need to be too upbeat, just be natural++ i.e. some change of tone when delivering, but don't go mad.. just avoid total monotonic delivery which I think you'd probably do naturally..
 
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