Hi everyone, it's Lauren and welcome to the
first video in my series on how to start
a booktube channel. Eventually there will
be a playlist of all of the videos in
this series linked up in the corner here
and in the description box below. I'm
going to try and cover the widest range
of topics in terms of starting a YouTube
or specifically a booktube channel that
I can think of; I will be doing videos on
editing, on scheduling, on planning videos
and talking in front of a camera
uploading a video, getting involved in
the community, sort of the whole life
cycle of a YouTube channel if you like
We're starting today with the basics
that you need before you can even start
a channel which is a camera and a
equipment and we're going to be talking
about the setup as well that I use for
my own YouTube videos. So what I'll do is
start by talking about my own framing
and my equipment, the setup that I use
and you can see it in action within this
frame, and then i'm going to take you on
a behind-the-scenes tour of my setup and
you can see round my bedroom
basically and see the equipment that I'm
using. Now it goes without saying that
you do not need any fancy equipment
at all to start a YouTube channel and I
can let you know what I use, but it
doesn't mean that you have to use
exactly what I do. To be honest a lot of
my equipment is very basic anyway, I
certainly don't have a snazzy camera or
lighting setup. You can use a webcam on
your laptop to film a video, you can film
videos on your iphone, if you'd like to
learn more about filming videos on your
iphone my friend Jean did a very good
video explaining how to use iMovie
which again I will link up in the corner
here. But before I started my own booktube
video, I watched a ton of videos
like these and tutorials because the
whole filming on a camera and editing
thing? I mean I've never filmed or edited
a video in my whole life; most of us on
this platform are amateurs and even
though I wasn't necessarily going to be
diving in and buying loads of expensive
equipment straight away, I think it's
nice to have an idea of perhaps what
you're aiming toward or what other
people who you watch, what their
setup is, so it kind of gives you a
little bit of comfort right in the early
days. So starting with the basics, which
is the camera - I happened to already own
a DSLR camera before I even thought of
starting a YouTube channel so that's
what I film on. I film using the Canon
600D and I just use the kit lens that
it came with and I
have not upgraded since then, this
is the same camera that I've been using
for the last two years. Most of my
friends I think film on the 700D which
is a more recent incarnation of the same
camera and I think that is slightly
better but I find this camera to be
completely serviceable. One thing I will
note about the quality of the images
in my videos I also use a process
called color grading in editing so the
lighting and the colors that you're getting
as part of this video isn't solely due to my
camera. I will do a video on editing
later on in this series where I
explain all of that, but that's just
a side note. One of the most important
aspects of any YouTube video is the
audio quality. I think that's the number one
priority in terms of things that you
want to get right. It's not something that
a lot of people think about and it's not
something you think about yourself when
you watch other people's videos but the
minute that a video is too quiet or the
sound quality is a little bit off it
really makes such a big difference. For
the first year I just filmed using the
microphone that was embedded within this
camera which you can hear here
'Hi everyone it's Lauren and I'm here with a
book haul...' The audio quality in my
earlier videos is a lot more echoey and
it has this kind of underlying hiss or
interference that I don't get now
because I use a microphone. The
microphone that I am currently using is
the Rode Mic Pro and this is fine. I got
this for Christmas last year I think and
it's okay. I don't think it's a great
microphone it costs about £100 and
it did definitely improve the
audio quality of my videos compared to
what they were before, but I do get
comments from time to time from viewers
telling me that my videos are inaudible
or they are very, very, very quiet I think
that depends on the speaker settings
that you have on the device that you're
viewing this video on, but still it means
that I do have to try and increase the
audio volume of my videos in editing
afterwards which is just very irritating
I wish I had a microphone that worked
properly! Moving on to lighting, it's
important to remember that you need
lighting from multiple sources when
you're filming a video; you need light on
the subject which is me and I use a lamp
which is on top of my camera and I
bounce the light off of the wall in
front of me and onto my face. The light
is running out of battery at the
moment it's not as bright as it probably
could be but I use the wall to diffuse
the light so it's not just a spotlight
so I don't get that 'rabbit in headlights'
look which I think I had in some of my
earlier videos when I'm trying to film at
night. I'm also using my ceiling light
which is lighting me from above, naturally,
and I'm getting the benefit of my window
which is over there. Daylight is the best
light, if you can use daylight that is
just the most natural look that you can
get for your videos, but I did find when
I used to sit in front of the window
that you are a bit of a slave to the
elements in the way that if the sun goes
behind the clouds it changes the quality
of lighting in your video and if you're
editing your video after the fact and
you're kind of changing color because the
light's changing that makes it very, very
frustrating in editing. Framing-wise I
am sitting in the center of the screen
at the moment at the edge of my bed
normally, because I have a booktube
channel and I tend to hold books up or
have pictures in this area here, I tend
to sit a little bit more off center and
but this is where I'm sitting here today. Like I
said, I'm using the wall in front of me
to bounce light into my face and I've
got my bed and my bookshelves quite far
in the background of this shot. This is a
relatively new setup for me, I used to
film over in that corner with the bookcase
behind me, but I felt that that was quite
busy as a background and what I really
prefer about this background is that my
bedroom is white and a lot of my color
palette in the background is neutral and
I found it really works in terms of
having contrast between the subject
which is me and the books, and the
background and I think it gives it a
very light, airy feel which is the kind
of look and the kind of environment I
wanted on my channel. Framing-wise I'm
not sitting too far away or too close to
the camera (in my own opinion!) I try and
use the rule of thirds and in terms of
the frame and I have my shoulders in the
bottom third of the shot and my head in
the top two thirds. This took a lot a lot
of practice, a lot of trial and error to
find something that I felt works for me
oftentimes I will frame myself
wonderfully and think this is a really
great shot, and then as I'm talking in
the camera I'll lean forward or move
around and I think I'm framed like this
and then when I come to edit myself
I'm actually like that, which is very
annoying, but like I said, you just get
used to it. Some people film in front of
their bookcases which is fantastic, some
people film very close to the camera
like this and I think this can create a
really nice intimate atmosphere if
you've got quite a
quiet voice or you're trying to have a
bit more of a personal conversation I think
this kind of framing can work really
nicely, some people sit really far back
from the camera on their sofa with a cup of
tea and again thats equally lovely
I think you just need to find a style
and that suits you, there's no right way
to do it, there's no right distance to be
from the camera really, as long as people
can see and hear you and you've got to
work with the space that you have. Most
of us are filming in our houses and that
doesn't give for a lot of options so
this is what I do with the space that I
have. What I'm going to do now is give you a
bit of a behind-the-scenes tour using
this vlogging camera that I have. This is
the Canon EOS M10 which I got last year when
we went to Italy, and basically i just
got it because it has this flip up
screen which is very very handy for
vlogging. A lot of the big famous
vloggers use I want to say a GX7 or
G7X? I'll put it up there, which is very very
expensive I think it costs like £500/£600
when I looked into it. This was
about £350 from memory
which I thought was fine and I'm really
happy with the quality of the pictures
in it and I think this works really
nicely and it's got an autofocus which
again is very handy for vlogging and I'm
very pleased with this camera and I can
show you the difference in the quality
of picture and sound now. So this is me
talking on my vlogging camera you should
be able immediately to tell a difference
between the audio quality between this
camera, and me talking on this microphone
One criticism that I have about this
camera which isn't necessarily the
camera's fault but that is that I don't
know where the microphone is on this model so
when I move around with my hands you get
a lot of interference there, which is
natural I suppose and perhaps I should
get one of those holders like a stick to
hold it on. But generally I think the
quality of the image is very very clear
and I think this is quite good value for
money as far as these kind of cameras
go. I used to vlog on my iphone
almost exclusively and I felt the video
quality that I got from that was
completely fine. So now i'll give you a
bit of a backstage view of what I see
when I sit on my bed to do a video. So here
is my camera look, so this is the
Canon 600D as I said, you can see me in
the viewfinder there it's
often very difficult to look at yourself
in the lens and not at yourself in the viewfinder
I find! Up here you've got my Rode Mic
Pro and my light as I said, which is
bouncing off the wall. The light that I
have there is this one which is an LED video
lighting, apparentl,y this was very, very
cheap and you know I think the lighting
quality shows to be honest! It comes as
two filters, a warm filter and a
cool filter and it's okay and I think
this was like £15, between £15 and £30
it really wasn't expensive. I'm going to
link everything I mention in my
description box below and here is my
tripod which again was definitely about
30 quid, this was not expensive at all.
So this is me, this is what I'm looking
at when I'm speaking to you. Now to give
you a bit of a tour of my bedroom so you
can see exactly what I'm working with
here, like I said this is generally just
one big loud echoey box, mainly because
we don't have anything on this all over
here and we have some built-in wardrobes
there. I have my wardrobe open while I'm
filming to try and deaden the echo as
much as I can. I also move all the
nonsense that we know we have in this
corner like this bright red disgusting
lamp and bright green washing bag, just
because I really want to keep that
neutral palette behind me when I'm
filming, I don't want any bright colors
in the background. So there are some
other options if I wanted to film
elsewhere in my bedroom, I could sit on
my bed like, this is what I used to do my
old flat and have the window in front of me
and the natural light on my face and
that's actually really nice lighting you
can see that now that that works really
well, although you do have the problems
that I've already spoken about with
natural light that it is very changeable
but I kind of thought this background
was a bit boring because if my wardrobe
was closed you would just have white
behind me and then the door which I didn't
think was very nice and this is where I
used to film, like this I just crouching
down next to my desk with my books behind me
and again using the natural light from
the window, but because of...I felt like
this was quite dark behind me and
there's nothing wrong with that, I really
like this desk and I like the books
behind it, Ithink it's very very pretty
but I just felt like it wasn't really
working especially when I was making the
thumbnails, I felt like everything was
getting quite crowded in the shot and so
I am much happier with the setup that
have at the moment. So a little look there
at what goes into the setup behind my
videos. Like I say, everyone is completely
different and to be honest you don't
really know equipment you're gonna need
or what kind of background you want to
use until you start filming, until you
start working out what you want your
channel to be it's very hard to know
what you might need, so I would not
suggest going out and buying a load of
stuff before you've even started doing a
channel but I hope this has enlightened
some of you in terms of what goes on
behind the scenes and the things that
you kind of have to think about before
starting filming. My best advice is
really if you have a camera which can be
any camera it can be a phone camera it
can be a laptop webcam, just start
filming and then see if you like it and
get into it. There's no point spending a
lot of money on equipment when you
haven't even made a video yet and you
don't know if you're going to enjoy
putting videos out on this platform
Nothing has to be perfect first time
which is going to be like my ongoing
motto throughout all of these videos
that you just need to start really and
see where it takes you and just not
worry about the fact that you might not be at
the best, top, most amazing quality for
your first like first few videos. My next
video in this series going to be all
about planning your videos and that is
going to encompass everything from
getting ideas, what you're going to film,
getting motivation to film, planning and
scheduling when your videos are going to
be filmed, when they're going to be uploaded. Hopefully all of that pre-prep
stuff that you'll be thinking about
before you actually sit down and turn
the camera on. So I hope you enjoyed this
video it please let me know in the
comments if you did and if you have any
other questions that you want me to
answer. Like this video if you liked it
and I will see you next time, bye!