Tools You Need to Create Your Social Videos

In the old days, making a video required a massive budget. You had to have a studio with lighting, sound equipment, video editing tools, a fancy video camera, and usually actors. Thanks to technological advances, you can now make high quality videos with a much smaller budget. You can even just use your smart phone with a few other tools and then upload to your favorite social media sites and you are on your way.

Of course, if you want to make more complex videos, you may need a few more tools than just your cell phone. Here are some tools you might want to use:

A camera.

There are several options to use for a camera. You can use a simple smart phone. You could use what is called a flip cam, which is usually fairly inexpensive. You can buy a fairly good quality flip cam for around $100. You could use a web cam. This is probably the lowest priced option. You will probably want to buy an external one, if you plan on using a web cam frequently for videos, instead of using the one built into your computer. You can also use a camcorder or a digital camera that allows you to do short videos. Whichever choice you make, be sure it can record in HD format.

Lighting.

Pay attention to lighting and background. You can spend a little or a lot in this area. Some people buy fancy lighting sets and even use green screen technology to do their videos. However if your lighting is good, and your background is not super busy, you can make good quality short videos without spending a fortune.

A microphone.

Here you have a wide variety of choices. Keep in mind these videos are short and rarely more than a minute long. You may not have a great deal of talking, so you probably will not need a special microphone. A lot of people find, even for a full webinar, that the basic headsets that you can buy for under 50 dollars work really well. If you are using your smart phone for the video, you may find the built in microphone is sufficient. If you are doing an animated video or whiteboard video, you may not have voice at all. With many live action videos of this length, your actions may be far more important than your voice.

Video editor.

You will want to do at least some video editing, even if it is just to make it shorter. There are a number of options here; you can start at the free end of the scale with software such as Windows Movie Maker or Cam Studio, or you can go to the top of the line and get Camtasia, one of the more expensive options. In some cases the app you are using like Vine has a simple video editor included.