V-Day. It’s here. No, not Valentine’s Day all you lovers. Video Day. The day I finally start re-shooting all my crochet videos in high definition.
The Husband bought an HD camera several months ago and I thought it was high time these videos get a make-over. Or, perhaps a complete do-over.
Gear
1. Flood lights with a diffuser soft box on tripods. Two lights, in fact, each positioned on either side of the work table.
2. Bounce. It does exactly what it sounds like it does. It bounces light into the shadows so the back side of the frame doesn’t look like a dark abyss.
3. Sing it, baby. It’s the mic, carefully positioned so that it’s close enough to my mouth to not pick up room noise but far enough away that I don’t sound like I’m breathing heavily all over it.
4. The camera, positioned high up and facing directly down on top of me so as to get a flat-facing view of what I’m doing.
5. Mini DVD player. Super old school, too. Bought this thing for The Husband nearly a grand over 8 years ago. Oiy. And it never gets used for DVDs. It acts as a monitor and displays whatever the camera is seeing. When I’m taping, I look at the DVD player so I know what the audience will see. It’s a thing of beauty.
6. Half sheet of birch plywood stained to match the trim in my office (it’s a homemade mix of some popular stain colors) thrown on top of a standard, two-level folding table.
Oh, and the yarn. I tried to match the website colors as much as possible. And this time around, I wanted a yarn that was thicker and a little more rigid so it would hold its own shape in the camera. I just needed something that was easier to see and would play nicely. It’s just some Sugar ‘N Cream yarn.
Is this the part you hope I don’t break a leg? Wait, that doesn’t exactly apply. Don’t break a vocal chord?
This is so cool! As someone who has been thinking about making my own videos demonstrating techniques, it is a little bit scary, but really interesting at the same time. I hope you show more process photos of what went into the demos.