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The Phone Revolution: Creating Professional Content Without Expensive Gear
Ever wondered if you really need expensive equipment to create professional-looking videos? Videographer JT Taylor crushes this misconception in our latest episode, sharing how smartphones and affordable accessories can produce stunning content when paired with the right techniques.
JT takes us through his unexpected journey from Nashville music video creator to Northwest Arkansas content producer. What began with crashing into businesses ("literally walking in, filming and leaving without saying anything") evolved into multiple successful channels like Dixon Street TV and Bentonville TV. His first paid gig—splitting $250 between three people for an event video—marked the beginning of a creative career built on practical experience rather than formal training.
The most refreshing aspect of JT's approach is his emphasis on learning by doing. While many aspiring creators get caught in a cycle of watching tutorials and buying expensive gear before developing actual skills, JT advocates for immediate action: "Stop watching videos on how to make videos. Take your phone out, go buy a gimbal if you can, but if not, just go film something and edit it." This hands-on philosophy has served him well, allowing him to develop techniques through daily practice rather than theoretical knowledge.
Despite being a professional, JT frequently chooses his iPhone over expensive cameras when paired with a quality gimbal. "I'm getting so many different angles because I have the gimbal," he explains, demonstrating how smartphone videography offers incredible flexibility for dynamic shooting situations. He recommends accessible editing tools like CapCut and iMovie, proving that professional results don't require complex software or expensive equipment—just creativity, persistence, and a willingness to embrace mistakes as learning opportunities.
Whether you're an aspiring content creator or simply curious about modern videography, this episode offers practical insights that will transform how you think about visual storytelling. Subscribe now and discover why the most powerful creative tool might already be in your pocket!
Hello everybody, welcome to Autofocus Today. I'm here with JT Nash and my name is Brooke Galligan. I am the Studio Innovations Director here at Podcast Studios and I just want to talk to JT today, welcome.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Yes, I'm so glad that you're here. Uh, you were already on our sister show, story scaling, yeah, and so. On that show we talk about a lot of um, you know, like how, how you became a creator, how you tell your stories. On this show we want to talk about the fun stuff, the tech okay so all the gear and like, what got you into it?
Speaker 1:what's the what? What's the story behind it? Um, and so, right now, why don't you tell everybody a little bit about yourself? What do you do like, um, what, what, what makes you a techie?
Speaker 2:oh. So it's really weird. Because I'm a videographer um, I'm originally from nashville made music videos, tv, commercial events, weddings I think all videographers do weddings and real estate to start out and like, just just to cause you'll find those easily. Um, and then when I moved to Northwest Arkansas, I became, I guess, a influencer and I hate that term because I'm thinking of just but, um, I couldn't.
Speaker 2:It's a way to connect to the community, because when I moved here I didn't know. It was a way to connect to the community Because when I moved here I didn't know anyone and no one's making music videos in the streets and there's not a lot of artists around. So in order to make videos I had a passion for it. I just started crashing into businesses, like literally walking in, filming and leaving without saying anything. Because when I started talking to them, at first they'd ask too many questions and then I'd post. And then I started talking to him. At first they'd ask too many questions and then I post. And then I started a Dixon Street TV and then that led to Bentonville TV, rogers TV, real estate TV. I got a lot of TV. Yeah, let's you, yeah, and I was telling bang over the another show.
Speaker 2:The only reason for the TVs is my creative outlets, right? So it's this thing of um. Yeah, it's just my way. If I make something for a wedding, I'm posting my wedding channel and the way I know where it's at and things like that. But if you're talking about gear wise, I've filmed on all the big camera stuff. Oddly enough, I'm not a techie like my business partners. They could sit in a room and talk about lens apertures and all these different things. I still think all technology is really cool that we can do what we can do with the phone. Yeah, I mean, it's amazing. Um, yeah, I think in editing and, like you said, you're a photographer just to be able to edit in batches and take or remove items and pictures and videos. It's insane. We're living in an amazing time period right now it is.
Speaker 1:I know I wish that we had all this back in the day, when it was like dark, dark rooms. You could like remove background, I'll let you know. Take out, you know, like, probably put open eyes, like if their eyes close um. But you said you were from nashville yeah so what brought you to Northwest Arkansas?
Speaker 2:So my wife's from the area, she's from Huntsville, arkansas, and I would say for many years we always traveled for the holidays and so I met her in Nashville and so we came from the holidays and then we have daughters and so she had I'm her only child, so there's a lot of nieces down here so we moved here for the family and Nashville was just getting. It was getting crazy. It's just Nashville, you know, big city.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was big.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so for family moved to the area for family, and it was hard because outside of Arkansas everyone's like what's in Arkansas, what's in Arkansas? And so it was hard at first but then again you realize like that's pretty cool, everybody's so nice here. Like everybody's so nice. Yes, like I was, like I thought my mom was. Like you know, the artist that played in Nashville is playing here next week. Like it's just, and the Walmart built this town down the road and then Tyson built this. Yeah, yeah, it's been, it's been cool.
Speaker 1:That's cool. Yeah, I know I had a similar experience, like I moved here in 2003 from the DC area and so like it was the same kind of like culture shock where you're just like everybody wants to know, like what brings you here? What are you doing, hon? Like everyone's asking you questions. You know, I'm just like, I'm from the east coast, like we get in, we get out like that's right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the east coast is. We're just. You're not used to anybody talking to you.
Speaker 1:No, it's like this, is it? This is that we're, we're doing this transaction and that is it. Like you don't need to know anything about me. But and then you know, and then you just realize I was like it was just so much fun and everybody is so nice, and like you know, you know, 20 something years later you're like, oh, I'm still here, I must, I must really enjoy it. So, um, that's so, that's um, that's, that's really cool. So what? Um, when you got into video production, like what, what got you interested in it? Like what made you go?
Speaker 2:I really want to try this oh well, so I was, uh, I remember I was doing real estate. Uh, at the time I just started doing real estate and then I was in nashville and the real estate videos were horrible for houses it was just. They were just bad, like long and just house shot. And I was like man, what if I had a musician playing in the middle of the house and we somehow mixed it together, played their music double big on marketing too. So I was like what if we took their music and played it on the video? And they played it inside the house? And so I remember reaching out to a friend and she referred me to this kid that was making or he just started making music videos. He had a camera. I didn't know anything about videos at all. I don't think I was even taking pictures besides somebody showing my age, the disposable cameras.
Speaker 1:They were still popular.
Speaker 2:We had those around, but video was not. Flip phones are still popular, so videos were not around. But he had a TQI and I remember meeting him at a coffee shop and, mind you, he's probably 10 years younger, 8 years. We were two different levels. But I was like man, I got this idea, let's do video of the city. And he said, alright, cool. I was like man, I got this idea, let's do video of the city, said all right, cool, it's like all right. So then we. So we went to shoot a house and then, um, I don't know anything about lenses and he had a uh 50 millimeter and you can't catch. You can't shoot a house with the film in it.
Speaker 1:No, the walls are like yeah, any of the why?
Speaker 2:yeah, so I remember going to my friend's condo. I thought we were trying to shoot and we like he didn't know either, because we just started.
Speaker 1:Yeah right.
Speaker 2:Oh, we can't do it. So then our goal was to work up to get a wide angle lens and then from there I hadn't shot any video. But I had a friend of mine that was working at the newspaper and then they had like an iron fork event where they had like food competitions. And and they had like an iron fork event where they had like a food competition and she was like she always wanted to be like tv hosts. Right, this is like when e-news and you know, wild on, like you know yeah, yeah back in the day and so, uh, she was like what do you have camera?
Speaker 2:what if we did a video for this event? I was like, cool, let's do it. So I set it up and, um, I was more of a producer on that side of it and we went and shot it. Amazing, like amazing, meaning that it was easier than I thought. You just shoot different segments and then you edit it together and it becomes a story, right. Then I remember we with that video, we talked the newspaper into paying us $250 split between three, three people. Yeah, three of us. That's amazing. But it was amazing right.
Speaker 1:Because once you get that first pay, you know that first money. You're just like oh.
Speaker 2:And this was from like the Nashville Scene magazine, right, so it was like the main thing. And then, honestly, from there it kind of snowballed this thing because the scene had the connections to get like a music show we helped them develop and create, where they had artists come in and play, and so a lot of people weren't taking advantage of video and so it kind of got me into. Video was like oh, we can just start capturing events that the paper can market and things like that and, um, I mean, youtube was the main source of promoting it. So we're thinking now about people saw it, can see it now, but back then they probably what two or three hundred people might have saw it, which was good on YouTube, right, yeah, it was great at the top, but yeah, that's all I got in. The video was helping filming that. But then also at the meantime, the guy that was doing the cat that I've met through the camera work, he was filming his buddies for fun playing acoustic bluegrass folk Americana music right oh okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:And so I was telling Bang, I was like I'll stay at home, dad. So I was like, anytime I had a chance to get out of the house, I'm out, like cool, we're going to go do it. And so I started going with him. We started filming as friends and I was like there's a business behind filming your friends.
Speaker 2:We're doing it for free, but any money would have been good money. Yeah, right, because we weren't making any money. So, yeah, he wasn't working a job, I wasn't working a job. So it was like what if we charge 75? What if we charge this much?
Speaker 2:And so the more we started doing, the more I had to like hold a camera in here. And then once I did that, um, I was like, oh, I like this, this is cool, I can make my own whatever got a little commercial, I can make my own commercials, I can make whatever I want to, now that I have a video camera, right, and it's really weird, it's this power of knowing, once you have that, you can make something that people can watch, that people can share and see. And I've been hooked ever since, honestly, and we've been filming as friends. I was at house parties, yeah, so a lot of my practice came from I don't know how old I was At least in my 30s, I don't know At house parties, college house parties, holding up lights and cameras and just filming so we can have fun people, yeah, people playing all night and um yeah, that's kind of how I got into it that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was gonna be one another. One of my questions was talking about just kind of like, um, the different styles, so it's like you've done a lot since then. Um, but what is your favorite? Do you always kind of go back to that candid? Like putting yourself in the area, or do you like being staged, or you know, just passion kind of.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so in Nashville we had a company called Five Folks Creative and it was three of us and we all had different elements. Tim was great at scheduling our major music video productions right, which take a lot of time and planning, and Anthony did a lot of the acoustic videos and I was one that went and filmed events and reality stuff because I don't need planning.
Speaker 2:I enjoy the reality side of it, so I think my favorite is the capturing moments and then turning those into visual stories yeah you know, just because I think, with my life at the time too, having a kid and being a family I had one or two at the time. It was just like I don't have time to plan, so let me just go?
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly so it came to. Let's show up and shoot and learning, create on the fly. Then it comes down to it, it all comes down to editing anyway. So as long as I can get the shots, I can figure out the story. But, yeah, way. So as long as I can get the shots, I can figure out the story. Um. But yeah, I think um, planning stresses, it stresses me out a little. I enjoy sorry, I enjoy the whole planning when it comes together, yeah, but the anticipating of waiting to that day and hoping everything falls into place is, it's kind of stressful yeah, I totally understand.
Speaker 1:I know I'm from the, I have like a journalistic background and, um, just I love that like just getting in the middle of a story and just like you're just not controlling anything, you're not, you're not, you're not trying to change anything, you're just literally just here to capture it. And then it's your job afterwards to like tell like what you experience and so like it's so it's.
Speaker 1:It's really cool. That's that is definitely like. That's my passion. That's what I love to do too. Um, I but planning. There is times when planning comes to and it helps to do it If you know you're going to go to a shoot and you're like I have to capture these many things in the sunrise and I have 15 minutes to do it. We need to get organized, but mostly, but what I really enjoy doing is just showing up with a camera and just being like all right let's do this, let's put something, something together.
Speaker 2:So, especially if you're on your own too, if you're only going to, it's kind of, yeah, like you have to plan to make sure you get those moments, and yeah. Yeah, cause it's just you.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And then also if you plan like I know that there's some, but like have plan B, c, d, e and then just be able to just like quick on the fly, I think if people that are really good in candid situations can like change on the fly, I think that's a very important moment and I don't know if I maybe I should have mentioned that over there in Bang was that learning to adjust, and I think that's where a lot of people that get into the creator game they don't put themselves out there enough and knowing that you just got to go and shoot as much as possible so you know what to do when things don't go right yeah right.
Speaker 2:You're like just being able to learn and deal with those experiences, knowing that you need to double check that you took those sd cards right. Right, you cleared the sd cards. We've all been there's like I clear these, did I back them up?
Speaker 1:oh, I need to format it, but I don't want to form like you don't want to format it, so just like deleting the ones you know you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I'm bad at double saving everything, because I've had those moments where I don't want to lose it, but I think, uh yeah, learning to adjust on the fly when things happen, um, is a big part of growing and being a creator in this world I mean mean, and I think that's where people, I think, hold themselves back and don't put themselves in situations to where they can learn, Because, yeah, I forgot to turn on the mic. One interview learned from that one.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I had a memory card forgot. Once I found a way to pull it off without them. You know what's going to wait. Yeah, you're like oh, the one interview I had. It luckily wasn't like a whole big production, but I had to tell I was like dude, I missed it. But this is also back in the day when the mic so he had a there was a separate switch oh right, yeah, because there was there, they weren't connected yeah, yeah, nothing was yeah, so nowadays everything's like great, yeah, yeah no, I don't like, yeah, I've been there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, just like. And then I think also just like letting people know, like, like a mistake is going to happen. You're going to make mistakes, it's okay, and don't give up. Like, just keep going. Like you know, just because you made a mistake on this one shoot doesn't mean to give up, you know, just keep, keep, keep on going. You learned your lesson. You'll never do that again. Well, you'll never do that within like the next six months, and then you'll probably do it again, like, yeah, like you will make the same mistake usually we're the ones that really know the mistake and how bad it is yeah, yeah yeah, you know as far as like oh, I had the shot.
Speaker 2:I really wish I got it, but I didn't.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, yeah, I know no one else will will most people never notice, especially if you play it off especially if you do photos right like I'm just thinking of the photos you have to choose from.
Speaker 1:It has to be hard because they have no idea what you're going, what you're choosing from yeah no, so you're battling yourself yeah, it is, yeah, it is battling yourself and it's like, yeah, you're like it sucks because, like raw photos, raw, like raw, rough, raw files, like they save the world. Because, like when you shoot a wedding and you're like, don't have the right exposure but you've got like the perfect moment, you're like if you didn't, if you had it on the wrong exposure, like back in the day, it was just gone. But now, like with raw, you can like. You're like, okay, I can salvage this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and there's, and there's lots of tricks too on like photos too. Like if you're like, oh, if you got it on like the wrong white balance, just make it black and white. And then no one has to know, like why you made it black. No one has to know that. Like like, oh, this is actually green. Like you can't, there is no color version of this one. You'd be like it just looks better this way and no one, no one knows I think the only one I remember.
Speaker 2:I used to mess up on a little bit and it's funny, anthony bright, get over to me it was uh, I was always a little bit out of focus, just to, just just a tad. You wouldn't be able to tell until you put it on on the big screen. Yeah, yeah but yeah, that was the thing I learned. To make sure, yeah.
Speaker 1:It is. Yeah, I know I'm dealing with that too right now because as you get older, your eyes don't turn as nice. I've had like 20-20 vision for forever and now I need readers.
Speaker 2:And you assume you've seen it so much you're like, okay, that's good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm assuming I was like I had to go get. I was like the last couple of shoots of it. I'm like, I'm like I'm just going to bring my readers so I can see.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And then like I'll take them off because now I'd have to see you know distance wise. So people, yeah, people that know me forever, see me pull out glasses and they're like, well, what are you doing? And I'm like I'm old now. I'm old now, so I know you said you learned off of YouTube University. Was there anybody else that you learned from that was a mentor, a teacher, or was there a YouTuber that you watched that really taught you a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, casey Neistat, he was a daily vlogger. He told me, as far as you can use your daily life and tell stories or you can use candid moments and still be able to create a video, um, and once I moved here I watched a lot of him because, like I said, I didn't have a job, I was kind of just a videographer, dropped my kids out of school and I kind of like, all right, what I do, but like he would literally film his day and then post it the next day by 8 or 9 am and it would be like a four or five minute vlog. That was cinematically kind of shot and very cool. And then Gary V, just far as motivation of, like I was telling him, no one cares, just shoot, go, do what you have an idea, just do it and try it out, right, and see what works. And if not, um, technical wise I think there's like when the name comes peter mckinnon, um, but like, I think the difference is I only watched a little bit of them and once I saw what I needed, I went and shot.
Speaker 2:And back then, when I was videoing too, there wasn't a lot of like now I'll go on my feed and there's so many different tips on do this, do this, you can do this. Back then it was was videoing too. There wasn't a lot of like now I'll go on my feed and there's so many different tips on do this, do this, you can do this. Back then it was kind of like once a week they come out with a video so I could watch it and consume it, but I think the learning, honestly, was just going out shooting Like. I remember the first video, that one of the first videos. I remember there's a boutique called Reflections of Beauty in Huntsville. It's not there anymore. My wife was shopping and I had a camera and it was the holidays and I hate shopping, so I went with them up there. I hate shopping. I have a fashion channel, mind you.
Speaker 1:13,000 followers, but you're not shopping there.
Speaker 2:But no, shopping's like ugh, but I had a camera and I was like ugh, but I had a camera and I was like cool. So I just remember going around the shop and just practicing different things I've seen on YouTube, like how to slide, how to pan down and all these different things. So I'm in the store just doing this Didn't ask him, just doing it, because if he asked he'd probably say no.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're a guy in yeah With a camera. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So it was, and it's funny because this was a cool story as far as, like, I remember doing that and I just made some cool and I put it to whatever song. At the time Copyrights were crazy. Back then you couldn't play any music. Nowadays you can play any song which y'all ain't know.
Speaker 1:That's so crazy.
Speaker 2:You can make a song to, you can make a music video to drink, it doesn't matter Like. But back then I remember going back and I needed to practice. And so, sam, I had a Sony Vegas was. I was editing in old software I'll still use now if I have to because I refer back to what I know. But, uh, I made a quick 30 second video and just send it to him, cause I just wanted them to have it. And then they were like, oh my gosh, this is amazing.
Speaker 2:And, mind you, you know, when you first start out you're kind of like, oh, I think I could do better, but it's, it is what it is, it's takey moments and it's like my third video, so it works. And I'm like, oh, we have fashion week, you want to come back and shoot fashion week? And I did that. Yeah, no idea. I was like, oh yeah, yes, oh yeah. Just, he asked me to go and I got paid. I don't know what it was. I still had to travel back down here, but I have family here, so we're down.
Speaker 2:But that changed my life, because it was the first time I went to an event that had a bunch of, like the photographers in the pit as a full-out event. And show, and then everybody loved to be on camera, so it was amazing. And and show, and then everybody loved to be on camera, so it was amazing, and so, um, I learned a lot from just um, going and doing and just learning. Like we said before, mistakes right, and I think so. So for me, I learned by filming every day for myself and learning from that. So I didn't wait till I got a job to learn how to shoot that shot. I wanted to shoot and I still did. I still did to this day. If there's videos out there now that you saw on dixonster or jt, whatever, a lot of those videos are me testing out something I'm gonna do for a client at some point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I want to learn how to do the jump over the building effect, right, yeah yeah, so so it's like I and those are like easy to do, so it's like five minutes, not even five minutes like three minutes to do, but it's this thing of just doing it right and this thing of being comfortable with practicing and failing.
Speaker 1:Failing yeah.
Speaker 2:And failing is only on our own terms, because no one's, really no one's watching that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no one's watching.
Speaker 2:Don't, because no one's really yes and no one's watching that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no one's watching. Yeah, no, you fail for yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, exactly. I think that's the biggest thing is, um, yeah, what watching YouTube videos, how to do certain things? But I think a lot of people get caught up just watching and watching and then buying the gear. Yeah, if they need for the studio, don't go out and buy the microphone, buy the cameras, just come podcast videos, they'll do it all for you. That's good, right here. Um, just a quick shout out to them but, yeah, but as far as that's the, that's the thing. A lot of people buy cameras and gear and then they realize they haven't shot anything yeah, and they have no idea how to use it.
Speaker 1:No, not at all, and they have no idea, and so yeah it's frustrating to do. It's like oh, I got this camera, let me come shoot your wedding, and then it doesn't work the way you want it to, and yeah, and so what do you recommend? Like, what is your gear like? What do you recommend for a person starting out?
Speaker 2:who, and this was tough over there, all right. So, starting out, it depends on what they want to do, right. Starting out, making content, it is your phone. I say yeah, the best invention. Iphone is amazing. It is the like I don't even know what we had to go through. Like I rarely have BTS footage from when I used to shoot because memory cards were valuable. Like it was like you don't want to shoot, just extra stuff, just to have this is like 256 megabytes.
Speaker 1:It was like you don't want to shoot just extra stuff, just to have, like, this is like 256 megabytes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was like a card and yeah, and you had like all this footage you worry about, can you overwrite? It was just yeah, and shooting in 4k and it's just so many different things, and now the phone has, so I could do everything from the phone yeah, you can shoot in four.
Speaker 2:Like the phone will shoot in four, 4k, just fine it's beautiful, it's amazing, the and we have a mix with the gimbal and the cinematic mode. It's great, but the phone doesn't give someone new. That boosts a motivation to create, because everybody has a phone.
Speaker 2:Everyone has a phone, yeah, so everybody thinks, oh, you're shooting with a phone like it's. So I would say buy a cheap handheld camera that shoots 4k videos, that you can have a flip phone. Don't buy the sony straight out like those professional cameras. I mean they're good, but if you're just shooting like this there's no reason to buy those big cameras like it's just not a thing you know. But I'll bet the only reason I say get those cameras is that you can learn the whole attribute, like the whole, yeah, how a scene should look and how to make adjustments. Um, because all my videos are recently been shot with the phone. But I think the only reason I I'm so used to shooting and capturing scenes, I know what the shot should look like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the phone yeah, it is that. Yeah, that's a really good point because it is, um, you know, anytime I teach photography, I always like, like, the first lesson is like, you are smarter than your camera. Like, take it off, auto, take it off. You know manual. But but on manual, you need to know what is like how to mix them together, like a shutter speed and an aperture and an iso, and you need to know how all of them work together and how to best optimize it for what situation you're in. And so once you learn that, then you're like, then you're set to go. But if you're just trying to like get yourself out there and like, try to like film yourself doing stuff, I mean, the phone is totally yeah, I say the phone and I think um the phone and just getting courage of doing it honestly I mean, that's because I think people look down or people don't feel, and that's where I have this mixed thing of being a professional is that I use my phone a lot.
Speaker 2:Now, right, and I know it's a thing of everybody has a phone like, oh, use an iphone, like yeah, and I started, used to try to explain myself, but it just makes sense. I even will try to bring my cinematic camera out to shoot, but then it's so heavy, it's it's big, it's bulky, like the lens and if I change rooms now I gotta do a whole new adjustment. Oh my gosh like. But the phone, I'm in and out real quick.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in this mood around it is a lot for you and I but I think the phone is the.
Speaker 2:I think the phone is the best way to do it. Um, and learning, like we talked about just doing, just going to do it, because once you go and shoot enough, you'll know what you need, and then maybe the big camera comes into play yeah, yeah, and then playing with the angles, I think like you like good call you know play with some angles, move it around.
Speaker 2:I think that's the most frustrating thing with content. Nowadays, no one's creating content to make it look cool or artsy, cinematic. Everyone's just going with the it's all around here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like your stuff.
Speaker 2:You use the angles and that's where I have fun with it. And that just comes down to the reason people are making content. Some people are making content to show fast, but it's like when I do it now it's kind of like I basically visualize what a TV show, so I'll watch TV shows. Even reality shows are great as far as watching how they shoot because they have to take boring moments.
Speaker 2:And make them interesting, yeah and I could just be having a conversation, but they're going to give you five angles of this conversation, right, and so for me shooting something like this, they get those five angles. This is where photography comes into play, and I tell people too, it's kind of like act like you're taking a photo, but just from five different angles. But make it three second video clips.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then they can cut it together, cut in video clips, yeah, and then they can cut it together. Cut it together, yeah, and make it look right, and I think and that's where it's um, yeah, I think that's where it's kind of both come into play, because photography is great at knowing the angles and setting the scene and what looks right, and then the video is the movement side of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, that's cool. Yeah, yeah, we actually do have another episode where I talk about composition. So you guys go find that one Like composition rules, and then the last rule is there are no rules, so you can break them. It's an art. There's no rules to art.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, things to follow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, but there's things to follow. It helps you, so I wanted to ask you too, as a creator, how important is it to be authentic?
Speaker 2:Ooh, I mean cliche 100%, and I say that meaning it's okay to get ideas from other things, but I hate templates, yes, and people that repeat what other people have done, and nothing wrong with it, and it's fun for the client in the moment or whatever, and if the client has a template, I get it, but I think it's coming from us knowing how things are done and made. I'd like create your own way, because if you do it your own way without that, it becomes your own, it becomes authentic and I think the only reason my channels have had success is that I post and create what I feel in the moment and, like I would say, 90% of the videos I don't even know I'm making or posting until five hours before, if that Like literally, I'm sitting down, maybe my ADHD, I'm sitting down trying to find a file and I'll see this video. I was like, ooh, what if I did this to it? Now I'll edit and post it. It's just a thing. It keeps it authentic because I'm not creating it for a reason, it's just a feel.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can stay on brand, but you can have fun with it.
Speaker 2:I've been lucky that my brand is just whatever, it's whatever. And I purposely did that because it it's hurt shooting. That's what it is. It's hurt shooting something and knowing you really can't post it because it's off your brain.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, yeah, oh, I want to post this but where does he go? Start a new channel?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, that's what I did, that's what I told him. I encourage everyone start a new, start a new channel, whatever it is, just to post, just to get it off all these personas out there, see which one takes off, you know that's what I've done amazing I love it, um, okay, so two more questions.
Speaker 1:What is your favorite piece of gear? You have like one thing that what's your, what's your go-to all the time. It could totally be an iPhone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I would say the gimbal that I use the iPhone with.
Speaker 1:Those are good.
Speaker 2:Cause the iPhone can change up, but as long as you have the gimbal, you can get as many different shots than any you can. Yeah, cause I go off from sports a lot and it's funny. Funny because I see so many sports videographers and they have the big, nice camera and that's a, you know, and I'm running, running.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm getting so many different angles because I have the gimbal.
Speaker 1:And it stays straight.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it stays straight so I can get that low pan shot. I can get the cinematic shot like a crane coming down. So I think the gimbal is the most important accessory for anyone that is shooting with an iPhone, for sure, but also you still got to know the shots to take from that. But yeah, so I have that one, but also the three. It's a three 60 camera. This could be a plug. I don't use it enough, but oh, I think we have one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's the it's one of the best things ever, because I literally said it here just yeah, and they've changed the software now, because back then it was hard to edit the software. But now I literally can make a video with the cameras only on me and then I hit export. Then I just go back to the same project, turn the camera on, you hit export Same clip. Then I do it again Camera on both of us, camera, same spot, export. Now I have three different clips and it's like it's amazing. That's amazing but I don't use it enough because filming with it is boring.
Speaker 1:Well, it just sits there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, because literally, if I'm filming this scene or filming you doing something, I can get some cool shots, but I can't see what I'm filming. I know I'm getting it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because it's everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but.
Speaker 1:Yeah, filming, but yeah.
Speaker 2:It's just nice being able to just see what you're doing. That that's the only only thing on that. But I I say anything is a gimbal. Uh, iphone and a gimbal. I can make anything out there. I couldn't, yeah, but you got to know how to use a gimbal. All right, and a lot of people have them and they always tell me, me, every time they see me. They're like I got one of those, I don't know how to use it and I'm like well, how many times have you used it? Ah, I went out to shoot this house once. I was like there you go.
Speaker 1:Like keep playing with it, yeah.
Speaker 2:There you go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, go out, play with it in your yard, you gotta shoot your family.
Speaker 2:They want you to be the person that shows up and everyone's like oh, here he goes again.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That was me and I got over it right and now everybody likes it.
Speaker 1:Everybody does like it now. Now I'm like I don't want to bring the camera, yeah right, I'm just going to take pictures, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I know that you find, like, when it's the in the moment being, it's okay, you don't have to capture everything. All right, thank you so much for being here. This was an awesome conversation, uh. Last question yeah, what advice would you give to someone who is just starting out?
Speaker 2:stop watching videos on how to make videos. Take your phone out, go buy a gimbal if you can, but if not, just go film something and edit it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's it, that's it, that's it.
Speaker 1:What editing software do you use? I like-.
Speaker 2:Do it three times a day, or three times a week or something like that, because that's the thing too, I think.
Speaker 2:What happens is and I'm able to move faster is that I'm editing something every day, mm-hmm thing too, I think what happens is and I'm able to move faster is that I'm editing something every day and I tell bang is like I enjoy editing, but I like go to a party and I'm editing that video and that's my practice. So I'm editing every day. So it's like taking doing something and you come back a week later it's like, oh, where's this go? Yeah, but, um, softwarecut's the best.
Speaker 1:Honestly.
Speaker 2:CapCut is the best out there. I know there were some issues with legality of like licensing or CapCut owns whatever you post up there, but really no one's taking your videos. Capcut's not making money off your videos.
Speaker 1:It's going to be cat videos, yeah right.
Speaker 2:They're not making money off your videos, so don't worry about the whole like. If you upload, yeah right. And they're not making money off your videos, yeah, so don't worry about the whole like. If you upload, they're going to have rights to it, unless it's some no, it doesn't matter, no one's here. But I think cow cut in a phone is, I think, the best thing. I mean, I wish I had examples, but there's one commercial I did recently. I used iMovie, right.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:I mean commercial. I did recently. I used iMovie. Right, and the only reason I used iMovie because this Apple product in my iPhone and so when I shoot horizontal it's just an easier look, it's an easier vibe. Nothing fancy on the iMovie, but there's no. So I edit on iMovie, then I'll put it on the CapCut. So for the fancy graphics. But I mean even a lot of my videos. If you go back and look at them, a lot of the edits and cuts, a lot of them are just simple match cuts, just because back then we didn't have anything else, I couldn't do it.
Speaker 1:That was special effects with match cuts. No, no.
Speaker 2:And even for sound effects. I remember like searching on youtube and trying to find a video. Couldn't even record so it was like, yeah, I had to like find a way to download oh right like a crowd sound effect or clapping, yeah, so yeah, but cap cut has it all.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think it's amazing, I think, um, I think if we're giving advice, I think anyone that's trying to get into the game to become a professional, you have to go into it and not pay attention to anyone else, because if you pay attention to everyone or anyone, honestly you're going to it's going to be an emotional roller coaster. I told Bang I was like man, if I got into this game now I would be discouraged, like I'd only be trying to hire people because I like the whole marketing side of it. But I would. I wouldn't know if I could make the videos everybody's making because they're they're amazing nowadays there's so many I can't you know so fast too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like, yeah. I mean videos in my day were that you 30 seconds to 60 seconds was like minimum yeah, yeah, there was a lot of ones.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's no long form. Yeah, unless it was like a movie or a TV show.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know so, yeah, but I think the biggest advice is just doing it and try not to pay attention to anyone else, because you're not going to be on that level and there's no reason to be on that level, because level's based on perspective.
Speaker 1:It is yeah, yeah, like don't, don't watch someone and like want to be beat. I mean, you know, just do your own thing. You don't need to go, don't get jealous of other people and don't do anything like that.
Speaker 2:Just do your, do your thing and success will come and I will say this, though, and I think one thing about, and you probably had this feeling too once you learn how to do photos and and journalism, all those things like you really can do anything you want to do, and they it's a cliche thing. If you can be anything you want to, yeah, nowadays you can't because everybody's already done it. So the blueprint is out there. It just depends on if you want to take the time to do it without getting paid yeah, you gotta, it's a lot of practice.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's not getting paid. Because if you let's say I'll use, uh, peter mckinnon, just because I know that name, but let's say he'll use Peter McKinnon just because I know that name, but let's say he makes a video, you want to make videos, just like him, you could do it. You could do it easily. We just got to do it every day, every day over and over, over and over again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you'll get there.
Speaker 2:Cause there's no other way. It's just like he could show you. You can see how the clips are, cuts are made, but you just gotta do it every day yeah, yeah, and most a lot of practice, yeah most people don't want to do it every day. It's not fun if you unless you like it.
Speaker 1:That's like the not fun part. Yeah, right, yeah, yeah, shooting is the fun part and the editing so many videos.
Speaker 2:I've been shooting music videos the worst, because everybody has a great time on set and then afterwards it's like you gotta edit, yeah, you gotta take the gear home. Home, you gotta edit, drop the footage and the next day hey when you think that's gonna be done. You're like dude.
Speaker 1:I just sat down. I've heard that song so many times like I'm gonna need a break. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't wanna hear it again awesome.
Speaker 1:Alright, well, thank you so much for being here this was fun, I really appreciated it and definitely come back yes, I will.