Читать книгу Get Rich Blogging - Zoe Griffin - Страница 35

Go to your favourite vlogger’s YouTube channel and scroll back to look at the first videos they uploaded. Now look at a couple of recent ones. I bet you notice a huge difference in terms of camera quality, clarity of shot and perhaps even graininess.

In one of Zoella’s first videos, eleven-year-old Zoe is presenting the contents of her suitcase before going on a family holiday. She’s using a camcorder that is so out of date it could be in a museum. However, it still provides moving image and sound. She tries to improve the quality as much as possible by using the camera on a tripod to keep it steady and reduce blurriness. The video won’t win any prizes for creative beauty, but it allows her to talk to an audience and start finding her vlogging voice.

The SBTV YouTube channel (youtube.com/smokeybarz) has almost 700,000 subscribers tuning in for beautifully shot music videos and interviews with artists. However, the quality of the videos wasn’t always so high. The channel’s founder Jamal Edwards started making videos on a cheap camera, which he received as a Christmas present when he was fifteen. He used that basic camera to film up-and-coming music acts in his area, quickly gaining a following from other music fans in his neighbourhood. He had no formal training and no fancy equipment, but he had a great deal of passion and was determined to teach himself as much as he could about filmmaking. As he started to earn money from his videos through YouTube advertising, he invested it in better camera gear and editing software, and hired other people to help him market the channel and spread the word. What started out as a basic operation with Jamal and a cheap camera turned into a business enterprise employing twelve staff by the time Jamal turned twenty-three – eight years after shooting his first video. SBTV now produces branded clothing and manages artists, and Jamal has started dipping his toes into charity work and politics. He can afford to as it’s estimated he’s now worth more than £8 million. The equipment he started with is irrelevant. What matters is that he used it to express his passion, knew who his audience were and filmed content that they enjoyed watching.

Have you heard the saying ‘all gear and no idea’? It’s used as an insult to describe someone who throws money at problems, thinking that buying the best equipment will make them a star. The reverse is true. The less time you spend shopping and the more time you spend learning how to use your kit, the more successful you will be. No matter what camera you have, you will improve your shot if you learn the following techniques.