VIDEO TRAINING FOR REALTORS | BASIC GEAR - KEVIN WARD

Hi there, it's Kevin Ward, the founder of yes Masters Real Estate Success Training. And last week I did a video on the importance and the absolute essentiality of using video as a real estate agent if you're going to be relevant in the future of the industry. Video is not only the future, but video is the present. And so I've gotten so many great comments and feedback from you guys both in the video blog and on the YouTube video where you've asked for more information with questions like what should I be shooting video of and what kind of equipment do I need and so forth. Because I said hey, you need a smartphone and that's about it. But to really get going, what else do I need? So I want to do on this video I'm going to talk about the basics of what equipment you can invest in that will really set you up to do anything you want to do as a real estate agent. So I'm going to give you the basics and some different options and so forth that you can start with first obviously is starting with a good video camera. I'm going to highly recommend that you, not unless you're planning to get really advanced in video, that you just use your smartphone, whether it's an iPhone or a Samsung, a smartphone, the video camera capabilities that these guys have today is better than the best, most expensive video camera was or comparable to the best video cameras 10 years ago. So this camera, the video quality in it is absolutely phenomenal. What you do want to pay attention to is the audio quality. So the built in microphone on this is pretty good in an office in a quiet environment. So if I'm shooting a video in my office, there's no other sound around, then I may just use the built in microphone. However, whenever there's any other background noise or a possibility of it or I really want a better video audio quality, then I'm going to recommend that you get an external mic. So the external mic that I recommend and that I use is the Rode R O D E wired lavalier mic and it's just a little microphone just like that. It's a rode mic we're going to paste. I'm going to post the links to everything I'm going to recommend and show you today I'm going to post the links down in the description of the video so, so that you can click on the links and get them. Everything that I have I got directly off Amazon. So it's a piece of cake. So this is a rode mic R O D E. It's a little Lavalier mic, It's not cheap. I think it's like 50 bucks or something like that. And that's the mic that I use. And then just like this one is done, I wire it under my shirt, put it in. If you're using a pullover shirt, you can run it up through here and you can hook it on and so forth. Now the problem is, is that when you connect this to your, to your phone, to your video camera on your phone and you set it up on a tripod, it's only three feet long, so there's not a lot of space. So to answer that is just get an extension cable. This is going to be very inexpensive. I'll put the link again to that. And this is a six foot extension cable microphone extension that you simply plug into the microphone and, and then you plug this into your phone. If you're using an iPhone, then you use a little adapter and so forth and then that's what you plug directly into your phone. And now I have a nine foot extension and I've got plenty of microphone that's going to work for me. Great. Now what do you use to hold your phone? Well, one, you're going to need a tripod and two, you're going to need an iPhone holder. So first let's talk about the holders. So here is my favorite that I use with my iPhone and it is a me photo. I'll put the link on this. Again, this is a, this is aluminum. It's really high quality. I like it for two reasons. One, because it's very versatile. Put your phone on it, you just adjust it and it sits like that. Now the thing I like about it is because of the way this is made, it actually has a flat on the bottom so that by itself can literally sit. And I can set that somewhere and it will hold. I'm sitting on my desk here. I can set this somewhere and it will actually hold it for me so that I can talk directly to it. So if I'm sitting or I put it up at a high enough level, I can set it down. I don't even have to have a tripod. So that's pretty cool. I used to take like a box and I could set it on top of a box. I don't even have a tripod and that will work for you. But again, this is not a cheap me photo. Is not a cheap one. So another one that you can use is one like this and it's a much smaller one and it actually folds up so that it's like this. And this is actually a quick connect to the another tripod I'm going to show you in a second. But that literally it's that small. And then it takes your smartphone and it attaches just like that. So it's kind of spring loaded. And this springs up like that. Spring loads. And I connect my phone in there. And now I got that. And then I can attach it to a tripod. Now I'm going to show you two tripods. One, this little thing, I think it's called a Gorillapod. It's by Joby. Put the link down below. There's different sizes. This is the small one. And this little like clicks in here. And so now I've got this thing. Now the reason I bought this one was because it's super lightweight. And I actually bought this because I was going on a backpacking trip this last summer and I wanted something I could carry. My backpack, it was super lightweight, that I could have a tripod that was set up, but also that I could use it. And so I could literally use this, like a selfie stick. So I kind of use this. I can actually use it like a short selfie stick. And God gave me long enough arms that I have my own built in selfie stick. But I can use this kind of like a selfie stick as well. And then I can set it up and this. And the beauty of this Gorillapod is these legs are flexible. So you can literally whatever. If you're on uneven ground or whatever, you can do that. I don't think you're going to need that in your office. You're going to use your desk. And it's flat, so you can use that. And then you just set this up. And that's your tripod. And so you can set this on your desk. Now, when you're shooting video, one of the things is you want the camera to be basically at face level. So at mouth level, nose level, chin level, that's about how high you want it. So I don't want my camera way down low like this so that the camera is looking at my nose, okay. So I don't want it down below me, so I want it up at that level. So this is perfect. If you're sitting at your desk and you set this on top of your desk like this, then it's going to be there. Now if I need to lower it a little bit, then I just spread the legs out and when I set it on the surface, it's going to actually lower it. So this is a Portable tripod that is great for using in your office. If you're videoing in a home or whatever, where you can set this on a countertop or whatever, then this works great for you. However, when you're doing video and you're out on location, and so let's say you're doing a video in front of a house and you need a tripod, then I recommend that you get a full size collapsible portable tripod like this. We'll post the link on this. You can buy these or Amazon basics for 20 bucks or less on Amazon. And this is a full size tripod. So I can set this up out in front of a house or inside of a house or wherever. And, and I can adjust this and I can put it up at that level. Now, again, I've got your holder that you're going to now attach into the tripod. And this is actually set up for a different tripod, but then you set your phone on it just like that. Okay, so now I can attach it in. I'm going to plug in my microphone. So I plug it in just like that. I set it up, I'm going to put on the mic and again, when I do this, I can run the mic up under my shirt or blouse or whatever and then I'm going to loop it under and I'm going to post it. I'm going to stick it right here. Now if you're doing a like up close where you're really zoomed in, then you can just post it on, just not post it, but clip it on the outside just like that and shoot. And it'll work. It'll work just fine. But obviously the wire out of sight is going to work better. So we've got the tripod. And by the way, when you're not, when you're done with the tripod, the beauty of this tripod is that it's simply, it's very compact. It's very quick to take the legs, they're telescopic. So you flip them up and I literally now have a tripod that I can put into a bag or whatever or your backpack or whatever. Somehow I've got a portable tripod so I can throw that in the back of my car and so forth to head out on location and so forth. Again, small tripod, great for desktop, by the way. This little thing here, it will work on this tripod. This little thing here, it will also work on this tripod or that tripod. So they're interchangeable. So you can have Multiple pieces. I'm just giving you some kind of some different options that you can use to get you started. Now if you're shooting in an office space and I'll do another video, I'm going to do another video one on content and I'm going to do another video on some do's and don'ts of actually shooting video. But one of the things you want to have with videos, you want to make sure you have enough good lighting on your face so you don't want to have a window behind you where that your face is dark and all the lights behind you. So when we're recording here in my training room in my studio, we have studio lighting. So I'm just going to, I'm going to. I'm actually pulling these lights over here to show you. This is. And we'll again we'll post the link of this is a Studio Pro by Fobatech. This is the kind of light, so it's a shadow box light like that that we use. This one has five, eight 85 watt bulbs. So it's a lot of power. And the link I'm going to put in the description below will be to one similar to this. I think it's. It's by the same company, Fovetech, but they. Thank you sir. So I also have a videographer which is great later but don't worry about that yet. You don't need one of those yet. So he's actually helping me run all this. But I'll post a link there and it will have different sizes and powers. So this one, the ones that I have set up, I have two box, two shadow box lights like this. They each have five 85 watt light bulbs in them. So I don't know exactly what that comes out to, but it's ten 85 watt light bulbs. And that's the link that I'm going to post below. But there's also different price points that have smaller ones with a little less light and so forth that will be good for you depending on the size of your space and depending on outside lighting and so forth. Now in terms of investing in this, it's going to cost you 150, 200 bucks for the lighting. You don't have to have that if you've got good outside lighting. The best lighting is natural light, good outside lighting. What you don't want to do is you don't want to shoot out in the direct sunlight because it's too bright, there's too many shadows and so forth. But this gives you the basic setup of the kind of equipment that you can use to get started. Start simple, but the most important thing is that you start. So if you have other questions, other things you'd like to know to get more information on any of this stuff, feel free to post it down below. Give the video a thumbs up. Share it and what other videos would you like for me to share with you? Or other information on video marketing for real estate agents? I'm going to be doing several of these videos over the next few weeks and I appreciate your comments and feedback. So I'll know what you are looking for and what I can do to help your business and I'll see you on the next video.