VIDEO TRAINING FOR REALTORS _ BASIC GEAR
SUMMARY
Here is the basic camera equipment I recommend for real estate agents to begin using video effectively in their business.
BASIC VIDEO GEAR FOR REALTORS:
- Your Smart phone camera.
- Rode Lavalier Microphone
- Smartphone holder/mount: MeFoto
- Tripod
- Small portable tripod
- Studio lights
Watch the video for more details and ideas. There are many options depending on your budget and expertise. My main recommendation is start simple…and most importantly, just start.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
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. 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. I said, “Hey, you need a smartphone and that’s about it.” But, to really get going, what else do I need?
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. 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. This camera, the video quality in it, is absolutely phenomenal.
What you do want to pay attention to is the audio quality. The built-in microphone in 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 there’s a possibility of it, or I really want a better audio quality, then I’m going to recommend that you get an external mic. The external mic that I recommend and that I use is the Rode, R-O-D-E, wired lavaliere mic. It’s just a little microphone, just like that. It’s a Rode mic.
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 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. This is a Rode mic, R-O-D-E. It’s little lavaliere mic. It’s not cheap. I think it’s like fifty bucks, or something like that. That’s the mic that I use, and like his one is done, I wire it under my shirt. Put it in. If you’re using a pullover shirt, you can run up through here and you can hook it on, and so forth.
The problem is that when you connect this 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. To answer that, just get an extension cable. This is going to be very inexpensive. I’ll put the link again to that. This is a 6 foot extension cable, microphone extension, that you simply plug into the microphone and then you plug this into your phone, if you’re using an iPhone, then you’re going to use the little adapter, and so forth, and that’s what you plug directly into your phone. Now, I have a nine foot extension and I’ve got plenty of microphone that’s going work for me great.
What do you use to hold your phone? One, you’re going to need a tripod, and two, you’re going to need an iPhone holder. First, let’s talk about the holders. Here is my favorite that I use with my iPhone. It is a MeFOTO. I’ll put the link on this. Again, this is aluminum. It’s really high quality. I like it for two reasons. One, because it’s very versatile. You put your phone on it, you adjust it, and it sits like that. The thing I like about it is because of the way this is made, it actually has a flat on the bottom.
That by itself can literally sit, and I can set that somewhere, and it will hold … I’m setting 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. 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. That’s pretty cool. I used to take a box and I can 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 … MeFOTO is not a cheap one.
Another one that you can use is one like this. It’s a much smaller one, and it actually folds up so that it’s like this. This is actually a quick-connect to another tripod I’m going to show you in a second. That literally is that small and it takes your smartphone, and it attaches just like that, so it’s spring-loaded and this springs up like that, spring-loads, and I connect my phone in there, and now I have that. Then I can attach it to a tripod.
I’m going to show you two tripods. One is this little thing. I think it’s called a GorillaPod. It’s by Joby. I’ll put the link down below. There’s different sizes. This is a small one, and this little, like, clicks in here. Now I’ve got this thing. The reason I bought this one was because it’s super-lightweight. I actually bought this because I was going on a backpacking trip this last summer, and I wanted something that I could carry in my backpack that was super-lightweight, that I could have a tripod that was set up, but also that I could use it … So I could literally use this like a selfie stick. I kind of use this … I can actually use it like a short selfie stick. 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.
Then I can set it up, and the beauty of this GorillaPod is that these legs are flexible. You can literally, whatever … If you’re on uneven ground, 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. You can use that, and then you just set this up, and that’s your tripod. You can set this on your desk.
When you’re shooting video, one of the things is you want the camera to be basically at face level. Mouth level, nose level, chin level. That’s about how high you want it. I don’t want my camera way down low like this so the camera is looking up my nose. I don’t want it down below me. I want it up at that level. This is perfect if you’re sitting at your desk and you’ve set this on top of your desk like this, then it’s going to be there. If I need to lower it a little bit, I just spread the legs out and when I set it on the surface, it’s going to actually lower it. This is a portable tripod that is great for using in your office. If you’re videoing in a home, where you can set this on a countertop, then this works great for you.
However, when you’re doing video and you’re out on location … 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. This is a full-size tripod, so I can set this up out in front of the house, or inside of a house, or wherever, and I can adjust this and I can put it up at that level.
Again, I’ve got your holder that you’re going to now attach into the tripod. This is actually set up for different tripod. Then you set your phone on it, just like that. 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. Then I’m going to loop it under and I’m going to post it … I’m going to stick it right here. If you’re going an up-close, where you’re really zoomed in, then you can just post it … Not post it, but clip it on the outside just like that and shoot and it’ll work just fine. But obviously, the wire out of sight is going to work better.
We’ve got the tripod, and by the way, when you’re done with the tripod, the beauty of this tripod is that it simply … It’s very compact. It’s very quick to … Take the legs, they’re telescopic, you flip them up, and I literally now have a tripod that I can put into a bag or your backpack or whatever. Now I’ve got a portable tripod. I can throw that it the back of my car to head out on location. 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. They’re interchangeable. You can have multiple pieces. I’m just giving you some different options that you can use to get you started.
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 dos and don’ts of actually shooting video. One of the things you want to have with video is you want make sure you have enough good lighting on your face. You don’t want to have a window behind you where your face is dark and all the light’s behind you. When we’re recording here in my training room, in my studio, we have studio lighting. I’m going to actually pull one of these lights over here to show you. Again, we’ll post the link. This is a StudioPRO by Fovitec. This is the kind of light. It’s a shadowbox light, like that, that we use. This one has five 85 watt bulbs, so it’s a lot of power. The link I’m going to put in the description below will be to one similar to this. I think it’s by the same company, Fovitec.
I also have a videographer, which is great later, but don’t worry about that yet. You don’t need one of those yet. He’s actually helping me run all this. I’ll post a link there and it will have different sizes and powers. The ones that I have set up … I have two shadowbox lights like this. They each have five 85 watt light bulbs in them. I don’t know exactly what that comes out to. There’s 10 85 watt light bulbs. That’s the link I’m going to post below, but there’s also different price points that have smaller ones with a little less light that will be good for you, depending on the size of your space and depending on outside lighting. 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 and there’s too many shadows.
This gives you the basic set-up of the kind of equipment that you can use to get started. Start simple, but the most important thing is that you start. 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 thumb’s 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. 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.