Because of the global pandemic, COVID-19, life as we know it has significantly changed and almost disappeared. We are asked to do things we haven’t been asked to do before and figuring out how to do those things can be frustrating. Let me help.

If you are pretty comfortable with making videos using your phone, tablet, or laptop, but you want to improve the quality of your videos and get some ideas and affordable recommendations for gear that will make your videos better, this is the post for you.

Disclaimer: I’m not being paid by any of these companies to recommend their products, but my links to Amazon are affiliate links. Also, you may not need all of this gear. I make videos/films on the side, so I have this lying around. Don’t feel pressure to get all of this stuff.

Production Gear

Here’s some gear that I find to be useful.

1. Microphones. I think that good sound is a must, especially for a teacher trying to deliver instruction online. I recommend having, at least, a lavalier microphone that you can plug into your phone, tablet, or camera. The one that I linked is the one that I use. It should be less than $40, which is a great deal for a lav. It’s not a top of the line microphone, but for our purposes, it works very well. There are definitely less expensive ones available through Amazon or Frys, but I haven’t tried them personally. Remember my favorite phrase: BUY NICE OR BUY TWICE. You don’t want to buy a lav that will just end up breaking after the first or second use. Another type of microphone you might want to try is a shotgun mic , which is a condenser microphone that you can attach to the top of your camera. I usually shoot my videos on a DSLR camera and edit them later, so I actually use both types of microphones whenever I shoot a video. This requires that I use a separate sound recorder to plug the lav into or that I plug the lav into my phone to record a voice memo. The sound recorder I linked here is a very rudimentary voice recorder that comes with a lavalier that you can disconnect if you want. So, you’d be getting two tools with this, which is pretty cool. Using a separate voice recorder is more advanced than most teachers need to be, so don’t stress out if this is sounding like a lot. At the end of the day, getting any sort of external microphone is going to vastly improve the quality of your videos and you should strongly consider getting one.
2. Lighting. Natural light is best, so make sure that you record your videos near a window whenever possible. Open the curtains or blinds and let the light in. Check your video and see if it’s bright enough. If not, then it’s time to add more lights. I often need to use extra lights when I make my videos. I have a few different options at home when it comes to lighting. The first one is floor lamps and table lamps. Turn these on and see if that helps. When they aren’t doing the job, I use three different things. I have the Polaroid BrightSaber, which is pretty cool. It’s an LED wand style light that is adjustable and comes with different colored gels that provide different types of light. I either attach it to a tripod or stand it up somewhere. It comes with rechargeable batteries and lasts for a few hours on one charge. It’s not very expensive; I think I got mine for about $30 from Amazon. I also use a Viltrox on-camera led light. This one is so cool! It’s small and compact (I can put it in my pocket) and it comes with a shoe-mount that I can use to attach it to my DSLR camera. I can also just screw it on to a tripod or rest it on something high above me and use it as a key light. It was recommended by an indie filmmaking vlogger I follow and it was a great buy, in my opinion. It’s about $36 for the one I have and I really love it. You can adjust the light quality and brightness and see how much battery is left on the back of it. If you only buy one light, maybe this is your guy. They make a bigger version, but for what us teachers need right now, why bother? The last one is a two pack of table top LED lights by Emart. I use these a lot, even though they aren’t the highest quality. What’s so cool about them? They’re cheap and there’s two of them. They aren’t battery operated, so they have to stay plugged in to an outlet, so that’s a major downside. That being said, for simple videos that you will be making seated at a desk, they definitely get the job done. They’re also pretty cheap at $35 for two lights with stands. If you hate all of these options, then go ahead and take a look at what’s available online and get what works for you!
3. A Tripod. I need one of these because I use a camera to record my videos. You can get tripods and tripod attachments to hold your phone if you prefer, or you can hold your phone on a selfie stick . I have a small tripod that converts itself into a gimble and also a selfie stick. I just got it so that I can video chat easier and still have my hands free to write things down for my students. I also have a few tripods at home that I use for cameras and lights. Use whatever you have available.

I hope that this is helpful to some of you as you go forward into the video making world to assist your students. Reach out if you have questions about gear!

Stay tuned for a post specifically about post-production and editing as well as how to upload your videos to YouTube and Vimeo. Maybe I’ll post my own video for you to see!

For now, class dismissed!