How to start up in vlogging on a budget


Latest News | 2019-09-06

This being a digital era, information is no longer always gotten from mainstream media outlets as it was back in the day. The number of smartphone owners is overwhelmingly huge in Uganda and rises daily and the need for fast information rises in direct proportion. Content creation therefore, is an avenue which can make a name for you, and a living too if you go hard enough. That said, video content is the most ideal, thanks to platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. This article aims at giving you an overview on the initial things you might need to start out in vlogging on a budget.

 

1. Video and Audio Equipment
Even though seasoned vloggers like Peter McKinnon use very high end equipment to make their work, you don’t need to spend $6000 on just a camera and a lens. For starters, your smartphone can shoot good footage. Also, if you can get great stabilizers, like a small sturdy gorilla pod, your A-roll and B-roll footage game would improve a great deal. After a while, you can invest in small micro-four-thirds and crop-sensor cameras, which come with kit lenses for as low as $200 dollars used, on eBay and Amazon. Agents like Masikini and UG Unlocked can help you ship stuff from abroad at a reasonable cost.

You can for starters rely on your phone’s microphone for the audio, and that of the cheapo camera you’d upgrade to, but later there’ll be need to buy dedicated sound recorders lapels to enable improved sound.

2. Lighting
Lighting is the most important aspect of videography and photography. However good your camera is, if you have bad lighting, your video will be terrible. So for starters, you could rely on window light, and a DIY reflector to fill in the shadows. The light bulb in your room is not good enough to be a key light for a video. With time, you can invest in a video light; and you’ll need only one.

 

3. Editing Equipment
Phone videos might not need much editing, so you can get away with using phone apps to edit them. Adding a few words, subtitles, artworks and photos, makes your video stand out; and you can achieve that with some free video editor apps. The better experience though will be with those that are paid for. And on that very note, why would you pay for a phone app, yet you can do more with computer software like Adobe Premier Pro? Don’t worry, the basics are not hard to understand, so a week or so of training by a talented video editor will get you rolling.

4. Social Media Platform
Yes, you have to know which social media platform you intend to create content for. That will guide you on what equipment to invest in. If it is just Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, investing in a DSLR camera might be an overkill for the start. Your phone will do the trick pretty well. But if you intend to upload your content to platforms like YouTube, you need to have clean, stable footage, and great sound for your channel to stand a chance of competing with millions of standard channels there.

 

5. Internet Bundles
To upload your content and also keep learning more from other vloggers to grow your own craft, you’ll need enough data. If you have access to WiFi at work or elsewhere, that’s a good place to start. But vlogging will need you to have internet on the go, because some things need to be worked on quickly, so you’ll need mobile internet. Monthly bundles of 30 GB at 100k, and unlimited basic at 150k can help. But if that is still too expensive for you, try MTN Pulse weekly data bundles by dialing*157*30# to get 500MB + 500MB SWIFT.

Good luck in your new adventure.


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