This last month I went a little nuts to beef up my personal YouTube channel. In one week I filmed and published 10 videos. As a result, I have been asked what the theme of my YouTube channel is. The purpose of my personal YouTube channel is to show my clients three things: 1 – It doesn’t take great equipment to make a great video, 2 – You don’t always need to hire a videographer to make a good video, and 3 – The main reason you want to hire a videographer is for editing.

It’s not all about the camera

Just because I don’t use my cell phone to make client productions, doesn’t mean it can’t be done. All of the movies on the channel were shot with point and shoot cameras except for two and new videos are mainly shot on my cell phone. The equipment may help with the quality of the video, but the story is what engages viewers. A good video leaves the viewer thinking about the story, not wondering about the equipment used to make the video. On Melody’s Dad Videos, my record for the most views on a single video in one day is 10,000. That video was shot using a camera that can only shoot 720p. Another video I shot entirely on my cell phone just aired on German TV on RTL, the equivalent of ABC in Germany, and I have never been asked what I shot the video with.

You can make good enough videos

I am not saying you should never hire a videographer, there are going to be times you are going to want a professional video. Hire a videographer for the important projects or life events. For a business, this would be product/service and core business promo videos. For families, this would be weddings, new family members, and golden anniversaries. Businesses need to understand it doesn’t take a videographer to make relatable content for your audience, just as families need to know the difference between a home video and a professional family production.

Post production is the difference

I originally created Melody’s Dad Videos as a place to store home videos that my family could watch on demand anytime. Now I have repurposed this channel to be an example to my clients. The point of the channel is to show that anyone can make good video content without investing thousands of dollars on videography equipment or even hiring me. The difference is all in the editing. My record video I mentioned earlier that received 10,000 views in one day all shot on a 720p point and shoot camera could have been extremely boring. After I finished shooting the video I had 5.5GB, over an hour in 720p, worth of footage. In post-production I edited the video down to a 250MB 1 minute video. The reason why it engages viewers is because it is short, thorough, and doesn’t waste the viewer’s time with redundant or duplicate information.

The moral of the story is this, don’t hire a videographer for their equipment. Anyone can point a camera and capture a moment, the difficult part is taking that footage and turning it into a larger message. When you want to have a deeper response from a video, the art is in the editing that happens in post-production. Shooting the video with post production in mind is the difference between a professional and a bi-stander with a cell phone. Hire a videographer when you want to tell those important meaningful stories, and choose the videographer right for you based on how well they can tell a story.