Firstly, I have some wonderful friends who if I can't help, you should really go see them! They are amazing!
Secondly, not all you fine folks can afford to get on demand, bespoke, lovely looking self-tapes from myself or the other fine folk above all the time. So getting yourself a decent set up is essential if you need to do it on your own.
Equipment
One day, you might want to splash out, but lets try doing this on a budget.
Camera/Recording device
You got a smart phone? That's all you need at the moment. Time may come when you want a higher resolution to beat the competition, or more flexibility. But for now, your smart phone is enough. I come with a very lovely Sony A7S II that can shoot in 4K. I generally don't because at this moment in time our bandwidths can't handle the POWER!
TOTAL: Free or the extortionate price you pay to have the luxury of a pay as you go or contract phone.
Tripod
Balancing your phone on all manner of books and sponges and modelling clay, lets face it's fun, but really not fun when you haven't got a lot of time or if you're not that resourceful. Just get a tripod. You can get all sorts, but this one from amazon is good. If you are going away get the mini gorilla pod here. You will also need this adaptor for your smartphone.
TOTAL: £24.88
Lights
Natural light is all important and if you can utilise that, then great. Make sure you use that first. BUT most of us work during the day, so we need to get some lights: One light to sit on your phone or 2 lights which I recommend, to deal with all those nasty shadows. Don’t worry I’ll write about lights in another blog.
TOTAL: £22.99 or £89.99
Sound
Your smart phone has a really good microphone. However to make you sound even better and produce a quality that a CD would be proud of, think about getting this one. And you if you have and iPhone 8 or X or H or whatever you will need an adaptor like this. Or if you want to go specific you will need this one. So this is where you will be spending the big bucks. But worth it.
TOTAL: £42 or if you have a recent iPhone, well, you are scre...you have to spend a lot more. Naughty apple!
Headphones
I could have put this with the sound section, but I do not want this to get lost in there because this is SO important! You need to check your levels as you record and so you NEED headphones to do this. So use your smartphone ones or get some nice ones like these.
TOTAL: Free or £50
Background
You can get away with a wall in your abode, that's plain. Or you could get a grey sheet or a blue sheet and stick it on your wall. Or you could buy this. Which if you want extra support probably best to get this and this.
TOTAL: Free or £55
GRAND TOTAL: Cheapest option: £89.87 A cost of just over one tape with me. This is a bargain. Perhaps you can do these searches on eBay. But at least this is a start. You could even make your own lights and background.
Those are the essentials really, you could fiddle around for lots of other stuff. But this is what will keep you going for the moment, plus I will be talking about camera's in another post.
But if you want a fast, reliable, fun, supportive self-taping environment, then remember Mr Selftape is your go to or my other friends above.
Thanks!
Big love!
Fraze