Shooting Videos: Tips with Dan Powers

by Reid on November 1, 2017

Female taking a picture of herself on smartphone while sitting iWant to learn how to shoot video? Think it’s too hard?

With Reid Mihalko from ReidAboutSex.com and Dan Powers from BeyondTheBedroomEvents.com.

Reid: Hi everyone, it is Reid from ReidAboutSex.com and as we know, when I’m wearing my Sex Geek Summer Camp shirt, this is a business video for geeks who want to geek around how to be a sex educator, the business behind the business of being a sex educator. I’ve got a 2-time Sex Geek Summer Camp alumni and a friend and…

Dan: A 100% attendee.

Reid: A 100% attendee because we had a camp twice at the shooting of this video. Dan, tell them a little bit about you and what you do.

Dan: I’m Dan with Beyond the Bedroom. We’re sex, intimacy and relationship education events company that has started moving into video on the internet. One of the things Reid and I were talking about is how am I shooting videos?

Reid: Yeah. Share with folks what’s going on with you as somebody who didn’t used to shoot a lot of video. You’re also…

Dan: Say zero.

Reid: You were Software Engineer before you became a sex geek. Now, you’re learning and geeking out and improving your business online. From somebody who’s gone from no video to shooting video, what have you been learning?

Dan: I think we have about 80 videos now?

Reid: Wow, congratulations!

Dan: Yeah, thank you. It was really difficult at first to do. Standing up there and you watch some of the first ones, the lighting was bad, the positioning was bad, the sound was horrible but we’ve slowly but surely overtime improved that. Knowing where to position your person that who’s been interviewed, how to actually do interviews. With the Sex Geek Summer Camp, we’ve had all those fun product reviews that we just been able to get really creative with and I have only been doing this for a little over a year now. And I started doing them at Sex Geek Summer Camp last year. When I finally went into the Mac world, I got Final Cut Pro…

Reid: Welcome to the light side. I’m just teasing. It’s okay to have a pc.

Dan: I started when they came out in the ‘80s. I’m a Software Engineer, that’s what I used. I’ve moved to Mac like, “Oh my God, it’s so easy.” So I used Final Cut Pro and I just had so much fun with the creative side of shooting videos. Instead of just doing something where we’re just opening a box and showing the products, we’re actually playing with it and having fun.

Reid: Yeah, getting geeky and being silly which is really fun. Also, I just want to acknowledge you and Elizabeth and the other people who have been in your videos, them being more playful and it’s fun watching that you 2 become more creative like pouring your creativity into your videos but not that you can’t just do like we’re doing like one shot, we’re not going to edit this, but you 2 being more playful is also letting people get that you 2, while you take your stuff and your education stuff seriously, it’s showing your viewers that you 2 are actually kind of funny and playful which I appreciate that so that sex education doesn’t occurs so scary to people…

Dan: It’s stiff.

Reid: Yeah.

Dan: Yeah. Most people they’re so stiff about it. It’s going to be really cerebral… yeah. Sex is fun, sex is playful. Elizabeth has great creativity and a lot of fun and I have a lot of fun with her. It’s a little banter back and forth on different ideas like the one that we did at this year’s Sex Geek Summer Camp in the bed scene, you got to go and watch that.

Reid: I’ll link to it in the description. Any tips for people who are starting out with video, although it’s gets easier, but any tips that you…

Dan: Well, like Reid remind me today, just do it. Get out there and do it. You can do it with a cellphone. You don’t have to really worry about the lighting, cellphones are so good at adapting the lighting that’s there for you already, really don’t worry about it. I’ve gone some cheap equipment, it was a cheap inexpensive which is really kind of cheap too but I have a little studio on my home where I’ve got light setter set up and a tripod. It costs me, including the camera, maybe $500 and the camera was about $350.

Reid: And you could use your phone if you want to.

Dan: I could use my phone. Yeah, it would have been really easy to do that. The big thing is been the sound. Sex Geek Summer Camp last year, Cathy talked about this little microphones to get. I got those. I’ve got a little… you plug the multiple connections in.

Reid: Like an equalizer? With mixer.

Dan: Equalizer, thank you. That’s the one I was looking for. It’s like $50, something like that, and I plugged different connections into it and brings all into one place, that’s great.

Reid: Nice. Awesome.

Dan: Yeah.

Reid: I’m shooting on a HD camera that has a shotgun mic. So if we’ve taken the time to mic up with lavs, we could get even better sound. It’s more important to sometimes to just shoot the video even if it’s not perfect and keep improving your process but if we hesitated, we wouldn’t have this video to show. Usually, especially when you’re dealing with content information that people are dying for like they really need that problem solving, they’ll put up with things being a little bit wobbly because the information and the stuff that you’re sharing is what’s important.

Dan: And if they can’t hear it, they’re not going to listen to that but if they can hear it well and clearly then doesn’t matter if it’s too dark or over expose or anything like that, you’re right, they’ll still watch it.

Reid: Now, I’m all afraid that the silent won’t be good at this. Awesome.

Dan: It should be fun.

Reid: Website again?

Dan: BedEvents.com, easiest way to go or BeyondTheBedroomEvents.com

Reid: Check out their YouTube. You guys on Facebook as well?

Dan: Facebook at Bed Events. YouTube, Beyond the Bedroom and Twitter, Bed Event. Singular version, I’m trying to get that one but not there yet.

Reid: Alright. We’ll drop that stuff in the description. Thanks, Dan.

Dan: Yeah, thank you.

Reid: Hope this was helpful. Bye.

Dan: Bye.

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