Create professional videos with a $500 budget.

In this video, I walk you through exactly how to shoot professional looking videos without breaking the bank.

This method will cost you less than $500 and gets you started with a complete studio set up.

I know it's a big investment to make in your business, but if you're going to invest time and money into video marketing, it's worth it. It's worth it because video is a great way to connect with customers—and they'll love the fact that they can see what you're all about!

So how do you get started?

There are three things I recommend:

First, make sure you have some kind of camera. You don't need anything fancy—even an iPhone will work! But whatever you choose, make sure it records in HD (720p or 1080p). And if possible, try it out before buying so that you know exactly how well it works for your needs.

Second, invest in a tripod or monopod so that your shots aren't shaky and wobbly. This will really help make your videos look professional!

Finally, invest in some kind of microphone so that people can hear what you're saying clearly without having to blast their speakers or headphones (you'll want them to listen carefully).

Let's talk about how to make professional looking videos for less than $500. When it comes to creating great looking videos that help you stand out look professional, it doesn't really require a massive budget of 1000s to even hundreds of 1000s of dollars that were required 15 to 20 plus years ago. Nowadays, we have the tools easily accessible just with a few clicks of a button to buy from Amazon, or some other site to get to your house to get to your office to create great looking videos. So when it comes to creating videos that look more professional, and that you're proud of, it doesn't require much of an investment. The main areas of video production equipment that you need to focus on include cameras, lighting, audio, and software. Let's start with cameras.

First off, you can just use the camera you already have purchase, which is usually your phone, iPhone, Android, whatever. Most of these cameras look so good. And a lot of our clients get started there when they are trying to grow their YouTube channel or on other platforms where we help support them and they DIY the filming themselves, they use their phone. So because you've already invested this, this can be a $0 price tag. As far as investment goes. When you go to use your phone, make sure it's relevant to the platform. If you are filming for TikTok, or Instagram reels or YouTube shorts, go vertical, and set up a simple tripod to hold your phone or hold it with your hand and get recording that way. If it's for YouTube, or other platforms that require horizontal filming, then use the horizontal orientation beyond your phone. If you're like, hey, I don't want to do my phone anymore, then we'll have a few camera recommendations down below in the description that include brands like Canon, or Sony, or other trusted brands that help you get started for less than $500. These cameras have manual and automatic settings that are actually a lot easier and not as intimidating as you may think even if you are new to video production and cameras. And with your cameras, you want to make sure you have some form of a tripod away to hold up that camera, whether it's a phone or a more professional or non phone camera. And whether it's a camera that's not actually a phone. Tripods can range from like $10 to hundreds of dollars depending on how high tech you want to go. But I recommend the cheaper ones to get started. And if you're filming with a phone, oftentimes, you can get a tripod and with a phone attachment that you can just simply fit your phone into and get recording whether it's horizontal or vertical. So with that tripod and with a camera attached, then it's time to invest in what I believe is the most important part of video creation and that is a quality microphone for your audio. People are more forgiving of a poor quality video versus a poor audio quality. So I recommend setting apart a bigger budget probably your biggest budget for a quality microphone. And again, I'll list a few options on the screen and down below that I would recommend microphones that are USB friendly and they can plug into your computer if you're recording from your webcam, or ones that fit into your phone, or ones that fit into your professional camera. The one I'm using right here is a Sennheiser shotgun microphone. This one runs more than $500. So I won't recommend this one. But there are many equivalents that are a cheaper investment to get into and yet sound amazing. The next area of video production gear is lighting, go to Amazon and in the search bar, type in video lighting or video soft boxes. And there you'll find soft boxes for 50 to several $100 and are a great starting point to get a nice light on you. So if you're not facing a window light which is free, then you can get a nice softbox place it about 45 degrees above the camera on you, I recommend more side lighting versus directional lighting right on you because this one is nice for beauty it lights up your whole face. But this one provides a little bit more personality and creativity where there's more of shadows on the side of my face. So lighting is important. You want to make sure to light the subject so your face the brightest in the screen. So that way the attention gets on you especially in talking head videos like this. And then there's software. When it comes to editing more professional looking videos. It's important to invest in more professional software as well. The top software that I recommend is something like Final Cut Pro by Apple, which is exclusive to Apple computers. And that's only $300 or you can also get Adobe Premiere Pro for less than $300 as well or simply subscribe to the annual $600 plan for the Adobe Creative Suite where you get access to The whole suite of creative apps by Adobe, Adobe Premiere Pro Illustrator, Photoshop, you name it, there are much cheaper options, whether it's an online video editor, or something on your phone that gets the job done. But in my experience, if you want to invest in a higher quality video editing experience, then I recommend that you invest in some quality video editing software. There's also DaVinci Resolve, you can do a free version, a trial version, or invest in the starter version, and edit your videos through that software. And a big thing I recommend through this entire process if you are investing in this equipment, or maybe you're spending more than $500 You're getting into the editing side is to ask yourself simply, is this something that I want to invest my own personal time into doing into DIY? If that's a big no, then I recommend that you work with a company like us at video supply video supply is a global on demand video production service that helps online businesses like you grow with video we have invested all of this equipment and years of training and knowledge to make video marketing work to help you grow your business. Go to videosupply.com to learn more.