(If you missed Part One of this great article, just go to the vault in your Members-only Toolkit for a complete copy of last month’s Insider Journal.)
First, I had left my phone case on. That made the phone heavier and the gimbal was not designed to hold phones with cases. Second, I had attached an external microphone to my lighting port. That made it even heavier. Third, there’s an adjustable arm to counterbalance additional weight from larger phones. I hadn’t seen that before. One YouTuber had found the perfect solution. He grabbed his wife’s glass makeup product that had some heft to it.
He got some crazy glue and glued it to the end of the gimbal to balance his phone. It was a jerry-rigged solution, but it worked. I immediately started scrounging around my wife’s makeup products and quickly concluded she didn’t have anything that would work. That meant I needed to go to the hardware store and find something else to attach to this gimbal.
If I couldn’t find the right counterweight, then I’d have to return this $150 stabilizer and find an alternative to shooting video with my phone. I immediately found the Velcro at the hardware store, then, I went looking for a counterweight. I found the largest and heaviest nut they had. I didn’t know if it would work, however, I bought that one and the next smallest size. Each one cost 70 cents. That’s an investment I could live with and the Velcro only cost me $3.79.
Back at the hotel, I open the Velcro, attached the heavier nut to it and then attached both to my new video stabilizer. I took my phone out of my case, attached my external microphone and then calibrated the video gimbal. Then I just stood there in amazement, it worked, it was totally balanced and neutral. It didn’t move in any axis. YES!
I turned on the gimbal and my phone and took a few test videos. It worked beautifully! All this just to shoot some hand-held video.
I started shooting video going down the stairs, up the stairs, walking, turning around. I also found that when shooting video with the phone horizontally, you have to look to the right or left of your phone where your camera lens is located which is awkward and unnatural. If you don’t look into the camera lens, it looks really weird when playing back the video.
I learned that this isn’t a grab your phone and go shoot some video on the run scenario. It takes time to prepare the gimbal. It takes time to prepare your phone by removing your case and attaching your microphone. You also have to hold the damn thing in your hand while walking or running and shooting your video.
Oh yeah, since you’re holding the video stabilizer at arm’s length, your videos are going to be of a massive talking head. Make sure you use the front-facing camera, which on the iPhone only goes up to 1080p quality. If you use the rear-facing camera you can get 4K quality video, but how the heck will you be able to hold the phone and make sure you’re correct in the frame?
You can’t. To do that accurately, you’d need to put your selfie device on a tripod and there’s a tripod mount to do that. Then you’d need to set up a mirror behind the camera to see if you can view your frame in the mirror. At that point, I’d just get my DSLR out and put it on a tripod.
Then I’d get my wireless lavalier microphone out and shoot that way. I know that’s reliable and gets me great quality video consistently.
The other thing you should know is that since I was on the beach, I’m wearing a t-shirt, sun-glasses and a baseball hat. How’s that for a ‘professional looking’ video? Most attorneys would shudder at the thought of creating a video in such a casual way. Not me. I’m all about experimenting and being creative.
Over the course of two days, I created 35 videos using my new video stabilizer. Was this experiment successful? It depends on how you define successful. I got the gimbal to work, that to me was a success after being frustrated and thinking I’d have to return it. Are the videos an improvement to holding my phone in my hand? Definitely. Have I noticed a difference in the number of viewers who are watching my stabilized videos compared to my DSLR, tripod-mounted videos compared to my hand-held videos? The jury’s out on that one right now. I think viewers like the informal nature of the videos and the effect the video stabilizer has. Then again, I’m biased since this is my shiny new toy.
You’re sure to notice one thing from all this. There are no other attorneys creating a video on the move. Think about that and whether that may help you stand out from the crowd. If it does, it may be time for you to start experimenting with video-stabilized mobile video.
Till next time, see you on video!
