The tools and services we use
We get asked a lot about what kit Dave and Ed use, so below is a list with short reviews of the products and services. We hope it helps.
We use two different setups; one is way cheaper than the other and I’d actually recommend the cheaper set up for most channels which is the Sony A6400 with a Rode Wireless Go mic.
It’s by no means the latest, greatest kit, but we honestly see no need to spend more (we’re really tight though).
You can film all your B-roll on the A6400 as well as all of your presenting. We don’t use the kit lens mentioned in the video though (unless traveling, as it’s so small).
The lenses we use are the 35mm and the 16mm which you’ll find via the button below.
Dave’s produced a mini course on how to use the entire cheaper set shown in the video so you’d be wise to watch that course as well unless you’re hiring him for a training and set up day.
We all edit on Final Cut Pro X. Its about £300, but you only ever pay once which makes it way cheaper than Adobe Premier Pro.
Why buy it
It’s fast, less complex than programmes from Adobe and it has never let me down….EVER!
Who’s it for
If you started on iMovie, then this is the natural next step to take.
Final Cut is for creators who want to take their content seriously and we believe you limit your creativity by avoiding a professional option, so serious creators please take note.
Ed’s been using this for a while and he recommended it to us over at the production company. It has been a game changer.
ReCut (Mac only) cuts the silence out of your videos which means it can almost do an entire stage of your edit for you.
You just drag in your clip and it auto cuts the dead air between takes.
The video on the left shows it working at 3 minutes in.
They have given Film Booth viewers 10% on the below link now too 🙂
We actually offer editing to YouTubers as a service.
It’s not about just putting clips in line though, we want to help creators take their content up a level, increase retention and get a better response from their audience with more creative content.
The service is specialist YouTube editing which is a very different game to traditional editing so we won’t be the cheapest option out there but if you’d like to learn more, feel free to send us a message below.
If you can’t film your own b-roll or even if you can, stock video is a must have for serious channels.
We’ve been using Storyblocks at the production company for over 7 years and it just keeps getting better and better.
They also have an option for photos, videos and sound effects which, combined with the video, takes your production up a level.
We use the stock in almost every video we make mixed up with our own footage and it’s one of the easiest products for us to recommend as the quality and variety gets better and better every day.
Check out the (old) video that Ed made on it to learn more.
We’ve been using Shutterstock for images, photos and graphics since 2014 at the business production side of Film Booth.
For thumbnails, faceless videos and marketing, this is a no brainer as the amount of options they have is endless.
They also own PremiumBeat which provides really high quality music. Not the cheapest option but if you want an all in option it’s pretty good. Make sure you check out SoundStripe first though.
There’s a lot of options out there for music tracks and sound effects.
We reviewed multiple platforms and Soundstripe won for me and we’ve been using it on the channel and in the production company for years now.
We could not live without it.
The quality is very high, their terms and conditions don’t have any confusing loopholes and their team have been very helpful.
10% OFF: BUSINESSFILMBOOTH
We don’t tend to go crazy with using templates but when we do we usually buy them from MotionVFX.
The most used effect we see in use among the team is called MCamm, it zooms in and out like a camera and it’s free!
We also use Mluts, also free, which I use on a regular basis.
It’s all stuff for Final Cut Pro but unlike a lot of templates you can buy, they are reliable.
We tested about 5 of the best known live streaming solutions in depth and this one was the easiest to use and had some of the best features.
E-Camm is Mac only but its interview mode is genius – simply send someone a link and they end up in your stream.
The customisation gives you plenty of features too.
You can also use it to produce your videos as a recording device in 4k!
As you’ve probably noticed we’re not PC users but we have used StreamYard for a live event and it is really easy to use and browser based which makes it great for remote interviews. Don’t ask us to do your live event though as this isn’t a service we offer! Stick to your knitting is a phrase that comes to mind.
We found the customisation a little limiting but for most that won’t matter.
If you make YouTube videos and then repurpose them to social media you have to have subtitles in your videos.
It’s also recommended that you upload them to your videos rather than relying on YouTubes auto captions. This will boost retention with viewers who’s first language isnt English as well as give YouTube accurate data to understand what your content is about.
Typing them out is time consuming and annoying, it also makes no sense when Rev will do it for about $1 a minute.
They’ll give you an SRT file you add to your editing software and the subtitles will appear by magic.
We use this a lot at the production company.
$10 – COUPON WITH THE BELOW LINK
Check out the (old) video to learn more.
There are so many platforms for making courses, memberships and email marketing and for years we used options that cost 3x the price of what we use now.
Kartra is by no means the best software in the world but it’s cheap, full of features and easy to use (compared to other platforms). We actually found it to be better than the more expensive options in many cases.
You can build courses, membership sites and manage your email marketing which every YouTube channel needs to consider.
As you get more contacts and want more memberships, the price goes up but we’d say for the majority of channels, especially those who have never used this type of software before, it’s a good place to start.
It’s got a free trial for 2 weeks, which is enough time to tinker with it.