Stop Making Videos That Look Amateur 🎬 | DevReel Weekly #4
January's almost gone. Four newsletters in. Time flies when you're obsessing over video for Developer Relations.
📺 Video of the Week
Shameless self-promotion alert
Most talking head videos look amateur.
Flat. Lifeless.
It KILLS me because is really simple and cheap to achieve a great light scheme for your videos that doesn't look bad. So I decided to share the simplest, easiest, cheapest light scheme for your talking videos.
Three lights, Under $200, 15-minute setup. Pro-level results.
🎯 Tip of the Week: Where I get ideas for my videos
I get this question very often. Truth is?
I steal. Professionally.
Every creator hits creative blocks. Staring at the screen. Hoping for inspiration. It never comes.
Stop waiting for creativity. Start collecting it.
Here are my go-to places:
Shotdeck.com Not just another "inspiration" site. This is Hollywood's visual playbook. Every frame. Every mood. Every lighting setup. All categorized. All searchable.
Eyecandy.com My daily visual caffeine. Fresh production stills. Real setups. Achievable looks. I have my collection of references ready when I need to get inspired
But here's the real trick: Don't just browse. Build your vault. Screenshot everything that makes you stop scrolling, and then go out and try to make it yourself. Here's a sample of one of last year's videos I did and the references I collected during my creative scouting.
When inspiration doesn't strike? Open your vault. Pick a reference. Execute.
🛠️ Resource of the Week: My Lights for under $200 budget
When you were watching the Video of The Week, you probably wondered which lights I used, here they are (not sponsored as usual, I wish as usual haha)
When I shoot bigger films, I use bigger lights like Nanlite or Aputure, but this one—the Newer CB60 and then the Newer LED bars — has proven to me that it can achieve amazing results on a budget.
Best part? App control. Color temperature adjustment. No getting up from your chair, and great color rendering index (CRI).
And that's a wrap! See you in February with more curated Video for DevRel resources.
Have a creative week, and keep producing!
