Gearing Up...

Putting together a new project is always a lot of fun. There is always so much to think about. What will the blog look like? What will I write about? What will the vlog look like? What new video editing skills do I need to accomplish those visual goals? Etc., etc. …

But, my favorite part, by far, is always going to be… the gear.

Now I have to preface this by saying I’m really not good at much of anything. I’m not a professional photographer or videographer or, well, writer. (Obvs! 😉) But, I have so much fun with this stuff that I just can’t help enjoying the whole effort. It’s exciting seeing my little ideas come together.

So, for this (soon to be started - I swear!) vlog/video/solo gaming project, I want to do some fancy video editing. I want to display a virtual table on the screen, something with a lot of color and action and information - YouTube can be a big canvas if used correctly. When I’m playing a game, I want to show my talking mug in one corner of the screen. I want a big picture of the game board and figures on a map, all the game pieces, right in the middle. I want to use the bottom of the screen for game data; character stats and lore and maps, etc. - these elements might move around a bit depending on importance in the moment. Last, and certainly not least - I’ve always been a fan of dice. The game I’ve picked, Mutant Crawl Classics, actually adds dice not used in other games, so I want to give the dice their own area of the screen, their own prominence.

For my face, I don’t need super high quality video, but really good audio is a must, my phone will do that double duty perfectly and give me a back facing monitor. The main board will be covered by my Canon PowerShot I purchased for my travel blog project, again the flip up monitor will be very useful. I’ll probably add in my GoPro on a micro-tripod for low to the surface shots, extra action, etc. But - what about the dice?

This has become a fun project all of its own. I realized early on that I didn’t need an expensive camera just to show dice rolling. In fact, super high quality video for that might actually look worse. Think about the little cameras they use for poker games or on the football field - you want to see the action but the resolution isn’t expected to be perfect. There was no need to get another $400 GoPro.

So, I looked around Amazon and watched videos on YouTube and finally settled on an AKASO Brave 4 at $90 dollars. I bought a really pretty dice tray and a nice mini-tripod. Today, I set up the first test shots and they are exactly as I imagined! It’s going to be super cute! It also has a high probability of causing chaos and shenanigans - it’s a $90 GoPro knock-off, it can’t be perfect!

I’m really looking forward to getting all of this rolling up and out. So much to do!!