WHAT YOU’RE FILMING

Product reviews

EXPERT: That guy from the first page, Marques Brownlee, who has 4,8 million Youtube subscribers

STRATEGY: A lot of devices, like smartphones, have reflective screens. To block reflections, find the window or light behind you that’s causing it. Take literally anything and block it.

If you’re reviewing tech with a display, don’t set its screen brightness too high, because that will be overexposed relative to the environment, or too low, which can cause a shuttering effect when filming.

Look at the camera lens like you’re talking to a person. And look away sometimes. It seems robotic when a person’s eyes never leave the camera.

A review video is a purchase-decision tool. You have to go over all the nittygritty details of owning the thing, of the pros and cons. It’s not a review if it’s just a showcase of something’s specs and price, or beauty shots.

Be decisive about where you want light. That’s ultimately what video is, capturing moving light. Think, I want to light this behind me, but not have it spill over to this other thing, so I’ll block that light from this camera over here. It helps a lot. When I was reviewing a TV, I had to change the lights every time I moved the camera, but that attention to detail makes your videos different.