Author: Yuriy

Raise your hand if you’ve ever become so mesmerized by a makeup video that you totally forgot why you went on your phone in the first place!

Alright, everyone’s hands should be raised. C’mon people. Don’t lie to yourselves. We’re all guilty here — but that’s ok! Makeup is an art just like any other, and watching talented artists at work is always gratifying. Last week, our team had the privilege to capture one of these captivating videos with our own Cinamaker technology thanks to local artist Wyatt. Now we’re sharing our experience so that you too can make your own professional quality tutorials using just smartphones with the Cinamaker Capture app and a tablet with Director Pad.

Before we get started, check out our behind-the-scenes shoot to get acquainted with our setup.

Because we use Cinamaker premium, we get the most out of our shoot with four different camera assistants in four unique angles. If you’re using our consumer app from the app store, you’ll only have two — but don’t worry, that means you’re still offering twice as many angles as most tutorials.

That being said, the best way to start your setup is to choose your angles wisely. For makeup, you’ll obviously need at least one tight shot of you or your subject’s face. Your second (or third or fourth) are then up to you. Maybe you want another tight shot to a specific part of your face, or one that focuses on your hands as they pick up new palettes and tools from the table. You could also capture your makeup station with a wider shot from your counter or table up. To highlight each new brush or product, just hold them up to the camera before you start using them (as you’ve probably seen in many other videos).

Ok, so you’ve decided on your angles, now how do you prop up your cameras?? At the Cinamaker studio, we use mic stands with smartphone mount attachments to create our sleek setup. If you don’t have anything comparable, you could always use some tiny tripods or get creative with a pop socket or selfie stick. Hands also work really well! They’re not always perfectly steady, but if you’re working on a team, it’s probably the fastest, easiest way to go.

Once your camera assistants are locked into place (or into your friends’ hands), get out your tablet and open the Director Pad app. Next, make sure the network ID there matches your camera assistants — if they aren’t automatically set to the same code, pick a unique number and set the network IDs manually in each device’s settings.

You’re almost ready to get started! But first — and maybe this goes without saying — play around a bit with your setup and make sure you’re well lit. And most importantly, make sure you have your look down. Rehearse a little bit, say some tongue twisters, and now you’re good to go!

If you have a designated director, they’ll be able to operate the Director Pad switchboard in real time — so if you’re feeling up to it, you could stream your tutorial live on Facebook, Youtube, or any other RTMP destination you prefer! If you’re filming solo, you can still live stream, but your hands will be too full of makeup to switch between angles.

Whether or not you choose to live stream, at the end of your tutorial, the footage from each camera will be saved and ready to edit from the Director Pad app. Or, if you prefer to do your post production editing elsewhere, you can just upload the files to your computer and work in your favorite application. You’ll have everything you need to transition seamlessly from angle to angle, giving viewers an up close look at your craft in action.

Now the fun part — share share share!

We can’t wait to see your videos as we scroll through our social feeds and inevitably become entranced in the incredible works of art you create.

Happy Cinamaking!

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You’ve just finished binge watching all of Stranger Things season two. Now it’s time to broadcast your reactions and predictions to the world. Complete this Choose Your Own Adventure to find out whether your live stream game is a total win or an absolute fail…

We hope you enjoyed your adventure! If you want to make sure your real-life live streams are a success, check out this article on how to stream like a pro. 

Now go enjoy your new episodes and, please, binge responsibly.

There’s so much content on the Internet that it’s impossible to see it all even if you were online all day, every day for the rest of your life. This is great news for consumers of cat videos and other YouTube addicts, but it isn’t so great if you’re a content creator trying to make your personal or corporate brand stand out in the crowd.

So how do you make your videos shine through the dark depths of the interweb? There are plenty of tips out there on what you absolutely should do — but you also need to know what you absolutely shouldn’t. Lucky for you, we’re here to share not only the golden rule of content sharing, but also some of the most serious sharing don’ts.

The Golden Rule of 5:3:2

Before we get into things you should avoid, here’s the one rule you must follow on social media to get the most traffic to your content. The 5:3:2 rule breaks content down to 5 of 10 posts, 3 of 10 posts and 2 of 10 posts, or simply 50%, 30% and 20%.

The 50% represents curation. This means that half of what you post on social media should be from other people, but relevant to the content you’re trying to promote. For example, if you’re a gaming channel this could be the announcement of a new game. Or, if your videos are dedicated to covering politics, you should feature articles and videos from various other news sources as well.

The next 30% is creation — content that you’ve created personally for your audience. While 30% may seem like a small percentage of your own work, any more can create a feeling of over-sharing, and may come across as boring or boasting. This can scare off your audience and ultimately cause your followership to decrease or become less active.

Finally, there’s the 20% dedicated to sharing your culture, whether it’s company culture or your personal values and experiences. This content should be candid and authentic, perhaps even funny, and make your audience relate to you on a personal level. Prioritizing transparency humanizes you and your brand to create trust and a genuine appeal.

The Serious “Don’ts”

Don’t Use Cutesy Confusing Titles

This may seem a little odd, but headlines that try too hard to be cute or clever can work against you.

While creativity is key to good content, overcomplicating your headlines for humor’s sake can confuse your audience as to what your content is actually about or ruin your SEO. It’s usually better to be straightforward. For example, while “Good Tips for Green Thumbs” sounds catchy and playful, “Tips to Improve Your Garden” is clearer and therefore more likely to attract clicks or appear in a Google search.

Don’t Use Complicated URLs

If you want people to go straight to your website, it’s important that you don’t use a confusing URL.

A URL with a bunch of numbers, symbols, or random letters is extremely hard to type or remember. Keep your URLs short and simple. Make sure it’s related to your content or name to make it easy for your audience to find.

Don’t be a Copycat

Like we said before, creativity is key. And originality is a requirement. Why? For starters, any plagiarized content is likely to be taken down from websites and can even result in a ban from the platform altogether.

In addition, if your content is successful in attracting your target audience, it’s more than likely that this audience follows similar brands and creators. So, if you copy or outright plagiarize others, your audience will eventually figure it out and lose interest, or worse, respect, for your brand.

Don’t Forget to Post!

Posting content consistently can be difficult, especially if you aren’t able to devote all of your time to the task. However, if you want your content to take off and potentially earn you revenue, you need to post as regularly as possible.

Regular posting does two different things. First, it helps your content stay at the top of search engine results, making it more accessible to your audience. Second, it keeps your audience hooked. If you post too infrequently, you’ll lose their attention.

* * *

So there you have it! While this is by no means an exhaustive list of all the do’s and don’ts of content sharing, we believe these tips are key to your success as a branded content creator and sharer. That being said, please feel free to comment with any experiences or tips of your own! It’s a wild world out there, but we can work together to make it a little less intimidating.

At an engaging interview and talkback with Atlanta’s best and brightest innovators and entrepreneurs, Cinamaker’s sleek setup was virtually undetectable as it captured every bit of wit and wisdom from four stunning angles.

Cinamaker is proud to be among Atlanta’s top startups as a member of the Bridge Community Program. Our membership allows us unique experiences to grow our business, namely the enriching opportunity to grow among others.

Despite it being Friday the 13th, this past Friday happened to be one of those unique, lucky experiences for the Bridge Community members. This normally unlucky day was the first ever InnovATL conference, and we were even luckier to not only attend the event, but be the featured videographers as well.

For this busy day, we knew it would be important to secure our mobile studio with a wired configuration. We made sure to pack all our routers, switches, and cords in advance to make setup even swifter — and of course, arrived fashionably early.

Instead of starting from the router, we built our configuration backwards, beginning by placing our three iPhone 6 camera assistants and one Lumix camera around the stage: one phone at stage left to capture the right side, one at stage right to capture the left side, one at the back of the room for a wide shot of the whole stage, and finally our Lumix mid-audience for a tighter full-stage shots and panning.

After mounting our devices for the perfect angles on their tripods, we connected the Lightning Adaptor, Gb Ethernet Adaptor, and POE Splitter to the ethernet cables that then connected to the POE Switch and router that we tucked under the stage. Once we established our internet connection and double checked our angles and connection, we whipped out our handy dandy gaff tape to finish our setup with a polished, trip-free flourish.

Shortly after finishing up, the audience began to take their seats. With such small devices, our multi-cam setup was practically undetectable, and nobody had to worry about a limited view. Best of all, instead of a cluttered crew table in the back, our lead videographer was able to take a seat among the crowd with her iPad neatly on her lap. Thanks to the Director Pad, she was able to monitor and adjust every iPhone remotely, and only needed to stand up briefly to capture important movement with the Lumix.

We would like to thank our fellow Bridge Community startups and sponsors for making InnovATL a success and for all the support and wonderful opportunities this program affords us.

Stay tuned for videos and more lucky day updates in our Cinamaker story!