---
title: 'How to Film Yourself for YouTube & Vlogs (Beginner Guide)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=qkCdFledcZA'
video_id: 'qkCdFledcZA'
date: 2026-07-28
duration_sec: 551
---

# How to Film Yourself for YouTube & Vlogs (Beginner Guide)

> Source: [How to Film Yourself for YouTube & Vlogs (Beginner Guide)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=qkCdFledcZA)

## Summary

This beginner-friendly guide shares practical tips for filming yourself for YouTube and vlogs, covering confidence building, gear selection, shot types, and workflow. The creator emphasizes starting simple and gradually increasing public filming comfort.

### Key Points

- **Overcoming initial awkwardness** [00:01] — Hitting record feels awkward for every creator; the key is to not overthink and just start.
- **Building confidence through practice** [00:13] — Record yourself more frequently and in different settings to increase comfort, especially in public.
- **Start with a smartphone** [01:07] — The iPhone 16 Pro (or any modern smartphone) is the best starter camera because it's always with you and shoots high-quality 4K video.
- **Insta360 Go Ultra camera** [01:49] — This compact, magnetic camera is non-intimidating, great for POV shots, and attaches easily, making it ideal for vlogging.
- **10 shot types for variety** [02:34] — Includes wide, POV, mid, walking handheld, tracking/dolly, close-up, over-the-shoulder, reflection, time lapse, and talking head shots.
- **Riverside platform** [05:42] — All-in-one tool for recording, editing, hosting, and publishing videos; records locally in 4K, offers AI editing, and distributes to platforms.
- **Use an outline and checklist** [07:02] — Prepare notes or bullet points to guide content, and use the AVLS checklist (Audio, Video, Lighting, Set) before recording.
- **Choose a low-pressure environment** [08:10] — Start filming in less crowded places (e.g., local park) to build confidence before moving to busier locations.

### Conclusion

Start small with basic gear, practice consistently, and use a simple checklist to streamline your filming process. Gradually increase public filming to build lasting confidence.

## Transcript

of the most awkward things you can do as a creator. You hit record and then all of a sudden it feels like everyone is watching you. But the truth is, honestly, every creator has felt that same thing and it is super awkward. But
can do to make the process of filming yourself a whole lot easier to the point it. >> [music] before, the first thing you've got to start building is confidence and you do
and more and the more you start recording yourself in different the more comfortable you're going to start feeling doing it out in public. increase the more you start to record in public, but also you'll start to
understand the types of shots and the variety of shots that you need to get in you're first starting out, it's hard to know what you actually need to record and what won't make the edit. But the more time you spend recording yourself,
used. So, the big thing is don't overthink it at first. The first few awkward and it probably won't be your best videos ever, but you just got to best videos ever, but you just got to hit record.
about is purchasing gear that's going to help remove the friction when it comes pieces of gear I've been using lately for a lot of my vlogging type videos and first thing is just my smartphone. So, I'm shooting on mostly the iPhone 16 Pro
for all of my YouTube content and this has become just my everyday tool that I carry anytime I need to record videos. Your smartphone is usually the best tool to start because it's already on you and it takes high-quality 4K video with
images out of smartphones nowadays are just so awesome. So, it's a no-brainer I'm actually recording most of this video on this camera I recently picked up. It's the Insta360 Go Ultra and I really like this camera because it's so
a bunch of different ways to get things like point-of-view shots and even it has attach it to any metal surface, which is really neat to get some creative angles. tripod with me, which is really convenient. And the key things about
very small and not intimidating, so it'll give you confidence as you're out recording, but also not draw as much attention to yourself, because if you have a big like DSLR mirrorless camera with a really large lens on the end of
yourself. But a compact simple setup like this, I think is the way to go, So basically for this whole video, I'm using the Insta360 Go Ultra and my smartphone to capture all of the content, and it's really user-friendly.
creative angles for recording your videos, how do you make sure not every single shot looks exactly the same like the last shot? Well, here are 10 implement when you're recording your own
videos. So the first is the wide shot, and this is just going to establish your scene and give the viewer context for what location you're filming in. It's a really easy shot and one you've probably seen before, so try to work in some wide
shots into your production workflow. The next shot is POV or point-of-view shots, this with is the Insta360 Go Ultra. It's one of the reasons why I chose it as the there's so many different ways you can magnetically attach this to your body to
use a camera like this, you can even use your smartphone and just rig it up in different ways on your body to get that point-of-view perspective. For me, this is really nice for unboxing type videos or working at my workstation. I love
implementing these POV shots. There's also just like a standard mid shot, and this is really good for just generic B-roll or informational type videos. Mid fill in the gaps of your story just to get you that standard composition, and
it's a great type of shot to fall back on. Another really common shot type is the walking handheld shot. This is really common for vlogging scenarios yourself, and it adds a lot of movement and energy to the frame. So, this is
little bit more exciting, you can leverage this walking handheld style shot. Now, there's also some different tracking or dolly style shots where the camera is like moving in the frame following a subject potentially or
pushing through a doorway or tracking a really interesting object from left to tracking and dolly type shots, but again, the movement of the shot is what some sort of gimbal you could set it to track you as you move around the frame.
Otherwise, you actually might be behind the camera as you record the world in close-up shot. So, these are fun shots to get where you zoom your camera lens in really tight on a specific subject,
and this will put emphasis on a specific object or portion of your frame that you want your viewer to be paying attention to. These close-up shots are really fun over-the-shoulder shots. I use these all of the time at my workstation if I'm
monitor, and it's just a creative angle that adds a unique perspective when you have a camera locked off on a tripod, so you could try out the over-the-shoulder shots, and there's lots of ways to leverage reflections. You could do this
with a mirror or even like a rearview mirror in your car is kind of a fun reflection style shot or even water as well. Lots of different ways you can get really fun way to film yourself. I do these sometimes as I'm setting up tech
in my studio or recording different videos. It's just fun to have that time lapse perspective to showcase the passage of time. And then finally, where the camera is locked off on a tripod and you're talking directly to
the camera delivering your content. This is great for standard YouTube style videos or podcasting or interviews. And if you're recording yourself from home, videos that is really easy and beginner-friendly is with a tool called
Riverside who partnered with us on today's video. Riverside used to mainly be for remote interviews, but now it lets you record, edit, host, and publish videos all in one place, which makes the entire process way easier. You can
record videos from your home workstation in up to 4K quality and get clean studio workstation. And if you ever want to experiment recording with guests, you can actually just send a guest one simple link and they can click that link
to join your studio session instantly. [music] What's great too about Riverside is it records everything locally to each participant's device. So, you and your guests will walk away with a high-quality video and audio file that
you can use for editing later. This means that even if your internet or your won't lose any parts of the conversation and everything will still be super high quality. And once your conversation is done, you can actually edit your entire
episode right there inside of Riverside and they have a ton of great AI tools to never done it before. And if you ever decide you want to launch a podcast one day, Riverside is also a distribution platform. This means that right there
distribute your podcast to places like Spotify, Apple Podcast, and YouTube all to manually upload episodes to every platform. So, if you want to give the description below and you can use code Think Media when you check out to
get 1 month free of their Pro Plan. Now, there are a couple of workflow pieces that I think will make the experience of recording yourself a whole lot easier. And the first is having some sort of outline or notes in your phone
yourself. So, today for this video, I just have a list of those like five or about in this video that I can use as a guide so that once I get out here to start filming, I don't just like have that blank stare of like, wait, like
fall back on those notes to guide me through the content delivery of my videos. And then I'll also list out a few creative shot ideas that I can grab while I'm out filming my video as well. It's also smart to keep a basic
checklist of the tech that you'll need for when you start recording your video. here on screen A V L S. It stands [music] for audio, video, lighting, and each individual piece. What is your lighting setup going to be? Are you
set up your smartphone or your camera? These are the four main pieces we teach recording their video and it's really smart to outline them before you start recording. And this final tip is to think about your recording environment
like have the awareness level of how your environment might affect your confidence and your ability just to record content at all. Like for these last couple sections of this video, I came to a local park here in my hometown
city that's like super low-key. There's not really a whole lot of people around. like walk along this path and will give me some weird funny stares from time to time, but this is a way more low-pressure situation than like
recording in a public airport or at a theme park like Disneyland where around you and giving you weird stares. That's going to be a whole lot more small. You can start in your bedroom or your home office just learning to record
yourself and then as you go into public spaces, start with like a simple city people around and you can start growing your confidence to record in busier interested in learning how to vlog, you can click or tap the screen right here
did some vlogging tips at Disneyland. It's a super fun video you can watch and It's a super fun video you can watch and I'll see you in the next one.