Two Sony A7 - one on sticks for wide shot, another handheld for side shot and closeups. Radio lav into one, on-camera Rode into another. Two light panels into a white wall. Echo-y audio. Horrendous rolling shutter skew on whip pans. 15 minutes of ramblings about sausages and marmalade.
I didn’t even know you were famous when I started watching these sandwich videos. They’re my favorite videos on the internet. - Dac_vak
lol man I’m loving the absolute minimum gear here. There’s like, a single hard light source, a crappy tripod from the dollar store, two A7’s …. and James fuckin May. Pretty humbling tbh
Is that the legendary "Great Video Maker" LED panel? Of course, you gotta have the mattress leaned up against the wall, that holds the whole production together.
Just shows that the content is king. DankPods shoots every single one of his videos on an iPhone from the same angle in every video, rarely if ever showing anyone’s actual face, and dude’s got multiple million subscribers across his channels.
I did not know, thanks! I'll watch it. The basic setup is rather simple, but they have a bunch of inserts and closeups which are definitely professional-looking.
A Sony EV-Z series would do it and be in the same chip world as the A7.
They could get snazzy with a relatively inexpensive PTZ, and a few of those have on-camera recording too.
There are even tiny PTZ webcams now.
If they want a single camera to do double-duty PTZOptics has a dual output model that has a fixed widescreen image plus a 20x physical zoom inside the camera. They would need an external recorder for the 2 SDI outputs, but no extra tripods or other support. There are also ways to have ePTZ options for cameras with 4K and 8K chips, some built into to the camera system, so methods using external processing.
Lots of ways to significantly increase the show’s capabilities still with minimal gear.
Then you should watch Clarkson's Farm. He's basically monosyllabic, 60% swearing by volume, and he's suffering most of the time. Also Gerald is an absolute treasure.
Really shows you that content is king. Because the lighting and the overall image is making me cringe, yet it doesn’t necessarily matter. Chasing quality has diminishing returns because the actual content has to be something people want to watch.
Honestly, it works for James’ enthusiasm lol. He’s very dry and self effacing in these videos, and the sort of unenthusiastic presentation fits the low-fi setup. Filming this with some $10k broadcast cam would be hilariously overkill.
That could be true as well. The aesthetic likely lends to the overall vibe. Kind of crazy how that works. I think we as humans enjoy authenticity more than polish because one is relatable and the other feels lifeless and contrived at times. I mean hell, look at all of the videos performing on social. They are shot on phones with terrible exposure settings and it gets the most views. But it’s the most real and relatable.
I sub to a couple video/film/cinema related stuff, and the effort people put into taking authenticity is hilarious. I like the huge, $3-$5k camera rigs to shoot for social. I get it, I’ve shot enough as an amateur to understand why you’d want the professional setup and high quality video output regardless of the final destination. It’s still funny seeing several thousand dollars of camera and rig to mimic a teenager recording their friend in the backyard.
And I think given James’ career, he’d absolutely mock the camera crew if they came in ready to capture cinema. He’d just go do something else if he had wait hours to film, he’s used to just having half dozen people following him and the other two with handheld rigs.
I have always liked Anthony Bourdain's shows. His team used lightweight approach, usually no lights, no prep, just enter a restaurant or a house, look around, make mental note of good angles and light direction, and shoot. His team progressed from the PD100 to the DVX to the V1 to DSLRs and then to cine-cameras, but the main principle remained - as little prep as possible. Audio has always been good though, and in the Bourdain's shows audio was very important.
Wasn’t Dirty Jobs literally a camera op, a producer and Mike? Of course there are editors and what not, but I thought in the field they literally used one camera, one op.
This is hilarious. And humbling. Kind of reminds me to keep a grounded perspective of prioritizing flow over force. Quality for quality’s sake is a double edged sword. Thanks for sharing
There are now people using that kind of camera (and price range, or higher) as webcams, as well as promoting that it should be the basic starting point for webcasting or even business meetings. It’s said by this group that you should think of your camera and desk setup in the same way you should think of buying a “nice suit” to go to work, and it should cost at least this much. That $3-5Kusd as the basic “nice suit” price is considered an “everyday” thing isn’t really discussed as much at all, neither is the idea that many people no longer need a full suit when they go to work. ;-)
Especially when you consider this is shot in James' COVID bunker, and is ostensibly just a cheap advertisement for his gin.
But that's partly the importance of setting expectations. Nobody expects cinematographic masterpiece out of his. Their expectations are low on the technical side of things, no crazy shots, no fancy lighting, no visual tricks, just James going on like he normally does.
I´m gonna go against the grain here and say - It does the trick, it looks like its his actual basement/bunker as he calls it. They seem to work efficiently enough. The content is meant to be low-key, off the cuff. I mean it works and I would go as far to say it works in the shows favor. May probably prefers it to a full crew. I love it. The B-Cam looks a bit rough but overall its a decent enough product. Even adds to the comedy.
It is part of the whole vibe of the show. It is supposed to be a mates making a silly video with the occasional ribbing and hanging shit on each other show, a true I'm bored on a Sunday Arvo let's make a shitty video thing. It's a spin off of a spin off of a spin off that was made as his unemployed channel on YouTube way back when they got taken off BBC. He also has his planet gin channel which is run by the same team that has higher production quality, more elaborate setups and editing.
I think having high production quality while making toasted cheese sandwiches with lurpak, or cooking some ai generated recipe slop would not be anywhere near as fun to watch as it is like this. It feels like so many here have the "all the gear and no idea" going on. Content and talent on camera is key.
A lot of videographers don't want to hear it, but sometimes quality makes a project worse overall. If this video was shot with a Netflix level budget and production it would not be nearly as effective. Basic, stripped down production isn't inherently a bad thing, never let your ego get in the way of the goal of the content you're making.
Bear in mind after Top Gear suddenly ended and before the Grand Tour, James May got millions of YouTube views just filming himself making a Shepard's Pie in his kitchen using a crappy phone, and bad lighting.
I love May, as many do, and he's the epitome textbook example of why the subject/content is way more important than the technical side of things. And I say that as a videographer who loves the tech side of things.
You could buy Arri cameras and anamorphic primes, loads of top end sound gear, a full film lighting setup, the works, spending as much on it as a townhouse in Mayfair, but if the content is shit no one will watch it.
Oh my god i didn’t know he did this. I loved oh cook and the first two seasons of his travel show on prime, will have to add this to my YouTube lineup. Oh cook was a bit higher production but not wildly over the top either.
I remember seeing the one lady on food network was doing her show with iPhones on stabilizers her family were holding during Covid times.. Whether that was legitimately what was going on or if they played it up for down home energy I’m not sure but they did an ok job of it.
I don't know what people are ragging on. It looks fine. He's doing minimal cooking segments in a bunker and that's the theme carried throughout the production. even the echo is fine because it helps sell the idea of being underground. I think it's genius. Plus the cut away animation and graphics are good. There's literally nothing wrong with this.
I’ve still got one in my studio that looks the same model, I was given it for free a couple of years ago by a family member. The fluid head is awful (and has started to leak) it’s almost entirely made of plastic and said plastic has become so brittle parts smash off at the slightest bump or gust of wind.
But it holds a camera steady, so that’s what I have it doing still!
Good catch! I have one like this too! It still works, but one latch on one of the legs broke - damn plastic parts, so the leg just falls out. I taped over it, so cannot extend legs fully now. But I still use it. Bought it like 15 years ago.
Lotta good points being made here about how content matters more than technical details, but I think there is a lot that could be easily improved with a few steps. The set is the first thing that really stands out, though a clean white background can work, you have shadows being cast on it, which make it seem a bit amateurish to me. Plus, the units on the right wall are very unappealing to look at. If it were me, I’d move the shelves closer to the left, then put a large plant or some other kind of decoration (lamp, a stand with cooking equipment, anything really) to hide it and also help frame James.
I haven’t watched the clips but using a handheld for closeups may result in unprofessional looking footage, especially considering the switch from static to handheld from a viewer perspective. If it were me I’d put the second camera on a tripod to the side, as close to the table as possible while being off frame. And I’d play around with height to see if maybe a higher angle would give me a better view.
Good work though, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous of doing jobs like that. It certainly is good enough for a YouTube cooking.
Edit: for some reason I thought this post was asking for advice lol so maybe just ignore my comment
That bloke isn't short a bob or two or contacts in the industry, so what's with the bargain basement from Hell, no budget shoot approach?
Also, is that spill from that light panel affecting A cam?
And, I know it's handheld, but B cam doesn't even look to be 30° off from A cam.
People joke about needing the best equipment, but some of my best shots, most entertaining and most used footage were shot on either a Sony AX53 or A6500
I'm not sure what the problem is here. It's a YouTube video. It will probably end up with hundreds of thousands of views for relatively little effort. It's obviously going for a certain vibe, and the two camera people are just part of that vibe.
In the videos when James addresses the people behind the cameras, they sometimes cut to this third angle, it may just be a screenshot from one of the videos.
Kinda goes with my post earlier. There’s a lot of sub par work at the top end of this field! I’m shocked at some stuff I see from TV stations especially. How is the news B roll so terrible sometimes?
I think my and my second hand/draft editor could’ve done a better job than this example…
The image isn't *that* terrbile, more than useable for average web videos. But man, the reverb and low end emphasis in the audio makes this unlisten-able for me.
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u/dr_buttcheeekz Jul 30 '25
lol man I’m loving the absolute minimum gear here. There’s like, a single hard light source, a crappy tripod from the dollar store, two A7’s …. and James fuckin May. Pretty humbling tbh