Ultimate Guide: Audio, Lighting, Camera and Set Design for Church YouTube

🎙️ Church YouTube Studio Guide🎙️

https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/studio

🔥 [FREE] Hybrid Ministry Strategy Guide🔥

https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

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DESCRIPTION
Check out our ultimate guide for setting up your church youth ministry YouTube studio with the best audio, lighting, camera, and set design recommendations! Enhance the quality of your online services and reach more viewers with professional tips and recommendations. Whether you're a beginner or looking to upgrade your current setup, this video has everything you need to create an engaging and impactful virtual church experience. Watch now and take your church's online presence to the next level!

FULL PLAYLIST
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLHMhNNfqmmmAsKRJ1VCBJl
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📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/098

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/yVT1xvh9-5k

//CHURCH YOUTUBE STUDIO GUIDE
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/studio

//[FREE] HYBRID MINISTRY STRATEGY GUIDE
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

//YOUTUBE COACHING [FREE!]
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick
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TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick
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Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

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🆓 FREEBIES 🆓
📅 "The Full Hybrid Ministry Strategy"
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https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

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🛠️TOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

BEST DYM RESOURCES
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS
https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

AUTO POD
https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv

TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING
https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Are you ready for another level?
01:56 Optimizing Space for a YouTube Set and Decoration Recommendations
05:32 Best Camera Gear for Churches
07:35 Lighting for Youth Ministry YouTube Channels
08:43 Audio for Church YouTube Channels
12:18 Which to start with if you can't afford them all at once?

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✍️TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:02:06
Nick Clason
YouTube for

00:00:02:06 - 00:00:07:07
Nick Clason
youth ministry. We're actually in the eighth and now second to last

00:00:07:07 - 00:00:22:29
Nick Clason
episode of our playlist titled YouTube for Youth Ministry linked right here on screen. If you're watching on YouTube and in this playlist, I've explained to you the value of pre filming your messages, how to edit your videos, and exploring the other features available to you

00:00:22:29 - 00:00:23:27
Nick Clason
in YouTube.

00:00:23:29 - 00:00:43:18
Nick Clason
What if you've started doing those things and now you're ready to take it to the next level? You see, in my 100% completely free guide to Hybrid Ministry links right here on screen and down below in the show notes, I tell you how you can get started filming content on YouTube for under $100. But what if? What if you have a little bit of budget?

00:00:43:21 - 00:00:48:21
Nick Clason
Like what if you see the ultimate value in all of this and you're ready to take it to the next level?

00:00:48:21 - 00:01:01:23
Nick Clason
Well, in this episode, I want to take you on a tour of the set that we have built in our student ministry. You ready to invest? You ready to spend a little bit of money? I can get you all up and going for less than $5,000.

00:01:01:24 - 00:01:24:19
Nick Clason
Don't freak out on the sticker shock if you're interested in some of these things, because if you do want something cheap, I can actually offer you some coaching right now at a 100% completely free rate for just the first few people. So if you're interested, click down below, inquire to see if that is still available so I can help you begin to hybridize your ministry and reach more students with the effort that you're putting in.

00:01:24:19 - 00:01:25:28
Nick Clason
As a youth pastor

00:01:25:28 - 00:01:39:19
Nick Clason
with the message of hope and with the message of Jesus. But this studio thing, it's it's a next level type of thing. So I'm going to give you a tour, share with you some examples and some videos, and walk through every single piece of gear in every single element. And

00:01:39:19 - 00:01:43:12
Nick Clason
then finally I'm going to rank those different elements because we're going to be talking about the set.

00:01:43:12 - 00:01:57:01
Nick Clason
We're going to be talking about the camera, we're going to be talking about audio, and we're going to be talking about lighting. What's most important, if you can't spend it all right now, how should you prioritize? We're going to dive into it. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show.

00:01:57:01 - 00:02:04:26
Nick Clason
And in this episode linked down below is a complete blog of every single piece of gear that I have built in the studio.

00:02:04:28 - 00:02:26:11
Nick Clason
And we're just going to walk through it. and so first we're going to talk and work through just the set, like just what's going on, where it is like what things look like. And so what I did, like I said, link down below in the blog. I did, some blackout curtains. We had two big windows in the room that we converted into a studio space.

00:02:26:11 - 00:02:29:12
Nick Clason
So I got blackout curtains, which would help me kind of

00:02:29:12 - 00:02:48:16
Nick Clason
control the lighting. And so I had to buy some curtain rod. So, we have a gold curtain rod, and then also got some white, thermal insulated curtains. You can see both of those links in the blog. also, I got a peel and stick wallpaper, brick wall paper, which was absolutely meticulous to hang.

00:02:48:16 - 00:03:16:21
Nick Clason
And then it didn't stay hung on the wall. So I actually ended up just going to Home Depot and buying a panel of, brick there. And we just did that as well instead of the the peeling stick wallpaper, but whatever you might want. And so what that did was that created for us sort of like a brick in the corner of one of the the living or in one of the, corners of one of the rooms created a brick kind of vibe, like, we also did some, like, neon signs and stuff like that, and then I don't have those linked.

00:03:16:28 - 00:03:35:20
Nick Clason
but if that's something you're interested in, you can go shopping. We got a custom one made. then I created another section of our room, another section of our space with, like, a kind of like a photo background. And so I got the the ten by ten photo backdrop stand, and then the photo kind of, studio fabric that just rolls down.

00:03:35:20 - 00:04:01:07
Nick Clason
And we use that for a lot of, like, standing sets and a lot of, teaching videos, especially where we want to have a lot of text off to the side or, or behind us. And so I really, really like that one for, for those types of like educational or informational videos. And then the other like corner the corner that's kind of opposite the brick so that you if you're counting, we got brick and then we got the photo backdrop and then the white, we got a white wall as like a corner.

00:04:01:09 - 00:04:20:01
Nick Clason
and I'm not going to link any of this below, but we just used white paint. So go to Home Depot, get some white paint, and then create whatever sort of decor you want. And again, I'm not going to link every single thing because I didn't buy all of this stuff. Like we repurposed some furniture and we repurposed some shelving and we repurposed some decor.

00:04:20:05 - 00:04:40:25
Nick Clason
We bought some decor. but like one fun thing we did is we, we have like, mugs. And so we'll use a different mug every single one of our teaching videos. This is a little kind of like Easter egg type of thing, but but we had a student who, like, brought a bunch in as, like a donation. or I've just found random things like on, on Amazon or Walmart.com.

00:04:40:25 - 00:05:02:09
Nick Clason
And if I'm looking, I just might search something like, you know, teenage boy room or teenage girl room decor. I don't know, you know what? What's in these days? And so I'm a 34 year old youth pastor, but but searching that type of stuff, we've come up with these like Spiderman, kind of like neon lights and, just, you know, some other, like, kitschy, kind of like, tchotchke type of things.

00:05:02:12 - 00:05:18:01
Nick Clason
so you'll see, like prior to this, you know, if you're watching here on YouTube, prior to this, we would just kind of film anywhere we could find usually, like in one of our offices. and because our offices are already decorated, it sort of created a little bit of a set. But now we have our own set.

00:05:18:01 - 00:05:39:18
Nick Clason
Like, we've been able to create sets that look a little bit more like this or like this, and looks just a little bit more meaningful, a little bit more purposeful. And of course, the nice part, right, is that you don't supplant someone from their office when you're getting ready to film. next we'll talk about camera. And I've been mentioning mentioning it here, in this playlist, the Sony ZVE-10.

00:05:39:20 - 00:05:59:01
Nick Clason
we use it. It's phenomenal. It's a fantastic, valued $699. It's linked in the blog down below. and then we also got a, tripod for about a little over $100. So $111 is what this one I found here. Walmart is comparable. And then we got a teleprompter. you're also going to need like an iPad.

00:05:59:04 - 00:06:15:08
Nick Clason
if you want to do the teleprompter type of thing. and then I just use a free app, out of the App store, where we can, like, script out all of our messages, type them out and put them on a teleprompter, and then, walk them through. And just a little hack, at about 11 or 12 speed.

00:06:15:08 - 00:06:36:25
Nick Clason
And every teleprompter is going to be different. But the particular app we're on 11 or 12 speed and then like two, a 2000 to 2400 word seems to be the sweet spot for length of video for YouTube. I try to keep our YouTube videos, that we pre film anywhere between 10 and 15 minutes at the absolute maximum.

00:06:36:27 - 00:06:46:03
Nick Clason
and you'll notice like this is a difference between one being shot on a cell phone, his cell phone. And here's one. Once we started using the, the Sony ZVE-10

00:06:46:03 - 00:06:53:20
Nick Clason
also, I'm going to cut you to a clip in just second. this is one without me scripting it. Some kind of just, like, ad libbing it and talking to the camera.

00:06:53:23 - 00:07:02:16
Nick Clason
and then the next one right behind it is going to be one of me actually using, a teleprompter. How do you find

00:07:02:16 - 00:07:20:08
Nick Clason
true friends who believe what you believe and allow you to enter into a community of, like minded people who think the way you think, leave the way you believe, and like the things you like.

00:07:20:10 - 00:07:46:02
Nick Clason
God won't give you more than you can handle. Have you ever heard that before? Well, spoiler it's actually 100% inaccurate. All right, now let's talk about lighting. So, we bought some different like lighting boxes. So I got the apurture light box. 30120 12 by 48 at $69 value. And then also the apurture light octa dome 120.

00:07:46:02 - 00:08:12:16
Nick Clason
That's $129, as well as some different stands. So we got the show Maven ten foot light C stand. That's 119.99 And then the newer professional photography studio stand for light reflectors that, I think there's two of those for $40.99. Those are kind of the, the things to go with the lighting. But then we got apurture, Amaran, and apurture, Amaran 100 x bicolor, and then 200 x.

00:08:12:18 - 00:08:30:20
Nick Clason
The 200 x was $349, and the $249 was was of the one. And so, this is example like you'll see here on screen of us doing it without the lighting, we would just use either natural lighting or like a ring light. and in some cases it was pretty bad. but then this right here is

00:08:30:20 - 00:08:39:18
Nick Clason
once we started using these lights and this is one of the most important things that that we did, to really, I think, level up some of our quality and production.

00:08:40:12 - 00:09:03:14
Nick Clason
but the last and perhaps, well, not perhaps definite, the, the most expensive, is what we did for the audio rig. so we got to focus, right, Scarlett? Two eye, two USB audio interface, third gen. actually, we didn't get that one. This is, a two channel, one. So if you have two people on camera, and you need two audio inputs, this one is $189.99.

00:09:03:16 - 00:09:26:29
Nick Clason
the one that we got, though is the focus, right? Scarlett? 18i8 In-n-out USB audio interface, third gen that has four audio inputs and that one a little bit more expensive at $359.99. and then we used, the Sennheiser EW 112P G4 portable wireless lavalier microphone. those that's where the expense comes in, right.

00:09:26:29 - 00:09:34:15
Nick Clason
Like and you'll see this this is like Stephen A Smith wears this on ESPN on TV. But $699.95 we bought

00:09:34:15 - 00:09:51:06
Nick Clason
three of them. so we have three different people on camera and on microphone at any given time. but honestly, we typically only use it for like one sometimes maybe two for do, some social media type filming where we do some sort of banter back and forth.

00:09:51:11 - 00:10:09:23
Nick Clason
so depending on however many you want of those, if you want one, it's, you know, $699, but if you want 2 or 3, obviously it's going to make that more expensive. And then we also did get a shotgun microphone. my friend who is an audio engineer said, I like to put a shotgun microphone there too, just in case something happens with the wireless packs.

00:10:09:26 - 00:10:33:13
Nick Clason
you still got something. And so the shotgun mic, the Sennheiser MKE 600 shotgun mic with an XLR plug into a jack of 18 18 inch cable is $329. And we do use that a lot, especially with students, because the, lavalier microphones, while they are portable, they do need to be plugged into the focus, right? Which does need to be plugged into a wall.

00:10:33:15 - 00:10:47:11
Nick Clason
Meanwhile, the Sennheiser shotgun microphone is battery powered, so we can take that kind of like out on the street and do a little bit more, quote unquote, like man on the street type of stuff. and then of course, the last thing you're going to need is you're going to need some good headphones. And so here's what I recommend.

00:10:47:11 - 00:11:06:03
Nick Clason
Sennheiser HD 569, a closed back wired headphones at 199 95. Now, listen, I get it. It's expensive. And you're looking at this know does this really make a difference? Well here let me show you what the audio, if you're listening, is you're going to be out here. This is what the audio sounded like with just a little bit of an elevated upgrade.

00:11:06:03 - 00:11:25:28
Nick Clason
This out of my iBook, less than $100 microphone, filming direct camera. This is what it sounded like. And then directly following it is going to be. Once we started using the focus, right. And some of the other microphones and stuff that I just recommend. So check it out. Like what do you want to do when you grow up?

00:11:26:00 - 00:11:51:23
Nick Clason
Like, have you ever really thought about what you're going to do with your life? In this video, we're going to explore the value of the final word. So as you can see, it definitely does make a difference. Now here's the thing, right? Keep in mind if you're like, dude, that's a lot, I understand, I get it, okay? And you may not be in a spot where you want to level your gear up to the spot.

00:11:51:25 - 00:12:11:17
Nick Clason
Let's just be honest, most of the videos that you're going to be showing to students, like they're going to be probably watching them on their cell phones, and so does the 4K quality matter. Like probably not. You know, in some cases, does audio quality really matter? I, I, I think audio really matters. And so that's, that's why I want to rank this.

00:12:11:17 - 00:12:24:25
Nick Clason
Right. I want to chat through and rank. Like if you were to start with one of these for lighting, set audio camera. What's most important thing to start with. And of course, this is

00:12:24:25 - 00:12:38:04
Nick Clason
my ranking. This is Nick Clausen's custom hybrid ranking of of elements to level up your gear beyond just $100 mark. to go a little bit more premium, for a youth ministry budget.

00:12:38:06 - 00:13:02:04
Nick Clason
but you can figure out what you want and what is most valuable and meaningful to you in your context. But for me, I would start with lighting, like leveling up the lighting and getting away from just like ring lights only, or natural lights only like having some good quality lights are powerful that are customizable. You can even buy some gels to like, throw flash color on to there and stuff like that.

00:13:02:04 - 00:13:06:23
Nick Clason
If you want. lighting really, really makes a difference. And you can see that

00:13:06:23 - 00:13:13:02
Nick Clason
in these examples here before and after. the second thing for me that I would do is I would do

00:13:13:02 - 00:13:26:13
Nick Clason
audio and, the only reason that audio is not more, not ranked higher than lighting is probably because of the cost. The cost is quite a bit more, and the learning curve is also a little bit more.

00:13:26:13 - 00:13:46:22
Nick Clason
I thought, man, I tell you what, I don't know anything about audio engineering. I'm just I'm kind of hacking it. but the Sennheiser, the portable lavalier microphones like those gave me a run for my money the first time that I was getting them up and running. now, now we got it all figured out. But like, that first time, I was like, dang, I was, you know, I was watching YouTube videos and trying to figure those things out.

00:13:46:24 - 00:14:13:11
Nick Clason
The third for me is the camera. Like, I still think that, comparably, like side by side, my cell phone camera, has a pretty comparable picture to what the Sony ZV ten does. And I mean, and maybe it should, right? Like, my cell phone actually costs more than the Sony ZV ten. But the fact is, my cell phone also has a lot of other functionality on it that the Sony doesn't.

00:14:13:11 - 00:14:25:05
Nick Clason
And so, I think you can get by longer, even if you wanted to go with like the tripod, and the teleprompter rig, you can, you can teleprompter to a cell phone. And so, that would be my third

00:14:25:05 - 00:14:34:23
Nick Clason
one. And then fourth and final is just to set like it's I'm in a very fortunate situation where I was able and afforded to take a room and really make it a priority.

00:14:34:23 - 00:14:52:03
Nick Clason
Like we have said, hybrid ministry and digital integration. It's it's not an option anymore, like it's a necessity. We are reaching students, generation Z, Generation Alpha, who are no longer just digital natives, like their digital dependents. And so to have a studio or we could pull students

00:14:52:03 - 00:14:57:29
Nick Clason
in after Wednesday night and film with them and have a space is completely crafted and curated in any moment.

00:14:57:29 - 00:15:09:13
Nick Clason
We're we're like, you know, a couple weeks ago, we wanted to film some videos for our incoming fifth graders, and I just pulled our team mates together and said, hey, we're going to film this. We walked in the studio and popped the lights

00:15:09:13 - 00:15:13:14
Nick Clason
on and clicked record, and off we went. And then we were done. And then I took that, and I.

00:15:13:19 - 00:15:40:27
Nick Clason
I went and edited it like, it's nice to have that. It's nice to have that space. and honestly, it's also become a space that other people have wanted to use, for different like video projects and stuff like that throughout the year and different divisions of ministries within our church as well. And so if you have the space and if you have the buy in from leadership to allow you to to convert a space, I would recommend it because digital and hybrid ministry, they're just they're not going anywhere.

00:15:41:03 - 00:16:00:08
Nick Clason
And advice from my very first co-host on this podcast. His name is Matt Johnson. Shout out to Matt episode one through seven. Co-host on this podcast. He told me when I said, bro, I'm thinking about certain podcasts. His advice was, you know, he gave me some tactical things and some gear like recommendations. And he said, but do you want my real advice?

00:16:00:12 - 00:16:17:10
Nick Clason
And I said, of course. He said, just start like, just do it. And that's what you got to do with this YouTube thing. Like just start. We've talked about it now. You know what it takes. You know, like all the gear you use, you've seen my studio, but you gotta do it and then you gotta do it again for the next series after that.

00:16:17:14 - 00:16:41:09
Nick Clason
And then you got to do it again for the next series after that. And you might be wondering, like how do you maintain and how do you not grow weary of this? Because it's you put a lot of energy behind getting up and off the ground, but how do you how do you maintain this creating over and over, sort of momentum to continue to continually show up in a hybrid space and hybrid ministry on YouTube, on social media?

00:16:41:09 - 00:16:59:00
Nick Clason
Well, I'm actually glad you asked because we're going to be talking about that in the next and last final video, episode 99 linked right here on screen as we are trying to make digital discipleship easy, possible and accessible. So as always, stay hybrid.