My brother Louis is one of the best DP's (Director of Photography) there is. He knows how to make a gorgeous video. I'm a pretty decent producer myself. My team and I recently wrapped on our first short film called Family Dinner. It's not released yet, but you can watch it here if you'd like. Content warning: It's a little weird and morbid. But it's fun. 

All in all, my brother and I own somewhere in the range of $50,000 worth of video equipment, with Louis taking the lion's share of that number. My point - video production can get expensive, very fast. 

Now more than ever, incorporating video content into your community's social media strategy is essential. There are two avenues you can take for video production. You can hire someone like me, or you can do it in-house. Both have their place. Here's the thing - most people do not need a $1,000 Rode mic or a $10,000 cinema camera to produce quick, engaging videos that look great. Mobile videography has come a long way, and it's just getting started.

In this post, I will show you a video equipment set-up for under $2,000, that will allow you to produce great-looking videos for your property.

Let's start with the camera. The iPhone Pro is hands down the best piece of equipment for mobile videography. 

iPhone Pro 11 (Base Model)

Price: $999 (on Apple's website)

Last year Apple came out with the first iPhone sporting three lenses - a telephoto lens for close-ups, a wide-angle lens for mid-range shots, and an ultra-wide lens that captures 4x more scene than the standard wide-angle lens.

Okay, but why not DSLR camera like the Canon T7i? It's cheaper than an iPhone. Well, yes and no. You can get a refurbished T7i for about $500. But then you'll need different lenses, a heftier tripod, a gimbal able to carry that weight. This set up can get up into the thousands of dollars very fast. Price isn't the only reason I recommend the iPhone over a DSLR camera. The second, and most important, is presets. The iPhone Pro is incredibly good at automatically selecting the right presets for your video as you're shooting. A DSLR, while more potent with its ability, doesn't do much automatically. You will need a solid understanding of traditional videography for your videos to look great. 

Tripod

Just a basic, lightweight tripod is needed.

Price: $26 (on Amazon)

Cellphone Mount for Tripod

Price: $15 (on Amazon)

You won't be able to, or even want to, hold your iPhone for every shot. A basic, lightweight tripod and cellphone mount will help you create great-looking shots for when you do not need movement from your camera. 

Gimbal (One for an iPhone)

Price: $120 (on Apple's website)

Smooth, steady motion from your camera will give you a professional look that'll set your video apart. While the iPhone does have decent stabilization, a gimbal will take it to the next level and is an essential part of your set-up.

iPad Air (Base Model)

Price: $500 (on Apple's website)

iMovie (Software)

Price: Free

You'll need hardware to edit your videos. The iPad Air is relatively inexpensive and is excellent at handling small to medium video editing projects. There's also a lot of benefits with using both iPhone and iPad together in your workflow like iCloud, Airdrop, and Apple's Continuity feature for iOS. Why an iPad Air over the cheaper iPad? Power. The iPad Air has the faster processing chip (A12, at the time of writing this) that can handle video editing. 

Another reason to get an iPad (over a traditional PC, like Dell) to edit your videos is the software available. Unless you understand how to use Adobe Premier, the iPad with iMovie is the better choice, in my opinion. iMovie is intuitive to use, powerful enough to handle most small to medium-sized video projects, and it is free. If you don't know how to use iMovie, there are endless youtube video tutorials, and Apple gives free in-store lessons on video editing.

Shure MV88+ Mobile Microphone (Video Kit)

Price: $249 (on Apple's website)

Nothing screams "amateur video" like not being able to hear what people are saying or loud background noises. The sound quality of your video can keep people engaged or have them running for the hills. The Shure MV88+ is a crazy good microphone that you can plug right into your iPhone. It also comes with a free app that allows you to adjust the area the microphone will pick up sound. 

Side note: if you get the MV88+ video kit, you won't need the cellphone mount (you'll likely still need the tripod recommended above, however).

Lighting Kit (basic)

Price: $89 (Amazon)

A cheap lighting kit can go a long way for adding production value to your video. You won't always need it. The iPhone is decent in low-light situations. It's still good to have for indoor shots where the lighting is limited.

Here's the break-down of your new video production set up:

iPhone Pro: $999

Tripod: $25

Gimbal: $129

iPad Air: $499

Shure MV88+ Microphone: $249

Lighting Kit: $90

Total $1,991 (before tax)

Will this set-up give your videos a Wes Anderson-level of beauty? Unlikely. Creativity and an eye for videography are two X factors that not everyone has. Experience, obviously, also goes a long way. However, providing your leasing team with all the equipment they need will give them the confidence to get creative and shoot some great-looking video content for your community. 

Here's a very silly video I made with just my iPhone Pro and a Tripod. I used my Mac to edit this particular one, but I could've easily done it on an iPad.