italki English/German conversational

Contribution

• Video production
  • learn about the equipment
  • actual shooting
  • video editing & converting
• Teaching English and German on a conversational level

italki is a platform that connects professional teachers, language tutors and students. It can be seen as the Airbnb of language learning. Similar to Airbnb there is competition, i.e., as a teacher one should create a convincing profile including a convincing teaser video. I used this chance to learn about shooting videos and video editing.

See yourself at my italki teacher profile: https://teach.italki.com/teacher/6232880

How did I create that video just by myself?

I have had a basic camera equipment including a portrait prime lens. As I was shooting the video entirely myself I needed a Gorilla Pod – and I used it exactly as they show it in their commercial video (only that it took for ages to find the right position). As the in-built microphone of cameras are not good and positioned too far away while shooting I needed a lavalier microphone to record the audio on my phone. As usually there are microphones in all possible price ranges available. I went with one of the very cheap ones that also have incredible price/value according to many bloggers and testers. Fortunately, I was in Kuala Lumpur so I could get the Boya BY M1 for only a few Euros. More about my basic equipment can be found at https://www.lookmal.com/equipment

Video shooting

• Get basic equipment ready
• Find a quiet place out in the nature that also provides a tree to fix your camera
• Get wired and connect your microphone to your phone
• Do some test shooting to check the light and find your position to be in the center of the video (if you are totally alone that might require some time and some patience)
• Think about what you want to say
• Hit record on your camera and on your phone, get into position, clap twice to make the audio/video sync easier later
• Go!

Video editing

• Upload video and audio to your computer
• Get your preferred video editing software ready (I used DaVinci Resolve) as it is professional software that offers a free version as well
• Use the auto sync feature of DaVinci Resolve to neatly merge your video and audio
• Cut out all the stuff you do not like
• Add some transition effect
• Add some text at the beginning and end
• Add some fade-in / fade-out
• Publish

Teach and learn with italki

Besides learning about video shooting and video editing of course it is the teaching at a conversational level that interests me a lot. I am not a professional teacher, not at all, but one does not have to be necessarily a teacher for practicing a language with a student. It is great how italki connects people, and how everyone can learn of each other.