I'm a full-time content creator — here are the Black Friday deals I'm keeping an eye out for

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(Image credit: Amazon)

published 23 November 2023

Along with being T3’s resident Social Media Editor and content creator, I can also pretty confidently claim the title of being the team member with the heaviest backpack — I’m always carrying most of my kit around just in case there’s a moment that needs to be captured for all posterity on our social channels. You might be thinking, “Oh, Emily will definitely have a new, bigger backpack listed in this article to ease her travel woes,” but alas, no. There is room in the current bag yet, and my spine is still young, so of course my eye is on even more fun tech to up my capture game.

1. Neewer 73.6" Horizontal Tripod

First up, I desperately need a new tripod. And I promise, this is going to be the least fun bit on my list, but a good tripod is essential and I’ve been wrestling with my current one for far too long. My ideal selection, however, is the Neewer 73.6" Horizontal Tripod, which normally retails for a bit more than I personally would like to shell out.

Now, as you can probably guess, I tote my kit back and forth between my home office and T3’s headquarters, so I prefer any accessories I have to be multifunctional. The great thing about this Neewer 73.6” tripod is that it is super versatile. At T3, we shoot a mix of to-camera and overhead angles (for all those unboxings), so having one tripod that can do both really is ideal, and this one has a 180 degree tilt and 360 degree rotation. It’s also dual-camera, so we can mount both a horizontal camera for YouTube content and a phone for vertical video. If we end up getting super fancy (my goal, obviously) we could even put a monitor on one of those sides.

Okay, I’m slightly drooling so I’m going to stop the description here, but you get the point: it’s nice. Hopefully it will drop a bit (or a lot?) from the current £138.99 price tag so I can get my hands on one and not feel guilty! We’ll keep you updated.

2. Hobolite Mini Continuous LED Light

This one is honestly so extra of me, because there are most definitely cheaper lights that would get the job done, but hey, this is T3 — you don’t work here without developing a taste for a the expensive and stylish. One of T3’s photographers (shout out to Olly!) actually put me on to this brand, and ever since seeing their stuff, I am in love. Once again, portable, multi-use, AND looks good as hell? Yes, please! I’ll be realistic and say that I’m more than likely not picking this up . . . But if it fell to the right price? Apologies to my bank account in advance.

3. DJI Wireless Lavalier Microphone

These lav mics are a TechTok darling — everyone who has them seems to rave about them, and I am most definitely interested in upgrading. We currently use the RøDE Wireless ME mics in our videos (if you’ve seen our videos, you can probably spot one!), but I won’t lie, there are some drawbacks.

Mainly, I love that the DJI lav mics come from with a charging case — the Wireless MEs have to be charged by USB-C cord, which can just get a bit cumbersome when you’re already juggling a million different cables. Plus, it’s too easy to just set them down — I forget to charge them way too often. The DJI have this nice compact case that would fix that, plus keep them safe!

There’s also two transmitters included in this bundle, which is handy for when we have multiple people on screen and we don’t want to awkwardly share a mic. And, to top it off, the receiver has a built-in OLED touchscreen for the basic controls, which makes life just that much easier. A definite upgrade I’m keeping an eye on.

4. Neewer Upgraded Interactive RGB Light Stick

If you know anything about filming/photography, you know that lighting is the most important aspect. It can take a scene from drab to glowing, and for T3, we have a certain mood we like our videos to strike. So this addition to the list is pretty basic, but a new light stick with more functionality would be really nice considering what an important part it plays in making our footage feel “us”.

This light stick also has a Philips Hue-esque app for colour mixing, which is fabulous — means I wouldn’t have to climb all over our carefully-constructed scene if I need to make adjustments to the lighting, and I could simultaneously see the difference my changes make on camera instead of running back and forth. What luxury!

5. Adobe subscription

Finally, an Adobe subscription is calling my name. I’ve had various Adobe apps on-and-off through the years, depending on what kind of project I’m working on, but over the past few years it has just become too expensive to justify when there are free apps that can do the same thing.

But just because free apps can do the “same” thing, doesn’t mean they are as easy to use, and Adobe just really is an industry standard. I would much rather have the ease of Adobe’s Creative Cloud suite and all of its additions than having to jump back and forth between lesser apps that might achieve a similar effect, but take way more time. Time is an important commodity when it comes to content creation!

Plus, I have always been largely self-taught when it comes to using content creation software, and Adobe is so well-documented that I can easily find amazing creators on YouTube to help develop my skills through tutorials and explanations. My colleague has actually already written about the stellar deal Adobe has on right now, so I’m just going to link to his article here so you can check it out for yourself.

Emily is T3’s Social Media Editor and has been creating online content for as long as she can remember. She is a serial hobbyist, and outside T3, you can find her doing everything from karting to sewing to dabbling in game design. She also runs a blog where she rambles about books.