My essential tools for UGC
Now what I’m about to tell you may blow your mind, but you really don’t need a lot of things to be a UGC creator. You’ll see people recommending endless lists of equipment, and coming from someone who creates content for a living, 90% of that list just isn’t necessary. This isn’t to say that you can’t go all out and purchase masses of tools and equipment if that’s what you really want to do, but for most people just starting out with UGC, they simply don’t have the budget for that.
My UGC tools consist of three things (technically four if you include one of the items which I own two of) on a daily basis, and I’m going to share exactly what they are below…
A good quality camera
When I say a good quality camera, you’re pretty much guaranteed to be able to shoot good enough content on your phone in this day and age. I personally try and have the latest iPhone, to make sure that I’m shooting top notch content, but I understand that’s not the normal for everyone, as iPhone’s can be pretty expensive. There’s lots of older iPhone models that take decent quality footage, and you can always use a camera if you have one that takes better quality clips than your phone.
I think some people believe that you need a really expensive camera to do UGC for a living, and I personally just don’t think that’s the case. It really depends on the person and their individual style, but my iPhone 16 Pro Max has a superb camera on it, it can shoot in 4K, and it makes filming videos on a daily basis so easy. I don’t think I’d have half the content I do if I had to mess about with a camera every time I wanted to film something. My best recommendation would be to use an iPhone Pro Max to shoot on, and have the 14, 15 or 16 model.
A VERSATILE TRIPOD
My next recommendation would be to get yourself a versatile tripod. Over the years that I’ve been creating content, I have lost count of the amount of tripods that I’ve owned. It’s honestly been hundreds. My favourite, and holy grail tripod that I use for everything, is this one with a gooseneck on. It was just an Amazon find, but it’s incredible. It has lots of height on so that I’m not restricted with shooting things from high up, and the gooseneck makes it a breeze to get into tight corners, down low, or shoot overhead. It is honestly, a game changer and whenever I get asked for a tripod recommendation, it’s this one.
I also own a second tripod that permanently lives on my phone, and that’s the MOFT Invisible Tripod. I worked with this company on a paid review/video and had never heard of them, or this tripod before they reached out to me, however it’s one of the best phone inventions to date. If you have a MagSafe iPhone case, it simply attaches to the case via magnet, and if not, the tripods come with a magnetic ring that you can attach to Android phones, or non-magsafe phone cases. If you want to see how it works, you can watch my video on it here.
AN EASY EDITING APP
Once your UGC videos are filmed, there’s nothing worse than spending hours and hours of your life editing the footage. I find a simple and easy editing app is key to save lots of time. I still spend many hours editing footage, but certainly not as many as I would have using the complicated editors there were a few years back! My go-to app is one you probably already know and love, but if not, it’s just CapCut. CapCut is a sister app to TikTok, as they are under the same parent company and I just love how easy it is to use. There’s an app version as well as a desktop version, but I personally haven’t used or tried the desktop version yet. I find the app a breeze to use and I love that you can find your saved TikTok music through it whilst editing, making it easy to edit videos to sounds if you wish.
I don’t use anything else for my UGC work and I work with brands on a weekly basis. The only other things I would suggest investing in is a few props and things that come in handy for different jobs, but ultimately what you invest in depends entirely on your own niche.
I know lots of creators use ring lights and studio lights, but I don’t find artificial lighting beneficial at all, and I personally shoot all of my content in natural lighting. Nothing beats it, even on a gloomy day!
Let me know if there’s anything that you swear by for UGC that I haven’t included here, I’d be really interested to hear!
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