Often we are told that good things take a long time and yet awesome things take even longer, whether that’s a skill you want to learn or a project you are trying to complete.
During the past week, I forced myself to complete a video that for me was fundamental. I needed to complete that video. Why you may be asking… Well, it’s actually a long story but simply put, I lost the habit of completing videos. And by ‘completing’ I don’t mean making videos. I have always made videos since I was a kid but most of them were single clips, recorded during a vacation, a nice walk on the Italian mountains. Sometimes I even planned on turning a personal adventure or story of mine into a 4-minute-long video.
But one day I got traumatized…
My relationship with YouTube
In 2015 I started a YouTube channel that actually grew fast until reaching 2000 subs in about three months. I was making 1–2 videos per week. I was shooting a video every Tuesday so that it would be ready for publishing on Friday. Every shooting day I would set up my camera and studio lights and press that ‘rec’ button on my old Nikon D3100.
One day my mom got into my room and says ‘you must not do this again’.
She was referring to the YouTube thing I was doing.
And this made my brain develop a YouTube-block of some sort which doesn’t let me make videos if I have people around nor bring one to completion.
Isn’t that crazy?
My background
I’ve always wanted to be paid to do marketing and content for brands but I’m humble enough to intern somewhere and learn the job the long way. Over the years I found myself overselling what I’m capable of doing when it comes to online stuff and people now know that. Italians are not actually risk-takers. They’d rather pay less but risk less than to bet on something new.
Of course, results speak for themselves: I can’t do good marketing maybe because I don’t know how to. I can’t make good videos because I’m not that good. I’m not patient enough to learn things I’m supposed to know (next year I’m graduating in Web Marketing and Digital Communication).
I also tried multiple times to create a content agency but failed miserably.
I don’t know what I like to do
I know I’m into creative stuff. Videomaking, photography, graphic design, CG&VFX, you name it. I love them all. But my issue is that I’m no good. I tried so many things that I can’t figure out what I like AND what I’m really good at. Also, I hate working at the computer all day. I had sight issues in the past and now after one or two hours of working on my laptop, I get bad headaches and lose focus.
One of my biggest problems is that I can’t focus on one thing. That made me also think that I may have ADHD in a form or another.
I seem to focus more when I’m around people, maybe in the same team and especially when using my voice. In fact, phone calls are one of my preferred tasks among all.
For the sake of the experiment, I need to try as many creative content types and styles as possible WITHOUT interrupting one in the middle.
What I start, I finish.
Last week’s experiment
I’ve always known that my success would come from learning the craft and building one good thing that other people may want to buy from me, whether that’s a huge following on social media, a nice reel with pleasing videos for brands and Instagram pages, etc. So, I came to the conclusion that I needed to try every single type of video and digital craft in order to find what I’m good at and also what I can do repeatedly without getting bored.
The goal is: if I find a type of video that is cool, I can make without getting bored, and is interesting for my ideal client, I win.
First thing, I wanted to learn how to edit videos like the real YouTubers do, so I equipped myself, armed with patience, and started to shoot and edit this video
Before I explain everything to you I need to make a very short premise: I’m currently working as a real estate agent and so it is not my job to make videos even if I have other projects in the digital communication space.
I asked myself: what is the most efficient way to shoot a cool video like real YouTubers do? Well, the answer is… you need to have a good script in order to make a good video.
So, I wrote a list of the basic points that would make the story. It was such a short task that it took me such a short time I could believe it.
It was pretty easy and fun but I didn’t want it to end because next up there was the audio recording part. I actually realized I needed and actual script for that.
To make it easier, I recorded my voice and transcribed it with Google Docs (love that feature, thanks Google!)
After that, I completed the text with the missing parts because I realized that what I said wasn’t polished enough and some words were not adequate.
From here I re-recorded and re-read the text with more emphasis and emotions. I recorded several times to make sure I had quality audio through the use of lavalier microphones.
Only this, up to this part, took me three days.
As I said before, I have a job, a part-time job (I’m working at a realty firm located in Abano Terme) which means I can spend my afternoons working on videos, articles, and other stuff. The goal has always been to complete this video in the shortest time possible.
Expectations vs Reality
In the beginning, I thought I could complete the video in a day or even in a couple of hours BUT THIS DID NOT HAPPEN.
Needless to say, my next step was to find all the clips that I wanted to put in the story and match them with the text I had transcribed. I needed the right clips for the messaging I wanted to convey.
I use this technique to detach the moment I shoot from the time I edit the video. This allows me to not get bored nor overwhelmed by the quantity of digital material I acquire in one particular day. I hate watching the same clips over and edit the video the same day of the shooting. When that happens, I get discouraged and the day turns out to be a very unproductive one.
How long did the search process take me? 4 hours straight… just to select them and put them into the folder to use later in Final Cut Pro.
I started to add them to the timeline and that should be the easy part. Little did I know many clips were missing, according to the movie script I wrote a few days earlier. More importantly, I didn’t have any clips that could make the narration interesting.
Also, since the tone of voice I used in the recording didn’t match up with the rhythm of the story, I started looking on YouTube.
Crazy ideas were finally coming up to me… you know, when you through the ball down the hill it starts rolling. So it did. Famous cultural-related videos started appearing in the search results.
In order to make this video interesting to the Italian YouTube community, I picked clips from videos posted on YT channels such as theShow, jakidale, and emalloru, who seems like the Italian version of Casey Neistat.
To spice thing up a little, I also added short phrases from videos about religion, which is a touchy topic here. Don Alberto Ravagnani is both a YouTuber and a priest. He speaks about different subjects, ranging from cursing to relationships (viewed by God’s eyes).
I have combined these elements with the fundamental message of the video: content creators do need a space for making content and collaborating with other people like them. The best representation of it is Casey Neistat’s 368 space in New York City.
We don’t have such thing in Italy.
And that would be what I needed to escape from home
In fact, I never had a studio or a space where I could permanently install my lights and my equipment to make my videos.
Finding the missing clips took me another two days and here we are on Friday. On Saturday I finalized the whole video even if I could not get to the level I wanted to achieve. My own goal was to improve my video editing and storytelling skills as well as to find a process that would allow me to make systematic the creation of video content and any resulting articles.
1. things always take longer than expected
I consider myself an ‘optimist’, one of those few people that see the light and the end of the tunnel. But most of the time I’m wrong.
2. video editing is not often predictable
In fact, editing a video takes longer than you can imagine. What often gets in the way is the lack of movie clips. Creative ideas come up as you go on with the editing process and change the timeline by inserting the new clips.
3. the expectation is always different from reality
My main goal was and has always been to improve my video editing skills.
I tried many times to make videos like this but the all turned out to be boring, slow, not meaningful to the target audience.
I also abandoned a few because I thought that using other people’s videos in my own would be like copying or stealing. But that’s not necessarily true.
Leaving projects halfway through is what really brings no value to the audience. But sticking to it is what does to both them and yourself.
In Italy we sometimes say:
never leave the cup half full: drink it all or don’t ever fill it
If you are interested in watching the video I made, feel free to click play
Warning: it’s in Italian
Hope to chat with you about this topic in the comments
Many blessings,
Luca
