Thoughts on Learning Video

I’m learning about video after putting it away years ago.

In 2014 I produced this video which has now gathered over 118,000 views. 185 thumbs up, 36 thumbs down. Haters going to hate.

Video was so time consuming that I didn’t make any more videos. I’m trying again and this is what I am learning.

It still takes an enormous amount of time. Not so much in production, with the software, but with planning things out.

My recent videos in many cases needed a script. Without a script I find myself doing countless retakes as I later remember things that should have been included. The positive thing about scripting, if I continue to go forward, is that I will have a fairly accurate transcript below the video in each of my blog posts.

Camera and microphone setup is also time consuming and completely dependent on good light which isn’t always available when I want to shoot. I often write at three in the morning, video doesn’t like the indoor lighting at that time. Natural light always seems best while everything else is dingy.

Video on phones is extremely popular and getting more so every day. But I can’t show map detail on a three inch screen. Today’s phone and tablet screens are forcing creators to cover subjects that present well on mobile: big, blocky subjects, no nuance.

Ansel Adams finely grained black and white landscapes presented well in large format books or magazines. That’s impossible on a phone. Wrong medium.

And increasingly, that is a square medium like Instagram. It’s all about the ‘gram, even when a photograph should appear in landscape.

There’s a whole world that will now go unseen because it doesn’t work on mobile. What have we come to?

Because of this I may do many videos just for desktop viewing. After endless experimenting, I find I can only show the detail I need by meticulously creating Photoshop images to accompany a video.

Take a look at the two still and uncomplicated images at the end of the video. Notice how clear and distinct they are. (Even on an iPhone.) That is how I need to convey information, along with moving images to keep things interesting.

Doing all of this is a time grab I am trying to figure out.