This message will be delivered in three sections:
The setup
The pitch
The close
The Setup
Making a video is actually kind of complicated. At least making a video that doesn’t suck is. First you’ve got to figure out what you’re going to talk about, then you have to know how to lay it out in a “story” format, and then you have to tell it in a way that is compelling and engaging.
And to make a video that doesn’t suck, you need to know something about light, about audio, about shot composition, aspect ratio, resolution, frame rates, and then there’s just the extra gear and accoutrements that help your creation go from “ho-hum” to “oh yeah”.
And if all of that isn’t enough, there’s the editing. Editing really is everything in a video. Fades, transitions, skin tones, audio levels, compression, codecs, saturation, gamma curve, RGB, wave files, hue, intro’s, outro’s key frames, and holy moly here we go…
So yes, making a video is kind of complicated. Especially one that doesn’t suck.
The Pitch
Every time I teach a video class, every time I work with a new video client, and every time I get on our Monday Video Seminar Zoom call, I’m reminded of one thing: the role of time in our humanity. We forget about that.
The example of making video is just a prop to make the pitch in story form. The pitch is the role of time in our humanity, and it applies to anything and maybe everything, but it certainly applies when we are learning something new. And for most people, learning how to make a video, especially one that doesn’t suck, is something new.
As each day passes, technology becomes more and more a part of our human lives. We touch it every day and it touches us back. If you’re reading this, you’re touching technology right now. There are two elements to our human relationship with technology: first, technology changes the role of time in our lives as we understand it, and second, it changes our expectations of ourselves.
Consider the most basic element of your humanity: communication with another person. It’s technology that has helped us to speed up and multiply our communication. In the beginning we had to physically go see one another because that’s all there was. And then along came the phone. It’s faster to make a phone call then to physically go to see someone so we call. And then email showed up and that’s certainly faster than a jibber jab on the phone so we press “send”. And if you want to just get it over with now, have the conversation with your thumbs and shoot a text. These are all time saving utilities of technology, but with each subsequent use of technology, from visit to call to email to text, we lose a piece of our humanity. On the phone I can’t see you. In an email I can’t hear you. And a text is well – poof.
Technology also requires us to learn how to use it. What if you want to learn how to make a video that doesn’t suck? You have to learn how to use the technology. The camera settings, the lighting and the audio, the editing. Human animals learn by building something called “neuropathways” in our brains. It’s well documented, not debated, and widely accepted. It is these neuropathways that provide us the capacity to learn. Our neuropathways and the way we learn. And that applies not just to making a video that doesn’t suck, but really to who you are, how you show up, and where you take your place in the world.
How long does it take to build these pathways, you ask? A fellow human has an answer for us.
The Close
Malcom Gladwell famously documented in his excellent book “Outliers” that it takes the human about 10,000 hours of consistent practice to develop “mastery” of anything. That’s about 5 years of full-time work. In Outliers, Gladwell correlates this notion of 10,000 hours to The Beatles and Bill Gates. But let’s say you’re not trying to get all the girls or change the world; maybe you just want to learn to make a video that doesn’t suck. You might say to yourself, “Well, I’ll just watch some YouTube or maybe take a class”. And maybe you will and that’s probably better than nothing. But if you think you’re going to walk into a room and listen to some stranger, or just stare at some videos, maybe take a pop quiz, and walk out 4 hours later with the competence to do something that’s kind of complicated (like making a video that doesn’t suck) you my friend, are a fool on a fool’s errand.
Neuropathways are a part of your humanity and they’re not going to change anytime soon. New learning takes practice, repetition, an awareness of failure, and then adjusting again and again and again until your humanity has learned what you set out to learn. You know all of this because this is the experience you’ve lived in your whole life. I’m just summarizing it on a Sunday. You’re welcome.
Finally, here’s a crazy little exercise: get pen and paper and draw and line from left to right. The left side is your beginning, the right is the end of you (sorry). After you draw your line, put a mark where you think you are on your lifeline right now. I know, you’d rather be in denial, but try it anyway.
From the mark you make on that line until the end of your life, you will be required to learn new things. Some to prosper, some to keep up, some just to exist as society evolves. You may even learn how to make a video that doesn’t suck. And a part of that learning will be when you get frustrated, when you feel pressured, and when you tell yourself you just “can’t”. When you hit those moments, press pause and give yourself a simple gift: give yourself a fucking break. Because you are a human being my friend, and your humanity requires time.
Good luck and have a good week.
Joe Still
2023.07.02
Cite
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”
– Benjamin Franklin