Week Round-Up - 23rd November
Time to fill my sinuses with expanding foam.
The biggest creative achievement this week was my first finished YouTube video. Actually, I don’t know what type of video it is as it isn’t uploaded anywhere. I want to not be tied to a platform like that. Especially one so heavily controlled by AI. But at the same time if I do want to focus on that YT does have the market share. There are other options. But not all tick the boxes.
I have learned a lot this week when it comes to making a full-length video. Know what you’re going to film before you film it. They don’t do storyboards for shits and giggles. You need more light than you think. GoPros are shite in low-light. And write a script!
I like my video. My husband says it’s like Wes Anderson recorded an episode of Grand Designs. For the still talk-at-camera shots I used Camo Studio and my Samsung A56, with a Rode mic connected to the computer. For the moving around shots I used the Samsung but unfortunately not using the Camo Studio software. Which means the footage is cruddy. I did a lot of work on settings, and using other cameras, but it was the best of a bad bunch. Voice-over work was done in Audacity with an Audio Technica mic. And the editing was done in Davinci Resolve.
The Hobby is plagued with LED lights. Whether it’s that USB hobby lamp you were influenced to buy but is actually from Temu, or the lighting in the large hall you’re playing a narrative event in.
Which is my next topic. I use the free version and for 99.99999999999999% of things it is perfect. HOWEVER. LED lights flicker. You can’t see them do it. But when you video at certain framerates it’s there. And the anti-flicker FX in Davincci Resolve is in the Studio edition only.
So that’s why I tried to film in lower-than-optimal lighting. I was trying to avoid the flashing and that meant turning off a few lights. It’s an instant scroll past when I see it in Reels on instagram. They could be informative, engaging, beautifully edited. But if they flicker under LED lighting I’m goooone.
Influencers in the creative space talk a lot about “just post it!” “get it out there!”. Please don’t. Give it a once over and make sure it doesn’t look like an underground Berlin rave from the 90s.