A couple of weeks back, I had another go at doing a Vlog. The intention was to do five minutes on Fort Gilkicker. I’d done a little bit of historical research and knew roughly what I wanted to say. Of course, when I started recording it didn’t come out the way I wanted.
I am working through the mistakes, not least of which are not being prepared with the material (more a case of being over-confident with what I think I wanted to say), talking to the camera, rather than letting the camera see the location, which is admittedly, with the construction barricades is not in its best light, but I shouldn’t use that as an excuse for a poor video, rather use it to be part of the story.
I produced a lot of material, mostly me talking to the camera, and some of the setting. When after a bit of editing I played it through – 20 minutes. Now, this really surprised me. I wanted only to do 5 minutes. It’s good that I’ve got more material than I need, I need to go through it to see what I can take out – I suspect that might be easier said than done.
I am not in the least bit upset or annoyed about this. It is all good experience. Several things jump out at me;
- Fix my habit of looking away from the camera. This is because I am self conscious about speaking to the camera, and yet I am not with talking to the radio.
- Know what I am going to say. This doesn’t mean a script, but it does mean notes, bullet points, that kind of thing.
- Don’t talk to the camera if there is something you want to show.
- Whilst the stability of the GoPro and the phone is excellent. There is still a valid reason to use a tripod.
There will be quite a few more things that I got wrong. I watched a YouTube video last night the 15 mistakes of doing a video. I thought I had made notes but I can’t find them! I haven’t given up, I am still working on it.
Bills Posts 