Making of the Video

There are two things I don't know how to do: swim, and shoot and produce a web video. In both, learning the skill would have been much easier and more fun if I had done it when I was 12, when failing didn't feel so pronounced. Well, that didn't happen, and for GNews I had to do the video.

We were basically given a few lessons and then sent out to film and edit. I'm a big boy so I didn't mind, but I did do things to hurt my learning curve. The most prominent handicapping was not buying a camera and playing with it before going to shoot. So essentially every time I went out to film I had to learn how to use the camera at the same time. And with video, the interview and first draft are one in a way that's different from writing. At the interview stage you already need to frame the picture rather than just gather information.

This being said, most of my video came out like decent home video, which is really all I could ask for. I had a great subject and I actually thought out how my story would unfold before filming, that way I could go get what I needed. That's why I got up at 730am to get from Sunset Park in Brooklyn to East New York to follow my subject, David Adekoya, from his home to school. Of course later this turned out to wasted because this portion of the story didn't test well, but it was still interesting. If nothing else, I planned out my footage.

There's nothing to say about editing accept that it takes a lot of time, is annoying in the beginning, but when I got the hang of it I quite enjoyed it. Part of this is because I am not as invested into video as I am into writing. I read well, which makes writing difficult because I can see how hard it is to produce very good work. But with video I can't really say I can judge it with much authority. And so I try to keep my video simple, and that doesn't annoy me like it would with writing. I found video a fun storytelling media also.

What I put up is a mess. I needed to post something, so I took my long piece and just cut bits away so I could upload it. It's not pretty, and I'll retool the whole thing before the end of the semester. I don't intend to do anything fancy - no zooms and music or parlor tricks. Just a simple story, with pictures.