It’s been a while since I last wrote anything. So while I’m sitting looking through YouTube, on a dreary day before my first of a string of night shifts, I thought I would catch everyone up on where I am. Since starting this quest a couple of years ago, I have learned a few things.

First, that the story you tell is more important than the way it looks. It’s easy for a tech person, like me to look at the cameras and think, “Ooo, I want that one so I can make pretty pictures.” Well, that is important, but no one wants to watch a boring story, no matter what the picture looks like.

Second, sound is even more important. Somehow, when I learned of this, I thought, “Well that’s cool. Good thing I learned how to mix live sound at church.” Not that I’m great at that, but I’m competent enough to keep learning new things, and it’s spilled into my filmmaking.

The third is related to the first. I may not have the best gear in the world, and that’s okay. I’m figuring out how to do things right with what I have. Maybe in the future, I’ll get some of the new gear, but right now, with my D5500, iPhone X, the old Canon point & shoot that I started with, and my GoPro Hero (early 2000s not the new one), I’ve been able to put together some okay videos for my experience level.

I realize that my composition for  video is coming along, and that my photos are better composed than my videos. I also note that I need to be more patient and sometime learn to to do everything manually on my “big camera”(D5500) instead of some things manual and other things auto.

I’m also at a point where I need to write things, instead of the edit with what I have. That’s okay for some things, but it isn’t very challenging.

I also want to shout out to all of the YouTube people that have been training me from the beginning…

• Tom Antos
• Dave Dugdale
• Basic Filmmaker
• Griffin Hammond
• This Guy Edits
• Wolfcrow
• Casey Neistat
• Cinematography Database
• DSLR Video Shooter
• DSLR Guide
• Film Riot
• Filmmaker IQ
• Indy Mogul
• knoptop
• No Film School
• RocketJump Film School
• The Film Look
• The Slanted Lens
• Peter McKinnon
• Matti Haapoja

There is one more that I have learned the most from, just because of the type of videos that he puts out, and that’s D4Darious! His 30 day film school, that someone put into a Google spreadsheet is the bomb! Not to mention his tutorials. That’s not to short change any of the others, but D has broken things down in a way that helped me with my skills.

I’m hoping with the new schedule rotation at work, I can sit down and work more on this. I have a long way to go…