Brief Summary
In this post, I will cover the background to starting my YouTube channel and why I stopped. Also how I am restarting my YouTube channel by doing a 5-day YouTube Video Challenge.
YouTube and Me
Towards the end of last year, I started a Youtube channel. Before finally taking the plunge I found every excuse not to start: Fear, perfectionism, no time, lack of equipment, being a dad, having a full-time job, not knowing what content to make.
You name it. I gave myself every excuse in the book. If you have ever thought about starting a channel, then you can relate to this.
But one day something changed. After weeks of procrastinating, I decided I would upload the easiest video possible. So I picked up my phone, shot a short video and uploaded it.
After that, I started to get some momentum. I made a video a week, I committed to buying in some lighting equipment and I even turned my home office into a filming studio. Everything seemed to be going well.
But after a month it all stopped.
What Happened?
I don’t know exactly what happened. I think that I just wasn’t enjoying the process anymore. It had lost its fun. I had been using an accountability pact to encourage me to make a video every week for a month. This pact meant I would pay someone £100 if I didn’t upload a video. This might sound extreme, but I am a terrible perfectionist. If I didn’t do this I would have never uploaded any videos. After it ended, I was reluctant to continue with it as I thought I wouldn’t need it anymore.
Then I got to the point where I was looking into buying a new camera. Again here I started to feel the excuse creep in. But this time it was a lot harder to distinguish between my excuses and genuine reasons. Obviously, the expense was a worry. Fear of buying the wrong camera played a big part and watching 50 videos of camera reviews only made things more confusing. The other big reason was that I could shoot high quality 4K Videos on my Phone. So why should I buy a camera?
The Fun Factor
Looking back now I realise I was forgetting the importance of having fun.
I was treating everything so seriously and worrying about it. It’s true you don’t need a fancy expensive camera to make youtube videos – I even proved that by making my best-looking video on my iPhone Xs.
But buying new gear is part of the fun.
Who doesn’t love the excitement of getting that delivery, unboxing it and using that new cool thing for the first time? It’s like being a kid again. Honestly, the 10-year old me wouldn’t have given it a second thought. He probably would have completely emptied his savings account out.
Look, I am not saying we should be irresponsible with our money or our actions. But sometimes being too responsible, too serious and basically being too adult really can suck the fun out of things.
I think it’s funny how when I was a kid I wished I was a grown-up. Then I could do and buy whatever I wanted. Now I am an adult I yearn for the carefree attitude of my youth.
Restarting Youtube: 5 videos In 5 days Challenge
Ok. So one of my goals this year restarting my YouTube channel. It kind of stalled at the end of last year.
So now I am kicking things off again with another challenge. Starting March 1st (tomorrow) I will be uploading a new video every day for 5-days. Unlike my 7-day blog challenge, I decided to make this one a little shorter. Mainly because the process is going to be a lot more intensive having to write, film edit and upload all in the same day. Also, rather than the bar being set at just uploading a video (or just uploading a post in the blog challenge), I want to focus on practising some specific film making techniques.
So here is a list on things I would like to try this week:
Styles
- Vlog
- How-To / Tutorial
- Short Film Style
- Documentary
- Comedy Skit
- Unboxing/ Review
- Interview/ 2 Camera
B-Roll
- Overhead
- Slow-mo
- Speed ramp
- Stock Footage
- Artistic/ Mood
Transitions
- Masking/ Frame blocking
- The Whip
- Smooth Zoom
- Luma Key
- Rotation
Special effects
- Cloning
- Logo Animation
- Explosion
Obviously it will be hard to do all of these, but these ideas are just to get me started.
If you are interested in following along check out my videos here. Also, if are thinking about restarting your own YouTube channel or even just starting one, why not try joining in. And if you do please get in contact by leaving a comment below.
Goodluck!