Results of the 48 Hour Challenge: The Get Started Mini-Manifesto

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Last Thursday, I announced to my list that I was challenging myself to create a video that met the following criteria:

• Engaging
• All new material
• One take
• Everything completed in 48 hours

 

So how’d it go?

I shared the results with my list on Saturday, but now everyone can check out:

Get Started: A Mini-Manifesto

It’s a bit of “what I believe” when it comes to creating videos, and also about putting my money where my mouth is.

I should be able to create videos just as easily as I encourage you to do.

Now, if I can help anyone just get started, that’s a win, because it can sometimes be a HUGE obstacle to overcome.

Here’s the manifesto…

Overall, I’m very happy with how this came out.

Is it perfect? Nope.

Do I see things I could fix? Yup.

Would it have been possible to obsess over this until I made it unenjoyable for myself and never actually produced the video? Absolutely.

But the point was to create a video. To get it out there.

I had originally thought of using some dramatic music underneath what I was saying.

Here’s what I came up with—enjoy this quick sample.

Always a good idea to keep a sense of humor about the things you’re doing. 😉

 

How did I shoot this?

I brainstormed the ideas on Thursday, and thought about it more over the next day.

I knew the rough blocking I wanted (i.e., walking into frame, getting close at the end). At some point, making it B&W dawned on me, and I really liked that idea, to give it more of a “timeless” feel.

Then on Friday, I questioned everything and wondered if I needed to completely scrap and re-write.

That was just doubt, so eventually, I let that go.

On Friday, I filmed it, and it took 4 attempts.

• First try: forgot everything after about 15 seconds
• Second try: heat came on and completely distracted me
• Third try: couldn’t remember the end to save my life (when I get close to the camera)

 

Gear used:

• Cybershot point-and-click to film (these days, usually using my laptop, but I wanted better quality so I went with the digital camera)
• Joby tripod for the camera
• H2 Zoom to record external audio (since I was a few feet from the lens, I needed something to capture audio)
• Audacity to do minor clean-up to the audio (mainly reducing any background noise, and making levels consistent)
• DualEyes to sync the audio and video (happens almost instantaneously – amazing program; bundled with PluralEyes – for syncing multiple camera angles with audio)
• Quicktime to both capture the audio (USB from H2) and to edit off the beginning and end of the video once uploaded from camera memory card (couldn’t be simpler!)
• YouTube to change video to B&W (yay, no iMovie importing/exporting!)

 

Now it’s your turn.

What are you going to create?

What are you going to shoot?

Let us know below what you’re going to do.

Accountability is quite a great thing: it’s what I used with this challenge when I announced it to my list. I was on the line, and in a sense, there was no turning back.

The only reason I wouldn’t have done this would have been because of my own resistance.

Back to you:

Get started!

(or, if you already have, keep working on it!)

 

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