Tuesday, May 21, 2013

The Show Must Go On!

It really must! 

Last year many of you were generous enough to support my IndieGogo campaign to buy equipment to start my own webseries.  With that money I got a camera, software, a microphone, and some other accessories.  (I already have a green screen and am trying to figure out what one does with footage shot in front of it.)

Since then a lot of you have asked me when the show will be up and running.  And the answer is... I hope very soon. 

I could tell you that I started a new job a month ago and have been adjusting to a new schedule, and that I'm trying to do home repairs and eventually move, and that there have been various other distractions.  And all of that is true.  But the simple truth is that the hold up boils down to one thing:

I have no idea what I'm doing. 

I've never done this before!  I've never used a camera this advanced, or edited footage beyond that one vlog that one time, or used a green screen, or converted screencaptures to footage, or, or or... and it's all sort of intimidating and overwhelming.  And when I get intimidated and overwhelmed I have this awful habit of procrastinating.  Aaaaaaand that's really what's been going on.  I've been looking at all this stuff and tinkering with it and then going OMG SCARY! and backing off. 

Which is pretty silly, isn't it?  There's only one way to figure out how to do this, and that's by doing it. 

So I'm making a game plan.  I'm making up a list of dumb questions to ask the producers I know.  I'm reading user's manuals (exciting!).  I may do some off-the-cuff livestreaming to try and tinker at some point. 

And with any luck this will yield a web series for all of you to heckle and/or enjoy pretty soon.  My goal date is to have something to show you by the 4th of July.  That gives me a month and a half to do some studying and make something.  And maybe that something will even be half decent! 

I also have about six or seven blog posts kicking around my head that I haven't written because I don't spend nearly as much time at the computer as I used to these days. (And yes, the meatspace is scary.  But sometimes it's also fun and sometimes it also pays you money.  Sometimes both.)  But I'm going to try and update this little corner of the internet more often as well. 

All of that said, thank you again for your generosity and patience.  I shall endeavor to make it worth your while in as many non-porny ways as I can muster. 

3 comments:

  1. I had a much longer response all typified out, but then I had to sign in and the "document expired". What the crap. Anyway...

    It sounds to me like you're trying to do too much, too fast. My advice is to worry a lot less about all the fancy details and just make a video. Sit down in front of your fancy new camera and read out a script. The extra details will come in time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Learn the machine first; you may find some neat little tricks with it through trial and error. Then, you can wow us with a cool series of videos. I, for one, am looking forward to Auntie Tara's How To Be A Better Criminal. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  3. You probably were already going to do this, but just in case, here's my advice (granted, this is from a podcaster not a video producer, but there are some similarities); do not be too proud to ask veterans for advice. You have an advantage that a lot of video producers don't have. You are friends with people who have been doing this for years. Use Nash. use Lindsay. Use Elisa even (yeah, she hasn't been doing it as long as the other two technically, but she does it well). They're your friends, they would probably be more offended if you didn't ask. :) I know some of my podcaster friends were bugged when I launched my first show without talking to any of them for pointers first.

    ReplyDelete