4 things I learnt from 5 days of vlogging

Possibly one of the hardest parts about vlogging is accepting you look like a fool and risking the fact you may look like an idiot. Once you’ve accepted that without caring about it too much, the rest is relatively straight forward.

Tip: everything becomes a lot easier when you’re not pretending to be anyone else but yourself. Authenticity is key.

1. Structure

The next bit which I’ve definitely not figured out yet, is style and structure. I’ve always struggled with structure. Even writing this blog is a challenge.

My brain doesn’t work in a linear fashion, it jumps around a lot. So, writing a very loose structure down before shooting anything is key.

The writing should coincide with some kind of story (or stories). Start, middle and end. This creates a flow. Not everything has to be in order 100% of the time.

Sometimes, in the editing process, the story makes more sense when you start at the end. A preview of the ending gives the viewer a chance to decide if they’re actually interested to learn about how you arrived at the ending (if that makes sense?)

2. Film 10x more stuff

You should film 10x more stuff than you think you actually need. When I filmed the intro for “Day 3 - Putting pen to paper” the first 45 seconds took about 2 hours of footage and 6 hours of editing. Was it worth it? Probably not.

3. Editing takes 80% of the time

As a rule of thumb, when you make a vlog, only 20% of the time will be spent on filming. The other 80% of your time will be spent editing and finding the right music.

4. Music and sound are the most important

Don’t underestimate music. It’s really, really important. It will give the viewer an understanding of your style, personality and outlook on a particular sequence of events. It will change the entire mood of your vlog.

Sound is arguably more important than the cinematography. Crisp, clear and uninterrupted sound, especially during segments involving voice, should be the priority. It took me a while to figure this one out.

I’m not quite there yet with the sound. Although, after a solid 2 years, I’ve only just managed to figure out how to edit video - God knows how long it’ll take for me to learn how to edit audio…

A summary...

I’m not done exploring the notion of video yet. I’m quite enjoying exploring this creative outlet. It’s a fresh and new way for me to express ideas, concepts and record parts of my life I know I will certainly cringe at in 20 years time 🙃

Thank you for checking out this blog. You can subscribe to my Youtube channel, here. You can see more of my work on my website, darceybeau.co.uk, or my Dribbble profile, or my Behance profile. You can email me about working together at info@darceybeau.co.uk You can also follow me on Twitter, Instagram, or Unsplash. Have a great day!