I’ve been trying to dabble in making Youtube videos for a few years now. Making videos is something I’m having to learn and so far I’ve learned it’s harder and more time consuming than I’d thought it would be. But that’s ok.

I’d watched a video on how to make a Youtube channel, and the guy said that it took about 35 videos before they didn’t suck anymore. 7 down, 28 to go.

Yesterday I decided to make a video on how to fix a broken Moleskine band. You know, the elastic band that wraps around a Moleskine notebook. Anyway, I dragged a lot of equipment downstairs in an effort to make a two-camera setup to both learn how to do that and show how to fix the broken band.

Several hours and many trips up and down the stairs later I had a setup that was getting the angles I needed. The lighting was far less than good, but the enemy of better is best.

A few takes later I had some footage that looked kinda awful but sounded ok, and realized that I needed better lighting.

Well, I’ve known that for a long time, and finally ordered a few lights on the river and ended up tidying the shop and doing a little web surfing. While doing that I remembered that Adam Savage, who makes some of the most engaging vids in his shop just uses his iPhone for many of them. Hmmmm…

Ok, so I tried again using my iPad for the ‘talking head’ shot, and my iPhone for the close-up, and other than way too many jump cuts and the usual mistakes from lack of practice, it looked and sounded ok.

Wow. There go my plans for buying all kinds of new camera gear!

Well, I’ll still get the lights.