My Three Year Bootcamp In Filmmaking

I want to share a little tale with you all about expectations and perseverance, and it is all based on my foray into filmmaking, which went, well, great in the end. I had always wanted to make some movies just for the family and I realized that I was pretty good when it came to shooting them, picking some music and connecting them together, so I thought ‘let’s take this to the next level, maybe I can use these skills on the blog‘. At that time we were moving around a lot which meant that I didn’t have time to spend with anyone on learning, so I decided to just use a selection of vlogs and YouTube guides to help me to g from amateur to pro, sounded easy enough.

I began in November and the mission was that by the end of the year, I’d be able to shoot videos, edit them on After Effects and take the blog to the next level. That was 3 years ago now, and it is only now that I believe I can say that my ‘little’ planned bootcamp, is over.

I have spent the years worrying that I wasn’t doing enough to complete this bootcamp of mine which I set out to do, although looking back I have spent an enormous amount of time researching equipment and techniques and advice.

I have come to the conclusion that in reality, I set the bar way to high, and the time was way too limited, and that is something which I actually don’t mind. I think if you get easily dejected then this is a bad trait to have, but if you are happy to roll with the punches if you don’t do something as, or when you want to, I think that having these high expectations actually drives you forward.

The truth is that I could already put together a video with some music and some effects but I wanted to make movies, films which looked great, sounded great and to be honest, films which had a professional touch. Now I will confess that there were some periods of time where I didn’t have the time to invest in this endeavor, and then getting back into it is trickier than you may believe. Regardless, I always came back to it and thats why I eventually cracked the code.

In reality I massively underestimated how difficult it was to make professional quality movies, and I have a new found respect for anyone who is able to do this. Personally I am immensely proud of what I have achieved and that is because in spite of my lack of awareness, I have worked darn hard to get here.

We live in a very temporary world where we want things instantly, I fell into that trap but I kept on pushing and pushing until I finally was able to achieve what I set out for in the beginning, and rediscovered the true fruits of hard work.