True. I would love to have a script, but much of what I shoot is capturing what happens and making a story out of it, rather than the other way around. Planning and knowing what's going to happen is invaluable.
The context in which the advice was given was encoding the final output. For most of us, there's probably more improvement to be gained at the acquisition stage than the output stage.
As I consider any improvement in my video in the last year, I would attribute most of any gains in quality to 1) learning more about using the camera, 2) controlling the light that the camera sees to the extent that one can and 3) being ready in the right place when the action happens. I've had the editing tools to do better for a number of releases of Vegas Pro.
I would like to have a better camera, but I'm going to challenge myself to do better with the one that I have. There is much to learn. Luckily, at my age, I can learn and forget the same thing over and over and it's just as exciting each time.
2022-03-30 Updated the broken link.
Still true in 2022.
Having fewer limitations and more control in 2022, it is more true than it was seven years ago.
Luckily, at my age, I can learn and forget the same thing over and over and it's just as exciting each time.
I particularly liked this sentence - such a nice dose of self-irony - and I now know that I'm not alone.😏
I have benefitted from the insights of so many on this forum.
One was from back in 2006, when Vic Milt responded to several questions from jrazz about how to approach documentary film-making with this brillant advice:
vicmilt wrote on 11/16/2006, 5:03 AM
Just start shooting - immediately.
Don't worry about ANY of the details you listed.
The movie itself will guide your progress.
v
I put that advice up on my wall, and discovered that it not only applied to documentary film-making, but to every aspect of life itself. Over the years, as I kept pondering what Vic said, it became a poem that I've continued to revise to this day:
"Procrastinate ----- Later"
"It all begins with doing the dishes."
-- Ole Larsen