This Is How...

I posted an entry wondering how I would ever manage to make my first YouTube video. I titled it How Do You Solve a Problem Like...Making Your First Video?

Well, here's the answer.

You make a plan and you do it.

I ended up writing out exactly what I wanted to say. I was originally going to memorize that but it just made the whole thing sound so rehearsed I had to scrap saying the exact words. It still sounds a tiny bit rehearsed, but I felt better about it. It was such a personal topic, the impact that Harry Potter has had on my life, that I had to at least try to be as natural as possible.

I was supposed to film the video this morning but that didn't end up happening. I filmed it when I returned home in the afternoon. Rule 1: Don't make a video when the light is changing. It WILL show up in your video. That was an unfortunate step on my part, but because I wanted this to be done so well, at least in terms of my speech, that I just left it. It's a very obvious jump haha. Good thing I'm not a film editor! But I did film it. Finally. First time ever, for YouTube, and I did it.

Editing is not my favourite thing, ever, and it's especially not my favourite when I don't have a real editing program. All I had was the browser my videocamera came with, as well as stuff like Windows Movie Maker. Which is fine when you're trimming off the ends and beginnings of the video, but not when you're trying to fix something in the middle. I have two massive cuts in my video that I hate, but there was nothing to be done because a) I don't know how to fix it, and b) the lighting changed so it'd be really obvious anyway.

All in all, it was...an experience. I'm not uber excited and pleased - I'm excited that I finally put something out there, and I'm still holding out hope that I will make it on to the DVD extras for Finding Hogwarts, as this was the reason for this video, but even if I don't, I made a video, people! I did it, and I thought I would never find an excuse. The quality's not the best, neither is the editing; I didn't do anything fancy; but it's from the heart and it's all true. And I think that's what was most important. This meant a lot to me and I did it, so I feel good about it. Being on the extras would be a bonus but I really wanted to make this response video to Bre Bishop - aka ifancythetrio - anyway.

But it's out there now!

This is the link to my video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAAi4pP7bgY&feature=plcp
Don't forget to order Finding Hogwarts! Watch the trailer on their site here: http://FindingHogwarts.com?fh=dramabroadwaydanii
This is the link to Bre's video talking about the Finding Hogwarts DVD/response video thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp00QgzjeWI
 AND this is the link to her original video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_959621&feature=iv&src_vid=lp00QgzjeWI&v=jZnWOml4OGo

This was a stressful, but exhilarating experience. I'm semi terrified and semi psyched to see what happens to this video I posted! It's in the public eye and it just seems much more personal than blog posts or social media profiles, for some reason. Maybe I'll write something about that later.