How does the Apprenticeship Apply to Video?

@dwyl we all have wide range of video skills. Our objective is to master all the skills because we have many videos that we need to create in the next few months/years. In order to succeed at creating videos, we need Apprentice(s) who are passionately curious about mastering video skills.

"I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious." ~ Albert Einstein

Core Skills

All of the 7 core skills listed in the "What?" section of the Apprenticeship in Creative Technology (ACT) apply to learning how to create videos.

Personal effectiveness - having a systematic approach to your life with well defined routines and practices is essential to producing consistently great quality content at a high rate. Having a clear goal and steadily working on it each day is the key to success. Mastering your personal effectiveness is as relevant to video as to any other creative technology; master yourself first and the rest will follow.
Empathy - understanding how intended the audience thinks and feels is the only way to make a video that will resonate with them so your ideas and message is not lost. Empathy can be developed; it's a matter of putting yourself in someone else's shoes/life and seeing the world as they do. But you would be surprised how few people make the effort. Empathy can become a superpower!
Communication - video is by far the most effective means of communication. For the viewer, watching a video is an effortless way of learning concepts in a multi-sensory (audio + visual) way. The better you are at crafting video, the more effectively you will be able to communicate with many people.
Collaboration - anything beyond an individual/personal "vlog" involves collaboration with other people. Whether you just have a friend helping you with a operating a camera or an entire film/production crew; developing your communication (oral + written) skills is vital for successful video creation.
Creativity - video creation is pure creativity. The only limit is imagination. The more you practice creating videos the better you will be at developing and expressing your creativity.
Design Thinking - an essential skill in composing the shots for videos, or finding the perfect "borrowed" (stock) footage, is design sensibility; a sense for what looks great and works well. Later if you need to design props or entire sets for specific scenes, design thinking skills are critical.
Code - if/when you want to use visual effects in videos, a basic understanding of scripting is useful to sequence your scenes. Obviously good videos don't need special effects, but sometimes effects enhance creativity and story telling. Don't focus on the vfx while you are just starting out with editing videos because you don't need them yet; many great videos are made without any effects! But watch how David Fincher uses hidden effects in his films to seamlessly enhance the narrative: https://youtu.be/QChWIFi8fOY

Note: writing is still an essential skill when making video. Before a video is created, it must be planned, usually in written form. Scripts are always written so they can be read by the "talent" and production team. Practicing your writing skills is easily the most valuable skill in your creative career. Write! ✍️

Video Specific Skills 🎬

Video production involves several specialty skills including:

Ideation - thinking about, presenting and discussing the ideas for a video. see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideation_(creative_process)
Storyboarding - a rough visual sketch of the ideas, scenes/shots to help pitch the story.
Planning - figuring out what is required to make the video (equipment, location, talent, budget, etc.)
Production - coordinating all the parts so that everything works together is the job of a "Producer".
Scripting - writing any dialog or instructions to be followed. Note: this is still good practice even if you are producing videos alone, the better your script the less time you will waste shooting/editing!
Scouting - finding the perfect location and camera angle for the various shots you have planned.
Lighting - video is all about capturing light. A great subject matter is ruined by poor lighting. Learn how to light your subject, avoid glare, shadows and ensure continuity is worth the investment. Watch "Cinematic lighting techniques": https://youtu.be/iiUTTk67kXE
Cinematography - knowing your camera and other equipment and being fluent in using it. Big budget films have a Cinematographer or "Director of Photography" (DP) who is the expert in visual story telling. Watch: "What is Cinematography?" https://youtu.be/BXAr2yiYCV4
Sound - sound is one half of video. Capturing great audio quality makes a huge difference. The jobs of a sound designer is to both record, compose or find great sound (including effects). Watch "How sound can ruin or save a film": https://youtu.be/yqhzC4PXiKM
Video capture - framing the subject of your video from the perfect angle and lighting.
Editing - editing both the video and sound to stitch together a story. Editing is as much about what you keep as it is about what you cut. If the footage you took does not serve the story, cut it!
Color Grading - making the footage look good (even if the lighting was not great)
Visual Effects - any additional elements that are added after the video was captured which enhance the story.

Your objective as an Apprentice focussed on Video Creation is to learn all the skills listed above and in the process discover the one that you are most excited about. While you are starting out you have to do all the jobs in order to deliver the content. Watch: "Making Minimalism" about how the Documentary was made: https://youtu.be/wFIuZhOxG6c Matt D'Avella wrote, directed, shot and edited the film mostly by himself. There are many great videos about how to be a "solo" creative. In the case of the Apprenticeship, you will be working with @iteles & @nelsonic to create the videos for @home & @dwyl we will all collaborate on the ideas and production.

Day-to-Day Activities in a Structured Week 📆

Monday Morning 09:10: ideation workshop - immediately after the morning standup, we discuss the idea(s) for the week's video. A GitHub issue should be opened in https://github.com/dwyl/video/issues before this meeting to capture/share the ideas. The point of the meeting is to come up with ideas related to the principal idea/theme defined in the issue. e.g: "Unboxing and Setup of Raspberry Pi Welcome Screen"
- Remainder of Monday: plan the video. Collect props, prepare the "set" and write the script.
Tuesday: Record the video! 🎥
Wednesday: Edit the raw footage captured on Tuesday. Determine if any new footage is needed so that it can be recorded as soon as possible.
Thursday: Continue Editing. Focus on key ideas, telling the story and keeping the video brief. At the end of Thursday, upload the "rough cut" of the video to YouTube as an "unlisted" video. Share the link to the unlisted video in the original issue on GitHub so that we can all watch it.
Friday:
- 09:10: Preview the "rough cut" video with the team immediately after "standup".
- Day: Final editing/re-work - tidy up the edit and ensure that the video is the best it can be.
- Upload Final Version! upload the "final" version to YouTube, this time make it public! 🚀
- Afternoon: Write-up - spend 2 - 3 hours writing about all that you learned in the week.
- Answer any comments/questions from people on YT. 💬

Job Title ? 🎫

You may have noticed that we aren't very concerned with job titles @dwyl because we are more focussed on the work than on CVs or titles. But we understand that they are useful for how you think about yourself. With that in mind, the "job title" you should consider adding to your CV/LinkedIn during the Apprenticeship is something like: "Assistant Editor", "Associate Producer" or if you prefer a more generic "Creative Artist". Calling yourself a "Producer" means you can talk about all of the skills you are acquiring when someone asks. But it also means you must produce! You can't sit around watching videos you need to make them from start to finish.

Long Term ⏳

Our objective is to make lots of videos together. Some of those videos might have an apparently mundane subject matter, but they can still have an interesting story and the production value can be excellent which is good practice of the craft. Practicing as much as possible will transform you/us into masters of the craft of video creation. The videos we create will allow an Apprentice to build a portfolio of work. 📁 A portfolio that will allow them to work in the creative tech / video production industry for years to come!

We very much want to hire full-time video editors/producers @dwyl. If you decide you enjoy working with us, we would love to employ a team of video production professionals. If you decide you want to use your video skills somewhere else that's cool! We never want to "hold on" to people who want to move on, in fact we encourage people to spread their wings and find new adventures!

@edwardcodes thoughts?

dwyl / apprenticeship