YouTube Reflection

At first glance creating a YouTube video can seem like a lot of fun. It’s not until you have to stitch the clips together, that you start to really put in the work. Shooting the video is the exciting part because one can really let their creative side take over. You can get creative on many different levels such as with the content, angles, and lighting. When editing a video, it can come with difficulties especially if you have a length constraint because you have to decide what to keep and cut out of the reel. You can also fix the length of your video by speeding up a clip or taking off a few seconds from some clips. Also, you have to do a lot of cropping and adjusting to meet the required length without it being too short or too long. When creating a video, one might run into an issue when uploading because of the size or length of the video. If this happens you will need to condense the video. Another struggle with video editing is finding the right music to fix the feeling you want to perceive of the video, You don't want something too loud and crazy for a calm video because it can distract the viewer and you also don’t want too calm of background music in a very action-orientated video.

Using video as a way to communicate can be really effective. Almost more effective than a photograph or text because it can give the audience the feeling as if they are right there along with you, in whatever endeavor you are filming. Whereas with a photo you get a small snippet of that and with the text you have to use more of a descriptive approach to get the audience to perceive what you want them to. With text, the audience has to use their imagination to picture what the writer is talking about or explaining. Using video as a communication tool is very different and more personable than using text or an image. Video is as close to in-person communication as you can get without actually standing beside someone. With video you can perceive both verbal and nonverbal communication, you can see the person’s facial expressions, pick up on their tone and body language. With video, the creator can provide you with visual aids such as props, text, or images. 

The content in this video reflects the 2020 pandemic because of the clips of wearing masks out in public and doing college classes from home. It also shows sitting at a desk for a long majority of the time and doing daily tasks like taking care of family pets and grocery shopping. Also shown in this video is a clip of working on a painting, crafting at the beginning of this pandemic became really popular because people were trying to find things to keep them busy so they would DIY projects and crafts. Other things that were seen in this video were clips of just getting out into nature, getting away from the computer screen, and being cooped up inside. This video shows little pockets of joy that are created while dealing with this pandemic, going on drives to see the fall foliage and get fresh air. At one point at the beginning of the pandemic, it became a norm for people to start going outside more than they would on average. People were going on walks with their families so they could get out of their homes in a safe healthy way since everything besides essential businesses were temporarily closed. 

Creating videos is a great way to communicate or get a message across to an audience. They can be a helpful teaching tool when recorded by teachers because students can pause the video and understand the content at their own pace. Creators have a ton of different creative opportunities when it comes to making and posting video content. Using video to communicate with people is unique because it incorporates both images and text into one place. Not to mention it is quicker and more visually appealing than reading long blocks of text. 

What I was hoping to portray in this video was more than just the same routine, even though that’s what we find ourselves in now that we are stuck in our homes. The video would’ve got pretty boring if it was filmed as, waking up, sitting at a desk, eating, and going to sleep over and over. Though I did actually go on adventures I still had the responsibilities of attending classes so I tried to combine both and still have it been an interesting video.