So I’m going to learn how to create videos in order to present my Power BI visuals in an interesting medium. Hey, people are moving more into watching videos than reading content, so I might as well play catchup. My plan is also to be able to do this as a digital nomad, so I start off with some reading.
I know I’m going to need to learn to use some video editing software, but what software?

I start off here, reading a digital nomad video editing blog.

The first notes are about how it talks about investing in software. I was actually thinking about open source, but I guess needs must.
The blog mentions Adobe products. I know the more modern licensing model, where you can pay a monthly fee is a lot more accessible than the old school, one-off several hundred to a thousand type costs, I remember from 15 years ago when I worked in a digital marketing agency as an email marketing bod.
It also mentions how video editing is both a technical and a creative skill. I guess I like graphic design. It seems like a long time ago, there was Macromedia Flash, which seemed revolutionary at the time, but I guess it was more of a motion graphics tool than video editing. Still, I imagine some of the editing skills, such as using a timeline, will be relevant. Then there are separate audio editing tools. I can’t remember the tool off the top of my head. Vestax or something was the tool. Technology has changed an awful lot in the last 20 years. Costs have come down, the software has advanced significantly due to memory, and computer speeds have increased dramatically. I am writing this on a £150 Dell Latitude 7490, Core I7 8th Generation Intel laptop. It’s got 16 GB of RAM, but I don’t know if the built-in graphics gizmo will be powerful enough for what I need. I’ve got 187GB of free space. Not long ago, that would have been the combined capacity of several hundred computers. It’s insane.

And then there is AI. I’ve started using TikTok recently, which I’ve found to be a pretty useful educational platform. The Twitter app search functionality stopped working, which I only realised needed an upgrade to fix, but in the few days in between, I found myself on another social media tool. I always thought TikTok was for kids, but it’s obviously evolved to include content from all realms, and I found it really educational, for tutorials and great for music. I found myself considering doing a self-video of ‘Do you know the muffin man’. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I found myself over the last few days rethinking my vague plan about building a Power BI DAX website and trying to get some money from Amazon affiliate links to learn video editing with a view to opening up more opportunities.

So, where to start?

Well, I know I will need to get learning ASAP and stop watching Twitter and TikTok videos about how to make money online. I also need to stop reading the news constantly, which is another addiction I have picked up.
I need to find out about which software to learn and how much money it will cost.
To become a freelancer, I will need to build a website or a YouTube channel to showcase my work (which seems like a long way off).
I need a website too (hey how about this one), where I can still some affiliate links and maybe generate some money. Being an oldie newbie, I’m not really expecting this site to gain a lot of traction, but who knows, maybe I’ll get lucky.
I also know I’m going to need perseverance. I’m enthusiastic this morning, but I’ve got a day’s work ahead of me (as a Power BI developer). How will I feel at the end of the day? Will I reflect on this post I wrote at the start of the day and think, ‘Well that was just another one of my random ideas, that seemed like a good idea at the time and then I just forgot about it’.

Motivation – I need motivation:

Reasons to learn video editing.

1. It’s cool – People will be interested in what I’m doing. There is nothing wrong with enjoying communication and interest. This is what drives community.
2. It’s Interesting – Well I’m pretty sure it will be. There is lot to learn and projects will be endless. There are only so many financial reports I can create in Power BI.
3. It’s technical – If you’re technically inclined, you should enjoy this. There is going to be a lot of detail and precision is going to be important as will be understanding of how it works.
4. It could set you free – Yes, although we will still be slaves to the money system, being a freelancer is certainly a step in the right direction towards freedom.
5. It can be done anyway – If you can’t afford a house in the UK, then think abroad. If you can work abroad, then there is no reason to buy a £300K house and spend the next 30 years paying it off.
6. It’s more natural. What I mean by that is that visual things are more natural to us. Hey, most of us dream at night.
7. It’s funky – well potentially.
8. It’s not fully readable by AI – AI may be able to read everything text and computer vision is giving it the ability to learn how to interpret video, but I’m guessing we will still have an edge over AI for a while.

Well, that’s it for now. It’s 08:33 UK 6th July 2023. I start work at home at 09:00. Maybe I’ll listen to some video editing podcasts today when I work.

So I continue. I do a bit of learning from some podcasts on Castbox on video editing.
I learned about the de facto industry Premier tool, which is around 50$ a month and used for making TV adverts and films and stuff. I don’t think it’s what I need for creating YouTube videos.
Davinci Resolve is named as a top free tool, and I make a note. Then Adobe Premiere Pro was also another top tool.
I learned about the top 3 video editing jobs in demand, which are:

1. Micro-content for YouTube/Shorts/TikTok
2. YouTube full video editing.
3. Something else, which I think was making ads for digital marketing.

I also make a note of some of the industry jargon being mentioned, such as story-telling, workflow, proxies, editing, cutting, and creating a show reel for your CV. By the sounds of it, to get into making a big movie, the industry wanted degrees in Film, etc., but to get a freelance editing job doing short stuff, a reel was critical to getting a job. There were no bragging video editing skills; you could either do it or not. It would take time to develop the skills, maybe six months to get good, but the better you got, the more in demand your skills would be. I also read about a glut in work to save for, but I think that mainly applied to bigger projects like adverts, etc.

So that was it. The goal was to make a show reel which consists of a video highlighting your ability across content.
I listened to a YouTube video (yet listened as I was working on something else). It was about using Adobe Premiere Pro.
I heard about panels, timelines, and using Zoom a lot. It kind of made sense. I would have to build my knowledge up slowly until it all sank in.
Lastly, I listened a little about the monetisation of YouTube ads and how pay depended on the audience attracted to the content produced. This would be relevant if I were going to produce my own content. An example was given as Financial Videos, which attracted audiences that Stock Brokers wanted to target. Advertising would spend a lot to get this audience, so it would pay more, but I imagine the audience would be smaller. Still, something to think about.