An Endeavour in Editing

So this week (again), I didn’t get a huge amount of writing done. But this time, it’s because I’ve been trying out something else exciting.

---

It’s only been a week since it turned 2022, but so far I’ve managed to mostly keep to my New Year’s Resolutions.

I’ve been doing exercise, I’ve certainly watched a lot of bad movies, one every day so far. (yesterday was Cats, which really was an experience), and I’ve kept writing little bits and bobs. I haven’t started the dancing yet, and I haven’t finished my garden, so I’ve still got to stick to those ones more.

However, there’s one resolution in particular that I’ve been trying to make major headway with this week. And that one, is starting a YouTube channel!

I said in my last post that I would be doing a cooking channel, and I will, but I’m also going to have another one at least. At the moment, my camcorder hasn’t arrived yet, so recording myself cooking is kind of out of the question until it gets here. Which is why I’ve been working on the other channel, which is about internet scams.

---

Due to the nature of internet scams being on the internet, I can use a screen recorder instead of needing a video camera, so it’s a lot easier for me to start with that one.

I started cultivating the conversations with the scammers throughout week, and they are so aggressive, that already I’ve got enough material for a few videos at least!

I even brainstormed the name for the channel, and for the two series’ that I’m going to be making. One series of videos will be called ‘Irritating the Insta-scammers’. And it will be focusing on Instagram scammers, especially the ones who promise you they can hack into things or clear your criminal record etc, (for a large fee of course) things that just cannot be done. For example, one of them promised me that he could hack into the Matrix. Yes, really.

The second series would be focusing on e-mail based scammers, particularly 419 scammers, dying widows that want you to give their millions to charity, consignment boxes of gold bars that just need you to pay one shipping fee, or perhaps a generous bank worker that wants to send you an ATM card worth $15,000,000, if you’ll just give him one little fee of $250 for shipping costs. Again, none of these things are even remotely real, which hopefully I’ll be able to talk about in more detail in my videos. But this series would be called, ‘Enraging the E-mail scammers’!

Below is just one example of the ATM card type of scam e-mail.

---

All of those parts were really easy, and I was getting carried away with fancy video ideas, excited about how much fun it all was. But then I had to think about the technical side of things.

I’ve got a bunch of recordings. Now what? What do I actually do with them to get them onto YouTube?

Thinking about it made my head spin, and after a lot of googling, I found out about this thing called Adobe Premiere, which a lot of people said was really good. Then I had to think about equipment like microphones and lighting and all of that.

That also made my head spin. So I recruited the help of my husband, who is a lot more technically minded than me, and he set up a microphone, and organised a circular light thing.

---

So with all of that done, all that was left was to give it a go. I opened up the Adobe thing, and immediately felt my brain short circuit. I was grateful to see that they provide you with tutorials (that I managed to mess up somehow), but once they were over, I was just left in a sea of confusing buttons and a mile-long list of apps and windows that you can use.

It was really overwhelming to get started, but I knew what I wanted the video to look like (well, the intro at least.) so I just had to keep trying until I got it. So I kept trying, until 1 in the morning! And at the end of it all, I had a mere 13 seconds of video. I’m really pleased with how it turned out. I managed to get it basically exactly how I imagined, but hours of fiddling, for 13 seconds… Is not good news for me!

I feel like such a dunce for thinking that it would be really easy to make a video. I also have a HUGELY MASSIVE respect now for people that edit YouTube videos or just video footage in general. Maybe in a couple of months time once I’ve got some more practice, it’ll seem a lot less scary, but until that point, I’m going to have to try as hard as I can to learn how to use this stuff, or I’ll not be having a channel at all, never mind 2 or 3!

Still, I’m not giving up on it though, and I’m going to keep working on my video today and try to get my first ever video out soon. I’ve tried to put the little intro bit that I got done into this post, but to be honest, I’m not sure if it has worked, as I haven’t learned yet how to export the videos properly on that Adobe thing!

---

Writing this Week:

So apart from all of that, I have actually done some bits and bobs of writing in the week. I kept working on my new forest themed idea, which has a bit more of a solid plot now, and at least 3 definite characters, 2 of which I really like, and 1 of which I think is a horrible person. But that’s deliberate I guess, since she’ll be the villain!

Also for that idea, I’ve finished my playlist of music that I’m using for that story, which is always one of the best and most enjoyable things about writing a new idea for me. It’s still fun to add songs that match to existing story ideas, but there’s something really exciting about getting a whole new idea, with it’s own unique feelings and vibes that you can pair the right songs with.

In terms of my current book-in-progress, that I’m mainly working on, I’ve come up with a few new scenes, that I think are really nice and will hopefully add a little more sweetness and warmth to the story, which is what I’m trying to go for. They’re a lot further into the plot than where I am in the writing process, but I look forward to writing them once I get there. One of the scenes involves Chinese takeout food, which I’m sure will make me ravenously hungry to write about!

---

Photo Prompt!

So this week, in honour of my internet scam themed YouTube channel getting underway, I thought I should show you these two beautifully crafted, and very ‘official’ looking (definitely sarcasm), fake certificates given to me by email scammers to try and convince me to send them money. And yes, they really were sent to me at that angle, I did not edit them.

I’m sure there’s definitely a story to be made about these incredible documents. A story that’s probably much more pleasant than the real reason behind them!

---

Poem!

At first I had such big ideas,

Dreams of intricate videos.

Once I tried though I was disillusioned.

But after pushing through the stress,

Editing can be done, I know it!

---

Well, I know this post is a bit different than what I usually write about, so I apologise for that. But I’m really excited about this new video venture that I’m trying, so I just wanted to share a little update about it. Thanks for reading!