Transcript
Speaker: This is gonna be the best day ever.
Speaker: This is gonna be the best day ever.
Speaker: Wake up.
Speaker: Hey, you are listening to the Filming Life podcast.
Speaker: I'm your host, Courtney Holmes, founder and lead educator at the Filming Life Academy, the largest online community of family filmmakers in the world where we teach photographers how to switch over to video and create meaningful story-driven films with confidence.
Speaker: If you're not already a Filming Life member, but you want to be, you can sign up to the Academy over at FilmingLifeAcademy.com.
Speaker: Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker: I hope you're over there having the best day ever.
Speaker: Enjoy the episode.
Speaker: Hey everyone and welcome to another episode of the Filming Life Podcast.
Speaker: I'm your host Courtney and I've got my friend Kylie here.
Speaker: Hello.
Speaker: And we are going to be talking about a number of things, but particularly Instagram Reels.
Speaker: So we're going to get into that in a little bit.
Speaker: But before we do, we just want to just give a little bit of an update on what we've been doing and apologize from our last episode where we were like, you know what?
Speaker: Shit happens.
Speaker: And we've been delayed.
Speaker: But unfortunately, it happened again.
Speaker: And again and again.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Free plugs in.
Speaker: We had more floods and we had COVID.
Speaker: I didn't have COVID, but Kylie had COVID and my family had COVID and just, yeah, lots going on.
Speaker: And it just prevented us from getting together in person, which is really our favorite way to record these episodes.
Speaker: Mm hmm.
Speaker: And, um, yeah, but here we are, here we are and we're doing it and, you know, we're not giving up.
Speaker: We are the little engines that could.
Speaker: We are here to continue.
Speaker: So, um, yeah.
Speaker: And I guess as well, like there's been some changes, um,
Speaker: particularly to Instagram that we kind of wanted to just talk about.
Speaker: And so that just was, you know, gave us a good reason to really sit down and make this happen.
Speaker: So Kylie, tell us what you've been doing, what's been happening.
Speaker: Yeah, lots.
Speaker: I mean, trying to just adjust to the fact that I feel like dodging illness, getting illness, dodging floods is just life now.
Speaker: Like it's felt so super overwhelming.
Speaker: And, you know, for two years it's kind of like all this stuff keeps happening and now I feel like I'm finally getting to a place where I can accept the fact that, you know what, this shit is going to keep happening and I am just going to have to like learn a new way to adapt to it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I finally feel it's almost like having COVID turning 40 has just –
Speaker: open the doors a little bit.
Speaker: Oh, wow.
Speaker: Like I felt like I was having a bit of a midlife crisis for the past like year.
Speaker: Yeah, okay.
Speaker: And now I'm just like, you know what, this is just like there was resistance.
Speaker: I had a lot of resistance to everything that was happening in this life and now I've realised I've got to just stop doing that and stop having the resistance and I just have to accept things that happen.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that I can't be in control.
Speaker: And it has made me feel a lot better.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it makes me happier and it makes me more productive.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like, I'm not always waiting for the perfect time to get things done.
Speaker: Oh, 100%.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I can relate to that, especially with editing films.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like there was, I just, I couldn't keep waiting for the good day with like to be feeling good to just get started.
Speaker: And then I had to follow 12 hours to do it.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: I had to really learn how to like not force anything, but just like,
Speaker: I used to kind of try and let that, you know, creativity just sort of like hit me before I would sit down and work.
Speaker: Like I felt like I just need to feel inspired before.
Speaker: And so then that would, it would be like weeks where it just was not happening.
Speaker: And so then I had to start to just, um,
Speaker: think like, okay, well, what would lead up to feeling inspired?
Speaker: Like what things can I do to just.
Speaker: What are the things that you can do to make that happen?
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: It's funny you say that because that was actually something that we took.
Speaker: I did a naked marketing course with Jan Palmer and Bec Griffiths.
Speaker: Was it last year?
Speaker: Was it the year before?
Speaker: I feel like it was the year before.
Speaker: Maybe the end of 2020, I think.
Speaker: Halfway through 2020.
Speaker: And that was actually like, you know, one of the things that we spoke about.
Speaker: And it's almost like I kind of.
Speaker: You know, like I listened to what they talked about and, like, did the exercises and whatnot and it's taken, like, two years for that information to then actually sink in and it's that thing about, like, think about, like, what are the things that make you inspired and get you feeling creative and ready to work?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And how can you build those into your day?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, I mean, sometimes it's just not.
Speaker: You just really don't have that creativity.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And giving yourself like the grace to kind of just have a day where you, I curl up in bed and just like hibernate.
Speaker: And I need that because then I feel good the next day.
Speaker: And if I don't do that, then I'm just constantly running on empty.
Speaker: And I never feel any sort of like I can tell on a sit down and start editing a film.
Speaker: Like I'm like, this is just not the day.
Speaker: It's not going to happen.
Speaker: It's not going to happen today.
Speaker: So I think it's those things that's really interesting that, yeah, you said that.
Speaker: Yeah, I do.
Speaker: I feel like that's been a bit of a breakthrough.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, we finally went on a family holiday at the start of June and that was really fun because I got to do, I did two film shoots, which I'm literally about to start editing those films next week.
Speaker: Like I've already started picking music and like watching through the footage.
Speaker: And, yeah, I'm like I'm super excited because they were both just like really cool, beautiful sessions, like totally different sessions but also like,
Speaker: I don't know, like I just kind of fall in love with everybody that I do a session with, like especially for mums.
Speaker: I fall in love with every mum and I feel like with every family that like I get to, you know, go into their house and like spend time with, there's always like something that I find that I like identify with that mum and that makes me feel this, you know, connection.
Speaker: So I'm really looking forward to, you know,
Speaker: getting those edited like now that I'm not bloody sick anymore yeah yeah you can do it over just after I was so pissed off that we got it after two and a half years of dodging it and my bloody husband brings it home from work the day before my birthday and not just any birthday like a milestone birthday thank god we got to like go out and celebrate on the weekend I got to have my
Speaker: you know, shinding with a few of my friends and just drink cocktails and it was lots of fun.
Speaker: But, yeah, that knocked me for six.
Speaker: Like I was, you know, like I was really like acutely unwell for a good two weeks.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then it's taken like another two weeks after that to get back.
Speaker: Like I couldn't breathe.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: My sinuses were completely stuffed.
Speaker: I ended up having to get like this hardcore prescription to like fix it.
Speaker: Oh, no.
Speaker: You know, and just the fatigue and everything.
Speaker: Like, it just, it really hit me.
Speaker: And we don't get sick all that often.
Speaker: So it was not enjoyable.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: And then Dave brought home another cold.
Speaker: And he's the man that never gets sick, brings home another cold.
Speaker: So the two of us have been whatever.
Speaker: But I'm finally, like, feeling well.
Speaker: We're both, like, exercising again.
Speaker: Like, we're both trying to, you know.
Speaker: Oh, good.
Speaker: Try and be healthier people and that helps.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: With everything.
Speaker: It does help with everything.
Speaker: Well, I've seen the photos from those sessions and I have to say I am very excited to see the footage and the films that you end up putting together.
Speaker: I'm so excited and it makes me really excited for the next films that I do in the next few.
Speaker: Like I've got three films coming up.
Speaker: Is one of those mine?
Speaker: One of them is yours.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I'm.
Speaker: I'm going to crap in my desk about it.
Speaker: You'll be fine.
Speaker: It's going to be good.
Speaker: I can't wait.
Speaker: I'm so excited.
Speaker: Kylie's going to film my family.
Speaker: So, woo!
Speaker: No pressure to make a family film for the queen of family films.
Speaker: It's like... I can't wait.
Speaker: I may vomit the night before.
Speaker: My kids aren't getting any younger, so we've got to just get it done.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We've talked about it for a while.
Speaker: Yeah, we have.
Speaker: We have.
Speaker: Also, for me, a bit of an update on what I've been up to is...
Speaker: Well, working on the color grading course, which we will, I'm going to share a little bit about that in a little while.
Speaker: And also just, yeah, editing films that I had shot earlier in the year.
Speaker: Had a lot of cancellations, sorry, reschedules really because of the floods that we experienced once again.
Speaker: Thrice again.
Speaker: Thrice again, yeah.
Speaker: Third time.
Speaker: So yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, a lot of reschedules from that, which then sort of, you know, when all the sessions kind of get backed up together, then you have just a big backlog of editing that you have to get through.
Speaker: It does snowball.
Speaker: And so I'm just, yeah, finishing up the last one from those sessions.
Speaker: And then I've got another one that I shot recently, which I'm super excited to edit.
Speaker: It's a maternity one, actually.
Speaker: it's a maternity one that's not actually like a maternity was there's no focus on it like being maternity it just happens just happens to be that she's yeah so she just wanted to capture the family before the family of three before they became a family of four because that's a big change yeah yeah yeah it's it's i think going from one to two is almost as big as going from none to one because it's big yeah how it's gonna go that's right yep
Speaker: So I'm excited about doing that one.
Speaker: And so like I was saying, really working on the color grading course, that's been a big thing.
Speaker: throughout like the second quarter of the year.
Speaker: I spent quite a lot of time in the first half of the year working on that, putting things together for that, and then launching it in May.
Speaker: So, and that's gone really well.
Speaker: I have, I loved putting that together.
Speaker: And so far, we've had pretty good feedback on that.
Speaker: So that's been so good.
Speaker: Just really, I guess that final piece of the puzzle, I think for
Speaker: For filming life in terms of that sort of core foundational skills.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You'll come in and you'll learn the fundamentals of your camera settings and like how to start shooting, how to actually film something.
Speaker: And then you get the video editing part, which is like actually cutting it all and putting it all together and telling a story.
Speaker: And then the color grading part, which, and sorry, not to, this is definitely not something I meant to skip, but sound design, where, you know, learning how to really capture the audio well and
Speaker: and then editing that really well and then piecing that to the music the way that Alison teaches it in her course and then the color grading side of it.
Speaker: And that's sort of like that final polish and really just fine tuning your white balance and exposure and a look for your film and making it all look cohesive and all of that.
Speaker: And so...
Speaker: I'm really, really excited to finally have that out there and public and available for all of members to be able to access.
Speaker: It's so comprehensive.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: And part of the reason why it's taken me a little bit longer to get to editing these two films that I shot back in.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: start of June is because I wanted to, like, go through it because, like, I know for me, like, that's one of the things where it's kind of I just put it in the too hard basket.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: It's like.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, I just it feels so overwhelming and, like, there's so many tools and things that I'm just like.
Speaker: Yeah, it can be.
Speaker: You know, and, like, for all that we have, like, you know, when I was learning, like,
Speaker: you had your four-week course and that's what I did and, you know, it got me started but then so much of it I had to just try and, like, figure out on my own and, like, watch YouTube and it was just, you know, so the way that I do things is probably not the best and at the same time I'm kind of like I don't know if I have the mental capacity to sit and watch TV.
Speaker: videos and learn things and whatnot but then when I actually sit down and take the time to do it I'm like oh my goodness so I wanted to do that with the color grading like I wanted to actually yeah make an effort to sit and work through it because you've put so much time and effort into it and made it so easy to understand yeah um I knew that if I take a bit of time to just sit and start going through it it's going to make these next two because
Speaker: I just feel like they're going to be really good films, like they were amazing families, they're really good footage, and I want to make sure that how I do my final polish of the edit can do that justice as well.
Speaker: Yeah, but it's an amazing course.
Speaker: Your colour looks amazing anyway.
Speaker: Like, I don't even know what you're talking about.
Speaker: But, you know, I always feel like there's more I can learn.
Speaker: Of course.
Speaker: Like, I can always do better.
Speaker: I always want to do better.
Speaker: But you are very good at getting things the way that you want it in camera as well.
Speaker: And that is one of the – And you've had to get good at that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because I never wanted to spend any time learning how to do it.
Speaker: Doing it in post, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, like I don't enjoy, like I like editing photos and things and, like, sometimes I can get really into, like, a big edit.
Speaker: But with films, when it comes to, like, the colour stuff and what, I don't really want to spend time doing that.
Speaker: I'd rather spend time with, like, building a film.
Speaker: I'd rather look at how I can, you know, figure out unique,
Speaker: editing techniques like transitions and things like that and ways of like using that to enhance like the film the story that I'm telling yeah and the color for me is kind of like all right at the end I just need to add a little more to make it more saturated
Speaker: I get that.
Speaker: And that's why the color grading courses is really it's a lot about that.
Speaker: So I think that you'll probably find that it's on your you're going to enjoy what you do learn from it because it definitely it's yeah, it is a lot about just sort of that final little polish.
Speaker: But, you know, I don't do a whole lot of.
Speaker: you know change like drastic changes and i'm much the same i would much prefer spending the time on the story than spending heaps of time on the um on the color afterwards but i do talk about um you know setting yourself up for success in color to begin with and this is what i think sets it apart from like a normal like you might do like watch a color grading tutorial on
Speaker: youtube or whatever and they're only talking about how to fix things in like they don't talk about the fact that like yeah you know a big part of a really great color look and a really great finished result starts in the camera yeah it starts before it's that whole you can't polish your turd yeah exactly yeah and so
Speaker: You know, and that's what I think can be really, like I know for me it was a massive frustration because when you do switch from photo to video, you do have to be way more careful with your exposures and what you're capturing in camera because you just don't have the flexibility that you do when you can go and edit a raw photo.
Speaker: And so I know for me, like as a photographer, I can be a bit lazy and I'm like,
Speaker: I know I can fix that.
Speaker: And it doesn't like, it doesn't bother me if I forget to change a setting and it's two stops underexposed because I know that I can fix that in Lightroom or Photoshop and no one's going to know.
Speaker: Do you know what I mean?
Speaker: You cannot do that with a video.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: There are little things you can do to improve footage that only needs a bit of rescuing.
Speaker: So you have to get really good at it.
Speaker: And I think that's what can be really frustrating for a lot of newer filmmakers is that it's another thing like,
Speaker: I mean, I remember one of the very first time I ever videoed, which was when I was doing your workshop, and we all had to submit our, like, just one minute thing.
Speaker: And, you know, you talked and, like, I remember watching everyone's films and, like, the one thing you said to basically everyone was, you're overexposed, you need to bring your exposure down.
Speaker: And you said that to all of us because it was one of those things where even though, like, we're really good photographers and we can get stuff right in camera for photography, when you throw in all this new stuff for films
Speaker: Yeah, it's just different.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's so different.
Speaker: And so for me that was something that then I really kind of worked hard on and like with white balance.
Speaker: Like I know a lot of people use auto white balance and like that's totally fine.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And get amazing results.
Speaker: For me, one of the things that like, you know, once I kind of understood the basic mechanics of making a film in terms of, you know, camera movements and all the rest of it, I really wanted to like,
Speaker: fully take control of what I get in my camera just so that then when I did go to edit it and I was learning so much about editing the last thing I had to worry about was like trying to save footage that had terrible white balance or had terrible exposure or whatever like as long as I could kind of get it in the middle then I knew that
Speaker: It would be okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I love the fact that in your colour grading course you talk about that and show people like how to do different ways
Speaker: white balances and like the importance of getting your exposure right and whatnot because it really is crucial it's a big it's a massive component yeah yes yes well light impacts so many things and light is temperature the temperature of the light and um yeah so that all and and and even like the colors that show up in the frame and just sort of making sure that those are in line with
Speaker: what it is that you want your end result to be and just thinking about all of those things.
Speaker: So so if if any of this resonates with you and you're sitting there thinking, oh, my gosh, they're speaking my language.
Speaker: You know, these are all things that I either didn't know about and I'm realizing now in this moment.
Speaker: that I need to work on, um, you can get access to the color grading course when you join and you become a member.
Speaker: So, and if you are a member and you didn't know that this was out there, we need to work on our, on our messaging, but definitely, um, go log in at like today and, um, get into the course and just get stuck into it.
Speaker: Cause, um,
Speaker: Yeah, it is.
Speaker: It's a really, really great, thorough, in-depth course on color grading.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: So next on our agenda is talking about the art house because I just want to give a little bit of an update on what we've been doing.
Speaker: So currently the theme is?
Speaker: On the go.
Speaker: On the go.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's a fun little theme.
Speaker: It's particularly, you know, good for our North American members because –
Speaker: You know, they're coming to the end of school holidays and lots of vacations have been happening and whatnot.
Speaker: And so this theme is encouraging people to use their phone or their GoPro and either make a full film with just phone and GoPro footage or like an action cam or, you know, make us a film that,
Speaker: combines those two things so like often when you go on holidays you might have a couple of different options for like capturing video um you know combining that together and even just like around the house sometimes it's just easier to whip out your phone and and video stuff with your phone so um that's that's the theme for july and august on the go and we really just try to um you know i'm a big believer that you know it doesn't matter what kind of gear you have like if if
Speaker: you really think about the story that you're trying to tell and how you are trying to do it, the gear that you use to make it, doesn't matter so much.
Speaker: And so that's what we're trying to encourage people to also think about when they're using these, you know, devices that may limit a little bit what they can do in terms of, like, how they film it or whatever.
Speaker: They think about, well, you know, how can I adapt to that to still tell a really great story with the thing that I've got, you know?
Speaker: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I think it's a fun little challenge and also just, you know, it gives you like the biggest thing with the art house is giving members a new tool to add into their tool kit.
Speaker: to take forward in their films for their growth.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I think as well, like this would give you a better understanding of what you might be coming up against when you're, you know, if, if you are in business and you are making family films and you are thinking like, what are some things that my clients might be thinking about?
Speaker: Why they wouldn't be booking me?
Speaker: Well, they can make films on their phone.
Speaker: And so you having the experience of making a film using your phone kind of helps put you in the mindset of your client and,
Speaker: and can help you kind of like work through what those problems might be, how you might be able to like counteract some of that.
Speaker: Because it is very well untrue that our phones now, we both have the iPhone 13, which has cinematic capabilities.
Speaker: And there definitely are a lot of things that people can do with their phones.
Speaker: So what is it that makes you stand out?
Speaker: And so this is just another example of like an art house theme that we've picked, which is just,
Speaker: there to help you um gain some more experience and try something new and um and this way it it can help in your business too when you're thinking about it in those terms so you can definitely think about it from that marketing perspective because you know i mean everyone can capture the footage but i think one of the biggest things that we offer our clients is the putting it
Speaker: together.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So how is it?
Speaker: How is it different?
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: So like I said, people buy a slideshow of their photos set to music.
Speaker: Mm hmm.
Speaker: they'll pay a hundred bucks for it when they could make it for free themselves.
Speaker: But they, you know, it's like for me, printing photos and making it out, it was like, just put it off.
Speaker: If someone else did it for you, you'd be very ready for that.
Speaker: So, you know, you can think about that and you can practice with your phone and go, well, you know what, I might try and edit this on my phone.
Speaker: And that's what, you know, I'm going to do myself because, you know, I always try to,
Speaker: make a film for each of the art house themes as well.
Speaker: And I think that, you know, after our, we had a call today, a check-in call to see how it was going, I think I'm going to try and edit a film on my phone because I want to see, you know, what's that like, you know, if the client, sure they're capturing footage, but then they've got to put it together, you know, what kind of a barrier is that to them actually doing it?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then how can I...
Speaker: yeah tailor the message that i'm giving people that's right that's right you could even take what it is that you shoot for this theme and shoot it on your other camera as well and compare like you could you could then or maybe not necessarily what you shoot this time but you could use that as something that you do in the future as a marketing thing you could shoot something on your phone edit it
Speaker: shoot something on your camera, edit it, ask people if they could see, tell the difference.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, just sort of it is a starting point for ideas of, you know, what can I do with this going forward?
Speaker: That's what every single art house thing that we choose is all about.
Speaker: Expanding your thought process around films and what filmmaking is and how these things can be adapted to all aspects of your filmmaking process.
Speaker: career, whether it be personal or client.
Speaker: And so if you're listening and you're like, what is Art House?
Speaker: That's just basically a theme, a theme that we run every two months.
Speaker: And it's for it's for all members.
Speaker: So it's nothing extra that you have to pay for.
Speaker: It's included in your membership.
Speaker: And what you get is a live call where, you know, one of our educators leads you through a topic that
Speaker: a theme, um, provides examples, provides a bit of, um, uh, rules is the wrong way to put it, but like guidelines for what to create and then, um, sends you off on your merry way and you go out and you, and you shoot and you create something, um, that is based around that theme.
Speaker: And then you can take that and you have fun, you get creative, you try new things.
Speaker: And that leads to more experiences, which can
Speaker: makes you become a stronger filmmaker and helps you when you do get to that point of running a business or adding this into your business.
Speaker: and helps you be able to answer questions that people might have or helps you be able to come up with some ideas based on what it is that they're looking for.
Speaker: And so that's what Art House is all about.
Speaker: And it's a really, really integral part of filming life.
Speaker: And I think the beauty of Art House too, especially because each Art House theme has its own course in the academy.
Speaker: And so you can go back and revisit it.
Speaker: And what we're finding, like this is our second year of doing Art House,
Speaker: And what I'm finding now is that many of the films that people have made for the last couple of themes, they're using skills and techniques they've learnt from previous themes and bringing them into these new films.
Speaker: So, you know, it's not just a, oh, it was unexpected in January, February last year and that's done and now it's forgotten about and we never go and look at that course again or we never think about those skills again.
Speaker: Well, actually, no, like,
Speaker: And for new members particularly, you come in and you might go, oh, I missed that.
Speaker: It's all there.
Speaker: There's the recording of the live learning.
Speaker: There's the examples, the PDFs that have all of the information.
Speaker: You can download those and you can go back over it and you can challenge yourself like,
Speaker: And send me a film.
Speaker: If you're a brand new member and you decide that, right, you know what, so that I give myself practice, because that's the thing, sometimes it's hard to come up with ideas for your personal films when you're trying to get practice, start working through the outhouse.
Speaker: Go back to Jan, Feb 21.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: do the unexpected one, which was so much fun.
Speaker: And there is so many great examples of films that will give you inspiration.
Speaker: And that's the other thing.
Speaker: If you're coming back and doing it afterwards, you've got all the films that people made.
Speaker: You can go and see what they already made and then get more inspiration.
Speaker: But it's there and you can always use it.
Speaker: You can always go back and revisit it.
Speaker: And it's just a way to be, you know, it's also really great.
Speaker: social fun thing, you know?
Speaker: Totally.
Speaker: People get really excited to make their films and share them in the network.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I just think it's one of the best things that we've done.
Speaker: We've bought into filming life.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: All right, so moving on to our next little bit of an update is that I have been asked to present at the Australian Photographic Prize Conference, which is happening in Melbourne, Australia, Melbourne, Victoria in Australia.
Speaker: in September from the 9th to the 11th, I believe.
Speaker: I'm being sponsored by Imagine, which is an AI software that helps photographers get a bit of their life back in terms of time and stress.
Speaker: It's kind of like having a personal, it's like outsourcing your editing, but
Speaker: You're outsourcing it to a pretty cool like AI based technology and it learns how to edit like you edit.
Speaker: It is the most incredible piece of software I've ever seen.
Speaker: And so if you have never heard of Imagine, go check it out.
Speaker: It is actually spelled M-I-M-A-G-E-N when you're Googling that.
Speaker: So go check it out for sure.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, definitely.
Speaker: Check out the link there.
Speaker: And so because I've been invited to speak there, they also are holding an award for video entries for the first time.
Speaker: This is actually the first time that this specific conference has run in Australia after COVID-19.
Speaker: nothing has really been happening.
Speaker: So this is kind of just like Australia opening back up.
Speaker: The first big one.
Speaker: And so they've got a cinematic award, which is being sponsored by Village Cinemas.
Speaker: So it is called the Village Cinematic Award.
Speaker: And what it is, is a, an award that will be, so you enter a 60 second film and it can be anything.
Speaker: So it can, it's a very open, broad, broad,
Speaker: genre like well there's no genre but there's a very broad category and it's basically just submit anything that you're really passionate about maybe a 60 second portion of a film that you've made if it's you know the strongest part of that film or maybe you go back to the editing suite and
Speaker: repurpose some old footage and create something from that.
Speaker: The biggest thing is just making sure that you were, you know, it's a meaningful, something that is meaningful, something that you're passionate about.
Speaker: We're just looking for really good stories.
Speaker: Creative storytelling for me personally is the biggest thing.
Speaker: And so that is going to be, that's open for entries right now.
Speaker: We'll have a link in the show notes and you can just submit your film and yeah.
Speaker: The winner will get... I was going to say.
Speaker: Tell them the prize.
Speaker: Tell them the prize.
Speaker: So the winner of this is like the most important part.
Speaker: So the winner of this will actually get a lifetime membership to the Filming Life Academy, which is something we have never, ever offered before.
Speaker: And that is a very, very high value prize, as you would know.
Speaker: So it is a pretty big deal.
Speaker: And we would love to just see as many family films entered as
Speaker: as possible.
Speaker: Please don't feel like, um, you're not, your work isn't good enough with it.
Speaker: You're not good enough with it.
Speaker: You know, don't wait for it to be perfect.
Speaker: Um, definitely, you know, work on it and, and give it your best, but for sure, it's more about story, um, than it is about anything else.
Speaker: Like it doesn't have to be massive drone shots and like shot on a red camera or anything like that.
Speaker: You might see some examples of, um,
Speaker: It can be shot on your phone.
Speaker: If it's a good story and the filmmaking is good, then, yeah, you can shoot it on your phone.
Speaker: That's fine.
Speaker: So, yeah, so that's the Village Cinematic Award coming up.
Speaker: And entry is closed for that at the end of August.
Speaker: I think it's August 28th.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: um so please make sure that you enter that if you're sitting there thinking you're a family filmmaker you've got something i guarantee it seriously and you know i just want to say like heaps of family films so many films i want people to know about family films yes me too i want people to see them i want people to know that this is this is what's happening filmmaking yes and this is something that like people need to have yes and you know i mean you know as a
Speaker: Family filmmakers, we're still a very small genre.
Speaker: There's still a lot of education to be done.
Speaker: It's growing.
Speaker: To let people know what they are.
Speaker: Yes, it's growing, but it needs more attention.
Speaker: And this could be a great way.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: To do that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So it's your duty.
Speaker: It is live judge.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So you will actually, it's going to be streamed online.
Speaker: You'll be able to see that.
Speaker: And that prize from us is not the only thing you'll win.
Speaker: You will also win a two hour mentoring session with a phenomenal filmmaker based in Australia named Peter John and
Speaker: He makes music videos.
Speaker: You'll also get, your film will be shown in a cinema here in Australia.
Speaker: And you will also get $1,000 worth of prizes from Village Cinemas, which if you're not based in Australia, you can just, you know, donate that to an Australian friend.
Speaker: Donate to Kylie.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But there are international entries accepted, so please make sure that you submit.
Speaker: I just think that, yeah, the more family films we get in there, the better.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay, let's move on to our main topic, which is Instagram reels.
Speaker: And, you know, I think we've already kind of touched on when we were talking about on the go, the art house thing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I think, you know, you mentioned about with these art house things, you can get –
Speaker: marketing material if you're doing a client and I think that that is really timely with like what's happening with Instagram at the moment because we all know that four letter word real yeah it's so prevalent right now and um the biggest change that has happened recently is that Instagram stopped like they basically did away with Instagram TV and
Speaker: Which is just, to me, it's just like such a big reminder that all of these changes are...
Speaker: Only temporary.
Speaker: So even though like right now we're like, oh gosh, now it's all reels.
Speaker: Well, that could also change.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, because when Instagram TV first came out, I was like, oh, that's interesting because these are now, now you can post longer videos.
Speaker: Yeah, up to an hour.
Speaker: Before it was like 60 second clips and then we'd have to get people to swipe across for the next 60 seconds.
Speaker: You don't have to cut your film anymore.
Speaker: so that it could fit into a carousel post and then people would swipe across and then it was like, oh, amazing.
Speaker: Now we have Instagram TV.
Speaker: We can post our longer videos just in one go.
Speaker: And then you can even turn your phone and it goes horizontal.
Speaker: But they've done away with that now.
Speaker: So now it's more just a real format.
Speaker: You can you can post a longer video.
Speaker: You can still post a long video, but it's going to be in the reels with all the other reels, which is important to note.
Speaker: Also, you can no longer turn your phone and make it fill the screen.
Speaker: And so if you're posting a horizontal video, it's only going to take up that portion of the screen while your phone is in portrait mode.
Speaker: Or portrait, you know, orientation, whatever.
Speaker: So it's only going to take up a third of the screen.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: So there's so much to think about with this.
Speaker: I mean, I personally have started to think, like, is Instagram really the place where I should be posting my films anymore?
Speaker: Like, I don't know.
Speaker: Part of me is like, yeah, I mean...
Speaker: Like, how is it?
Speaker: How is it bad at all that all the social media platforms are promoting video?
Speaker: I mean, that's what we do, right?
Speaker: We should be super excited about this.
Speaker: But then, you know, on the other hand, I sit there and I think like I posted and I said this in my post the other day, like, here's my nine minute film.
Speaker: I know you won't all watch it.
Speaker: It's very hard to compete against the reels that are getting the views.
Speaker: And I think that's where I struggle because I've got it.
Speaker: I just feel like it's time for me to start thinking about the way that I post a reel in a different way.
Speaker: And that's what makes me think, like, and I said, this video is on my website.
Speaker: If you want to watch it in the best way, you need to go there.
Speaker: And I think that's kind of key to sharing, like, a full film.
Speaker: I think it's a timely, it's, for me personally, like, I've resisted the whole real scene.
Speaker: I mean, the fact, like, the fact of the matter is, it is, like, if you post a static image, it is not going to get viewed perfectly.
Speaker: or seen as much as a reel will.
Speaker: Reels are what Instagram is pushing.
Speaker: It's what the algorithm is pushing.
Speaker: It's what we're all watching.
Speaker: And, I mean, it's a chicken and an egg kind of situation.
Speaker: Like Instagram goes, oh, well, you know, our data shows that everybody's watching reels.
Speaker: And it's like, well, yeah, because that's all you show us.
Speaker: So, of course, your data is going to back that up.
Speaker: That's true.
Speaker: That's true.
Speaker: And so on the one hand, you know, that kind of pisses me off because I don't like being told what to do.
Speaker: So and here's Instagram dictating to me what I need to do.
Speaker: But and here's the thing.
Speaker: The fact is it's Instagram.
Speaker: It ain't my company.
Speaker: It ain't my business.
Speaker: I have no control over it.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: And so you have to let go of that.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: And so what I have had to do is change my mindset of what Instagram is.
Speaker: Instagram is no longer like another portfolio.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: You know, like I have a portfolio on my website, I have a portfolio, you know.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Instagram can be like another portfolio.
Speaker: Instagram now, through this whole real thing and whatnot, now needs to be the way that I try to engage people and get them to look and then drive them to take another action.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I, what's that action?
Speaker: I want to drive them to my website.
Speaker: I want to drive them to sign up to my newsletter.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, and, I mean, that's really how we always should have been using social media.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: But it's so easy to just, you know.
Speaker: But I think for a lot of, like, for people like us that have photography businesses, film businesses or whatever, I think that's the biggest thing is having to change our mindset of,
Speaker: you know, how can we use this platform to grab somebody's attention and then push them through?
Speaker: And, I mean, it was very easy to just
Speaker: hide from doing that and the fact that, you know, the whole point of us being on Instagram was to market ourselves even though like, but at the same, but that doesn't mean you can't still just go on because you love to interact with people and, you know, all the rest of it.
Speaker: Like there are ways to do it, but I think it is just another kind of reminder that when it comes for building your business specifically, if that's what you want to use Instagram for, you're going to have to get a lot smarter about how you do it.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: I love what you said about it not being a portfolio.
Speaker: Like I 100% used to, without ever, I've never said those words, but that is exactly, no, but that's exactly how I saw it.
Speaker: You know, and I was always really, you know, really particular about how my grid might look.
Speaker: And, and it, it, a lot of times I think,
Speaker: created a lot of fear in me about what should I post next that's gonna go.
Speaker: It's totally paralyzing.
Speaker: Now, will I stop sharing full films on Instagram?
Speaker: Probably not because there are people who will sit and watch them.
Speaker: But what I have been doing, and this is what I kind of wanted to really get to because I'm curious about what your plans are.
Speaker: I can share a little bit about what I've been doing to kind of I wouldn't say work around, but just adapt, I guess, to this.
Speaker: So one thing that you may if you follow me, you may have noticed I put out a reel the other day.
Speaker: Because I was sitting with all of this in my head.
Speaker: I was sitting there thinking, so it's no longer, like you said, these are not the thoughts in my head, but this is exactly like sums up what I was thinking was that it's no longer portfolio.
Speaker: So what can I do?
Speaker: And I thought, well, I haven't made a film for my kids in a while.
Speaker: And I had this footage from Lydia when she, when we first moved into this house and
Speaker: Over a year ago.
Speaker: And I thought, what can I do with that?
Speaker: And so then I put that onto, I went into Premiere Pro.
Speaker: And because I'll admit, like, even with Instagram, with Reels, one of the things that stopped me is, like, I don't want to figure out how to use it.
Speaker: Oh, my gosh.
Speaker: It's, like, so not intuitive.
Speaker: And I think, too, because, like, I'm just so used to editing the way that I do that I don't want to bring a whole bunch of clips onto my phone and edit this thing on my phone.
Speaker: So how can I edit it in Premiere Pro?
Speaker: Like, how can I make this as easy as possible for myself?
Speaker: Because the easier it is, the more likely you are to do it.
Speaker: So Premiere Pro with the newest update has a vertical, like has a workspace that includes a vertical orientation.
Speaker: So you can see what your video will look like when it is exported vertically.
Speaker: So I took that footage and then I put it into Premiere Pro and I put it together and I picked a song and I wrote some words and I recorded a voiceover and I put it all together in Premiere Pro.
Speaker: And then I exported that and then I uploaded that as a reel.
Speaker: And that went really, really well.
Speaker: Like it was, it was for me, it was a way for me to connect because I'm sort of seeing that.
Speaker: So it's, you know, that if you're, if you're thinking about marketing, which now like everybody, I mean, we've always known this Instagram marketing, but that's really what you need to be thinking about.
Speaker: And so marketing is, is connection.
Speaker: It's building relationships.
Speaker: And so, you know, how do I expect anyone?
Speaker: And I,
Speaker: I want all my clients to feel comfortable enough with me to be vulnerable.
Speaker: So I need to be vulnerable when I'm putting myself out there.
Speaker: And so that is the reason why I came up with those words and I came up with that film, which normally I might think this is more private.
Speaker: But I thought to myself, many moms out there would be thinking all these same things.
Speaker: And so that's the kind of thing that I think is going to get traction on Instagram.
Speaker: It's the kind of thing that is fairly simple and easy to put together.
Speaker: And I know you're probably out there thinking, I can't put those words together.
Speaker: Like, how did you just come up with that?
Speaker: You are a wizard.
Speaker: And it doesn't necessarily have to be, you know,
Speaker: your words spoken, you don't have to do a voiceover.
Speaker: You could just choose some really beautiful music, just, you know, still just like keeping it emotional and personable and relatable.
Speaker: So that's one type of reel that I made and that I'll probably continue to make more of.
Speaker: Just really simple.
Speaker: I think it was maybe like 10 clips that I had in total that I worked with.
Speaker: So it would not be time consuming to shoot.
Speaker: And you can go out there and shoot that specifically for this kind of thing.
Speaker: Another thing would be repurposing footage, which I did the second reel recently that I put out, which was footage from a session that I shot.
Speaker: But I actually used different music than I did for the film.
Speaker: And I edited it again.
Speaker: I edited it in Premiere Pro.
Speaker: I just cut and copied and pasted different ones.
Speaker: And there was even one clip where I'd shot it horizontally, obviously, because all of that film is wide.
Speaker: So I'd shot it horizontally.
Speaker: When I went to put it in that vertical format, the middle part, it was when they were kicking water at each other.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's one clip.
Speaker: But if I put it in there and I had had that centered, it would just show the water.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So what I did was I shifted it so that the right side of the clip showed up first, whichever one was kicking the water first.
Speaker: So I had it just for the right side of the section for that clip.
Speaker: And then I cut the clip and then I shifted it over so that it was the other side.
Speaker: And so it's just kind of figuring out how you can do that in Premiere Pro and or DaVinci Resolve or Final Cut, whatever editing software you're using, and then repurpose your footage
Speaker: And it did not take long.
Speaker: It really didn't take long.
Speaker: And I was not crazy about like timing it perfectly to the music, but I went and licensed a new song for it.
Speaker: And I, um, so that I could have that.
Speaker: And then when it uploaded, Instagram picked it up.
Speaker: It knew what song it was because it's, it's one that's available as a song that you can use.
Speaker: And so I,
Speaker: You can do that.
Speaker: You can add the music after the fact.
Speaker: You can do a number of different things.
Speaker: And one of the things that can be an advantage of adding the music or the sound
Speaker: from Instagram is that there is certain music and clips that are like they're trending audio.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So if you use a trending audio with your video.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: That's going to.
Speaker: It adds it to a section of all videos that have used that same music.
Speaker: And it also just the algorithm goes, oh, well, this has got a popular song.
Speaker: This is what people want to see.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then that the other thing about what Instagram likes is original audio.
Speaker: And so that was one of the motivating factors for me creating that voiceover was I was like, maybe somebody, maybe other people will pick this up and use it.
Speaker: And then that's going to help boost my experience.
Speaker: film my my reel in the views and so it reminds me i should make one with your audio yeah you should yeah please do everybody out there yeah let's let's let's make let's do that out there run this is a podcast if you've been reluctant about reels like yeah you know like go check out courtney's reel yeah save the audio because when you're when you're looking at a reel on the screen you can if you click on
Speaker: Up the top, it says the little information about the audio that's used, or it might be down the bottom.
Speaker: Either way, tap on that.
Speaker: You can save that audio to use later.
Speaker: So there's a little challenge for it.
Speaker: And you know what?
Speaker: Tag us.
Speaker: Filming life reels challenge.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, there you go.
Speaker: Use Courtney's audio and put it out there.
Speaker: I want to see.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Another thing that I learned from that experience of putting that reel out there is the first time that I uploaded it to Instagram, I didn't –
Speaker: use the captions feature um but then when I uploaded it to Facebook I went through the same process of like creating the real uploading it from my phone and that time I used the caption feature and I cannot even tell you how amazing that thing is like it's incredible I've never used it before I use captions for the first time yesterday on my car stories normally I would type out my captions I know
Speaker: Yeah, I don't have time for that.
Speaker: Yeah, I was like, I've digged it in and done it.
Speaker: It's amazing.
Speaker: You can even go in and tweak it.
Speaker: So if the word is wrong, you can go in and fix it.
Speaker: It's insane.
Speaker: Oh, my gosh.
Speaker: Why did I not know about this before?
Speaker: I don't know, but it was so cool.
Speaker: And I would encourage you to do that because I feel like sometimes –
Speaker: If there are words there, I know for me, if there's words there, I'll go and make sure that I have the audio on if I don't already have it on.
Speaker: But also a lot of people watch videos.
Speaker: without the audio exactly so if you have done like a great voiceover yeah they may not know yeah they may not know the captions on so that or you could write something like listen to this audio i mean i could have written listen to you use this audio but have you seen all those have you seen all the ones where they're like
Speaker: Put this audio to one of your favorite moments.
Speaker: Oh, my gosh.
Speaker: The TikTok count.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So anyway, those are a couple of things that I've been doing.
Speaker: And I would just really encourage you to think about, look, change has happened.
Speaker: It's happened.
Speaker: And there's nothing we can do about it.
Speaker: So we may as well adapt.
Speaker: I may as well figure out how we can use this for our business.
Speaker: I've seen some of our examples of like, you know, three videos stacked.
Speaker: That's, I think, pretty cool.
Speaker: A great one is showing the photo and then the moment in motion.
Speaker: 100%.
Speaker: That's a really good one.
Speaker: Particularly for us as filmmakers that are doing photos and films.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's like a really good one.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that's also really good if you're just adding these into your business too because it's a way to educate and say, well, look, this is what you would normally get.
Speaker: This is how I can, like, take that to the next level with some moving things.
Speaker: moving pictures and audio and that sort of thing.
Speaker: But I mean, it's, yeah, I mean, it's tough because I really like to be a grumpy old woman about these things.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: And you know, like I've been whinging about reels and sookin' about them for probably a couple of months now.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I just decided I would put my big girl pants on.
Speaker: I've just got to accept.
Speaker: It's that whole thing of like really accepting things and growing.
Speaker: It's
Speaker: you know, and I've decided, well, I have to stop being scared of reels and I have to just change how I think about it.
Speaker: And it's, you know what, when anything tough in life has happened, that's pretty much how I've always ended up getting through is because I've had to change my mindset about it.
Speaker: And so I decided to change my mindset about reels.
Speaker: I signed up to do a seven day Instagram reels challenge with, um,
Speaker: the digital picnic, which was awesome.
Speaker: You didn't have to make reels like one every seven days.
Speaker: It was kind of more about just like it's like an introduction to reels and just telling you all about them and, like, it even went into, like, it showed you how to actually physically make it on your phone and how to, like, that's how I know how to save audio, trending audio.
Speaker: You know, like, it was a lot of great practical stuff to help you kind of figure it out and then, you know, some ideas and whatnot.
Speaker: But, like, interesting things like, like,
Speaker: you know, the fact that, you know, every time you get a new follower to your Instagram, you have two weeks to, like, make a mark on that person who's followed you.
Speaker: So, like, there's a two-week period where Instagram is more likely to show you on that person's feed when they've just followed you as a new follower.
Speaker: And so, you know, it's important to, you know, make things that are interesting and that, like, they're going to,
Speaker: or two because then when they interact with that, that gets you another two weeks of like showing up on their feet.
Speaker: And so that was something that I was like, oh, crap, you know, I'm so inconsistent with.
Speaker: Same.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, I can go a month without posting.
Speaker: So that was a bit of an eye-opener for me.
Speaker: I was like, okay, and that is one of the things that was making me go, okay, well, I really do need to change my thought process about this and decide like, you know,
Speaker: What do I want Instagram to be?
Speaker: How do I want to use it?
Speaker: How is it going to be a part of my strategy?
Speaker: Do I want to?
Speaker: And that's part of these questions.
Speaker: I do still love Instagram, particularly because I've got a cool community of people that I follow on Instagram and that follow me.
Speaker: I got Instagram six months after Instagram started, so I've been on it since the
Speaker: 2012 you know like you scroll back and I haven't archived anything just FYI so you go scrolling back through my feet if you've got the time you will go back to when before I was a photographer when I had a six-month-old baby and I just posted what we all did on Instagram was just whatever the hell was happening and food and random stuff and I was big into blogging and parenting blogging and so I have a lot of people
Speaker: that I follow and who still follow me and, you know, they're friends from that and I love seeing their things and they're supportive people and they comment and, you know, and I love that.
Speaker: So for me personally, half my followers I would say are not actually following me for business stuff.
Speaker: They're there for that personal connection.
Speaker: And so, you know, on the one hand, while I'd love to use it to grow my business more,
Speaker: On the other hand, what I loved about when they brought in stories was that I could go back to posting all the stuff because I felt this pressure to make my feed look perfect.
Speaker: As a photographer, I can't go posting some phone snap that hasn't been edited because I'm trying to sell myself here with this portfolio.
Speaker: So that's where I moved it to stories.
Speaker: And now I feel like particularly with reels because we can post things in the feed but then you can put a cover photo on it.
Speaker: Yes, it looks pretty.
Speaker: I'm now thinking, well, you know what, how can I –
Speaker: get the best of both worlds.
Speaker: How can I balance that content and have stuff that's personal?
Speaker: So have you ever thought about me, like, and you know, when you do your car stories rather than having them be stories, having that be a reel?
Speaker: Well, you know what?
Speaker: I actually, one of the things that I learned is that I'm pretty sure you can, if you turn stories into a highlight, you can then turn that highlight into a reel.
Speaker: what yeah oh i i think that's how it works but i saw something and that's that's actually something that i really want to investigate because i enjoy doing my car stories yeah i've done a lot of them and there's some good info in there yes and so i'll report back yeah but you know for me that's one i think and because you know like a lot of the bookings that i have got do come from the fact from the stuff that i've done in stories so i have to try and then
Speaker: So what I've been trying to do is think to myself, because I love to use stories.
Speaker: I love watching stories.
Speaker: I love being in stories.
Speaker: How can I take that love of that and translate that into a reel?
Speaker: Because then it won't feel so scary and whatever.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's very interesting, isn't it?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because then you wouldn't have that whole, like,
Speaker: you know, the little gap between what you're saying in the stories.
Speaker: What's the time limit?
Speaker: Is it like 15?
Speaker: 15 seconds.
Speaker: 15 seconds.
Speaker: It breaks it into 15 second chunks.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I feel like doing it in real is the way to go.
Speaker: But I personally have really thought about doing that because I think when you go live now,
Speaker: that is real yeah i think so we're something like all in those lines i just have been scared to show my face on reels so i just yeah yeah because one day i'm gonna get there i'm gonna get there but it's not just that like today like i'm like hey like you said let's record this so that we can use some of it i know so we've got we're recording this on just on the phone as well so i've got some videos so that if it's still going you know
Speaker: Yeah, if so, we don't know.
Speaker: We can't see it.
Speaker: Hopefully it is.
Speaker: We're going to try and use this.
Speaker: We're so professional.
Speaker: So good.
Speaker: But, I mean, one of the things is that, you know, obviously you might have noticed that the filming life, Instagram account and Facebook account aren't as active as they used to be because we no longer have a social media manager running that for us, which is really hard.
Speaker: You know, like we're both extremely busy running our businesses, running filming life.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Social media is sort of like.
Speaker: We're hard pressed to come up with content for our own personal things and then having to make it for filming life.
Speaker: And there's a lot of interaction that happens on that account too because you get people asking questions.
Speaker: So, you know, it's hard.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We are trying.
Speaker: And we love it.
Speaker: We love it.
Speaker: But it's just there's like only so much time in the day.
Speaker: And so, you know, we want to focus as much as we can on making sure, you know, the network has got the most activity.
Speaker: And then from there it's like whatever time we have left over goes to social media.
Speaker: But then at the same time we want to get more people.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: We want more people to fill in life.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: Social media is part of that.
Speaker: So, you know what, we're just like,
Speaker: We're with you on this journey.
Speaker: Yes, we are.
Speaker: It's what I'm trying to say.
Speaker: It's like it feels like a lot of pressure.
Speaker: And it's really hard.
Speaker: But I think, you know, we can do hard things.
Speaker: We can.
Speaker: And you know what?
Speaker: We are.
Speaker: Message us on Instagram and tell us if this resonates with you.
Speaker: Yes, please do.
Speaker: And we are perfectly primed for this.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: Like.
Speaker: We are video creators.
Speaker: We are video creators.
Speaker: We should be nailing this.
Speaker: We should be nailing this.
Speaker: And this should not be scary for us.
Speaker: And, you know, I feel like.
Speaker: Yeah, the getting on camera is hard because, you know.
Speaker: Mm.
Speaker: I'm no model.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, I find there is that pressure.
Speaker: I want to make sure that my hair is nice, but then there's that whole relatable thing.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: Well, and the other thing too is that I guess like.
Speaker: I don't look this good every day.
Speaker: As family filmmakers, we should have a whole like range of things that we can put out in reels.
Speaker: And I think if you are just making a film that's
Speaker: and just posting that film and not using it, you're really not using it in any other way than that whole version of the film, then you're doing yourself a disservice because there are so many other ways that you can post
Speaker: your video content.
Speaker: So don't be afraid to go back and repurpose.
Speaker: Use, you know, pick a moment from a film you made even two years ago or last year that you loved and reshare that as a reel.
Speaker: That's one of the best ways to just start.
Speaker: And you can then put that to any music.
Speaker: It doesn't even have to be like the most simple thing.
Speaker: would be to just, you know, save an old film to your phone.
Speaker: Use the first 60 seconds of it and whack a different song over the top.
Speaker: Like, it doesn't have to go to the beat.
Speaker: Don't worry about any of that.
Speaker: It's fine.
Speaker: Like, people aren't even going to notice.
Speaker: They look at it for literally 60 seconds and move on.
Speaker: So, I think that's the other thing, too, is, like, you kind of get so...
Speaker: hooked on just making it perfect and it doesn't need to be.
Speaker: Because that's what we do for our families.
Speaker: That's what we do for our families.
Speaker: And it doesn't need to be for reals.
Speaker: You can just be a little bit more free with it and play and have fun.
Speaker: And no, you don't.
Speaker: have to put yourself in front of the camera and point at words like that's not you don't that I really struggled with that because no hate to anyone who's done it it just wasn't me and I could and I and I remember that being like the main thing I would see yeah and I that really was what made me be like I'm so impressed by people who do that like yeah I'm like
Speaker: I can't.
Speaker: I sat there and I thought, how do they know where the words are going to be?
Speaker: Do they plan that in advance?
Speaker: Or is it?
Speaker: I'm so confused.
Speaker: Well, I mean, they add the text later.
Speaker: I'm sure they add the text later.
Speaker: Well, you do.
Speaker: But, like, what if?
Speaker: That's not a lovely thing I learned.
Speaker: Like, what if the text doesn't fit?
Speaker: I wonder how many times they had to shoot that to get that right.
Speaker: Like, trust me.
Speaker: It makes you feel like an old person.
Speaker: Like, what is this friend angle?
Speaker: Do you think?
Speaker: I'm so certain it was much more simple than what I was making it out to be.
Speaker: But I just thought to myself, yeah, that's not for me.
Speaker: Just going to move on.
Speaker: Just going to keep posting my films in the longest form possible and just hope the people see them.
Speaker: But now, you know, I'm adapting.
Speaker: I'm changing.
Speaker: And I think there's totally ways that we can make this work for us.
Speaker: And we as a community need to band together.
Speaker: Support each other.
Speaker: And show how we can, as family filmmakers, make reels work for us.
Speaker: Because I know there's ways.
Speaker: And, yeah, there's we're we're we're ready for it.
Speaker: We've got all the tools there for us to do this.
Speaker: So get out there.
Speaker: If that's been something that has made you a little bit nervous, let's talk about it in the network.
Speaker: Come join us.
Speaker: Let's start a conversation.
Speaker: We did post about the change recently.
Speaker: So join us there.
Speaker: We've had some words about it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then, yeah, talk to us on Filming Life on Instagram, too, because we're there as well.
Speaker: And hopefully this reel might show up there.
Speaker: Who knows?
Speaker: A version of this podcast might show up there.
Speaker: We don't know yet.
Speaker: We're still figuring it all out.
Speaker: And that's okay.
Speaker: That's who we are.
Speaker: So thank you for listening.
Speaker: We're going to wrap it up now, I think.
Speaker: And I hope that you guys are having a good week over there.
Speaker: And we'll see you in the next episode.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: See you then.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: See you later.
Speaker: Bye.
Speaker: Bye.
