What My Videos Looked Like 9 Years Ago

This week's creative tip: start with what you have.

When I first made short form video 9 years ago, I didn't have any film equipment. That meant I couldn't do elaborate setups or anything beyond what I could capture on my phone.

And that was a good thing! I had to use what was around me - like good lighting in my bathroom mirror, which was also an obvious setting to make something magical.

What started as using what was around me became a trademark style: boringly average, realistic clips suddenly flipped into believable magic. And that trademark style has become a really awesome career making videos on the internet.

So forget about all the fancy gear, tools, materials, etc. and start making cool stuff.

Making the Video

1. Film myself walking up to the mirror, receiving a pretend low-five, giving a pretend low-five, and then touching my knuckles to the mirror.

2. Place a neon green poster board against the mirror (filmed in the same environment to keep lighting consistent).

3. Film my hand giving a pretend low-five and then receiving a pretend low-five, against the green background.

4. Onto post-production. My real, foreground hand is visible during the 'magical' part, so I need to remove that frame-by-frame by using footage masked from the background.

5. Cut out that green screen hand (3) and add it to the original clip (1).

6. Make sure to have the hands properly overlap - maybe add a little bit of fake shadowing.