Demo before you Do!!

The GOAL!!

I’m working to build a video library — two per week. There are times when that is just insurmountable and it feels absolutely impossible. The flop of the week was that I tried out a “free” video editing program because a family member recommended it. I worked into the evening, ignoring my husband, and then again the next day as the kids didn’t need me or “their” computer. After 6+ precious hours I clicked on the export button.

The Reality

Guess what? Yup, it wasn’t a free program. It required me to purchase the program in order to get the video or the other option was for me to allow them to put a large ugly watermark on my video. Let that sink in… My Video! As an artist that feels a bit like blackmail. It’s my copyright not theirs, my creation and labor, and if I agree to that it changes the equation.

So… I threw that project in the trash, quick edited the video again on my original free editor (very basic) and threw it online. I have guilt that I ignored my family and real life responsibilities just for that and felt an overwhelming sense that “there is no way I can do this two video a week thing.”

Always! Always! Do a little demo on new equipment first!

Learn from my mistake always create a short demo video of supposedly “free” programs before you invest too much of your life into it. It seems like the people who get there in the end are the ones that just keep at it.

Here’s the lesson…