Abhimanyu Chitra Selvan
TheCloudOdyssey

Follow

TheCloudOdyssey

Follow

The thought process behind making technical Youtube videos

Grasp the subject, the words will follow.

Abhimanyu Chitra Selvan's photo
Abhimanyu Chitra Selvan
·Apr 8, 2022·

5 min read

Play this article

Getting too comfortable?

I believe we as humans like to stay in our comfort zone as much as we can. I think that is a fairly decent assumption to make? Especially the older you get, the more you want to stay within your zone. I thought about the decisions I have made so far and I have never been afraid to try something new and step out of my comfort zone. My career is proof of that. This time it was different. I was getting way too comfortable with the work I was doing and I could feel that in my actions. Not that I slacked off, but I was not pushing my boundaries or activating my internal assets to bring out the best in me. It could have also been then, that I didn't have the space or the right environment to cultivate my creative thoughts.

Hop on the flying nimbus

I could see that the dark clouds(pun intended) were clearing up and I was able to find my space(personally and professionally) to get back to the living on the edge mentality :p

I had to think a couple of times before I took the leap of faith to go ahead and make youtube videos for the startup I am part of. Let me tell you that it was not an easy decision to make. Putting yourself out in the public, especially in the tech world is scary. High chances of being ridiculed, your reputation is at stake and you are becoming the face of the firm so every action needs to be carefully thought through and well-executed. There is going to be a digital record of the tech talks that can be shared across the globe with a click of a button and can as well bite me in the future? who knows? So many questions ran through my mind but then I thought about the opportunity that I was presented with. I had the creative freedom to explore this medium and demonstrate the aspects of our product in a manner that was easily consumable to the audience. I grabbed it with both hands and jumped on it.

The shock

If you are not a YouTuber and if you think making YouTube videos were easy, let me tell you that you are in for a big surprise!!! I can guarantee you that.

Making videos is hard. Period. Making technically videos is harder. Making technical videos in a manner that can be easily understood is the hardest. It took me about a week to put together a technical video that I thought was good enough to be made public.

The process of editing was the trickiest and the most time consuming of them all. It is also the most important aspect of video making. Putting together a coherent stream of images with voiceovers and animations is BEEP tough. I take my hat off to all those content creators who are killing it in the digital media world.

Progress and patience

Note to self: Don't expect immediate results.

This is not some work that is going to stay within your organization. It is not some code that is going to be in your private code repository. This is out in the open for the world to see. You are being watched. You will be judged.

This is where I incorporated the fire and forget policy. Once you have uploaded the video, do not worry much about it because there isn't much you can do anyway. It is not a blog that one can edit and re-publish as nothing happened. There is no mythical "twitter edit button". Learn to develop a thick skin and move on.

So what were my criteria? was it the number of views? was it the number of likes?

My criteria were simple.

  • Did I spend less time making the video than the previous one?
  • Did I efficiently use the tools to get a better output?
  • Is the new video better than the previous one?

If the answer was yes to the above three questions, I just moved on. I did get feedback from peers and friends and incorporated that in the next videos.

At this point, I thought about my school teachers and realised how easy they made things sound. I realised the difficulty and importance of being a teacher and I appreciate their work more so than ever. Thank you to all my teachers!

"Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach." - Aristotle

FYI, I am not claiming to be a teacher here. This exercise of making videos has made me realise the importance of teachers and professors.

What now?

I believe this was a good exercise to balance my analytical left and the creative right brain. I think I will continue to explore this medium and build good quality technical content in the future. Should I start my own Youtube channel? ;) Let me know.

You can find some of my work here.

If there is something that I can suggest to my readers, it would be to go out and try something new, not necessarily making youtube videos but just step out of your zone even if it is for a couple of hours. It will not just enhance your confidence but also activate certain inner senses that you thought you never had.

You never change your life until you step out of your comfort zone; change begins at the end of your comfort zone. - Roy T. Bennett

Did you find this article valuable?

Support Abhimanyu Chitra Selvan by becoming a sponsor. Any amount is appreciated!

Learn more about Hashnode Sponsors
 
Share this