Find Your Project Mood
What do you do to get in the right mindset while you are working on a project?
I talk a lot about motivation. And motivation is amazing and a great tool, and helps you get through anything. What nobody talks about is just how boring working on a project is. It is so exciting to put that memory card into the computer and you see gigabytes upon gigabytes being downloaded into your new project folder. That green loading bar finally becomes solid and it’s hard not to smile just a little bit. Start searching through all the footage organizing it, getting so excited to edit and see how it all comes together. The files get all neatly organized in their respective locations, you bring in your other necessary assets and have a perfectly organized project folder. Set up your backup folders and your autosave locations, open up the video editor, import all of your footage and then… there’s always that, “Oh… now I have to actually attempt to put this all together.” Followed by around 15 minutes of putting things on the timeline and realizing that you might have made some promises that are going to be harder to keep than you thought.
Turn it up.
For me, this is when it is time to get some music going. I find that music really helps me get through editing. Some people are already confused saying, don’t I need to listen to the video? The short answer is no. Most of the time when you are locking in an edit the beginning stages don’t include having to worry about audio.
My favorite platform to listen to music on is Google Play. I am an avid Google Products user, and Google Play just fit into my life very easily. It is a subscription based platform that costs about $10 a month and lets you download and stream an unlimited number of songs and albums. They also have a Pandora-like radio creator that will shuffle songs based on what you type in and what is similar to your likes. It also lets you save songs, playlists, and stations to your device so that you don't have to waste your data while streaming songs. It is also available on just about any device, (its google), and is available on all operating systems! (Apple fans, you can have your iPhones... but try out Google Play)
Currently I have been really into listening to music from when I was younger. Blink182, Jimmy Eat World, Semisonic, and Barenaked Ladies are all on my playlist. Press play below!
The biggest thing that music does for my editing is get’s me into it. After a while, regardless of what I am editing, I get into enough that I don’t even hear the music anymore because I am so engrossed in the media. I am very detail oriented and once I get along in an edit and start to see how it is truly going to work, and I realize that I actually could follow through on those promises from earlier, nothing else matters or affects me.
So what helps you get through a project? This could be writing a paper for school, an athlete working on their skills, an editor like me, a professional writing a proposal, it can be anyone. TV, Netflix, Youtube? Whatever it is, leave a comment below and let me know! Everyone has something!
Till Next Time,
Jake Matthew Morrow
P.S. Let me know what you think of the quick tips. Thinking about adding in one of these about twice a month!