Video gives people a voice. As a videographer I’m able to help someone be heard, and take their message to the person who needs to hear it.
I love getting to know my clients on a really personal level. Hearing their story – the real story, not the soft version they tell the rest of the world – of what sparked the beginning of their journey often gives me goosebumps.
When a client sees the video I’ve created for them and goes, ‘wow – you really captured what I wanted to say…’ that lights me up like nothing else; because I know in a small way I’m helping them to make a difference with the information they have to share.
I get to hear other people’s stories everyday, so I thought I might share a piece of mine – how I became a videographer and why I fell in love with story…
I wanted to be a lot of things before I found video. An artist, an author, an interior designer, a special effects makeup artist… something creative – but I couldn’t quite find the ‘thing’ that ignited the spark.
I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life – do any of us really know when we’re 16? And the pressure I’d put on myself to figure it out before the end of school was getting to me.
I chose media as an after thought, a ‘bludge’ subject because my original course selection didn’t line up for my senior schooling.
But the first time I picked up a video camera I knew I’d never be able to put it down again. My ‘bludge’ subject became my favourite part of the week and the hours upon hours I poured into that course made the end of my schooling fly by.
I enrolled in a film, TV and radio course at university and I was fully immersed in the craft for three years, behind the camera as often as humanly possible. I didn’t know how, but I knew I was going to make this my career.
I started to learn how to shape stories, and share information through video – creating terrible short films with my friends, filming live coverage of local sporting events, creating our own studio talk shows – and I could not get enough.
During my studies I was granted a video internship in the digital marketing department at my university. And that meant when I wasn’t making video in the classroom, I was making video in my workspace. Like I said, I really could not get enough.
At the end of my studies I was in such a hurry to get out into the world and keep making videos. I would do anything if it meant getting my hands on a camera.
University taught me great technical skills and I felt ready to dive straight in to my career; but nothing could have prepared me for what I’d really experience out there…
My first job after university was as a camera operator and editor for a local news station. I got to use a camera every single day of my life! How could it get any better than this?
Chasing stories with journalists, competing for the best shots, making the news deadline by a whisker really is a rush.
The other side of coin was the midnight callouts to fatal crashes, house fires, armed robberies… if you watch the news you can imagine what I was filming. These were not the kind of stories I personally wanted to tell.
The deadline driven pressure of this environment made me forget why I loved video in the first place. So I resigned from a job I really liked, with no plan, to look for something that felt right.
I reached out to every videographer and production house I could find – I was the squeaky wheel – with only a couple of years of experience under my belt I approached everyone and anyone who would listen and asked them to give me a shot.
And they did listen. And they did give me a shot.
After… I’m not sure how long… but trust me it felt like forever – of sending emails, making phone calls, having meetings, pitching myself and mostly just asking for a chance, my calendar I was almost fully booked as a freelancer.
Since taking the plunge into freelance I’ve travelled to places I couldn’t pronounce the names of, spent days filming in industries I didn’t know existed and met some truly amazing people. If I told 16 year old me about the places I’ve seen and things I’ve experienced because I chose video I don’t think she’d believe me.
My love of video is still in the shots, the lighting, the composition – the feeling you create for the person watching. There is nothing like it.
But the moments that really make me love what I do are those that make tears well in my eyes. I love it because of the people I meet.
To take a camera, spend a day in someone’s life and create a space for them to be vulnerable and talk about their passion, their reason why or the idea they’ve been bursting to share is one of the best feelings in the world.
I’ll never be able to get enough.