Mornings From The Cabin

The overuse and over-abuse of electronic gimbal stabilizers are rampant in the filmmaking world today. If you see buttery smooth footage, it's the result of gimbals being used by filmmakers. But gimbals have a downside. The organic feeling of a viewer being there in the moment with the 'stars' of a video is being lost. Life and work isn't buttery smooth. Especially in conservation work. There's rocky terrain. Stepping over logs. Quick responses. I'm not talking the extreme cinematic camera jitters used in Saving Private Ryan. In this episode I talk about why I've been leaving my gimbal stabilizer at the office when I am filming conservation projects. Hint: It's about my camera being more organically, realistic and in sync with the real life of my subjects, which are ecologists, biologists, field technicians, etc

Well, you could read this previous blog post about Being Real Is Better Than Perfect, or you could watch this video by WorkCabin Creative conservation videographer Gregg McLachlan and hear a real story about why filming in nature is not about everything being perfect in your videos. And why, it's more natural and real to forego storyboards and scripts in nature storytelling videos.

Watch this example of a video that used no storyboards and scripts.

NatureHood: Waters Of Life

Making money as a professional photographer is hard. Or at least, a lot harder than it used to be. Unfortunately, I still see too many photographers still posting rants on social media about organizations sourcing free photos from social media users, or via photo contests. These rants are almost always focused on these external factors that creatives have little control over. What we can control is our own actions, how we are changing in this new digital era, and how we are adapting. Everything from whom we target as potential clients, to what we create, and how we market ourselves has changed. It's not 1984 anymore. 

A great story is what separates memorable content from content that is forgettable. Obviously you want to be memorable because that gives your conservation organization a competitive advantage.

But how do you create a great story? How do you tell it in a way that captivates your audience?

There’s no secret formula for getting it perfect. If there was, every nature story would be the same. But there are ingredients that are essential and effective to creating a better story. These five tips are ones that WorkCabin Creative incorporates into its video work. They are essential if you want your story to stand out from the crowd.

Scenario: You have a one-minute video. You: "We need a one-minute voiceover!" 

Stop. You might not. Leave some space and time for nature to do the talking.

Creating an emotional reaction in a viewer is more likely to happen because we watch an inspiring clip of nature vs words spoken by you. So the next time you are creating a voiceover for a video, remember that balance is key. Know when to have talking, and when to let nature alone do the 'talking'. Together, you'll have a real partnership that is powerful. 

Knowing where your organization sits in its relationship -- or lack of relationship -- with audiences is key to where to start your video or podcast journey. If your audiences are continually asking "We don't know what you do?" and you skip answering that starting point, you risk failing to grow relationships, especially new ones.

Too often we evaluate the success of our videos based on the likes, views, retweets, shares, etc on social media. An inspiring bit of feedback recently from a client really put it all into perspective about what really matters the most. Hint: It's not the number of likes.

There's a very simple ingredient that many conservation organizations are missing when they go to all the expense of getting a video or video series filmed and produced. There's no denying this ingredient works. Hollywood has used this technique for decades!

Long before we ever engage on making a conservation video for your organization, there's a good chance some of the work for project has already started. A new year marks new seasons here at WorkCabin Creative where it's all about field work several days per month to capture broll footage. This footage becomes part of our footage library that we can pull from for future inclusion in conservation film projects. Need a clip of a turtle? A muskrat? We've got that!

Saying "No" to work is not easy. But when you have real experience working in conservation, understand the landscape, and the environmental factors of specialized work, you have the skillset to make informed decisions. Such was the case recently. But I still made it an opportunity to provide expertise to the organization that was greatly appreciated. That's the takeaway in this week's episode: Every opportunity is an opportunity to create a lasting impression, even when you (unfortunately) have to turn down work.