A Few Updates!

Updates-Aug2015

Hey! I just wanted to give you a couple updates on what’s going on here at EVF.

First off, I’m about to be busier than ever. I’m shooting every weekday until… August 29th. Yep. The rest of the month. I’ll be shooting in four different cities and on top of that I’ll have to be editing a lot of what I shoot at night.

I can’t tell if all this is coming at a good time or not. I would like to get my mind off things but at the same time want to be around for everyone. Over the past month I have lost two people very close to me, one very unexpectedly. Myself, my friends and my family have been weathering the storm admirably and I’m extremely proud of them, proud to be part of my circle of friends and proud to be a Short.

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One-On-One Video Editing Coaching

AnnouncingPremiumOneOnOneCoaching

I want to make you a better video editor. That’s what I’ve been doing through my site, YouTube channel and other avenues for the past year. Pretty much this entire time I’ve been helping a faceless audience. I’ve been guessing at what you want to learn and hoping I’m using something relatable to be able to teach you. I know it’s working for a lot of you (I love the thank you emails I get!). However a lot of the time I still don’t know what you are struggling with. You, the one reading my words right now, I want to help you. That’s why I want to be your coach.

Recently I’ve had a huge problem. I have had several requests come in for complex custom tutorials that can’t be reused for everyone. I want to help these individuals out but I have such limited time after my 9-5, creating content for this site, walking Peyton, another new secret project I’m announcing soon (!!!) and trying to have something close to a social life. I have two options. I can:

  1. Spend several hours creating these custom tutorials, which results in lost time either with my family or creating content for this site or
  2. I can keep my family time and EVF content creation time but not be able to help these individuals in the way that they want/need help since email and screen shots aren’t enough sometimes.

Neither option works for me.

I cannot justify helping one individual person at the expense of not being able to create content for this site (and thus helping many). It isn’t fair to everyone else…that means you! My family time will always come first and with my limited free time I need some grounds for cutting out on one of them. That justification comes in the form of private, one-on-one premium coaching.

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When You Have Enough Tools and It’s Time to Start Building

WhenYouHaveEnoughToolsAndItsTimeToStartBuilding

Me, and a lot of other editors, like to say that knowing an NLE is just another tool in your tool belt. I like to take that analogy and go a step further. Every effect you learn to apply, software trick you implement, skill you acquire, connection you make, value you create for others and anything else you can think of that works towards improving yourself is a tool. Your tool belt consists of all of these. Each tool preforms a certain action whenever you are working on a project.

With your fully loaded tool belt you can build all sorts of things. The majority of time we tackle two types of projects. The first project is something simple, let’s say a chair if we can turn my analogy into something physical. We know there are four legs, a seat and a back to it. We have at least a rough blueprint we can follow or can easily find someone (or a YouTube video) to guide us. The other type of project is to build more tools! We build ourselves another screwdriver or a hammer or drill bit. These two types of projects pay our bills (barely) and (we hope) make our bosses happy. Are you happy though? If you are anything like me then you might not always be satisfied with the things you are building and their outcomes. Do they have enough reach? Do they improve my life or someone else’s life substantially?

Sure, we’re content after we sell off our chair or put away our screwdriver. We sold enough to pay off the mortgage this month or make ourselves more valuable candidates for a future job by having more tools. What we built was average. Deep down that’s not what we want. That’s not why we do what we do. We want incredible. As I lay here at 11:00PM drafting this on my phone in bed with my wife and dog already asleep long ago I’m reminded about how much incredible I want in my life and how little I am doing about it. For now…

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Focus, Lists and Spirals

Focus, Lists and Spirals

Two quick updates before we get into today’s post:

What should I put up as decorations?
What should I put up as decorations?

#1 – I finally moved into my new edit bay at the office! Here’s a picture of phase 1. Next up is phase 2, which is all about decorations. Any ideas on what I should put up?

#2 – I got featured on Pro Video Coalition! How crazy is that?! Scott Simmons is doing a post production quick tip everyday this month and he offered to let me write one. Read it here!

Okay, on with today’s post about Focus, Lists and Spirals…

Have you ever felt like there is so much you have to do but then instead of doing one of them you decide to sit down and start watching TV? That’s where I’ve been for the past couple weeks. There is sooooo much going on and I haven’t gotten anything done because I don’t know where to begin.

I really want to get back on track, if I was ever actually on track, with writing more how-to or instructional posts about editing. However since this feeling is so over-whelming at the moment I feel like I should share this struggle with you, tell you what I’m doing about it and get your thoughts on the topic.

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Entrepreneuring Video Editing

An honest discussion about making money
An honest discussion about making money

I want to get this off my chest.

I want to make money from this site and brand.

That isn’t a secret I’ve been keeping. It’s just something I’ve never fully and openly disclosed. I’d like to take the next ~thousand words to talk about it.

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Finishing Strong to Start Stronger

There are 10,000 posts like “The Top-8 Ways to Tackle Your New Year’s Resolutions” streaming through your social media timelines and inboxes right now. This post is not one of them. This short post is to tell you that you can do whatever you want to do and give you a quick tip on succeeding in whatever goals you have whenever you have them.

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