Yesterday I tried to break down the artist CV and all its features, but I just couldn’t stop feeling like I needed to address video too! So in today’s blog I would like to focus on video as a more informal, but incredibly powerful tool, to propagate your art and creative message.

Had I written about this a few years ago, the problem with many of us might have been that if you didn’t own a camera or had any friends that dabbled in videography, this topic would’ve been off the table — unless you decided to pay a lot for someone to shoot it for you.

Now, you can film it with your phone. You can even edit your video with your phone and chances are — even if you don’t want to do it yourself — thanks to YouTube and the like, there are now more and more people interested in the narrative power of video that could, and would probably do it for you for free or as an exchange for a beer, coffee or maybe some art (if you don’t mind the barter).

There are no excuses not to have one, and I want to focus on the positives anyway (because apart from possibly being extremely introverted and having to buy a friend a few cold ones and hang out, nothing negative can come out of it).

The process of making a video about your art forces you to talk on camera, or makes you otherwise present your thoughts to the spectator (for example an audio voice over). This is an incredibly powerful exercise for all of us that aren’t really confident in front of a camera (which means we are less confident in front of larger crowds too).

Let’s face it, if we want to tackle a full-time career in the arts, one of the most important tools in our repertoire is going to be our ability to talk to various strangers. I seem to really enjoy being in a large room full of strangers and art — but that’s me — and for you, it might just be that having to talk about who knows what with people that you’ve never seen or talked to before will make you anxious beyond compare. This is where being in front of a camera can really help.

Ontologically speaking (philosophy’s equivalent to rap culture’s “forshizzle”), when you talk to a camera, you really aren’t talking to anyone at that time. But unlike talking to a wall or a piece of furniture, talking to a camera evokes a similar effect as being in front of a crowd, while not exactly triggering the same amount of anxiety — and the best part is, it all gets documented so you can even analyse yourself after!

It’s really like looking at a Rothko in a museum; you could experience the divine power of the sublime by standing naked in front of a 10 meter-high tsunami wave, but you chose to get to that point of clarity via a much safer method of intently staring at blotchy paint structures for a longer period of time (we humans are amazing creatures).

Being in front of a camera gives us a lot of data to get better at speaking to strangers and it slowly lifts the anxiety of such an endeavour over time!

The next bit is obvious: We live in the age of video. My blog is fine and podcasts are getting a comeback (if you haven’t already started one, get on anchor!), but I sporadicly also try to dabble with video because it is and probably will be the leading medium for content delivery for years to come.

The fact of the matter is; if you have anything made up of moving images, your chances of getting in front of more people are greater than if it were a still image. I’m not saying images don’t work, but just looking at IGTV and Facebook Watch alone can tell us a lot:

Both platforms are attaching YouTube in some way, shape of form, and both aren’t exactly winning the battle. And that’s great, because it means both will be pushing creators with video content on their platforms much more vigorously than YouTube (I get about 1000% more views on Facebook or IGTV for my video blunders than on YouTube).

But, I don’t want to just be sounding the horn of abundance (though I think one can’t, because it’s always clogged with stuff) and pushing mindless positivity.

Of course if video is something where you feel absolutely crap while doing it, there’s no need to force it. But if you’re the kind of person that gets their kicks from constantly being in such situations and loving the strange masochistic nature of growth, do it. It’s going to be worth it after a few years and a bunch of videos about your work are floating around the web.

Oh, and dare I say that for any YouTube B-roll enthusiasts, a video CV of your art is more or less 80% B-roll and 20% you talking and commenting on it (or it can even be a 100% of that pure, uninterrupted 120p slow-motion B-roll). So, you know, go nuts!