:::Issue #21. Why are you receiving this? You’re friends with Cam Houser or you just joined the Minimum Viable Video waitlist. This is where I share uncommon stories of creativity, entrepreneurship, and video:::
🎟 Welcome Daisy, Sven, Loren, Sean, Xicay, Randy, Diogo, Alessandro, Thiemo, E Danders 🎟
Greetings, rulebreakers and actiontakers!
What I’ve been up to:
👨🎓 Realizing that I’ve taken a cohort-based online course every quarter since COVID began.
I may never stop.
Learning has never been so fun, applicable, and network-enhancing. The kind of people who pay for high-dollar online course are motivated, (literally) invested in their success, and action-oriented. Those are peers I like to surround myself with, and I love the set of people I’ve met as an online course student in 2020.
📷 Experimenting with a high-end camera for recent filming. One of my “unfair advantages” is having a life partner who has expensive camera gear because she was a commercial photographer in a past life. PREDICTION: the benefits of a fancy camera won’t be worth it and I’ll revert to the Iphone as my primary video camera in mid-2021.
Minimum Viable Video Updates
One week until one of the most joyous, transformative experiences of my life comes to a close. Last week, we…
covered more on editing (and outsourcing editing), music, different approaches to captioning, and B-roll.
hosted Joe Gannon led a session on the power of using video on Linkedin (TAKEAWAY: 2% of Linkedin users post content—it’s early days for the platform)
had office hours and one-on-ones to give individual attention to everyone who wants it
completed the fourth and final Video Sprint where the cohort progresses from rough concepts to finished videos in 2 hours. For many students, these have been the highlights of the course thanks to the high-energy community feel and completed product at the end.
How do you present if the material is dry?
Years ago, I heard about a very weird to approach to making a presentation of dry source material more interesting. It’s not for everyone. But this newsletter isn’t for everyone.
I present to you the Lemur Technique…
Exaptation: Moments in Applied Creativity
In Where Good Ideas Come From: A Natural History of Innovation, Steven Johnson introduces the concept of exaptation. Exaptation is applied creativity; it refers to adapting an existing tool or technology in a way other than originally intended.
The printing press is the most famous example of exaptation. Gutenberg made his invention by repurposing wine presses, built to crush grapes.
I’m fascinated with this concept, so I’m going to start sharing examples of I see in the wild. Maybe it while inspire you to be more innovative.
Today’s example is the makeshift breakfast pan:
R.I.P Chuck Yeager
Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to break the speed of sound, passed away this week. Most of what I knew about him was from the movie The Right Stuff.
Ten years ago, I had no budget to film a music video for my band so I stitched parts of The Right Stuff together to create a makeshift video.
Interestingly, the clips that made it into the video feature the death of a pilot and the unique way that stunt pilots commemorate the passing of one of their own.
R.I.P Chuck.
See you in the Zoom grid,
Cam
Web: actionworks.co
Twitter: @cahouser
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For professional grade virtual courses and workshops, email cam@actionworks.co
Just for fun: slow motion bird footage…