Okay, so there's a trend today online usually amongst filmmakers and photographers on YouTube creating titles like
'You need this 'or 'This thing will change your life'. It's usually in all caps. It's also usually
sensational clickbait and complete bullshit
First I see nothing wrong with promoting products or giving recommendations based upon things that have added value to your life
Say you've got a camera or a backpack and it's served you well over the years
You've gotten a lot of function, use, or even joy out of it
I think it's completely fine to share that with your audience or your friends
I even think it's okay to make money doing that to get paid to do it just because I don't monetize my videos
I don't put advertisements or sponsorships doesn't mean that I think that it's immoral
It's just a path that I don't want to go down right now
I want to try to see if there's an alternate way to make a living as a content creator
But I do think we need to draw a line in the sand. There's a difference between simply recommending a product even
Enthusiastically even for money and trying to make people feel like they won't be complete until they get this one thing
It's one of the earlier tactics that was applied by advertisers
They tell people what they should want and create desire in the first half of the 20th century marketers didn't need to be very clever
Now that's what I call a good looking car.
But when consumers became more skeptical of advertising the messaging had to smarten up as well
What happens actually beginning in the 1960s is there's a revolt against advertising
As a cultural Authority and so beginning in the 60s with the famous
Volkswagen ads in which the Volkswagen Beetle is advertised as sort of the anti Detroit, you know
The ugly car instead of the beautiful luxurious with the tail fins and all of that. Here's the squat little 'anti-car'
Advertising takes on that sort of counter cultural messaging
the interesting part about it is that they are
Putting forward an anti-corporate anti commercial messaging in order to sell products
That's advertising going out of its way to interest you entertain you reward you for your time
Advertising has continued to evolve and embed itself deeper in the culture.
Obvious product placements have turned into sponsored social posts
And educational TV spots have turned into content marketing
We've seen advertisers move in that direction in a big way over the last couple of decades
because people don't have the same kind of skepticism, their antenie aren't up
And now it seems like we've come full circle
But this time we're selling the bullshit to each other
Here's the thing I realize that it's really challenging to come up with a great catchy title for your videos
so in this video
I thought it'd be a great idea to maybe take some of these titles that I think are
Unhelpful and unhealthy and just rephrase them try to figure out a way that I can get creative
To make the videos as successful as they are without making people feel like crap
So instead of using a title like 'the lens you must have', how about 'A powerful lens for portraits'
And instead of a title like 'you need this travel bag' in parentheses, 'seriously'
How about 'I love all caps but not for every word'
And finally instead of 'the camera you need', how about
'This camera might be helpful, but there are a lot of cameras that are great. So I shouldn't assume what you need for your specific projects'
So I don't want to be too hard on the people that use these tactics
There are even people that I respect and admire and really like that use them
But I am saying that I think we can be a little bit better
We can be a little bit more helpful, and it really takes
Our responsibility our ownership of these videos and titles and
Just because something's gonna work
Just because you're gonna use a clickbait title. That's a bit sensational means you're gonna get X amount more views
You need to ask yourself. How many views do you need if you only got?
200,000 views on this video
Would that be a shame or did you need 500,000 views and if it's at the cost of making other people feel like they need?
Something I think that's when we need to start looking inside and realizing that these tactics really are
Bullshit not helpful
The difference between
version 1 and version 2 of your camera isn't going to be the difference between you being a shitty filmmaker and a great filmmaker if
you really want to make that difference make that leap from bad to
Good
You need to make as many videos as you possibly can and continue to hone the craft and I'll tell you what you probably have
Everything you already need right now
If you've got an entry-level camera, even if you've got an iPhone, you've got enough to get started and yes
You can reinvest down the road as you start to make money in your creative field
But try not to feel like you need these things in order to get success
You need these things in order to make an amazing film because that's simply not true
Alright, let me know in the comments
if you guys think that I've lost my damn mind and this is something that
You don't care about or are thinking about at all
Of course many of the times I have ideas about advertising that aren't shared among the world let alone
My small audience here. So feel free to let me know what you think in the comments
I'm really excited to hear from you guys and hear your thoughts on this topic
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