“The expert in anything was once a beginner.”
Helen Hayes
Video Production
Description
A taste of Christmas is my first vlog production of its kind. My extended family and I always attend Christmas every year at our upcountry home – this was an opportunity for me to practice my skills in a home environment.
I served as the only content producer for the project and I enjoyed every second of it. As usual I recorded with a phone (iPhone 11 Pro Max) and the results were impressive.
Lessons Learnt
1. Sometimes you don’t always need ‘big’ or ‘impressive’ video editing software to make a good video. Its about gauging your needs and choosing the most appropriate tool for the job. For this video, I transitioned through three video editing software; from premiere pro (my usual choice) to Davinci Resolve (my first time) and finally comfortably settled at CapCut , where all my needs were met for far less technicality.
Interviews
Description
This interview was part of a school project to showcase my production skills. I performed end to end production for this video, from reaching out to the participant, choosing the venue, framing the subjects, lighting, sound and directing, recording, editing and even publishing it on YouTube.
Lessons Learnt
Our lack of professional equipment to record the advert was at first a challenge. We remedied it by using our phones. We also chose a type of advert that did not need the actors to speak [as we did not have microphones]. All in all I believe we adapted well to the situation.
Adverts
Description
The above was another school project to showcase our production skills. I was working with four others. I came up with the idea as a way to save time as we had done another heavy documentary production earlier and were quite tired.
We shot this in 20 minutes and within the hour it was done. I was also the editor of the video. We used our phones and shot it on campus [University of Nairobi]
Lessons Learnt
One of the microphones [on the interviewee] stopped working. The area was very windy and this led to a very noisy audio. I didn’t notice until I sat down as this was my first time. It took me about two hours, using tools such as Audacity and CapCut’s AI noise reduction to get it right. Needless to say – lesson learnt!
Nebai Kimani 