Viewfinder: 25 Years

Welcome to our 25th year anniversary issue. I have written this Viewfinder column around 300 times during the past 25 years. Many readers have sent messages thanking me for inspiring or encouraging them. There are some interesting reasons why I started this company, Videomaker, and why I write to encourage people to make video.

When I first started making video in 1975 there were many challenges, but I was always hopeful that the medium held great promise to serve society if more people were able to participate in shooting and editing video. Some challenges were technical, it was time consuming, the image quality was inferior to broadcast TV, editing with VCRs was complicated and the cost of video gear was sky-high. However, the most vexing problem was access to gear. Back then, very few people owned camcorders and editing VCRs, so you had to share equipment that was owned by a public access center or a school. Many communities had at least one facility with video gear, but getting access was problematic.

Video has become so ubiquitous today that it's easy to forget just how powerful it can be. After all, it seems like anyone can shoot video with their mobile phone and easily upload it to the web. But look to the current situation in the Middle East, where some leaders desperately struggle to suppress video clips out of fear that they could inspire people to revolution.