Viewfinder: Why More People Should Make Video

Let's face it: there is no medium as pervasive as video. There are millions of TVs in the world. The television is on for nearly eight hours per day in the average American household. Because most Americans get their news and ideas from it, TV is powerful stuff.

With all this TV-watching going on, you'd think that more people would be interested in video production. Producing video is something that people enjoy. It allows for personal creative expression, which is very important in today's world, where we are all flooded with the creative expressions of other people. Making video enables people to share the power of television, to spread ideas and influence an audience. The wielding of this power--even with a humble home camcorder--allows us to gain a feeling of pride and accomplishment, a sense of satisfaction at having completed an important task. Our finished video, even if it contains some noticeable flaws, becomes a piece of work that we can point to with pride.

For those making video with others, the process provides a wonderful environment for teamwork. Like team sports, videography allows us to synergize our efforts; when the video is complete, we see that the net sum of our effort is greater than the sum of the individual contributions of each par…