Pause: Video is Other People

Read now two perennial questions with the same answer.

Q: Why, after investing hundreds of dollars in a camcorder, does the typical owner use it only half an hour a month?
Q: Why do so many videos put their audiences to sleep?

A: Video is other people.
A: Video is other people.

The half-hour-a-month shooter has collided with two indelible facts of life: he's got only one family and he's got only two hands. These limitations haunt him like the ghost of Hamlet's father, gnaw at him like Prometheus' vultures and stir his audiences about as much as the 59th replay of Pachelbel's Canon. The implications of these simple facts spread like kudzu; let's take them one at a time.

He's got but one family. What else will he shoot? Close-ups of flowers? Got 'em. Nicely framed buildings? Got 'em. He's honing his skills. He's captured a sunset with the correct exposure setting; looks good. He's framed a mountain vista using the rule of thirds; breathtaking. But he turns from his tripod only to see Hamlet's dead king: "Why didn't you just buy a stilllll camera?" Chilling.

He knows he's got to shoot things that move if he's going to make video. Well, his family moves, but even they have a limit to how much of themselves they'd like to see on their TV. There you see the end of his tether. He wistfully retires the camcorder to the closet, and brings it our for that half hour a month when his family will tolerate its presence.