Creating a successful video is a series of decisions: why am I making a video? What will it be about? How does it begin and end? Where am I shooting? Who’s in it? And on and on.
A lot of choices, right? You know you’re making your video for an audience—but you can’t stop shooting and poll them about how you should shoot a closeup of your daughter’s face, or where to put the camera in the kitchen of your restaurant.
But one audience member is always in the house. You can ask… yourself. What choice makes you happy? What choice is more beautiful, or exciting or emotional or intriguing? What will thrill that first audience?
We develop a habit of making great choices by remembering that we’re all we’ve got. We are the first audience. Whether you’re a film director on the set or a real estate agent shooting the interior of a house, the only thing you can do in the moment—the only thing anyone can do—is choose what they prefer.
You are the one making the video. You’re in charge. For each decision, your first question should be: Do I like that?
As “First Audience Member” you get to drive. To try things. To have fun. To say “I need more” from an interview or to turn the camera in a different direction on a location. The more you own those decisions, the better you get at shooting video.
This is harder than it sounds. Ownership of our creative decisions doesn’t come naturally to most people. We’re not used to publicly saying what we like. We defer to a boss or a committee. We check to see what everyone else thinks first, or how everyone else does it. We worry about what happens if we make something and nobody likes it.
You may not be sure of your abilities yet, but that comes with practice. For now, just know that you are much more like your intended audience than you are different—if you love something, they probably will too.
Will all your decisions be genius? Nope. But I guarantee that if you DON’T like what you’re shooting, nobody else with either. (Plus you’ll be kicking yourself every time you have to watch it again. Not that this has ever happened to me.)
Do you have a burning question? A smoldering question? A question not quite on fire? Ask them all here!
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Steve Stockman is a writer/ producer/ director in Los Angeles. How to Shoot Video That Doesn't Suck, available in 9 languages, is the best selling video how-to book in the world. You can find the updated edition from Workman Publishing wherever you get books, ebooks or audiobooks. 
