What was your experience with video before The Big Video Course?

I went to school for media communications, so I had a basic understanding of how to upload and edit, but it had been six years since I really used those skills, so a lot of what I knew was forgotten or all thrown around in my head.

How were you learning video in the past?

Popcorn jumping around YouTube. I would get frustrated or distracted a lot. Tutorials can miss the subject completely through misleading or confusing titles, be so quick they don't solidify the skill, try to be a vlog-ucation or be filled with product reviews. It was really nice to have a structure with this course.

What was most valuable about the course?

The most value for me came from the resources for editing, free music, ideas for the use of GIFs and free stock footage sites. As well as the structure for starting a project and immediately encoding proxies.

What was least valuable?

The least valuable for me was the completion calendar. My schedule needs to stay flowy while taking a course like this and I knew I wasn't going to stick to a schedule.

Did the course keep your attention?

Definitely. I really liked that the lessons brought in GIFs and little animations that were related to what was being taught. It just made things engaging and interactive.

I think at one point Mary mentioned she was going to show a visual at least every ten seconds, and I started almost tracking the timing, but then I realized, naw, she’s nailing it and I need to pay attention to the actual lesson!

How easy is it to make progress?

You can definitely watch multiple lessons at a time without your head exploding. With this other course I took, I had to take breaks because it was so boring — it was like going to the DMV. But this course was entertaining, so I wanted to keep going.

I also liked that right at the beginning, Mary explained that you can jump around in the course. So if there's something you already know, you can just skip over it and go to the parts that are relevant to what you're trying to learn. That made it a lot easier to fit the course into my schedule than I had expected.

What was challenging about the course?

Attending office hours with something to talk about. But when I did, WOW! What a huge bonus to the course.

What results did you get from this course?

A structured workflow, confidence in organizing multiple editor projects and sounding like I haven't taken six years off of editing, especially when I’m talking to clients.

Any final thoughts?

I’d definitely recommend this course. It’s like an interactive comic book with info for all levels of filmmakers. I’ll come back to this course curriculum over and over to stay up on my skillset versus popcorning all over YouTube.

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