Commitment and Creativity

I wanted to make skate videos in high school.

At the time, there was no widely available or affordable video editing software (I didn’t have a computer anyway), so I improvised.

I connected my Hi8 camera to a VCR with AV cables.

I used the record button on the VCR to record clips onto the tape in the order I wanted them.

This was tricky to do because the Record button had a lag—I’d push it, then about a second and a half later it actually started recording, so I had to build in that buffer time, and if I messed up, I had to start all over from the beginning.

I had no way to generate titles, so I wrote them on a piece of paper, filmed them, and edited them in with the above method.

That was phase one. I now had a collection of rough sections - one for each of my friends.

To add music and make the master tape, I borrowed another VCR from a friend.

I connected the first VCR (containing the rough sections) to the second VCR. I bought a cheap audio Y cable from Radio Shack and I ran the skating sounds from the first VCR into one input, and audio from a tape player in the other.

I repeated the recording process above, timing the starting and stopping of the music into the mix. Again, if I messed up at any point, I had to start all over from the beginning.

When it was all said and done I had a skate video of my friends, complete with titles, music, and a credits section. It didn't look like a professionally done video, but that wasn't the point.

I invited everyone in the video to the “premiere” (pizza and soda at my dad's shop).

It’s one of my favorite memories.

It’s easy to see this as a “back in my day” rant, but it’s not. It’s a story about commitment and creativity. Despite how much of a pain in the ass making the video was, it never occurred to me that not doing it was an option.

I’ve used this method with various projects—doing things that most people would see as more trouble than they’re worth. But they were worth it to me, so I found a way to bring my ideas to life.

Most of these projects didn’t require brute force, they required making a commitment and being happy to work within whatever limitations existed.

Commitment takes excuses off the table. When there’s no option for excuses you’re forced to get creative.

What could you create if you decided you had to?