These videos make me feel free

In the summers, I find myself in places more beautiful than my city. I’m closer to nature, or I just happen to be in a more beautiful space than home.

This, of course, makes me want to shoot more videos and create more content while I’m away from home.

But vacations don’t last forever.

At the end of summer, we all return to our base. Which usually isn’t as nice as the places we visit on our trips.

What’s the result?

The moment I get back to my usual, dull desk, I lose the appetite to shoot videos. So what kind of video could I make BOTH during summer vacations and in the beautiful places I visit, AND at home where I spend 11 months of the year?

Obviously, the videos where I talk to the camera.

The so-called “yapping”, as they call it. Which has actually started gaining a lot of popularity online, because it’s the easiest type of content anyone can create.

You just set up the camera and talk.

But is it really as easy as it sounds?

So let’s talk today about what I’ve learned after speaking in front of the camera for over 100 videos so far, and why I have no intention of stopping. Not just not stopping — I actually want to increase the pace at which I make them, because this type of video fits the free way I want to live.

Inspiration peaks in the summer

For ten years now, I keep seeing the same scenario repeat itself.

Every August, my desire to make videos skyrockets. For several summers now, whenever I’m in beautiful places, I get the urge to shoot more and more video.

Which I do, to be honest. And somehow my hard drives fill up every summer with a lot more footage.

Footage that almost always has no continuation the moment I return to the city. 😔 The August video folder always has the most gigabytes of any other month.

For ten summers now, whenever I’m “on vacation” I get this feeling that:

Yes, now is the moment.

“Now is when I’m going to make a ton of videos and I’m not going to stop at all. That’s it. It's decided.”

It’s this carefree energy, the inspiration from nature, and a nice space that make me not want to put the camera down.

And all of that, of course, makes it even easier for new video ideas to come to me while I’m away from everyday life.

I need a change for the good of my YouTube channel

Then September comes and finds me back in the familiar place. Back at my usual desk.

I have no complaints — my desk is fine. But it’s something ordinary. Something I see every day, eleven months a year.

And that makes me less eager to shoot videos, simply because I’ve gotten used to it. It’s not something new.

While on vacation, the place isn’t as familiar to me, no matter how many times I’ve visited it. It’s a change in my daily routine.

And it’s this change that gets me into the mood for shooting videos.

When there’s no change in the environment, the motivation slowly drops. After all, even in filmmaking, a good video needs a change in the hero. Some kind of change has to happen inside the video. Physical, emotional, or any other kind.

The hero has to experience a change — to be different at the end of the film than at the beginning.

For 11 months, there is no significant change, at least not in the surroundings, and that has a direct effect on my mood.

That’s how the energy drops, the creativity stagnates, and with all that, video production goes to zero too.

This automatic thought that the video will turn out less good, because I’m in a place I’ve gotten so used to, leads my channel into inactivity and stagnation.

The confirmation didn’t take long to arrive

So one of those days, as I was walking back and forth in the garden, I thought exactly this. That the video I can make, independent of where I am, will be one where I talk to the camera.

Besides, it’s not the first time I would be doing it. I’ve made close to a hundred talking-head videos so far. Either in Greek or in English.

It’s very possible I’ve made many more if I think about the similar videos I shot during my morning walks by the sea — just look at my Instagram.

They may not have been long-form videos. But they were still videos where I simply talked to the camera while walking.

So since I already have this ease in front of the camera, and since this type of video doesn’t tie me to the location I’m in, why not focus on these videos?

As if all that wasn’t enough, and as if the realization right then — that wait, these are actually the videos I should be making as much as possible from wherever I am — wasn’t enough, I randomly came across a video on Instagram.

There, a guy was telling me that the only thing I had to do was yap, as he put it. Meaning press record on the camera and start talking.

Of course, the guy was addressing random Instagram users who are afraid to stand in front of a camera and speak. He was encouraging them to pick up their phone for the first time, hit record, and share their thoughts on camera.

But I’ve already done that. And I’ve done it not just on a phone. I’ve done it with various cameras. It wasn’t hard for me.

Still, it was a confirmation.

That not only should I be making these videos because I have the ease to do them and because I’ve already tested it for many years in the past. It’s also that this type of video “sells”, so to speak. That it’s quite popular.

That now that artificial intelligence is sweeping everything, the easiest thing anyone can do is just be themselves and talk in front of the camera.

It was like several planets aligned in front of me and I said:

“Look at that — I already have the recipe, I already have the formula I should be following. And this formula will most likely keep working even when I return from vacation.” 🤩

And after all, it was already working in previous years whenever I got the urge to talk in front of the camera. Even when I wasn’t on vacation!

For ten years I was shooting the wrong videos

Now I had to adapt.

The moment had come when I needed to change my priorities when shooting videos on vacation. Because until now I had a thousand reasons to shoot videos during the beautiful moments of the holidays.

To shoot videos about life on an island, life next to nature. With the wind moving the leaves of the trees and the sea waves wetting our feet.

Those are nice images. I could tell relaxed stories from vacation.

But all of that would end in September. And I’ve seen the exact same scene play out for 10 years now.

Now, though, I realized that instead of those, I should focus more on videos where I talk to the camera.

This doesn’t mean, of course, that I’ll stop shooting videos on vacation. When inspiration hits while looking at the beauty I encounter away from the city.

But those moments shouldn’t be my priority.

My priority, from now on, should be the content and the stories I tell in front of the camera.

The stories I’ll be able to keep telling even when I return to base.

At least that way I won’t end up with a terabyte of vacation footage that sits unused on the hard drive for another year.

By making a few talking-head videos even on vacation, I’ll maintain the momentum of content creation. If at some point I get the urge to also tell the vacation stories using the footage I’ve shot during the holidays, even better.

Plus, talking-head videos are easier to shoot on vacation.

I have more flexibility with time and space. I can try dozens of different setups for where to sit compared to the setups I have back home.

Because after vacation, home will limit me to the 3-4 setups I’ve already tested for talking to the camera. But vacation gives me that flexibility. It gives me new opportunities to change the setting I’m sitting in.

On top of that, it’s also much faster to set up the cameras since natural light is abundant. Even though I brought an artificial light with me in case I decided to talk to the camera. Still, I realized it’s probably unnecessary and I probably won’t even need it, even if I shoot 20 videos over the next three weeks.

When you think about it, everything is easier on vacation if I decide to only make talking-head videos — from a technical standpoint at least.

Something that shouldn’t concern me that much anyway, compared to the actual content and what I’m saying in front of the camera. That’s where I should focus a lot more energy instead of worrying about whether the final image will look nice.

Which, in any case, will look nice when you’re in a place surrounded by nature.

Work and videos from anywhere

The good thing is I won’t be making my first talking-head video on vacation. I won’t be yapping for the first time, as they call it. I’ve already done it 100 times.

I just needed to be here on vacation to realize its value. The value has to do with the fact that I can make this kind of video from wherever I am.

I’ve learned to work from home for 20 years now. Many times I work outside the house too. In reality I can work from anywhere I am. #workfromanywhere

Work follows me wherever I am.

This independence and freedom that yapping gives fits my character and the way I like to work perfectly. In essence, it’s another form of freedom.

Another thing I can do with zero restrictions.

And given how much I value freedom in my life, talking-head videos fit the way I want to live like a glove.

Besides, no one ever watched one of my videos for the scenery around me.

No one ever wondered:

“What lighting did you set up, and how did you come up with placing the camera there?”

On the contrary, most people who watched my videos watched them for what I was saying. For the stories I was telling and maybe for how much they related to the way I think.

And all of that can happen from anywhere. Even if I haven’t set up ideal lighting or don’t have the best camera with me.

Now, if the environment where I tell all these stories raises the bar by 1 or 2%, I won’t say no.

The biggest gain of talking-head videos

I’ve realized one thing. To succeed at anything on the internet — and maybe in life in general — you have to be consistent.