DL wants to practice his filmmaking skills, having served as DP on several local film productions.
Justin wants to hone his capabilities as a director and actor.
Nathan wants to exercise his wit and absurd ability to create puns.
I want to become a better storyteller and communicator.
Each of us could (and do) go off separately and practice on our own. However, it's much more fun to find a way to work on all of these goals as a team. Hence our YouTube channel, TheMooMoe. Essentially, we tell a longer story through short vignettes that are filmed in one shot and oftentimes only one or two run-throughs before we roll camera. Perfection isn't the goal, practice is. Can we develop a concise and effective story or joke, find a clever way to film it, and end up with something people want to watch? Can we get better as we do it over and over? We're going to find out!
I've notice, after a few months of this, three benefits of this collaboration:
- Better Communication. We've all known each other since at least 2008 (Justin and Nathan, brothers as they are, for longer) and already have deep relationships. Neverthless, creating these videos together has helped us communicate what we want, what our visions are, and what tasks we want to own in this process. I have such a better understanding of what everyone else wants to accomplish as we work through this.
- Better Feedback. We don't spend a lot of time on each video, so it's often a quick process of story development, rehearsal, and filming. As each of us throws out ideas and offers critiques or praises to the others, we all learn to improve our individual processes. It's an encouraging atmosphere as we help one another hone our skills.
- More Energy. Setting goals and accomplishing them is huge. Waking up knowing you have forward momentum is a wonderful thing. For a couple of us, we started making these videos at a point where most of our life seemed to be stagnant. Being able to make these videos together and churn out a product that others were excited about was such a boost to get moving on other goals we each individually had.
Head over to our YouTube channel and give us some feedback!