Record 1 Second Everyday

Try to record people around you if possible rather than landscapes or things. You can take hundreds of pictures of a beautiful views but that one second of interesting conversation with someone, a smile of other person will bring much more memories back than tons of images.

That being said we can’t forget about the sound. Voice of other people around you, those few words you can capture in that moment, sound of birds chirping or a thunderstorm… those things can’t be captured on the picture! A second video gives you that opportunity.

Don’t wait for something interesting to happen. The moment you remember about your project – record it! There may not be a better moment to do it, or you’ll simply forget about it and the memory of that day will be lost.

Don’t just assume your life is boring so there’s no point to do that. You will be amazed after some time when you watch your recording of those “boring” everyday things how un-boring it actually was. You’ll see a masterpiece of lazy days at home, tasty food, laughter and conversations you’d never thought could actually be so exciting!

If you forget about recording the video you can always use a picture instead to fill the gap or use a second of other video from nearby day. I noticed sometimes it’s hard to choose that one second from a minute or longer video, but when it happens that I forgot to record something a day before or after I reuse those videos snapping a different second from it. Also, don’t take it to seriously. If you forgot to record for a day or more, it’s fine, nobody will notice on the mash-up anyway!

Avoid moving the camera while recording. One second is very short and that movement in the video sometimes is simply taking to much time. To better use the second of your day keep the camera still and let objects, people around you move on it.

Record landscape videos. This sometimes is counter intuitive because we so used to use the phone vertically. Unfortunately videos recorder vertically don’t look that great (I’ve learnt it a hard way) so make it a habit to always record in landscape for better end effect.

Invite others to be a part of your project. Don’t be embarrassed to ask a friend or stranger to shoot your “second” for that or day or be included in your video. Just share a bit about the project you’re working on and prepare for their faces to light up with excitement to help you carry it out.

Not every shot needs to be beautiful or make sense to the viewer. What might look boring and not that beautiful for other people may actually have meaningful and significant for you! Remember this is your video diary first and foremost.

As with everything precious, it’s wise to periodically back-up not only your phone, but to export a mash-up of all your clips and save them to another device.