DanThornton

Tech, Geekery, Pop Culture, Miscellaneous

Imposter Syndrome Can Be Really Weird

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I’ve got some upcoming projects which will involve recording live streams and videos. And it’s immediately made me feel a little nervous about my presenting abilities, and the potential for it to all go wrong. Sometimes, imposter syndrome can be really weird in the way it crops up, and it’s noticeably different to nerves before doing something new or challenging.

I’m a writer and SEO who generally enjoys working behind the scenes. I don’t consider myself photogenic, and hate hearing the sound of my own voice. Having worked alongside TV and radio celebrities, I’ve seen how they ‘switch on’ when they’re on camera, or the mics are live. It’s completely outside my comfort zone, and obviously doomed to failure. I should let other people do it, or just give up on the idea if I can’t find anyone.

Except…

Imposter Syndrome can be really weird - Presenting the MCN Daily news show in 2007
Imposter Syndrome can be really weird, even when you’ve got previous experience

16 years ago, I ended up presenting a daily news show on Youtube for MCN, because we wanted to try it and no-one else was willing to volunteer. It was probably a bit early for an online daily video series in a niche area, and didn’t lead to a glamorous TV career, but the figures were OK for the time. And while I don’t think I was brilliant, I did improve over time – and no-one complained.

9 years ago, I had a very small, non-speaking part in a British indie film. And the actual cast included actors from Bond films, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and a future Ted Lasso icon, among others.

Around 25 years ago, I’d host a university radio show for two hours each week. Not only did I overcome shyness, but also memorably an incident where I locked myself out of the studio on air after nipping out for a cigarette.

I’ve presented to small groups and large audiences at a variety of events, appeared on webcasts, and dabbled a bit in live streaming in the past. A fair bit of my sim racing has been broadcast online, and even featured on Men and Motors many years ago.

No-one has said anything particularly negative about any of it. Even the professionals have only ever offered constructive advice. I’ve also witnessed various people working on their craft as speakers and presenters, including some very close friends, and how they quickly evolved their skills.

And if it’s terrible, then by definition, no-one will ever see it.

Documenting past accomplishments is one of the recommended ways to tackle imposter syndrome, along with embracing your fears and moving forwards. Which is exactly what I’ll be doing.

Crowdsourcing and copyright

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There’s an interesting app called Film Crew which I happened to see mentioned online, which allows anyone with a smartphone to be involved in shooting films and videos by following shared instructions. It’s made by Koburn, an interesting company which allows businesses etc to gather phone footage to be made into videos by their professional editors.

The app also allows you to organise your own film crew from friends and family, and then share it online or order it on DVD.

There’s a lot of talk for brands about empowering engagement, brand influencers, and premium marketing content, and it does seem like an interesting and potentially worthwhile way for brands in particular to pull together footage from events that they wouldn’t be otherwise able to film, which is a good thing.

But.

The reward for those shooting footage is appearing in the credits.

There’s no mention of any financial reward, which may be possible on an individual brand basis. And presumably the copyright to any footage that you shoot will end up being assigned to the filmmaker responsible. There’s certainly nothing to clarify that position that I could find on the website.

That’s fine if you think being in the credit of a brand video is adequate reward, but I can’t help wondering whether it’s something that most people would be motivated by?

Obviously it potentially lowers the rewards available for selling video footage, which is something happening to all creative professionals in a global market – the availability of stock photography has had a big impact over the years. And although that’s a bad thing for professionals, it’s unavoidable that we all need to find ways to demonstrate additional value.

But the copyright thing still strikes me as interesting. We can all potentially contribute to films, but as we all know, we can’t use, remix or feature any non-Creative Commons licensed film, even in passing, without either automatic Youtube takedowns or manual legal action.

Call me cynical, but I’m less and less likely to contribute words, images or video to anything which doesn’t either assign copyright to the individual creator, or will be licensed under Creative Commons for everyone to benefit from. Regardless of any financial reward or my name in the credits…

Cool video explains the beginning of the universe. A bit…

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A lot of people, particularly those with a vested interest in traditional media, have claimed that blogs are all rubbish, Twitter is just people saying what they had for breakfast, and Youtube is all skateboarding cats.

It’s a little cliched to pull out a TED video at this point, but how often can you get a CERN physicist explaining in a charming animated video the basics of how the universe appeared, and what cosmologists and particle physicists do?

 

Exactly.