This past weekend, I went to a friend’s house to review some footage of a sketch we shot. You can see some of the shots and thoughts about it here. I worked on it with 2 other guys – one an actor and the other a videographer- and it was our first sketch together.
My videographer friend did some rough edits and strung shots together. It was my first time my actor friend and I were seeing the draft.
Watching the edited footage was really uncomfortable; I cringed at my own performance, especially when when delivering my lines. I knew it was my first time on camera, but I totally imagined myself being more…natural on camera.
After watching it several times, my videographer friend asked us if we learned anything from the video. He said it’d be good to take any lessons learned and apply it to our next video.
At first, I brushed off his question. I didn’t want to well on the awkwardness of my acting. To a certain degree, I didn’t think there was anything to learn. So I didn’t say anything.
The other two guys shared instead. The more I listened, the more I thought – “these guys are making some valid points about learning from our first shoot. Why am I expecting my first ever sketch video to be perfect?”
After giving some thought to the lessons learned, here are two things I learned from our shoot:
- Try and write lines that are more closely tied to the character. Like ask myself if I think a character would say this line or how he would deliver this line.
- Do a table read and get more feedback from my friends
After sharing, we all agreed on what we said and encouraged each other to plan and communicate more on the next sketch, which I am currently writing.
While I was driving back home, I listened to this Instagram reel of a guy explaining what I had just went through with my friends. The reel description was called learn the lesson, leave the event.
He explains this mindset so eloquently. If you can’t listen to what he says, this is what he says:
The way I do it is I ask myself, “What’s true?”. You can write a narrative in your head and spin yourself down a negative path and beat yourself up and second guess and go back. But what’s true is that you made what you thought was the best decision in the moment and then you leave it behind. I have a mentor of mine that says, “Learn the lesson. Leave the event.” You leave the event behind and you learn everything you can from it and there’s no going back.
I liked and saved this post as a reminder to focus on the lessons rather than lingering on bad or uncomfortable experiences, like when I was watching the first edit of the sketch.
If you focus too much on the event or outcome and not the lessons learned, you don’t really learn and move on in life. Ask yourself “what lesson or lessons am I supposed to learn?”
You take the wisdom with you, but you leave the event behind.
P.S. – Our first sketch will never see the light of day. We all agreed it’d be best to leave it…in the closet.
