At some point, most of us have heard the saying: “It’s the craftsman, not the tools”, which means that all the great creations in the world depend more on the skills of the artists than on the quality of their tools. Or, to put it less elegantly, you could give a room full of monkeys the best computers in the world, running the latest word processing software, and still not produce a single Shakespearean play.

We have seen this trend in the printing industry.

This was never more obvious than with the advent of desktop publishing software a few decades ago. I vividly remember how print layout artists and designers of the day panicked at the thought of losing their jobs to anyone and everyone with a personal computer. In an effort to at least remain competitive, most of these graphic professionals did their best to harness their art in the computer age, but to what end? In a matter of months, there would be no need for his specialized services anyway!

Lo and behold, two decades later, many of these talented artists and designers are still gainfully employed in their field. What happened? Desktop publishing software actually revolutionized the printing industry by allowing almost anyone to produce high-quality documents without the help of a professional. However, professional graphic designers are still in demand. How can it be?

The answer, with hindsight, is surprisingly simple: the market grew. It grew to encompass not only new-rank hobbyists and existing highly-skilled graphic artists, but also a host of people in between. Where once there was a clear demarcation between the person creating handwritten or typed pieces and the skilled layout artist creating professionally printed pieces, there is now a broad spectrum of hobbyists and professionals creating not only traditional printed pieces, but also designing graphics. for the Internet, DVD, CD-ROM and much more.

With so many people creating graphic compositions, one simple reality remains abundantly apparent. It’s easy to tell when something was designed by a qualified professional and when it was created by a hobbyist using desktop publishing software. In other words, he is the craftsman, not the tools.

What are the implications for video production?

So why is a 27-year veteran video producer talking at length about printing? Because right now the video production industry is going through the same revolution. The same video production tools that would have cost tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars 10 years ago are now available to almost anyone with a reasonably powerful home computer and camcorder. You only need to look at YouTube.com to see the results.

Fortunately, most true video production professionals are not afraid of this revolution. We’ve seen it before in the printing industry. We have the benefit of hindsight to recognize that as video tools become more widely available, the market to support newcomers to the field will also grow. In fact, unlike graphic designers of 20 years ago, most video producers welcome the change. New tools emerge almost daily that allow us to better convey the stories we tell by speeding up the production process, improving the quality of the final product, and allowing us to distribute our work to a global audience almost instantly. Not only that, the low price of entry level equipment allows many highly talented people to rise to the top in a field that would have been too prohibitive 10 years ago.

Why you need to clarify your goals.

The people who should be concerned about this new revolution are consumers of professional video production services. In the past, the sheer price of equipment virtually ensured that the people operating it knew what they were doing. Now that is no longer the case.

In any city big enough to have yellow pages in its phone book, you’ll find listings for people who advertise as video producers. They will offer to produce anything from weddings to TV commercials and bar mitzvahs to short films, all at prices that will blow your mind! In your opinion, since they have the right equipment and basically know how to make it work, they must be trained video professionals, right? Say it with me now: “He is the craftsman, not the tools.”

Video production is, to say the least, an incredibly complex trade. After 27 years, I still feel like I’ve only scratched the surface. There are so many things to consider during the production process, and one of them is simply telling a compelling story. There are obvious considerations, like proper lighting, camera angles, and sound, that can be taught in a few years at a technical school. But there are also more esoteric considerations, such as the effectiveness of the message, the editing pace, and the overall “feel” of the piece that can only be learned with time and experience. These are the skills that can make or break the success of a piece of video. And I won’t even begin to mention the intricacies of video compression, format selection, and data storage.

Ultimately, consumers will be the ones to benefit from this video revolution. And we can expect to see a wide spectrum of video products emerge, just like in the print industry. In the meantime, though, it’s a buyers beware market. Just because people advertise as video professionals doesn’t mean they can craft a message that ultimately achieves their intended goals in a profitable way. It simply means that they own equipment.

Conversely, just because people set themselves up as one-man gangs working from home, you can’t assume they’re unqualified to do the job. The best thing about the democratization of video production is that it opens the door for talented people to operate in an arena that, until recently, was financially off-limits.

So in the end, the proof is in the pudding. If someone claims to be a video producer, then that fact should be very evident in the work they have done in the past. All aspects of your video portfolio should appear well-crafted, and the videos should have a finished, polished feel. If not, then perhaps the mantle of video producer it has been claimed a little too soon.

And remember, it’s the craftsman, not the tools.