+ A Substack Exclusive, my first video creation of its kind.

SLART Note: Thank you to for the inspiration to write this piece and the direction of creating video documentaries around my art. Or at least, documenting my journey at a nourishing, slower pace. If you think about how artists back in the day used to talk about their art on video, they didn’t have to time-lapse every video to grab your attention.

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been posting Instagram Reels twice daily. It’s fun, I’m enjoying it and fit the video creation within my life without any hassle. For example, when I am at the studio, I’ll film what I am painting, or If I have a spare 10 minutes, or when on the loo, I’ll create a quick quote video using Canva. I have been checking for likes and comments semi-regularly, but it’s not been to the doom-scrolling extent of yesteryear.

Alisa got me thinking about creating a body of work around video specifically. I do enjoy creating videos and it complements and documents my art. I’m pleased with how I’ve documented my life via my Substack posts since July 2023 mainly writing, with some podcast episodes. Now Substack has video posts, I can play around with the format and create longer ‘episodes’. I used to be terrified to be in front of the camera, but gratefully, now it doesn’t bother me. I like the idea of documenting my work for myself so I can look back at the changes in my work, and myself. Also, I hope it’ll be interesting for my daughter when she is older too!

Back to dopamine content (Short attention space content of today), there’s a global demand for it, so people keep creating it. Finding ways to grab attention, it seems that more focus is put into that, than creating good content.

I want to keep the Reels going for now, as I have my Substack link in my IG profile. I’d be curious to see how many people come and visit. Also, weirdly, I want to prove to myself that I can be consistent with posting Reels, as I have been with writing my Substacks. I’ll give it a good few months, I think I’ll know it’s working when the numbers increase from around 50-300 max video views to 300+ as the minimum. But then, it’s not all about views, but it’s a starter metric. There’s always the hope for that viral hit isn’t there!?

So in short, try and create some longer-form content. If you do that already, that’s cool. As you’re on Substack, it’s more about reading content at a slower, leisurely pace anyway. So I’m preaching to the converted. This post is mainly about me talking out loud about what Alisa helped me realise for myself. I’d like to create videos that are long-lasting and timeless. How many Reels will be remembered in 5-10 years time? Some maybe, as a meme, you get what I’m saying.

So without further ado, here’s my first go at creating a video that’s longer than a Reel. Enjoy! (I may start posting these as video posts, we’ll see):

Please comment below with links to some cool Substack video creators. I’d appreciate the inspiration. And of course, feel free to give feedback on my video.

Have a wonderful day,

SLART

P.S. Make sure you read Alisa’s post that I mentioned. Also by sharing this post, you’re sharing Alisa’s post too, two for the price of one!