How Video Changed One Man's Life

As you know I am writing a book "iPhone Millionaire - Six Weeks To Change Your Life"

The final draft has to be with my editor in two weeks, so I am crashing to a close.

As part of the book I am collecting stories of how video has created whole new careers for people, and in a few cases, new lives.

I just got this from Tony Martin, who took one of our bootcamps a few years ago.

It was so good, I wanted to share it with you all directly.

My name is Tony Martin and I'm from Washington, DC.  I'm currently 32 years old and I have traveled to over 170 countries as a travel filmmaker.  Simply put, after flunking out of college, I floundered through life without a clue about what I wanted to do with myself, until I bought my first cheap camera.

 

If I had to describe my path in a few paragraphs, it would go something like this:  In 2006 I met a man named Michael Rosenblum.  He told me that the future of television was one man, one camera, one laptop. Not only was I inspired, I believed him. After landing a job on his television series, 5 Takes: Pacific Rim, he taught me the basics of video journalism which included how to tell a story with video, what shots to take and the framework of editing with Final Cut Pro.

 

Not only did I find a skill set, I found a passion. I took the foundation that Michael gave to me and built on it heavily through knowledge found on the internet and practice. For the first time in my life, I had a purpose… I had something that I enjoyed and that I was good at. With a strong desire to chase a dream and a firm belief that you can learn anything on the internet, I set out to become really god at making travel films.

 

To start, I took another piece of advice from Michael, "Just start making videos."  One good video was all it took for the avalanche of opportunities that followed.  In 2010, Coca-Cola wanted to send three people around the world, filming and blogging about what makes people from every culture happy. After a long interview process, I was one of those people selected for that epic journey, specifically for my ability to shoot, edit and host videos all on my own.  Although some countries weren't fit for travel, I sit here now with around 172 countries under my belt amazed at all the places my camera has taken me. Just writing this makes me want to go out and shoot something. Actually, I think I will ;)