Development That Pays: Behind The Scenes

This is Adam Savage. If you’ve see MythBusters You’ll know exactly who he is.

Here he is in full flow at the Bay Area Maker Faire in 2014

The title of his talk: the Ten Commandments of Making.

Let’s listen in to Commandment Number 6:

There's a lot of talk about the sharing economy.

I'm sure Etsy is totally present here at Maker Faire.

And we trade stuff and we trade knowledge.

That is really really important. There is nothing that makes me angrier than when somebody does something beautiful and you ask how it's done and they say it's a secret.

No secrets!

What are you protecting!

Nobody's gonna take your technique and then steal your… Nobody has a monopoly on being you. And if you think that your technique is what makes you interesting you're being ridiculous!

So share your techniques

Because when you do, someone's going to come back to you with a better way of doing it. You're going to learn something from them.

I’m the “maker” of more than 100 videos

I’m ashamed to say that I’ve yet to share a single technique.

That changes. Today.

Begins the scenes

Today we won’t be talking Scrum or Kanban or Agile or Lean. We won’t be talking about Software Development at all.

Instead, I’ll be taking you behind the scenes to the making of Development That Pays.

Development That Pays has just celebrated its second birthday.

It’s been quite a journey. along the way,

I’ve learned some great tricks And picked up some bad habits. I’m not always sure which is which!

Following Adam Savage’s advice, I’d like to to share my “techniques” with you, in the hope that you’ll be able to put them to good use.

And in the hope that if you spot me doing something dumb, you’ll let me know.

The visual are not the most important part

Whenever someone gets in touch to ask me how I “make the videos”, they’re really asking about “visuals”.

That’s fine. I do have some tricks up my sleeve, visuals-wise.

But I have a secret for you: the visuals are not the most important part.The audio is more important.

So I’ll be sneaking in the odd audio tip.

I have another secret for you: audio is not the most important part either. The script is more important.

And even that’s the the most important part.

My point is that I’d like to share tips and tricks on all of the above.

But not everything is going to be interesting to everyone.

This is a problem.

My solution - and this I think is rather brilliant - is to share no tips at all. Not in this video.

Instead, I’m going to chop things up: one tip per video. Bite-size.

So that you can pick and choose. Dip in and out.

I’ll tell you where to find these “bite-sized” videos in just a moment.

The inevitable Cheat Sheet

But I don’t want you to leave this video empty-handed.

I have a rather lovely cheat sheet for you.

It details everything I used to put together an episode of Development That Pays.

From microphones to video editing software. And everything in-between.

Getting your hands on a copy is simplicity itself:

You’ll find a link on or around this video

Click the link, follow the instructions and it’s all yours.

Bite size

Also on or around this video, you’ll find another link, which will transport you magically to a playlist of “Behind the Scenes” videos.

With any luck, you’re already in the playlist.

That being the case, one of them will play as soon as time one ends.

One way or the other I hope you like the videos

I hope you put the tips to good use.

And I hope you take your own tips

and pass them on.

Adam would like it if you did that.