Short of ideals
 

How does one come up with subjects to shoot? I am fresh out of them. any interesting books on the subject?

Please forgive me if this sounds harsh, but if you aren't busting with ideas of things you'd like to shoot, so much so that you just don't have the time to get to them all, then why are you doing videography? If you are truly passionate about something you shouldn't need other people to give you ideas.

I remember when I was an fine arts major in high school. It wasn't what I really wanted to do. How did I know that? Because our summer assignment was to fill one sketchbook. I forced myself to find things to draw and still hadn't completed the book by the time September rolled around. A friend of mine (who went on to become a successful graphic designer) had easily filled THREE! He couldn't stop himself from drawing.

Now I'm 45 years old and an independant videographer and I'm afraid I won't have enough LIFE left to get to all of the projects that I want to do!

Having said that, here are a few ideas ("ideals" are standards of perfection) that you can kick around:

- Follow the recuperation of someone going through rehab. Be sure to have them tell their life story and illustrate it with photos.

- Shoot an amateur sporting event, like a motocross race or a soccer game, and set the highlights to high-energy music.

- Take a ride on a steam locomotive and get the story of how it works and why it's being preserved.

- Have a young, aspiring writer write you a short story and then together turn it into a script and shoot it using hammy friends as actors.

Anyone else have any?