2020-2021
TechSpecsYT
The first real creative project I started during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, making tech videos on YouTube under the alias TechSpecsYT.
However, to understand TechSpecsYT, first we need to go back a little further.
Since about 12 years old I had enjoyed watching MKBHD on YouTube, mainly for his insane attention to detail, clarity and aesthetics in his videos about all the latest tech.
It's probably from him that I gained a similar creative drive in most of my work, as well as my passion for technology, in all honesty.
I loved his style so much I'd even listen to the music from his video intros, and it was here I also discovered Logic, a rapper from Maryland.
As the COVID-19 lockdown was slowly unfolding and I was about 15 years old, I distinctly remember listening to Logic's track Last Call, which at around the 8:45 mark says:
So many people, they always say,
"Oh I would do this but-" or "I can't because-"
And you already fucking lost […]
And I feel bad for that person,
'cause that person will never make it.
"I would, but I don't have the money."
"I would, but I don't have the time."
Fuck that, you gotta do it man,
You gotta do what makes you happy.
Regardless of how cringe I may find the song now, this message was quite profound to my 15 year old brain, and with a lot of time now suddenly on my hands, these thoughts in mind pushed me to use it to teach myself how to film tech videos on YouTube and become part of the scene I liked so much.
Everything was shot on the iPhone I already owned with a £20 tripod from Amazon, edited at no cost using DaVinci Resolve on the computer I already had, and storyboarded, scripted, filmed and edited myself as a one-man team.
And whilst in the beginning the videos were definitely not MKBHD level, my channel grew in quality over time and iteration, showing me how far you can get if you do truly put in the work and keep chipping away.
Among the top feats were receiving products to review from Google (Pixel 4a) and from a wearable company called Amazfit (Band 5), as well as reaching over 1,000 subscribers with a total of over 300,000 views across all the videos.
However, as time went on and lockdown ended, I found that I began to get busier with art projects, and ended up pivoting my focus to graphic design, as this was where I found more of a passion and reward both career and practicality-wise.
Nonetheless, my TechSpecsYT era between 2020 and 2021 laid the foundations for my creative drive, passion in technology, and the value of self-direction.
You can simply point to a mountain, and go climb it.