dolomitas tre cime

How has 2023 been for me? | My first year as a filmmaker

by Guillermo Garcíain Contenton Posted on

2023 has been the first year in which I have dedicated effective time to creating content, learning video editing and getting my head into this world of filmmaking. But, to give context, let’s go to the beginning of everything… At the beginning of 2022 I decided to buy a drone, specifically a DJI Mini 2. From that moment on I started flying the drone as a hobby and taking it on trips, but little by little It became a tool with which to tell stories and express myself. I opened a YouTube, Instagram, Facebook channel… and I started uploading what I was recording there. At the end of 2022, my videos began to be awarded in contests and festivals and, specifically, “VIVE” video marked a before and after for me in my way of editing and telling stories. I knew I wanted to make cinematic videos and tell stories. So, in this post I am going to try to tell what 2023 has been like for me, which, without a doubt, has been a year of growth and learning.

Trips and projects

I have always loved traveling and the truth is that 2023 was a year with quite a few trips and projects. Let’s see some of them:

Italy

  • Dolomites: It had been years since I visited Italy and for many years I wanted to go to the Dolomites, so… there we went! We rented a camper and for 6 days we were able to see incredible mountains, lakes with turquoise blue water and landscapes that looked like something out of a movie. Even though we had snow, rain and lots of clouds, this trip, for many reasons, became one of the best of my life.
  • Venice: Oh Venice, the city of canals and love. We only had one full day to see Venice, but we were amazed by its canals and labyrinthine streets. It was quite a challenge because I didn’t have much time, but with a Google Pixel 6, a Canon EOS RP and the DJI RS 3 Mini stabilizer I made a video of what Venice meant to us.

Portugal

  • Madeira and project with DJI: Without a doubt, one of the most incredible projects of 2023 was the one I was able to do together with DJI and Skypixel on the new DJI Air 3. I decided to record a large part of this video in Madeira because I had always wanted to go and I believed which was the ideal place to take full advantage of the dual lens of the DJI Air 3. So… that’s where I went! A train and two planes to get there, but it was worth it. It was only 3 days but it was an experience that I will remember all my life. Another part of the video was recorded in places in the Valencian Community (Spain). To this day I still use the DJI Air 3 as my main drone, it is an incredible drone.

Portugal (second time)

  • Lisbon, coast of Portugal and Porto: Since the trip to Madeira was short… we decided to go to Portugal to see the two main cities and the coast of Portugal. We were able to visit incredible places like Porto, Lisbon, Sintra or Nazaré, among others.

Spain

  • Valencian Community, the place where I live: Whenever I talk to people who are not from the Valencian Community, many think that Valencia is beaches and paella… but it is not like that. The Valencian Community also means nature, culture, beauty, history… and towns with incredible charm. We recorded in towns like Peñíscola, Vilafamés, Culla or La Albufera. This video had the collaboration of the different tourism managers in all these towns.

Andorra

  • Andorra, hotels and rural houses: In the period before the snow season, we went to Andorra and the interior of Lleida to record some rural houses and we took the opportunity to do routes. For being so small, Andorra is an incredible place. If you click HERE you can see an example of some of the images we took for a hotel.

Social media in 2023

In 2023 all my social networks have grown, and that is already something incredible. The greatest growth was in YouTube, where i growth compared to 2022 of almost 200% in terms of subscribers and more than 100% in terms of views and viewing time. In Instagram we reached 1,400 followers and a reach of 42,500 accounts, growth quite similar to Facebook. It has not been as great a growth as on YouTube, but it has been continuous growth and with a loyal audience.

In Skypixel the growth was exponential, where we achieved more than 2000% growth compared to 2022. In addition, we achieved Skypixel Creator and several badges for our work. That means a lot to me!

In 2023 Airvuz It was a really important platform for me. The videos had almost 11,000 views, they reached the whole world and we won several awards, but I will detail that later.

I post a graph of the growth of followers in 2023 compared to 2022:

Awards

This 2023 has been an incredible year in terms of awards and nominations. When I started with this I didn’t imagine that my projects would go so far. Here is a list of the awards and nominations I have had in 2023:

AirVuz

Eastern Europe Film Festival

Thunderbird Drone Festival

Yucca Valley Film Festival

Skypixel

All the awards and nominations here: Premios y nominaciones.

Problemas que me he encontrado en 2023

The main problem that I have encountered in 2023 is that companies value the importance of having good content for the public. Most companies find it difficult to value having good content and that this can generate an increase in their revenue and number of clients. I have found this especially in medium and small companies, large companies (at least the ones I have worked with this year) do value the work behind each shot or each video and give more importance to having good content .

2024 goals

  • Return to Madeira for more days and do a longer project there
  • Learn to fly FPV drones
  • Launch my own LUTs
  • Launch an Adobe Premiere editing course or video
  • Make a video completely made with AI
  • Continue collaborating on future projects with DJI
  • Travel to the land of ice and fire
  • Get more long-term deals
  • Improve my image editing

See you at the next one!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *