Just curious as t ohow you approach planning out your videos? I go through a lot of planning, complete three-act dramatic structure on my fishing adventures. Then once per week I sit down wit ha composition book and plan out all my content. What do you do?

I pray for the Lord to give me something interesting to video that day.

I've done that many times. In fact the whole purpose of my channel is to point people to Jesus. He gave me the ability to tell stories, and that's what I do.

Totally Awesome WillieRip and MathGeek! Doing the Lord's work is what life is all about!

My method is pretty simple.. take the camera along on a adventure and see what story it tells..
It is way easier to do that than to shoot to tell a story.
And be fairly aggressive with the editing, cut out everything that detracts from the story.

I don't really plan my fishing videos, because you never know what will happen while fishing. I put my time into planning out camera angles on the boat. I think multiple angles helps a video, and some times you miss something with one camera, but catch it with another.
Now my cooking or repair videos, I plan those out.

Well, all that is planning. What you just described is exactly what documentary filmmakers do. Plan doesn't mean dictate everything that is going to happen. It simply means what structure or form do you use to capture what happens when you're out there.

Even your fishing trip as unplanning has a structure. Thing about all that happens on a fishing trip.

Sample Scenario:
There you are imagining or wishing you could go fishing. (Hero takes on a mission.)
Think of all the things that get in way of fishing or go wrong before you can even fuel up the boat. (conflict)
You finally get a day off or a some time after work, you head to your favorite honey hole--BAM!--flat tire on the trailer (increasing level of conflict.
You get the flat tire fixed and you finally go fishing (Hero overcomes adversity and triumphs)

Result:
All of a sudden what you think is a wasted week of not getting to go fishing has become a fully-fledged three-act story structure just like in the movie. The difference is everything you shot was real and not fiction.

Another Scenario
You're on the river hunting for a trophy catfish. (We join the hero already on his quest.)
"Man, I haven't caught a big catfsh in a over a year," as you look around wondering where they are.

In the edit take a few minutes to describe how you got to this point. Just literally talking head footage. (Describe how the hero took on the mission.)

Cut back to you on the river--BAM!-- fish on. It's a stinking smallmouth bass. TRASH FISH! (Conflict)

You keep fishing--BAM!--fish on! Freakin' gar cut your line! (Increasing conflict)

You take a break, drink some Gatorade, eat some Vienna sausages or potted meat--BAM!--fish on! Flathead, blue, channel? You can't see what it is. It could be a blue. Pulling kind o' weird. You haul it in: big spotted bass foul hooked and bleeding heavily. It's getting late, and you have to haul back to the dock so you can get to work on time.

Guy fishing at the dock with a can pole was happy to take the foul hooked spot.

Summary
This is a heroic tragedy. Shakespeare made a living writing these. It's whenever our hero doesn't met or achieve the object/goal he wanted. How many movies or T.V. show episodes have you seen like that? A bunch! How many times has something like this happened to you on a fishing trip? A bunch!

Again all a sudden, what you think is not a story is a totally structured story archetype that has survived from the times of Plato and Aristotle. To you it's everyday life. To the rest of the world, it's a story they can identify with. It's an adventure they can never have, but you chose to share with them.

In other words every story is a question or series of questions you're trying to answer. "Can I catch fish? "Can I find the Fish?" "Can I get off work?" "Can I get the boat motor fixed before Thanksgiving weekend?" "Will this new lure work?"

Every one of those questions has a complete story behind it. Planning is nothing more than the process you use to documentary your journey as you seek to answer these questions. That process can be simple or complicated. It can be short or long. It can be artistic or common everyday video footage. The purpose is it's all a story.

I guess I just don't think about it like that before hand. it's when I'm done fishing, reviewing the footage, that I decide how I will present it. Good info, thank you.

Tough question. There are a lot of different things that happen in the planning of a video. I don't want to lose out on the experience by over-producing it, and I definitely do not want to ruin a day with my family because they are not following my script. At the same time I am a firm believer in telling a good story and I appreciate that you mention your 'complete, three-act drama structure' as I attempt to follow a similar structure when I can.

So to start I am usually aware that we are going to go to a certain location and am aware of the odds of certain things happening when we do. So I have an initial plan in my head of how things are going to go down. So I have a basic framework for a story that I tend to fill as the day unfolds. I let the day tell its story, but I am constantly aware of where we are in the story and what is needed to finish it.

When we are done and I am editing I will cut out clips and parts of the day that do not play into the underlying story of what ended up happening, and have even been known to feature at the end of a video features of the story that may have happened earlier in the day so as to allow for rising action. I may even go in and retell the story if I did not capture a good narration when filming.

While I want to maintain a pure story and have plans to improve my ability to do so until recently I have relied heavily on tactics like this to improve and maintain a cohesive structure to the story of each video. With any luck we will be better planned out in our next season, while still maintaining the freedom of allowing the day to unfold on its own.

WillieRip...For me, it's all about the editing. I set the Go Pro on the tripod on the water and forget about it til it's time to change the battery. I want to see the best action available, so I take 3 - 4 hours of video & have a goal of cutting that down to 15 minutes max. I try to edit out everything except the action. That includes changing baits, hang ups, and even taking the hook out of the fishes mouth. I also prefer background music to verbiage, but that's just a personal preference. I also prefer to shoot on cloudy or at least partly cloudy days because the color & definition comes out way better.

@Vogey, that's a very good point. It is a sport, and sport is all about action. That's another way to look at it, look at how ESPN shoots any sporting event, and you can totally use that as a way t o capture your footage. At that point it isn't a "story." It's an action, sport, stunt video. That's en entire genre in an of itself.

Think about how these skateboard and X-game guys shoot their videos, very surfer ever. In that case it's all about multiple GoPros getting as much coverage as possible.

So there's the storytelling, filmmaking side, then there is the action, sport side. Either one totally works.