The AHA Moment

FabuRocks Podcast

After having a rough first day of shooting and not knowing if it was a humungous fail, it was time to look at the footage we had. FabuDad had never edited a video in his life. After many tutorials which taught him everything from intro to outro, transitions, overlays, lower thirds, and everything needed for a video to look good, his goal was to create something as cool and fun as what Fabu was already watching on other channels. He wanted her to feel proud and happy with the results when she saw herself, hoping this would encourage her to make videos. Not know if this would be the first and only video he would edit after the semi-chaotic first day of shooting.

FabuDad took several days to edit the first video on our home PC, not a PC designed for editing. He struggled with rendering the 4k video, so he did as best as he could cut it to the final render. A 6 min and 42-sec video took nearly all day to render. Needless to say, FabuDad was beyond frustrated but remain hopeful and somehow proud of what we had just done.

The moment arrived to premiere our first video. We left early from work that day and picked up Fabu from school, rushing home to watch the video. We sat down as a family to watch our first video together. We were excited and afraid to watch at the same time. We were unsure of our results. Unsure of our method and if we had to find alternative methods which would work. Nevertheless, we were hopeful and determined to help Fabu no matter what.

FabuMom’s reaction – After watching the video, I absolutely loved it. I was impressed with the quality of the work. I could not believe FabuDad could make a video so well put together from all the filming we had done. All the scene transitions looked so cool, and how he incorporated the snapchats for dramatic purpose. I laughed, seeing myself stirring the gummies remembering how Fabu had totally left us alone in the whole gummy-making process. The bloopers were so funny. I loved how the bloopers highlighted Fabu’s fun personality, and you could tell how much fun she was having while filming.

FabuDad’s reaction – As I went through all the raw footage, I found that Fabu was unable to say many things correctly and often unable to put more than 2 words together. This made the editing process that much harder. My goal was to make a 5-minute video, but I did not think I could do it by editing one word here and there. I quickly noticed that we had plenty of what we called “bloopers” of her goofing around and not saying things correctly. I decided to add those bloopers because, in reality, it was just her being herself and having fun. My goal was for Fabu to feel it was a funny and entertaining video enough for her to want to continue doing it again.

Fabu loved the video as well. We noticed that as she watched, she was correcting herself. She could say words and phrases after seeing herself in the video that she had been previously unable to. We could not believe what we were seeing and hearing. Right before our eyes, she could pronounce, remember and correctly repeat what she was watching.

The AHA moment realized that the therapy was never in the video's filming; it was in reality after creating the video, her watching herself and then being able to repeat what she had said without skipping a beat correctly.

Who would have thought the bloopers would be the main factor in Fabu’s therapy. This is where all her mistakes were highlighted and being presented funnily. Fabu knew and recognized how to say whatever she had previously been unable to correct.

Overall, we felt happy and more hopeful than ever now, knowing that we had a bigger success than we ever expected. We fully embraced doing more late-night gummies for the sake of Fabu’s progress.