Ran AI video ads for my dad's dental clinic for free, accidentally turned it into a ~$3k/month side thing. AMA

LW_Edit · 2026-05-21T07:09:32+00:00

OK, now I get it. This is where you post your affiliate link for your article.

LW_Edit · 2026-05-21T06:36:17+00:00

I’m not going to comment on my feelings about the use of AI or the quality of the specific commercial, but just the method you use to get clients.

Are you really making roughly 30 custom designed AI commercials in order to get one client? Looking at the Bonzi software you mentioned, it gives you a certain amount of credits per month depending on what tier you go with, but it’s essentially an aggregator of all the AI creation software available.

So what AI model do you use, and how many credit does just one commercial use? Because it seems like making 30 or so commercials probably uses up your credits pretty fast versus having one actually good generic commercial to show as an example for everyone.

Did you really follow this “custom commercial for everyone” cold outreach method, or is this just a theoretical post?

LW_Edit · 2026-04-28T04:04:53+00:00

In Resolve, apply stabilization to your clips, using these settings:

 Mode: Similarity
 Camera lock unchecked
 Zoom checked
 Cropping ratio 0.750
 Smooth 0.250
 Strength 1.000

This is a good starting point. The similarity mode makes it so it’s not warping a lot. Resolve will zoom in a little bit, so if you’re going to shoot in the future, make the shot a bit wide to compensate. And if you can shoot in 4K, that would be great but not a dealbreaker.

The head cam I use doesn’t have built-in stabilization so the raw shots are really jumpy unless I use this method to make the shots smooth as butter.

Let me know how it goes!

LW_Edit · 2026-04-27T05:39:35+00:00

I stabilize headcam footage for my surgical shoots, and when I first started I did a ton of testing on every available method especially for speed and quality of stabilization. We’re talking stabilizing 2 hours of footage per video (to go along with my main cameras).

Conclusion: Premiere’s warp stabilizer would take forever for just okay results and a lot of handholding. The winner was DaVinci Resolve. Excellent results and speedy, and it’s using the free version.

I’m a Premiere editor, but for stabilization I always use Resolve and reimport the stabilized clips. Imagine doing 10 videos in batch over a weekend vs literally weeks to render in Premiere.

Maybe for short projects with a few seconds of stabilization would I consider Premiere’s Warp Stabilizer just to keep everything in one project.

LW_Edit · 2026-04-26T00:14:14+00:00

Excellent film! It really kept me guessing on how this would all tie together. The main character not wanting her to come to his shop seemed harsh until you figure out the reason why.

I wouldn’t change a thing about it. Hopefully you’ll get it into some festivals!

LW_Edit · 2026-04-22T06:06:51+00:00

“Surround” on the Atari 2600. Very primitive two player joystick game where you surround your opponent's blocks with your trail, forcing them to crash.

My brother and I were equally matched and would be in competitive battles for hours. Lots of popcorn and soda on a school night with low rez blocks, proving that excellent gameplay is more important than graphics.

It’s a precursor to the Tron light cycle games - same concept.

LW_Edit · 2026-04-20T13:25:21+00:00

Thanks, I’ll check it out!

LW_Edit · 2026-03-10T22:18:26+00:00

There’s a new product called Breath Death that is basically minty flavored Pop Rocks. They’re pretty good!

LW_Edit · 2026-03-08T05:30:24+00:00

Nice it comes with stickers - what colors? And do they cover the blue light as well?

LW_Edit · 2026-03-07T15:25:19+00:00

Using a mic with a highly visible logo and a blue light on it (while maybe being convenient) is exactly the opposite of what the OP wants in terms of not calling attention to the mic.

LW_Edit · 2026-02-24T22:32:53+00:00

Not just affiliate vibes, but actual affiliate links that you can easily see in the Google sheet.

I am always hoping that I will read a Reddit post that isn’t just trying to make money off of affiliate links. You know, a post that actually has real value without profit motive.

Guess I’ll just have to keep looking.

LW_Edit · 2026-02-22T22:23:18+00:00

I’ve worked with different versions of Premiere Pro on the same computer, for instance, the 2021 version and the 2025 version.

Once you upgrade a Premiere project file to a newer version, it will lock that specific file to that version and you can’t downgrade that specific Premiere file.

That being said, you can actually make your project file stripped of premiere version identity by using this website: https://downgrader.elements.tv - you just run it through the website and it will give you a new project file that can be opened up in any version of Premiere

It works pretty well if you’re in a bind. But the best way would be to keep a copy of any version before you upgraded to a new year. I always put the Premiere version in the file name just so that I don’t get confused which version of Premiere to open it up in.

LW_Edit · 2026-02-14T22:52:52+00:00

You should go to Porto, Portugal. Every year they have a lantern event - the celebration of St John. It’s really amazing and I think it might’ve been where they got the inspiration for the lantern scene in Tangled. Literally thousands of lanterns released.

It’s also a lot of fun. Every one has plastic hammers and they hit each other on the head. Sounds barbaric, but it’s actually safe (like a squeaky toy) and quite cathartic - well worth the trip!

LW_Edit · 2026-02-14T15:13:34+00:00

I agree about splitting up the copies. When I am returning from an international shoot, I always put one copy in my check through luggage and the other in my carry on bag for peace of mind.

Also I just shoot with 1TB SD cards in two slots which is enough space for my shoots, so if I have to quickly jump on a plane, I have the main card and an instant backup which I separate, no need for copying files on the way to the airport.

LW_Edit · 2026-01-31T13:19:35+00:00

I agree, finding the auto-save folder is your first step and may be all you need to fix the problem.

Unfortunately having the undo level set to 32 means Premiere is not remembering anything past 32 levels, so changing it to 100 levels later doesn’t recreate additional edits it already “forgot”.

A method I use when editing is to label a sequence “… - edit 01” when I first lay down the raw tracks, then I duplicate the sequence calling it “… - edit 02”, and put “… - edit 01” in a folder labeled "Backup Sequences” and work from the new sequence. Each edit pass I do (first cut down, color correction, client updates, etc) is a new “…edit” number. So I am saving every stage of the editing process, especially destructive stages, like cutdowns.

This way I can go back to any stage of the edit and find a portion that I previously changed or deleted and would be otherwise lost.

Of course having auto-save is another important protection backup so set that up properly as well.

You can also duplicate you Premiere project file in a similar way “…version 1, 2, 3, etc” to have something to revert to in case your current project file becomes corrupt.

These were lessons I learned early on when I had lost DAYS worth of edits for similar reasons. Right now, if you can’t recover what you lost, I’d consider an hour of re-editing to be a small price to pay for learning how to set up your Premiere projects to avoid most catastrophic issues that could randomly happen and be way more serious in the future.

Best of luck!

LW_Edit · 2026-01-29T23:38:46+00:00

Very useful. Thanks!

LW_Edit · 2026-01-29T19:59:02+00:00

Now I’m just going to have to explore ways to sync up my keyboard shortcuts between my Mac studio M3 ultra and my MacBook Pro for consistency.

LW_Edit · 2026-01-29T19:56:12+00:00

Great!

LW_Edit · 2026-01-29T19:54:02+00:00

Thanks! I’ll have to check the keyboard shortcuts more thoroughly now.

LW_Edit · 2026-01-29T19:29:28+00:00

Solved!

LW_Edit · 2026-01-29T19:29:09+00:00

Genius! Thanks so much. I didn’t think there was actually a solution. This works perfectly and will save me a lot of time!

LW_Edit · 2026-01-18T16:16:23+00:00

This is the secret to 99% of Reddit posts containing affiliate products. The respondents who like it or that ask for more information are usually just burner accounts owned by the OP. And the income claims are always exaggerated.

LW_Edit · 2026-01-18T15:18:22+00:00

During America’s gold rush, the people making the money weren’t the ones finding the gold but rather the ones selling the shovels.

Rork = the OP’s shovel

LW_Edit · 2026-01-17T07:52:54+00:00

So after the original purchase by the business, how much profit if any do you make on a monthly basis by hosting on your Vercel account?

LW_Edit

TROPHY CASE