Farewell to Jordan, Motion Array’s Digital Media Creator
No one understands how to cultivate community quite like social media creator Jordan Dueck. He’s spent the last 8 years growing Motion Array’s Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok channels through compelling tutorials and video content. His positive energy and easy teaching style have taught countless filmmakers how to elevate their skills, making many people laugh along the way.
Now, he’s making a few people cry too, as he moves on from his position at Motion Array, onto pastures new. Today, Jordan speaks about his learnings from the last 8 years at Motion Array, sharing his invaluable insights, his favorite tutorials, memorable moments, and what he has planned for the future.
Jordan Dueck and filmmaking: a brief history
Born in Winnipeg and raised in Vancouver, Canada, Jordan first discovered the world of film when he found an old camcorder belonging to his parents. He started making videos for fun with his brother and friends, replicating scenes from their favorite movies while Jordan edited on the fly.
He went to college to study medicine, however, he had to drop out after a snowboarding accident left him with a temporary brain injury. “After that, I had a difficult time getting back into academia, so I took a filmmaking minor to finish my degree,” Jordan explains.
He started freelancing as a video creator but struggled to get his feet off the ground, so decided to share his video editing tips on YouTube to get some good karma. “I shared a video of five things I wish I knew how to do in Premiere Pro,” Jordan says. “I thought if I couldn’t make a career out of filmmaking, at least I could help other people.”
That video got 80K views, and it was the exact video that motivated the founders of Motion Array to email Jordan, asking if he might be interested in a job.
How Jordan shaped Motion Array, and how Motion Array shaped Jordan
When Jordan joined Motion Array, the YouTube channel had zero subscribers, and the team was tiny. Jordan had a ton of opportunity to experiment and grow, and when Artlist acquired Motion Array in 2020, he was happy to discover that ethos didn’t go away.
“At the beginning, we needed to be creative in order to grow,” Jordan says. “But once Motion Array became part of a larger company, they still kept the soul of that creativity and weren’t afraid to try new things and explore.”
Over the years, Jordan has taught the Motion Array community how to navigate programs like DaVinci Resolve, Adobe Premiere Pro, and After Effects. He’s tackled the big stuff like how to speed up your video editing process and the little stuff like how to create a shatter effect in your graphics.
Jordan’s usually the one to share Motion Array’s latest plugins and templates with the community, and he’s also the person challenging the community to enter competitions and expand their creativity.
He’s become a much-loved familiar face to the Motion Array community over the last 8 years, growing Motion Array’s YouTube channel from 0 to 500,000 subscribers.
Challenges, successes, wins, and memories
Jordan says he experienced a lot of challenges while working at Motion Array, but very few of them were because of Motion Array. “Like, how do you bill for 40 hours of work a week when 8 hours of one day were spent banging your head against a wall?“ Jordan asks. “And then the next day, in 10 minutes, you get more done than you did last week in total? So it was hard to merge creativity with business.”
Jordan had many magical moments at Motion Array. His second biggest success was reaching 100K subscribers a few years ago and receiving a plaque from YouTube. His biggest success was reaching 500K subscribers and receiving another plaque. “I also reached 15 million views on TikTok, that was super cool,” he says.
Jordan also feels proud of the small parts he’s played in some of the larger company projects. “We just released an AI voiceover feature,” Jordan says. “There were a lot of moving parts, and it was kind of incredible to see so many people come together to create something so unique and different from the ground up. I witnessed a community of people rally around each other, and do such an incredible job of making a big, new, amazing product.”
One of Jordan’s favorite videos was released at the beginning of 2024. It was called How To Edit A Video Like GAWX Art and was based on replicating the style of a young YouTube creator from Mexico.
“It was one of the most difficult videos I’ve ever created because he is such a talented filmmaker, so it was difficult to replicate his style,” Jordan says. “It ended up performing well, it had a look and style that I was proud of, and then Gawx himself commented on the video saying that he really liked it. Perhaps it’s weird for me to be a fanboy of somebody who’s, like, half my age, but I was excited that he affirmed my creative work.”
Jordan’s 8 insights from 8 years at Motion Array
After 8 years working in this role and watching Motion Array grow from a tiny team to a global player in film, Jordan has learned a fair few lessons. Here are 8 of them:
1. Be ready to fail
“You never know what’s going to work, so you always have to try, and be prepared to fail,” Jordan says. “A lot of videos didn’t do as well as I hoped they would, and that’s okay. We would look at the data, figure out what worked, what didn’t work, why it didn’t work, and then we’d adjust and move on.”
2. Share content you love
“Looking back, the stuff I was more excited about usually ended up doing well,” Jordan says. “So I’ve learned to trust my gut, but at the same time be ready to have my expectations completely shattered.”
3. Be authentic
“It’s encouraging to be reminded that people don’t watch your content because they think you’re cool,” Jordan says. “They watch because they resonate with you in an authentic way. I was very self-conscious of how people perceived me online, and I’ve come to realize people don’t care how I look or act, they just care if I’m being authentic.”
4. Team up
“You can’t do everything on your own,” Jordan says. “I’m somebody who has difficulty asking for help and admitting that things aren’t going well. So the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that it’s okay to reach out for help. It doesn’t mean that you’re weak, not creative, or not capable. Everybody needs help sometimes.”
5. Take the leap
“Don’t be afraid to put stuff out into the world, even if it’s scary,” Jordan says. “I was very self-conscious about releasing my first YouTube tutorial because I was afraid people would think it’s dumb, but that video didn’t just do well, it was the entire reason why Motion Array hired me in the first place.”
6. Learn how to say no
“Whenever you say yes to something, it means saying no to everything else,” Jordan says. “So remember your time is valuable, and you should prioritize making the things that you really want to make that fulfill you, because a lot of the time, those are the things that resonate with you and with other people.”
7. Invest in planning and pre-production
“If you fail to plan, then plan to fail,” Jordan says. “If there’s no plan, no structure, and if you’re not analyzing data, then your video might not perform. Think about the title, the impact, the message, the presentation, and have the big picture in mind before you start creating.”
8. Find balance
“I’ve noticed that when I get into workaholic mode and stop spending time with people I love, I get less creative,” Jordan says. “And when I prioritize my relationships I become more efficient. So when you prioritize the things that matter most, everything falls into place.”
What’s next for Jordan and Motion Array?
The good news is you’ll still be seeing Jordan’s face regularly on Motion Array’s channels. However, Jordan’s main focus will be growing his own YouTube channel, and continuing work on his new podcast Frame of Mind with his older brother. “He is a licensed psychotherapist, so the two of us talk about popular media, television shows, and movies, focussing on the intersection of filmmaking and psychology,” Jordan says.
The duo plans to use compelling stories to investigate people’s psychology. “We’ll explore what makes for good character. What makes a good human being? Why do particular scenes, archetypes, and characters resonate with us? And why is that important? The tagline is the stories that we tell ourselves about ourselves.”
As for Motion Array, their growing community of creators will continue to share tutorials, tips, and workshops on every aspect of content creation. The team is currently looking for a talented individual to continue Jordan’s legacy and take on his role, sharing creative inspiration, discovering fresh trends, and expanding skill sets.
Motion Array will always be committed to helping filmmakers grow their skills while being the first to champion new technology and techniques. Thanks to Jordan, Motion Array has become one of the world’s leading digital creator platforms, and there’s no doubt that his videos will continue to inspire the community for years to come.
What will you miss most about Jordan? Share your favorite memories on Motion Array’s Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok channels.
