Hi guys, welcome back to my channel.
So today I'm here with Anita, and we
will be answering some of your questions related to filmmaking and photography, so
the first question is: hi, I was wondering what type of lights are the best to use
on a budget.
So...
I really hate questions about light because I'm terrible at
light and I usually try to shoot in daylight, or I shoot with existing lights
so... like... you know... fluorescent light or
whatever lamps I have around the house.
So...
I
would definitely say that you have to be a pro to use professional artificial
lights, mainly because it's really hard to get a natural effect.
So shoot with
whatever you have around the house.
Yeah it's the easiest I think,
especially when you start with photography, it's the same thing.
It's kind of
much more complicated to try and introduce lights and as you said
yourself even from my own experience, even if you try and use continuous light
for your shoots, even if it looks natural to your eye, it
might not necessarily look natural on the camera so I would try and master the
natural light first and then obviously you're much more limited with movement
and so on if you if you use artificial light because you have to kind of keep
in mind the angles and so on.
So I would definitely just try and use natural
light to start with.
// How did you learn how to edit videos.
I've been wanting to
learn how to do so myself but it's a bit intimidating and I don't know what kind
of software to use.
// But you don't edit your own videos.
// Yeah I don't.
// Probably...
You have slaves...
// I have men doing if for me.
I'm a woman so my... my
place...
I belong in the kitchen.
// Yeah, downstairs.
// okay let's end this
video now and go do some cooking.
Okay, so, what was the question...
You see you can't even remember the question.
That's the problem.
// Yeah so at first I started off
with editing in Adobe Premiere and I do agree, it was
quite intimidating, but it only looks daunting, but when you start playing
around with it it becomes a lot easier so if you are completely new to it I
would probably suggest checking out a tutorial on the basics of Adobe Premiere
and yeah I think that's actually the best the best editing software you can
get at the very beginning.
I actually color grade my films in in DaVinci
Resolve and it's very different from Premiere, so once again... you know... that's
something new to learn, but Davinci is quite easy to operate as well.
// Oh, I don't know.
I've
tried Final Cut Pro.
My experience in filming is very limited
it's nowhere on your level but just for editing my own YouTube videos and so on
the Final Cut Pro...
// Yeah but you have a... you have a Mac right?
Yes.
And I have a
husband who helps me with it.
I have a man to help me so...
(:D) // The next
question is: will I shoot a video on schizophrenia.
I probably will, although
I'm not sure when, maybe in late 2018... but yeah, I wish I could film it, but I'm not
entirely sure whether I'll be able to afford to film it... but we'll see.
// How do
you motivate yourself.
So, would you like to answer that first?
// No.
// I have a very simple
answer to that question.
So...
every time I feel down about my filmmaking, and that
happens very often, because... you know, the whole process of filmmaking can be quite
daunting because there's so much to do, you have to write it, you have to edit it,
you have to act in it, you have to direct it, and then you have to colour grade it,
find music and so on and so on.
So it's a lot to take in...
But whenever I feel down
about my work, I always watch a good film
and sort of... the feeling I get afterwards is very motivating, very inspiring, so I
would probably suggest watching a bunch of good films or reading a good book and
that always inspires me to keep working on my own stuff.
// Yeah, it usually works, or
it makes you even more down because you can't create something like that and
then you just go down the drain.
No, I agree I usually look at different
photographers work and so on and kind of see what inspires me.
I usually just try
and take it like... one bit at a time also, because sometimes, especially when I have
a lot of work I can become very unmotivated to do my own stuff and to
work on my own projects so it's just about kind of taking it slowly... you know...
kind of giving yourself the right setup you know kind of separating yourself
from everything that will distract you and switching on some nice music and
whatever whatever and just taking it bit by bit.
Even if it takes longer, you will
get there eventually, hopefully.
// And one last tip...
// Go to the kitchen???
// Regarding
what Anita said about comparing yourself to the bigger filmmakers or
bigger photographers.
I used to do that and it did get me down, but then I
sort of tried to explain to myself that they have a lot more resources, they have
a lot more money, they have so many people working on set, so it's quite obvious... and
they also have a lot more experience, so it's obvious that they will be better,
but I'm pretty sure that they were not as good as they are right now.
So don't
let that get you down.
Don't listen to her.
// Just practice.
And don't listen to me.
// What camera
and editing program do you use.
Do you have any tips for cameras and editing
programs that are affordable.
There's a whole video on my channel about this, so
you can go and check that out.
Is there anything you'd like to add?
Just use
whatever you have.
I think the best camera you can get this the one that you
have in your hand, I heard... so I heard apparently.
I don't know.
Yeah, no, if you
don't have money just start lower.
I see I saw myself like... and even the way
I progressed in photography... just use whatever is available to you,
learn how to use it properly and make the best out of it because you know, it's
easy to make excuses saying that you don't have the best equipment, but at the
same time if you learn to use your own equipment properly it will really really
work for you.
Yeah I think we both started off with very cheap cameras,
and very cheap lenses.
You have to build into it, I mean like unless you're
born rich which most of us aren't, you just have to work with what you have, and
just make the best out of it, I think.
// So the next question, a lovely girl asked:
what's the best way to start your own portfolio, whether in video or in
photography... and I think the best thing you can do is just start working and...
like, I don't know, I don't know, it's just... like...
I've done it
so long ago that I can't really remember how I actually started, but I think I
just picked up the camera and I started taking photos of my surroundings and
then, once that kind of got boring I just started branching out and reaching out
to models and so on.
I think that's the best way you can go.
It's the same with video, I
say just film whatever is available to you, get a feel of everything and then
just kind of start building up from that I think.
// Yeah, you need to have a couple
of videos first and then what people usually do, they create a so-called show
reel... so it's like 30 seconds of their best material, and yeah that's basically it.
And if you want to, you know, if you want
to turn amateur to professional, the best way you can do is just keep going at it,
and try and get your photos published if you can.
Same with videos, just put them
up online, you know, put them on like...
Vimeo and YouTube and whatever and just,
you know, keep going at it and keep going until people notice you,
and when they notice you keep going more I think that's the best that you can do,
just keep pushing and it's going to be frustrating and it's going to be long,
but you just have to keep keep going at it.
Yeah, you have to be patient.
I've been doing the kind of YouTube that I'm
currently doing for the past year and a half
and I only got my first paid job a couple of days ago, so yeah just be
patient and keep filming and if you're talented enough, it probably will come to
you on its own.
// The next question is: is what you're doing now what you always
wanted to do growing up.
// No.
I wanted to be a lawyer.
I was convinced I wanted to
be a lawyer and then when I was in secondary school, I wanted to be an
architect and then I realized I would be a very useless lawyer and even more
useless architect, because I hate drawing.
And then... but yeah I wanted
to do photography for like 11 years now I think, so like form like 2008 maybe, so
considering that I started doing photography when I was 18, 16 or
something like that, I was still a child.
So yeah... so I did want to do
photography for a very long time.
But I don't know if I wanted to be a
princess or something when I was a child, I have no idea, I am a princess anyway so...
//
I think I've always been into art related jobs, if I can call it like that.
I remember that my first my first dream was to be a writer, when I turned
10 or 12 or something like that, when I saw the Lord of the Rings for the
first time, I wanted to be in filmmaking, but I wanted to be an actress.
When I was
in high school I had no idea what I wanted to do...
And I think that nowadays
we sort of expect people... teenagers to know what they want to do but...
I didn't
really...
I had no idea what I wanted to do, and I think I got into photography when
I was 17 or 18 as well so for a couple of years I thought I would be doing
photography forever.
But then I decided I'm terrible and I have to ditch
photography all together so I ditched that for like three years but then I was
reborn through filmmaking and I think it will probably stay this way.
I think I'm
more of a probably more of a storyteller and I just had to find a proper way to
tell those stories so at the very beginning it was a it was a writer then
it was an actress then it was a photographer and... // yeah bonus question
for you as well, why did you decide to switch from photography to video, like
did you have any moment in life or did you have like a video opportunity where
you were like this is what I want to do instead.
//
You can watch me answer this question on Anita's channel, we did
a very similar video over there but it's
more about photography, so I'll leave a link in the description and at the end
of this video.
Okay so this is the moment where my microphone decided to stop
working, but we had so much footage and there were so many questions, and so many
nice questions, I decided to just leave it in so if you're having trouble with
understanding anything at all, there are English and Polish subtitles available,
so you can turn them on now.
What video of yours is your favourite.
My favourite video is the video about social anxiety.
Because I feel like the fact that it was
crowdfunded and I had money to buy basically anything I wanted,
totally took it to another level, and it looks so much better than any of my
previous videos.
But there is one video I quite like as well and that's the
Gravity video, a fan made music video for Jamie Woon... and I actually met him and he said
he saw the video and that he liked it.
What's the importance of
light in photography and film, do you have any techniques on how to better use
light in favor of filmmaking or photo shooting.
I mean let's start with the
fact that there is no photography without light,
so obviously light is quite crucial when it comes to your photography and
film, and anything, I mean if it's dark there is literally nothing so...
obviously it's crucial and I find... even on my journey as a photographer, especially
in the studio because as I mentioned in my other videos I struggled quite a lot
with lighting in the studio.
It makes a huge difference to kind of have the
light set up properly before you start shooting and before you put it into
Photoshop or you know any editing program because it makes the process so
much smoother.
Some of my latest work, I was really happy with the lighting and it
cut the retouching time drastically so it's definitely really really
important to get it right before you kind of have to fix it in Photoshop so
instead of fixing it, just doing it right first.
As about techniques, I
think the best thing you can do is start simple and start using light that is
available to you so you know natural light tested in different situations you
know try, it when it's super sunny, try it at different times of the day because
sometimes the light is much better early in the morning or late in the afternoon
rather than you know shooting at 12 o'clock where you have those horrible
shadows on your face and so on, so yeah.
And just build slowly from that
so if you're using a studio setup just start with one light, get familiar with it
and then start adding up but just keep experimenting keep trying different
angles and just work from there I think.
So... a lot of people that are in
filmmaking have this saying that "you will fix it in post" and... no, that's
worst thing you can do so if you can reshoot something with better light you
should definitely do it because it usually turns out that fixing it in post
it doesn't work so... when you have raw files with photography, it's a
little bit easier but in filmmaking... // in general filmmaking I feel like you have to have
everything perfect, especially like skin and everything because there is no
I mean, obviously there's lots of money for like.... // yeah there are some people
retouching frame by frame but...// it's just not possible, you have those
those programs that like help you with smoothing out skin and so on but I find
that it's way more tricky in film that it would be in photography and even
photography, it just doesn't look right like you can always tell if something is
heavily retouched and heavily manipulated so... // yeah, and yet again, filmmaking is
very much about emotions and I think that probably lighting is one of the
most important tools you can use to create certain emotions and the use of
color is quite important as well.
// So the next question is: what did you study.
I studied international economic relations for 5 years.
// I studied photography
for 3 than I quit in third year because I hated the course from the very beginning.
I studied in the School of Life.
// In the kitchen?
Yes, that's the one.
// What inspired you to create
a YouTube channel.
So it was pretty simple with me, I just needed another
video website that I would be able to post my videos on so I never wanted to
be a classic youtuber because I started off even before YouTube was big and I
was just making these weird short music videos or whatever and yeah basically I
needed a website where I could share my work.
Yeah, I think for me it was kind of
weird because I obviously did photography.
I actually started
with model videos, I started playing around with the videos of like models so
like kind of like test shoot like videos where the model just swirls around for
like 30 seconds but I just found this kind of boring eventually because I mean
how many videos like that can you post.
And then I just kind of
decided that why not kind of...
People seemed interested in what I was
showing them so I was like why not just kind of show them that photography
doesn't have to be complicated and you don't have to spend hundreds and
hundreds of dollars on equipment and lighting and all that kind of stuff
it can be quite simple and you can get quite beautiful effects if you just
really try and put your heart to it so...
I guess that's why I started.
// If you like this video
there's more on Anita's channel.
Anita is a photographer as you might have noticed
already and she does a lot of... like... what what do I call these... instructional... //
tutorials, behind the scenes // on shooting and on
editing photos as well so go check her
channel out and yeah, give this video a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel.
I never say that, but yeah you can you can do it if you've enjoyed this video.
So as you can tell, probably, by now, we're both very socially awkward.
So yeah, now you
know that I'm not lying about my social anxiety by I still hope that this video is
bearable and yeah I will see you in my next one.
Bye!