(relaxing electronic music)
- You know what happens to me almost every single year?
Winter comes along, I struggle,
I film a lot indoors because it's so cold outside.
I'm miserable most of the time
making videos if it is outside.
Then comes spring, I film a lot outside.
Then comes summer, and all I want to do is just
sauna and swim and just hang out,
relax, enjoy the warm weather.
And then, we go back into winter,
and I think why didn't I film more?
Why didn't I film more when it was warm,
when it was nice outside,
and it just keeps repeating that same cycle.
It's a vicious cycle.
Does the one wheel count as a longboard or skateboard?
Hope I'm not breakin' the rules here.
So practice makes perfect right?
And you wanna be a filmmaker.
I assume that you wanna be a good filmmaker.
But what the heck do you practice when filmmaking?
What are like the drills, what do you do?
You know, it's kind of obvious in sports.
If you're a basketball player, you know,
you do some free throws, the three-pointers, you do drills.
What are you supposed to do in filmmaking to practice?
What are the drills?
Just like with sports, a guarantee you
if you practice every single day,
you will get way better at filmmaking, guaranteed.
There's full guarantees on this.
So here's some of the things that I would do to practice,
and these are the things you wanna get so comfortable with
that you can do them without even thinking about it.
You don't have to think about what you're doing,
it just happens autonomously almost.
And some of these feel pretty stupid to practice,
it seems almost too simple, that you should be
practicing something a little bit harder
or something a little bit high level.
But it's a lot of times the small things
that separate the bros from the newbs.
Especially these first two, you're kind of brush of them off
and laugh them up and like skip to the further ones.
But these are important.
Number one, you want to practice setting up your gear.
You wanna be able to set up your camera gear,
your camera, your lens, your microphone.
If you're using a tripod or GorillaPod or monopod or gimbal,
you wanna be able to set that up really quickly
and efficiently and know what you're doing.
I would even recommend before doing a shoot,
always do a practice set up of your gear.
A, just to be, you know, familiar
with the gear that you're using.
And then B, to make sure that
you have everything that you need.
Nothing is worse than forgetting a piece of gear.
So you wanna be able to set up your gear
really quickly, efficiently.
You don't wanna waste time setting up your gear,
so know your gear inside and out and how to set up.
Pro-tip here, also, if you're handing off,
let's say a lens or anything important,
do not let go of that lens until
the other person has said something like, "Got it,"
or whatever your words are for that confirmation.
Got it.
Mine.
Ten-four.
Secured.
Delta bravo.
Hoo-ah!
Don't let go until they say got it.
You do not wanna drop a lens.
This has never happened to me before, never.
Number two, what I would do is mess up
all your settings on your camera, your shutter, your ISO,
everything, F-stop, frame rates.
And then see how quickly can you
set it up to the right settings.
This is really important and it should especially be
one of those autonomous things
that you don't really need to think about.
Nobody wants to work with that guy who's on set like,
hold on guys, I'm just gonna get this set up.
Um, okay, we wanna shoot at f/1.8.
Okay, and then the shutter needs to be,
double the frame rates, okay, so that's 20,
four times two, that would make it 48.
No wait, my camera doesn't do, I could 50, okay.
Oh shoot, I'm 30 frames per second, okay, I gotta.
Nobody wants to work with that guy,
and you're just wasting time, and depending on the shoot,
let's say you're shooting a wedding or something,
you don't have time to do that.
You literally do not have time.
You're gonna miss all the important shots.
So make sure you know how to
set the settings really quickly,
you know the menus inside and out.
Practice this.
Actually practice this.
Mess all of the settings up and then
get it back to the right settings.
And number three, and this one is really, really important,
unfortunately we can't always rely on auto-focus,
so you need to be really good with manual focus.
And you wanna practice that.
You wanna actually go out and just
practice focusing on different things.
You wanna try racking from one object to the next,
you wanna track moving objects.
If it's moving closer to you, you wanna track that.
You wanna be really consistent
and really good at manual focusing.
That's probably one of thee biggest reasons
for having to do retakes if you're shooting,
let's say, a commercial or something.
Missing focus is a prime reason to have to do another take.
Everything else could be good, but then
you just missed focus a little bit.
So you wanna practice focusing.
This is actually one of those things
that I would practice a lot on.
It's even good to kinda practice guessing
how far the distance is from your camera, you,
and the object that you're trying to focus on.
This is actually something that pro focus pullers,
people that are just doing the focus, are really good at.
They know exactly how far something is.
So, you know, that tree back there,
it is four meters and 20 centimeters over there.
And then there are literally super close in their guesses,
and that helps them to focus because
you can look at even the distance markings on the lens
while you're manual focusing.
Number four, practice moving shots.
Moving shots are some of the most difficult shots to get
in cinematography, filmmaking.
So you wanna, if you have a gimbal,
you wanna take that gimbal out,
practice all the different moves.
I've told you guys a whole bunch of the different moves
that I like to do.
Take your friend out, practice those moves
over and over and over again until your arms are just
burning from holding the gimbal,
and then do like five more of them.
Keep practicing them, day in, day out.
Practice those moves.
I guarantee you will be a better filmmaker
if you just practice those camera movements.
The number five, this one's a little bit trickier.
Try and practice finding compositional elements.
For example, we have a bunch of different lines
and stuff going on.
Try to see what are the things that you could use.
Or for example, this little area right here,
you could use this as like a frame.
Like this could be a good frame right here, you know.
Framing, framing your subjects in here.
Practice going into a new space and seeing
what are the compositional techniques that you could use,
what are the elements that would be
really handy for your film.
You need to be really quick about this,
especially for certain types of filmmaking.
For example, if you're shooting a doc,
you don't really have a lot of time to kinda
scope out and be like, huh, I wonder what the best shots,
and just trying out, you know,
trial by error if there's a good shot.
You need to be able to look around,
see where there's leading lines or symmetry or frames,
anything that you can use to better tell your story.
And same goes for lighting.
You need to go into a new location
and be able to see what lights are there.
So practice walking into a room and seeing
where is the light coming from.
Is there overhead lights, is there windows?
Where is the light coming into that space
and how could you use those?
How could you key light with those,
do you backlight with that?
Figure out, can you modify things.
Practice this.
It's really, really important, especially, again,
in something like documentary filmmaking.
You need to be really, really quick
at seeing where the lights are.
And then lastly, one of the best ways to practice
is to just get some work.
Get some work whether you're doing it for cheap
or for free maybe in the beginning.
But get on some video shoots,
whether it's a wedding or a commercial
or an internal film for a company, anything.
For me, some of the best places to practice in the beginning
were at my church, because there really
wasn't any pressure and I was doing it for free.
And then probably the second best place
to practice was weddings.
Weddings are a really, really good place to practice
because you're having to do so much at once.
You're having to set up your camera, set up the settings.
You're gonna have to go into a location
and see where the light's coming from.
You need to move really fast and think on your feet.
Everything has to work really, really
seamlessly and streamlined.
You can't just be, you know,
looking at your camera for five minutes.
You have to be getting those shots.
And hey, why not get paid while
you're learning about filmmaking.
That's definitely the most ideal situation.
But to better practice your skills,
it really helps to have a purpose or a reason
to get out there and film.
So I highly recommend that you just try to get some work.
Practice first setting up your camera gear,
setting up your settings.
Manual shots, practice moving shots.
Find those compositional elements.
Figure out the lighting, practice all of those things,
and then go out and get some work
and really put them into practice.
You would never, ever go and play in an NBA game
without practicing a crap-ton before,
so why would you ever go on a shoot
without practicing a ton before it?
So many people say that they're aspiring filmmakers
and they kinda just repeating that over and over again,
but they don't go out there and actually make films.
And that's what makes you a filmmaker in the end.
So practice a ton and then just get out there.
Don't be scared, just get out there.
(relaxing electronic music)
All right, what are you waiting for?
I guarantee you, if you start
practicing like an hour a day right now,
after a month, you're gonna be a way better filmmaker.
After six months, you're gonna be a 100%,
well, I don't know exactly what percent,
but you're gonna be a lot better of filmmaker.
This is literally one of those guarantees
that you can count on every single time.
Just start practicing.
Stop watching this video already.
Go practice.
Wait, are you still here?
What the heck are you doing?
Go practice already.
Still here?
Stop it.
Stop it, get out.