in a world of epic b-roll iphone cinematic modes and luma transitions it's very easy to get caught
up that this type of trend or effect is what makes a good video and if you just can't pull
off that stuff you're gonna have to learn how to do it i know because i've been there myself
making serial commercials epic b-roll and trying super trendy in-camera transitions
for the last year or so of uploading videos i've been trying to chase the stuff which gets views
rather than focusing on learning tangible skills that will make my filmmaking better
if you don't know me my name is tom i am a self-employed video creator and photographer
based here in the uk it's really important to say that i'm not bashing that type of work but
i will be honest and say there are probably more effective more efficient ways to make your video
better so that's what i'm doing in this video this is three tangible ways to make your videos better
and i promise that each of these three tips will improve your video projects number one investing
in a telephoto lens now we're going to start off simple and this really is a pretty basic
tip i don't want to make this video too gear heavy but buying a telephoto lens for me was
genuinely really a bit of a light bulb moment for me as a filmmaker i think that's because of the
way these lenses let you capture content that is very very different than the eye can actually see
take a second and think about the last time you saw the most incredible sunset out in person and
you didn't have anything on you apart from your phone you went to your phone open your camera
app and thought you're about to get the banger of your life and instead you just snapped this
it's underwhelming right and that's generally because cameras on smartphones operate at roughly
like a 25 millimeter focal range that's roughly about half of the representation of what the
human eye see we see it roughly a 50 millimeter focal range so that's why when you've taken
that photo of that sunset it looks kind of really zoomed out and that's why for the opposite reason
that buying a telephoto lens and investing in a telephoto lens can actually mean that you get some
super interesting compositions that just wouldn't be possible with any other type of piece of
equipment not to mention that shooting details is actually one of my favorite ways personally to
enhance a project and these long lenses allow you to capture detail super effectively and it also
has the benefit of allowing to capture people much more naturally because you have a camera shoved up
in their face i know i said i didn't want to make this gear heavy but for me a telephoto lens really
genuinely inspired me to go and shoot and ultimately that should be the aim of buying new
gear you should either be buying something that is fixing a genuine issue or really inspiring you
to go out and create number two shoot more angles it's very rare that when you're watching something
on the tv something in the cinema or even more popular videos here on youtube youtubers have
got extremely good at capturing attention it's really rare that you'll have a static shot going
on for too long i've been guilty of this massively in my youtube videos where i might just set up a
shot like this and that's basically the whole majority of the video is just a static like this
and nothing else changes the truth is maybe you and i need to get less lazy with my filmmaking
i couldn't change back into my other top and make out like this was the same day but no
different day through the power of filmmaking maybe you're looking to make this a job or turn
this into a career and uh something you'll learn quite quickly if you do do filmmaking maybe you
go and work for yourself is that you will have to take jobs that just aren't that exciting and
that's why for me having this youtube channel having somewhere where i can express myself try
and get better and better with every single upload and really push myself creatively is really
important by shooting new angles and expanding what i actually do here in my videos hopefully
i'll get better i'm taking advantage of what's actually really great about video rather than just
like a talking headshot and i may as well just have a podcast i do quite a lot of run and gun
filmmaking basically just shooting as much stuff as quickly as possible often this is quite common
in sort of agency or advertising you type content where you may be capturing an event or capturing a
experience by shooting as many angles as possible as much content as possible you
basically give yourself so many more tools to create a cohesive and good story in your final
production number three shoot with two cameras now this is gonna vary depending on the type of
project that you are filming but shooting with two cameras is basically just a ginormous hack for a
few reasons for the more advanced filmmakers the more experienced people in the room please forgive
me when i explain why we shoot with two cameras to anyone who's just sort of getting started in their
filmmaking journey one of the main reasons that we film with two cameras is so that we can take an
interview shot say you've been shooting for 20 minutes filming one interview it's very rare
that you would have talent or a subject talk in beautiful eloquent sentences for that 20 minute
period on youtube we're really used to jump cuts where the creators will sort of jump in and out
and in and out on almost like one static shot however in a more production environment that
just isn't really possible by having two cameras and two angles we can cut between those two
angles nice and smoothly and we're able to hide any cuts that actually come along during that
interview it also has the advantage that you can restructure the interview entirely you could put
the start near the end or the end near the start another reason is just much more dynamic much more
engaging when we're working with a slightly more boring subject matter maybe just a standard almost
almost like corporate talking head having two angles is a really good way to keep your viewer
engaged i would normally recommend having a wide or a sort of standard mid shot so this sort of
lower chest to a bit of headroom and then a much more zoomed in telephoto look this is normally
the way that i shoot two camera interviews and you could even have a third angle perhaps on a
slider adding a bit of dynamics to your video and that's that that's the tips hopefully three
ways to actually tangibly improve your videos and i'll see you guys next week