Real OP creator is Anton Sugar
Welcome to the Resetera video production and filmmaking thread! This is a place for all filmmakers/video producers to come together, discuss their projects, techniques, and gear, as well as show off their work!
Huge thanks to weemadarthur for posting this OT! Once I (Anton Sugar) reach member status, I'll be sure to give it regular updates.
So you wanna make videos?
Tight.
Where do you start? There are a million different places you could go from here. Film school really used to be the recommended, if not only, option for this (with a few exceptions). However, with the power of the internet, knowledge is much easier to find outside of a paid institution. Is film school still valuable?
General video production/filmmaking
Welcome to the Resetera video production and filmmaking thread! This is a place for all filmmakers/video producers to come together, discuss their projects, techniques, and gear, as well as show off their work!
Huge thanks to weemadarthur for posting this OT! Once I (Anton Sugar) reach member status, I'll be sure to give it regular updates.
So you wanna make videos?
Tight.
Where do you start? There are a million different places you could go from here. Film school really used to be the recommended, if not only, option for this (with a few exceptions). However, with the power of the internet, knowledge is much easier to find outside of a paid institution. Is film school still valuable?
- Study what you love: watch your favorite movies. Pick out a specific sequence and reverse-engineer/break it down. What shots were chosen? When does the camera move and when is it still? What does the camera focus on and how was it framed? And then, try to understand why these choices were made. Many video essays online do this exact thing, but you should do it in your own free time. Understanding why a sequence or movie is effective is important, not just how they did it.
- Read scripts of your favorite movies. Again, this just helps you understand the process. Did the idea for that shot originate in the script, or somewhere else? Did you find the script of your favorite movie to be bland, possibly hinting that the magic was found elsewhere?
- Find people to work with. This is the primary advantage that film school has: a built in community! Without that, it can be hard to not only get work/experience, but to make connections and find a good group to work with. Most cities in the US have filmmaking groups or meetups on regular schedules. You can find these on Meetup.com, Facebook, craigslist, your local school/university's site, etc. I think it's incredibly important to find a crew that you like working with. Not only is it good for keeping you encouraged, but you can regularly get feedback on your own work, find people to learn from, and always learn something new.
- Don't fret too much on gear. Plenty of amazing work has come out of "shitty" cameras. I've seen lots of crap that was shot on beautiful cameras, too. All this 4k, 6k, 8k, etc. resolution chasing is just noise to you at this point. You don't need 4k, you don't need RAW (many features are shot in ProRes or similar codecs), you don't need blah blah blah. Yes, eventually you will realize "Camera A has been working great but it's not doing what I need, so I need to upgrade" but you have to first know what you're trying to accomplish and you can only do that by...
- Just do it: go shoot stuff, dammit. It's cliche, but getting out there and rolling is the only way you can learn. Shooting something by yourself and editing it in your bedroom is better than nothing. The absolute most important thing you can do is learn something, take something away, from every shoot. Make notes after every shoot if you need to (I do) on what worked, what didn't, what was a bad or good idea, how to improve or save time, who not to work with, etc. Otherwise you're going to repeat the same crap over and over again. Which brings me to...
- Get critiqued. This is scarier, especially for people who haven't been in school for a while and aren't used to receiving feedback on a regular basis. Don't just solicit information from your friends, who may be scared to hurt your feelings. Shit, you can even find online groups, where you are essentially anonymous, to take a look at your work. You won't get better with a critical eye.
General video production/filmmaking
- The Slanted Lens is a fun review and DIY site for low-mid budget filmmakers. A lot of this is very basic stuff and, TBH, sometimes the examples of the shots they end up creating look pretty bad BUT it seems to be more based on their aesthetic choices (everything looks very "studio"/fake) rather than technical know-how. They also get grip/lighting/camera people from the industry to chime in every so often.
- wolfcrow does a little bit of everything: cinematography video essays, business instruction and recommendation, in-depth camera reviews and analysis, and color grading tutorials. I love his technical approach to his analyses and he has some solid business advice for low-mid budget cinematographers.
- Basic Filmmaker is a channel I honestly haven't spent much time with, but have heard good things about. Looks like it has a TON of content for those new to filmmaking and video production.
- DSLR Video Shooter is run by Caleb Pike and could be considered one of the online cornerstones for beginner/DIY filmmaking. Tons of helpful tutorials and guides (often marked by certain price points to help you out), low cost advice, and reviews. He covers cameras, lights, lenses, specific setups, and more.
- Aputure has been making waves in the low budget filmmaking scene the past few years. Their LED lights are high-quality, affordable, and just get better every year. Their COB120 line gives 6-750w of output while only using 120w of power. Released just this quarter, their COB300 gives 1kw(!) output using only 300w of power--and this isn't to mention all of their other LED lights, modifiers, etc. Their Youtube channel has some good starter clips, too.
- Cinematography Database offers solid insight from a mid-level DP who specializes in music videos. The fun thing is going back through his older videos where he talks about just getting started and really how to create your own brand. In addition, there are lots of fun breakdowns and analysis of cinematography in popular movies and music videos.
- American Cinematographer magazine is one of my all-time favorite filmmaking resources. This is the pros: interviews and details for your favorite movies and shows. They talk to DPs, gaffers, grips, directors, colorists, and more for each article. I absolutely love learning about specific lenses, filters, lights, etc. that were used on these sets. If you are just starting out, some of it may be over your head, but regardless, knowing what the pros use on their sets really helps you understand, relatively, what is possible at your own level in terms of planning and budget. Plus, they actually recently added a sorta "beginning filmmaker" section to every issue, broadening their scope even more.
- Roger Deakinshas his own website and is extremely active in the forums. You can literally post/ask a question to one of the greatest cinematographers/DPs of our time and he will provide candid responses. The site also occasionally shows diagrams from his actual lighting breakdowns for feature films. I fucking love this site.
- Cooke Optics TV is the official channel of the one and only Cooke lenses company! They have a number of great video essays and tutorials from professional gaffers, DPs, etc. who are currently working in the industry at a high level.
- Vashi Visuals focuses primarily on editing through its uses of video essays and articles. These include a lot of supercuts and workflow breakdowns--really good stuff. You may recognize his name from some of his more famous video essays via his Vimeo channel, with popular videos on Fury Road and others.
- Juan Melara might be the most precise and knowledgeable color grading resource I've found online so far. He has a thorough knowledge of color space, science, and node use in DaVinci Resolve. Unlike many other Youtube "colorists", he rarely falls to the common online guidance of "put a LUT on it and wow the footage looks good!". His Youtube channel doesn't have much yet (he actually is coming back from a break and will be posting more) but his blog has a lot of his older material, like how he reverse-engineered the grade from Midnight in Paris. Check it out!
- Learn Color Grading is a solid channel for learning the basics (mostly for DaVinci Resolve). It's good for learning the software, as well as some quick grading techniques for specific popular looks.
- MiesnerMedia is another solid color grading channel based around Davinci Resolve. He breaks down color grades from popular videos/movies and offers his own way of recreating them. I don't like every look he comes up with but you could still learn a lot from playing with these looks and trying to understand how/why he came up with them.
- Observations on film art is a fantastic site for essays on film. Run by Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell (who have literally written quite a few books/textbooks on film study), these reads are long but offer educated and interesting perspectives of film as art.
