This past year, we’ve made the best possible filmmaking and photography tutorials that we can to help you become a better professional. Over 100 videos later, here are our 10 favorites out of the bunch.
With the new year fast approaching, you might be conjuring up some new year’s resolutions to put on your desk’s whiteboard. Want to lose weight? Save some more money? Well, we can’t really help you with that.
But, if your goal for 2019 is to become a better filmmaker or photographer, then we are here to help! To kickstart that goal, we’ve assembled ten of our favorite tutorials that will be sure to give you that jump ahead you need in January.
How To Build Studio Flats
Ever wanted to design your own set, but didn’t have the right setting available to you? Then build your own! The first step to designing your own set is building studio flats to create the walls. With this build, you could create an entire room for under $500.
How To Make a Roger Deakins Ringlight
If you have ever seen Bladerunner 2049 or Sicario, then you have seen the legendary Roger Deakins’ work as a cinematographer. One of his favorite tricks to use on set is to use ringlights to create intensely warm scenes with a ring appearing in the actor’s eyes. With this build, you could make your own for under $150.
How To Match Two Cameras
Shooting with two different types of cameras but have no idea how to make them similar? This handy tutorial will teach you how to match color on any type of camera, even from an iPhone to a DSLR.
7 DIY Film Hacks
If you are like us, you love any sort of DIY hacks to make your life better on set. With these seven tricks, you can learn how to get brighter candle light using LEDs, and even a “pan light” using old string lights.
8 Essential Cuts Every Editor Should Know
If you want to be a good editor, you’re gonna have to know the basics. This tutorial dives into the nine essential cuts that every editor should know, which is great for beginners to get a feel for moves they can use on their timeline, or even for professionals that would like a little refresher course.
Minimizing Your Lighting Set Ups
One of my biggest pet peeves on set is having to put up and break down lights. It’s a complete pain. Lights are big and bulky and changing them for every shot can eat into your set time by the hour. In this video, Todd shows you how to create coverage for your entire scene, so you’ll only need minimal lighting changes when changing angles.
Screen Replacements in After Effects
If you’ve ever shot something with a phone, you know that you can run into a multitude of problems. The screen might be too bright, or even get horizontal bars because the camera isn’t syncing up with the phone’s refresh rate. With this green screen technique, you have the ability to change the screen of your phone at your own will, so even when the producer tells you to change what’s on the phone, you can edit it with a click of a button.
Creating Your Own Motion Graphics Templates
With Adobe’s new updates in 2018, Motion Graphics Templates (or MOGRTs) have become the new hot ticket item to download. It makes graphic integration in Premiere a breeze. With this tutorial, you can learn to create your own so you can use them over and over again with out even having to open up After Effects.
Not into creating your own? Well, have fifteen of ’em, on us:
6 Cheap Ways to Light Your Portrait Photography
Being a photographer without a budget (or money in the first place) can be a tough spot to be in. You may be thinking to yourself, “Why is all of this equipment SO EXPENSIVE”? Well, you don’t need money to get good photos. For those of you on shoestring budgets, here’s six cheap ways to light a portrait session that won’t break the bank.
How to Shoot Product Shots
If you ask any freelancing videographers, they’ll tell you two types of shoots that make them the majority of their money: weddings and product shots. Learn how to get commercial quality shots of products for whatever you need to shoot so you can impress a company’s marketing department (hopefully enough to shoot their whole catalog. Cha-ching!)
