Hello, welcome to my How To Blog post. I'm a DP Cinematographer based in Sydney Australia, and after a lot of request on Instagram, today I'll be talking to you about how to get into film making.
So, you wanna get into film making? Great, that's awesome stuff. Now, film making is a very broad term. When someone ask me as a DP, "How do I get into film making?" I suppose they are asking how to be a camera operator, a DP, a cinematographer.
My focus, today, is going to be mainly on that.
Getting into Film Making - First Step!
If you want to get into film-making, meaning cinematography, DP work, the first thing you need to do is pick up a camera and film!
Are you actually, every night, sleeping late? Trust me, this is not some kind of late night commercial. This is talking about film making.
Are you sleeping late?..... Are you looking at others videos?..... Are you trying to look at films and figure out how it's done?..... Are you looking at other equipment and thinking, "I wish I had a camera"?
What camera to film with? For startups
Here's what I suggest. If you're trying to get into filmmaking, first, find any camera. Even if it's a phone, even if it's your DSLR. From Canon's to Sony's to anything that you can afford. I'm pretty sure you're asking the same question to yourself.
What to film?
What do I shoot? Look around you, like right now, look around you. What do you have around you? Do you have a couch? do you have a dining table? A wife? Girlfriend? Baby crawling somewhere? Dogs running around? Or you're probably sitting in an office right now, looking at some boring computers and people talking on the phone. Look in front of you, do you have a pen in front of you? Do you have a stapler in front of you? Maybe make a video on how to put a staple pin inside a stapler.
I know it sounds stupid, but until you film something, you won't know what you're good at and what you're not good at.
Now, if you film something, you edit that, you review it, you will see what you are good at and what you're not good at, and once you figure out what you're not good at, you can research and get better at it. Simple as that.
Now, what's the easiest thing that you can film that's going to get you recognized? Well, there's many things. You can do films, you can do short films, you can do competitions, yet my suggestion will be music videos.
Music videos are great because, firstly, the artist will already pay a lot of attention to detail. The artist will make sure the music is great, the artist will make sure the set is great, so it makes it a little bit easier for you to kind of work in a team.
If you are not confident starting something yourself, what I suggest is to tag along. Find a DP, find a cinematographer, find a filmmaker, find a wedding person.
Learn the basics, join Facebook groups, look at videos on YouTube, join other subscription websites that actually teach you basics in sound, lighting, design, cinematography, lenses and all of those.
Getting exposure to your content
Now, the best one, I suppose, is enter a film competition. Why a film competition? A film competition doesn't really mean a feature film, a short film, could be a documentary, could be a music video, could be even a short clip that you shot about anything.
Now, this actually allows you to present your videos in front of other people. It actually motivates you to actually go one step further, and it allows you to win awards. Obviously, if you're going to win awards, it's going to give you next level encouragement to do something better. It's going to give you the spike that, "Hey, I've done it, let's do more."
There's hundreds and thousands of film festivals that are world-wide, as well. Even online film festivals, where you can submit your work and get it recognized.
I guess the way life works is if people feel appreciated, they feel better.
It's the same with your work as well. If your work is recognized, and there is compliments through it, and you'll feel recognized, you will feel better. That's why I recommend film festivals.
By now, you've already figured out that my number one advice is pick up any camera and please just go out there, go shoot something, go film something. Go make history. Change the way you think. The ideas that you have in your mind, take it out, put it visually, and show it to people.
So, guys, that's all for today. Please do subscribe to my channel. Like and put your feedback down, and let me know what you think about this. If you have any questions that I can answer, I'll be more than happy to.
Yeah, just subscribe because there's lots of exciting things coming up on this channel. Some behind the scenes on how I actually do feature films, short films and commercials, and I'd love to talk to you soon.
