Businesses of all sizes need better ways to offer their products and services to the world, and video is clearly the new language of brand communication. Learn how to plan a multi-camera production, increase production value through camera movement, and create cinematic lighting on a budget. Plus, get tips for adding great music and sound effects, saving time and money in post-production, and more!
All the video gear featured on (and used to produce) this course is available here.
Some links might be affiliates. If you purchase gear with them, I might receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks in advance for your support!
Questions?
Feel free to ask any questions regarding this course (on anything else) on Instagram.
From planning a shoot to DIY lighting solutions, learn how to produce professional videos with very little gear, tight deadlines, shoestring budgets, andno crew.
All the video gear featured on (and used to produce) this course is available here.
Some links might be affiliates. If you purchase gear with them, I might receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks in advance for your support!
Questions?
Feel free to ask any questions regarding this course (on anything else) on Instagram.
I’m very thankful with Benro for putting together a webinar to discuss the 1PersonCrew Approach. The host was my dear friend Matt Hill, who is not only an awesome guy, but also a multi-talented artist in his own right. Matt’s project with handmade paper dresses and long-exposure portraiture is jaw-dropping.
I hope attendees found the webinar fun and and helpful. In case you missed it (or want to rewatch it) here’s the full recording. Feel free to leave comments and questions below, or hit me on Instagram.
There’s no question that the best way to learn about filmmaking is to shoot, edit and make a lot of useful mistakes. The second best way is to watch movies, especially with commentaries so we can learn about the challenges other people have and how they solved them. And the third approach is to read great books.
Today’s post is a simple list of the filmmaking books that have inspired me over the years, and that I recommend or gift most often. Here we go!
For the past six (or it’s been seven? eight?) weeks, I’ve investing my time reading a lot, writing a bit, but mostly thinking. I picked some marketing books that would inspire me to think more creatively, to look for new ideas, to imagine bigger dreams and set new goals. Then I’ve been trying to bring those ideas down to earth, connect the dots, and make something happen.
There’s another book that I enjoyed very much a few years ago, but this time has felt a bit “slow” or perhaps dated: The Blue Ocean Strategy by Chan Kim.
But there’s a fifth book, SO good, SO timely, SO jam-packed with useful and actionable ideas that it deserved writing a blog post, the one you are reading. That awesome book is “This is Marketing” by Seth Godin.
Almost every day I’be been going out for very long walks. The first chapter alone is so good that I also bought the audiobook version, and this is the only book I’ve been listening to.
Let me share some Seth Godin’s gems:
“The marketing that has suffused our entire lives is not the marketing that you want to do. The shortcuts using money to buy attention to sell average stuff to average people are an artifact of another time not the one we live in now. “
“Good marketers don’t use consumers to solve their company’s problem. They use marketing to solve other people’s problems.”
“People like us do things like this” is how each of us understands culture.
“Begin by organizing a tightly knit group, by getting people in sync. Culture beats strategy so much that culture IS strategy. “
“Who’s it for and what’s it for are the two questions that guide all of our decisions.”
Priceless. Straight to the point. And very true. Here’s an excerpt from the first chapter:
The 5 marketing steps suggested by Seth Godin.
Invent a thing worth making, with a story worth telling, and a contribution worth talking about.
Design and build it in a way that a few people will particularly benefit from, and care about.
Tell a story that matches the built-in narrative and dreams of that tiny group of people, the smallest viable market.
Spread the word.
Show up. Regularly, consistently and generously. Organize, lead and build confidence in the change you seek to make. Earn permission to follow up, and to earn enrollment, to teach.
Why is this book so impactful to me? Because Seth’s advice is precisely what I’m hoping to do with THIS website. I’d like to connect with other creative people who emphasize story over gear. To find interesting people who do amazing things and help them reach wider audiences. To build a small tribe where we can safely share our experiences, good and bad, cool techniques and time-saving tricks, so we can grow together and spend more time doing creative things and less fighting with cables and firmware updates.
It might take a long time, and I might not be able to achieve it, but I can promise I’ll give you my best. One more, for the road:
“We don’t need to rely on the shiniest, latest digital media shortcut. We have even more powerful, nuanced, and timeless tools at our disposal: we tell stories, stories that resonate and hold up over time, stories that are true because we made them true, with our actions, and our products, and our services.”
Experience a post-production workflow that is far from traditional, but is extremely efficient and logical. Recommended hardware, software and apps, batch renaming, 4K Proxy workflow, GPS tagging, the correct steps to color correct and grade footage, and even how to safely back-up and archive your projects.
Learn the entire pre-production workflow, from brainstorming to asset allocation all the way to actually pre-shooting your project. This course is geared to filmmakers working with small crews, but it offers essential lessons and resources for all content creators.
This is your chance to join an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker on location! Get a unique view, from concept to delivery, and experience how to capture stills, video, and sounds to produce a commercial for a boutique winery in beautiful Oregon.
Expand your creative options and the range of services you can offer to clients by incorporating video and hybrid projects into your new 2020 skill set.
Learn highly effective and time-saving techniques to produce compelling lighting for corporate videos, documentaries, short films, educational content and anything that requires harvesting available light and the use of practicals.
