This seems like an easy transition for a photographer to become a filmmaker. The core of each of these disciplines is storytelling. A photographer tells a story in a moment captured at a decisive moment, while a filmmaker tells a story over a period of time, often incorporating elements such as editing and sound to help tell that story.
Many photographers are intimidated by the prospect of filmmaking, and some avoid it altogether. While I would encourage photographers to explore both filmmaking and cinematography, I don’t think photography skills translate to cinematography or filmmaking easily. I’ve watched photographers who are good at composition seem to ignore the basic rules of composition when they shoot video. Photographers considering becoming filmmakers should shoot as many videos as possible. Video recording of your family is an easy way to practice filmmaking, and the videos you create will be appreciated by your family for years to come. Photographers should also consider shooting a online course can provide basic framing, audio, layout, and editing information.
In this article, I’ll detail a process you can use to brainstorm a story idea for a short film. To help us create this project, we’ll be incorporating information from our presentation Jeff Greenberg titled “15 second film conference. “This seminar is organized by Creative Conference, who recently hosted a free online event with 80 speakers on a variety of topics, including Robert Sweeney’s “Intent-to-Product Creation,” Adam Howard’s “Nothing Is Impossible” and “Finding That Creative Spark again…” by Nick Harauz. This is the second Innovation Conference. First held in NYC earlier this year and covered by Fstoppers.
In his presentation, Jeff recommends keeping your first project simple and suggests creating a 60-second movie. Focus on the process rather than the end product. Visible to create is more important than what you create when it comes to appearance. You don’t have to share the final movie if you don’t like it. Often, we set unreasonable expectations for ourselves. If you’re a good photographer, you probably expect to be a great filmmaker, too. In time, you can become that. But for this first film, let’s take the burden off perfection in the making. Creativity should lead to liberation. Free yourself from expectations and focus on the journey itself.
If you are in film school and this is an assigned project, it will be graded and may even be screened alongside films by your peers. If you are in a class of 20 students, it is statistically likely that your film will not be among the best in the class. On an artistic level, anyone can get lucky and create something memorable the first time out, so even if you have better skills than your classmates, chances are good. one or more of them will make a movie more compelling than you. So, Jeff recommends putting aside the thought of making a good movie. Creation, not completion, is our focus here.
Short form videos are popular on Instagram as Reels. The platform may turn off some photographers as many of the popular entries on the platform focus on the creators themselves. Reels are often funny to the point of goofy. Many Stories feature creators dancing or acting funny. This may not be a comfortable space for a photographer who has chosen this profession because she doesn’t like being in the spotlight. Photographers are free to use their technical skills to make others the center of attention.
Feel free to shoot your 60-second movie in any direction you want, but the instructions here will assume that Story-style videos don’t appeal to you. What story can you tell that captures the viewer’s attention in 60 seconds? One approach is to start with a photo and build a story from there.
Consider this photo of two women smoking marijuana. How many questions can you ask about the scene depicted in the photo? Here are a few that come to mind.
- How do the women know each other?
- Are they in a relationship?
- Why does one woman keep the relationship for the other? Did they smoke together before?
- Is it possible that one woman is a regular user of marijuana and the other is not?
- Where do they get the cannabis?
- How will the rest of their day be affected by the effects of marijuana?
Imagine sitting with a friend and giving two or three different answers to each of these questions. In this stage of the creative process, there will be no judgment. Allow your mind to wander. A question arises: what is the relationship between these women? Here are three possible answers. They were strangers who had just met a few minutes ago. They are longtime lovers. They are high school friends who haven’t seen each other for 10 years.
As you start to write different answers, a story might happen to you. I was doing this activity when I was writing the paragraphs above, and this is the story that comes to mind. The girl on the left is a longtime marijuana user. She is dating the girl on the right. Before they leave the house, the mother of the girl on the right says to the girl on the left, “Make sure she doesn’t touch any drugs.” The girl on the left smiles and says, “Ok, I will.” Cut for the girls to smoke in the park. The girl on the left looks at the camera and says: “Marijuana is not a drug. It is a plant. ” And then the girl on the right said, “And besides, I’ve never touched it.” The end of the movie.
This story took shape immediately as I answered the questions in the assignment. If you made this movie or something like that, what would you gain? Remember, we focus on craft, not results. You will practice booking and negotiating talents for them to work on this project for free. You’ll experiment with shooting two characters having a believable dialogue. Perhaps you’ll learn about the 180-degree rule to ensure that returning to the conversation doesn’t confuse your audience. You can explore options for recording with an external device, or perhaps you just need to work with your talent to find a quiet place to film so that the microphone on any phone or camera Whichever you are using is enough for this short. You’ll have to think about lighting when you’re shooting scenes that take place indoors as well as outdoors. It occurred to me right now that instead of having the characters say their last lines directly into the camera, you could have them say the same lines to each other and the movie could end with them saying the same lines. laugh after doing so. There are many directions you can take this simple concept and many skills you will work through in the making of this short film.
In the video, Jeff discusses his process of creating a short film and goes into detail about concepts such as: non-narrative programming, set-up/tension/settlement, and the best stories are stories. your. He also looks at the process of using Adobe Rush to assemble clips into a final project. Watch the video for more details on how to create your first short film.
You can watch dozens of sessions from the Creative Conference for free by creating a free account here.
