Avoid These Mistakes! 5 Filmmaking Tips You Need to Know
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- Опубликовано: 9 сен 2024
- We see a lot of videos on RUclips about mistakes beginner directors make when starting out, but not many on the mistakes beginner cinematographers make. In today's episode of Ask Aputure, Nerris from the A-Team walks us through 5 common mistakes many cinematographers make when starting out in the industry. Knowing these 5 cinematography mistakes will help you grow as a director of photography not only technically, but creatively as well!
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Summary:
Filmmaker Nerris Nassiri talks about mistakes made by rookie cinematographers, and how to overcome them. Knowing these mistakes will help you become a more advanced cinematographer both technically and creatively. Aputure's RUclips channel provides free high quality cinematography, lighting, and filmmaking educational content to help you take your film projects to the next level.
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When I was starting out (like.. some weeks ago), I shot all the "character walking takes" in correct perfect as-beautiful-as-I-could slow-motion. But at the final ones I didn't care a thing about continuity and instinctively choose the wrong direction for the walk (And as he was carrying some papers in one hand, I coudn't mirror that in post). The result is that the character had left home in a heroic assertive mood to give up at the middle of the way and come back with the same heroic assertive mood.
A pretty bad one is pressing record and recording in between takes, and not recording when actually wanting to...
Oh, I've so done that. 'CUT!' *hits record button*
The story of my life with the a7's
Lyubo Yanev
True That!!...
Just happened couple weeks ago
It happened and unluckily I realized it after the shooot!
Honestly, my biggest mistake starting out was always feeling inferior to other filmmakers who had been creating longer (even if that was just by a month or so). It’s good to know your limitations and work to exceed them, but it can be psychologically limiting to stifle your own ability by constantly comparing yourself to people leagues beyond yourself, when you should take inspiration from them but create your own, unique work.
So true! Confidence in your vision is a huge component!
perfect advice. LEARN what you like and don't like from others work but compare your own to your past work and always be trying to get better.
Avoid shooting with the lens cap on, I'd say.
Can't believe we forgot to include that one
There's always an excuse though.
Like... you were going for that 'Film *Noir* '-look anyways. ;P In the more literal sense that is.
Later, spend 15 minutes looking for said lens cap in every possible place you could have laid it down only to find it in your pocket.
Haha, yeah, it's like having your sunglasses in your hair and going like 'where did I put my sunglasses, can't find 'em'.
I brought it up because today I actually _misplaced_ my Rokinon 14mm lens cap, which if you're not familiar with, could be mistaken for a food bowl.
Worst mistakes that happens to me was running out of batteries and forgot to format the SD card... EVEN UNTIL NOW!
Driving to the shoot, setting everything up, realizing you forgot your camera battery, driving all the way back to your house, grabbing the battery, driving all the way back, lol! That, and I’ve shot an entire movie in 60fps before!😂
*Great tips!*
My biggest mistake at the beginning was thinking about the camera gear! All the time!!!
Couple months ago I figure out that the *light and composition is the key to the beautiful footage.*
I spent way too much time *thinking* of video ideas, and not enough time actually *making* videos. This limited my opportunities to make any other mistakes, so it meant I learned very very slowly.
My prob too. Now I now I'm not all alone.
Worst mistake I’ve made is not reviewing he shot until the shoot is over. Whereas in the shoot I’d committed mistakes of under lighting the subject, wrong angles and sometimes stability of the shot
Misplacing those tiny little SD cards! I like to use the small coin pocket in a pair of jeans when I am on the go. Remembering to pull the SD card out before the pants go into the washing machine is key to not being a total noob.
ouch
When I first started, I’d always put people up against plain white walls to interview them, haha. It makes a big difference to pick an interesting background, separate your subject from it, and throw a little bit of beautiful Aputure light on them! As always, thanks for these awesome videos!
Big mistake: Chasing the cinematic look instead of loving and worrying about the story... a good story told through good visuals will trump getting that cinematic look all the time.
My biggest mistake was not properly light the scene thinking that the ambient light is enough
Got my first camera, had that awesome take of a scene, thought I pressed rec,. no rec was pressed before the scene. After the scene I pressed rec again. I thought I had 2 hours of awesome footage I could watch after 5 hours of shooting instead a had awesome footage of the breaks between the takes. FML
I set up a tiny "photo booth" at a comic book convention, i had with like zero budget for equipment so i slapped together some lighting with a couple of wooden planks + fluorescent lamps and some shop lights. Photographed like upwards of a hundred cosplayers in two days. Lighting was shoddy and missmatched, most shots were out of focus because i tried to compensate the bad llighting by opening up the aperture. I learned a bunch that weekend and of course didn't charge anybody for their pictures.
Still have them fluorecent lights, budget hasnt increased much hehe.
Biggest mistake I made was NOT being a good communicator with my Keys and delegating work when we were in a time crunch. A new DP might want to instead scramble and do the work himself/herself which might solve the immediate issue but if you’re on a feature or a multi-day shoot it creates a mood in which your Key Grip or Gaffer might feel underused or more importantly undervalued. To this point, a new DP feels that they should stick to the director most of the time but again, that dynamic, although important, can also create an appearance that the DP-Director clique is the end all, be all and could create isolation. Everyone must remember that a film crew is a team effort resembling the Henry Ford assembly line model for maximum effect. If every person is a good communicator and the work is equally split per department the you have a well-running filmmaking machine!!!
My biggest mistake was overshooting a setup on a low budget music video. I was too busy making sure that the camera moves were flawless and the lighting was flawless to the point where at the end of the day we didn't have a lot of footage to work with. It was just multiple takes of the same thing. Since I edited the video I learned that the hard way. It's important to make sure that you do a good job shooting it, but also be respectful of the productions time and money. They're not gonna wanna bring you back if you can't get all the shots they need within the timeframe they give you, no matter how pretty it looks
I once heard that there is good cinematography, there's bad cinematography, then there's the cinematography that's right for your movie. And that really speaks to me
I'm guilty of shooting wide open all the time. One time I was shooting a PSA and I had my rokinon 50mm and the depth of field was so shallow and I was so close so only a part of what I wanted to show was in focus. Looking back I would've closed my iris to like 3.5 and just added more light.
Coming from narrative films into docs, at first I didn’t realize that when there is no production designer, the space isn’t designed! So it’s ok to move stuff around to make the shot what you want it to be. I used to try to make my shot work within the confines of how the space was set up. But when I have more time, I now like to make the space work for me.
I filmed a whole wedding day with autofocus switched on once, to create a video comprised mainly of blurry-sharp-blurry-sharp-blurry-sharp as the camera kept hunting for focus. Man, that was tough to edit.
Worst mistake I made was NOT BUYING A APUTURE 120D SOONER to light my projects haha. But seriously my worst mistake was being so in love with the shots that I totally miss the mark with telling a visual story. I captured so much tight shots and cut aways that basically that’s all I had. Editing was a pain because I barely had any wider shots or establishing. Since then I’ve tried my best to be a visual storyteller rather than a guy hunting for beautiful shots.
We were doing some shooting in an abandoned building. A lot of the rooms were very dark, so I put the iso up to 25600, thinking that a noisy shot would be better than no shot. Did a lot of oners with the camera on a steadicam and focused on not stepping on glass during the shoot, so I couldn't really change the camera settings during filming. When we moved into rooms with windows, everything ended up overexposed, noisy, and had zero motion blur. Wish we had an M9 to light up the subject in those dark interiors...
A few big mistakes I make are 1) Insisting I must add some kind of motion to the shot-not every shot needs to move-2) rushing my shot instead of taking time to think it through or set it up, and 3) failing to fill my frame with my subject (or filling the frame with extraneous, unnecessary details). Those are only three of several! :)
Always shooting on a tripod is a quite common mistake and it was the biggest i made.😬
Go handheld when you have the option to!!!
The biggest mistake I made when starting out was not lighting from the short side of the subject's face, also known as "Backlighting". I would always have my key coming from the angle of the camera. While that might be appropriate for some situations, it tends to make the scene look flat and unflattering. Now I'm always trying to find a camera angle that will motivate my key light into giving depth to both the subject and the background.
One of my biggest mistakes was taking on a story too large for the resources I had. I was the only crew member and I was trying to set dress, light, shoot, and direct all at the same time. On one shoot, I was trying to capture the most pivotal scene at 60pfs but I was so rushed that I forgot to set the shutter speed accordingly. on top of that I was shooting wide open for the angsty in-and-out of focus effect. I didn't realize I had made that mistake until I started editing. tough lesson but I promise you I will never forget to adjust the shutter speed again
I used to think shooting on iPhone was the way to go for filming. It’s easy, convenient, and the best look. Since then I have gotten myself an Canon SL1 to start out with the nifty fifty and hoping to grow from here!
The biggest I've made, and still learning from it, is always shooting on longer focal lengths. It made every shot look the same, even with different lighting.
My worst beginner's mistake was forgetting to readjust my camera's display brightness. I was shooting exteriors, so I had to turn up the brightness so I can see. Afterwards I shot interior, an interview, in a dimly lit room with minimum lighting, but forgot to dial back down the brightness. Result was the interior shot were crazily underexposed and I had to pathetically bring the exposure up in post, which, you can guess, looks bad. I hope nobody experienced this fatal mistake.
Back in my really early days, I always had my cameras iso set to auto. However my worst moment was formatting a card, with everything on it, from a paid gig.
So true, but easier said than done (regardless of amount of preparation) when in public unscripted environments (beyond directors control), on a very limited timescale (when and where filming is prohibited) AND on a strict budget.
Leaving the lens cap on for my whole first year of filmmaking! Man that was brutal.
Hi thanks for your channel! your videos are straightforward and get to the points we all want to know amazingly. Here is one of my biggest mistakes! When I bought my CANON 60D first video I made was a balcanic music concert in a very dark cafe, only lit by candles and a few practical lights. That was the mood I wanted to get. The owner and the musicians asked me if we needed more light and I said: "no no, this is perfect! it looks great this way!" based on what I saw from the camera LCD display and not attending at the ISO I was using. Finished the concert I went home and watched the images in my laptop... Horror! I had shot at 3200 or 6400 ISO - can't remember - and the level of grain and noise was unbearable. The material was useless and I learnt 2 lessons: KEEP YOUR ISO LOW, DON´T TRUST YOUR LCD DISPLAY & LISTEN TO PEOPLE AROUND
It was a very amateur mistake. In college I was operating a Bolex 16 mm camera, and forgot to lock the gate used to take the moving picture. Once the film was developed no images was taken on the entire film role. I felt like my whole world fell apart, eventually I finished the film and still got an A.
2:04 "Headroom" 😂
I honestly can't stop laughing at this
Our editor Benny has the best sense of humor!
Seven years ago I bought a Canon 60d. I took it with me on a shoot where I was making a promo for a college organization (Cru).
I had the cast (my friends) on site with the memorized script and we were ready to roll.
I hit record and see the message “recording was stopped automatically.”
Mind you, this was my first DSLR. I came from tape like most older videographers and I had no idea how to work a DSLR.
I tried troubleshooting but eventually switched back to my SD video cam and the video turned out great (or at least for my friends!)
Turns out my SD card wasn’t fast enough.
My mistake (which I never made again) was to show up to gig with equipment I didn’t know how to operate 😂
Video:
ruclips.net/video/RZMqQnimotc/видео.html
Randy Robinson Films oh that's a ripper story! Would not have been a ripper experience at the time, though...
Simon Patterson Thanks for reading! I definitely felt flustered while it was happening but it was a good learning experience!
Randy Robinson Films no doubt! Sometimes we can only chalk something up to experience and try to move on. But you have a great story out of it now it is part of history!
Great vid!
Worst mistake was during a indoor scene, it was night and we needed the scene to be daytime, it was a wide 24mm and didn’t shoot towards the window, we set up over 2300 Watts of lights, it didn’t look good so I (for some reason) thought it was great idea to overexpose the image thinking it could enhance the replicated “daylight”. The talent was lit! Including a underexposed background, yeah it looked horrible, however we saved it in post production, thank God! Every time I watch that scene I am beyond cringe.
My 1st mistake ever was to shoot without knowing what I was gonna do on set... That's how everyone became a director even my lightman showed me what to do... Felt like melting away on set😃😃😃
Awesome video as usual. I learned about "native iso" like a week ago. XD Me and a friend of mine were trying to shoot a comedy webseries. So we wanted to nail the cinematography of: The Office, Parks and Rec, ect; but, our backgrounds and locations were so boring that I didn't want to show it; so, I did close up shots on the actors all the time and the project looked so boring.
My biggest mistake was not taking the lens cap off. I couldn't "fix it in post" for some reason and the film remained pretty dark 😢
Always useing soft light and not using hard light for the tougher more difficult scenes for the charecter
How do we find out the native ISO of a camera? For example, where does Canon say the native ISO of the 5d3 is ISO160? Thanks.
Psh who needs a gaffer when you have 25k ISO? The grain just makes it more filmic #amiright?
*laughs then cries*
Where do i begin...I literally left the lens cap on and tried increasing the light because i tried shooting at a low iso and thought my lights werent powerful enough even on 100%😂😂😂.
Another cringy one was my friend thought he could use the flash on my G85 to light the room....for video! I almost died. #goodtimes
Learn the rules and break them...!! :)
Thanks for this video.
Great job! The best tips you can give beginners
My biggest mistake was under utilizing flags and over lighting rooms. No more soap opera days of our lives lighting for me.
Crop factors. I had no idea what crop factors were. My 50mm was more like an 80mm and I couldn't figure why it was different on a full frame camera!
Not shooting on a flat picture profile. Using in camera sat, contrast and sharpening
Very Informative! Thanks for another great video APUTURE!
Not locking in the tripod vertical tight enough so when editing the footage (film) it was a slow tilt from perfect composition to no headroom...on a key shot. It still haunts me
Forgetting to hit record on your audio recorder...
oh yeah, done that too, sucks so much
Colin Ziemer simple: wear headphones. And monitor the level meters at least occasionally.
Or forgetting to hit record on the camera.....
First time I was DoP, ISO was the only way I knew how to make a scene brighter.
Thank you for the helpful tips!
I used to use on camera lighting to light subjects. My short films looked like news stories 😭😭😭😭😭
Anytime I'm practicing photography, I'll voluntarily stop the lens down to keep myself from becoming lazy.
Leaving the camera on! I used to always leave it on hahaha
Don't....I mean absolutely don't .....reformat or erase SD cards until all the data has been copied to at least two (better yet three) different storage hard drives drives plus verified to be complete and readable. Lesson learned the hard way.
Gregg Palmer I use cheap SD cards, number them, and store them for a year in a safe place. It has saved my behind several times.
Excellent system, unfortunately I'm actually shooting on expensive XQD cards. I have to reuse the cards much sooner than I like. I would really prefer to save the cards until the project was at least edited and delivered, but right now, I have to shoot, dump, copy, then reformat. I'm always a little hesitant to reformat....it takes a strong conviction that I have everything downloaded and stored multiple places before hitting the yes prompt to reformat....Even then I worry.... Maybe someday I'll have unlimited funds or the price of XQD cards will drop dramatically, until then I say a little prayer each time I have to hit the yes prompt.....
The ultimate cringe worthy mistake I ever made was when I was running a one-man band operation shooting a 34 year old widow venting, via interview, about her recently deceased husband, due to a heart attack. Midway through the interview when she was in full tears my audio device which I was not closely monitoring went out due to a power surge from a Jerry rigged third-party power supply. However, due to the sensitive nature of this interview I knew to double check making sure everything was OK immediately after we cut only to find out that the audio clip only contained the intro portion to the interview. The video was scheduled to play the next day at the wake/celebratory ceremony and I knew I had to do the unthinkable and ask her to redo the interview. This has been by far the biggest mistake I ever made and what I’ve learned from this is to make sure I have the appropriate amount of people on set when content is so vulnerable.
My worst mistake was that I did not notice that someone changed my camera settings to a time lapse mode. When I went to ingested my footage. It went so fast and that is when I noticed something was wrong. I shoot a whole project in that mode. and ended up shooting the project all over.
Hey...I think I saw "They Call Me Cotton" in this Vlog. Lol and YC's work/Vlog on lighting.
Checking your ego at the door. Understanding the teamwork between the DP and the Director and the collective goal to tell the best story. All your shots should be appropriate for the story and not you trying to copy the Great and Power Roger Deakins.
I've done 3 short films and only used natural light in all of those. The latest one is : Quench by Jeevan Rego. Look it up
Actually, my biggest problem as a documentarian is dealing with volunteer help and lighting. Kids right out of film school think four years in the classroom makes them better at making lighting decisions than my 15 years actually shooting. Beginners need to be modest and willing to learn!
Not timing the script. I did a film that was 8 pages long but was my first dialogue-lite film. It was 14min long. Consequently, 2/3 shooting days went about 2-3 hours over because I budgeted my time wrong. Luckily, I had very understanding cast and crew (plus great catering which always helps placate - I've had a few people say how nice it is not to just be eating endless pizza and have real food on set).
Not recording for a few seconds before saying Camera A on Dx and holding for a little bit after Cut
Not pressing record.
These are ALL mistakes I've encountered before, then some! My biggest mistake though is when I took my Canon camera and actually put it into a canon (like the pirates use), then shooting my Canon from a canon right into the Grand Canyon! LOL, thanks for this segment Aputure! #FilmingMissteaks
LOL! Love the play on words! :P
Luke Beise lololol 😂
Shooting at a faster shutter speed instead of dimming the lights. I was gaffer and the camera operator didn’t realize how choppy the video was until halfway through the shoot.
OH HAI MARK
The biggest mistake I made was when I was so absorbed by the time I was going to shoot it that I forgot to press the rec button and at the end of the moment I wanted to stop the movie I gave realize the error I've been doing
Not checking your exposure or white balance before every take....sometimes things get bumped or lighting conditions change...don't just set it and forget it
My biggest mistake starting out: Listening to the RUclips comments.
That is a HUGE on for me. Sometimes I just won't read them and go off my research. :-)
Not enough people use set practicals enough. ( I dont mean the ceiling fan light). Let the image be dark, we call that moody haha. Meters are great (especially for Raw/Log) but they are more like guidelines rather than laws.
I hired a 1.2 HMI before understanding that it may trip the circuit of an old barn. Then finding out that the fuse box was locked away next door. Luckily we had a noisy generator which could power a 1k for the rest of the day. My first paid DP shoot. Which one of the three mistakes tops the list?
what is the range of iso?
My biggest mistake? Dropping the camera in a lake my first week on the job. Didn't get fired but the camera was ruined :|
Tripod everything!
I seem to forget to change my white balance settings.. Theyre a bugger trying to fix it in post
Mine was just in my first feature and that was overexposed exteriors. Never underestimate the power of ND filters! (Mine were stolen way before shooting began) 😬
Avoiding clichés is kinda tough when you're starting out (interior fridge shot, anyone?). Also not understanding why to use which camera angles/moves and when, though if you've gone to film school I suppose this may not be much of an issue.
Concerning native ISO, I have tried to track down more information on the subject. There's a lot of confusing information and couldn't find a straight forward answer for the cameras in my situation. Anyone know any good, reliable resources? Some kind of database, perhaps?
My worst mistake was probably over-lighting a lot of shots. It just made everything look flat, took out all the shadows. People that were being interviewed ended up looking like cardboard cutouts...
Shooting on auto everything! Haha!
What is the best ND filter for Music Videos ?
Biggest mistake I made while starting out was, changing the white balance in the middle of the shot .
Luckily client doesn't noticed
😁😁😁
Creating hard shadows often is a big mistake...
Worst mistake was thinking my vision was the only one. Even bad ideas may have a valid point of view.
I used to always light the subject first, but that's not right, we should always light the background/setting first instead.
Does anyone know what is the native ISO of the Sony a7III?
My biggest problems were:
Shooting with the wrong shutter speed, Shooting with on ISO 3200 in broad daylight,
And shooting without knowing the meaning of the shot.
Good news however, I’ve improved quite a bit in the 5 years I’ve been a cinematographer.
Not lighting properly on my university graduation film, thought location lights were good enough
Forgetting the sticks.
Most important 180° rule,30° rule and subject and light continuity.
Worst mistakes to start shooting on a memory card that wasn't formatted previously and find out later on the computer you had dust in the mirror :(
Unnecessary camera movement: Steadycam, crane, drone...just because you can. Lock it down on a tripod and practice composition.
Liked the tip on negative fill. Don't really hear it these days.
I used to have a really crappy tripod which I knew I couldn't pan or tilt on without it being impossibly jerky and unusable so I ended up doing a whole project with almost entirely locked-off tripod shots. It may not be my best work but I did learn a lot about composition doing that.
I have a much nicer tripod now.
Great video!! I once tried storyboarding in front of the talent on shooting day....
Oh dear...
Aputure yep.
Once, I was recording an interview, and I didn't press record on the audio recorder..
How do you announce the winners?