Have you ever read a blog post when you would have preferred to watch a video instead? That’s essentially why vlogging was created.
How to film an interview like a pro Last month, I wrapped a six-hour interview shoot for a short film called “Silence in the Spotlight.” The subject—a 72-year-old woman sharing her experience with early-onset dementia—sat under our lights for what felt like forever. Halfway through, I realized we were losing her. Not because she was … Read more
My First Film Was Unwatchable (Here’s What I Learned) I still remember the first short film I tried to make after film school. It was called “Wasted Lives,” and it was a disaster. The audio sounded like it was recorded inside a tin can. Half my shots were out of focus because I didn’t understand … Read more
Hook I was halfway through shooting Going Home in a remote coastal town when my gimbal died. No backup. No plan B. Just me, a shaky handheld shot, and a sinking feeling that I’d have to reshoot everything. That’s when I learned the hard way: nomad filmmaking isn’t about having the most expensive gear—it’s about … Read more
Color Temperature in Video Lighting: The Filmmaker’s Guide to Getting It Right When I was reviewing footage from “Chicken Surprise” — one of our short films shot entirely in a friend’s kitchen. The scene looked fine on set, but when I got to the edit, half the shots had this sickly greenish-orange cast. The actors … Read more
YouTube Video Lighting for Beginners: What Actually Works (From Someone Who’s Lit 50+ Shoots) I screwed up the lighting on my first short film so badly that my lead actor looked like a ghost having an existential crisis in a poorly lit bathroom. We shot “Going Home” on a $2000 budget. I thought natural window … Read more
Why Choose a Mirrorless Vlogging Camera? I learned the hard way that your camera matters more than your ego. Three years ago, I showed up at the Soho International Film Festival with “Going Home“—a short film I’d shot mostly on mirrorless cameras, mixing footage from a borrowed Blackmagic Pocket with some Fujifilm X-series work. Sold-out … Read more
Best Phone Tripods for Content Creators: Real-World Testing from 50+ Shoots I learned about tripods the hard way. Middle of shooting “Going Home” in 2019, balanced my iPhone on a stack of books because I “didn’t need a tripod.” Three hours of footage. All unusable. Shaky. Amateurish. The kind of content that makes viewers click … Read more
Why Your Morning Routine Matters More Than Motivation The alarm screams at 5:30 AM. I used to hit snooze seven times, stumble to my desk by 9, and spend the first two hours of my “workday” scrolling through other people’s content while my coffee went cold. My creative output? Maybe one decent idea by lunch, … Read more
5 Important Steps To Be A Successful YouTube Video Creator I was three months into my YouTube channel when I realized I’d been doing everything wrong. I’d uploaded twelve videos. Decent videos, too—stuff I was proud of. But my view count looked like a phone number from the 1950s, and my subscriber count? Let’s just … Read more
10 Indoor Lighting Tricks To Transform Amateur Footage I’ll never forget the first time I watched playback from “Going Home” — my short about a homeless hard of hearing women trying to return to her small town. I’d spent weeks planning shots, rehearsing with actors, and fine-tuning the script. The performances were solid. The framing … Read more