Becoming a Filmmaker Isn’t About Gear

When you’re learning filmmaking, it’s easy to get caught up in the endless rabbit hole of YouTube gear-review videos.

Hell, I know I did!

But here’s the truth: most of those videos won’t make you a better filmmaker. They’ll make you a better gear head for sure. But if you’ve watched a few Oscar Round Tables with well-known Directors, Cinematographers, and Producers, you’ll notice the marked absence of gear discussions.

Okay, it’s true that Cinematographers do go ape-shit over a nice lens.

But other than that, the thing that’ll make you a better filmmaker is an understanding of the basics.

It’s 6:24 in the morning on a very weird day.

Normally I avoid the word “very.” But today it’s necessary. I can’t name all the very weird details, but my world has gone topsy-turvy in the last 9 hours.

My main filmmaking gig is for a school that I absolutely love. But let’s just say we’re going through tough times. Well, I guess that’s the case for everyone these days.

I’m sitting cross-legged on the floor, laptop in lap, the music in my headphones giving me a sonic hug, wondering what the hell to write.

My head isn’t in the game.

Distracted by a blur of high-speed motion on the edge of my patio, I glance over quickly. It’s a green and gray hummingbird.

Not once in 8 years of living in this apartment have I had a hummingbird visitor on my patio.

The bird buzzes around my geraniums then pokes her nose into the begonias and flits away. In less than 10 seconds, my mood has been transformed from worried to delighted.

All because of something so SIMPLE.

It works the same way in filmmaking. It’s the simplest things that’ll transform the quality of your work from so-so to professional.

So let’s look at three incredibly simple rules of filmmaking that’ll change the way you think about setting up a shot.

• 30-degree rule

• 20 percent rule

• 180-degree rule

As you can see, in filmmaking, we like to keep the names of our rules simple too.

I’ve known about the power of newsletters since I was 10.

My mum had a newsletter that went out a few times a year to our customer list. The point of the newsletter was to sell wine.

I grew up on a 4.5 acre vineyard and winery that my parents started from an alphalfa field and some imported baby vines. There’s no long romantic tradition of winemaking in my family. It’s just something my parents turned into a career thanks to tenacity, good timing, hard work, and a lucky break or two. (There’s no such thing as a success story without luck.)

Every quarter my mum made a newsletter.

How can you memorize a script quickly and effectively, so you don’t sound like a robot? Keep reading!