7 Filmmaking Mistakes to Avoid if You're a Beginner

[manthankhandale]

Just want to Emphasize the Importance of Sound
Sound is Really 50% of any Video!
I'm a Video Editor. Many time we get footage that aren't good enough with problems like out of focus, low lighting, too much Grains, etc. But luckily, having some knowledge of music production, good sound design helps to hook audience to the Story.

Four Seperate layers of sound every short film must have:
1. Dialogue
2. Foley
3. Ambience Sound
4. Background Score

[iPodiMaster]

Terrific video, thank you for this.
Also I love that you have a calm voice tone, whereas other youtubers constanly shout and are so over-energetic that it becomes annoying and a headache.

[miguelgil]

That is great advice. I've made all those mistakes and learned the hard way. By far the worst is bad casting it really is a bummer when you find that the actor with the perfect look for the part just didn't got all the lines and you're there losing time with the crew getting angrier by the minute as you keep getting late. I would add to that practice, get your actors to be as ready as they can, expend a lot of time with then before the shoot. It can be expensive but it is really worth it.

[alexshdvideo]

Solid information. I worked for years in film and tv in the 90’s through 2000’s and coming the other way doing my own, to do everything is so hard different people per jobs. I see everyday people over buying cameras, with computers that can’t edit and if they do they don’t have the SSD or HDD arrays to to log the footage and edit... few good lights for illumination the faces softly or an onset monitor to see what is being recorded with descent waveform and now PQ monitoring. Just from a production side, the camera selection is one of the least important factors... well unless it’s an old VHS camera... My first time directing a friends music video was one of the hardest things I did. Doing everything at once with friends music and directing them, I was far from the best video work I’ve done, far from best directing I’ve done, far from the best producing I’ve done since I was trying to do everything. People want you to take the lead and direct and that can be hard when their your friends and you are doing everything yourself. It’s a great learning tool, but totally agree.. keep it a learning tool... don’t make it your swan song project... if you do, don’t release it.. reshoot it later and use it as a tool to gain funding and to hire many of the positions and reshoot, redirect, recast, react, everything with what you learned the first time around.... release that project. Think of the first project as film school project. :)

[FKSas]

I find a lot of folks mistake flashy YouTube videos for narrative filmmaking.

Very very different processes and very different products.

Awesome that you're sharing your knowledge, awesome channel!

[varunnaik]

I'm 26 years old now.
I started writing script for my short film at the age of 24 and I finished it two weeks ago. I took almost two years to complete my script.

[DavidHauserLoveGuide]

I truly enjoy your matter of fact, down to earth, views on film making and I have watch many videos. You truly frame (pun intended) this subject with earnest values and integrity!

[rinusworldzm]

This video is awesome man. Thank you for these tips and If have made most of these mistakes.

[gg]

Honestly, I am not expecting that this is an inidan channel. Now, I am more into your channel and content. Feeling proud and want to stay connected with your content.
Tons of respect and well wishes to the entire team.

[sirekolasankarshana]

An excellent teaching on film making and cinematography a part, The otherside I like your humour and some good punches on something’s you hate.

[shotbro]

In terms of writing the script, Werner Herzog says that if it takes longer than 5 weeks to finish a script, something’s seriously wrong

[PTUsher]

I love your work. I think much of what you say holds true for more formal traditional filmmaking in a professional / industrial context. Will be interesting to see how your advice goes down with the prosumer audience and the next-gen of super-indie one-man bands.

[abhijeetsinghyadav]

Thanks! Just finished adapting a short story for my first short. Finding the right actors is definitely a task!

[TrivisualsCreativeAgency]

Most informative and educational video ever. Hats off to you for compiling the list bro👍👍These mistakes you mentioned are truly some of the main reasons why so many films suck. Also a lack of budget contributes to many of these for sure. 'take a reality check' and 'don't let your GF handle sound' were hilarious 😂 but so true.

[BBR-wb]

1. Falling in love with camera
2. Not having good stills and videos behind the screen
3. Lazy casting
4. Not fixing your screenplay
5. Overextending yourself budget for quality life VFX
6. Neglecting audio and sound
7. Don't try to do everything yourself

[JWPanimation]

For post and visual effects get the "VES handbook second edition". It's the bible for VFX work. Besides room tone, getting a clean background plate devoid of actors and hand props can save your butt. "The Pocket Lawyer for Filmmakers: A Legal Toolkit for Independent Producers", is great on how to deal with the legal side of getting releases for your actors. This is mostly for the US, but could be a good starting point on what you would need to look into in other countries.

[fellowcitizen]

Of course, all of this becomes moot once you have the 8K S2H - with that camera anything is possible. Just be sure to budget for that camera first, and it will generate funding, skill and opportunity in unlimited abundance...


...Until the 16K S3H comes out... at that point it will become a great liability...

[AnandaGarden]

Tremendous advice! As a one-man web content manager who's just getting started in video, there are so many things to juggle. Yesterday I failed to press Record on the main audio mixer/recorder (MixPre-6 II). Thank heaven, I had a little Sony PCM-M10 running which gave great sound. The single obstacle that stops me dead is LEARNING to use the very nice gear I have; especially the software - there are wonderful resources for learning DaVinci Resolve, including the laughably named but very excellent quick start manual which is 400 pages. What kills me is sound. I have iZotope RX 7 but, well, I guess I'd better just budget time to learn it in addition to Fairlight in DaVince Resolve. Still, I wish RX 7 had great step-by-step tutorials for beginners.

I LOVE what you say about scriptwriting. I recall a book by a famous scriptwriter who described in painstaking detail his system of carrying 3x5 cards everywhere and scribbling on them for many months to get a script written. As a guy who's made a living as a writer for 43 years, reading that kind of advice just makes me smile - as does your advice to budding filmmakers. I love your channel and recommend it.

[MediaBuster]

I wish your work reflected the quality of information you provide.

[phototommyfive]

I’m happy I found your channel. I’m just starting out and I find your advice very helpful.