Basic Filmmaker

Quick tip – How to light subjects with glasses for photos or video

Aug 26, 2020 by John Aldred Add Comment

We’ve written about how to avoid glare on glasses here on DIYP before. It’s a topic that many of us face at some point or another, whether it be for photography or video reasons. Photographer Joe Edelman has shared some excellent tips in the past on how we can avoid glare and reflection in glasses when photographing others, but what about when filming yourself?

While he doesn’t go quite as in-depth into the physics of it the way Joe did, this video from Kevin The Basic Filmmaker explains the basic problem and how we can quickly and easily solve the issue of reflection in glasses when filming ourselves or shooting video of others talking directly to the camera.

Communication is the key to creating effective art & content

Sep 24, 2018 by John Aldred Add Comment

Whether we’re making a video, writing a story, or creating photographs, the key element in almost all successful works is effective communication. What does your creation say to the viewer? Does it say anything at all? In this video, The Basic Filmmaker, discusses this topic to try and help you find what you want to say.

How to train your eye to see photography and video compositions

Sep 14, 2018 by John Aldred 2 Comments

Regardless of whether you shoot photography or video, or what kind of gear you shoot with, the one thing we all have complete control over is our composition. There’s a lot written about composition, about the “rule of thirds”, golden ratios, and leading lines, but composition can be a difficult one to grasp.

Kevin, the Basic Filmmaker talks about composition and developing your eye in this video. But not in the way you might think. He talks specifically about something I used to struggle with all the time, and occasionally still do. And that’s ignoring things in the background and edges of the shot that I should be paying attention to!

Time is a creative’s most valuable asset – Don’t waste it

Apr 23, 2018 by John Aldred 1 Comment

This morning, when I looked at my YouTube subscription feed, I came across one from Kevin at The Basic Filmmaker titled How to punch time in the face! It seemed intriguing, so I had a watch. Later in the day, another video from photographers Denae and Andrew called I don’t have time for photography was suggested to me by YouTube.

Time is our single most valuable asset as a creative. It doesn’t matter whether we’re a filmmaker, photographer, writer, painter, sculptor, musician or any other kind of creative. We never seem to have enough time. Both of these videos address this issue, and they both do it in excellent, but different ways.