Mastering Cinematography: Your Ultimate Guide to Practicing Visual Storytelling

[Music] cinematography is the art of creating Motion Pictures and Visually bringing

stories to life today I want to show you how you can practice your cinematography skills to enhance and hone your visual

storytelling abilities bringing to life emotions ideas and stories for an audience to enjoy can leave a lasting

impact on them you can recognize what the power of Cinema feels like when you watch your favorite movies for the first

time and to me film making is one of the most complicated and highest forms of art there is there is nothing else like

it you want to learn how to practice cinematography and here I will share with you what you should focus on

improving what is important for a cinematographer or a deep to be mindful of where you can look for inspiration

and ideas to practice from and putting all of that together to show you how to practice cinematography all by yourself

if they're not out already I plan to dive deeper into different elements of cinematography including the topics

mentioned in this video this is a starting point for you to see how I go about refining my skills and building up

experience to becoming a pro cinematographer as my end goal if you want to stay tuned for these next videos

why not subscribe if you're new to the channel comment down below or leave a like to show support so I know you're

enjoying them and I'll make this into a series now let's get into it cinematography is composed of many

details that work together to help tell a story visually if there are other aspects of cinematography that I don't

mention in this video that you think are important why not comment down below what they are for your fellow

cinematographers let's first go over what skills you should focus on if you want to reach that Cinema level

composition lighting and color lens Choice camera settings and camera movement are all important elements

cinematographers focus on now if you're practicing alone movement might be one that's hard to practice without certain

tools like a slider or gimbal for example but you are capable of improving the other skills on your own and of

course you can still create beautiful images with a static shot compositions are what you most likely think of first

what connects your shots together in scenes and are important to keep your audience engaged with what they're

watching this is also one of my favorite parts of cinematography this does not only go for what is in frame and the

visible elements but also what is not visible and kept hidden from the audience compositions are also how you

can create your own style different from others like very popular DPS such as Wes Anderson his very symmetric style

flatlight look and tracking shots are just some of what makes Wes Anderson Wes Anderson the same could be said for

Roger deacons with his naturalistic simple worlds and a personal favorite of mine Greg Frasier going with what is

most important for expressing the story being told in a future video I hope to dive deeper in how you can elevate your

Framing and different compositions you should try on your next project what goes hand inand with framing is how

lighting your scenes can give the shots a certain mood or feel and using color can exaggerate what's being expressed

even more even though the gaffer is responsible for lighting on set the cinematographer Works hand inand with

them so the gaffer can help the DP bring their Vision to life for their scenes color can also come from the gaffer or

even the set design and it's another key part to help bring the visual ideas to life understanding lighting and color

helps you create more impactful moments than might not be enough through composition alone and these examples

help Express that another aspect you might forget is very important for the DP is camera settings we learned the

rules of camera settings so we can break them one example is the 180° shutter rule or having your shutter speed double

your frame rate for the right motion blur when filming it's important to know so in certain cases you decide not to

follow the rules to create scenes that feel more special in a more Artful way other camera settings to consider

include white balance where you FOC focus and obviously just normal exposure settings and on top of all of that your

choice of lens or focal length can really change everything we just talked about if you want a very wide or

distorted look maybe just a standard more true to life feel or something more compressed pushing things together

that's where choosing the right focal length comes into play all of these elements are what

every cinematographer needs to be intentional with when filming so you can be mindful of the most important aspect

you need to serve and that is the story it doesn't matter how beautiful your shots are how unique your style is or

highly skilled you are if it doesn't serve the story being told do the choices in your composition keep the

audience engaged with the story does your lighting and color play a role in what's happening when the antagonist

figures out a key detail about the hero can you use camera settings to your advantage to separate characters from

the rest of the world and do you make the right lens choices that fit with every moment the story is what matters

most in film making and if all of these decisions don't support the story you the director or writers are trying to

tell then you're not doing your job as a DP there are other things as a cinematographer that you can care about

for example color grading and if you want to better your skills at grading I have a whole video already breaking down

my process and another one showing how I use dehancer to enhance my workflow one last thing before I get

into how to practice in photography I want to share with you where I look for inspiration and ideas to give me

scenarios where I can practice my skills now I would bet most of you watching might say you spend a lot of time on

social media maybe more than you'd like and of course there's so much content on there to view but I think you'd be

wasting your time trying to learn from there and not be watching movies I do have some alternatives for you but hear

me out if you really want to improve as a cinematographer you should spend more of your time watching the highest form

of cinematography there is and and that's in movies don't go look into YouTube travel films or things like that

for True cinematography unless that's really the kind of thing you want to do now I'm not knocking those kinds of

videos down but there is a difference between those and movies I know it might be hard to find time to sit and watch a

two sometimes 3-hour movie but it's well worth it for increasing your creativity and getting inspiration if you do that

more often I'm sure you would understand where I'm coming from TV shows can work too but I'd recommend shows that are

less like normal sitcom or so Opera type shows unless that's what you also want to get into movies are always my number

one recommendation then good shows but if you want quick inspiration to find ideas a great free alternative is

searching on Pinterest and typing in movie cinematography or terms like that I've made a collection on there with

some of my favorite finds and I'm sure you can find some great things on there too another amazing free resource are

certain YouTube channels like the beauty of and amazing shots where they show the cinematography of many films your

favorite movie might already have a video here or even a favorite DP of yours and if I've already watched a film

I might go here to see certain scenes again and another free resource I've recently found is ey candy they have an

incredible library of visual techniques that are used all over not just in movies and sometimes they share how

those methods are done to achieve a style one last recommendation that isn't free but I really love right now is shot

deck I find it to be well worth it for finding reference shots from movies and this was founded by Lauren Sher aka the

cinematographer grapher for Joker and many other movies they have an incredible library of films and they

keep adding more and I've been using some Stills found on shot deck throughout this video to help get my

points across it's easy to find exactly what you're looking for with the search tools and if you can afford it I think

it's worth it but there's also a two-e trial to try it out and finally taking everything in from this video I'll share

with you how to practice [Music] cinematography I tend to not only think

about one shot I have in mind whether it's from a movie or ideas I have but sometimes I create scenes or sequences

of shots that go together to also practice telling something more than just showing one beautiful shot an idea

you can try is think about how you can make the mundane everyday life look more interesting with cinematography there's

always those moments in movies that show the everyday life and you can create sequences about that like I did making

my morning bathroom routine cinematic short video it's important to learn how to connect shots together instead of

just creating one amazing shot that might not fit within a scene of course you can make one that stands out but how

can it be connected for a mini story you can tell the most important thing to take away from this is to constantly

practice if you want to get better at something you have to keep practicing and you also need to have a lot of

patience as well none of the worldclass cinematographers made it overnight and many didn't until 5 10 or way more years

of working on their craft now of course it's easier to practice when you have other people to stand in for you but the

one person you can always rely on is yourself so I just take my tripod and practice alone from earlier in this

video when I talk about skills to improve on you can take those aspects and practice them one at a time and over

time add them together to improve for example just focus on improving your compositions use natural light so you

can just think about Framing and then when you get better you start playing with lighting and maybe add some color

too you then start to be more intentional with your lens choices even decide to experiment with camera

settings to see what you can come up with if you want to practice a single shot you can look at movies you watch

and grab Stills to try and replicate and learn how you can shoot them too you can always try something new with your

attempt and maybe see how you can add your own spin on it if you're practicing at home try confining yourself to just

one room to be creative with where you are and what you got and sometimes these small ideas for scenes or sequences can

turn into bigger ideas for short films or larger projects as you keep practicing you'll get better but your

creativity will also improve with the more experience you create for yourself and start to think more outside the box

you'll keep pushing yourself but don't get me wrong you'll always have those moments where you lose inspiration or

struggle to come up with ideas like myself but you'll get through them and become a better cinematographer in the

end no matter how far you want to go with this I think this is a great starting point to practice and get

better if you found this video helpful why not leave a like and drop a comment down below if you're new why not

subscribe to the channel if you haven't already and also tag me in some of your works on social media so I can see and

check them out as well that's it for this video and I'll see you in the next one

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