Valuable Tips for Student Filmmakers Starting Out

Being a complete beginner in filmmaking is always so great! During the first years of partaking in creating films: your head is full of ideas, your creativity is bursting with innovative concepts, and you are learning a lot about the process of making films on a daily basis. 

Of course, as a student filmmaker, you are probably experiencing tons and tons of stress and anxiety due to not having a broad knowledge and experience base. To help you address your fears, we have created this list of valuable tips for student filmmakers that are only starting in this wonderful industry.

Make All of the Preparations

Take out all of the awkward mishaps and miscalculations from the filming process by planning out every aspect of the shoot. Yes, preparing like this will be a very tedious activity that will mostly consist of making lists, counting the gear, allocating crew and cast, etc. If you make your planner your best friend, then the shooting process will go smoothly on most occasions, and you will not be dealing with nonsensical problems that continue to pop up on the set.

Give Sound the Respect It Deserves

A lot of film students that are only starting love to geek out over various cameras. It is almost like a competition of who knows more about the top-tier cameras on the market. However, it is where these students go wrong because viewers (when judging a complete picture) implicitly value sound over video more. 

If the picture is not the sharpest and shot in 720p at 24fps – many viewers will bear this fact pretty well. However, if the sound quality and production are plain bad, the viewers are immediately taken out of the experience and judge the movie for being badly produced.

Leading Is Also About Listening

As a leading person on the set, you physically will not be doing all of the things that surround the filming process – for this, you have a crew that does whatever you want them to. Still, it might be a good idea to come out of your artistic bubble once in a while and listen closely to what the members of the crew have to say. Obviously, the cameraman knows much more about cinematic shots, and the sound engineer knows much more about sound. So, instead of micromanaging everything and everyone on the set, try actually to collaborate with the crew.

Concentrate on Showing Character Stories

Sounds like an obvious thing, but many newbie filmmakers get too bogged down with filming as much as possible that they forget that movies need a consistent plot and a narrative. Do not make your movie become a jumbled mess of unconnected scenes. As a good practice, in the beginning, have some other people go through your script and scenes and give their opinions to you. You can even work with an essay writing service to have the amend and improve what you have.

Be Ready to Cut Some Great Shots

One of the eternal truths concerning creating a film is that plot-important scenes are more valuable than simply beautiful scenes. Of course, in the perfect world, there is no difference between the two, but in actuality, filmmakers always have to cut a lot of beautiful and amazing shots from the movie, because they do not add any real value to the footage. 

Work with The Things You Have

Yes, every film student loves to obsess about amazing filming gear, which can create a bit of an illogical and almost delusional way of thinking for the student. Why so? – Students who obsess over gear too much develop the impression that they need extremely top-tier gear to film something truly great, so they end up not filming anything. 

Of course, if you have at least some rationale, then you will see the fault with such thinking: if you do not practice your filmmaking skills (even with the budget gear), you will never be able to create great motion pictures. So, do not be afraid to work with what you have.

Do Not Work for “Exposure”

A lot of veterans in the film industry love to trick film students into performing work for absolutely free. It is done all under the gaze of “exposure” and “getting into the industry the easy way”. Nonetheless, after the film students are done, they are thanked and dismissed – that is usually the story. So, have some respect for the work you do and do not fall victim to this.

Do Not Be Afraid to Start

In the end, the best way to tackle your anxieties is to meet them head-on. So, get your camera out, gather a small crew, and get filming!

Valuable Tips for Student Filmmakers Starting Out

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