Film-making basics (101)???

J

jamani

Active member
I'm not sure this is the best place to post this question but it's all I could find. Basically I'm a total noob to film-making and I have been scouting the web for good and active forums on the subject for a while now without much luck. I come from an audio-production background and I managed to learn almost everything I know theory-wise from very helpful and active forums like gearslutz.com (I tend to do better in a discussion setting than reading a book). I was hoping I could find a film-making equivalent to get me started. Browsing through this particular forum, I get the feeling it's not for the noob as everyone contributing here seems to know quite a bit already. Could anyone here point me in the right direction? I'm particularly interested in venturing into music videos...for now.

Thanks for any help.
 
It's going to be tough to find one resource that encapsulates all the basics of filmmaking. DVXuser is a great community for learning since there are filmmakers of all experience levels, but nothing is going help you learn more efficiently than to go out and shoot and edit your own projects. That being said, there's a user here named polcan who does some pretty good tutorials on YouTube that you could check out to learn some basic techniques. Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/user/polcan99#g/c/3AF9B2B010B69D0C
 
So you don't want any book recommendations? There are some good video tutorials and overviews of the music video production process out there, like The Making of Worms and The Making of White Swan, but they presuppose a strong background on post-production technology on your part.

You could just buy this whole series and get video training in modern lighting and what-not. They should bring you up to speed nicely. Follow it up with this course.

But really, the best and most comprehensive info is contained in books whether you like it or not. Not all of it is heavy reading, though. A lot of the books from Michael Wiese Productions are light on text and heavy on pictures from real movie examples. I'd suggest for the beginner: Setting Up Your Shots, Master Shots, and The Filmmaker's Eye (this one is from Focal Press). Start with practicing the examples set forth in those books and you'll be way ahead of a lot of people.
 
Wow! So helpful of you guys. Thank you for all the recommendations. I will be exploring all of them. Meanwhile, beside dvxuser.com, is there any other community you would recommend I check out to broaden my resource base? I know for sure I will be sticking around here but it doesn't hurt to complement.

Thanks.
 
You can check out Cinematography.com and reduser.com though DVXuser really encompasses the information in both of those websites.
 
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