Transcripts
1. Introduction: There's nothing
more painful than having this amazing video idea, but you do not have
anyone to film you, your friends are too busy, or worse, they are
not interested. Trust me, I have been there. I started my filmmaking
journey seven years back. And that time, it was not
that cool to film yourself. So naturally everyone said no. But guess what? I
didn't give up. I started filming
videos all by myself. And over the years I learned about frame and compositions, lighting techniques, and
many tricks to film myself. And when my friends
saw those videos, they couldn't believe that I filmed those videos
all by myself. And today I run a full
time Youtube channel. And I also work as a
freelance videographer. Whether you're a filmmaker, content creator, or just
want to document your life, knowing how to film yourself is the best asset that you can learn these days
from camera gear, The best video settings,
frame and compositions, different lighting techniques,
and of course, editing. I've compiled everything
that I know about how to film a cinematic
video all by yourself. So let's get started.
2. Filmmaking Gear: The first thing, what
we're going to learn is what gear you need
to film yourself. A camera which can
be your smartphone, a mereless camera, or
any other camcorder. But the thing is that
these cameras should have some properties which
is going to make your life easier when
you're filming yourself. The first property is the camera should have
a good auto focus. Now, you don't have
anybody behind the camera to look
if the subject, which is yourself
or something else, if that's in focus or not. So you have to go a
lot of times back and forth if the camera doesn't
have good auto focus. So that's why I
really make sure, if you're investing
in a good camera, make sure the camera
has a good autofocus. And the second most
important part of filming yourself is check if the
camera has a flip screen. My camera has a flip screen. So that makes my life
so much easier to film myself because as
I'm filming this class, I can just see myself, that I'm framed good, the brightness is good,
the settings are perfect. The camera is
recording most of all. So that can make your life
so much easier as well. But if your camera doesn't have a flip screen, there
is a solution. In Sony, there is an app
called Monitor Plus. So with that app, your phone can become
the flip screen. So all the feedback, whatever
a camera is recording, you can check it in your phone. You can also record
from your phone. You can change all that
setting on your phone. For cannon users and for all
the other company users. There is a third party
app which you can use on your smartphone
that would help you to get a live feedback. If your camera doesn't
have a flip screen, that's not end of the world, you can always rely
on those apps. So now let's move on to the most overlooked equipment in the entire
industry, the tripods. A tripod would be
your best friend if you are filming
yourself and a tripod, it shouldn't be just any tripod. I have tried tons of tripods
throughout my whole career, and I've settled on one
which is the peak design. I'm not asking you to
get the same tripod, but a tripod should have certain properties that would make your life easier when
you're filming yourself. And the first property
is it should be sturdy because now nobody is behind the camera to catch it
when it's going to fall. Your tripod should be
good enough to be filming yourself or to filming anything in any sort
of environment. If it's windy, if
it's uneven surface, if it's really rocky area, if it's really muddy area, the tripod should be sturdy. Really not buy a cheap tripod, because if you have
an expensive camera and a cheap tripod, then you're actually relying on your cheap tripod to be handling the load of
an expensive camera. So that's, in my opinion, is almost not a smart decision. So investing in a good tripod I think is a really
smart investment. And some other good properties a tripod should have is that it should open and
close quickly. And also, one more important
property that a tripod should have is that it should be able to film at low angles. A lot of times I've had
tripods which were this big, the minimum height, and
because of that height, I cannot film from low angles. That was a bit of a bummer. That's what you should
also look because you're not always
filming at eye level. You're a lot of
times filming from the ground up from too high. So yeah, you would be taking different different shots
in the upcoming sections, which I'm going to
show you having a tripod which can film at
different different angles, which can go super low, which can go super high, is really handy also to
whatever tripod you buy. The height of the
tripod should at least go to your height. One more important property, the tripod should be
good enough to quickly switch between vertical
and horizontal mode. Right now we are filming
in horizontal mode, but if I want to just
switch the tripod, I can just lose in the ballhead, just switch it to 90 degrees and it's ready for
all the social media. So yeah, those were a few important things
that you should be looking at if you are
investing in a good tripod.
3. Lighting Equipment: Next we're going to
talk about light. In this scenario, I'm
using studio light. And there's a lot
of natural light coming with the lights. I think there's a lot
of sunlight coming now. So I have to close this down
and set up another light. But all these, all these
light technicalities, I'm going to give
a detailed lecture on this in the upcoming section. Really, don't worry, I'm
going to teach you how to film with natural
lights and I'm also going to give you a
proper introduction to studio lights if you're willing to invest
in a studio light. So yeah, that was it
for the equipment. And now let's move on to what video settings
you should be filming to get a crisp
cinematic video of yourself.
4. Best Video Settings: To get a crisp cinematic video, you should be filming at four K. The reason why I say film at four K is because most of the time you would be
filming on a tripod. Filming at four K can give you this option to zoom in or
zoom out in the image. Or just move from left to right slightly so it
would actually look like someone is handling the camera and moving the
camera from left to right. If you film in high
definition and then you in the quality reduces. That's why it's handed to
film in four K. So that even if you're cropping or
even if you're zooming, you don't lose
that much quality. And then the frame
rates per second. Framerate per second is really a complicated
term to learn. I've taught in detail
about what is a frame rate per second in my
previous classes. So which I can answer
this link down below, or if you cannot find it, you can ask me and I can give
you a link of that class. But frame rates per
second really depends on what speed you want
to film your video at. If you're filming a
video at a normal speed, like what we're filming now, the playback would be normal, there's no slow motion involved. Then you should be filming at
24 or 25 frames per second. But if you're filming a video, which you want to slow it
down in the post later, then you should be filming at either 50 or 60
frames per second, whatever frame rates is
available in your camera. And if you want to film an
extreme slow motion video, then you can bump up the frame rates to 120
frames per second. And then in the post, you
can reduce it down to 24. If it sounds too confusing, just remember rule of thumb. If you have to film
a normal pace video, like a talking head video, what we're doing now, film at
24 or 25 frames per second. If you want to film
a slow motion video, film at 60 frames
per second or 50, whatever is available
in your device. And then later on in the
editing, you can slow it down. Again, if you have confusion, go to my previous lecture
and watch the entire detail about what are the
best video settings for a video camera. Also, this one video settings, which I would really
want to emphasize on, is that whenever you're filming yourself or whenever
you're filming anything, keep the video settings
to manual settings. So do not just select auto settings in your
camera and just film it. Because what happens when you're filming in
auto video settings is that the camera changes the exposure according
to the surroundings. You might think that
that's very handy. Why shouldn't I do that? Have you ever seen an exposure changing in a movie
all by itself? No. The exposure is
always locked and exposure can only be locked if you're filming in
manual video settings. You have locked
the shutter speed, you have locked the aperture, and you have locked the ISO. Again, these things I've already taught in the video
camera settings. So just in general, film
in manual video settings. Because manual video, filming in manual video settings also
helps you to get certain look. Because if you're
filming in auto, the camera exposes the place which is the darkest
in the scene. Which means that if it exposes a place which is
darkest in the scene, the part of the scene
which is correctly exposed, that
becomes overexposed. For example, if I was filming in the automotive in this scene, then my camera would expose this area because
this is the darkest. If it exposes this correctly, then I become overlighted. That's why I really request you to film in manual
video settings.
5. Framing And Compostion: So once we're done
with video settings, now let's talk about
framing and compositions. This is the most important
part of this class, because in this
section I'm going to actually teach you how
to frame your subject. How to frame certain
things so that they look beautiful,
they look cinematic.
6. Rule Of Thirds: The first and the most common
rule is the rule of third. The rule of third is a
principle in a videography that suggests dividing an image
into nine different sections. The idea is to place
important elements in your scene along these lines. This technique is used to
create more tension, energy, interest in the
composition compared to simply centering the image. For example, if you are doing
a landscape videography, then if you keep the horizon in the center, it looks okay. But if you keep
the horizon either at the bottom line
or at the top line, it looks much better. Same as if you're
filming a subject. If you keep the subject in
the center, it looks okay. But if you keep them at this
point, or at this point, it just tells a bit more of
a story about the subject. It just looks a bit more
perfect, in my opinion. For portrait, you might place the person's eye at one
of the top intersections, creating the sense of
balance without making the image feel too
static or centered. And also if you're
taking portraits, keep the subject
on the top line, because if you keep the
subject in the center, there's a lot of gap
over their head. That's when the rule of
thought also comes in handy. And this rule has been widely accepted
throughout the world. But end of the day, it is just a rule if
you're comfortable with filming at certain
rule of thirds. And if you want to explore more, of course, break the rules, of course, try different angles, of course, try
different framings. But this is just a guideline for anyone to start videography. Because a lot of times when
I started and I was like, and when I would
see other people on Youtube or other
social media platform, like how can their
video look so good? And I'm filming the same stuff and it's not looking that good. And then throughout the years, you just learn
different compositions and you learn more
about filmmaking. And then you go back
and you're like, that's what that influencer or that videographer was
using, which I was not. And that's why my
videos were not looking as good as
this guy or girl. That's the beautiful part
of videography journey that whatever you learn
now, two years from now, if you stick to it,
you're going to be 200, 300, 500 times better
than what you are today. So yeah, keep learning, but let's continue the class.
7. Symmetry: Now let's talk about symmetry. Symmetry is totally
opposite of Rule of Thirds. This is achieved
when elements are mirrored along the center axis, either vertically
or horizontally. It creates a sense of harmony, a sense of calm, a sense
of order in the image. Symmetry compositions
are only used in very specific
scenarios when you can see that you can create the symmetry from
the middle line. Or symmetry
compositions can also be used when we are
talking like this. Here, there is a subject
here, there is a plant. I could be in the center. But if I went super this side, then you can see that there's
a lot of gap in the middle. If I went super this side, then you can see that
there's a lot of business in the image here and there's
a lot of gap here. In this section, I'm
using the rule of third because my laptop is at
this interest point, but I am symmetrical. But this plant is also at
the rule of third here. If you see the table, it
is at the bottom line. If you see my head, it
is on the top line.
8. Leading Lines: Now let's talk about diagonal
lines or leading lines. Leading lines in the image
look something like this. These are lines within
the frame that lead the viewer's eye to
specific point of interest. Leading lines can be straight
curved or even zigzagged. And they're used to direct
viewers attention to a certain place or certain
part of the screen. For example, if you
see this image, these leading lines are leading
up to me leading lines. They also create a sense
of depth and scale, guiding the eye from the
foreground to the background. Yeah, that was leading
lines for you.
9. Out Of Focus Shots: Now let's talk about
the out of focus shots. A lot of times you might have seen that out of
focus shots when the subject is out of focus but the background is in focus. That also tells our story. For example, if I look
towards my right, if I'm still in focus, then you would never know
what I'm looking at. But if I blur myself
and if the back, if I keep the place what
I'm looking at in focus. That tells the audience a bit of story at this point,
I am not important. Where I'm looking is important, so that's driving the
audience's focus at that place. These shots can also be
used if someone is watching the skyline of a city or if
someone is watching a nature. So you blur the subject, you keep the background
in the focus so you can tell the audience that this is what is important in this image. Out of focus shots,
really practice them, because these little little
techniques would help you separate from beginners
to the professionals.
10. Negative Space Filming: Negative space framing. Negative space framing
looks like this. Where there's a lot
of negative space in the frame and
there's one subject. These framings can help the audience to focus their attention just
on the subject. In this case, I'm not really asking audience to focus
anything on the surroundings. I'm just asking the
audience to focus on my subject and the
subjects emotion. That's when negative
space framing can be also really important. Because a lot of
times with filmmaking we always want to fill
up the negative space. That's what I was talking now. But fill up here, Fill
up here, Fill up here. But sometimes negative space can be helpful to tell a story.
11. Contrast Filming: Contrast filming, contrast
filming can be of two types. Sometimes you can create contrast between the
brightness of the image, the image which is important, That can be brighter, the image which is not that important. That can be a little bit darker
or the other way around. Or sometimes you can
create contrast in the image is with colors. In this scenario, if I was
wearing something green, then I wouldn't pop out that as how much I'm
popping out now. So you see how much difference
it makes wearing something of a totally contrasty
color as your background. They do a lot of
times in the movies that the subject,
the main character, would be wearing
something which is of totally different color
than how the background is, how the extras are wearing. Contrast framing is also
really handy if you want to tell a story to the audience that where they
need to focus on.
12. Focal Lengths: Now let's talk about
different focal length. Let's talk about the
wide angle length. First, wide angle length exaggerate the breadth and
the scale of the image. They can make the
environment seem vast and imposing or make the character appear isolated in the image. A wide angle shot can also
be as an establishing shot, that can be the first
shot of the sequence, and then you can follow with the medium and the
close up shot. Now let's talk
about medium shots. Medium shots is great for straightforward storytelling
such as in dialogue scenes, and provide realistic, relatable view what we naturally
see through our eyes. Medium shot is literally what the camera shoots
and what we see. So it's nothing
really different. So it can be used in
casual scenarios. For example, comedy or when just two people are talking
telephotoshot or long shot. It's also called
as close up shots. This shot makes the
subject appear closer to than they actually
are in real life. And that helps the audience to get to know the
subject a bit more, to get more intimate
with the subject. These shots can also be used
to show the raw emotion of the subject where the subject is just in the
frame, nothing else.
13. Pattern And Repetitions: Next one is pattern
and repetitions, where if you're going traveling or if you're just filming
in your backyard, always look for patterns
and always look for something repetitive and
frame that really properly. And that would look
super beautiful. Because when we are seeing these things
with our normal eyes, we don't really
emphasize on that. But when you actually
show the beauty of these patterns or repetitions
to your audience, which you have captured
from a real life, then they would appreciate it. Wow, How come I didn't see that? And how come this
videographer is seeing that? That's why it's really
important to keep an eye for patterns and
repetitions around you.
14. Depth Of Feild: Depth of field. Depth of field, in easy terms is literally the blur behind you If there's
a lot of blur behind you, which means that you
should be focusing on the subject If there's
not much blur behind you, which happens in a
lot of white shots, which tells the viewers that you have to focus
not just on the subject, but you just have to focus
on the overall image. That's when the non blurry
shots come in handy. Because a lot of
times we think that a cinematic just means the
blur in the background. But that is not true always. That really depends on what's the story you're going to tell. If someone says it's a
shallow depth of field, which means that
there's a lot of blur. But if someone says there's
a deep depth of field, which means that
there's not much blur, you can see the entire
depth in the image.
15. Camera Angles: There are also different ways in which you can
frame the subject. The eye level framing. The eye level framing is
just a normal framing which just shows neutral
emotion to your viewers. But if you change these
framings to different angles, they have completely
different effect. If you have put the camera a little bit lower
than the subject, then the subject looks a bit more higher than the audience. That imposes more power. You might have seen in a lot of superhero movies or just in any movies that if the
subject is filmed from below, then it shows that the
subject is powerful. And if there is a
high level framing, which means that the camera is a little bit
higher than the sub, then it shows that the subject
is a little bit powerless. Then it shows that subject
is trapped in that scene. In simple terms, if you're filming the subject from below, then that shows more
power to the subject. If you're filming the
subject from above, then shows that the
subject is powerless.
16. Top Down Shots: And then top down shots. Top down shots can also be drone shots can also be
the shot from a crane. I'm assuming you don't
have a film crane. A movie is made by combining all these
framing techniques, all these shots together
to tell the entire story. And how you can
master these shots is just write a list of everything and just
practice with them. If you have a short video idea, write the video idea and
then write these shots, that when can I incorporate
the rule of thoughts? When can I incorporate
the depth of field? When can I incorporate some other technique to tell my audience
different stories? Of course, your videos wouldn't
be perfect in first go. But then the more you practice, the more these things, the more these
techniques would be in your mind all the time
whenever you're filming. Practice is the key. Also, guys, if you're
enjoying this class so far, I would encourage you
to leave your feedback, leave your reviews down below, so that this class
could be discovered by more people so that
more people can learn. And that would eventually
help me as well, if more students
come to this class.
17. Natural Light Filming - Part 1: Now let's talk about
filming in natural light. That's exactly what
I'm doing now. So I'm in my living
room and there's a light source right on my face. I'm not sitting at an angle
and this is how it looks. You can still get away
with this light with this talking shot if
it's an Orcast day, but if it's a sunny day, it's a completely
different story, then you cannot sit like this. Of course, I'm going
to show you an example if the sun comes out some day. Anyways, this is how
this shot looks. And here I am just keeping
the camera at my eye level. And of course there is an
ambient light back there. If there was no ambient
light back there, the footage might look
a little bit boring. That's why to show you the depth to show you a bit more coziness, I have put that light was
already there, of course. And there's also another light source from the other side. So I am using kind
of two light source which is acting as back
light in this scenario. So that's why this footage
looks a little bit decent, but now we're going
to play with it. A little bit earlier I was
sitting facing the light. Now what I'm doing
is I'm sitting at about 45 to 60 degrees
from the light source. Now what this light source is doing is something
really interesting. Now it's making a triangle
on this side of my face. Now what's happening is
one side of my face is completely lit and
the other side has a bit more darkness. A bit more shadows, and that is creating a bit
of contrast in my face. This angle also gives
a bit of shape to my face because now there's a bit more
shadow on this side. And this angle, I've not
just randomly discovered, there's actually a
term called Rembrandt. Lighting. Rembrandt
was, of course, a well renowned painter, and every time when he would paint that was way
back in the day, he would always paint as if the light source is hitting
the subject at an angle. And on most of his portraits, you can see that on the subjects there is a triangle shaped
light on the other side. And this technique
is used in movies, interviews, TV
series all the time. This method is
really important to learn and later on
I'm also going to discuss with you
how you can achieve the Rembrandt lighting
technique using studio lights. So just bear with me. But of course we're going to
use this technique. What's happening on my face now, later when I'm also giving
some live examples. This technique is
applicable everywhere, whether you're filming indoors
with or without lights, Outdoors with or
without light source. Now we are using another
lighting technique, where I am sitting perpendicular
to the light source. The light source is just
hitting me from that side. And as you can see on my face, one side of my face
is completely lit, but the other side
is almost dark. And you can use this lighting
technique when you want to create a bit more
drama in the scene. Not in interview shots. You barely would have
seen any subject lit like this when you're
doing an interview. But if you're using
natural light and you're going to
create more drama, create more cinematic look, I think this look
would do the job. So here I'm using another
aggressive lighting technique where the light source is right behind me
and I am sort of facing somewhere where
there's no light source. Of course, my face
wouldn't be as bright, but this back light, it creates a lot of shape in my body. And you can use this sometimes, but this is the least
common method of lighting yourself when
you're using natural light.
18. Natural Light Filming - Part 2: Now we're going to use
the same technique, what I used when I was talking
about the indoor lights. Let's turn this way. Of course what I did was I tilted a little bit
away from the sun. Now the sun is at about 60
degrees from me and of course, the sunlight is creating this
big triangle on my face. That looks way better. It's also good for my eyes because I'm not doing like this. And that looks way
better than how it was before when the
sun was on my face. And to make it even
more dramatic, we can do the same thing,
what we learned before. Now we turn this way. So here, if we turn this way, the sun is lighting on
one side of my face. A lot of times, if you're doing any sort of
dramatic shoot, this can look really cool. And you can also use the sun as the major back light
source. Let me show you. So here of course, I'm going to have to expose myself good. But now what is
happening is that the sun is acting as
a huge back light. So it's kind of lighting
my back part of my body. But still there is
enough light in the surroundings that my
face is still well lit. And this can be also
a really good effect you can add when you're
filming outdoors. So these were a few
things what you need to keep in mind when you're filming outdoors
yourself on a tripod. And also a few more tips, is that whenever you're
filming yourself outdoors, make sure that if
you're a beginner, make sure that you're
filming in a forest, in a nature where
there's not many people. First thing, you're
not in anybody's way. And the second thing, if
you're a bit shy with filming, then of course it's going
to be more comfortable for you to be filming yourself
when nobody's looking around. And the third thing, if you are filming in a
busy environment, you also are afraid
of your camera, your tripod being stolen. And in the nature,
you can just leave the tripod wherever
and you can just walk around and you
would be sure that your tripod and you would be sure that
your camera is safe. So that's why filming
in nature is one of my best types of videography because I just don't have to
stress about so many things. Also, guys, what you can
do when you're filming yourself is take
these long shots. Long shot means that you have zoomed out fully
with your lens. So right now I've
zoomed out at seven MM, and I'm filming myself. And if I film myself, this just gives the audience a
different perspective. Because now I am
this super far away. And usually when people
are filming themselves, they are just taking
the close up shot, the medium shot, but they
don't take these long shots. And that gives a really good
variety to your entire film. It's a bit of a work, but
I think it is worth it. And let's see if the
camera filmed it. So that's what you
also have to do is to go a lot of
back and forth, especially if you're far away and if the exposure is right
and all that sort of stuff. So yeah, there's a lot
of back and forth, but I think in the
end it's worth it. And you see now what am I doing? I position the camera
a little bit lower. That is also giving a
different perspective to the audience because
all, most of the shots, what people do of themselves is just walking around
or just at eye level. This is also eye level, but I am sort of at a
different position, so change your positions. Do standing, sitting,
lying down, outside. That just gives a
different variety. That just keeps the whole video interesting, you
know what I mean? So yeah, that's what
is really important.
19. Introduction To Studio Lights: Now that we have learned
about natural light, let's talk about the artificial
light, the studio lights. What I'm using now,
What I'm using here, the studio lights
consist of three things. The main light, the
umbrella on the top, which looks something like this, which is also called
soft box and tripod. The main light, it has
different, different powers. A lot of lights, they start
with 30 was 60 watts, 120 Wts, 300 watts. I have a light
which is 150 Warts, and I'm still using
that at 40% Yeah. If you are buying a light, I would recommend you
to buy the lights with a little bit higher
power, 150, 200, 300. So that if you're
filming in a big room or at a big place, the light can spread
out everywhere. But if you're just
filming in a room, I think that 60 watts, or even 120 watts is more than
enough. That's the light. And of course, there's
so many brands I'm using from Go Docs.
It's a good brand. I bought it I think three
years back and I'm still using it almost every other day and it never failed on me until now. And apart from light, there's a thing called soft box. The soft box, they come in different sizes and
also different shapes. I'm using the circular soft box, and that helps the
light coming from the main light spread
out, makes it softer. That's the whole
point of soft box. And it also has this
reflective curve inside it, so the light
reflects everywhere. And then it brings a soft
light on the subject. If your soft box is smaller, then the light
would be more harsh because the light is
coming from a small area. But if your soft box is bigger, then the light is more softer. If the light was super harsh, then you would see a
lot of shadows here. Then you would see a lot
of contrast in the image. But if a light is soft, then the light spreads
out everywhere. I'm using a 90
centimeter soft box. There's also 120
centimeter soft box. But the thing with
those soft box are, they are super big, They're
hard to fit everywhere. But a lot of professionals, they use 120 as well. They're also soft box
which is 60 centimeters, I wouldn't recommend to
use them because the light coming out through that soft
box is still really harsh. The soft boxes, they also
come in different shapes. Some are rectangular,
some are square. But I would recommend to just to invest in these
circular ones. They are the most
commonly used ones. Yeah, That was soft box for. And then you also have to
invest in a good sturdy tripod. And these lights, they have
a different tripod system than our camera tripods, so you really have to
look into it and again, buy a good sturdy tripod rather
than buying a cheap one. And then the whole
lights fall on you, or fall, or even worse,
fall on someone else.
20. Filming With Studio Lights: Now that we have learned about different components
of the studio light, now let's talk about
how to use them. From the knowledge
of natural lights. What I talked in
previous section, you can tell that I'm using the Rembrandt
lighting technique. And of course, I have put the
light at about 45 degrees. The camera is straight
in front of me. Because of this angle, it is producing this triangle
on this side of my face. And of course, this side
is a bit more darker. In the upcoming sections, I'm going to show you how to fix it, but this is how it looks. And this method is used in a
lot of interview shots where the main light is at about
45 or 60 degrees angle. And this is how the room looks. This is how this frame looks
with just one light set up. If you're a beginner and
if you want to become a professional videographer or just take your content
to the next level, I would really recommend
to invest in these lights. I think they are a game
changer, They're expensive, but it's a really good
investment because these lights would make your talking head
shot really good. These lights would also
make the product shots. If you are filming
any product shots, it just makes it look
so professional. These lights would
also help you if you're filming any sort
of cinematic video. And I forgot to tell
you that there's also one more light
source in this room, which is this window behind me, and that is acting
as an ambient light. But here's what I'm
going to do. I'm going to experiment a little bit. So I have this
Philips hue bulbs, which has crazy
different colors. So I'm going to put that
on this background. So for that, what I have to
do is here what I did now, of course the last shot
was okay in my opinion. But we can make
it much better by creating contrast between the
subject and the background. And how I did it
was because I am a bit more yellowish,
a bit more brownish. And my T shirt and my shirt, whatever I'm
bearing, it's white. How this can pop out
from the background is by making a background which is of completely
contrasting color. This side is a bit more bluish, this side is a bit more pinkish. And that makes me pop out a
little bit more because in the last example where I'm using the natural light,
everything is white. So it's not really an attractive
frame, in my opinion. That's also what you
can do is that you can change the color
of the background by either using a backdrop, which is just a sheet of paper or a curtain of different
different colors. Or I have this
Philips hue, lights. And they change the color
to whatever color I want. For example, if I want to
change the color to reds, this is how it looks. So I think if you're a creator, this is also a really
good investment to invest into these
Philips hue lights. Because they can just
change the color of your background to
any color you want. Literally, any color you want. This is how you
can also light up the subject and the
background with different colors to keep the scene engaging
to your audience. And of course,
later I'm going to show you different
different scenarios. I'm going to show you a making
off of some short videos, what I post on my socials. So yeah, I'm going to show you really how I light
up the subject, how I light up the
background with different different types
of lights that I have. I have moved the light from
45 degrees to 90 degrees. Now it's lighting
me up like this. Now, I've also opened
the curtains and let the natural light come in how it was in the first scenario. I can also see the
light in my frame. This also, you have to
be a bit more careful, just move the light a little
bit back in this frame, you can see that it is
creating a bit more drama. It is very unusual way to light up a subject because one side is completely dark. But this is what you
can do in dramas. This is what you can use if
you want to create that sort of unsettled emotion in the audience where
you show the subject, but you're also kind of not
showing you the subject. Because you might
have noticed that in all the comedy movies, they don't use these
kind of lights. The subject is well lit, the whole environment
is well lit. But if it's a dramatic movie, you can see that there's a
lot of darkness in the movie. There's a lot of contrast. There's a lot of well lit areas and there's a lot
of darker areas. That's how filmmakers
also create contrast. That's how filmmakers also create emotion
within the audience. Now what I'm going to do, I'll show you how awful it looks. If you bring the light right on the face of the subject here, what I'm doing is that the
light is literally on my face, and this is how I look. I can still not make
it fully on my face because the camera
is in the way and this office is a bit more small. But you see, you can
already see the difference between the previous clip, the previous frame
and this frame that this is just subject
this flat out. And now what I'm going to
do is that I'm going to introduce more lights
in this scene. Of course, if you're a beginner, you must be thinking that, oh, I just invested in this light and now I have to invest
in another light. If you can. Yes, because it's a really good
learning curve. But if you cannot, then really master just lighting
up with one light. Everybody has started
with one light. Nobody was buying a whole
set of film lights. And then they started learning just invest in this main light. And then just experiment. And take it as a
challenge that how can I make this scene really
cool with just one light? But now I'm going to
introduce a light. Can you guess what
I just did now? If you can guess,
pause this class and put it down in the comments. But here, what I'm doing now is that I have introduced
a back light. This is the background light, this pink thing, but
this is the back light. And the back light
shines on your subject. And what it does is that, let me just give you an example of an image without
the back light. This is how it looks
without the back light on, with just one light source
and the background light. Now the back light is on and now you can see the
difference that the image looks a
bit more full here. The main job of a back light is that to light up the subject, to give more lines
to the subject, because in the
previous scenario, there was nothing here, there was no focus here. And now you can actually
see my shoulders, the shape of my
face more clearly. Because this side was all dark
in the previous scenario. And that's what back
light also does. Sometimes the back light is also kept a bit more higher and that can light up the
subject from back here. I can show you that Now you see now that I have brought the
back light a bit more closer. You can also see
it in the frame. Now it looks more intense. Now you can see a lot
of yellow light here. And there's a reason
why I've made it yellow because this
light is already white. Something to contrast that, I've put it yellow because
if this was also white, it would look too much
blended and it would almost look like the scene is lit
with just white light. And that doesn't really
create a nice framing. Yeah, that's how you
can use back light. And now I would introduce
one more light because there's still a
bit more darkness on this side of my face. To eliminate that, we have
a solution. And here we go. Now I've introduced
a fill light. A fill light is
something which is acting as a fill light, of course, which is filling
all the darker areas. The main light is at 45 degrees, the fill light is
also at 45 degrees, but on the other side, usually these fill lights, if you don't want to
create a dramatic scene, this can be of the same
color as the main light. It almost looks like there is some natural light coming
from the other side. This is the image
without the fill light. You can see now
how much darkness is on this side.
Let's turn it on. You see now how much difference
the field light makes. Now we're actually
using four lights, which is totally unnecessary. But if you want to
create a nice scene, I think there can be important. But each light, they have
their own necessity. Sometimes sometimes
there's barely just one light is necessary. Sometimes two of
them are necessary, sometimes three of
them are necessary. But yeah, do not
get overwhelmed. I'm just here to teach you what all things are existing
in the filmmaking world.
21. Shot Breakdown - Part 1: Usually the main light.
What I was talking about, it looks something like,
this is the main light. And the umbrella, it
comes on top of this. But today I'm going to teach
you how to fake moonlight. To fake a moonlight, you
need something like this. This came with the light.
What I already have. I have the Godox S L 150
and all the good brands. They give you this box as well. On this box, you can just
put this blue plastic. They give this as
well. They give blue green and red plastic. And then you can put this
in front of the light. And it would almost look
like a pointed light source, because this light is a
pointed light source. But the umbrella,
what we put on top, that makes it more
softer, more diffused. But we want to make it as
a pointed light source, how it is from the moon. And the plan is that I'm going
to attach everything and put it outside so we can get
this fake moonlight effect. And then I'm also going
to use this light, which is just a
normal tube light. I'm going to show
you how this looks. And I've put this tube light, as we discussed before, at 45 degrees and
the light is also tilting towards
me at 45 degrees. And also for interviews for just normal
dis, talking head, he can use lights
like this instead of bringing this light straight up and
putting it on my face. I think just putting
on the side just gives more professional look. You know, there's more
contrast in the image. But yeah, Now let's do
the moonlight first. I'm really excited about it. So I have set up
the light outside. Here it is, lighting
the entire room. Look how cool it
looks in this shot. What is happening is that
there's a main light, which can be light in your room. And then there's a moonlight, which is also acting
as a back light. I have put this light
again at 45 degrees, tilting to me at 45. And of course, the moon is
a little bit higher up, so it looks like a natural moon. And we'll see how it looks. What do you think you see
with just two lights? That is a professional light, but this is just $150 light. With just these two things, we can just make a
lot of things happen. That's why if you're
filming yourself, I think that if you want to
take it to a professional, really invest in
good set of lights. If you have the lights,
even just one light, you can just keep
experimenting with yourself and learn so
much about filmmaking. And right now,
what am I doing is I am sitting in between
these two lights, and the camera is filming
me from the side. We also show the audience that the light is
coming from outside. We show the audience a bit
of contrast in the image. The background is a bit more
bluish and the foreground, which is the subject,
which is me, which is this, is
of orange color. So that creates a bit of
contrast in the image. And that makes the
image look much better than how it would be if
everything was blue here. What I actually did was that
because in the first shot, I put the light
right on my face. In the camera, you don't
really see a lot of contrast, but now I have put the
light right in front of me. But if I turn this way, then you still see one side of my flay face lit up and other
side of my face not lit up. If you see from the
camera's perspective, I still have different contrast as compared to the
previous shot. That's what I'm
experimenting with, different different
light positions. And that's what I would
encourage you to do as well. Because once you have
the light set up, you can just play around
and see what looks better. In the last shot, I just
thought that everything just looks a bit more
flat on my face. And I hope that this can create a bit more depth on the face. Now what I've done is that
I have put these blinds on. And I've increased the
intensity of the outside light. This light, the
yellow light that is lighting me as
the main light. And it is sitting
right in front of me. And you see how these lights, they change their roles
in the main shot, what we shot in my studio, the expensive light that was the main light for
lighting me up. And these lights were just acting as a supplementary light. And now the main, expensive, professional light is sitting outside and acting
as an ambient light. And this $50 light is lighting up the main
subject, which is myself. So here what I'm
doing is that I am just opening some white
screen on my phone. So that is lighting up my face. And the back light is that side. And there's another
back light which is of completely different
color on this side. So this is a warm light. This is a bit more
cool. Light creates a lot of contrast in the image. Makes it look more, pretty more cinematic,
what they say. And here in this
case, the only light, what I'm using here
is the moonlight, which I have placed already
in the previous scenes. And the extra lights, what are coming in the scene is an ambient light which is on the right hand
side of the screen. And the television in
the background is also acting as another
back light source. You see with ambient
lights as well. You can just play
around and make the image look much prettier. And in this scene, all the
settings are the same. I have changed the
focus from myself, the subject to the television. So I just want to
convey the audience more information about what I am watching on the television. So you see by changing focus, you can change what information you want to show
to your audience. So here in this case,
what am I doing is that I'm just using
one light source, so there's no contrast
in the image. The light is literally
sitting on top of my head. I'm getting the second
light source as well, which is from my monitor. I have just opened Google Docs for the image to
be as bright as possible, and then I'm just
using Google Docs and just acting as if I'm typing something and it looks quite cinematic in my opinion here. This is just an example that
you can also just light up an image just with
one light source, with one color and still
make it look cinematic.
22. Shot Breakdown - Part 2: Now we're going to be doing
another shot breakdown. So as you can see, I'm in my living room and this is
how the scenario looks. So first off, you might see a lot of sunlight
falling on the walls. That is not natural. I have made it look like there's sunlight
falling on the wall because I have put my
main light outside. I've put it at about
3 meters high, and that is acting
as a sunlight. And this is how you can fake a sunlight in your living room. So I'm going to make
some rolls of me making coffee in this room and
we'll see how we go. So of course, the
first shot would be a wide shot of me just
walking in just to give the audience a
bit more perspective of where this whole
situation is taking place. Now here in the second shot, what I want to film is me
picking up this coffee mug. Obviously I want to show
the beautiful sunlight. I obviously want to show beautiful shadows
from this sunlight. That's what I'm going to
show during this process. I would just take
a close up shot. I think this would act
as a diagonal line. There would be some things
in the foreground and there would be a close up
shot just on this mug. In this case, I think I'll
just do a manual focus. Because the thing
about cameras which have a good auto
focus these days are, is that as soon as a
person walks in the frame, the camera suddenly just
locks onto the person's face. It has happened with me a lot of times that I want
to film my subject, but if I'm in the
frame, the camera focuses on the subject. The shot, what I
took, it looked nice. But I just want to try
one more shot of just literally filming
right on the mug. And just like a front shot. So let's try this here. I want to introduce
the coffee machine. What I'm going to
do is that I'll just take a wide shot with the kitchen as diagonal lines and just the coffee
machine here. And then later on I'll
introduce some close up shots. This is just an interruption
from the roles, but you see how nice
it looks that when the sunlight is falling on
the other side of the face, which is not
pointing the camera, you see how nice it looks, because now it's giving
more drama to the image. It is showing more
lines to your face, to your audience,
and it just makes it look really nice, obviously. Try this lighting
technique as well. You don't have to have
an artificial light all the time to have
this lighting technique. You can also do this when
the sun is right outside, but today it was overcasting. That's why we are making use
of the artificial light. But yeah, try this
technique as well, where the light is falling
on the opposite side. Because usually what I've
taught you is that light should fall on this side
which is facing the camera. But if it falls on
the opposite side, it just makes it look nice. Now what I'm doing is that I'm, I've brought the camera at the coffee machine
site around this side. I'm just taking some close up. So I've manually focused on this button because that's what I'm going to press it now. So let's try it. I'm just going to take
another medium shot of just my hands and
just me working. So it's not just a
repetitiveness shots, you have to switch
between close up, medium, and all that
sort of stuff. Let's go. Obviously, in that
shot, I wanted to show people how
the coffee looks. I took a top down shot before all the foam from
the coffee disappears. But yeah, now I'll take a
shot of me just drinking. I think I'll maybe zoom in a little bit on my face
just to show my reaction. So let's do a little
medium close up shot. Remember what I told
you, the close up shots are used to tell the
expression of the person. So that's what I'm
going to do now. So that was it for
the coffee beer roll. And now let's show you
another short breakdown.
23. Shot Breakdown - Part 3: We are doing another
shot breakdown. Obviously the first shot is a little bit wider shot so people can see where the subject is and what the
subject is doing. Just to give more
information here, I'm just acting as if I'm
reading a self fell book. I'll show you what the shot is. So the first shot, of
course, is the wide shot. Now we're going to jump
on to a medium shot. So I'll show you how
that is, the medium. Now we'll move on to the close up or maybe
just another medium just to show people
what I'm reading. Maybe that can be the over the shoulder shot you
see in every shot. I'm using some foreground just to introduce more
depth in the image, and it just looks more nice. In the first shot, I introduced the foreground,
which was the couch. And in the second shot, the
foreground is this book. In the third shot, the
foreground would be my shoulder. Let me show you how this
is the over the shoulder shot and here I'm just showing the audience
what I'm reading.
24. Shot Breakdown - Part 4: This is my bedroom.
And of course, as you can see, that
I'm lighting it up. There's no natural light
coming in the bedroom. I'm lighting up with one light, which is just a tube light, what I used in previous scenes, and which is producing
yellow color. This light is motivated
by this light. This light, of course, wouldn't light up the room entirely. But that the yellow
light, what I'm using, which is of course
not in the scene, is motivated by this light. So it makes the audience look like this light is
lighting me up. Yeah, that's the reason why I put this light on my right side. And on my left side you can see a blue texture on the wall
on my face or this side. And the reason behind that is that I wanted to fake
a moonlight again, but I didn't use the method what I used in the previous section. In the previous section,
I lit up the moonlight. And I was pointing the light directly indoors
in my living room. But here what I'm doing is I am actually
bouncing the light. So this light is directly
falling on the wardrobe. And that white wardrobe is actually helping me bounce
the light back on my face. The reason behind
this is that this gives me a bit more softer look, a bit more natural look. So yeah, I hope you like it. Let's try to turn off
this light and let's see how this scenario looks. So here I've turned
off the yellow light, so now the room is
full of moonlight. You see if you have two lights. You can just practice so many different things as of course, use some ambient light in your image that can
also give extra depth, extra texture in the image. As I turned off
this yellow light, it looked a little bit dull. The image looked too much of
a moonlight dominant image. So now what I did was I
have moved the tube light, what I was using, a bit
more closer to this light. So that is just sitting
next to this light. And I've reduced the intensity. So as I've reduced the
intensity, the light, it looks a bit more believable that this is coming
from this light source. So yeah, also play with the
intensity of the lights. That's what I
learned now as well, while teaching you
that you just have to go and watch in the camera
what you've recorded, and then go back and forth. And then you can obviously tweak the settings of your
light of your camera. This is how I think, I'm really happy with this scene and I think it's time to
show you the next shot. What I've done is I have moved this light because this light in the beginning was here. The tube light. And now
I've moved it there. I would just take a little
shot of me using my phone. I just, this might here now I'm using some white
background in the phone. It lights up my image. This light is motivated by
this lamp, which I've just, but here I would be just using my phone and of course the moonlight is
doing its job as before.
25. Conclusion: Now we're done with
short breakdown. And as I promised you
in the intro video that I'm going to be teaching
you video editing as well. Video editing is something which cannot be taught in
just 10 minutes. Just 20 minutes. Recently I've published a full on class
about Davinci Resolve. Yes, that's the primary software what I use for my editing, for color grading, for sound
effects and everything. So that's what I've taught in
one of my previous courses. If you are interested
in learning editing, head to that course
and really follow every chapter I've taught that class to over
2,500 students. I'm sure you're
going to get a lot of value from that class. And the project section of this course would be in
the description below. So go follow that,
read the instructions, and submit your project. I would be really curious
to see how you have implemented everything that
I've taught in this class. I hope you enjoyed this course. Leave a review if you like this, and I'll see you
in the next class.