How To Film Yourself - A Solo Filmmaking Masterclass | Adi Singh | Skillshare
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How To Film Yourself - A Solo Filmmaking Masterclass

teacher avatar Adi Singh, Videographer and Youtuber

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Introduction

      1:05

    • 2.

      Filmmaking Gear

      4:03

    • 3.

      Lighting Equipment

      0:44

    • 4.

      Best Video Settings

      3:33

    • 5.

      Framing And Compostion

      0:19

    • 6.

      Rule Of Thirds

      2:20

    • 7.

      Symmetry

      1:07

    • 8.

      Leading Lines

      0:37

    • 9.

      Out Of Focus Shots

      1:02

    • 10.

      Negative Space Filming

      0:44

    • 11.

      Contrast Filming

      0:54

    • 12.

      Focal Lengths

      1:11

    • 13.

      Pattern And Repetitions

      0:39

    • 14.

      Depth Of Feild

      0:50

    • 15.

      Camera Angles

      1:00

    • 16.

      Top Down Shots

      1:09

    • 17.

      Natural Light Filming - Part 1

      3:30

    • 18.

      Natural Light Filming - Part 2

      3:19

    • 19.

      Introduction To Studio Lights

      2:52

    • 20.

      Filming With Studio Lights

      8:19

    • 21.

      Shot Breakdown - Part 1

      6:19

    • 22.

      Shot Breakdown - Part 2

      4:52

    • 23.

      Shot Breakdown - Part 3

      1:12

    • 24.

      Shot Breakdown - Part 4

      3:04

    • 25.

      Conclusion

      0:56

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About This Class

Welcome to the "How To Film Yourself - A Solo Filmmaking Masterclass".

This class is the perfect starting point for anyone looking to venture into the world of solo filmmaking. Whether your goal is to produce professional-looking talking head videos or to create your own solo cinematic shot films, this course is designed to guide you through the entire process in a structured and step-by-step manner, ensuring that you are never overwhelmed.

Who This Course Is For:

This course is meticulously tailored for absolute beginners with a desire to learn the art of filming themselves in a cinematic style. With no previous experience required, you'll find the content approachable, engaging, and rich with examples and exercises to solidify your learning.

What You Will Learn:

  • Filmmaking Equipment: We'll start by exploring all the essential gear needed to shoot cinematic-quality videos. This includes a detailed overview of lighting equipment to enhance your indoor filming capabilities, setting you on the path to expanding your filmmaking skills.
  • Video Settings: This section covers the fundamental video settings necessary for capturing crisp footage, whether you're using a camera or a smartphone. Understanding these settings is crucial for producing high-quality videos.
  • Framing and Composition: Dive deep into the art of framing your shots. Learn about various filmmaking compositions to achieve better results when filming yourself. This knowledge is key to elevating the visual quality of your projects.
  • Shots Breakdown: The most exciting part of the course, where I share my entire process of filming myself. By breaking down my shots from previous short films, I'll provide insights into my decision-making process and demonstrate how to capture compelling footage effectively on your own.

Who Should Enrol:

This course is specifically designed for individuals who are new to videography and wish to embark on the journey of solo filmmaking. Through clear explanations, practical examples, and hands-on exercises, you'll gain the confidence and skills needed to film yourself and achieve a cinematic look in your projects.

Previous Courses:

Who am I?

My name is Adi and I live in the Netherlands. Since I got my first camera back in 2015 to capture my travels, I have been hooked on videography! Every day I learned something new and eventually, I started my own video production company and YouTube channel! I learned all the ins and outs of videography online or by self-teaching, and I would love to share my knowledge with all of you!

My equipment
Check the gear I use: Adi Singh (@letsmeetabroad) gear • Kit

Let's connect!
My YouTube channel: Let’s Meet Abroad
Instagram: @letscreateonline @letsmeetabroad

Meet Your Teacher

Teacher Profile Image

Adi Singh

Videographer and Youtuber

Top Teacher

Hi there! I'm Adi.

In 2015 I got my first camera to capture my travels to New Zealand. From then on I was hooked on videography! Every day I learned something new and eventually, I started my own video production company and YouTube channel!

The reason why I love online teaching is simply that it has been the foundation of my filmmaking career. I learned all the ins and outs of videography online or by self-teaching and I would love to share my knowledge with you! I truly believe that if e-learning is taken seriously, anyone can be professional in anything. I really hope I can help others with making content and creating videos.

So where are you waiting for, let's learn and create!

See full profile

Level: Beginner

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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.