Your Films Suck? Good. Welcome to the Club of Real Filmmakers

[@jamesdo7387]

Ok, it feels terrible to admit this, but as a amateur I have NO IDEA what to make videos about to practice. I don't wanna just film a cup or something.. I want to put to practice the skills I am learning by making some micro films; 30 second to maybe 2 minute videos. I just don't know what framing or angles to use for any given situation. I can logically list them out, but when it comes to using them... I'm underwater. Maybe it's a creative issue. If I could come up with some ideas and and visualize how I want the storyboards or shotlists to look then maybe it wouldn't be an issue. The biggest problem is visualizing so I can shotlist or storyboard. Idk, maybe i'm overthinking things but I'm feeling stuck. Any advice Antwan? Thanks!

[@antwanbankswilliams]

I completely understand. I have so many thoughts on this and I have been there and still find myself there at times. I think focusing the area of practice can help. Do you want to practice framing and composition? Camera angles? Story telling? I can make a video with some exercises if that would be helpful?

[@jamesdo7387]

​@@antwanbankswilliams Dang that reply was fast, I didn't even realize! Sorry for the wait. This'll be a little longer of a response so stick with me haha. It's hard to pick because they are all 3 sides of the same triangle. I know between them all, story is the most important and the one I might need the most work on, but even if I have a good story, if I don't know how to convey that then it wouldn't matter... so I'd have to say probably camera angles. I can always look for framing and composition once I know what camera angles I want to use. I used to be an artist so the composition eye is kind of there although it's a bit different with a camera vs paper. I always run into problems shooting when thinking "should I use THIS angle? or THIS one?... shit am I trying to put too many shots in this? How can I tell a great story if there are so many different angles I can use for each given action? which one is the right ones that make this a good story vs a bad one vs just a mediocre one?" Is there a way to either break down films or shots to build on top of it and learn camera angles (or any film topic) quicker? I've been on an off studying videography for the last 8ish months. I bought into fulltime filmmaker and tomorrows filmmakers and studied my ass off. I've got about 10k in gear that I own and I've shot multiple videos for 3 clients. None of this is to brag, it's to say Idk how the hell I've made it this far lol. With corporate stuff, it's easier because the client always has a sort of plan in their head and I show up and come up with ideas on the spot or run and gun and it turns out pretty good luckily enough. The problem is continuous execution on the things I'm learning but by myself at home when the pressure is off. I want to practice sooo much and be so good at this, but this block has been keeping me stuck for the last 5 or 6 months. That inspirational spark of "I wanna just pull out my camera and film that because it's so pretty", or "I've got an IDEA!! Let's make some shit happen" doesn't happen anymore. Getting this stuck is just eating at me. And I know it's just one tiny puzzle piece that's out of place and once I find that "click", then it'll unlock everything else. Anyway, thanks for the really quick response to my previous message, and sorry if my answer is all over the place. It's just a problem I'm finding soooo damn difficult to explain because it's multiple things making up my problem.