I know what it’s like to be in the kind of situations where it is raining all day long and the sky is ultra-dark even when the sun is at its highest. I understand how hard it can be to get beautiful looking shots when you’re in an open field with no way to control harsh mid-afternoon sunlight. I’ve shot in pretty much all weather conditions at any given time of day, trust me when I say that while it can be tough, you can get great images no matter what kind of natural light you’re working with.

Filmmaking is so exciting! At least it is until it isn’t… Not every aspect of being in the creative industry is as glamorous and sparkly as it may seem to people from the outside looking in. That’s why today I think it’s high time we talked about all of the absolutely essential, but incredibly boring, things literally every filmmaker will need across their career.

You can’t shoot a wedding without the right equipment! Keeping your kit lightweight and compact will make a world of difference at a wedding. You will want to keep everything on you at all times in order to make sure you’re not running back to your car to grab a lens that wasn’t in your bag. I said it earlier, but you really can’t afford to miss a shot on a wedding day!

Capturing footage at higher frame rates and playing them back at a slower 24 or 25 frames per second is a really useful filmmaking tool for heightening the emotion or tension in a shot. Actions that would usually happen in the blink of an eye can be extended out for the audience to not only see what’s happening but also feel the moment that it happens. Slow motion shots are the perfect way to tap into your audience’s suspension of disbelief and captivate their attention. But only if you use it right!

Travel filmmaking is one of the most exciting and challenging specialisations any filmmaker can make. It’s equal parts demanding and rewarding. It’s certainly not a profession for the faint of heart! You have to have a deep desire to get out and experience the world and need to have the right technical skills and creativity to make all of it come together.

As a filmmaker, YouTuber or content creator of any kind you will quickly find that even if you have fantastic looking footage, your audience will be immediately turned off if the audio doesn’t sound amazing. You may have heard that sound is half of making a film and it honestly is so true. Bad audio can kill a video dead in the water, leaving your audience unsatisfied, or worse, make them stop watching your work altogether.

Learning to become a successful filmmaker is hard. There is no way to sugarcoat it. It takes years of learning, money and creativity before you even manage to get to the starting line of becoming a halfway decent filmmaker, let alone a successful one. However, these days it has never been more accessible.

Have you ever watched a video where a person’s dialogue doesn’t match up with their actions? It’s really painful to watch. If audio is off by even a fraction of a second it can become so noticeable that it immediately breaks audience immersion in whatever they’re watching. So here’s three methods to help you avoid that problem!

Finding yourself with too much camera equipment and not enough hands to carry it all? Then what you need is a top-notch camera bag to keep it all in! There are hundreds of bags on the market to look at, each with varying styles, sizing and uses. You can be 100% sure that the perfect camera bag for you is out there somewhere!

There’s a lot to cover when it comes to choosing a new lens, so I am here to help you navigate the potential minefield of creative and technical uses of the lenses you will be looking at.

Lighting is hands down one of the single most important factors in creating a great looking image. And that’s true across all styles of filmmaking and video production. Whether you are working on high-end film and TV sets, creating a promo video for a new product, or even making a short funny video to post to social media, lighting can drastically change the look and feel of what you’re creating.

Get ready to take your first steps into the world of photography and filmmaking with these incredible beginner friendly cameras!