7 Deadly Sins of Filmmaking

1. Don’t Shoot Everything

Capturing too much footage can be a pro and a cons, however the strengths can be a weakness because shooting too much footage leads the filmmakers not thinking very deeply about what they’re shooting, because they are capturing everything unnecessarily. Therefore, it is important to plan your shots ahead of time and think effectively about what you want to communicate to the audience through your images.

2. Take Your Time

Whenever getting a shot of some action and thinking that you have attained a suitable amount of footage, therefore you stop recording, it is important to keep rolling for at least another 10/20/30 seconds, as it will make things a lot easier when it comes to editing. Otherwise, you will regret editing a cut that needed to be recorded for just that few seconds longer.

3. Leave Headroom

Headroom is the space between the top of the frame and the top of the subject’s head. Having either too much or too little headroom will create an unbalanced composition, if there is too much it can cause the audience to feel unsettles or uneasy with a floating head aesthetic whereas too little can cause them to feel claustrophobic.

4. Don’t Over-Expose or Under-Expose

When filming outside, it is important to have additional lighting to put in front of the subjects and not use the sun as a backlight. Either the sky will be blown out or underexposing the subjects. If you do have lights, set them up in front of your subject so that there is a balanced exposure, if this is not possible, use the sun as the key light instead of the opposite.

5. Don’t Overdo the Zoom

Constant zooming in and out will it difficult for the audience to know what they’re exactly supposed to be looking at. If this is what you intend to do, do a nicely composed push and pull focus.

6. Mix Up the Angles

It’s always effective to attain a different perspective, especially when it comes to filming. Things are always being seen at eye-level therefore seeing this same type of shot can become boring. So, this can be fixed by shooting different angles, getting onto the ground (worm eye shots) or getting onto a ladder to get come high angle shots will be a great variation.

7. Stabilise for Smooth Footage

Stabilisers can help transform a shaky, footage into a professional piece of digital art. It makes the footage easier to watch and it will most likely make your footage look better. If you don’t have access to stabilisers, there are other ways to stabilise your camera, you could use a heavy tripod, snorricams, steadicams and generally avoiding handheld footage.