This helps a lot if you want to repeat the steps and end up with great result.Īs you go through the book, you can also check the example videos online at Stockman’s website. From the very beginning, through brainstorming ideas, to the final result.
Stockman often shows what he did step-by-step in real life examples, taken from his professional directing as well as regular family videos. I loved this! The general explanation is great but it is even better to have multiple concrete examples.
Practical examples are everywhere in the book. Where is my subject, what is in the foreground and background and what filming angle is the best for that particular situation?Įxample of drawing – what is in the frame I don’t have to imagine what author suggests. I like the drawings of examples showing what is in the frame.
If you practice and watch your shots afterward, learn from your own mistakes and re-shoot, you become a much better filmmaker. These are like homework from school – you MUST do them! There will be only very little effect if you just read the book and forget most of it. You can (and you should!) immediately try the trick afterward.Įvery chapter ends with exercise. You can easily forget that you are learning and just have fun.Ĭhapters are short and each is focused on a single bite-sized topic which makes it easy to understand. I like this style of writing, it made me laugh couple times.
You don’t want to play back an interview with your 100-year-old great-aunt and discover that by hand-holding the camera and positioning her by the window so she was looking up at you past the lens, you made her look like a creepy, silhouetted serial killer. You can also expect learning experience enriched by mini jokes like this: You will not find any sugar coating in his book. Right from the beginning, he expects that we shoot a video that sucks. His style of writing is a little bit rough and it might hurt some peoples’ feelings. But once I started reading his book I became his fan immediately and I follow everything he posts on his blog. At first, I thought: OK, this guy is a Hollywood director but not like Quentin Tarantino or Steven Spielberg.
Uncle Google revealed that he is a director of the movie Two Weeks and he created also TV shows, music videos, and hundreds of commercials. Honestly, I had no idea who Steve Stockman is. I wrote this detailed review to give you an idea what YOU can get from it. Result? Much better videos (in my opinion). I learned a lot from this book and implemented many of the tricks into my videos.
He wrote a book How to Shoot Video That Doesn’t Suck which I read. Well, I am not a Hollywood director but Steve Stockman is. Skip To: Start of Article.Do you want to make your amateur videos like a pro? Let your audience crave for more videos from you? Learn how to think like a Hollywood director! Get a cheap external mic and boost your subject’s voice. Use an External Mic: Nothing ruins a shot like the sound of a blowing wind or that passing fire truck. Don’t zoom in on a distant subject get up close and personal. Zoom with your Feet: A stable platform your shaky hands are not. Think in Shots: We live in a Jerry Bruckheimer world: fast and edited. Keep individual shots short and to the point. But WIRED’s How-To Wiki has a great, quick guide on how to bring out your inner Tarantino.
Ironically, an explosion of camera availability and video-hosting websites hasn’t led to an increase in home video production values. There was a time when the camcorder (or “movie gun” as my granpappy used to say) was expensive and bulky, and recording a movie took at least some consideration.