If you’ve been a keen photographer or filmmaker for any length of time, you’ll know just how easy it can be to get caught in the trap of spending thousands upon thousands of dollars and still wanting more gear.
Here at FilmingLife®, one of our aims is teach photographers how to make films using the gear they have right now. No need to spend money on fancy gimbals, lenses & high-end cameras. We want family filmmaking to be as accessible as possible. and our members make incredible films using anything from their phones to to their entry-level DSLR cameras. You don’t need fancy gear to make meaningful, heart-felt films.
Having said all that, there are a few things that you might find useful if you want to level up your filmmaking game. Some of these things we consider essential, some of these things are fun extras. Either way, these are all things we use and love, so today we thought we’d share our very favourite family filmmaking gear with you…
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Social media has proven to be a powerful tool for many photographers when it comes to marketing their business and booking clients.
There are a million articles and courses available that all promise to tell you the best strategies to grow your following and show you how to beat the algorithm and it can all become pretty overwhelming.
Using social media effectively for your business comes down to working smarter, not harder, and it’s about so much more than just amassing followers and gaming the algorithm.
In Episode 23 of FilmingLife: The Podcast for Photographers & Filmmakers, Courtney Holmes and Allison Redmon sat down for a chat with our very own Marketing Manager Jill Seamer to discuss the best way family filmmakers can use social media in their business.
The episode is filled with so many great tips & ideas that we thought we’d share 5 of our favourites here on the blog for easy reference.
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In this episode of FilmingLife: The Podcast for Photographers & Filmmakers, Courtney, Allison & Kylie sit down to discuss the August 2020 run of the 9 Day Mini Keepsake Film Challenge and announce the giveaway winners.
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In this episode of FilmingLife®: The Podcast for Photographers & Filmmakers our hosts Courtney Holmes and Allison Redmon introduce the next theme in our #6filmchallenge, Double Exposures. They’ll talk about how to create double exposures in filmmaking and how they can be a great storytelling tool.
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Our #6filmchallenge for May and June focused on the theme of “Motherhood”. This was a beautifully broad theme, full of potential for soul searching and self-expression. Our members, as usual, took our breath away with their unique interpretations of this theme. Take a moment to dive into these films, we hope they both inspire you but also show that documenting Motherhood doesn't have to be complicated to be heartfelt.
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In March and April, our #6filmchallenge to our Academy members was to create a 'Day-In-The-Life' (DITL) Film; a film that focuses on the everyday moments of their daily lives. To up the challenge, we asked each participant to film in a VERTICAL orientation, flipping their camera away from the standard horizontal orientation. For many, this was a new skill both in shooting and in editing! Some chose to use their DSLR cameras, some chose to use their mobile devices, and some combined both devices to create their film.
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In this episode of FilmingLife: The Podcast for Photographers & Filmmakers, Courtney, Allison, Kylie & Jill sit down to discuss the April 2020 run of the 9 Day Mini Keepsake Film Challenge and announce the giveaway winners.
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In this episode of FilmingLife®: The Podcast for Photographers & Filmmakers our host Courtney Holmes talks about Filming Life during COVID-19.
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In an instant—everything changed.
My Dad used to tell me about how the camera I had could shoot video and I should really use that feature. I brushed it off because sure, it could shoot video, but once I shot that video what would I do with it? Cue endless hours of searching through boring YouTube tutorials to teach myself how to use Premiere Pro. I don't know what it was about the year 2013, but all the tutorials online at the time were using footage of cars, or dogs, or weddings. What's up with that?
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In wrapping up 2019, we asked our FilmingLife Academy members to consider the traditions that happen in their lives and make a film that encapsulates those traditions! November and December tend to be busy months, especially for families with young children, but this challenge saw the most submissions our of any of our #6filmchallenge themes and as usual, we were blown away by the creative ways our members chose to make traditions themed films.
How about you? What traditions happen within the span of your year? If there is anything we have learned from this challenge, it’s this: You’ll never regret setting aside the time to film and have those traditions memories preserved!
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Over the past two months we challenged our FilmingLife Academy members to create a personal film that include themselves, in some way shape or form, ‘in the frame!’. This might have been our most challenging #6filmchallenge yet as it requires a bit of planning on the filmmakers part to not be behind the camera for a change! As usual, we were blown away by the creative ways our members chose to make films with themselves in the frame.
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This May & June we challenged our FilmingLife Academy members to create a personal film that included some sort of interview. Our members went above and beyond creating beautiful, heartfelt films of the people in their lives. From new beginnings to little voices chatting about grandparents, to love letters…we just adore the creative ways that each FilmingLife Academy member interviewed their loved ones!
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As photographers, filmmakers and family memory keepers, more often than not we’re behind the camera rather than in front of it. Usually this suits us just fine, but when we’re always the ones holding the camera, there’s an empty space in our family’s photo albums & films that needs to be filled with us.
It can definitely be hard to get yourself in the frame, but it’s just too important not to! Our children, families & loved ones deserve to have photos & films with us in them to look at in the year’s to come, and our stories, and the role we play in the lives of other’s deserves to be documented just as much as their stories do.
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