Hi, I have some little knowledge about using sun/day/available light to craft a frame. I had gained this knowledge while assisting some professional street photographers while they were giving workshops in Dubai(that's when and where I also got a taste of visual storytelling art).
I am back to homeland Pakistan, writing scripts as I have a passion to tell stories as a kid. Like most artists, I don't have the resources to pay for learning about cinematography or do experiments with light and cameras.
I had managed to teach myself some basic and with of help of this learning I was able to do DP for 2 student's thesis films(will be edited soon then I can share)
Now what a want: Some helping hands/mentors who can train me more technically in cinematography, especially indie style so I can continue the dream of making the films. I am sharing my Instagram so you guys can have an idea of my little knowledge about lights I had so far. It's mostly street photography there and I tend to make frames inspired by the lights.
https://www.instagram.com/alidebongo/
I am very positive about the advice from you all amazing people out there. Happy holidays and stay safe.
Cheers!'
Ali de bongo
Congratulations on going down the road of following your passion!
Don't worry about not having resources because few people who actually become filmmakers ever have the resources they'd need in the beginning.
But the good news is that it has never been easier to gain knowledge about filmmaking and cinematography than it is now.
Yes if you want to practice yourself you need some gear and hands on practice is basically the only way to learn, you can do it these days a lot more by yourself because the gear is a lot more affordable (I use the word affordable because it still costs money).
For example I also didn't have any formal education in filmmaking, except for the two filmmaking classes at college which thought me basically nothing now that I think of it. So I actually thought myself everything, from A to Z and I'm still learning, will probably never stop. I bought myself my second dslr which could shoot video and started from there, learned some editing and then just kept upgrading slowly. Upgraded the knowledge and figured out I needed more light and got some affordable lights. Figured I needed to learn more about editing and color grading and did that, figured the dslr was holding me back and upgraded, got frustrated with crappy sound and learned and upgraded. Figured out that my writing was holding me back so I upgraded there and then the talent I was working with and how it was to work with more professionals and so on and so on. It never stops but all you have to do is keep working on your skills that you fell you are lacking and push on from there. There's no short cuts and even if you pay for knowledge it still doesn't help you gain the knowledge and apply it.
So good luck on your journey and never stop having fun because that's one of the best aspects of filmmaking, you always get to try something new and play with something else.
Every project I do I try to learn and try out something new that I have been thinking about. Sometimes it's something simple like a non linear story line and other times it's using some kind of different settings of the camera to get a different in camera effect.
The key is to get to know yourself what you like and what you don't and then keep on doing that and trying out new things to see what you can do and what you can learn. Pushing the limit, that way every project is a challenger and a step up from the last one.
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Hi Vital, it was very uplifting to read your such indepth advise. I am really feeling alot more better about things now so i am definatly gonna follow through all you said. Will keep sharing my success story along the way. Hope you are having amazing holidays. See you around as i am defeinatly gonna keep in touch with you.
Thank you Ali de Bongo for the nice wishes and definitely keep working. The more you play around and keep doing things and try new things, the more you practice.
If you have passion for something, just keep doing it.
And remember talent doesn't matter all that much because skills are always developed.
In my spare time I'm also a Salsa dance instructor and I've had many people come to my classes who were talented and even more who were not. The funny thing is that the less talented usually make the best dancers because they learn to push trough and do the hard work, where most of the talented people gave up most of the time at the first chance where things got hard because they had to put in a little hard work.
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What nice surprise, i love salsa music, never got chance to learn properly but with i 18 months old dauhter i put latin radio or something comlambian and we just tap out feets.
She love dancing with me, and i could never get chance to travle around and taste diffirent cultures but then i got opprtunities through film/music to know other cultures. For my little daughter i am preparing to know the cultures through music.
Ali de Bongo oh yeah latin music is great. Learning to dance is actually one of the best things a person can do and it also gives you a chance to socialize with other people.
In fact I think that being a performer in Salsa show groups and becoming an instructor actually played a big part in me becoming a filmmaker because I learned how to work with people and how to choreograph shows. Which is similar to making films.
So in my opinion Salsa dancing is always a win. :)