I consider those of us in the entertainment business who are not celebrities but perform "support" roles to be Creative Technicals. As someone who does audio post I need to know about how sound works and how to creatively use the available technology to manipulate sounds. I use my technical knowledge to (hopefully) create something within the boundaries of the story and the directors vision that enhances the experience for the audience.
The same applies to all of the other film making crafts - cinematography, H/MU, wardrobe, set design, etc., etc., etc. The technical knowledge enhances your abilities as a creative.
As
sfoster pointed out, one issue pertaining to your uninteresting visuals may be your lighting. It could also be your blocking/framing and/or your set design/dressing and/or your.... You get the idea.
The primary concept to keep in mind is that it's all about the story/plot and the characters places within that framework. Everything needs to support and enhance that. I'll give you an example from my bailiwick, audio post. A female character wears high heels. As a part of my Foley work I need to put in her footsteps. The technical aspect is to put on a pair of heels and record as I walk the scene. But the creative aspect demands that I also take into account the character. In the scene in question she is a State Police Investigator appearing at the sight of a murder investigation. She is smart and she is tough. So I picked out a pair of "hard" sounding high heels and made each footstep sound authoritative. As another example from a different project on which I worked there was a dream/nightmare sequence with the protagonist sitting in a rowboat. My design for the ambient sounds - birds, insects, water, etc. - were chosen to be just a little on the creepy side. I created a mix of that ambience, reversed it, used an unusual reverb algorithm which I recorded, then reversed the recorded reverb and layered it back in with the original ambience so now the reverb is what is reversed. The result was not overt, but merely conveyed the idea that the situation was not a part of the normal world.
All of this, still has to work in concert with the overall project.
The same needs to apply to your visuals. What is the scene about? Where are the characters in their arcs? And so on. These could - and should - influence what how you shoot the scene.
In Frank Capras "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" Jeff Smith meets a very pretty Washington woman. As a country bumpkin he is nervous and flustered. A very substantial portion of the scene shows only his hands fumbling with his hat (he even drops it a couple of times) as we hear the dialog. This concept is repeated later in the film when he again fumbles with his hat when she calls Jeff on the telephone, which he also fumbles and drops.
The film "The Changeling" directed by Peter Medak and starring George C Scott is a horror film. When Scotts character is in his "haunted" house the camera is always moving, giving the feeling that he is always being watched.
The BTS and commentaries of "Forrest Gump" provide lots if insights as to the sonic and visuals decisions made for the film; worth a look/listen.
I'm not a visuals type, but when I started out on my journey with sound-for-picture I also did some production sound, so got to see some very good, and some not so good, directors at work. On one project the director almost always had one character shot from slightly below to signify his position as an authority figure; we literally have to look up at him. When I did the audio post I made sure that his dialog was very clear and distinct. It was all very subtle, and unless you know that this was done you would never notice it, but it enhances the character.
When you combine your technical skills with your creative talents is when you truly start to create meaningful work. And don't complain about lack of... whatever.
An entire film genre/style was created out of small budgets. Without the budget for extensive set design/dressing a few directors overcame this by making extensive use of shadow and light. We now call this visual style Film Noir. Back in the late 80s and early 90s some aspiring folks used the cast-offs of other musicians and created Techno and Rap.
So don't complain about lack of funding. You need to adapt your story and how you tell it to your budget, or lack thereof.
Well, you got me up on my soapbox; sorry about that. Technical and creative work hand in hand. Look at all of the wonderful CGI work that's out there; a VERY technical craft that none the less can be extremely creative.
The entertainment industry has become quite technical, but the technology is there only to extend our creative abilities. Take the time to learn about applicable techniques. They are all tools to be used to enhance your storytelling. Don't be afraid to fail. Here in the USA if a baseball player fails at the plate "only" 70% of the time he's a possible candidate for the Hall Of Fame.
So learn, learn learn, learn. Then, when you finally get to your project, preproduce, preproduce, preproduce.
Good Luck!