Creating an online free film course.

K

Kolton

I want to make a YouTube channel that goes really in depth on what to know when starting out. The internet has been a great resource for me, but all that information is scattered around.

I want to call it filmmaker 101, where you just watch these videos all in one place, and each episode would add to the knowledge of the previous episode. Like a film class. I'd even have homework. for example audio. "Go read the location sound bible"

If that goes well then hopefully by that time I've got enough experience to make filmmaker 102.

What do you guys think? Bad idea? Good idea?
What information do you wish you had when starting out?
I was considering putting them into categories and doing an episode on each as I go along.

Categories:
Directing
Producing
Lighting
Camera stuff; positions, angles, gear etc
Networking
Color grading
Digital effects
On set effects
Audio
Screenwriting
 
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It's a good idea, but there are already so many channels that do this.

Indy Mogul (although YouTube cancelled them last December), Film Riot, Filmmaker IQ, VideoMaker.com, Vimeo's Video School, and Creative Cow are all ones I can name off the top of my head.

That said, filmmaking is a very opinionated and subjective art - so every new lesson site/channel can offer insight that other's can't, so it's never a bad thing to start another one! But just be warned there are well established sites out there that you'll be competing against! :P
 
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Yodaman, I agree there are already great sources out there. Film riot is one of my favorites, but all its information is whatever Ryan feels like talking about that week.
When I started getting into filmmaking last year I would have killed for a free step by step resource for the basics.
I don't have the qualifications to teach advanced techniques yet, but by the time I've got most of the starting videos done I should be more advanced. I hate to say it but when film riot started they were pretty bad too.
 
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Kolton said:
I want to make a YouTube channel that goes really in depth on what to know when starting out. The internet has been a great resource for me, but all that information is scattered around.
Click to expand...

Hmmm... the information is all scattered because YT and Vimeo are saturated with all sorts of "tutorial" channels filled with information of mixed accuracy, so the solution is to make another YT channel with information of mixed accuracy?

Kolton said:
I don't have the qualifications to teach advanced techniques yet, but by the time I've got most of the starting videos done I should be more advanced. I hate to say it but when film riot started they were pretty bad too.
Click to expand...

If you don't have the qualifications to teach advanced techniques, then you don't have the qualifications to teach beginner techniques.

Making a video, or two, on "what I wish I'd known starting out" is one thing, and I'm sure you have something to say there, but trying to fill a tutorial channel with lessons taught by someone with little experience is just adding to the noise. And if your only "advanced" experience becomes producing these tutorials, well... suffice it to say that you really need a broad perspective of production to be able to do this.

There is SO much bad information out there, and a lot of it comes from the "everybody's a filmmaker" pool of folks who suddenly have really cool cameras and think that's the qualifier. It's mostly noise. Very bad, misleading, inaccurate noise. A lot of it comes from newbies who got the bad information from other tutorials run by amateurs, and by the time they got around to making their own tutorials they'd muddled the information even further.

I watched a video today that draws horribly misguided conclusions based on faulty evidence regarding sound recording in-camera with DSLR vs. an external recorder. Forget that the test is flawed... it's on teh Interwebz now, and people are watching it. And believing it. It was produced by someone who's only been in the game for a couple of years with a DSLR.

Sound should not be taught by someone with no professional knowledge and experience with sound. If the extent of your experience is a VideoMic and a handheld recorder, you aren't the one to teach.

Lighting should not be taught be someone with no professional knowledge and experience with lighting. If the extent of your experience is with a few halogen (or worse, clamp-on) work lights from the hardware store, and maybe a Lowell Rifa or two, then you aren't the one to teach.

Cinematography should not be taught by someone with no professional knowledge and experience with shooting. If the extent of your experience is with a DSLR and kit lens, then you aren't the one to teach.

Don't be that guy.

And really, when it comes down to it and considering how saturated YouTube and Vimeo are with this kind of thing: what do you have to offer that others don't? What will make yours more valuable than any of the others?
 
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On the other hand, this is the United States, you're free to come up with anything -- provided it isn't illegal -- that'll get a customer to open their pocketbook and take money out and put it in YOUR pocket.

So, the argument that you need to meet some "qualifcations" is pure BULL SHIT! Sure, having a heck of a lot of expertise helps, but it's not a requirement.

So, go make a cool and fun beginners tutoral and market the heck out it. "Experts" don't have a corner on the market -- that position is held by marketing gurus.

(but if the tutorial is really crappy, don't come here and ask for a review -- just count your money instead.)
 
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