How to Film Yourself and Look Cinematic

all right it's happening today let's talk about how to film yourself whether you are an aspiring filmmaker content creator or just generally want to document your life better knowing how to film yourself can be one of the best skills that you can acquire over the course of my Creator Journey there are two reasons why I wanted to learn how to film by myself I didn't want to bother anybody and they didn't want to rely on anybody we can unpack that later truthfully it can be such a pain when all you want to do is create

something but you constantly have to wait for help it was a huge point of friction for me that I knew that I had to figure out if I not only want to keep sharing my work on a consistent basis but also for the sake of just not putting a stopper whenever I would get a spark of creativity the last few years I've had my fair share of trials and tribulations trying to figure out how to achieve the vision in my head while shooting solo and create a process around it most of the videos that I

shoot on this channel are by myself so today I want to share a few tricks that I've learned over the past couple of years creating content filming solo for my own videos and keep it simple enough that you can Implement them today in your videos if you want to we are going to cover gear lighting and even how to use your visuals for better storytelling let's get into it all right so we're gonna film most of this in my house today because chances are if you're watching this you don't want to go outside but anything

can be applied to wherever you decide to film things you will need a camera this is the question I actually get most on this channel recently about a month ago I got the Sony fx3 it is literally my dream camera and I've wanted it for so long but up until getting the fx3 I was actually filming on the Sony a7s II this is literally seven or eight years old at this point it's so beat up on the brink it is hanging on for dear life things are coming off no flip screen scuffs and scratches this

thing has been with me through the trenches and I was filming with this up until around a month ago so if I could film on this you can film on anything as for lunges I like using the 24 to 70 when I have to go get b-roll it's just a very versatile lens I'm gonna need a tripod of some sort I like this one because you could also do a top-down shot with it so right now all you need is the camera and a tripod and you know a lens if you have a DSLR so

now I'm going to show you some things that I personally use you don't need them but when I'm filming alone I use them all the time since we're filming by yourself a good thing to get would be some sort of external monitor this one is just a cheap one off of Amazon there's also other options if you are capturing audio if you're talking to the camera or you want to get some sounds you're gonna need a mic of some kind I use this teeny one from Sony this is the E CM P10 you can also

use a lav mic like so this pack comes with two let me show you how it works so you can stand as far from the camera as you want I'm literally in the freaking corner right now and you can hear me pretty good usually you just like thread this through your shirt all right next up if you're a baller then you can get one of these this is a motorized slider and this one is from GBM I have had this for the past maybe three years it has served me well I use this all the

time it's hard when you film by yourself and you want some movement so I invested in a motorized slider they come in different lengths as well if you don't have that much like storage room it's basically you get one of these there's a cable that connects to this and then you just set your speed and whatever else and you can also use it manually as well it's my assistant when I need help on videos and no one's around I'll link all my gear in the description below Philly of course if you want to support the

channel there are so many aspects to filmmaking story art Direction composition tone and of course lighting so once I know where I want to film the first thing I look at is lighting this is my office literally I clean it out for this example not very bright in here at the moment but there is a very strong light Ray focusing on lighting is the one thing that is going to transform your footage and give it that cinematic quality maybe this means waking up early for a soft Morning Light or catching golden hour in the late

afternoon if you invested in some lights then that's great but sometimes it can be as simple as placing your camera in the right spot today we are going to use a window which everybody has access to so for our example today I'm sitting in front of a window I'm on my 24 to 70 lens 50 millimeter focal length right now and as you can see the window is blown now not a great image however just by changing the placement of our tripod we can go from this to this and it is already a world of

a difference it's obviously not perfect there's a lot more things that we can do you can add some diffusion to soften the light even more but this is a good place to start and A good rule of thumb when you are say on location or in a place where you don't have a lot of gear with you or no gear at all so this is an easy way to get a more cinematic feel just by moving our camera placement we can create more Shadows all you really have to pay attention to is the angle in

which the lighting is hitting you so this is more of like a 45 and this would be better for like a talking head if you were to film something like that but yeah if I'm filming like b-roll or something this is really good learning how to light can be intimidating in a whole Beast of its own it's a little harder to rely on natural light but it's great once you know how to shape it and frame for it now let's talk about coverage this means getting a variety of shots for the scene you are filming

I'm not gonna lie this takes a long time I'm preparing you however it is always worth it because this is what is going to immerse your viewer into the scene get that long shot that medium long shot that Medium shot that Medium close-up that close-up different perspectives things in your environment do not Overlook that stuff when you are visually telling a story whoever is watching needs context where in the world are you in an easy way to do this like many movies before us you can start with an establishing shot this can be a wide

shot it can also be an aerial shot and if you're like me and you can't fly a drone to save your life then you can also find aerial shots using storyblocks is a stock footage and media library that creators can access with a monthly or annual subscription and they are also the first ever sponsors of this channel so thank you storyblocks I can't tell you how many times using their subscription has saved me both time and resources when creating videos with one subscription you have unlimited access to all the files that you need including stock

footage sound effects motion graphic templates and more even film textures to overlay on your videos such as a personal favorite of mine whether you are a Creator or freelancer or business they have a plan for everyone all royalty free and safe to use no matter where you distribute your projects getting a variety of shots while filming on your own is the one thing that is going to take ages so if you're looking to save a bit of time while still adding that production quality to your videos then you can check out the link in the

description and head over to storyblocks.com life of Riza to sign up at the end of the day filmmaking is a tool to help better convey the story you're trying to tell every shot should be purposeful if you're talking something then show it if you decide to move the camera then what's the motivation behind it make creative decisions that Aid what's already going on in the scene these are visual cues to let whoever's watching know how to feel or what to watch out for I know it sounds cliche but learn how to enjoy the process often

you hear people say it's worth it when you see the final product but genuinely I have learned to love the filming process of it because it takes up so much of my time especially if I'm filming by myself if I'm trying to figure out things for the first time there's always going to be limitations when filming yourself but there are ways that you can make it more enjoyable find what works for you and the way you like to work and I promise it will be such a better experience when you take the time to figure

out how you like to create you're not always going to get the perfect conditions or the perfect lighting you're gonna miss some shots and have to go back you'll wear the same clothes for four days in a row and run back for your camera countless times but eventually you'll be more Adept to thinking these things on the Fly the more you shoot and the more you edit being a filmmaker is also being a problem solver and trust me there will be a lot of problems you're gonna have to solve and now I have found a

system where I actually find it quite relaxing to film by myself there's something almost meditative about it I put on some music and I set up my lights I set up my frame and I get to it enjoying it just makes it easy to get into flow and sometimes you'll even capture some magic foreign