Lessons from Filmmaking (Part I)
Before joining a computer science college, I was a filmmaker. It all started in Class 9 when I found out about Adobe After Effects on YouTube and videocopilot.net. I was a single child with nothing to do besides play football and learn filmmaking. I did not have any prior experience or help so all my projects required me to be the actor, director, editor and music artist. I opened a YouTube channel and started uploading random VFX videos.
It wasn’t until Class 10 that my Computer Science teacher approached me to make a trailer for our upcoming tech event, ACCESS. It was from then till the next two year, I made over 30 films during my school times. The last video that I made for my school was for ACCESS 2016. I genuinely gave my best at this one because this event was the reason why I started filmmaking in the first place.
When you decide to launch a film, a lot of things come into play. It is not just recording footage and make a video out of it. You need to focus on things like promotions, posters, marketing, copyrighting, audience sentiments and so much more post production. These requirements allowed me to learn Adobe Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Sony Vegas and After Effects. I made one feature film as well by the name of Carbonated. It was on a very important life lesson that felt very important to me, as a student. Carbonated has been my most successful YouTube video ever.
When I joined my engineering college, I switched from filmmaking to UI/UX Design and Marketing. When someone asks my why did I leave filmmaking, I tell them that I am still a storyteller.
I still use all the lessons I learnt as a filmmaker in my school days. Everything that I learnt about human behaviour and product design has come from making movies and promoting them.
Now that I am about to enter my final year at college, I wished to spread my experiences so that upcoming filmmakers can avoid the mistakes I did. I got lucky and one of the chapters at VIT — ISTE VIT approached me to give a six hour session on After Effects.
I made a presentation but it wasn’t completely about After Effects. It was more about filmmaking itself and the subtle things we ignore during the process of translating a story into a successful video. Here are some pictures from the event:
I tried to talk about things that aren’t available on YouTube.
You can learn After Effects and technical skills from books or online courses but you cannot get actual life lessons from videos. You require an actual person to speak to you so that there can be an exchange of dialogue, not just technical advice.
I kept the slides minimal because I did not want to constraint myself because of slide content. I did not want a script for this event, I wanted to speak from my heart and that is what I did. I spoke about purpose, music, footage, ideas, storytelling, passion and the beauty of filmmaking.
The audience was very diverse. There were students from all kinds of backgrounds and therefore it was important to make sure everyone stays on the same page. Everyone has their own views and perspectives and it is important to understanding the difference between sharing and instructing. I wanted to share the lessons that originally came from filmmaking but helped me in domains like Computer Science, Pitching and Product Design. In the end, we all were technical students and I had to make sure that this design was not just about my own lessons, it was meant to make audiences better at a skill.
I added in some fillers so that when I’m talking there is something on the board to uplift their spirits. If I think about it, out of the 6 hours I had for the session, 2 hours went in clearing people’s doubts and solving technical difficulties. I asked the organisers after the day ended and I think everyone was satisfied with the content I designed. I will write an article sharing all the lessons that were shared in this session. I won’t do it here because that is a completely different domain. I covered 13 main topics for beginning with After Effects. These were the topics I covered, they sound complicated but in reality these are very basic yet powerful once understood.
Filmmaking was something I picked up by default. It exposed me to a whole new world of creativity and I wish to learn more in this field. I feel blessed to be given the time and chance to learn this field on my own.
Special Thanks to Andrew Kramer from VideoCopilot.net
VideoCopilot is absolutely the best website to become and expert at Adobe After Effects.
The only advice I can give everyone is to begin today. If you really want to learn AE, begin today.
Give it an hour and keep giving it an hour for the next 50 days and you will learn a skill that will help you for the rest of your life.
Until next time! ❤
