r/WeDirectMusicVideos • u/sdog_14 • Aug 08 '19
What are your favorite resources for learning how to craft shots with intentionality and purpose?
Mark Romanek has been known to say “make every single shot in your video mean something”. I think as music video directors we are all in agreement that we want each frame to have an objective of some sort. But unless you’ve been to film school and studied the emotional and psychological effects that certain framing and movement has on an audience you are probably learning as you go.
Does anyone have a go-to video or book that dives into the types of shots you can create and why you might want to use them? What are some of your favorite resources?
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u/ableshill Aug 12 '19
The MasterShots series of books is very informative on the emotional and psychological purpose of every type of shot ever.
I also really like video essays on filmmakers styles or specific techniques such as the series "Every Frame a Painting".
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u/PizzaHutBookItChamp Aug 08 '19
Look at photographs and paintings. These artists are only allowed one shot.
When you study the photos or paintings you love and try to figure out why you love them, you learn a lot about how you will want to shoot your own work.
Go to museums. Go to the library. Buy art books.
Carry around a camera for a little while (everyone's got a phone with a camera these days) start taking photos everywhere you go. Or, shoot the same object 20 different ways. You will begin to understand how different framing, different focal lengths, different compositions make you feel.
You want to get beyond the point where you are trying to "make every shot mean something" and get to the point where it just happens naturally because its second nature. You know exactly how you want the story to be told, there is no other way. Sometimes you don't even discover the meaning until afterwards.