Blog #10 The Top Online Resources for Filmmakers, in written and video form

As filmmakers, we all love soaking up information from our favourite blogs and content creators. They cover topics such as cinematography, editing, sound and much more. There are tons of resources online from personalities sharing their processes and techniques. Here is a list of ones you may not be familiar with yet but provide invaluable resources and are affordable/free.

1. Neil Oseman blog and courses. This is a guy who is working knee-deep in the field as a cinematographer, on all types of big(ish)-budget shoots. He has an extensive catalogue of information on his blog, don’t be afraid to go far back to find all sorts of great information, like this one on cross-backlighting:

   https://neiloseman.com/lighting-techniques-2-cross-backlighting/

   or this one on short-key lighting:

   https://neiloseman.com/introduction-short-key-lighting/

   There are tons of interesting reads to get lost in, so if you’re interested in lighting or cinematography in general, check it out. Also, if you want to go further, he sells courses on Udemy.

2. William H. Baker videos. He posts on Youtube among other platforms. I thought I’d put him here because he is thoroughly engaging, mainly due to his editing style which is dramatic, to say the least. He recreates shots from popular movies in his garage with his friends and what comes from this is not only an interesting look behind the scenes of a shot, but a captivating story of one man’s attempt to recreate film shots when faced with numerous challenges. It’s a learning curve for him as much as it is the viewer and each video goes to dramatically high stakes and standards (he obviously spends a lot of time shooting his talking head shots as well). If you’re interested, you can find plenty of content on Youtube to start with.

A still from one of William’s recreations

3. Joe Gilder videos and courses on Presonus Sphere. This recommendation is a little left of field, I’ll grant you. Joe Gilder mainly focuses on music production. He is an ambassador for Presonus, makers of D.A.W. Studio One. He makes plenty of educational content centred on Studio One and how to mix music properly in it. I’ve found that listening and learning from Joe’s videos has greatly improved my audio mixes and masters. It has expanded my knowledge on topics and got me up to speed on new trends. He makes videos on Youtube as well as educational content on Presonus Sphere, which is a subscription package. If you’re looking for a fun new way to learn about mixing music that will generously enhance your video mixing capabilities, I highly recommend checking out Joe’s content.

Joe Gilder

4. Casey Faris videos. If you’ve ever searched for a how-to video on a Davinci Resolve topic, chances are you’ve watched a Casey Faris video. This is more of an appreciation post on Casey for keeping us sane with the software, which can be frustrating at times. He has made many videos on topics that can be very simple but need to be done anyway because it’s always the simplese things that are the hardest. Thanks to him and other creators, if I’m stuck in Davinci Resolve and don’t know how to do something embarrasingly simple, Casey will have a video on it.

5. Newtown Productions blog and videos. That’s this one! With new blog posts every week and an expanding library of content on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/@newtownpro

, Newtown Productions can be a part of your weekly digest. I aim to create blog posts and content that are engaging and relevant to filmmakers who are running a business, getting to grips with new techniques or just want to stimulate their mind and see what others are up to. I release new blog posts every Monday at 6:00 a.m. Irish time so that you can read it with your morning coffee in your favourite armchair.

Newtown Productions blog :)

Thanks for reading, honorary mentions go to Lewis Potts, Film Riot, Every Frame a Painting and Robert Machado. These folks are all creating content on Youtube and beyond, with nuggets of information sprinkled throughout their videos. If you have any other recommendations, leave them below and I’ll check them out.

Good luck out there.

-D.C.