8 ways to make money as a filmmaker or videographer

As an independent filmmaker, making money and funding your films can be a challenge. You might have to get a job that you don't like to save up or you might be lucky enough to get funding off someone. Either way, there are a number of ways you can make some cash so I wrote this guide to help you out.

1. Make videos for other people 
This should be fairly obvious but you need to spend a bit of time networking and making contacts. The good thing is, once you get the ball rolling and you end up producing high quality content for people, they're likely to recommend you and soon enough, you've got your own video production business. You've got the equipment, you just need the work. Start with shooting wedding videos for family members or friends. You might not be interested in making wedding videos but you get to put into practice all you know about cinematography and editing. People spend a lot of money on weddings and they want their special day preserved forever. Plus, with many guests, weddings are a perfect place to network and make new contacts. You never know who you might meet and what opportunities they could have waiting for you. Don't restrict yourself to wedding videos either. Music videos, artists and bands are a perfect way to make money shooting video. Videos are a great way for musicians to get noticed and many are willing to hire someone to shoot a video for them. Many music videos have a narrative which means they're basically short films and provide you with an opportunity to be creative. 

2. Edit videos for other people 
You might be the sort of person who prefers editing to going out and shooting. If that's the case, why not offer your services as an editor? There could be people out there who shoot so much video on a regular basis that they have very little time to sit down and edit. They might be earning enough money from their shoots to allow them to hire someone else to do the editing for them. You can then spends hours in the comfort of your own home doing something creative and film related. If you're good enough, you might be hired by the same person again or even get recommended. Also, with services like Dropbox and WeTransfer, you might not even have to travel to collect footage. Your client simply uploads their raw files, you download, you edit and then you upload it for them to download.

3. Take photos for other people
While at University, the DSLR revolution happened. Loads of people (including me) bought DSLRs and lenses but used them for filmmaking and video production instead of photography. I've mentioned in the past the reasons why (interchangeable lenses, large sensor, shallow depth of field etc). The thing is, the same principles for cinematography (composition, lighting etc) can be applied to photography. Many people from my film course at university ended up taking up photography and offered their services as a photographer as well as videographer. You've got a DSLR, you can do both! From my experience, there are more opportunities for taking photographs than there are for creating videos. Shooting video then spending hours editing it can be stressful. Taking pictures and then working on them a bit in Photoshop can be easier and you might actually prefer it. It's just a suggestion but I recommend becoming a photographer if you have a DSLR and currently use it for filmmaking/videos. 

4. Make videos for YouTube
Let's face it. YouTube has changed things for filmmakers. Thanks to the internet, many people have become famous and their work has more chance of getting noticed. There are plenty of YouTubers out there with hundreds of thousands and even millions of subscribers. With so many views per video, these people have started to make a living through AdSense. Unfortunately, it will be a struggle and it requires a lot of work and dedication. It might be years before you get regular money and it might never happen. Still, you only have to look at popular vloggers and their videos to become optimistic and imagine one day being in the same situation. It's all about regular content. Just create lots of original videos. If you've got the video production skills and are capable of creating high quality content but you're not getting regular work then do it! You've got nothing to lose but a lot to gain. Start with creating and uploading at least one video per week. After a few months, if you start getting more subscribers or loads of views, try increasing your uploads to two videos per week. I've seen videos with a million or so views but very few subscribers on the channel. Even if you don't get the subscribers you hoped for, you're still getting revenue for each and every view. You're only limited by your imagination. Create vlogs, short films, product reviews or even tutorials. Be inspired. Learn from successful YouTubers and see what attracts millions of viewers. 

5. Hire your equipment out
If you're serious about filmmaking, you've probably got loads of equipment in storage just sitting there, collecting dust. If you're not getting regular work, what's the point of just leaving it all there? It could still earn you money even if you're not the one using it. This is also why networking is important. You might own certain pieces of equipment that one of your contacts requires for a job. If they're not prepared to buy their own, why not offer to lend it to them for a reasonable price? You're effectively earning money for doing nothing. Just be warned, you might want to start with hiring equipment out to friends and people you know. Unless you have insurance that covers the hiring out of equipment, you might end up losing money if someone breaks or loses it. However, there are companies (such as All Out Hire ) that provide a service for those who want to hire their equipment out and this includes insurance cover. If you're happy with sitting back while someone else uses your equipment then fine but chances are there'll be times when they want to hire you as well. 

6. Sell your equipment 
Okay, you might not want to do this but sometimes you really need to stop and think. Is the £500 lens that sits on my shelf for 90% of the year really worth keeping? Am I likely to get much more use out of it? Will the price depreciate by next year? If you're asking yourself these questions then why not sell it? You probably won't get what you paid for it but is it really worth keeping if you hardly use it? What seemed like a good investment a few years back might have been a bad decision. Sell now and get more money for it than you'll end up getting if you leave it any longer. 

7. Crowdfunding
Remember earlier in this post when I talked about the power of the internet? It's not just YouTube but popular crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo exist to help people like you raise money for projects and that includes film projects. It's no guarantee but it's still worth a shot. You simply create a campaign for your project, set a target, offer incentives/rewards for each pledge and if you're lucky, you might end up raising thousands, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of pounds/dollars etc. Take the movie "Kung Fury" for example. Originally, the goal was to raise $200,000 but the Kickstarter campaign ended up raising $600,000! That's three times the target amount! Just think, that could happen to you. If you've got a great idea but very little money to make it happen, you might as well.     

8. Enter competitions
Again, there's no guarantee of making money out of this but you should be constantly making films if you want to get noticed. Competitions are great for getting exposure plus there's the chance that you might win a cash prize. With the internet there's no excuse. The competition can be anywhere in the world but you can still enter it. Even if you get no money out of it, you've at least produced something original. You can then do what I suggested above and upload it to your YouTube channel.

How to make video look like film

If you want to get the perfect film look, shoot your movie on film. Unfortunately, this isn't always an option for the budget filmmaker so the next best thing is making your video look like film. This is the method I normally use when I attempt a film look. Some might disagree with it but really it's all about what works best for you.

Start by watching a movie and analysing it. It's always useful to take screenshots so you can compare it against your footage as you're grading it. I'm going to show you how to create a 16mm look because I've always loved the way 16mm footage looks. Here's a screenshot of the raw footage.

This is from my 2012 university movie "Malice". I shot this on a Canon DSLR with a 50mm lens during daylight. Picture profile was set to CineStyle so we have a flat sort of look which gives us more room for manipulation in the software. The footage is not very sharp. I can't remember if I properly focused during filming but this is okay because 16mm footage often has a soft look. Aperture was quite narrow (because of the daylight) so there's a greater depth of field. A more shallow depth of field would look more cinematic and help sell the effect better though. I also filmed at 25 frames per second and shutter was set to 1/50. 

I'm using Premiere Pro because there's an interesting effect that I discovered years ago which if useful for creating a film look. In the Utility folder under Video Effects you'll find an effect called "Cineon Converter".

Straight away you can see that this has increased contrast and the shot now looks less flat. Go to "Window>Reference Monitor" and compare the YC waveform before and after.

See the difference? The waveform monitor is a very useful tool so make sure you check it on a regular basis while grading your footage. You can also check RGB values which is useful for correcting wrong white balance (if you ever find yourself in that situation). 

Using the values within the Cineon Converter effect, I increased the contrast until I got this. Notice "Conversion" is set to "Log to Linear", the default setting. 

The blacks in the footage are crushed and overall contrast has been increased. Most film look attempts I see have really high contrast with crushed blacks and blown highlights. This doesn't really make video look like film. From what I can see, film usually has a low contrast look so blacks aren't actually black but a sort of grey instead. Don't worry, we're going to sort this out in the next few steps. You might have to tweak the Gamma and Highlight Rolloff values later to get the desired look since your footage might look different to mine. Try adjusting the other values as well and experiment until you get what you want. Remember, film has more dynamic range than video so you won't be able to get exactly the same contrast in the detail.

Add a channel>invert effect and select "Green". We're going to add an invert effect for each colour channel (Red, green and blue). Set the "Blend with original" to 85% but try playing around with the values to get what you want.

We now have this low contrast shot but it's a bit dark so add a "Brightness>Contrast" effect. Very subtle difference. I set Brightness to 10 and contrast to 25. Furthermore, you might want to apply the "Color Balance HLS" effect and desaturate the colour a little bit. I also adjusted the hue to -0.5 to push the skin tones to red more.

I then added film grain which I got for free off GorillaGrain. I just put it on a video layer above my footage and set the blend mode to overlay. Use a Brightness>Contrast filter to make the grain more or less intense. 

I posted a breakdown on YouTube.

So, there we have it. Film has a very unique sort of motion to it though and I have yet to find a way to replicate that. There are hundreds of film look tutorials out there and I really think it's up to the individual to develop their own style. I just keep tweaking settings until I get the look I want and it's not always as simple as copying and pasting the effects to all clips on your timeline. Feel free to comment with feedback or any suggestions/ideas you might have. 

DSLR movie making tips

More and more people are now using DSLR cameras to shoot their movies on. However, for the serious filmmaker you need to know how to get the best quality footage off your DSLR. That means ignoring automatic mode and getting used to all the manual controls for aperture, ISO etc. Most of the tips in this article are common knowledge but hopefully it'll be useful for some people. 

Start by setting your DSLR (A Canon 600d in my case) to automatic mode. Simply press the menu button while in movie mode and it's the first option "Movie exposure". Set this to Manual and you're done. At the bottom of this menu, there's something called "Highlight tone priority". Disable this then go to the next page in the menu. Set the Movie rec. size to 1920x1080 and if you're camera is set to PAL you can choose to shoot in either 24fps or 25fps. Personally, I shoot all my footage at 25 frames per second.

Next up is exposure. You can check for correct exposure by hitting the Av +/- button and a meter will pop up. Press the * button and a little tab will appear on the meter and you need to get this tab in the middle between the 1s for correct exposure. You can adjust exposure through the ISO, aperture and shutter controls. The dial on the top of the camera controls the shutter. Ideally, you should leave this set to 50 but in certain situations you might want a fast shutter so you can capture fast motion with more detail. Slow shutter = more motion blur. Fast shutter = less motion blur. 

Holding down the Av +/- button while moving the dial will adjust the aperture. A wide aperture (such as 1.8) will give you very shallow depth of field which will make it harder to focus but you get a very cinematic blurred background so your subject stands out more. A tighter aperture will provide a greater depth of field meaning more of the scene will be in focus. A tight aperture will make it easier to focus but it will require more light in the scene. You need to decide what's important for a particular shot(depth of field, motion blur etc) so plan beforehand.

The last setting which controls exposure is ISO. Press the ISO button and make sure it's not set to AUTO. The ISO on a DSLR is similar to the gain on a video camera. With a high ISO you get more exposure but it also introduces more visual noise on your footage. You shouldn't rely on high ISOs as an alternative to lighting your scene properly. On the preview LCD screen, your footage might look okay but when you play it back at full resolution on your PC, you'll see a lot of noise and this doesn't look very professional. It's generally recommended to set the ISO to a multiple of 160. On the Canon 600 however the ISO options are 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400. Personally, I wouldn't go higher than 400 and 800 would be my absolute maximum. However, for outdoor night shots you might have to bump the ISO up to 1600 and beyond. If you're shooting indoors, always light your scene properly.

Focus is something that you have to get used to when using a DSLR. On most DSLRs, autofocus is useless on video mode during recording. Set your lens to MF for manual focus. You can then twist the lens and focus on certain parts of the scene. There's also a focus check button on the back of the camera represented by a magnifying glass and + icon. You press this once to expand the frame by x5 and then again for x10. Pressing it for a third time will take you back to normal view. This is very useful as you can "zoom" in to part of the scene and get a nice sharp focus. 

Last of all, you may want to invest in some accessories to make your DSLR more practical for video work. Get a decent tripod with a quick release plate so you can quickly go from static to handheld. The Konig Kn-tripod is a decent affordable tripod which I recommend. For handheld camera work, look into buying a shoulder rig so you can get steady shots. Finally, the standard kit lens isn't that good so buy some prime lenses. The Canon 1.8 50mm lens is a good quality and affordable prime lens. Most beginners buy this lens before investing in more expensive lenses. If you're serious about film making, be prepared to spend hundreds of pounds (or dollars) on lenses.     

       

How to make professional looking films?

Like many filmmakers, I started out by teaching myself and learning from my mistakes. I would often attempt to replicate what I saw in movies and this taught me a lot of what I know. I have a degree in Film Production Technology and since I started that course my filmmaking became more serious. I want to share some tips to help other aspiring filmmakers. Hopefully this will be useful and might benefit those who are starting out.  

SOUND

I always pay very close attention to the audio in my films and I put an equal amount of effort into it as I do with visuals. Try turning the volume down next time you watch a film. Sure, the cinematography might be stunning but without sound you've only got half a film. You want to ensure your dialogue is crisp and can be heard clearly over the soundtrack and sound effects. By using an external microphone, you get more control over sound acquisition than your camera's built in microphone. However, not all cameras have microphone ports. I use a Marantz pmd660 to record my sound and it works great. I need an extra crew member to operate it on set but it's worth it in the end. Next time you make a film, try spending more time on sound design and you'll be glad you did. 

COMPOSITION

In film, photography, painting etc there's something known as the "rule of thirds". Just divide your scene into 9 equal blocks and position your actors on the vertical lines. This creates a visually pleasing shot and I was surprised at how effective this technique was. I don't know exactly what it is but it makes your film look a lot better. Every feature film I've seen does this. You don't have to do it for every single shot but it's good to have a few where your actor isn't dead centre. Check out the Wikipedia article here to learn more about the rule of thirds. Also, try and use a variety of Close Up, Medium and Long Shots because sticking to one shot type is boring.  

If you don't have a tripod then buy one now. Every film maker needs a tripod because it will help you a lot. Handheld shots are good for certain scenes like if you're conveying a sense of disorientation but an audience doesn't want to sit through an hour of shaky footage that will make them sick. A tripod also lets you pan the camera smoothly and can make a scene seem more interesting. Have a balance of static, moving and handheld shots in your film and it'll look great. Buy a tripod from Amazon and don't worry about it fitting your camera because they're universal. If you're filming with a mobile phone then don't. Buy yourself a camera because you can't attach a phone to a tripod. (Just googled "mobile phone" tripods and they actually exist. I've seen it all now)     

LIGHTING

Light is very important because without it your movie will be a black screen. Outside during the day is perfect for filming because the sun is the best light source out there and it's free. However, if you're filming in your mom's basement you're gonna need some artificial lights. Most standard light bulbs won't do because they're not powerful enough. You can buy special light bulbs that are more intense but I prefer using  LED light panels because they're cheap, bright, use very little power and can be mounted on tripods. 

There's something that your camera probably has which you should never use and that's artificial gain. If you increase gain, your image becomes brighter but it also adds a lot of visual noise. This may look okay on your camera's small LCD screen but when you play it back on your computer or TV you'll realise too late how crap the image looks. Your camera has an aperture that restricts how much light enters it. Obviously, when there's too much light (like outside in daylight) you'll want to reduce the amount of light that enters the camera. If you're indoors, set the aperture to as wide as possible and increase the light in the room without touching that gain button. Make sure your shutter is set to at least 1/50 because if you decrease it further then you're going to be getting a lot more motion blur. 

FILMING

Many cameras these days have 25p (or 24p if you're in the USA) which offers "cinema" like video. If your camera has this option then use it if you want that film look. Also, shoot in high definition because your footage will obviously look better. Many filmmakers are using DSLRs to make movies these days because they're cheap, have large sensors and can accept a wide variety of different lenses. I use a Canon 600 DSLR which is a consumer camera but it's great because of its ability to use all those Canon lenses on the market. The lenses are expensive but they will greatly improve the quality of your footage. 

PLANNING
Before you even start filming your production you must complete the pre-production stage. Plan every aspect of your film beforehand so you know exactly what you want. Obviously you'll have to write a script or at least some sort of guide (if you want your actors to improvise) but it's also worth making a storyboard. If you can't draw that well then just do it on a computer. There's plenty of storyboard software on the web which will make storyboarding fast and easy. Last of all, compile a shot list and shooting schedule for effective time management.    

EDITING
After you get your footage it's time to put it all together. I'm not going to say one editing application is better than another but you're going to need something a bit more advanced than Windows Movie Maker. Movie Maker is good if you're starting out but it's limited in what it can achieve. I personally use Adobe Premiere Pro and that provides everything I need for editing. When I film on my DSLR, I tone down all the settings so I get as flat an image as possible. This allows more scope for colour grading in post production so I can shift contrast and adjust whites and blacks more. Pay close attention to the pace of you film as well. Think about the sort of mood you're trying to convey. Action sequences should be fast with a lot of cuts while a slow pace with very few cuts will build up suspense.  

KEEP AT IT

That's probably the best advice I can give. Everyone has to start somewhere but if you're dedicated enough then eventually your films will look better. I look back at my old stuff and it makes me laugh and cringe but it all helped me get to where I am today. I'm still learning everyday though and my stuff is still far from perfect.

Fake Blood

I shall share with you the recipe that I always use which I found out about online years ago (so I don't  take credit for it) 

Ingredients:
-Golden syrup (or corn syrup if you're from the USA)
-Red food colouring 
-Blue or Green food colouring
-Instant coffee
-A tissue
-Washing up liquid 

1. Start by boiling some water in your kettle and while you're waiting for that to finish, pour the golden syrup so it fills ups 10% of whatever glass you're using. 

2. Pour the boiled water into the glass and stir it until the syrup dissolves. If you want it to be thicker then add more syrup.

3. Measure a teaspoon of red food colouring and then stir it into your mixture. Then add a little bit of blue or green colouring to darken it. Put a teaspoon of coffee in there as well and stir until it vanishes.

4. At this stage I dip the tissue to see if it stains it the colour I want. Often I see videos on YouTube where the blood is too pink and looks fake. It's very hard to get it looking the way you want but eventually you'll develop your own formula that works best for you. 

If you want the fake blood to wash out of clothes more easily then squirt some washing up liquid into your mixture. This will cause bubbles and I don't recommend you putting it in your actors' mouths so skip this part if you want "mouth blood". 

I like to pour my mixture into an empty cola bottle and stick it in the fridge to keep it nice and fresh. However, clearly label it as fake blood unless you want a family member drinking a potent  mix of detergent and instant coffee (true story). 

Blood Squib Effect

Chances are you've seen this effect in action or war films. A Character gets shot and their chest rips open spraying blood everywhere. In Hollywood, this effect is almost always done using a small explosive charge called a 'squib'. Basically, the actor has a metal plate fixed to their body and the explosive charge is attached to this plate and then a bag (or condom) filled with fake blood is taped on top. Detonation is done electronically and when the time comes for actor to get shot up, a special FX technician would flick a switch and BANG. Blood everywhere.

This effect is very impressive but has a number of problems. Firstly, using explosives requires a certain degree of expertise and might cause serious injury if done wrong. They're also very expensive and complicated. Unless you've got a 5 figure budget don't consider using explosives to simulate bullet hits. I've seen countless YouTube videos where people have taped firecrackers to their chest with a blood pack on top and then lit the fuse. First of all, you'll see the smoke and sparks through the shirt as it burns down and second you can't judge how long it'll take before the thing goes off. This method just doesn't work well and if you live in an area where fire crackers are illegal then you can't do it anyway. The method I use is cheap, safe, simple and best of all looks great if done correctly.

5 years ago I watched Peter Jackson's Bad Taste and was amazed. Peter Jackson (the very same guy who directed Lord of the Rings) worked on this film for four years and on a shoestring budget. It contained a lot of impressive special effects including dozens of blood splatter. I spent a lot of time trying out blood effects and I found this brilliant website showing you how to do a blood spray effect using a compressed air pump. Unfortunately this website no longer exists but there are plenty of tutorials around which explain this effect in greater detail.

You basically purchase one of those pump up insecticide sprays. If you're serious about film making you'd pay for a new one instead of using an old one that might be contaminated with nasty insecticide and could kill your actor. You then use a length of PVC hose that has one end sealed and a hole made on the side. This tube is then taped to your actor and the little hole is aligned with a cut in the item of clothing which they'll be wearing. Stuff the hole with small pieces of sponge to prevent the fake blood from coming out prematurely.

You then pump up the sprayer and I recommend you do it 150-200 times to get enough pressure. High pressure will ensure the blood sprays out like a cloud instead of just leaking out like a tap. You then attach the tube to the sprayer like the picture above and when you're ready press the trigger down and the air will be released and spray fake blood everywhere. I've tried this out several times with varying levels of success. The trick is to keep experimenting until you find the best combination of fake blood, pumps and tube position.

And here's the finished effect which I did for a university task. Thanks to my brother for allowing me to shoot him.

Squib Test from Ben on Vimeo.