How to Film Cinematic Videos by Yourself

Filming cinematic videos by yourself can feel really challenging. How do you create movement when your camera is attached to a tripod? Or frame up a shot when you're the one standing in it? And how do you turn a collection of footage into something that actually feels like a story? It can feel really frustrating, but solo filmmaking can also be equally rewarding. It's just problem solving within a limited set of constraints. So today I'm out here in the mountains of Washington on a little adventure, and I'm going to break down how I film cinematic videos by myself. Before I even think about shots, I always start with story. What is this video actually about? Because without story, I just end up collecting a ton of footage that doesn't actually say anything. So today is a pretty simple adventure video. I'm going to drive out into the mountains, arrive at a beautiful mountain lake, and just exist in that landscape and just immerse myself in nature. And then later on in the day, I'm going to climb up a mountain and hopefully have a huge payoff at sunset. And once I see that structure, everything becomes clearer. Because I'm not just capturing footage anymore, I'm trying to move the story forward. And even small actions matter in a story, like getting in the car or taking a picture or tying my hiking boots. On their own, these shots are nothing special, but together they create context. And context is what turns all this footage into a story. So let's have an honest conversation about gear. And I want to say one thing first. You probably don't need a cinema camera. I know that you want one, but you probably don't need one. So if you're just shooting with an iPhone or an Osmo Pocket, this video still very much applies to you. That being said, filmmaking is my day-to-day job outside of YouTube. So I do shoot with a cinema camera. This is the Sony FX3 and this is my main rig. I absolutely love this camera. It's got brilliant autofocus, which is really important when you're filming yourself. The image out of this is also really beautiful. And I just love the compact form factor of this camera. It just doesn't get in the way of me shooting. And then the lens that I'm shooting with right now is the Sony 28-70mm F2 G Master. And I absolutely love this lens. It's incredibly versatile. It allows me to capture both wide shots and detail shots, which is going to be really important to the next topic that I'm going to cover in this video. The camera is only part of a solo filmmaking system, and there are two things that matter more than anything else. A solid tripod and a way to see what I'm actually filming when I'm not standing behind the camera. This right here is the Peak Design ProLite tripod, and it's the best assistant that I could ask for. I really, really love this tripod. Hasn't done me wrong so far. Really reliable, easy to use, got a really sturdy ball head up top here. But my favorite part about this tripod is its versatility. It allows me to capture shots that are really low to the ground, but also shots at eye level. And this right here is the DJI RavenEye. And I actually made an entire video about how much I love this little piece of filmmaking equipment, because I truly couldn't live without it. So what the RavenEye is, is a image transmission system. So it connects to my camera via the HDMI port right here, and transmits the image from my camera to my phone. So that way, when I walk away from my camera, I can look at my phone and monitor where I am in my composition. And this has become so invaluable for me, because that way I don't have to walk back and forth with my tripod a dozen times. I can look at my phone, make sure that I'm standing in the middle of the shot, start and stop recording, change settings. And yeah, it's just saved me so many headaches over the years. So I highly, highly recommend checking one of these guys out. Once I have the story and my gear dialed in, everything becomes about shooting coverage. And if there's one thing that's improved my filmmaking over the years, it's understanding coverage. Coverage is simply capturing enough perspectives of a scene, so that way you can build a compelling edit later on. When I first started out making videos, I'd arrive in a beautiful place, grab a few hero shots, and just call it a day. But one great hero shot rarely tells the full story. So now, instead of looking for the perfect frame, I try to think in layers. A wide shot to establish the scene, a medium shot to bring the viewer closer, and detailed shots that help create a sense of place. Individually, none of these shots are particularly interesting, but together they create an experience. I'm no longer asking what's the best shot here. I'm asking what collection of shots will help the viewer feel like they were actually experiencing this with me. All right, so I want to give you guys a little life hack, and it's something that's helped me so much when I'm filming coverage. So this guy right here is my Peak Design tripod, and this tripod in particular has three sets of legs, as you guys can see. So what I'll do when I arrive in a beautiful location like this, is I'll force myself to capture a different composition from each tier of my tripod. What I'll do is I'll start with my tripod about as high up as it goes, maybe I'll raise the center column, and I'll capture a wide establishing shot of the scene. But from there, I'll force myself to start lowering my tripod, and I'll start moving around my scene as well, changing my focal length, maybe getting creative with my compositions, putting something in the foreground. And what this does for me by lowering my tripod is it gives me a nice little tangible reminder to see things a bit differently and capture more than just a hero shot. And at the end of my day, I end up being way happier with my footage, I have a lot more to work with, and the story is better for it. A lot of people assume cinematic footage means that you're constantly moving the camera like this, but most films aren't built that way. They're built around changing perspective. When you cut between different angles, focal lengths, and compositions, your eye naturally feels movement, even if every shot was filmed on a tripod. And that's why shooting coverage is so powerful. It creates the illusion of movement without actually needing to move the camera itself. One of the most common questions that I get asked when it comes to solo filmmaking is, what do I do about focusing? And the answer is actually a lot simpler than you probably think. And it's just that I use autofocus. So I'm going to show you guys my autofocus settings in Sony FX3, and how it applies to a shot that I'm setting up right now. So in the menu, I just have the continuous autofocus feature turned on. And then I have the subject selected to human. And I have eye tracking turned on. And all the other settings are just the straight out of the box settings on the FX3. I haven't adjusted anything else. And yeah, here is a shot that I was working on. And as you guys can see, the FX3 tracked me perfectly through the frame, and it looks pretty good. The only thing that I don't love about that shot is that the focus jumps to the background once I continue past the camera. And I know some other cameras won't do this, but it's just something that the FX3 does. And how I solve this in post is I just trim the clip to right before the jump ends. That kind of solves all my problems. Also, if you've watched any of my videos before, you've probably noticed that I love to mix handheld shots into my edit. I love the feeling of handheld footage. It feels really human and organic. And when it's mixed in with more static shots, it creates a really nice balance throughout the story. One of the few tools that I use specifically for movement is a drone. Because while I think coverage creates the feeling of movements, sometimes it's nice to have actual movement too. And that's why drones have become such a valuable tool for me, especially in places where scale can be really hard to capture from a tripod. That being said, I still try to use drones intentionally, because just like any other shot, a drone clip is only useful if it helps tell the story. At this point, I've got all the pieces, and now comes one of my favorite parts of the process. The edit and finding the music. Honestly, music does so much of the emotional heavy lifting in a film. The same sequence can feel completely different depending on the song underneath it. And that's why I've used Musicbed for years. Finding music is one of the most time-consuming parts of editing, but Musicbed has always felt more like a trusted recommendation than a giant music library. Their catalog is incredibly curated, with real artists making real music that already carries emotion on its own. So I'm not just looking for a song that fits the footage, I'm looking for a song that helps define how the story feels. And once I find that song, the edit usually starts to reveal itself. So if you're a filmmaker who cares about storytelling, you can try Musicbed for free for 14 days using the link below in the description. Solo filmmaking definitely has a learning curve, but I think that's what makes it so rewarding, because it forces you to start with story first, to think and structure instead of shots, and to build everything through shooting coverage. Not just chasing one perfect moment, but collecting enough pieces to actually tell a compelling story. I'm definitely planning on making more videos like this in the future, just because I could talk for hours about different parts of this process, but I'll save that for another time. Anyways, if you guys do have specific questions, definitely feel free to leave me a comment below, and I'll try to get to those questions in a future video. Thank you guys so much for watching, and I'll see you next time.