VIDEO FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS WORKSHOP

A one-day workshop designed to demistify the dark art of Videography.

LEARN WITH ADAM

I’m a videographer, photographer, and TV promotions producer,director with a good thirty years of experience in professional filmmaking. And I’m still learning, because we never stop learning, right? Despite looking like the *“conflicted burnout”* character from a Scottish Detective novel, I’m actually quite a cheerful, generous, good-humoured guy and have a whole heap of information and experience I’d love to pass onto you. There is no withholding, and there are no stupid questions, so let’s talk a little bit about what you need to know about Video.

GETTING THE MOST FROM YOUR CAMERA

So you’ve got this amazing camera, and you take great-looking stills. You may never once have used the video function, or you may have used it a lot but find there is still a whole lot you want to learn. Youtube can give you all the information you need, provided you know which tutorials are giving you correct information, and provided you have unlimited time, patience, and a long, long attention span. I mean, there’s only so many times you can hear the phrase “Whassup guys?”, right? The purpose of this workshop is to dispel a few myths, show you the ropes, break down the essentials and get you started making films. In one short day.

VIDEO PRODUCTION WORKSHOP

Part 1. Learn how to shoot high quality testimonial interviews. What is the best way to record great audio? What are the best sources of continuous lighting? Is it ok to shoot a constantly moving image at f1.4? What shutter should i use and what frame rate? Do you need to shoot in 4K? Do you need more than one camera?
Part 2. Learn how to shoot great cinematic footage. Do I need a tripod or a monopod? What is a gimbal? Why not just shoot with my phone? What are the best ways to make my footage look cinematic? What is S log and do I need it? Why are videographers so smelly? (thats in there just to see if you’re still paying attention).
Part 3. Basic editing. What program should I use? Is my laptop powerful enough for editing 4K footage? Am I allowed to use commercial music? What are the best video editing techniques and practises?
Part 4. Can’t I just use my phone, like Influencers do? Yes you can! Off you go! Bye! Truth is, a lot of Influencers DON’T shoot everything on their phones, they often hire professional Content Creators, photographers and videographers. I know because I’ve been hired by them myself.
Because as you know there is a limit to what your phone can do, the lenses, the sensor size, the tech, the interface etc. But you do already know this, because you’re a photographer yourself. What we will be looking at is how to make the very best of your camera’s capabilities so that when you hold it side by side with the stuff you shot on your phone, you can see why so many of us still choose a big pro camera to shoot video. (Short answer, its more or less the same as with stills)

WHEN WHERE AND HOW MUCH?

We all have limited time and resources, and with that in mind, the cost of this workshop is only £200 for a six hour day. You will probably make that back with one gig where you add on video, although my caveat is always that shooting photos and video on your own can be a tiring and risky business - trying to do it literally simultaneously is, literally, like juggling - and you should beware overpromising and under-delivering. But I can, if you really want, also show you how to do that, and how silly it looks.
The workshop is run in London and on the basis that if we can get EIGHT people in one place, I will hire a studio, and - because studio day rental in London is only slightly less expensive than having your pancreas removed by a Harley Street surgeon - if there are fewer than eight, we will have to rough it at somewhere civilised but mostly outdoor, like London’s Barbican complex. Naturally it would be far better to have a studio, but there is enough to more than fill a day if we don’t.
So let’s see if we can bump the numbers up for the dates below, and let’s get learning.

DATES

FRIDAY APRIL 5TH, LONDON, Location TBC

FRIDAY APRIL 12TH, LONDON, Location TBC

TIME 11 AM - 5 PM

COST. £200.00 per person

HOW TO BOOK: Please use the contact form below with your preferred date and I will send you invoice/payment details

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Mar 21, 2023

HOW MUCH DOES A CORPORATE VIDEO COST?

YOU KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY AND HOW YOU WANT TO SAY IT, BUT WHAT IS YOUR BUDGET?

How much will my film cost? Is inevitably our first question. The unhelpful answer is of course, how long is a piece of string? You may want a simple one-day, one-man shoot with a quick one-day edit, and you can probably get that for under a grand if you’re not too fussy and it really is just a one-day edit. Or you might want an ambitious creative concept, with lots of pre-production followed by a complex week-long shoot, filming on a RED camera, and lots of complicated compositing and animated graphics. And that could be £20 - £30 000. Or more.

Mar 20, 2023

WHY YOU HIRE A PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER

So here’s the cruel irony. Even though I know I possess the kind of staggering youthful good looks that make people catch their breath and drop their falafel when they meet me in real life, on camera I look like a laboratory experiment where the mad scientist has injected the DNA of Brendan Gleason and Charles Manson into a old potato

And being self-conscious - oh my crooked smile, oh my seventy-eight chins - means I forget that my delicious eyes are like limpid emerald pools you could drown in, and I project discomfort - In short, I don’t pose well. Maybe you do. Millions of others dont. And some of them work for you.

Mar 16, 2023

TESTIMONIAL VIDEOS, WHAT ARE THEY GOOD FOR?

WHY THE BEST WAY TO SELL YOUR PEOPLE IS TO USE YOUR PEOPLE

Back in the mists of time, every corporate video had an ambitious narrative, like a storyboarded long-form commercial, a piece of expensive, styled, authored creative in its own right. These films do still get made and they are great. I make them myself, though more usually I work in short form. Is this always how you want to disseminate your information, your brand, your company? Sometimes yes. Just as sometimes you want to Ronseal it, to say it like it is. But do you want to be that blunt? Again probably not.

WHY SPEND MONEY ON A PROFESSIONAL VIDEOGRAPHER?

WHAT VALUE DOES A PROFESSIONAL VIDEOGRAPHER ACTUALLY BRING TO THE PARTY?

Sure so this is where you get sold all the corporate and advertising cliches about brand identity and adding value to your message and blah blah blah. And you may not be thinking in those terms, but rather about just demonstrating something seemingly quite simple.

CAN ONE PERSON SHOOT PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEOGRAPHY AT AN EVENT?

YOU NEED A PHOTOGRAPHER , AND YOU ALSO WANT A CORPORATE VIDEOGRAPHER, BUT YOUR BUDGET PAYS FOR ONLY ONE OF THEM - WHAT DO YOU DO?

The short answer is of course some people can do both. The challenge is finding someone who is genuinely good at both, which is not as easy as it sounds. There are plenty of great photographers out there who can’t really shoot video. There are some good videographers out there, though they are no nearly so easy to find, and some of them are competent photographers too.

Mar 5, 2023

WHY EITHER EVERYONE OR NO ONE NEEDS TO WORRY ABOUT AI

With the announcement that China-based NetDragon Websoft says it is the first company in the world to appoint an AI as its CEO only to see stocks soar, naturally it isn’t just struggling bloggers and graphic designers who are worried about the implication of AI

This is where I’d like to reassure you that climate change ravaging the planet and making the lives of those few who survive the catastrophic flooding, wild fires and raging hurricanes that are predicted absolute hell.

VIDEO FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS WORKSHOP

A one-day workshop designed to demistify the dark art of Videography.

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