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finding your crew, sourcing equipment and scouting
locations. It’s everything you need to know about pre-
production to help your quarantine projects shine.
Next, take a quick inventory of the equipment that
you have available at home. Determine what you have
and what might be easily acquired. This might limit
which skills you can work on right now but don’t let
that deter you. Work with what you have and improvise
where you can.
Obviously, using a dedicated camera is ideal. It
will give you a wide range of features and options to
adjust for achieving various results. You’ll have a lot
of opportunities to learn and practice different tech-
niques with a camera of any sort. In the absence of that,
though, your phone camera can do the job.
What options are at your disposal for lighting and
audio? You might be lucky to have professional lighting
gear and mics on hand. If not, table lamps can be useful.
Also, learning to use natural light well is definitely a
technique you can practice at home. For audio, you can
focus your energy on learning how sound changes with
the size of the room, the type and placement of the mic
and more. You’ll be able to find DIY hacks online for
both lighting and audio so don’t be afraid to get creative.
Your most valuable resource, though, is your network
of peers and mentors in the creator community. Most
video professionals love to geek-out about their work.
You can learn from their stories and get great advice
from their experiences. Ask the people whose work you
admire most to look at your projects and allow them to
give creative or technical critiques. Whenever possible,
add “get feedback from a mentor” and “try recommen-
dations from the feedback” to your exercise list.Step 3: Practice with practical exercises.
Now that you’ve set clear goals and assessed your
gear, we can figure out which steps you can take to
support your goals. We’ve curated a variety of do-at-
home exercises in several aspects of video production.
These are the steps to include with your goals. Pick
and choose through the categories and ideas that are
relevant to your objectives. Write them down and refer
to them often to stay on track.Writing
A good script is the foundation of your work. When
you’re creating a screenplay, even if it’s a short, your
storylines and dialogue should be clear and meaning-
ful to your audience. When your goals include better
scripts, we recommend these ideas:
Join an online writer’s group. You’ll gain a sup-
portive network to collaborate with. Often, they host
online workshops and assignments that will stretch
your creative muscles. Getting thoughtful critiques
and comments from other members can push you to
do better and build up your confidence to take risks.
Make one-sheets for all of your main characters.
Start with the basics and then dig deeper into their
personality. Make them a truly believable, unique
character with a history. Our histories shape us so
this is important even if it won’t come into play in
the script.
Find something you wrote in high school or
college and revise it. Doing exercises like this
will help you see your own work from the outside.
You’ll be able to learn from your own missteps.
What’s more, it gives you a view of how much
you’ve already grown.
Directing
Even if you don’t plan to become an actor, learning
about acting and seeing things from your actor’s
perspective makes you a more effective filmmaker.
Plus, chances are good that you’ll at least occasion-
ally find yourself in front of a camera for announce-
ments, presentations or commentary. These ideas
can broaden your directing skills by embracing the
role of the actor:
Demonstrate something on camera. It can be
anything. Try demonstrating how to make a cup of
tea or how to make a paper airplane. The point of this
exercise is to be comfortable delivering the material
without stumbling over your words. Get out of your
comfort zone and have fun with it.
Make practice audition tapes and send them to
your mentor contacts. Ask for honest reviews and
accept their critiques with grace. Direct feedback
can feel negative but remember that these are peopleNew video skills to work on during quarantine
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