Most all of the adventure photographers and filmmakers I know out there are self-taught. Usually, climbing came first. Like them, I spent my 20’s chasing adventure – climbing every chance I had, taking jobs that were not career paths, but still growing in ways that I had no idea would pay off later, “skills” of a different nature. While I was generally proficient in photography, filmmaking was a deeply complex world I was intimidated yet excited by. I’ve spent hours upon hours in YouTube university (and still do!) And it can be so overwhelming and challenging to decide what to watch and who to listen to. And while the most valuable learning happens in the real world, either watching someone work, getting on real sets, or the best method, making your own mistakes, you’ll always benefit from some gold old-fashioned studying, too. So I felt like I wanted to share the resources I’ve found to be the most helpful for any aspiring documentary filmmakers.
Austin Meyer
So many YouTube bros are loud, annoying, and talk too fast over excruciating music. I really appreciate the calm and precise demeanor of Austin Meyer and his way of distilling information into really useful tutorials. So many of his videos on his channel are absolute gold; you really feel like you should be paying for them. Here are a couple of my favorites:
For a lot of outdoor adventure documentary work, you’ll find yourself shooting interviews outside. Austin gives a great tutorial here about how to shoot in different natural lighting scenarios. And if you want to learn how to use simple light modifiers, check out, How to Light Outdoor Interviews on a Budget.
This video felt really relavent to me as a documentary filmmaker often shooting scenes as they unfold in real time, i.e. climbing ascents. Here, the pressure is on to get coverage, and your brain is also going a mile a minute thinking about details and cutaways. He covers amazing advice like when to get those cutaways, not forgetting to take deep breaths while you’re in the middle of freaking the f*** out trying to get a shot, and always getting a safe shot before getting an artsy shot. And the absolutely, unbelievably relatable advice of letting go of what went wrong (something that I’m still pretty bad at). All of Austin’s videos are pure gold, so stop reading this and go start watching.
How to Master Natural Light for Filmmaking with Julien Jarry
In the beginning stages of your documentary filmmaking, you’ll be busy enough with just managing camera settings, stabilization, audio, focal lengths, filters, that considering shaping light is something that will probably happen further down the road. It certainly has for me. This is the absolute BEST video I have found on the subject, which breaks down ratios in an easily digestible, not super technical way, and gets you to just start thinking about where to position your subject or yourself in relation to the sun, which will upgrade your shots by 1000%.
The Art of Climbing Photography with Simon Carter
While this is about photography and not filmmaking, I love this video because it shows how one of the greats goes ABOVE and BEYOND to get the shots that he does. I feel like these days, climbing media is not only oversaturated, but often times too “easy.” Use a drone, or fix a rope and just shoot top down and call it good. Someone recently said to me, “I wish they made remote-controlled gimbals with legs that you could program to go up walls,” and I just looked at him with my jaw open. Simon shows how working really hard, and getting super creative with positions, systems, and rigging will get you shots that no one else will, and how working to get into these positions is half the fun of what we do. And even if this is unrealistic for a lot of the shooting you might be doing, it urges you to think outside the box, get creative, and know that if it’s hard, it’s probably worth it. Also, it’s a good reminder to think like a photographer when shooting. Composition, lens choice, are all key to memorable shots.