Questions for photogs and producers

Forums do incredible things

that's kind of cryptic...

Self taught here for videography, photography, lighting, video editing, video encoding, general computer knowledge and more. I went to university for business after high school, and graduated Summa Cum Laude for what that is worth. But nothing beats practical hands on experience if one applies oneself in any field.

Yes I have and I also have taught several photography classes as well. While I do have a degree in film, I'm mainly self taught, it's almost impossible to learn to be a good photographer, like sports some are just born with the eye to be able to compose great shots on the fly.

I never went to school for film or for photography. I just bought a camera and started taking pictures and shooting videos of naked girls!

But on a serious note, I have learned ALOT just by researching and reading online so considering everything that I have learned over the years, I'm sure it would be the same as if I had attended some sort of school.

Well, I've been shooting pics for a while. I'm looking for insight into the video end of things, especially editing.

DVInfo.net and CreativeCow.com and your application specific forums will help a lot, in my case Adobe.com.

Yep and you get guru's at those places and they are very helpful.

I'm mostly self-taught. I wish I had taken photography classes. The only video classes I took were a few documentary filmmaking classes in college (as a sociology major at the time), and long before I got into adult (or even thought about it).

For the style of videos I shoot, some of the classwork came in handy, but I have learned a lot more picking up tips from other shooters.

ADG

I went to film school, took photography lessons as well.

Have really helped me out in this biz I gotta admit

Yep in the UK South East Essex Tech.

no i am not, just practice

OJT here on my end. started as a day laborer at the studios and worked my way up to lighting director, director of photography. -bmb

I did not go to film school. I got a double bachelors then went to law school. What college did teach me was that i can learn anything. I got a minor in photography but that did not teach me strobe photography.

I read a stupid amount of books in film, lighting, editing, photography, etc. over 60 books in 7 years. College teaches you how to learn and where to find information.

Reading is good, but then you need to put the theories you learned into practice. I worked 10 different independent films for free. Thats where i put everything i learned in books about lighting and proper camera settings into practice. Everyday i worked i noticed that i would be more and more competent. I worked along side really good film students who ate slept and shit film! After working on my fifth film, i noticed that i really knew my shit! I noticed that i started to know more than a lot of the film students i was working with. They were there for a grade, i was there for the love of learning and working towards being the best. Why do anything if your not striving to be the best?

I would still buy and read technical books. Not because i had too, but because i am very competitive. I don't mind not winning but i put %100 into anything and everything i do. Reading and learning would give me a footing on the experience i did not have.

I used to be a Jui-Jitsu and NHB fighter and i would train harder and longer than my competition. I take the same approach in learning. Law school reinforced that competitive mind set.

While i was working on independent film sets i was shooting amature porn for aluckystanger.com and i was putting my time assisting on Craven Mooreheads porn set. There i learned about C-lighting and porn angles.

i learned a lot!! i learned that you can have a pedigree in mainstream film and suck ass at porn!! Steven speilberg would fuck it up!! thats how different it is!!

How did film help me? Lighting was huge!! Everyone in porn does what everyone else does. And if you ask why on anything people will tell you because it looks good. I noticed that everybody used 3 case lights a bounced them off of the ceiling. The just about everybody used Sonys because they were very good in low light. These cameras would hide the fact that everybody sucked at lighting!!

I assisted Craven for 2 years. I would argue that lighting it with kino flows coming down would turn out a better video quality than case lights off of the ceiling. It worked for Hollywood. It was tough especially when he was really good and could turn out a great video with a flashlight. He eventually started seeing it my way, the right way. That was after he saw what i was turning out with my lighting scheme.


Leaning editing and Final cut was very key in getting good at shooting video. You see what you do right and what you do wrong. With that knowledge you can fix it and make it better next time right out of the camera.


I was a good photographer but working for Craven showed me that i sucked ass on sex stills. I learned how to frame and angle my photos properly after craven would tease me about sucking ass!!. You can be the best photographer and fuck up sex still big-time!!


During that time, I was shooting strobe box cover shots and proper sex stills for Chico Wang and Diabolic Video. That is where i polished my photography. I also would compare and contrast my pictures with other top photographers who were my friends. I would try to turn out pics that my top photographer friends would say "those pics are bad ass".


I leaned some cool tricks about video from Chico Wang and learned C-light, sex still positioning, scene composition and set control from Craven Moorehead. I leaned everything about lighting and proper camera settings from working on independent film and reading books. I learned about finding information, organization and information absorption from college.



What have i leaned? I leaned that nothing is easy! There is no substitution for hard work! Nothing is ever handed to you! Anybody can learn anything if they really dedicate themselves!!


"you need to be the nail before you can be the hammer"



I hope some of my experiences help some of you. If you have any questions feel free to ICQ me.


I am currently reading and working on free sites, tgps, review sites and traffic generation techniques, etc with a couple of programer friends. Why? Because i feel its the present and future and i like learning..

I have a Master's in Photography from Harvard.

(kidding, self taught)

Very interesting perspective.