Watch: How to Teach Yourself the Basics of Filmmaking in 30 Days

Whether you're a stubborn autodidact or just don't want to deal with years of crushing student loan debt, there's nothing wrong with learning the art of filmmaking all on your own. There are tons of great books, blogs, and videos out there that can teach you so much about the basics of making a film, but if the plethora of resources is making you dizzy and wonder where to start, filmmaker Darious Britt has mapped out a 30-day crash course that will teach you everything you need to know about getting started in filmmaking, from choosing the right camera settings to correctly lighting a scene. Check out the video below:

As usual, Britt's video is fantastic and offers so much great insight, but here's what I really love about it: it challenges you to pick up your camera and learn the damn basics.

It's easy to get ahead of yourself as a new filmmaker. You want to become the next great director so bad and you don't really know that your ambition is miles ahead of your abilities, so you go out guns blazing, shoot a bad film, and then get discouraged because it didn't meet your expectations. The worst thing of all, though, is that you probably didn't learn as much from shooting that bad film as you would have taking the time to learn all of the basic, as boring as they might be.

And you know what, I definitely echo Britt's sentiment about growing into bigger projects. I had to go through the same boring process of learning the basics in film school—literally having to go out and shoot 10 different high and low angle shots, 10 different POVs, 10 different tracking, panning, blah blah blah it was horribly repetitive and I couldn't stand it. But you know what? I learned the damn basics, and the films and videos I made afterward were way different than the ones I made before I ever cracked open a filmmaking book—they were better—I mean they were still horrible, but, you know—better.

Source: D4Darious