5 Best Places Online to Learn DIY Video Production
Photo by Ravi Christian W
When I got my first DSLR camera I loved learning as much as I possibly could about making videos. I searched everywhere for the best places to learn the basics.
Now, while I’m working hard to build this into the single place you can learn everything you need to know about DIY video (including the upcoming audio podcast I’m working on), there is always more to learn.
Here are the top five places online that have helped me learn how to make better videos.
1. Lynda.com
There are a lot of different pieces of software that I’ve learned over the past decade and I’ve learned how to use each of them through Lynda.com’s video tutorials. The first ones I went through back in college were Dreamweaver lessons on how to build HTML pages from scratch.
More recently, I’ve gone through their courses on Final Cut Pro X, Motion 5, Adobe Premiere, Adobe Lightroom, and more. If you’re looking to learn a piece of creative software from scratch, in my opinion there is no better place to get started than on Lynda.com.
2. Vimeo’s Video School
Part of my inspiration for wanting to create videos using a DSLR came from some of the amazing videos I was seeing that were hosted on Vimeo vs. the majority of lower quality work out on YouTube at the time. While exploring short films on Vimeo one day, I stumbled upon their “video school”.
Whether you are just getting started and want to go through their Video 101 series or are starting to get more advanced and want an introduction to Adobe Premiere, there are a ton of videos in the Vimeo Video School library to check out.
3. Wistia’s Learning Center
Wistia isn’t just my favorite video hosting platform on the web or creators of the best video marketing conference, they also have a pretty awesome Learning Center, which is full of tutorials on video production, marketing, and strategy.
Some of the best ones to check out are the DIY Lighting Kit, DIY Office Studio, and Shooting Video with an iPhone. Also be sure to check out their blog for a bunch of other great video making tips, like the recent one on how to get the perfect volume for your background music.
4. Film Riot
Now, this one falls more into the “filmmaking” camp, but you can learn a ton from Ryan Connolly’s twice-a-week show about how to make better videos. Instead of starting with their current episodes, many of which are fairly advanced, behind-the-scenes tutorials on how they are making short films, start back at episode one. Or better yet, just go through all of their archives on YouTube and find the topics that most interest you.
This is pretty much the only “web show” that I watch every episode of because they share what they’ve learned and have made some pretty incredible DIY short films such as TELL and Proximity.
5. Stillmotion
I first found out about Stillmotion when my wife and I were getting married and she kept sending me these amazing wedding videos she’d see on wedding blogs. More often than not, they were made by Stillmotion. Since then, they’ve gone on to make features for television for the NFL Super Bowl, NCAA March Madness, and more.
At first I just watched their completed videos and studied what they do, but they also have a lot of video tutorials that are really great. Or, for easier consumption, a lot of them are also on their iOS app, Smapp, which has a pretty cool lens selector tool as well.
Well, that’s where I learned a lot of what I know about video production. Bookmark some of the above tutorials, start setting aside time each day to learn, and then go practice and implement what you’ve learned into the next video you make.
Where else online have you learned about making better videos? Let me know in the comments below.
Cheers,
Caleb Wojcik