Five Filmmaking Tricks for More Efficient and Effective Videos

Whether you're working on limited time, limited budget, or you just want to expand your arsenal of filmmaking tricks, these five quick tips will give you some great workarounds and techniques for achieving better results more efficiently.

Filmmaking is almost like sleight of hand sometimes: a certain resourcefulness of process and dexterity of presentation come together to create an experience that when viewed in real time is a phantom reality. Thus, constantly developing one's filmic dexterity and set of techniques is crucial to continuously creating more complex and comprehensive end products. In this video from Film Riot, you'll learn five such tricks:

  • Moving actors across a room to create the illusion of more space
  • "Cheating the turnaround" to save time in moving a set
  • Shooting then reversing footage in post when the desired shot has safety or time concerns
  • Creating better fake sweat
  • Using whip pans to create transitions

Altogether, they're five clever tricks that every filmmaker should have in their bag, and they don't cost a penny to use. Do you have any simple tricks you use in your filmmaking? Be sure to share them (and a sample of your work) in the comments! 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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1 Comment

Very informative!
Thank you for sharing!!!