Cheating in filmmaking isn’t about cutting corners—it's about creatively solving problems by bending reality to sell a convincing illusion. Understanding how to use these subtle techniques can dramatically improve your skills and make your videos look professional without expensive gear or elaborate setups.
Coming to you from Jesse Driftwood, this practical video unpacks exactly what filmmakers mean by "cheating" and why it's an essential practice. Driftwood explains that most filmmaking involves manipulating reality through careful positioning—known as blocking—to capture a shot that would otherwise be impossible. By repositioning actors, furniture, and cameras, filmmakers resolve practical issues like limited space or inconsistent eyelines, making scenes appear seamless. Driftwood gives a concrete example from his own setup: moving his desk slightly off the wall to allow the camera to shoot behind his monitor, enhancing the composition without the audience ever noticing. These small adjustments are common practice on film sets and are crucial for achieving professional-level shots.
Driftwood also explores more advanced cheats involving lighting and visual effects, showcasing behind-the-scenes footage from a creative set build. For instance, creating a convincing nighttime cabin scene inside a warehouse involved meticulously blocking external daylight with large tarps and carefully placed lights to mimic moonlight. He walks you through how he strategically positioned a powerful Aperture 1200X and an Amaran 300C to produce convincing color contrasts. Driftwood candidly discusses the complexity of getting it right in a single take, highlighting the practical and creative considerations behind making an artificial environment believable. Additionally, he introduces a clever use of Photoshop’s generative AI tools combined with Artlist’s animated still feature, effectively turning a static image into a dynamic shot for a key visual effect.
Expanding further, Driftwood demonstrates practical lighting cheats used by his friend Brandon Canning on the set of a horror short film. They shot during broad daylight while convincingly portraying a dusk scene, employing powerful artificial lights to balance the bright sky and actors' faces. This segment reveals how filmmakers often reverse lighting conditions—shooting day for night or night for day—to achieve visually engaging results under budget constraints. Driftwood emphasizes the importance of understanding and creatively manipulating available resources to overcome these limitations, underscoring that effective filmmaking often relies on ingenuity rather than expensive equipment or ideal conditions.
Throughout the video, Driftwood stresses the role of sound and music as equally critical aspects of cheating effectively. By simply adding evocative sound effects—like footsteps down a hallway or tension-building music—filmmakers significantly amplify emotional responses from audiences. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Driftwood.
It's not new either. The sequence at about the eight minute mark that talked about turning day into night reminded me of the 1975 film, Jaws. Admit it... if you were alive then, you thought twice about wading into the ocean.