How To Get Cinematic Footage in Any Location, Every Time

If you're pursuing filmmaking and you want to start shooting documentary-style films, this video will give you what you need to make sure you get cinematic shots and can tell a compelling story.

Mark Bone has produced some incredible documentaries. He had CNN as a client. He uses high-end professional gear to shoot, but if you're just starting, most of the filters he mentions can be done with a smartphone if that's what you've got. 

A haze (smoke/mist) machine can be quite a large tool to carry around, but it surely pays off if you look at the shots he gets while in the forest or when he's interviewing the man in the motorcycle garage. The haze adds character and even mystery. I could even say it draws the viewer in more because it seems like we can feel the dust in the room. 

The filters he uses with his matte box are available for individual lens threads, and you can even get them for your phone too. If you want that anamorphic lens flares or if you want to soften the sharpness of digital video, you can do it with filters. 

He takes notes during the interview and writes down important parts of it that he can show visually. I don't think you'll be great at it the first time, but it will get better the more experience you have. Shoot your b-roll with purpose. Complement what's said in the interview. 

I enjoy learning from successful filmmakers. Mark Bone is certainly one of them. 

Wouter du Toit's picture

Wouter is a portrait and street photographer based in Paris, France. He's originally from Cape Town, South Africa. He does image retouching for clients in the beauty and fashion industry and enjoys how technology makes new ways of photography possible.

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1 Comment

If you don´t buy the thingy you won´t ever be good, because it doesn´t matter what you know or what you do, the gear does it for you and if you want to be as good a writer as I am you can never go wrong if you get a phlotus keyboard XY-100 with the colorful lighties because clients are idiots and that´s what they are looking for, even if they never actually see it. Im out to fetch my international awards now. Farewell.