Freelance Cinematography

My freelance video services are also becoming more established as time moves on. I work as a freelancer to create videos for people to either film them at work or for their businesses.

This video is something I am often hired to do. Provide footage of other videographers and production companies to help them promote their services. The value for them in behind the scenes content is showing potential clients exactly what the process of working with that person or company is like. Personalities are more important now because of social media, so you have to put your face on your business.

But video production does not hold my heart. While it gives me an opportunity to practise my video work and improve on my composition, it is not what I love about video. Films to me have more soul. They are usually better shot and lit, have more established professionals working on them and ultimately are for a completely different purpose. Films capture imagination and beauty, tell stories and allows us to experience emotion on a level that regular video production does not accomplish. The world is moving towards video content for almost everything you can imagine and I would not be so blind as to write it off as something to learn, understand and master. But my desire to make a “film” rather than a “video” means I will need to strive after a role more suited to film.

I have experimented with my own films and have truly enjoyed the results. My films always sought to capture an emotion or mood and communicate that in a visually impressive way. My strive to improve is born out of the knowledge that the effort I put in now will define my career. I cannot be afraid to make bad films, as they serve to be my most influential teachers. My first film I ever attempted was titled ‘Quarantine Diaries Episode One’. It was a combination of a music video style of editing and shots collected over the time of the first lockdown in the UK due to the pandemic. The film was well received as I had managed to capture a common feeling of mundanity and boredom that everyone was experiencing at the time.

This experience was invaluable to me as a filmmaker. While I remain proud of the work, the critical feedback was around the narrative structure of the film. There were shots in there that didn’t support the narrative and there was a distinct lack of structure to what you saw. I took this feedback and sought to improve on this experience. In the second lockdown I created ‘Quarantine Diaries Episode 2’, which was an opportunity to take what I had created and improve on it. I took this film more seriously, seeking permission from property owners and working with them to ensure they were happy with how they were represented. This lead to them having final say over the edit and the key change they made was to the audio, making it suitable for all audience members.

The film was much better than the first. It had much more narrative structure and did a better job at illustrating a passing of time. While there were still improvements that could be made, I recognised how much progress could be made in the space of a single film, both for the film and myself as a creative.

Next up for me was creating a show reel as a camera operator. I had made some films, had some footage and wanted to create a portfolio to support myself as a filmmaker and camera operator.

My biggest flaw in my journey to become a cinematographer is my lack of cinematography experience. This is evident in my show reel. The footage is out of date and does not capture a true representation of my capabilities, so I must endeavour to create a new one. The biggest issue with that goal is that I haven’t got any cinematography examples. My work in video production doesn’t count as filmmaking and I need to make more films to have enough footage to make a new reel. With this goal in mind I sought to create more films to illustrate my progression

This film was once again a combination of music video style editing paired with narrative. I was very happy with this production as it gave me the opportunity to experiment with some practical effects, such as diffusions filters and different lighting set ups. Once again more thought was given to the narrative and I had more creative freedom to experiment rather than on video production jobs.

After committing myself further to a formal education in film I have found myself at university studying film and cinematography. The course is providing more opportunities to practice my craft and refine my skills. Below is an example of work I have shot on the course.

With this in mind, I plan on using the work set as part of the course as an opportunity to create more films and hopefully have enough examples of my camera work to create a new reel.

Looking towards my progression I am very much committed to the cinematographers pathway. My aim is to work as a cinematographer on independent films and use my photography and video production to provide the money I need to live while working on my passion projects. I may even one day begin to work as a cinematographer on feature films, but I will always work to preserve my ability to choose what jobs I take.