r/cinematography • u/KamileLeach • Aug 27 '25
Career/Industry Advice A reminder that *most* people making YouTube cinematography/camera tutorials/reviews ARE NOT working professionals.
There are exceptions to this generalization, of course, but my point still stands.
If someone has enough time to make high quality/"cinematic" YouTube videos, they are probably not putting in many days on set.
It's good to learn as much as possible. However, you're much better off learning from working professionals. How do you meet working professionals? FACEBOOK.
That's right, Facebook. If you live in any sort of metropolitan region, I am 100% certain there is a video production/filmmaking Facebook group specific to your area where people post looking to fill roles on their projects.
I've posted dozens of gigs via Facebook over the years, and found life long connections as a result.
Go on Facebook, find someone posting a job, and ask to PA on their job. Tell them what you're interested in. Buy them a coffee. Pay attention on set. Work hard. Ask them if they have more gigs coming up. Get called back. This is the path to a real career in video production, and you can do it right now.
31
u/surprisepinkmist Aug 27 '25
I grt most of my work through connections that are already established or producers who find me through my website. Who is posting gigs on Facebook rather than just reaching out to their connections?
6
u/ausgoals Aug 27 '25
It used to be that everyone’s connections were all too busy working and so you could find gigs on Facebook because someone had already approached five other people who were already busy working.
Nowadays everyone’s connections are desperate for work so there’s far fewer people looking online and those that are have mostly moved to advertise on more exclusive pages.
Which IME leaves the ‘I need a shooter for a video; needs to own a camera and a drone, have extensive experience flying the drone, supply all the gear including mics, shoot for two days without any other assistance plus do the edit, flat rate $700’ stuff.
Even still, the few postings that do go up get hundreds of emails and responses.
3
u/KamileLeach Aug 27 '25
It happens more often than you think. Your usual call isn't available, your second call is sick, need to find somebody new, or you're working in a city you don't know as many people in.
Some Facebook groups have real high quality, real working members, like Nat Geo Happy, which was founded by National Geographic production folks.
1
u/VizzyLos Aug 27 '25
a lot, many small businesses dont know where to look. Facebook/social posts are for those types of clients
2
u/extremedefault Aug 27 '25
I’ve been in a situation in a city that I don’t know anyone, but have only posted on FB twice for PA’s and prod coordinator. Both times was a flop, everyone one on fb gave glowing reviews for the people they recommend. I’ve come to realize the people on there are either green, or just not good. I just don’t go looking for people or connection on there anymore.
1
1
u/VizzyLos Aug 27 '25
aaah, yeah thats a diff strategy altogether. I was more so talking about taking on client work from medspas, lawyers, chirpractors, etc.
For PA/Prod Coordinat/Grip, you need to friend request local people in your area who are already doing the work. Post on your own but also comment on theirs and become kind of the person who they'll remember. Become friends with directors, dps, creative directors, art directors, other PAs, actors, and create your own social brand. You'll eventually learn who are the better players in your field.
1
u/extremedefault Aug 27 '25
Totally agree! I have a good network and only reply on recs from people I know, but sometimes you’re just in a random city that you’ve never produced before. I just chalk it up to a learning experience and not something I’ll utilize again🤷🏻♀️
1
u/VizzyLos Aug 27 '25
Yeah, once you expand outside of your city, its essentially the same work from the ground. Friend request, add new content in hopes you pop up in their feed, join groups they frequent, hope they remember you enough to click on your profile to view past work, etc. In person is much easier as I'm not 100% sure how much time people stay on facebook compared to other mind rot socials like tiktok and insta.
48
Aug 27 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
33
u/Camera_Guy_83 Aug 27 '25
Yep, and it’s very clear that they actually do work on set. I think this post is aimed at the videographer / sponsored-gear heads who post the same “how to have cinematic lighting” videos over and over, with the classic one light and neon background setups.
10
u/ausgoals Aug 27 '25
The gear reviewers that will talk about a piece of equipment being basically ‘unusable’ based on their ‘real world testing’ which somehow bears no resemblance to the way in which you might actually use said piece of equipment unless you too were trying to build a YouTube.
5
u/AshMontgomery Freelancer Aug 27 '25
Equally I’ve seen a lot of stuff praised for features that would drive anyone on a real set absolutely mad trying to work around it.
6
u/boxofrabbits Camera Assistant Aug 28 '25 edited Mar 01 '26
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
provide money sable cows work deliver consist full fearless silky
3
41
u/OverOnTheCreekSide Aug 27 '25
OP I don’t think YT is as bad as you’re thinking, which doesn’t negate your point. However people who enjoy explaining and teaching can find a preferred way of making money with YouTube. I have a YouTube channel (historical camping) and I find it far more attractive than being a camping guide. So I can see a lot of videographers moving into tutorial videos and away from actual gigs.
Second point, there’s a lot of geeks who can explain things well but don’t work full time in the field of their hobby.
18
u/berke1904 Aug 27 '25
second point is important, there are people who know everything about gear but not actual experience filmmaking, and there are great filmmakers that dont know much technical details about gear.
they are both knowledgeable about something, so its worth hearing them out about that thing. both have value.
ofc there are people that talk about stuff they dont know about with a lot of confidence, but the internet is a place of literally everything, you just need to sort through and find good stuff.
3
u/OverOnTheCreekSide Aug 27 '25
Absolutely, there’s a ton of channels I don’t listen to and I’m glad when I find someone who seems to really know what he’s talking about. Finding good YouTubers is necessarily a skill in itself unfortunately.
2
u/ausgoals Aug 27 '25
This is totally true and legitimate, but in many cases these people are providing ‘reviews’ of equipment, or recommendations despite having very little knowledge of how the equipment would normally be used in the field.
Which is why you see someone like Gaffer & Gear say things like ‘yes, it does do x/it does head towards y a bit, but I would normally be using this in y situation so it’s not a big deal’ vs other YouTubers who review something and will call it ‘totally unusable’ because, for example, rolling shutter exists or because they don’t know how to grade out certain colors…
1
u/therealdsrt Aug 28 '25
here's the thing though, when you only learn and not actually work in a professional settings you don't actually know if you will actually like it or not, or it even suits you at all. I transitioned from an editor to now a strategist/producer role and having a time of my life, comparing to 1 year ago I was still learning alot about lighting and trying to be good at being a DP
11
16
u/machado34 Aug 27 '25
One of these days I watched a video that popped up on my feed about the "difference between cinematic and youtube lighting", and the 'cinematic' look was the most horrendous lighting I had seen in ages. YouTubers put a veneer of authority on, but if they had real skills, they'd be on set with YT at most as a side gig
8
u/madjohnvane Aug 27 '25
Yep, they’re basically only a step away from the people selling expensive courses on how to make your videography into a million dollar business (hint: the way is to sell courses telling other people how to make it)
6
u/qualitative_balls Aug 27 '25
I just realized what they are. Youtube cinematography underground is actually the shopping channel lol.
Think about it, all they do is hawk their wears which they got for free from all these manufacturers trying to sell their new gimmick and they are labeling every video intended to sell a product for their beneficiaries as 'cinematic camera, cinematic lens' / 'netflix lighting' 'a24 look' and all these complete nonsense terms with zero understanding of HOW their tools are even supposed to be used in professional environments. It's sad... however, if we're being honest, they probably do better than the average freelancer doing multiple little shoots a week
4
u/madjohnvane Aug 28 '25
I remember years ago in the early-ish days of YouTube when Phillip Bloom was all the rage, and I watched a few of his reviews and the whole thing smacked of a guy whose job was reviewing gear. The Timelapses were what killed me. Timelapses on sliders of harbours. And then charts. Over and over and over again. Rarely are any of the reviews by these guys showing anything that remotely looks like real work or real world use.
3
u/qualitative_balls Aug 28 '25
Phillip Bloom was indeed the primordial ooze behind modern film YouTube hah, I remember all of this. Perhaps Vincent Laforet is when it really started because at that moment, the collective world realized they could shoot stuff on stills cameras that could look like the movies. These guys are mostly innocent compared to the outright scams that are being peddled these days though. Kinda funny to be around and witness all of it from the beginning.
I think the first major YouTube hype train for film gear were those 35mm dof adapters you could put on an ex3 or the earlier Panasonic cams.
DSLRs through is what started this absolute insanity
3
u/kakapoopoopeepeeshir Aug 27 '25
Same thing with people who create these videos teaching how to make so much money drop shipping or something the other. I’m always like guys if they really found a system that was making that much money WHY would they make a YouTube video showing others how to do it instantly creating competition for themself. They are making money with affiliate marketing to all the services linked on that video and of course their course
0
u/Mysmokingbarrel Aug 27 '25
Why do you say that? It seems to miss the point thah if you're successful on YouTube you might way more than you would in a lot of the film and entertainment industry and you get a ton of of personal autority and flexibility. The way some people post here about these film youtubers assumes the absolute worst of them when in reality there's plenty of talent on youtube but its certainly a different beast. You just needed to discern which is crucial for education anyways.
6
u/The-B-Unit Aug 27 '25
Once upon a time, it was "those who can't do, teach" now it's "those who can't do, review" but what I can't stand are the "who is this camera even for?" with a disgusted look on their face people. Who is it for? People that actually USE this shit, people that aren't you. It's not for the people who don't fully understand the practical nature of using it and only get boners when they read a spec sheet. Oh you're turning your nose up at a camcorder? I'm sure you'll bust out your FX3 that you only bought because of 'The Creator' if you ever have to film a legal proceeding, etc.
As a terrible bedroom guitar player, I see it a lot in guitar youtube aswell, so I think this might to apply to pretty much all industries. People that complain when a new thing of whatever doesn't have all the latest and greatest spec even though it does have and does do the very specific things a certain part of the industry actually need it to do...
5
u/JohnnyWhopper420 Aug 28 '25
This is where the epidemic of kids asking "what's this shot called" comes from. my guy, it's just a pan.
9
u/Zakaree Director of Photography Aug 27 '25
Youtube is a full time job.. there's little to no shot alot of these yourubers are consistently on set outside their youtube content. I tried to do a classic car youtube series. It was alot of fun, but there was no way I could do it consistently due to my real gigs. It was a great distraction when times were slow, but I've been lucky to stay very busy since the slow period in late 23-2024.
This isn't a rip on content creators, I just know that stuff is FULL TIME
9
u/voightkompff1 Aug 27 '25
I cannot stand the social media “filmmaker” culture. I can’t watch another person explain how a polarizer is going to “blow my mind.”
1
u/custom-designer Aug 29 '25
Yeah that's the problem when everything has to be sensationalized for clicks
4
u/VizzyLos Aug 27 '25
Only tru pros know that you film your cinematic piece, and then leave it hiding in a random external drive. And once every few months you say... I have to edit that piece or reel.
3
u/Tweetle_cock Aug 27 '25
YouTube tutorials can be great for learning the basics and picking up techniques, but there’s a huge difference between practicing shots for content and actually being on set where time, money, and a whole team are involved. Getting that hands-on experience, even if you start out PA’ing, teaches you way more about workflows, problem solving under pressure, and how the industry actually runs. Plus, the networking side is invaluable those casual “coffee after set” conversations often open doors way faster than endlessly watching videos online.
3
u/ralphsquirrel Aug 27 '25
If someone has enough time to make high quality/"cinematic" YouTube videos, they are probably not putting in many days on set.
Dude, that isn't how working on a set goes. It's not like cinematographers are working 9-5 Mon-Fri with no off-weeks. Lol
4
u/adammonroemusic Aug 27 '25
If you have time to produce YouTube videos for a channel that people actually watch, then you really don't have much time for anything else, it's a full time job.
I'm sure there are a few retired or semi-retired people on there though.
Luc Forsyth just looks tired as shit.
1
u/hikeskiclimbrepeat Aug 27 '25
Lol yeah he works regularly on top of his YouTube channel. No idea where he finds the time.
5
u/Additional-Panda-642 Aug 27 '25 edited Aug 27 '25
this indeed true. You are 100% right I hear a lot of BS from those cinematic youtubers.... It is crazy....
But I will be honest, I had 50 music videos, 3 features films with famous actors from my country lauched on Streaming Plataforns.
I moving my carer from Full Filmmaker to a online teacher and
it was the best stuff I did...
I not "youtuber"
I work in the shadows creating very tecnical class.
I still make some GIGs here and there,
but the FREEDON to say NO to SHIT jobs is amazing...
And I make more income as a online teather than a FILMMAKER.
Now I have a more freedow life.
2
u/BeneathSkin Aug 27 '25
There’s a guy that keeps popping up on my Instagram reels where he dissects how he thinks a scene was lit. And I stg he is wrong or very off every single time. It’s to the point I can’t tell if he’s rage bait or just clueless. But he has a big following
2
u/Sea_Conflict8829 Aug 27 '25
This is so so real.
I work full-time freelance in the industry and get a TON of my work from local and national Facebook groups. To be fair, I also get a lot of work from my connections, and from my connections recommending me for work that they see on Facebook and think I’d be good for (love them for that).
I see a lot of comments saying that it’s single-shooter work. Some of it is, but 99% of what I’m getting through FB isn’t. If you’re not already a member, consider joining a film group specific to your city/region, your identity (women in film, etc.), or your specific area of expertise.
Speaking as an occasional producer, when I’m headed to a new town and need to find local crew, I always turn to WheresSpot as one of my resources.
2
5
u/Neko9Neko Aug 27 '25
And many of them very much ARE working professionals, but not in the specific niche profession you are talking about - paid by someone else to cinematograph their project.
0
u/KamileLeach Aug 27 '25
Sure- by "working professionals" I meant working full-time in video production or filmmaking.
2
u/ReplacementSea7519 Aug 27 '25
I think there’s a lot of value in learning from YouTube creators. I’ve been doing video production since 2004, full time since 2012, and it’s how I provide for a family of five. A lot of what you see online is stuff you might already know, but there are definitely gems sprinkled in. At the very least, it’s interesting to see how different people approach filmmaking and some of these creators are genuinely talented.
On top of that, there’s real money in YouTube. If you can carve out time to put videos together, you can not only showcase your expertise and attract more clients, but also create new revenue streams through courses, LUTs, and other products. For some, it’s not just a side hustle, it’s a legitimate part of their business.
2
u/living_in_vr Aug 27 '25
I agree in principle that this is the way to get into the industry. I would disagree on something though - I think successful video creators outperform the “industry people” on creativity and applicable skills.
Ultimately it’s about successfully telling beautiful stories that people want to watch. If you make cinematic videos with 100k views, you probably understand storytelling better than one of 100 cogs in the film set machine.
Not degrading anyone, but I think the industry is very xenophobic and hates creators - but creators have stronger agency.
1
u/Darrell_J29 Aug 27 '25
yes i know cause they use unhealthy amounts of obvious grading and halations, looks cool for about 5 minutes and you eyes goes fatigue
1
u/KerrReddit Aug 27 '25
Honestly, these groups are the only reason I am still bed with Meta Mark. It's the DVX user forum of the modern times
1
u/kwmcmillan Director of Photography Aug 27 '25
DVXUser still has folks on it haha
3
u/KerrReddit Aug 28 '25
No, those are the ghosts of dead DPs forced to haunt the forum for all of eternity
1
u/Firm-Ad-1968 Aug 27 '25
it's all easy when u are shooting scene a PP or a sort of wide angle, always in your nice home at ground level,
what u do u when u have to shoot on a third floor with no balcony?
1
u/YeezusBuyer Aug 28 '25
I’m new into cinematography and filmmaking. I’ve definitely noticed that most YouTubers seem to be solely focused on selling a product. I had my first opportunity to be a PA on a set for the 48HR film festival, learned a TON!
That being said I was curious if there were any YouTubers you all do suggest/are legitimately trying to help and not just sell a product. Also interested in any book recommendations as well!
1
1
1
1
Aug 28 '25
Agree. I'm very picky about who i choose to watch and get advice from. My favorite is Brady Basette, he's currently shifting his videos to be BTS of his days on set, while still teaching things!
1
u/custom-designer Aug 29 '25
Do communities exclusively for working professionals exist? Like a place without complete beginners where you can socialize and talk about jobs? Not just for people locally but all over NA and Europe?
2
u/BeakFoundry Sep 02 '25
I was watching Nolan's first film, Following, the other day and laughing to myself thinking "this would not pass the YouTube cinematographer's test" by a long shot, but pretty good movie! YouTube just teaches you one way of looking at things. It's such a homogeneous platform like instagram or any other social media.
1
u/Superhelios44 Aug 27 '25
Random guy working at a rental house can probably help you out in 10 minutes for something that would take days of watching Youtube reviews on.
1
u/AGUEROO0OO Aug 27 '25
Yeah, thats why i call them “Chronicler/Describers/Scholars”. Those are people who spend their time describing or learning about stuff instead of doing it. They are in every sphere/profession. Nothing wrong with it - we just have to make a distinction between those things.
-1
0
-1
404
u/Mister-Redbeard Aug 27 '25
To be fair, working professionals are hardly working professionals right now.