I occasionally see posts on Reddit and elsewhere asking where to go to learn more about filmmaking, sometimes from people who spent time in film school but didn’t enjoy it. Here was my response to one such post. (I’ll update this occasionally)
I have a film degree and tbh I have learned more about what interests me about filmmaking – telling the best possible story using the tools available – from YouTube than I did in film school.
(Perhaps learning the foundations in film school helped; I know the terminology, technical details, shot types, etc. But actually putting it all together into a compelling and useful whole is not something school was particularly good at.)
- Every Frame A Painting, which is great and probably the best but also retired and not gonna make any more videos.
- Lindsay Ellis is also the best but also retired from YouTube because people on Twitter are jerks
- Patrick H Willems is extremely fun and starts and ends each video with an ongoing story that he segued into a very silly feature film this year
- RedLetterMedia are the film studies equivalent of going to a bar with your film school friends to talk shit
- Folding Ideas covers a lot of topics but has made a few great videos about films and filmmaking
- StudioBinder’s YouTube channel is there to promote their software, but they make pretty good videos about filmmaking anyway
- CineFix (now part of IGN) has some really good content, despite being part of IGN
- Corridor Crew’s weekly VFX Artists / Animators / Stuntmen/women React videos are kinda gimmicky but do often have great behind-the-scenes insights
- ponysmasher is David F Sandberg, director of Shazam!, and he occasionally posts videos about filmmaking despite being a big shot hollywood director now
- FILM CRIT HULK is, despite the name, extremely thoughtful
- Lessons from the Screenplay is also very good
Whew, that’s a lot. Enjoy!