Successful short form filmmaking or video making is also a hugely valuable competency to possess in today's mass consumption of online content.
People only have so much time and they already have so much other information demanding their attention.
You only have 10 seconds to be the video to capture their attention, if that.
There are a lot of creators creating a lot of online video content and to gain a competitive edge for your particular brand, you need to produce video content that is high-quality and very concise.
I never felt like I had mastered short form filmmaking during my time at university, when it was a huge focus of my filmmaking studies.
One of the first examples of microfilmmaking I did at university...
So getting a good hold of microfilmmaking was a key priority of my postgraduate studies.
2015 was the year in which I decided I was going to place a large focus on practicing at being a microfilmmaker.
The first thing I did was orchestrate my 365 Frames 2015 project in which I produced a short video a day for a whole year.
Then I took my microfilmmaking practice further by producing even more polished microfilms from the footage I shot for my 365 project.
During 2015, I discovered Vimeo's now defunct Cameo app.
Cameo was a video editing app that included a library of licenced music you could use in your videos. In many ways, Cameo was a precursor to TikTok and Instagram Reels.
The inclusion of the licenced music was encouraged as your completed videos served as a further promotion for the creators of the music.
The main feature I loved about the Cameo app was that you could only produce videos with a maximum length of two minutes.
The two-minute limit was a godsend in regard to honing my microfilmmaking discipline.
I ended up producing twelve Cameo microfilms.
These are probably my two favourite Cameo microfilms, because they both tell a short story and do it in a visually engaging way...
I had produced many short videos for my 365 Frames 2015 project, but many of them had been well over two minutes long!
The ability to convey meaningful information in two minutes or less is a formidable skill to possess when you're trying to capture people's limited attention spans.
During the final year of my BA (Hons), I had to produce a short 30 second teaser for the Fencing documentary.
I ended up producing a 40-second trailer which served the purpose of being a trailer for the documentary, but I always felt like I really struggled to cram everything I thought was relevant into that trailer. Hence why it ended up being 40 seconds, opposed to just 30 seconds.
However, by the time I started to produce my Cameo microfilms during my 365 Frames 2015 project, I felt immensely more confident with conveying key information in shorter time periods.
As I said in video 100 of day 100 of my 365 Frames 2015 project, the key to getting good at producing successful short films or vids is to practice at making one each and every day...
Ultimately, I feel like a very competent microfilmmaker now and I am so glad that I put a special focus on refining that skillset throughout 2015.
The key to being a successful microfilmmaker is to give your short form videos the same love and attention you would if you were producing a longer form film.
Short form video makers are still filmmakers, they are just microfilmmakers.
Being a microfilmmaker is a skill that is going to be strategically invaluable as I further develop my creative career.
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