Mastering these 2 fundamentals for consistently clean cinematography

When the NFL saw one of my wedding films and asked me to shoot the Jets/Chargers playoff game over a decade ago it was because of one thing - how we told a story visually.

I gained my ability to see light and shoot in sequences through the crucible that was Same Day Edits in the wedding world. Shoot the event and then flip it into a ready to go film by the reception.

It was a pressure cooker, but I LOVED the challenge.

And shipping a film once or twice a week in front of hundreds of people was a sure way to learn. Quickly.

One of the biggest things that became so ingrained in my psyche was how to think, dream, and shoot in sequences.

Rather than just covering everything safely, it was about getting in there and finding the different or unexpected angles and ways to make something seemingly simple say so much more.

This idea became so fundamental to our approach that we called it ‘The 3/1 Rule’.

Today, I’ll explain two fundamental rules that, when you master them, can dramatically elevate your craft.

The first fundamental is about visual sequencing - it’s what I was talking about above. The second then layers on lighting. After that, I’ll give you a walkthrough video where I demo both concepts on a real client project.

Now, if you haven’t heard, the 3/1 Rule is the idea that to tell a story visually, you must stop living in a land of middles and start thinking in threes:

• think in wide, medium, and tight

• think in beginning, middle, and ending

Now, many of us live in a land of middles because it’s easy. When you show up and shoot, you’ll most often arrive to the middle of something happening.

That’s because beginnings require anticipation - you have to be there BEFORE it starts. And endings require patience - you need to have the resolve and foresight to wait around for the thing you’re filming to stop.

More than just our visual sequencing, as filmmakers, we also have to be aware of our light. Poor to average to great lighting is a big part of $2k to $5k to $50k work. It instantly feels like it is worth more and conveys more emotion, even without your client or audience having to understand the mechanics or technical side of it all.

The second fundamental, and the way of thinking through light in any scenario (natural, interview, indoors, outdoors, small crew, no gear, etc, etc) is always to try and break light down into its four main facets and think of it as a DISC:

• Direction - where the light is coming from in relation to your subject and your camera. The more off-axis you are, the more dramatic the lighting feels.

• Intensity - this is a function of the variance, or difference, in the bright and dark regions of your image. Too much variance and your camera sensor can’t handle it all (this is a function of the dynamic range of your sensor).

• Softness - the quality of your light or how quickly it fades from bright to dark. Harsh lighting is less flattering, which doesn’t make it bad; it just means it says something, and you need to be intentional.

• Color - this is often referred to as the temperature and is measured on the Kelvin scale. When starting out, the goal is to have clean lighting, which is most easily achieved by having ONE color temperature in your scene.

Now, let’s look at a super simple reel I made for Four Seasons in the Maldives that combines these two fundamentals.

Is it mindblowing? No. But it’s the basics, done well, and a $2,500 billable asset made in 15 minutes.

If you want to work on your fundamentals, the single best thing you can do is get out there and shoot. Then ship it. Keep turning things around to get that rapid feedback.

This is what I fell upon inside wedding same-day edits and where I put in my 10,000 hours.

If you want to dive deeper into these fundamentals and how to look at every part of the camera, lenses, lighting, and movement with great intention - check out our newly released cinematic filmmaking course right here.

More than just learning, the course has a challenge with each module and then community access where you can post your film and get feedback.

Cheers all,

• Patrick