Week 1 is stills. Weeks 2 and 3 are moving pictures. Every day you finish and export something. Each day says which book or course it comes from, so you can check it.
Days finished
Longest streak
Shown to someone
Avg self-rating
Week 1 · Day 1
Make this today
Stand in one place and take 24 different photographs without moving. Look up, down, close, far. Keep all 24.
Source: No Film School, “Two Dozen” workout
Forces you to find compositions instead of walking to them. You will run out of obvious shots around number eight — everything after that is the actual exercise.
Week 1 · Day 2
Make this today
Pick one subject. Photograph it as an extreme long shot, long shot, mid shot, close-up and extreme close-up. Move your feet, don't zoom.
Source: Learn About Film — shot size; Mascelli — close-ups
Shot size is the first thing on almost every cinematography syllabus, because it is how you control what the viewer knows and feels at each moment.
Week 1 · Day 3
Make this today
Take eight photos where the subject sits near a corner or edge of the frame — never the middle. Then take one centred version and compare.
Source: No Film School, “Four Corners”; Learn About Film — composition
The rule of thirds says put important things about a third of the way across the frame. Doing the extreme version teaches it faster than reading it.
Week 1 · Day 4
Make this today
Photograph a person from below, at eye level, and from above. Change nothing else. Look at how differently they read.
Source: Learn About Film — camera position and angle; Mascelli — camera angles
A low angle tends to make a subject look powerful, a high angle weaker. It is the cheapest storytelling tool you have and costs nothing but bending your knees.
Week 1 · Day 5
Make this today
Switch your camera or phone to manual/pro mode. Shoot the same scene changing only aperture, then only shutter speed, then only ISO. Two shots each.
Source: Exposure triangle — standard photography fundamentals
Aperture, shutter speed and ISO are taught as the foundation of photography the way addition and subtraction are the foundation of maths. You will see depth of field and motion blur appear on purpose for the first time.
Week 1 · Day 6
Make this today
Tell a small story in 8–12 still photographs. Someone loses something and finds it; someone makes breakfast. Put them in order. Show it to someone without explaining.
Source: Film School 101 assignment #1 — Photo Stories
This is the first assignment in a classic film-school progression, deliberately before video: you learn composition and shot selection without sound or movement to hide behind.
Week 1 · Day 7
Make this today
Go back through week one. Check each photo against the ABCDEF list. Find your three worst frames and reshoot them properly.
The ABCDEF check — run it on every frame
Source: Learn About Film — the ABCDEF shot checklist
A checklist beats taste when you are starting out, because it catches the specific thing that is wrong instead of leaving you with a vague sense that the photo is bad.
Week 2 · Day 8
Make this today
Film one simple action three times: once wide, once medium, once close. Cut them together in that order. That's your film.
Source: Schroeppel — “basic sequence”; Learn About Film — open on a long shot
Establish where we are, then who, then how they feel. Almost every scene ever cut is built on this.
Week 2 · Day 9
Make this today
Someone opens a door, picks up a cup, sits down. Film the whole action from one angle, then film the whole action again from another. Cut from one to the other in the middle of the movement.
Source: Learn About Film — match on action; Film School 101 assignment #2
Cutting while something is moving hides the join. This is the trick that makes edits feel invisible, and it is a formal film-school assignment for that reason.
Week 2 · Day 10
Make this today
Two people talk. Draw an imaginary line between them and keep the camera on one side of it. Film a version obeying the line, then a version crossing it. Watch both.
Source: Mascelli — continuity; Learn About Film — 180-degree rule
Cross the line and the two people suddenly appear to swap sides and stop looking at each other. Accidentally crossing the line is described as one of the most common editing-room nightmares — seeing it break once teaches it permanently.
Week 2 · Day 11
Make this today
Film the same conversation as over-the-shoulder shots, cutting between the two faces. When you change angle on the same subject, move at least 30 degrees.
Source: Learn About Film — shot-reverse-shot, eyeline match, 30-degree rule
Less than about 30 degrees and the cut looks like a glitch rather than a new shot. This plus yesterday's line is basically how every dialogue scene is filmed.
Week 2 · Day 12
Make this today
Film a face in direct sun or under a bare bulb, then in window light on a cloudy side or through a curtain. Then film one shot with the light behind them and fix it.
Source: Schroeppel — lighting; Learn About Film — light and colour
Hard light makes sharp shadows and drama; soft light is forgiving. Learning to notice where light already comes from beats buying any lighting kit.
Week 2 · Day 13
Make this today
Record the same sentence with the phone three metres away, one metre away, and 30cm away. Then record 30 seconds of the empty room and keep it.
Source: Schroeppel — sound chapter
Distance to the microphone matters more than any setting. That 30 seconds of “silence” is room tone: cut a word out later and the background hiss vanishes with it, leaving a hole only room tone can patch.
Week 2 · Day 14
Make this today
Someone finds a small box. They don't know if it holds treasure or poison. They approach it nervously and begin to open it. Tell that in 30 seconds using at least 15 shots.
Source: Learn About Film — named beginner exercise
Fifteen shots in thirty seconds forces you to use shot size, angle and movement to build tension instead of just pointing the camera. This is the week's exam.
Week 3 · Day 15
Make this today
Film someone doing something real from start to finish — cooking, fixing a bike, your daughter building in Minecraft. You cannot ask for retakes. Get everything you'll need.
Source: Film School 101 assignment #3 — Process Documentary
Everything so far you could re-stage. Here you can't, so you have to plan coverage in advance. This footage becomes the raw material for the rest of the week.
Week 3 · Day 16
Make this today
Install CapCut or DaVinci Resolve. Put yesterday's footage in order end to end and export it. Do not try to make it good.
Source: Schroeppel — editing chapter
Most people stall at “open the editor”. Beating that today with a deliberately bad export removes the fear before the real cutting starts.
Week 3 · Day 17
Make this today
Recut yesterday's assembly a third shorter. Trim the dead air at both ends of every clip, and make at least two cuts land in the middle of a movement.
Source: Mascelli — cutting; match cuts from day 9
Almost every first edit is too long. Trimming and cutting on action do most of the work of making an edit feel professional.
Week 3 · Day 18
Make this today
Build a short montage from your documentary footage: a run of quick shots compressing the whole process into thirty seconds, carried by music.
Source: Schroeppel — montage chapter
Montage is how you compress a long process into a short time without boring anyone. It is also the form most YouTube videos lean on hardest.
Week 3 · Day 19
Make this today
Unlink audio from video. On one cut, let the next shot's sound start about a second early. On another, let the old sound run a second into the new shot.
Source: Standard continuity editing practice; Schroeppel — sound and editing
One technique, two directions. Sound arriving early creates anticipation; sound lingering creates continuity. It is most of what “smooth” means.
Week 3 · Day 20
Make this today
Add an opening title and a lower third naming whoever is speaking. Keep every piece of text well inside the frame edges. Watch it back on an actual phone.
Source: Broadcast title-safe convention (not a specific book)
Phone apps put buttons on top of your picture. Text that looks perfect in the editor gets covered by the Like button.
Week 3 · Day 21
Make this today
Film a real two-person scene: your daughter talking about the game you're building. Use the line, shot-reverse-shot, coverage, light, clean sound, a J-cut, a title, music. She directs at least one shot and gets a credit. Then publish it.
Source: Film School 101 assignments #4 and #5 — two-person conversation, short film
The final film-school assignments are a two-person dialogue scene and a short with real structure. This is both, scaled to a weekend, and publishing is the part that makes the other twenty days real.
How happy you were with each day's result. The shape across three weeks is the point — not any single day. (Needs JavaScript; the plan above does not.)
Rate a day and it appears here.
Not invented. Each day above cites one of these.