Photography and filmmaking fundamentals. One thing to finish every day, each taken from a book or course you can go and check for yourself.
Week 1 · Stills
Stand in one place and take 24 different photographs without moving. Look up, down, close, far. Keep all 24.
24 photos
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 · Stills
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.
5 photosTogether
Try it — five sizes
Slide through the five shot sizes on one subject.
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 · Stills
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.
8 photos
Try it — drag the subject
Drag the person around the frame; the verdict changes as you go.
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 · Stills
Photograph a person from below, at eye level, and from above. Change nothing else. Look at how differently they read.
3 photosTogether
Try it — three heights
Switch between low, eye-level and high camera positions.
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 · Stills
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.
6 photos
Try it — the triangle
Pull aperture, shutter and ISO; watch depth of field, motion blur and noise appear.
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 · Stills
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.
8–12 photosTogether
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 · Stills
Go back through week one. Check each photo against the ABCDEF list. Find your three worst frames and reshoot them properly.
Review + 3 reshootsTogether
The check
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 · Moving pictures
Film one simple action three times: once wide, once medium, once close. Cut them together in that order. That's your film.
30 secTogether
Try it — press play
Play the wide → medium → close sequence.
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 · Moving pictures
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.
20 secTogether
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 · Moving pictures
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.
30 secTogether
Try it — cross the line
Drag the camera across the line and watch the two people swap sides.
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 · Moving pictures
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.
45 secTogether
Try it — open the angle
Open the angle between two cameras and see where the cut starts working.
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 · Moving pictures
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.
30 secTogether
Try it — move the light
Drag the light around the face; switch between hard and soft.
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 · Moving pictures
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.
45 secTogether
Try it — move the mic
Slide the microphone closer and watch the voice rise out of the room noise.
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 · Moving pictures
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.
30 secTogether
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 · Cutting & finishing
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.
60–90 secTogether
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 · Cutting & finishing
Install CapCut or DaVinci Resolve. Put yesterday's footage in order end to end and export it. Do not try to make it good.
any length
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 · Cutting & finishing
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.
−30% length
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 · Cutting & finishing
Build a short montage from your documentary footage: a run of quick shots compressing the whole process into thirty seconds, carried by music.
30 sec
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 · Cutting & finishing
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.
60 sec
Try it — slide the audio
Slide the audio out of sync and watch the J and L shapes form.
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 · Cutting & finishing
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.
60 sec
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 · Cutting & finishing
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.
60–90 secTogether
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.
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Sources
Every day in this deck cites one of these.