Your First Challenge

So the very first challenge is to film a video selfie. Simply, this is a talking head video introducing yourself to the rest of us in this course. But here is the thing, you don't need to be you. We are making movies. If you want to make a real life documentary, film you being you. If you love to act and a feature film is more your scene, my challenge for you is to pick a character from one of the movies you love and then turn on your camera and be them. And of course you are very welcome to create your own character.

 I know I'm not just speaking for myself when I say we are all very interested to meet you. If you're after some inspiration as to what you can say start with your name tell us what you like doing what you don't like doing and maybe something surprising that not many people know about you.

Couple of things before you begin

Any camera will do

I don't mind if you film with a smart phone your webcam, an action cam, a compact camera, a camcorder or a DSLR If it shoots video you can use it. I think a smartphone is a great choice but seriously, use any camera you can get your hands on - you can always move up to a camera with a better image later. Right now, what is important is to start filming because putting the techniques you discover here into practice is how you are going to quickly become the creator you want to be.

Go solo for this first assignment

Look, you absolutely could get your mum or your brother or your sister or someone else you know to hold the camera and film you while you do your piece to camera but I really want you to do this all by yourself. Find a quiet space put your camera on a tripod or on a shelf at head height or stack of books doesn't really matter as long as you're not holding onto it yourself unless you absolutely have no other option so that you can focus on delivering to camera without someone snickering behind there or making you feel awkward or uncomfortable.

 No edits

Later on in this course I'm going to show you how to edit video but for right now I want you to just go with your best performance. The point of this exercise is to for you to start to get comfortable talking to camera and also to introduce yourself or your character to everyone else in this course. I'm not looking for quality just yet - I haven't even taught you anything yet! 

One additional thing you are doing with this first video challenge is you are setting the bar so you can look back later in this course and see how far you have come but I don't want to sent you out on your first assignment completely unprepared so I've dropped in a few learning assets below so hopefully when we see your selfie video you upload, you are in focus with decent lighting and the best sound quality you can achieve with the equipment you have.

Please share your work :)

Once you are done with the learning assets, have a crack at filming this first challenge and then upload it to either YouTube or Vimeo as a private video and share the link below in the group chat. You will be helping inspire others and gaining the benefit of positive feedback from myself and other students.