Skills needed for filmmaking personaility and passion

What are the skills needed for filmmaking? The art and craft of working as a freelance filmmaker can be regarded as an essential modern-day craft skill. Every industry, business and professional now requires films and videos to help with their bespoke communication and promotion. There’s never been a better time to offer your skills as a filmmaker as digital media is now a major asset in today’s online and social media connected world.

Skills needed for filmmaking showing Julian Langham with a selection of filmmaking kit — Julian Langham freelance filmmaker and videographer London

Working as a Freelance Filmmaker

Most people can create their individual digital content in some form or another. The general standard of this personal video production can vary widely and may not always be suited to the content required for a professional project. Creating engaging, consistently high-quality content is the domain of a specialist filmmaker.

Each film production commission and the subsequent working environment can be unique in different ways. Every project will present its own set of challenges. Working as a freelance filmmaker can be a rewarding and exciting career for those with the right personality and creative and technical abilities.

Eight skills needed for filmmaking

There are many complex aspects involved in the career of a successful freelance filmmaker. A filmmaker needs a broad foundation of skills and abilities. For example, if an initial enquiry is very limited in detail, the task of any filmmaker is to use their knowledge and skills to fully interpret the brief in the most appropriate creative and technical manner, to the satisfaction of the brief and the client. My perspective on the most important skills needed for filmmaking can be defined into eight categories.

Personality:

As a freelance filmmaker, you will need to have confidence in your experience and the ability to tackle new challenges. You will need to be strong and self-reliant in handling variable, sometimes stressful work situations. A creative and pragmatic approach to problem-solving will be needed.

The actual working time will vary from working on location as a ‘one-man-band’ to working with a large team of other creatives. You may also find that you spend significant time working alone at your computer, editing and handling the housekeeping tasks associated with your essential online presence.

I would suggest that you research, learn, and educate yourself to determine whether your personality type is compatible with all the requirements of a freelance filmmaker. The key to success will be your ability to self-manage and to retain your motivation when working on your own as a freelancer. One website where you can learn more about your personality type is the Myers & Briggs Foundation.

Individual Discipline:

Working as a freelance filmmaker requires a great deal of flexibility in organising your schedule. Managing all or as many of the technical and creative aspects of filmmaking by yourself will enable you to create a viable business.

By handling all aspects of any film production workflow, you will be able to offer estimates that could make your quote competitive and suit your client’s budget. In addition to working on the creative process, please allocate time to maintaining your website portfolio, staying active on social media, and continuing to develop your marketing, promotion, and training.

Creative and Technical Knowledge:

The creative and technical aspects of pre-production, production and post-production can take many years to learn and a lifetime to master. Each person has their own unique and relevant set of skills and abilities with which they can start their freelance career.

We all continue to learn and develop new skills throughout our careers, so it is necessary to stay up to date as filmmaking expertise evolves. From my perspective as an experienced filmmaker, some of the areas where I continue to enjoy learning are:

Staying up to date and informed about new technology and equipment.

Exploring new techniques to capture a subject or story.

Working with a wide variety of people and across different genres.

Learning to make the most of any unique set of circumstances.

Being confident to change or control an environment if it would benefit a project to do so.

Learning the skills around search engine optimisation (SEO), business marketing and self-promotion.

Creative Awareness:

Any art or craft requires the artist to work hard to learn their skill, and the art of filmmaking is no different. If you aspire to film and edit professionally, it’s highly likely that you already have a highly tuned sense of what you find visually appealing. When starting this career, it’s about gaining experience and confidence in your abilities.

The more filming and subsequent editing of your own filmed footage you undertake, the more you will learn and improve your range of craft skills. We all learn from our mistakes, and recovering problems with any filmed footage is a skill in itself. The ability to overcome any technical problems on your own will stand you in good stead if any such difficulties arise in your future projects.

Over time, your skills and experience will enable you to realise any brief or creative vision.

Emotional Wisdom:

Being self-aware, empathetic, and considerate of others is a valuable attribute in the filmmaking world. As a freelance filmmaker, you will meet and work with a diverse range of people, both participants and enablers, across any project. Being able to connect with your contacts and negotiate mutually beneficial goals is always the ideal scenario. Helping contributors feel comfortable and at ease is essential.

Filming can quickly take people out of their comfort zone, so being able to support and reassure contributors who may not be used to being filmed or the tasks required of them will be an important skill to possess.

Time Management:

Working as a freelance filmmaker, you could be making films and videos for a variety of reasons – for people’s entertainment, education and training, but also for creating marketing and promotional content for all types of businesses and individuals. On the basis that you will be paid for your time and that, generally speaking, prospective clients usually have strict budget limits, it will be essential for you to be highly resourceful, work quickly and effectively when needed to make a living from your freelance career.

You will also need to assess each situation to consider health and safety implications for yourself and others when filming. Whenever possible, I always allow extra time to assess the location and set up the equipment before being required to start filming. Things don’t always go to plan, so always consider a plan B in your planning process.

Communication:

Communication is key as the freelance world is largely message-based. Being able to communicate in a concise, friendly and professional manner is so important with upcoming and ongoing projects. Some clients possess relevant digital knowledge, but most have very little awareness of the skills and craft required for professional-quality video production.

One of the challenges of working as a freelance filmmaker is communicating the details of any technical requirements and how they could affect the project. You will experience a very varied client base, and each will have different ways of communicating their project’s aims – some are very general and others very detailed. It is important to respond quickly and to demonstrate your accessibility, consideration, patience, and empathy throughout your dealings.

Individuality, passions and values:

What makes a good freelancer? I would argue a happy freelancer. What makes a happy freelancer? For me, that includes helping people achieve their creative aims and working on projects that I find interesting and fulfilling. It’s always great to work with people you enjoy working with and to gain an appreciation for a job well done.

If you are starting, consider a few points. What drives you to follow this career? Do you know what you are passionate about? What are your moral values? Have you considered what is important to you? Having a sense of purpose and moving forward in the direction you want to will help you feel great satisfaction in your work.

Filmmaking is a digital puzzle

Working as a freelancer filmmaker can be compared to producing and playing a big, emotionally connected digital puzzle game. Producing, directing, filming and editing sound and vision are all essential parts to fully realising every brief. All of these aspects need to be thought through with consideration, care and then realised with passion.

What do you think are the skills needed for filmmaking? It would be great to hear your thoughts.