Learn Filmmaking for FREE! YouTube Channels to follow for Best Filmmaking Resources
The internet, especially Youtube, is full of indie filmmaking experts as well as big and small names from the world film industry sharing tutorials, tips, resources and imparting knowledge and education on filmmaking and film business for free for all the up and coming filmmakers, or people who are just curious to learn.
There is a more than generous amount of resources one can find around filmmaking on the internet. Hence, it becomes a difficult process to decide which ones to follow and which ones can help us best with our learning experience, or simply feed our curiosity about films and filmmaking.
To save your time and energy in choosing the content that deserves your attention, we have spent hours surfing through a crazy number of film-related YouTube Channels and created a detailed and comprehensive guide on our top choices of channels that cover different aspects of filmmaking ranging from screenwriting to cinematography and lighting, to post-production and even film distribution and marketing. So, continue reading to find some of the best filmmaking channels worldwide below (in no specific order).
A-Z OF FILMMAKING
1. Film Riot
You probably already know about this one. With a subscriber base in millions, Film Riot is a go-to channel choice for all new and old filmmakers alike. With a wide variety of 'how-to' videos on almost any and every topic, like cinematography effects, post production, filmmaking tips, etc; Film Riot (in their own words) explores the art of filmmaking in a way you've never seen.
Follow for: DIY Filmmaking
2. Filmmaker IQ
This channel is basically a film professor you never had, who is also fun. It includes video essays explaining film concepts and making them seamlessly easy to understand, film reviews, equipment reviews, the science behind lenses and other filmmaking equipment, among many other things.
Follow for: Video Essays on Film and Technical Concepts
3. Premium Beat
This royalty-free music provider by Shutterstock dedicates its Youtube Channel to helpful and compelling video tutorials on video production, editing, motion graphics, and much more. They focus on everything creative!
Follow for: Video Production and Editing
4. Indy Mogul
A house to so many interesting 'how-to' videos on topics like 'how to shoot a commercial', 'how to achieve soft-top light', etc, film analyses, gear review, tips and much more, Indy Mogul is a one-stop destination for most of your filmmaking education.
Follow for: Filmmaking Tutorials and Film Analyses
5. Studio Binder
Studio Binder is easily one of the Top 5 filmmaking channels to provide filmmaking resources of all kinds, and provides top-class education on any and everything related films. Primarily a Production Management Software, its Youtube Channel covers loads of film resources such as in-depth analyses, scene and script breakdowns, explanations of film concepts and much more.
Follow for: Understanding Films and Filmmaking
6. Diorama International Film Festival and Market
It won’t be fair to not mention our very own Youtube Channel especially when it brings you exclusive content like interviews, masterclasses, webinars and much more from filmmakers and film professionals from not just India but around the world who talk ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ of the filmmaking process and so much more. Being a Film Festival Channel, it focuses on content that actually matters to budding and new filmmakers and that can help them ace in their careers.
Follow for: Exclusive interviews, Masterclasses, Workshops, etc.
7. Tomorrow's Filmmakers
With over 1,000+ video lessons and 100+ hours of content, 'Tomorrow's Filmmakers' teaches everything you need to know to start your filmmaking journey, whether that is starting your own videography business, beginning your journey as a film director, jump starting your acting career, or just dabbling in film. It offers lessons for beginners as well as experienced filmmakers. Wherever you are in your filmmaking journey, Tomorrow’s Filmmakers is for you.
Follow for: Concept tutorials, filmmaking lessons, and advice on film business
8. DSLR Guide
Created and hosted by Simon Cade, this Youtube Channel covers every step of filmmaking starting from pre-production to mobile filmmaking to cinematography to audio and editing. It's a one-stop destination for filmmakers of all levels and one can learn a lot by not only the tutorials by Simon Cade but also by his personal experiences that he keeps on sharing.
Follow for: Film Production lessons
SCREENWRITING AND SCRIPT BREAKDOWNS
9. Film Courage
If you are a budding screenwriter or film director, or have already set foot in the industry, you should not miss out on following this channel. It brings to you tips and tutorials on screenwriting and film direction, and great interviews of some top names in the industry that guide you about the do's and don'ts when writing or directing.
Follow For: Screenwriting and Film Direction Guidance
10. The Script Lab
Following this channel is a great way to remain updated with industry trends, tips and expert opinions as it brings weekly content of interviews and discussions with writers, filmmakers, and film school educators.
Follow for: Screenwriting Discussions, Tips and Techniques
11. FAST Screenplay
This premiere Screenwriting resource is aimed at helping and supporting new screenwriters in kickstarting their career by providing videos exploring every aspect of creativity, screenwriting, the business, how to survive it, and how to truly realize their unique voice and vision.
Follow for: A FREE and comprehensive Screenwriting Course
12. Robert McKee
One of the most sought-after screenwriting lecturer around the world, Robert McKee has been mentoring and educating screenwriters, playwrights, novelists and others since the last 30 years. Through his Youtube Channel, he tries to educate filmmakers and screenwriters across the globe on a wide variety of topics and answers their questions.
Follow for: Screenwriting Webinars and Q&As
13. Now You See It
Now You See It is a media analyses channel that analyzes and breakdowns scripts, scenes, acting, cinematography, editing, and basically each component of a film. It aims at explaining the 'whys' behind the 'whats' in any film. Hence, it makes an excellent choice for writers to understand the filmmaking and writing process in depth.
Follow for: Film Analyses and Explanations
14. Every Frame a Painting
Although out of operations since 2017, Every Frame a Painting continues to be a great place to learn about films, decoding hidden meanings, and understanding certain choices made in the filmmaking process. Their video essays are extremely informative and act as a great resource book for those looking for understanding films closely.
Follow for: Video Essays around Filmmaking
CINEMATOGRAPHY
15. Parker Walbeck – Fulltime Filmmaker
Parker Walbeck runs an online film school by the name of Fulltime Filmmaker. He also posts a lot of informative and educational filmmaking videos centred around cinematography and lighting and covers an array of topics like how to film cinematic videos, best gear to use, how to use specific gears, how to use certain equipment creatively, among many other interesting topics.
Follow for: Understanding Cinematography and Lighting
16. Epic Light Media
The key to acing at Cinematography is to ace at Lighting. And according to the popular opinion, lighting is one of the most difficult aspects of filmmaking and can make or break the cinematic appeal of your film. This channel makes understanding lighting easy and fun and comes up with content like lighting lessons, types of lights, and basically, everything that can help you perfect lighting in your films. Even though they put a lot of emphasis at the end of each video not to subscribe to them, we'd suggest to go and do that ASAP.
Follow for: Perfecting Lighting for your Films
17. D4Darious
Apart from being an ultimate filmmaking guide for screenwriters, directors, and filmmakers, one major reason to follow this channel is for its cinematography videos. With a dedicated playlist for learning cinematography and regular gear updates and reviews, D4Darious is a top choice of not only ours but filmmakers around the world.
Follow for: Cinematography Tips and Tutorials
18. Aputure
Aputure is a leading provider of affordable camera accessories and lighting equipment around the globe. Their youtube channel is dedicated to providing tips and techniques, and 'how-to' videos on cinematography and lighting.
Follow for: Camera and Lighting Tutorials
19. The Slanted Lens
The Slanted Lens brings you Photography and Lighting Tutorials for Photographers and Videographers, Camera and Lens Reviews, Equipment reviews, How-to Tutorials, Photography and Camera News, (..breathes) Photo Critiques, Cinematic Lighting, How to Shoot with Film, The Laws of Light, How-to use Strobes, Portrait Lighting, Video Production, Special Effects and basically everything Photography, Videography and Cinematography.
Follow for: (if it isn't obvious already) Photography, Videography and Cinematography
20. Media Division
The Media Division is a passion project that is on a mission to educate and entertain those who want to take a deeper look into the technical, practical, and emotional aspects of filmmaking.
This Youtube Channel is famous for their crazy experiments and for challenging general ignorance. With help and engagement from local industry heroes, passionate newcomers, a vibrant community, and leading manufacturers around the globe, it produces high quality edutainment to inspire young and old filmmakers to discover or rediscover their love for film, and to put a little more soul into the future of the medium.
Follow for: Cinematography lessons, camera reviews, camera tutorials and updates
EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
21. Corridor Crew:
This Youtube Channel focuses on everything cinematography and editing. The best part of this channel is undoubtedly its VFX and CGI videos. Most of their content is centered around making VFX tutorials and reactions, giving filmmakers a lot of scope to learn from their fun experiments and insights!
Follow for: VFX and CGI knowledge
22. This Guy Edits
This Guy Edits, hosted by Sven, an ace editor who cuts for James Cameron, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and James Franco shares his editing expertise in the form of tutorials, tips and Behind the Scenes of his projects, in addition to various editing insights.
Follow for: Film Editing Lessons
23. Film Editing Pro
Film Editing Pro is an online learning resource that provides detailed, step-by-step creative editing training. They cover a range of topics centred around editing from most basic to most advanced lessons and some common questions that you as a budding editor will definitely have.
Follow for: Post-Production Lessons
24. Premiere Gal
Premiere Gal shares some of the most amazing post-production lessons on video editing, photo editing, audio editing, after effects and so much more. With a great step-by-step guide on using various editing softwares, this channel can help you perfect your editing skills.
Follow for: A comprehensive FREE course on Adobe Premiere Pro
COSTUME AND MAKE-UP FOR FILMS
25. Cinema Makeup School
A career in Film Makeup is a popular one but sadly, not a lot of importance is given to providing resources for learning the skill. Regardless, Hollywood and the world film industry alike, are filled with self-taught Makeup Artists. This youtube channel brings to all budding makeup artists interviews from industry experts as well as tutorials on special effects makeup techniques.
Follow for: Industry Expertise and SFX Makeup Lessons
26. Costume CO
This channel hosts a number of costume analysis videos from film, television and live productions, which makes it a great learning resource for all budding costume designers.
Follow for: Costume Analyses
27. M2M – Made to Measure
Made To Measure (M2M) is the network that brings you the best feature films, documentaries, TV shows, and short videos about fashion, style, art, & culture - all for free. With new content being uploaded every week, M2M is surely a great way for costume designers to learn the craft by actually watching informative documentaries around it.
Follow for: Fashion Content
FILM TIPS AND ASSISTANCE
28. Beyond Film School
This one of a kind youtube channel is aimed at bridging the gap between what people learn on film sets and what is taught in film schools. It is an awesome channel for each and everyone trying to find work in the film industry as it covers topics like information on different types of crew jobs, do's and don'ts of a film assistant, networking and how to get into film industry.
Follow for: Tips, do's and don'ts, etc. for Crew Jobs
29. Ani Asfura
Ani Asfura is a film producer and strategist. She tries to help indie filmmakers through her videos to successfully market their films and projects. She shares tips on film marketing, do's and don'ts, 'how-to', and other resources that include a step-by-step guide to film marketing.
Follow for: Film Marketing Resources
SPECIAL MENTION
30. The Film Look
With content on possibly everything a budding or independent filmmaker needs, this channel definitely deserves a special mention. In trying to describe what topics this channel covers, we may end up describing the whole filmmaking process. So, it's better that you go and check it out yourself and while you are at it, follow it immediately.
Follow for: Cinematic Filmmaking
So, if you are a budding or an independent filmmaker, or even an established one, you'll be missing out a lot if you have reached the end of this article and still haven't followed every single of these Youtube Channels. Avoid the FOMO, and go follow!
Did we miss out on another great channel? Let us know and we'll make sure to add it to the list.
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