Mar 28

Mar 28 Challenge accepted!

Most of the things I learnt about photography and cinematography are from YouTubers. Yes, YouTube. I can get to why on a different post. The other day, while browsing through the channels of my favourite creators, I received a notification from Matti Haapoja. He had just posted his latest video titled “Solo Broll tips + challenge”. I love broll sequences, so I got to it right away.

Broll is the second in hierarchy film that supplements the main story line. It's mostly used to show transition from one place to the other or setting the mood between scenes.

In his video, Matti invited us to participate on a weekend broll challenge. The only rules were (1) to film ourselves, and (2) to make it less than a minute long. Challenge accepted, Matti! I don’t usually participate in these type of challenges, but I decided to give it a try and push myself to create something new.

If you watched the video you probably agree with me that, at best, it lacks any real story. I know that it’s hard to get much of a story out of a short broll clip, but the way I see it, every video should be telling some sort of a story.

This got me thinking. How do you become better at telling stories in short videos? By practising more and trying different things. So, I decided to challenge myself.

Starting this weekend and for the next 9, I’ll film and edit less than a minute long broll sequences trying to emphasise on the story. I’ll try to make sure the theme and storyline of the video is different each time, but I’ll have to keep them within every day life scenarios. From preparing coffee, to cooking, to going for a walk or even taking my bike out.

There area a few things I want to get out of this exercise.