Eliza Fillo
Welcome to Online Offscript, where we discuss trending topics and all things new on the Internet. I’m Eliza Fillo, the Digital Ads Coordinator.
Daniel Jones
And I’m Daniel Jones, the Short-Form Content Creator and Coordinator.
Eliza Fillo
This week, we are talking about storytelling in film. Our guest today is Kent Lamm, an independent filmmaker, producer, writer, and director at Standard Story Company. Kent’s YouTube channel, Standard Story Company, has 190K subscribers and provides tips on writing, directing, shooting, editing, freelancing, and more.
Daniel Jones
His work has screened at 7 academy award qualifying film festivals and won awards at the New York Television Festival. He also created a course that teaches aspiring filmmakers how to write and shoot a short film in a month.
Eliza Fillo
Hey Kent, how are you?
Kent Lamm
Hey, doing good. Thanks for having me.
Eliza Fillo
Of course! We’re very excited to have you on the podcast. I know we just ran through a little summary about you, but can you just give us a little quick introduction to who you are and what you do?
Kent Lamm
Sure. I’m an independent filmmaker living in Los Angeles and really just do narrative filmmaking and over the past couple of years I started putting out a lot of content on my YouTube channel, Standard Story Company, and that started picking up a lot of steam. So now I really split my time between making my own stuff and educating, filmmaking, and storytelling on YouTube. And the channel’s now, I think it’s over 190,000 subscribers, and it’s been a lot of fun. And hopefully allowing me… the reason I kind of got into the YouTube space with filmmaking was I wanted to share my knowledge, of course. But also kind of build up a bit of an audience for the stuff that I make and have it hopefully eventually finance some of the creative projects I want to do, which then gives me more things to make YouTube videos about. So it’s a nice little circle.
Daniel Jones
When you talk about using YouTube to kind of finance those other projects, where does that YouTube money come from? Where do you get most of that cash flow from?
Kent Lamm
So it depends on the month honestly, because YouTube ad revenue will give you a little bit and that fluctuates a lot, so it’s best not to depend on it. I also have a Patreon, that’s a little bit, so I put some extra content there and have like a little Discord community. And then sponsored videos are usually a pretty big chunk of it. So I’ll make a video where I’m teaching about, you know, how I edit this short film or something like that. And then, you know, the music that I use for it comes from a stock music company and then they’ll sponsor the video. And so that’s some additional income. But then there’s also lots of smaller things too, like, you know, affiliate links. So if somebody purchases a camera, for example, that’s linked to in one of my video descriptions, then I’ll get, you know, some tiny cut from Amazon from that. And yeah, other things, I do consultations with filmmakers and I’ll help look through their scripts, give them feedback or I’ll give them notes on their edits, things like that. And yeah, and now I have a short film course too, which I’m selling and I’ve had students enroll in. And that’s been probably the most fun of all the educational things that I’ve been doing.
Eliza Fillo
Nice.
Daniel Jones
I’d imagine.
Eliza Fillo
I saw definitely on your LinkedIn that you’ve worked for several companies, one of which was Netflix, which is huge. How did you transition into the more educational, informational side of YouTube videos? I know you do all sorts of content on the channel, but I know a big part of it is kind of that informational, like how did you get into that space?
Kent Lamm
Yeah, I had a weird journey. But I think the reason that I’m able to make the YouTube educational content resonate with people is that it took me a long time to figure out how to find my own way. And basically, my story was I kind of, I’ve always just made my own little films and grew up in Virginia doing that with my buddy Chris. And then we moved out here. We went to USC out here and kept doing it. And then we got out of school and we both had to get jobs. So we were just doing random jobs, like working as waiters or valet people at a hotel or whatever. And we just kept making little short films, which was great for a while. And then we got closer to being like 30. And it was like, okay, I think, you know, I’d love to not have to worry about my roommate stealing my peanut butter for too much longer and get my own place and start feeling like a grownup. And so I started getting serious about it. And eventually I just kind of stumbled into editing as a job. And I had been editing my own stuff for so long but I didn’t realize that I was particularly good at it.
And then I worked on a web series with some friends. I directed and edited it, and they were watching me edit and they were like, you know, “You could do this professionally. You’re really good at this.” And I was like, really? And then a few months later, probably, I had quit my job at the restaurant and I was, I had two freelance clients as an editor and that was enough to pay all the bills. And one of them luckily was working for a company that was contracted by Netflix to do their internal corporate videos. They would do every quarter this big company film that would talk about what’s going on inside the company. And so I started there pretty much. And it was very… It was really exciting. Even though it was not, you know, doing a Netflix TV show or anything, it was exciting just to be feeling close to it.
Kent Lamm
And then eventually we got to work inside the Netflix building and meet a bunch of Netflix employees, which was really cool. Doing those videos, they were essentially like talking head interview videos, but we had to find ways to make them interesting and exciting. And, that’s kind of still what I’m doing now on YouTube. I’ll pick some idea or topic to talk about, and then it’s my job to figure out how to make that interesting and engaging and exciting. So those skills definitely carried over to what I’m doing now. Uh, but yeah, I kind of transitioned. I knew I didn’t want to stick with being an editor, even though it started going really well and I started getting more clients. I started working at a digital ad agency and I got promoted to be their senior editor. And I was doing stuff for Apple TV and Apple Music and stuff, but I knew I didn’t want to stick with editing, so started looking for other ways to, you know, create the things that I wanted to create. And that’s where YouTube came in, especially during lockdown and the pandemic. Uh, I couldn’t go out and film anything. So I just started putting myself on camera on YouTube.
Daniel Jones
Yeah, I can tell that there’s like, I can see you not sticking with editing, right? Because you do so many different kinds of things, like even just on the YouTube channel. You’ve got Low Hanging Friends, which I was just cracking up at a second ago. And then you got like your horror short film, The Little Helpers. So what is it about? Like what maybe is your favorite genre to create in? And how does the process differ when you’re working on those different kinds of projects?
Kent Lamm
Yeah, thanks for shouting out the Low Hanging Friends. I feel like nobody watched that thing. That was my main, my first thing during the pandemic. I was like, oh, I can’t film anything, but I really want to make something. And then just like, okay, I’ll make a little stop motion animation show out of fruit.
Daniel Jones
Yeah, we always got to shout that out. I know that probably took a long time to make.
Kent Lamm
Yeah, it did. But it was a lot of fun to try to learn a new way to do something. I’d never done stop motion before. And then for the second episode I did, I wanted it to take place in different environments. So I taught myself 3D and figured out how to make a 3D set for these little fruit people to live in. So that it could be like a psychiatrist’s office. And I was like, oh, now I can make things that take place anywhere.
But it just took so long to film those things that I kind of burned myself out on it. But yeah, I do love doing kind of all types of stories, so comedies and horror, and just like a character driven drama. It’s all really exciting to me. So I have a hard time sticking to one thing and maybe branding myself as like a director.
I’m doing a genre, for example, like a horror film or even a comedy, to me, usually I want it to work even if you stripped away the genre element to it. And that’s how you know you got something really good, usually. So if it’s a horror film, okay, if you took away the scary aspect, would there be an interesting or engaging story or characters that you cared about?
Daniel Jones
Hmm.
Kent Lamm
I don’t know if I always hit that mark, but that’s what I strive for and what I think about the most.
Daniel Jones
100%.
Eliza Fillo
I think that’s a really good point about like, when you strip it all away, that stories should just like have something to say. And do you always feel like, because you are someone that makes or writes stories and tells stories through film, what do you think the importance of that is, one? And then two, do you always feel like that gets the credit it deserves or that people prioritize that, the mode of storytelling through video?
Kent Lamm
Yeah, that’s one of the main reasons I wanted to start my channel and also why I named it Standard Story Company. Me and my friend Chris, who, you know, we grew up making these films together and we both just felt like, especially as the whole like YouTube filmmaker wave started coming, there was just less and less emphasis on the actual fundamentals of storytelling with these short films you’d see online. Even with like feature films that you go see in the theater, it just felt like other things were becoming more flashy and pressing, especially for aspiring filmmakers like cinematography or the visual effects or, you know, fancy transitions and things that, in my opinion, don’t really matter all that much or take such a second seat compared to just like the foundation of what is the story and who are the characters in it.
So that’s kind of what we were pushing for. That’s why we called it Standard Story Company. And that’s really the main thing that I wanted to differentiate myself with compared to other YouTube channels that talk about filmmaking. It’s pretty uncommon to find channels that are concerned about just how to tell a good story and make a good film, even if you don’t have a great camera or a huge crew or all these resources.
You know, it’s kind of like a cliche at this point, but you really can take your phone and go make a really engaging, entertaining, and artistically sound film if you are thinking kind of just from the story perspective the whole time. And yeah, that’s kind of the answer to your other question too. I think the story really is what brings people to movies and books and everything. I mean, even an engaging conversation at a certain level… there’s a narrative to it. And that’s just kind of how our brains work, is through narrative, I think. And you tell stories about yourself, you tell stories to yourself about other people, and you might not even be fully aware of these stories, but it’s just, it’s just how our brains operate. Like causation, you know, this person is like this because of this and they’re probably going to do this.
So it’s like you’re forming stories about everything and everybody in your life. And I just think that there’s good ways to tell those stories and there’s less effective ways to tell those stories. So that’s what I hope to keep exploring with the channel.
Daniel Jones
Mm-hmm. You know, I’d be remiss to not mention your luscious hair. It’s really beautiful.
Kent Lamm
Hey, thanks so much.
Kent Lamm
Really, it’s so full. It’s just flowing right over the headphones. It’s amazing.
Daniel Jones
Well, y’all blessed me hosting this on a good hair day. So thank you for that. Thanks for working with my hair schedule on this.
Daniel Jones
Hey, yeah, we only try to work with hair schedules. We don’t care what your voice is like, whatever, how’s your hair? But you know, we’re talking, I’m sorry, this is my dog. She’s ready to eat. But when we’re talking about YouTube and this space that, you know, has opened up for, you know, all kinds of creatives right now. Anybody can go out on YouTube, make their channel or put their work out.
Daniel Jones
So you end up with a lot of people that are putting out mediocre work, but then you also end up with people like Issa Rae, who started doing her show right there, and now she’s on HBO and has her own company. Quinta Brunson or It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, they filmed their pilot all by themselves. So it also opens up opportunities for all these other great things to happen. Do you think it’s a space that is becoming oversaturated, or it’s more of an opportunity for people right now?
Kent Lamm
Well, I remember… So back in like 2015, me and my friends who were making all these shorts together talked about doing a lot more YouTube content and documenting how we were making films and everything. And he was very like, “We should do that. That’d be a good idea.” And I was saying back then, like, how it’s so saturated… people are doing all this stuff, nobody’s going to watch this. And also I don’t want to be known for how I make a movie. I just want to be known for the work itself and let that stand for itself. And so I was like, “No, we’re not going to do that.” And that was like, what eight years ago. So obviously that was probably the wrong decision. You know, the best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago and the second best time is today. That’s what they say. And I feel like that’s definitely the case.
I don’t think that YouTube is over-saturated at all. There’s a lot of people out there that are making content and some of them are making films. But if you really look at it, a lot of them are doing very similar stuff and I don’t think it’s that hard to set yourself apart in some way. And to just relentlessly play to your own advantages and your own interests and just kind of ignore everything else.
Daniel Jones
Mm.
Kent Lamm
And I think a lot of people are scared to do that. They’re scared to separate themselves and do things that are different from what other people are doing. And I fall into that trap myself too at times, but really it is the best way to approach it. I’ve noticed anytime I put out a video that’s like more and more off the beaten path, if I’m able to get people to actually watch the thing, the comments that I get on the video are like, oh my God, this was so refreshing. This is so different from all these other like quote-unquote, you know, filmmakers on here. So yeah, I think people should jump on it.
And you’d also don’t even have to like, you know, people get embarrassed understandably about maybe putting themselves on camera and putting themselves out there, which I certainly was too. I mean, the first videos that I made on YouTube, I usually would end up filming it, editing it, scrapping it and then refilming the entire thing. Because I was like, why was I talking so monotone? Why was my energy so low? Why was I stumbling over so many words? And so I was very critical of myself and how I came off in the early videos. And then eventually you just kind of stop caring. And now I only reshoot a video if, which this also happens, if there’s cat fur just floating all over my face. So I don’t let them in here anymore most of the time.
But yeah, you don’t even have to be necessarily talking to the camera like this. You could just be doing it, you know, first person POV with a GoPro on you and then just voiceover how you made the film, you know, and just use this as B-roll the whole time. Like there’s other ways, and that might be an even better formula. People might like that more because it’s less in your face, and it’s more chill. And so there’s a lot of ways to do it. And I don’t think there’s really any harm in doing it.
Daniel Jones
Is that how you got past the initial, kind of, fear of being on camera or being the person that this is about? By kind of just finding the angle that really worked for you?
Kent Lamm
Um, yeah. I mean, there’s a lot of comfort for me knowing that, well, I was going to be editing this thing. I knew I was going to be at least as charismatic as some random engineer at Netflix who I used to have to edit and make them be interesting and engaging. So I was like, all right, if I can just do that, it shouldn’t be too high of a bar. And then just knowing that I could always just not release the video, especially in the early days.
I didn’t have sponsors or anything like that. Nobody was asking for any of these videos. So I could put out a video, or I could just be silent for a month and nobody would care. So I was like, well, if I don’t like the video, then I just won’t put it out. But I’d also send it to my friend, Chris, and send it to a couple of other people before I posted it. I’d be like, what do you think? And then if they had positive things to say, that made me feel better about it. And then eventually, just like with everything else, short films or stuff you write, stuff you do for work, whatever… you get enough reps in, and you start to be able to be objective about yourself. And then you just kind of know if it’s good, bad, or somewhere in between.
Daniel Jones
Hmm. You hear that kids? Kent said, do it now while nobody’s watching. It’ll feel way better. Yeah.
Eliza Fillo
Haha.
Kent Lamm
It’s true. Even if you don’t release it, just do it to practice. Like you never know. Maybe one day you’ll need some of these skills. And actually as a director, I feel like it’s really beneficial to kind of gain that sense of how you’re coming across to people. Because you have to set the tone for how your set is going to run. You have to be able to, I mean, communication is probably the number one skill after, you know, just having literacy as a filmmaker if you’re gonna be a director. So I found it very beneficial just to kind of know how my energy is coming across to people when I’m on set. Because I definitely was in the camp of being very monotone and serious, and people being like, oh my God, why does he hate me? I think this was more before I started doing these videos and seeing how droll I was most of the time.
Daniel Jones
Yeah. I think people forget that too, what you just said about doing it just for practice, right? Because we spend a lot of time on things like this, but we forget about the actual reps and the repetition of making videos, recording videos, and how that will help speed up our process and bring those skills out later on.
Kent Lamm
Yeah. And there’s also something to be said just for… you learn something so much better when you’re forced to teach it than if you were just trying to understand it for yourself. And there’s plenty of things that I’ve made videos about on my channel that I kind of intuitively understood on some level, but I’d never had to articulate. And the process of articulating it and forming an entire lesson of how I would explain it to somebody else and coming up with specific examples to demonstrate it. It just like ingrained it into me so much better. And it makes it so much easier for me to keep an eye out for it in my own projects down the road. So I think that’s just another little perk of teaching the things that you know.
Eliza Fillo
That brings up a very weird memory that I have, because I had a filmmaker friend, and I would always ask him, like, how do you know these things? I think this was back in college, and I was trying to work with him on something, and I was just like, how do you know these things? And he was like, imagine if you were a really good chef, and you were trying to describe to someone who had no idea how to cook, what a soft boil was. You know, it’s like not a full boil, not a simmer. It’s one of those things that’s hard to actually describe until you’ve done it, perhaps maybe teach it to someone else. So I think you make a really good point in that. And you also said something that I thought was interesting, in that there are some overlaps between… the process between making YouTube content, and actually creating short films, or at least some things that can help you do both. But how does the process, I guess, look different between the two?
Kent Lamm
Sometimes it depends on the video and on the film. Because you can actually get to a point where you start to blur the lines a little bit. And I know recently I did this longer video about this thing called Gear Acquisition Syndrome, or GAS, where I had planned to do this video out in the desert. And I was going to be reviewing a bunch of gear that I’d been given for free. And I’d kind of gotten myself into this position where I had to review all this gear that I didn’t really want to review, but I had trapped myself because I’d said, “Yeah, I’ll take some free gear.” And so I was like, I’m just going to put them all into this one video. And the shoot went kind of south, and it went all screwy and I didn’t know what to do. And then I decided to take that footage and just go treat that whole experience like a story, and more like a film or like a documentary almost. And that’s what I did. And I wrote out… that was one of the only times where I’ve written a YouTube video out in like acts. So, you know, like act one, act two, act three. And I separated it into chapters even, and just really tried to treat it like a story and it worked so much better. And it kind of saved me from what would have been just a disastrous video.
Daniel Jones
Hmm.
Kent Lamm
It actually became probably my favorite video that I’ve done. And now I’m doing a short film next week that kind of feels like almost a hybrid YouTube video, in a way. Because it started with some ideas about your routine and your creativity, and how breaking your routine can kind of give you a little boost of creativity or resourcefulness. And then there was a nice way to couch it in like a total narrative, like just a short film format and kind of get the same ideas across. And so yeah, I’m going to shoot that next week. So sometimes the lines blur a little bit, but I do like… my goal with the channel is definitely to start treating just the videos about any topic, like how to write dialogue, whatever, and treat it more like a narrative as much as I can. Because I think it just makes the content more entertaining, more engaging. And if you’re able to do that while still teaching something, then you learn so much better. So it’s just a win all around. The only downside is I think it’s way harder to write a video that has a narrative in it while also teaching a lesson. So that’s the hard part.
Daniel Jones
Yeah, I can imagine. And I thought that was really cool what you just said about how you kind of revamped the footage you had because the shoot kind of didn’t go how you wanted, and you turned it into something that would definitely work. And I feel like I’m kind of in the position now, where I’m working with the company and making content based off of what they might have, or I might be making content off of just some footage that they’ve given me. What would you kind of suggest to somebody working in this space, that is maybe working with a client or working with just footage they have and they need to make something out of it?
Kent Lamm
And the footage isn’t up to snuff for you?
Daniel Jones
Up to snuff, maybe it is up to snuff. Or they just have to come up with the idea, right? Or they’re just working with something they didn’t shoot.
Kent Lamm
Oh yeah. I don’t know. I found that a lot of time for me, whether it’s a client job or something I’m doing myself or anything really, there’s always like a key. There’s one thing I have to find or figure out. And then when I do, it just opens up the whole project to me. And I found like, even when I’m doing just an interview edit or something… I’ll be doing it and it’s like, eh, okay. I’m just kind of stumbling in the dark, it feels like. I’m just putting one sound bite, another sound bite, here’s some B roll. But nothing’s really jumping out to me or making me feel like this is great, like this is going to work well. And then there’ll be one thing, like maybe I stumble into some transition or I find some music track that’s kind of weird, but somehow works well.
And then that just blows the whole thing open. And I just kind of lean into that and it makes it start working. And that’s especially the case with anything that’s narrative, or story based, or educational and there’s some idea. It’s like, you find this concept or idea, and that becomes your lens through which you see this video. And then that just opens up so many ideas and options for you.
Daniel Jones
Yeah. Mm. Yeah.
Kent Lamm
So yeah, I don’t know. It’s just, a lot of times you’ve just got to stumble in the dark until you find the thing that project is gonna need.
Daniel Jones
So don’t just sit there and stare at it. Start messing with it.
Kent Lamm
Yeah, you basically have to start even though you don’t know what you’re doing, which is pretty much what I do most of the time. Actually, one of the benefits of having the channel gain some popularity was once I started getting sponsored videos. That’s when I couldn’t just decide to not release a video, if I wrote something out and I was like, “Hmm, I don’t even like this. I’m just not going to release it.”
Once I got sponsored videos there that introduced the idea of deadlines into the channel. And that kind of forced me to have to figure things out. Which I’m actually grateful for, because I kind of need that in my life. Like I need structure and deadlines. And when you’re working for yourself essentially, it’s hard, so you have to create those for yourself. And the sponsored thing is kind of one way to do it. And I’ll intentionally give myself deadlines that are a little uncomfortably tight, so that I’m forced to figure things out in like a nice little timeframe. Because I work better under a little bit of pressure like that.
Daniel Jones
Yeah. You’re doing that kind of work? You know, where you have to organize all your footage, organize shoots, make sure everybody’s on the same page? For somebody like me, who’s not very organized, how do you make sure that happens? How do you force yourself to be organized?
Kent Lamm
I’m kind of instinctively the same way. I don’t really like to be, I thought I was organized my whole life. And then I got a job at some random company doing marketing stuff, and I realized very quickly how unorganized I was because I could not keep up with all the things that were happening. So it’s just about systems for me. Like if I have a system and I can just stick to that and it accommodates all the things that are going on, then it becomes pretty easy. And for me, I just have like, you know, to-do lists are kind of the most simple system that I have. And I just try to never trust myself to remember anything ever. And if I have a thought of like, oh, that should be done at some point, then I just write it down in this to-do list app called Tick Tick that I use, which is great because you can also set things by priority and by date that you want it done. And then it’ll just, I know it’ll remind me next week or whatever like, oh, don’t forget to do that thing. So that. And then also as far as like the actual process of working with footage and editing and posting and all that stuff, that I just, again, was kind of forced to get good at. Because when I was doing those Netflix videos especially, that was usually working with a team of editors. So if you’re the sloppy one, then when you’re handing projects off to each other, everybody knows. And there’s always the one editor that everyone’s like, oh, I gotta work on this guy’s project now. Like, this is gonna be, this is gonna be insane. And then there’s the other people that you’re like, I’m so glad I get to work on their project because it’s gonna be color coded. Everything’s gonna have its own little bin. It’s gonna be so… like everything just makes sense when you look at it. So, you know, I just tried to be like those guys. Try to be the person you’d want to work with. And then if you can do that for yourself, even if you’re not handing off material, then it makes it a lot easier for future you to be able to go into an old video, pull some B-roll that you want to reuse for your next video and stuff like that.
Daniel Jones
Hmm. Yeah, I feel that. I mean, like sometimes the project prepares you for it. Sometimes you have to accept something even though you know you’re not quite ready and snap into position.
Kent Lamm
Oh yeah, most of the time. When I first started editing, I kind of had no idea what I was doing. I was just totally like faking it until I made it for the first, I don’t know, half a year, probably. There would just be random things that were like, now looking back on it I’m like, that’s such day one stuff. And people would drop it in conversation, and I had no idea what they were talking about. And I was just like, “Yes.”
Daniel Jones
Yeah, absolutely.
Kent Lamm
But you kind of get away with it. And then you realize the further you go, especially with film, like working, even with really seasoned people… somebody will just drop a term or I’ll drop a term or they’ll drop a term, and one of us will just have no idea what they’re talking about. And it’s like, oh, I thought this was super common. But there’s just so much terminology, you know, editing is the same thing. So much technical information, that it’s really easy to have a blind spot in some little lane.
Daniel Jones
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Kent Lamm
And then you realize, oh, it doesn’t really matter. Because people who are way more experienced than me don’t know little random things that I know, and vice versa. So it’s just how it goes. And there’s really no shame in just being like, “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Can you explain that to me?”
Daniel Jones
Yeah, that’s my favorite thing, man. Once I finally got over, like, asking questions and not worrying about if people think I’m dumb for not knowing this, you know, I got to learn a bunch more.
Kent Lamm
Oh. Yeah, it’s huge.
Eliza Fillo
And what would you say to someone who is like, oh, well, I need to go to film school to learn all of this? Because I know one of your recent videos is kind of a case against this or another pathway that is not necessarily film school.
Kent Lamm
Yeah, I didn’t go because I didn’t get in twice in a row. So I just gave up on the idea of going to film school. But I don’t think that film school is necessarily bad at all. It’s just, you have to do what’s right for you. And at this point, obviously, with any creative field, there’s just so much education available online that I think it’s less and less necessary to go to an institution to learn these things. But, there’s other things that are… you just have to be real with yourself. And you know, if you’re not self-motivated and a self-starter, then film school might be better because it might give you that kick in the pants you need. Or if you don’t have any kind of community or little tiny network, or even like one buddy that you can make stuff with, then it becomes a lot harder.
So film school gives you the opportunity to have a workshop environment where people are giving you feedback and critiquing your projects. And you learn so much that way. It really is so important to have peers that you can bounce things off of and learn from and get feedback from. So that is something that you’d have to develop for yourself if you don’t go to film school. Which you can still do, like there’s so many groups. You can probably go to like meetup.com and find 10 groups of screenwriters in your town that are meeting up. But you’ve just got to be willing to put in the extra legwork to create those environments for yourself.
Daniel Jones
Yeah.
Eliza Fillo
How did you create your network? Like not having gone to film school, is that how you did it? Finding people like on Facebook or Craigslist or Meetup, what have you?
Kent Lamm
Yeah, just all different kinds of places. In the beginning, it was really just me and my friend Chris who were both living out here. So we would kind of, we were kind of the core of it. We’d come up with ideas together and try to start putting them together. Then he was also an actor, so he would be in these acting classes and we’d be able to find a lot of actors just from people he knew, which was really helpful. And then we had just some random people from USC. You know, I wasn’t in the film school at USC, but we made a few friends who were in the film school. And then, yeah, we’d hire people off Craigslist for random short film shoots. And some of them were really good at what they did. And we’d work with them more.
And, you know, like with anything else, you know, you meet one person and get a good working relationship with them and then they introduce you to their circle. And so you start to expand a little bit. But networking is probably one of my biggest weaknesses as a filmmaker and it’s such an important skill, especially if you’re living in Los Angeles or something like I am. So it’s another reason why I think the YouTube channel has been a big benefit for me because I’m such, just like a, you know, I’ll just hold myself up in my house and just work on little projects on my own if I’m left to my own devices a lot. So by just putting the same things that I’m doing just out to the world, it kind of makes the networking come to me more, which is much easier for me. Because I have a hard time just being like, “Hey, I’m Ken, I’m a filmmaker, how’s it going? Let’s work on something together.” Like I’ve never mastered how to do that without feeling weird about it, so.
Daniel Jones
Yeah. I feel that. Speaking of that, let’s talk to the young Kents or like the young filmmakers out there that don’t have a budget, that wanna make some stuff. They might have a computer, a camera.
Kent Lamm
Great head of hair.
Daniel Jones
What do you think is the short list of things that they need to make that budget short film?
Kent Lamm
Well, the script is the number one thing. It’s just so so hard to do anything good without a script that is working. After that… I always think of it as the script is up here, the actors or whatever talent that’s in front of the camera is right below that, and then everything else is like a pretty big jump down to me, including directing, honestly. Like directing is important, but if your script is banging, if your actors are really good, then there’s only so bad you can make your film. The edit is important just in the sense that you need to be good enough to at least not make your edit distractingly bad, but that’s not, that’s not a super high bar.
The big thing though is just to play to your strengths. So everybody has their own strengths and weaknesses. And I think the trap that a lot of people fall into is to try to make films that are like somebody else’s films, which is usually going to mean that you’re doing stuff that you’re not that great at because you want it to be like somebody else’s projects. Whereas if you were to just completely reverse engineer your whole film, based on just what you’re really good at, then you would end up with such a better product.
So for example, if I suck at editing, but I have… I’m really good at lighting, for example. And it’s like, all right, I’m going to figure out a story that I can do that is really simple as far as like, you know, maybe there’s not that many shots, it’s a lot of extended takes so that I can just kind of line up the shots and the edits done essentially. But I’ll be able to light the hell out of this thing. It’s going to look really cinematic. And you know, again, because I’m not a good editor, maybe I’ll put my energy into finding somebody to edit or sound design this thing and just cover up my weaknesses that way. So you can find other people to accommodate your weaknesses and really try to create your film entirely based on the strengths that you already have, the resources that you already have. Like, you know, most people live somewhere, so why don’t you make that the setting for your film? It’s so much easier than making the setting of your film like the Grand Canyon or, you know, something that’s really hard to get a permit at or go film at or to rent. So that’s what I always tell people, like just reverse engineer wherever possible. And that’s how you get to make more films and usually make better films too.
Daniel Jones
Hmm. For me personally, I feel like one of my biggest weaknesses is lighting. Um, I just don’t have a clue. What are some of the biggest lighting mistakes?
Kent Lamm
Yeah, that was one of my big weak areas too, for the longest time. And then I eventually just threw myself into the deep end and started shooting a lot of more stuff on my own. A lot of times it’s just, there’s like a few little lighting hacks that you can learn. It’s like that 80-20 rule, where you can get 80% of the results with 20% of the knowledge or the work.
And so finding the most impactful stuff. Like for example, there’s having your key light be away from the camera. So, for example, it’s kind of happening right now on my face. You see how this side of my face is bright and the side that’s facing the camera is more in shadow. And I can make it more significant by turning this little light off here. Like that’s a more cinematic pleasing image, because it’s bringing out the contour of my face and it’s giving more contrast to my, you know, face, versus if this was super bright, you’re just getting flat lighting essentially on my face and it doesn’t really work as well. So things like that, very easy. And then there’s just other little things like sometimes lighting… It can be hard to separate lighting from the actual composition and camera angles that you’re using. Because you can have a well lit shot, but if you’re standing in front of a white wall, then it’s not going to look nice, versus the same exact lighting but there’s a hallway behind you and you’re getting all this depth behind the person. And then suddenly it looks way more pleasing to have that depth in the frame. But yeah, three point lighting is like most of what I know and do. And that’s such a fundamental thing. Just to have like, you know, a brighter light on one side, a slightly less brighter light over here, maybe a light behind to make them separate from the background a little bit. Maybe bring up some light on the hairline there. But there’s a lot of variations of that and usually works pretty well. And then, you know, anything else you want to do, it’s like, sometimes I think the rules of things like lighting don’t matter so much compared to the knowledge that you have of what you’re trying to achieve with a shot.
So for example, if you’re doing… oh, there goes the cat on the door. If you’re doing a shot about, you know, somebody’s darkest moment or something like that, then you can justify, I’m going to have them totally silhouetted here in front of a window, a bright window. And, you know, maybe technically this isn’t the best lighting, but for the story it is. And you can make it work that way.
Daniel Jones
Mm-hmm. Right.
Eliza Fillo
I know.
Kent Lamm
But other than that, any other lighting tips… it’s like, you just gotta work with somebody who knows what they’re doing and just watch and ask questions. Like an actual director of photography. Or just practice and try different things for yourself. Yeah, that’s pretty much it.
Daniel Jones
Talk about it.
Eliza Fillo
Yeah, I think as someone who does not make film at all, I’ve learned a lot today. And I’m going to shameless plug your short form video course that I know exists. Can you tell us a little bit about that if someone else wants to learn more as well?
Kent Lamm
Nice. Sure. Yeah. It’s called Wrapped In 30 days, and it’s specifically for making narrative short films in a month. So for me, I was trying to figure out like I wanted to do some kind of course for people because the YouTube videos are so just random. Like I’ll do a video about screenwriting, a video about lighting, about editing. And so I’m just jumping around, but I wanted to have something that was like more of a training program for somebody to kind of get to the next level. And originally I was like, well, I’ll just spend a month. I’ll make a little course and I’ll put it out there for like 50 bucks and teach people just some basics of making a short film. And then once I started doing it, I realized how much there is to getting people to the level that I wanted to get them, and then it became like a year long project.
Anyways, it’s finally available now. But yeah, the idea is to make a crowd-pleasing, narrative short film in 30 days. To write it, to shoot it, and then after the 30 days you can edit it on your own time. But yeah, we’ve had like 130 some students join so far, and it’s really cool. It’s very satisfying to watch these people who, maybe they haven’t made a film in years and like they’re finally getting off their butts going to film something, or they’ve never made a film, some of them, and they’re finally making their first film. And they’re doing it really quickly, and they’re doing it without spending a ton of money that they don’t need to spend. And then they’ll post it and they’ll get feedback in our little Discord server. It’s, it’s really fun to watch and to help guide some of these people as they get their footing on these short films. Yeah, I don’t know, it’s been cool. And it just launched, like I did a beta test of it with 50 people. And I was just gonna see how it went with them, and it went well and they made, a lot of them made their films and a lot of them were good and cool. Just released it a couple of weeks ago, like publicly for everybody and yeah. It’s going well. Hopefully the launch class will be wrapping their short films in the next week or so. And then they’ll start on the editing part soon.
Daniel Jones
There’s something really cool about teaching people something and then watching them experience the joy of completing that project.
Kent Lamm
Oh yeah, the first guy that sent me his short film, he edited the whole thing too within that first month. And so just getting that email and being like, “Hey, I made my short film, like, thanks so much, blah, blah.” And then he sent me the thing and I was like, whoa. It blew my mind. And then I watched it and I was like, this is legitimately funny. Like he made a good little comedy short film. And yeah, just very very cool to see.
Daniel Jones
Like yeah.
Eliza Fillo
Okay, well, I think we are gonna wrap it up here. Thank you so much for coming on the show. It has been an absolute pleasure. Is there anything that you wanna leave us with? You’re welcome to plug anything.
Kent Lamm
Sure, yeah, thanks for having me. You can check out Standard Story Company on YouTube or go to standardstoryco.com. And that’s about it, really. Yeah, thanks.
Eliza Fillo
Well, thank you again.
Daniel Jones
Thanks so much.
Eliza Fillo
Thanks for joining us today. Be sure to subscribe and rate the podcast. And if there’s anything you’d like to hear us discuss, reach out on Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn.
Daniel Jones
And as always, stay optimistic.
