Youtube Channel Finds
David F. Sandberg aka 'ponysmasher'.
Youtube gets a lot of bad rep, fair enough, but in terms of filmmaking (and a lot of other art forms, too!), Youtube is a freaking gold mine. There are hundreds of Youtube channels out there by aspiring (or even very successful) filmmakers sharing their experience, advice, gear lists, rig builds, light choices, storytelling techniques, and so much more. Most of them are good, some are great, and some I personally watch with a grain of salt, but the principle remains - for 95% of filmmaking questions, there’s an answer out there somewhere on Youtube. That’s awesome.
Most of these Youtube channels are tech-related, and of the rare few that focus more on directorial technique, even less are ran by working film directors. I’ve shared before how valuable I think Film Courage is, those guys invite some awesome guests and ask some fantastic questions, but that channel is interview format only.
Then you have ponysmasher. That’s David F. Sandberg’s channel.
David F. Sandberg’s story is awesome. He worked in animation for a while, but was still having some creative itch that wasn’t really getting scratched, so he decided to make no budgets shorts and upload them to Youtube. People loved them, and soon he made a horror feature called Lights Out, then Annabelle: Creation, and later a little indie called Shazam!, and a sequel to that indie, too. He talks about this and a lot more on Film Riot’s podcast, I really recommend you listen to it, it’s about a lot of valuable things and shines a new light on Hollywood filmmaking.
David F. Sandberg makes Youtube videos, and that’s what this newsletter is about - I recommend you give them a watch. They are unlike anything else because they are made by a film director rather than a filmmaker (there is a difference, in my opinion, maybe I’ll chat about that a different time) and he talks about niche things he’s been through in his career.
Recently I’ve been thinking about the best way to communicate exactly what you see in your head to your team - David speaks about that here (although these tips do require a fair bit of animation skills, but it’s still cool to know a successful director’s process). In this video he shares random things he’s learned as a film director, in this one he talks about light, in this one he speaks about Hollywood a bit more. My favorite ponysmasher video is this one, where he breaks down the most niche problem ever and explains in full detail how he found a solution - because being a film director is, more than anything, finding great solutions to problems all the freaking time. He even has a full series out about what it was like to make Annabelle: Creation.
If you’re looking to learn a little bit about the creative side of filmmaking rather than the technical side, I recommend this Youtube channel. There really isn’t another director of such scope ‘making content’, so this is definitely a unique perspective.