Level Up Your Filmmaking Skills With YouTube

Posted on: Aug 21, 2025

Photo Credit: gorodenkoff // iStockphoto

By Jessica Mathis

With college tuition going up, and “To film school, or not to film school?” being the question for many years, YouTube has emerged as a resource for many who wish to gain or improve their skills. From writing to post-production, there is a wealth of knowledge—and opinions—to build a solid start from. Creators from all over the world share their knowledge freely.

Key Insights

- YouTube has become a valuable, free resource for learning every aspect of filmmaking, from screenwriting to post-production.
- Creators share professional knowledge, tips, and hacks that can benefit both beginners and experienced filmmakers.
- The content covers a wide range of disciplines, including screenwriting, on-set work, audio, editing, and gear reviews.

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I’ve certainly waded my way through a few Adobe After Effects challenges or found lighting inspiration thanks to them. Even for formally educated crew members or filmmakers, these channels hold invaluable tips, hacks, and suggestions to be more efficient and produce higher quality results. Below is a curated list of some of the most popular and useful YouTube channels I enjoy across the various disciplines of indie filmmaking.

Screenwriting

Lessons from the Screenplay: This channel uses a blend of interesting discussions with professionals about popular films to examine the different elements of screenwriting and how-to’s. For example, breaking down Bond films to show how action can reveal character.
Michael Jamin: Michael Jamin is a screenwriter and showrunner who shares many experiential tips related to the business of writing. From what writers should be paid in residuals to what you should include in a pitch deck, his videos inform writers about the culture and expectations of the industry.
Jacob Krueger Studio: This channel has some analysis of films, but focuses on practical elements within screenplays and how to improve them. It’s a video version of his podcast. They also offer free weekly “Thursday Night Writes,” where they teach writers and build community.

Filmmaking

Film Riot: This high-quality YouTube channel’s content ranges from revealing how effects were created in classic movies to instruction on improving camera shots and what type of shots to use for different situations. It’s a good blend of theory and practical practice to help improve your skills.
Brady Bessette: This is a great general information channel that covers all sorts of hacks, tips, and how-to’s for indie filmmaking. For example, how to create a fake sunrise or sunset.
Epic Light Media: While the channel is not terribly active anymore, the content provides solid “how-to’s” and hacks related to camera and lighting work. It’s great for one-man bands, with indie videographers providing services to clients.

On Set

Gaffer & Gear: It’s all about the lighting, which means lots of gear. This channel details everything gaffers need to know to get the job done. The in-depth reviews and explanations of different lighting tools are invaluable.
The Set-Design Channel: This channel delves into British film and TV with discussions, builds, plans, and tips for designing and building sets.

Audio

Sound and Post Audio with Curtis Judd: This channel does some great deep dives into improving your audio recording and post-audio clean up or tools. You can find plugins, discussions with audio pros, and tutorials.
Post Audio Workflow with Tom Efinger: This channel has clear tutorials related to post-audio. You’ll learn about editing voice-over, cleaning up audio, reverb, mixdowns, and more.
Mike Hall Musical Compositions: For filmmakers looking for musical tracks they can afford, Mike has a trove of tracks you can license from him at an affordable rate.

Editing

Premiere Gal: If you use Adobe products for post-production, this channel has lots of great tutorials for you. It’s clear and fun to watch, and the tutorials go beyond Premiere to include motion graphics and visual effects.
Davinci Resolve Tutorials with Casey Faris: This channel has tutorials for various software like Blender, Davinci Resolve, and others. Davinci is a preference for many, and Faris walks you through common needs within the software.
Tips for Color Grading with Waqas Qazi: There are lots of interesting topics and tips for color graders in this channel of information solely dedicated to the art of color grading video. The focus is on Davinci Resolve and offers many useful walkthroughs.

Gear

Philip Bloom: Philip has a monstrous horde of useful product reviews related to filmmaking, for drones, lenses, cameras, and more.

These are just a few of the many useful YouTube channels related to indie filmmaking or skills and technique. In case anyone is interested in veering into the world of instructional content, there seems to be a vacuum in areas related to craft services, production management, and the art department. I’ll applaud you and be ever grateful like I am to these individuals, as the exciting online community of creatives continues to grow.

Key Takeaways

YouTube offers a massive library of free, high-quality filmmaking tutorials that are perfect for self-starters.
The channels listed provide a well-rounded education across key disciplines like screenwriting, editing, and sound design.
There’s an opportunity for new creators to fill a gap in the market by creating instructional content for areas like craft services and production management.

Jessica Mathis (AKA Divinity Rose) is an award winning screenwriter/performer/producer from Louisville, Kentucky. She is the CEO of She Dreams Content Development and Production, which focuses on female-forward projects in comedy, docustyle and genre entertainment.

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