to us, education is distilling a concept or idea down to it’s simplest form, and then bringing it back up to a point where we as filmmakers can make relevant and meaningful decisions to the stories we’re telling.
for instance, if someone asks us what specific light modifier should they be using for a particular shot? before we can truly answer that, they need to understand what each modifier is going to do. before we can teach that, they need to understand the qualities of light, and before we can teach that, they need to know what a stop of light actually is and how it’s measured. only after all that can we truly answer the first question in a way that’s relevant to the story they’re trying to tell.

we take that concept and apply it to all of our education. start what, move to how, and end with why. the idea is quite simple, but in order to make educated decisions as a filmmaker, you have to know what you’re going to be saying if you make a certain decision, and only then can you determine if that’s the right decision to make.
just providing the solution but not explaining all of the other aspects of the question will not provide a solid foundation to make the next educated decision on your own. whether we’re teaching about lenses, light, camera movement, storytelling or editing, every decision you make along the way matters and it’s our goal with education to empower you to make educated decisions at every step of your production. it’s going to mean more powerful stories, with each frame saying exactly what you want it to say.
while we’re educating, we carry this concept over in a number of ways. the first being live demonstration (either demos by us or hands on training with you) – the what’s and hows – the concept of light and what a stop of light is can be rather difficult to understand by reading a bunch of text. but set up a light, bring in a model in, and pull out a light meter and all of a sudden the concept becomes much easier to understand. in addition, while we’re there we can also talk about the inverse square law and just how it applies to light loss or gain depending on how you move your light – again, a concept that’s difficult to understand, unless you see it happening right in front of you. the same goes with the physics of a steadicam – we can talk all we want about how to properly operate a steadicam, but it’s all very moot until you’re physically in on and we’re teaching you the ins and outs while you’re flying a rig.



educational events play a huge role in that. not just educational events we attend as guests, but also those where we’re the educators.
KNOW is about finding your voice as a storyteller – how your light, audio, lenses, composition and edit shape your story. 
music selection for a film certainly isn’t an easy task. while VO and nat sounds are incredibly important to story, soundtrack (or in some cases, lack thereof) is also so important to drive just how you want your viewers to feel. to do that effectively, you really need to know the story and how you want your viewers to feel to select the perfect track or series of tracks.


