To hone the creative skills needed to be a master visual story-teller, it’s easiest to begin with simple visual drawings. No expensive equipment needed! Beginning Film School students are usually given assignments using simple still pictures.

You put a guy with slicked-back hair and tattoos in a leather jacket, have him pull up on a beat-up motorcycle, and that just screams, "No good wandering Romeo," don’t ya think?

If you want awesome video of your lead singer walking along a mystical, foggy, steaming river with dramatic orange lighting, you have three basic choices. Find such a river, find footage of such a river, or re-create it yourself.

The mark of a professional-looking video is consistent technical quality. If a pro can’t get the lighting right, they’re fired. Pros train to get the technical stuff right, then they go on to learn the art of visual story-telling. The viewer gets absorbed in the story and the professional gets another paycheck.

If you’re new to video production, the thought of creating your own story can be both thrilling and intimidating. How do you tell a story about your niche: organic gardening?

No matter what type of video you're making, the first step is ALWAYS to consider your audience. WHO is the video intended for and WHAT do you want them to get out of it? The answers to those two questions will determine most everything else.

Narration is an extremely common way to tell a story in film and video no matter what style you choose.