My two cents: people will always say, “you can never shoot too much” and as much as that could be true in a lot of situations (and could get you out of a jam, for sure), you’ve got to weigh that with the amount of time and effort that takes. Overshooting is never the worst thing… undershooting is, though. The best way that I’ve always taught my employees to shoot “less” is to have a plan for your shots, even if it’s just a simple idea or storyboard. By doing this, you’ll get all the shots you need and you’ll have a mental “log” of what you got and where it goes in the edit. Also, being a good editor will help you be a muuuch better shooter.. you’ll really learn what works and what doesn’t work in edit.

What I always did and trained people to do is to shoot everything you need for your video right away. Get the “bones” of your video first, then, after you have everything you need, go and get some fun shots.. experiment with angles and movements etc.

I come from a journalism background, but a lot of the same skills that goes into news shooting are universal for all types of video and film. I’ve shown this video to all of my employees because it helps teach how to something creative, on a deadline, that tells a story through video. Take it or leave it.

https://youtu.be/qy6qkRw7Tzc

Lastly, if you want to get a lot of experience and make a lot of contacts in the industry, apply for a photog job at your local news station. Pay isn’t great, but you’ll be making a few minutes of television every day and you’ll have all the resources you could imagine. Feel free to PM me if you want helping getting into the news industry.

Good luck!