I feel like I spent the first year or more making things online for my girlfriend and my mom. Same process every time: I’d spend entire days hammering away at my desk, trying to craft the most compelling script possible. Write. Rewrite. Rewrite again. After a few marathon sessions putting fingers to keyboard, I’d finally land on something I thought was worth sharing. I’d shoot it, hit post, and wait for the world to tell me whether or not I was good enough for them to tune in.. No views. No traction. Just silence for weeks. Then months. Cracking the attention code is one of the most challenging parts of existing online. And honestly? It’s also one of the most soul-crushing. You try to show up authentically. You pour yourself into stories. And people just scroll right past. That’s when it hit me: I had the stories. I knew how to communicate. But I wasn’t presenting them in a way that made people stop. I’ve been a filmmaker for over a decade so why wasn’t I using that skillset? I didn’t want to make content that looked basic. I wanted it to feel like it belonged on a big screen even if it was just showing up in someone’s feed. So I started focusing on how to elevate the look. Little by little, I sprinkled in more cinematic visuals, images that actually stood out in a sea of instant-gratification trends. And that’s when everything shifted. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Storytelling is the most important thing if you want to build real connection. But people won’t hear your story unless they stop scrolling long enough to listen. That’s where Short Form Filmmaker comes in. After a year of posting elevated cinematic content and watching my audience grow fast, I knew I had to build something to help others do the same. I spent years learning how to shoot like a filmmaker. Digging through forums, watching hundreds of hours of YouTube tutorials. But most people don’t have that kind of time. You’re building this on the side of a full-time job. You’re doing this because you want to live life on your own terms. So instead of making a full-blown cinematography masterclass, I built Short Form Filmmaker to answer one question: How do I make my content look 10x better this week? The course is designed so you can grab your camera, follow along, and in less than 2 hours—shoot content that looks and feels cinematic. Once you fall in love with the process, then you can dive deeper into the theory. But this? This is about fast results and unlocking your unfair advantage. So if you know you’ve got something to say Short Form Filmmaker is the fastest way to say it and get people to actually listen. You can check it out here And as always, my door’s open. Hit reply and let me know what you’re working on or struggling with. I hope it helps, Caleb |
Motivating the pursuit of passion through the lens of filmmaking.
I remember seeing John Wick in theaters back in 2014. I was already living in New Orleans at the time, pursuing being an actor but had recently been introduced to the stunts world. Seeing this film sealed the deal. As I watched John Wick debut a completely new type of action and fight choreography, it lit a fire in me. I wanted to be a part of that world. That was the beginning of my pivot into stunts. I knew what I wanted, but I had zero idea how I was going to get there. And maybe thats...
The Opportunity It's a normal afternoon in 2022. I'm eating lunch with Laura when my phone lights up. I haven't exactly been expecting this call, but I was hoping for it (a part of me anyway). My heart starts to race as I pick it up. "Hey man!" I say to my friend (and frequent stunt coordinator boss) "What's going on?" "Hey buddy, So I got that call for Ballerina like we were hoping, and I just wanted to ask you if you wanted to be my Fight Coordinator for it." My heart starts beating a...
We've All Been Trapped Society has been designed to get you to fit into its neat little paradigm. Go to school, learn a bunch of mostly useless things (past grade school anyway). go to college where you accumulate debt, start a career to pay off that debt, work your ass off til you're too old to pursue anything else, retire and live frugally til you die. No thanks. But what absolutely blows my mind is that 90 percent of people out there, are going to do this exact thing. They have this idea...