Shadowing Practice: Making a Documentary From Start to Finish - Beginner Tips - Learn English Speaking with Video

I don't know about you, but planning and shooting documentaries has always been the fun part for me.

Even the edit process, as tedious as it can be, has its moments when you feel like your story is really coming together.

But finishing something, like finally exporting it and sharing it with the world type of finishing, is something else entirely.

The rollercoaster of excitement, emotions, and usually a healthy quantity of regrets thrown in that filmmakers go through is, for me anyways, a huge part of why this job is so stimulating.

Making a film from start to finish is fun, nerve -wracking, incredibly frustrating, and ultimately one of the most satisfying things I could ever imagine doing with my time.

So in this video I'm going to share some of the

key takeaways from each stage of the production process from pre -pro to filming

and through to the edit so

that you can get some ideas for what to do

and maybe more importantly what not to do on your next film

and at the end i'll break down exactly how much we spent to make this film happen

and let you know where and when you can see the full version

but for now let's get into it

and explain why i'm sitting out here in the middle of

the forest right away you can probably see i'm not in

my studio like normal i'm actually way up north in the

canadian arctic for the next three months for a shoot hence the radio

and bear spray and the fact that i haven't changed my clothes in three days

that all means that my videos for a

while are going to be a little bit different than you're used to

and obviously the sound and lighting are going to be a bit rougher than in my office

but at the end of the day i'm not a full -time youtuber i'm a working dp

and i gotta make some compromises if i want to keep getting these videos out

so thanks for being patient with me

and hopefully you're cool with me doing these videos from out

behind my desk anyways you might have seen some of the bts content from the shoot

that i'm talking about i released them earlier in a three -part series

but for a quick recap this film is about jose a former soldier who stepped on an ied in afghanistan

and became a triple amputee overnight he went through some crazy dark times

but eventually he started surfing through a veterans program

and found something new to live for now he's on a mission to become a serious adaptive surfer

and inspire others through his journey it's an amazing story

and a great lead into the first piece of advice i'd

give to anyone wanting to make a film for themselves and that's to start with your character first.

A character who wants something and then changes over time is so, so important for telling a story.

And one of the biggest issues I see with projects pitched by newer filmmakers is that they have a really interesting topic, but there's no story.

Like, it's really easy to confuse story and topic, but to make your film great, you want to tell a story, which usually means finding a character who wants something and either gets

or doesn't get what they want over time the struggles of

wounded veterans is a topic for example the rise of adaptive surfing is a topic

but a wounded veteran on a mission to change his life

through surfing is a story now i'm definitely not the only one preaching this stuff online

and if you like my channel odds are you've probably heard of mark bones channel

and the art of documentary film school that he

and his business partner micro actually the only reason

that this whole film exists in first place is

because AOD has started funding small projects

and giving out micro budgets to filmmakers like me to actually go out and make stuff.

So a big thanks to them for putting their money where their mouth is and actually helping us to make stuff.

And if you have no idea what I'm talking about and you've never heard of The Art of Documentary,

they've got a really great thing going on there with courses on everything from story structure all the way through editing.

The doors opened a few days ago, which only happens twice a year, so if that sounds like something you'd be interested in.

I think enrollment will be open for the next two weeks -ish.

They're not sponsoring this video or anything, but they've been a longtime friend of this channel, and they're giving all my viewers a discount code that will save you 10 % on any of their modules,

plus send a little kickback my way.

So check out the link in the description and use the code Luke10

if you want to save some cash and support this channel at the same time.

And just in case people are wondering, hey, didn't you just release a cinematography course of your own?

How can you also recommend AOD?

The answer is pretty simple.

It's we're not competitors.

We come from different parts of the filmmaking world, we approach teaching in different ways,

and whether you want to learn filmmaking from me or Mark or AOD or anyone else for that matter, all I care about is that you're actually going out there and going for it.

So no, just because I have my own stuff now doesn't mean I'm going to stop repping AOD

because we're all part of the same community here.

It's not me versus them.

That's a scarcity mindset.

It's all of us growing together and pushing the whole documentary community to do better work.

Sorry I had to get that out of the way before the comments start rolling in like I'm sure they will.

The next thing I'd say I learned from this whole experience was just how much can be accomplished with minimal resources.

Now I come from the mainstream documentary industry and it's totally normal for us to spend millions of dollars per shoot.

Like the reason I'm not in my normal studio right now is

because I'm out on a long -term show that's going to

cost something like 13 million dollars to make we've got nearly

30 people out here in a remote location to make this thing happen

and the amount of gear and logistics

that goes into making something like this is mind -boggling so

when i took on the micro grant from aod films for

five thousand dollars even though that's real money for normal people i knew the team

and i would have to be pretty resourceful to pull it

off i mean this was an international shoot i'm canadian

and jose lives in california

and we had three crew members including myself who needed hotel rooms and food and transportation paid out of that budget.

That meant skipping a lot of the things

that I'm used to on big shoots like massive rental budgets

and big crews but in the end I think we did a really nice job even

while spending very little money relatively speaking.

And I know $5 ,000 is a lot of money

but in the scope of film production and considering we had to travel to another country it's almost nothing.

But you know what?

I'm really not sure if you can see

that much of a difference between the work I do for netflix

or national geographic in this short film maybe in some back -end things like sound mixing

and expert color grading

but in general i think this scrappy little project looks just

as good as what i'd make with 10 times the budget

the lesson is don't let money get in the way you

don't need as much as you think you do to make this kind of thing

and to tack an extra point on there if you're just starting out

and don't have a ton of money for your projects a tip

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that i really want to stress is to stay local don't plan huge expeditions for your films pick stories

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that are close to home that you can access easily

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and your money is going to stretch a lot further like

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if we didn't go to california we could have spent over a month with jose on the same budget so

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if you do decide to apply for some funding for your

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film maybe even through aod films then don't do what we did stick close to home

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because i guarantee that there are amazing stories to tell

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and your money will go way way further the next takeaway

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i want to touch on for small run -and -gun productions

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like this is just how important pre -production is to the

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whole process I mean pre -pro is always important no matter what size your project is but

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when you're working with really limited funds in a short timeline

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like we were I mean we shot the whole thing in

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four days you can't really just afford to show up and see what happens.

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We could only afford four shooting days maximum

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so before we got on a plane I had tons of

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calls with my directing partner Eros as well as with Jose to make sure

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that we understood what story we were telling and what elements we needed to make it happen.

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Like I say all the time on this channel

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if you want your doc to really tell a powerful story

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you need to think in terms of scenes not b -roll with voiceover

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and in order to capture enough real scenes in just four

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days we needed to know what most of them would be

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in advance we didn't just show up at jose's house

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and say okay what should we film today because

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that would have been a disaster with

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so little time to work with no instead we showed up

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with a list of scenes we thought would speak to his story then we talked them over with jose

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and his wife we cut the ones they didn't like

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and then we got to work it's not like we scripted the entire thing

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because in the end there are quite a few moments

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that we didn't expect that just sort of happened

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and made it into the final film like how his wife lisette braids his hair before he goes surfing

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and a bunch of other stuff

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but even though we allowed for some spontaneous moments to unfold

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and you should too we always had a plan to fall back on

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and we knew what the spine of our story was going in

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if you've got months

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and months to work on something then a pure verite fly -on -the -wall approach might work

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but when you're trying to get a lot done in a very short time, don't sleep on pre -production.

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Both modules one and two of AOD have units on pre -pro, but for my money, module two goes deeper,

141

and the lesson about the character being a co -director is great advice that most film schools gloss over, so check those out if you're looking for pre -pro tips.

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Okay, so the next point I'm gonna make here isn't really something new that I've learned, but it's something that I have to constantly remind myself over and over again,

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and that's that you have to be really diligent about setting aside dedicated time for the edit.

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what can really easily happen with small projects like this is

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that you get super excited for the idea

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and the shoot then you get back

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and you've got like 13 hours of footage to comb through

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and the whole thing just slows way down organizing footage

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and getting your first rough cut done is time -consuming

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and pretty annoying if I'm being honest and then after

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that there's multiple rounds of feedback and re -edits

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and then all the fine -tuning things like sound and grading

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and if you don't set aside dedicated days or even weeks just to roll up your sleeves and get it done, then these things can drag on forever.

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I mean, we shot this thing in February and between my full -time job as a DP and running this YouTube channel, it's been way too easy to just push the edit to the side while I wait for a convenient day.

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But there's probably never going to be a convenient day.

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So you just have to make the days happen, whether it's convenient or not, or you're going to never finish your film.

157

And a half -finished or even a three -quarter finished film is essentially the same thing as no film at all.

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So just make time and get it done remember your triple f's filmmakers finish films

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if you don't finish it

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and share it it basically doesn't exist lastly make sure you're not operating in a vacuum chamber and

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that you're getting as much advice from people you trust as

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possible as i was editing this film I sent it to a lot of different people and in the end, their input made the film much stronger.

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I had several calls with Mark and Mike, as well as my filmmaking friends around the world, and without all their feedback, I kind of think I would have had a much worse final export.

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Filmmaking is a team sport at the end of the day, and if you aren't getting outside perspectives, the work probably won't hit its full potential.

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So ask your friends, reach out to other filmmakers you know, or join online communities.

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AOD has a great online Facebook group you can access to once you're a member, and I see people on there every day getting feedback on their projects.

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But wherever you go for advice, you're doing your story a disservice if you only work in an echo chamber of your own ideas.

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So what did this thing cost?

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In the end, we spent just over $5 ,000 to make this film.

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The vast majority of it went to travel and accommodation, like I said.

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Flights and baggage were around $1 ,500, hotels were just over $1 ,000, and food and gas worked out to be $9 .80 for the week.

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Eros and I didn't pay ourselves anything, but we did pay our camera assistant and BTS shooter Richard $1 ,000 as a token fee.

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Now, I know that's a terrible rate for a multi -day international shoot, but he's a good friend and he did it as a favor.

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On top of that, we also needed to license some stock footage of Jose on big waves because on our surfing day, the waves were tiny.

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We did get some really great footage of him in the water

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and you'll see it in all the moody shots in there

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but for all the shots where he's flying down the face

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of an eight -foot wave we had to buy those off an underwater dp based in san diego

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and we spent another five hundred dollars for the rights to that footage

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that brings the cost to just under five grand then i spent another five hundred dollars on sound design and mixing

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which was also an incredible discount from a friend who wanted

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to help out for a grand total of five thousand four hundred

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and ninety two dollars

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and that's us dollars i'm talking about not the adorable canadian dollars i have in my bank account that's real money, but it's also dirt cheap relative to what most film productions cost,

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and I'm super proud of what we were able to pull off.

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The film is going to premiere at the second AOD film festival in New York, which I think is happening in November sometime, so hopefully I'll have a chance to meet some of you there,

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assuming I get out of the Arctic in time.

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Big shout out to AOD for helping me make this film possible, and if you do decide to join the next cohort, don't forget to use the code LUKE10 to save 10%.

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The doors are only going to be open for the next two weeks or so, and they only open twice a year so

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if you've been thinking about it you'll probably want to act pretty quickly hope

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that video gave you some ideas for what to do with your own next short film

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and maybe even inspired you to get out and actually make something the final film is going to launch in November, like I said, and I'll keep you in the loop when I know the exact dates.

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See ya!

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 193 sentences and 2813 words to shadow. The speech runs for 12:22. The speaker talks fast, about 228 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
edit verb	/ˈɛdɪt/	To change a text, or a document.
documentary noun	/ˌdɒk.jʊˈmɛn.tɹi/	A film, TV program, publication etc. which presents a social, political, scientific or historical subject in a factual or informative manner.
footage noun	/ˈfʊtɪd͡ʒ/	An amount of film or tape that has been used to record something, or the content of the recording.
surf verb	/sɝf/	To ride a wave on a surfboard; to pursue or take part in the sport of surfing.
filmmaker noun		A producer or director of films/movies.
topic noun	/ˈtɑpɪk/	A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest.
feedback noun	/ˈfiːdˌbæk/	Critical assessment of a process or activity or of their results.
veteran noun	/ˈvɛ.tə.ɹən/	A person with long experience of a particular activity.
convenient adjective	/kənˈviː.niənt/	Serving to reduce a difficulty, or accessible with minimum difficulty; expedient.
module noun	/ˈmɑd͡ʒul/	A self-contained component of a system, often interchangeable, which has a well-defined interface to the other components.
microwave noun	/ˈmaɪkɹoʊˌweɪv/	An electromagnetic wave with wavelength between that of infrared light and radio waves.
chamber noun	/ˈt͡ʃeɪ̯mbɚ/	The private room of an individual, especially of someone wealthy or noble.
lesson noun	/ˈlɛs.ən/	A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
discount noun	/ˈdɪskaʊnt/	A reduction in price.
triple adjective	/ˈtɹɪp.əl/	Made up of three related elements, often matching

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
go out verb		To leave, especially a building.
go through verb		To travel from one end of something to the other.
set aside verb	/sɛt.əˈsaɪd/	To separate and reserve something for a specific purpose.
show up verb		To appear, arrive, or attend, especially suddenly or erratically.
break down verb		To stop functioning.
check out verb		To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
come together verb	/ˈkʌm tʊˈɡɛðɚ/	To assemble; to congregate; to combine.
fall back on verb		To turn to as a substitute; to rely on as a backup.

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 80 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you're, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: capture /ˈkæp.(t)ʃɚ/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/, accommodation /əˌkɒm.əˈdeɪ.ʃən/, shout /ʃaʊt/
Long words — get the stress right: documentary /ˌdɒk.jʊˈmɛn.tɹi/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, importantly /ɪmˈpɔɹ.tənt.li/, accommodation /əˌkɒm.əˈdeɪ.ʃən/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like edit, documentary, footage.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	if that sounds like something you'd be · if you've been thinking about it you'll probably
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	has always been · haven't changed · you've probably heard

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

Grammar in this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?