Video StudentGuy

A brief show this week, describing the many different aspects of

filming two scenes. The learning this time around is all hands on. The

entire class is working together to shoot two scenes from a script.

We've each taken on at least one role, in some cases two. My primary

concern is creating the lighting with a secondary responsibility for

sound.

Once we determined our roles, we broke into two groups. The technical

people: cinematographer, sound and lighting worked together while the

producer and director spent their time setting the location, set design

and casting.

The cinematographer or director of photography took the lead by

creating a shot list or storyboard which came from conversations with

the director. Once that was done, sound and light could be configured.

We stumbled a few times, lost some momentum because we didn't really

know our jobs well (that's where the learning came in), but we regained

our footing and finished the week with some preliminary storyboards, a

look at one of the locations and our first casting call.

This week's show is an interview with Aimee Corrigan, the Director of Practicum at the Center for Digital Imaging Arts (CDIA). The Practicum is

a unique part of the CDIA learning experience  which takes place at the

end of each student's course of study.

The Practicum is an opportunity to take part in the production  of

promotional material in each student's field of study for the benefit

of local non profit organizations. This could include a film

documenting the services of a refugee support center, complete business websites for organizations or creating a mulitmedia documentary for an innovative after school program using digital photography and recorded music. The 3D

program recently created a short for the Dana Farber Institute that

explains Cancer to children. Every Practicum offers students the chance

to work on a project for a real world client. It's as real as it gets.

Aimee Corrigan

is an accomplished photographer and filmmaker. Her photography has been

published by BBC Online and Wired Magazine. Her film credits include

the recent award winning documentary, "This is Nollywood", and the  just completed film "After the Storm", 

about the the hurricanes of 2005 that ravaged Houston, New Orleans and

their impact on the lives of the children in Mississippi.

At the beginning of the week we looked at several movies to better

understand how to use the camera to break up dialog and deliver another

level of story information.

Despite it's static nature, dialog

doesn't have to be a lead weight that kills the momentum of your story.

If you shoot it properly, you can actually propel the viewer through

multiple layers of information about the characters and the plot

without any additional effort required on the part of the audience.

This isn't merely an academic pursuit. In the Killers,

our next film project, most of the "action" takes place in a diner

where the characters spend most of their time sitting or lying down.

Also, we have to show the evolution of the character of Nick, a seemingly minor character, with few lines in the first half of the story, but who becomes the central character by the end.

We review some films, focusing on how to shoot dialog in a static location and keep it interesting. These included clips from Se7en, Jurassic Park, Gladiator, Cape Fear, The Incredibles

and American Beauty. All these films involved clever use of camera

motion to keep the story moving ahead during a lengthy exposition.

During

the last class each person gave a brief explanation of how they would

use lights and camera to best present the story in their final project

film. In the process I got some valuable feedback about how to set up

for different types of interviews, a question I've been looking to

answer for a long time.

Work is starting to pile and in the interest of streamlining tasks I'm taking a different a approach to recording this show. For the next few months I'm going to produce a less scripted show and be less picky when I edit. The effect, I hope, will be me sounding more natural even as I eliminate production time. You'll let me know if I sound less intelligible, right? I'm interested in cutting down production time without sacrificing critical quality.

The list of things on my plate are
    •    increased demand for video in my day job, a big development
    •    a class project shooting and editing scenes from the Hemingway script, The Killers
    •    independent, paying projects, outside of school and work, such as the promotional videos Laura and I shoot for the Huntington Theatre - there may be another one I'll be involved in coming in January with another classmate
    •    and of course my final film project which is a documentary about the life of a professional craftsperson, a potter.

I'll have more to say about my final project in the next show. In this show I continue to talk about using light to control the feeling or mood of a scene that helps to advance the film's story.

Let me know what you think.

This is the first week on the topic of Cinematography. The class is all

about controlling  light and the camera to create a specific mood or

effect. Successful lighting is all about mastery of these two elements

in filmmaking. We're going about this by running through tests to see

the subtle differences between intensities of lights and how to use

camera handling techniques such as tilt, pan, handheld and dolly moves.

I hope the explanation of Key/Film ratio is understandable. Simply put,

the key is the brightest light shining on the person, at about 45

degrees to one side of the front, and the fill is positioned on the

opposite side of the key also at 45 degrees. Both lights are above eye

level.

The key creates a shadow on the far side of someone's face and

body and the fill, which is not as bright, lightens the shadow enough

to show detail, but not to remove the shadow. You play with how dark

you want the shadow to be to create an effect or mood.

I want to note an error I made when I listed F-stops, I listed 1.2,

which is an error, it should be 1.4. These are important details.

This episode winds up the last week of the Preproduction module. I think it's the most useful, insightful and humbling set of classes I've experienced so far. Most of the show is centered on what I feel are the five most important things I've learned during this time. They are:

1. You need to surrender control of parts of the film project or your finished product will be deficient.
2. Filmmaking is a business. Completing a film is not the definition of success, making money on the film is success.
3. Plan everything until your fingers bleed, before beginning to film
4. Know what everyone does so you can delegate work properly
5. Identify your market

On the last point I spend some time talking about a turning point during the last class where, through an open discussion about the status of our final projects, I finally understand who I'm making my film for. This one little piece of information sets me free to explore the possibilities of my subject and at the same time anchors me so that I don't dissipate my energies on too many ideas that go nowhere.

Like I said, a great class.

The second half of the interview with Howard Phillips, Associate

Director of the Filmmaking program at CDIA at Boston University. Lots

of talk about the role of technology in creating films and CDIA's goal

of developing a filmmaking community.

Howard Phillips is the Associate Director of the Filmmaking program at

CDIA and has been my instructor in a number of classes, including

lighting and Avid. No need really, to introduce him though, he does an

excellent job himself in this, part one of the interview. Let me just

say that his willingness to participate in this podcast is an extension

of his generosity of spirit to all students at CDIA.

In this

show you'll hear him talk about his own experiences learning production

filmmaking techniques as well as some interesting tangents he's

followed that gives him a unique approach to teaching. You'll also hear

him explain the ideas and goals behind the curriculum.

I'll post

the 2nd half in a few days. In that episode he'll talk about the

present state of filmmaking, the role technology plays in the process

of realizing your vision and the possibilities that lay in the future.

Another week in PreProduction. We spent a whole class breaking down a script based on the Hemingway short story, The Killers.

We analyzed the characters, locations, figured out props, camera and

lighting locations. In a future module we're supposed to shoot this

script.

I think I've covered this ground already, so I'm passing on those

details and keeping this show  shorter. I've included some information

on how to cast for actors and also explain how everyone communicates

with each other, in both preproduction and once the film goes into

production.

We're on break over Thanksgiving week, so there won't be journal entry, but I plan to post an interview with Howard Phillips, the Associate Director of the Film program at CDIA. It's pretty long, so I may break it up into two pieces a few days apart.

Things are good with me, how's it with you?

This is the first week of the PreProduction Module. This is the class where we learn how things work, how to really make

a film. I know I sound kind of bummed out by all the details raining

down on us, but that was me speaking from the gut level. After so many

weeks of practical classes, the change to straight classroom

instruction was a shock, and the depth of the information was

overwhelming. This stuff is dense and deep, but also greatly

appreciated.

J.P. Ouellette is our instructor, a director, producer and a great storyteller. His knowledge of the planning process that goes into preparing and shooting a film is outstanding. This is the first time
in the program that we've gotten any amount of this kind of information. At first it seemed formidable, but we're starting to ease into a comfortable learning position. It makes us realize how big a responsibility it is to make a movie. It also makes the process more real and attainable.

PreProduction - What is it?

It's all the planning that goes into a movie before you shout action.

Budgeting, casting, scheduling, contracts, rentals, location scouting,

storyboarding, shot lists and more. It's a lot to get through in 3

weeks, but at our current rate, we'll hear it all.

In episode #41, I listed a number of Screenplay sites Here's two more links with lists of additional sites, TopTenLinks and Lew Hunter.

You can learn a lot about scriptwriting by reading scripts. Remember

that every type of production, TV, movie and so on, has their own

preferred format for scripts, and those are always evolving. It's a

good idea, if you write, to check up on blogs that talk about

scriptwriting.

Copyright

issues are really important and because I'm way out of my depth in this

area, I only mention it in passing. You will find a lot of interesting

info in David Battino's podcast on public domain music

in episode #16 of his podcast at O'Reilly.com. Anyone involved in

producing a movie should take the time to learn more about copyright

restrictions so you don't end up losing time or money in court.

Production

Note - In the beginning I spoke about the audio settings for this and

last episode. I also boosted the amplitude to raise the volume of the

quieter parts. Thanks to Dennis for helping me understand the

compression process. I know it was a struggle, but I did get a lot of

what you were saying.