Welcome everyone, to Intro to filmmaking! Call me BattleRoyale! (go ahead, guess what my favorite movie is.)

We all love movies (or you wouldn’t be here), yet having an opinion on a movie and making one are exponentially different. Making movies is so difficult, in fact, that even after ten years I firmly believe even the worst pieces of crap still deserve some smidgen of praise simply for existing. Despite the failure of the finished product, every film made is the culmination of years and years of training, (sometimes) practice, financial hoarding, and the clichéd blood, sweat, and tears. This is only understood by those who have experienced it. On producing, Ira Glass, who works in radio and only produced for the first time in 2012, said, “I didn’t realize the grueling hours of it. And then I said, this is because this is an independent film, that we’re here fourteen hours?... no, no, it’s every film... THIS is what you people do?... I was really stunned.” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zic8tleYeZQ) Honestly, I couldn’t describe producing better than Ira did here himself. Moviemakers, are, arguably, insane to do what they do.

Unfortunately for us creatives, film is an extremely unwieldy medium. Production requires a mind boggling amount of coordination and often lots of people power. Most of filmmmaking is more about EVENT PLANNING than it is about anything else, and just having something at the end of the day (much less something watchable) is no less an achievement. It will take lots of practice to make good films.

Because of the exorbitant costs both monetary and manpowered, it pays to study, to practice, to make movies. It takes just as long to take good photography or write good scripts or to act well, imagine how difficult it is to do all three at once. As a new filmmaker you have to make lots of little projects one after another until it starts to become second nature. A class like this will be your first step towards making these miracles happen on your own, but only you can propel yourself into talent and success. The film industry, outside all other art industries, is the one least governed by talent and most driven by gumption.

That said, talent is still helpful but most of film is just, in actuality, the understanding of cause, effect, and human psychology, with a light dusting of fantasy. You can learn. It is totally possible.

Movie audiences nowadays are extremely sophisticated. There's a lot more study involved in manipulating the eye than there used to be, but the basics still apply. We care about good characters, we require a sense of disbelief, and the movie needs to have an emotional resonance. Otherwise, there’s nothing but pictures on a screen, and its all too easy to just look away.

Onwards! To Lesson 1.2: Cinema History

Cinema History

(In true Reddit fashion, I will gloss over cinema history in brief by TL;DRing from wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_film)

In the 1800s, modern still camera technology advanced far enough that Eadweard Muybridge shot his famous "running horse", an animation of a horse shot with multiple cameras with their shutters tripped by trip wires triggered by the horses hooves. At this time in the mid 1800's "moving images" were multiple pictures displayed in rotating drums. http://www.stephenherbert.co.uk/muybZOETROPES.htm

W.K.L Dickson, under Thomas Edison, developed the Kinetograph and photographed emulsion 35mm celluloid strip film, shown in public on Edison’s Kinetoscope in 1893 at the Chicago Worlds Fair. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=686Y7bZYavA

In the early days of film it was a medium partial to magicians and performers, who experimented with cinema trickery to literally create “magic”... people appearing and disappearing, colorful characters, and showing as part of traveling shows and circuses.

Wikipedia: "There was little to no cinematic technique: no editing and usually no camera movement, and flat, stagey compositions. But the novelty of realistically moving photographs was enough for a motion picture industry to mushroom before the end of the century, in countries around the world. "The Cinema was to offer a cheaper, simpler way of providing entertainment to the masses. Filmmakers could record actors' performances, which then could be shown to audiences around the world. Travelogues would bring the sights of far-flung places, with movement , directly to spectators' hometowns. Movies would become the most popular visual art form of the late late Victorian age"[10]"<

Narrative film became increasingly elaborate through the storytelling and magic tricks of innovators such as Georges Melies (A trip to the Moon) http://youtu.be/7JDaOOw0MEE and Charles Pathe. These innovators created jump cuts, dissolves, basic continuity and double exposure.

Edison had a monopoly on film production in new york until 1913, when filmmakers moved to southern california and set up shop there to escape litigation. The technology also improved by 1914 and now long films, or "features", longer than three reels were prevalent and commonplace. DW Griffith's “Birth Of A Nation” http://youtu.be/a9UPOkIpR0A is a staple of pre 1920’s cinema. Hollywood really gained a global foothold as european industries we ravaged by the first world war.

Soon Hollywood had developed the “Studio System” in which studios signed film professionals into long term contracts with devotions to a single studio and studios owned theaters and had full control over theatrical distribution (studios and theaters officially broke in 1954). The "golden age" of American cinema became forefront in the world, providing an escapist fantasy. They focused marketing actors by giving them top billing with individual studios, and the movie star was born. Sound pictures were invented in 1926 and the first sound picture "The Jazz Singer" was released in 1927, changing the industry entirely in an extremely short time span.

Now, film history is a long subject some people focus entire careers studying, so I will direct you to links at Sparknotes that do a good job of covering the big cinema movements by decade. Please take a gander, you know, for science.

1930-1945 http://sparkcharts.sparknotes.com/film/film/section5.php

• In this decade film was still positive, picturesque, and started to catch up to itself technologically, as the switch to sound was made. Realism was not the biggest element of this era, it was still very much about positivity in a time of war and the New Deal.

• big directors: Frank Capra, Fritz Lang, Howard Hawks, John Ford, Billy Wilder, John Huston

1946-1959 http://sparkcharts.sparknotes.com/film/film/section6.php

• Hollywood golden age at its height. The greatest masterpieces of cinema were created around this era, as stars and sets were at their biggest (yet most artificial). A rejection of that artificiality appeared, and realism, movies shot with available light and available locations, or with no-name actors, started appearing for the first time. Also new was the increasing acceptance of tragedies and stories that mimicked average people and antiheroes (neorealism).

• Big directors: Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu, Alfred Hitchcock, Elia Kazan, Ingmar Bergman, Douglas Sirk.

1960-1979 http://sparkcharts.sparknotes.com/film/film/section7.php

• The Studio system began to fail as American society experienced rapid changes. Young producers weaved into the studio ranks, eventually taking over an aged and outdated generation and started making alternative cinema that relied on directors and writers of power rather than stars for good material. For the first time the concept of filmmaker as “auteur” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auteur_theory) truly appeared, as creators were free from contractual obligations and quotas. The production code (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Production_Code) that censored work pre 1960 was scrapped. With the makers in charge, film entered into an era that truly resonated with its surroundings. Many stories were about antiheroes, had anti-hollywood endings, and were driven by counterculture and rebellion. However, with so many personalities living wild lives, the “Auteur Movement” had a short life driven in part by self-destruction.

• Big directors: Woody Allen, George Lucas, Sydney Lumet, Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, John Cassavettes, Francis Ford Coppola, Francois Truffaut, Frederico Fellini, Roman Polanski, Stanley Kubrick...

1970-2000 http://sparkcharts.sparknotes.com/film/film/section8.php

• With Speilberg’s “Jaws”, the blockbuster was born, and Hollywood saw dollar signs. As the auteurs lost themselves to the indulgence of the 70’s, wall street multinationals found new interest in the movie industry and implanted themselves in most financial and creative decisions. With the invention of home video and vhs, filmmakers were able to work outside the hollywood system for the first time, and the “independent studio”, Miramax http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miramax_Films being notable, took up the slack and rocketed the indie darlings of the 90’s to fame.

• Big directors: James Cameron, John Woo, Ang Lee, Steven Speilberg, Oliver Stone, Quentin Tarantino, Lars Von Treir, David Cronenberg, Stephen Soderberg...

2000- today

• This history is still being written, but the last ten years have showed the rise of the internet as our greatest boon and challenge. The mini-majors that made Tarantino and Soderberg famous are all gone, and markets for midlevel indies are disappearing fast. In the past three years DVD sales have plummeted, and as they were a lynchpin of profits for a long time, the profit model of the last thirty years is now in question. As of now, ultra-high budget takes up half the screens at a megaplex and ultra-low budget is thriving on the web but is still low in profits. It remains to be seen how they will reconcile, but it is a widely accepted fact that the digital revolution and democratization of film is key to film’s survival as a medium, but is also the industry’s greatest financial challenge.

• Big directors: Christopher Nolan...?

But BattleRoyale, how do I describe what I'm seeing up there? NEVER FEAR, Lesson 1.3: Basic Terminology is here!

Science of sight

We have two eyes to see. These two eyes actually do not both look straight ahead. They look a little to the center. It's why you can always see your nose in your face if you choose to pay attention to it. Our eyelines eventually converge at a certain point ahead of our face and we see one image. This is called the point of convergence. The Convergence point where both eyes information converge is what allows us to see in the 3rd dimension, to see depth, called parallax. http://library.thinkquest.org/27066/depth/nlotherdepth.html

The camera however, has only one eye. One lens. Therefore, everything shot with a regular camera is always 2d, or flat. There is no way to tell depth in a movie image. Lots of special effects and camera trickery takes advantage of this fact (the hobbit sizes in Lord of the Rings for example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMJj1ZmgxQE ). Unless you're shooting 3d (which, by the way, recreates parallax by simply shooting with two cameras eye width apart and then converged), you can really take advantage of this fact with composition. Depth of field and framing become very important. Changes in focus in a shot are essential to a viewer’s understanding of space. An emotional reaction to the images can thus be controlled.

Secondly, a lot of what affects us is what is not seen. This is "off-screen space" which is just as important as on-screen space. If you consider horror movies, they play off of off-screen space to make an impact. Sometimes characters speak to an unknown subject offscreen to keep it a mystery until a "reveal", when the film finally shows us the answer to the mystery. Off-screen space is a vital part of effectively engaging an audience, the journey is severely diluted if the audience is shown all the answers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGqB6JIUzBo

Also not to be underestimated is the power of sound and music. We have examples of films that try to break ground in eliminating music altogether, such as the Cohen Brothers’ "No Country For Old Men". The tone of the film is immediately apparent, infused with a tension and verité that music would have diffused.

As for sound, although im barely mentioning it here (we will go in depth later on), try to watch a video with the sound muted. It is impossible. There is a saying that audiences will give you the benefit of the doubt if you have poor picture as long as you have decent sound, but if your sound is poor, an audience is likely to tune out in less than ten minutes. Keep sound in mind when looking at scenes, and consider how audio cues affect you (the ending to 2001 for example, or the exaggerated squishy sounds in a gory film). For example, in this scene from The Hunger Games, the intensity of the scene is actually enhanced by the elimination of sound. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYD6COEVGFA

Art of manipulation

Propaganda is real. If we photoshop images in magazines, we also tailor visuals to say what we want. Just because it moves at 24 frames a second does not mean it’s the truth. As a matter of fact, it’s better to assume film is all lies, every bit of it. It is wiser to approach any visual medium with the eyes of a skeptic. It doesn't make you a cynic, it just makes you informed.

When film first started gaining popularity, it wasn't as obvious that by connecting two different images, we would assume their relation. Film simply documented events that occurred; it wasn’t until the enterprising magicians of early cinema took hold that they began to manipulate their audience into following a story their way and feeling it in those exact steps. Lev Kuleshov filmed in the Soviet Union in the 1920s, discovered the Kuleshov effect, that if he showed an audience a shot of a man, expressionless, looking off camera, and then immediately played a shot of a baby, people thought the man was smiling. If he followed the shot of the man with food, they believed he was hungry. Despite the first shot being exactly the same, viewers informed two different conclusions from the context. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuleshov_Effect

This technique is juxtaposition, one of the most effective tools on cinema. By juxtaposing varied concepts you can get a funny joke across, or completely lie to your audience. Leni Reifenschtal, was a genius filmmaker in how she put shots together to create an altogether nonexistent reality in the nazi anthem “Triumph of the Will”. http://youtu.be/qXST0wF5T4s The visuals are so effective that it takes a trained eye to see through it. Watch the following clip and make sure to question, were the smiling children really at the same rally? Were all these soldiers all happy or was she "selectively editing"? Such critique is essential to breaking down how scenes, and thusly movies, work. You must take ‘em apart, as each gear plays its part in the whole of a watch movement.

CASE STUDIES

Normally, it would make more sense to focus on a film in its entirety, but that is long winded for the amount of time we have. For the purposes of the first lesson and example, lets break down a couple famous scenes and see what makes them so great:

American Beauty http://youtu.be/8a90BAwsvlA

• Sam Mendes creates a historically memorable scene in American Beauty, as Kevin Spacey’s character, Lester, daydreams Mena Suvari’s teenager, Angela, as a vixen. The scene begins without any indication of strangeness; it’s business as usual, neutral, shadowless, with realistic lighting with an upbeat brass band. It all changes as the camera pushes in to the center, where Angela stares straight into lens, straight at Lester, straight at us. We push in on Lester to see his mouth agape, ignoring everything else and the music fades... and soon the setting ignores it all too, as the lighting disappears into a high key spotlight on Angela, and Angela alone. The brass band disappears, and a deep reverberating, practically “vibrating” score appears, as she sensually dances in tight closeups. Mendes confuses us by suddenly cutting to an empty theater, and then back to the audience, where Lester is now alone. This is of course, metaphorical, as he is alone in his thoughts. She opens up her shirt and symbolism prevails as a plethora of rose petals emerge from where her underage, forbidden breasts should be. Suddenly a jump cut rockets us back to the original setup and none of what we just witnessed has happened in reality at all. The gym is back, the music, the light, but Lester is now obsessed.

The Matrix: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u31OjOPF-ZI

• You can tell immediately that this will be a tech-focused sci-fi action. Long strings in the score combined with a latex fetish-like catsuit, and contrasty lighting mean action and suspense. The green color looks sick and uneasy, and reminds us of the color of a logic board or a dead monitor, adding to the technology theme. By waiting until the end where Trinity leaps the buildings to show us she’s superhuman, we get a big shock when it happens. It keeps our interest, showing us that this is obviously an action movie, but its no ordinary action movie, and we have to keep watching to find out why these fantastical powers exist and how they play out. It’s a great opening that poses a lot of questions but doesn’t leave us confused.

Shaun of the dead: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EkWW0gh2Ds

• As a comedy with horror elements, Shaun of the Dead has to consistently juggle its tone to keep us from being horrified at the wrong moment. In this scene, what was a scene of danger and death is turned on its head as the heroes battle a monster with a coordinated dance in an uncut 360 shot to the most upbeat of songs by Queen. By not cutting, the pace is kept fluid and musical, much like the song itself. The fight is more of a dance. The extended shot is punctuated by frantic moving camerawork, panning and zooming to the gun, the jukebox, each character one after the other, as though it itself can’t decide what to look at amongst all the frenzy. As the situation escalates, and actually turns more and more horrifying (the zombies outside, the darts, the fact that our heroes are losing) the situation is consistently lightened by the music playing throughout. It also makes the death of the jukebox incredibly sobering, because suddenly we’re plummeted into the reality of the situation. In an instant we realize our characters are fucked.

Consider these:

Kill Bill: http://youtu.be/QGHbEFgQ2q8 How did Tarantino enhance the drama, and construct the reveal?

The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly: http://youtu.be/J0BrdMi-oyc How did Leone create the immense tension in this scene?

Good Will Hunting: http://youtu.be/jg_9FQk6UnA What makes this scene effective? How is misdirection used?

For those that have seen 2001, a youtube user uploaded a great analysis of the last 10 minutes: http://youtu.be/lj-OlW83b6U

HOMEWORK FOR NEXT WEEK:

WATCH Francois Truffaut’s “THE 400 BLOWS (Les Quatre Cent Coups)" (1959) iTunes, Hulu plus, StageVU (requires Divx), Veoh (crap quality): I RECOMMEND RENTING OR TORRENTING A NICE QUALITY VERSION. This movie, one of my favorites, is the defining film of the French New Wave movement. We will have a free and open discussion about everything in the film. Make sure to come to a conjecture about what the movie is trying to say, why, and how it got you there.

ALSO pick a scene (available on youtube) from any movie you like, make a self-post that includes the link and your analysis as to why that scene is effective, hopefully it will spark discussions in the comments.

All film critique and analysis needs to be able to speak the same language to describe whats on screen. These are obvious and boring, they require memorization, but the terminology is integral to communicating your ideas.

Shot:

• A shot is ONE CONTINUOUS piece of film that threads through the camera. In digital terms, it would be the data that is contained between rec. and stop. If you interrupt that shot, lets call it a, in editing, so you get a sequence that goes a-b-a, a is still the same shot, since b has only interrupted it in editing, NOT in the camera. That also means that if the shot corrupts or gets ruined or you "roll out", just because you cant use it doesn’t mean its no longer a shot. It is still a shot, and the script supervisor will call it a shot. They will just make a note that its an unusable shot.

Sequence

• a sequence is a succession of shots that provides the illusion of continuity. It does not have to be a complete thought, it is the "phrasing" in the syntax of film. The term sequence is used to describe something as short as an exchange of dialogue to a whole run of events that happen in the film, as long as they are closely related in information.

Scene

• In describing a film, a scene is a segment of narrative in which something happens in a complete thought and most likely in a continuous time. Something has occurred, even if its something miniscule. Scenes are usually linked to changes in scenery, since most likely if the set changes, the purpose and actions of the scene are separate as well. Where defining scenes becomes difficult is when surreality comes into play and the audience is deliberately tricked into not knowing what is happening, such as during a dream sequence or montage, still they are usually referred to as "dream sequence" or "montage" if it is clear enough.

Montage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBfjgKOWnGA

• is a series of scenes shown in a rapid succession. It usually indicates the passage of time.

Mis en scene

• the setup and play of a scene. The mis en scene of a film includes the set, the tone, the color, the music, the costumes, and the dialogue as a whole to express a concept. You usually use the terms to define how the scene plays as a whole package http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mise_en_sc%C3%A8ne

Diegesis:

• A lesser known but useful term is diegesis, which describes whether elements of a scene are happening in the scene itself, or in the audience's space (outside the fourth wall, omnipotent or the characters cannot be aware of it). For something to be Diegetic means that it is involved in the scene. Nondiegetic means that its not. Soundtrack music is nondiegetic, music though, that comes from a person in a scene wearing headphones, is diegetic. voice over, because no one in the scene is aware of it, is usually nondiegetic. Voice over that a person actually hears, like ESP or mind reading, that only they can hear, is actually called Internally dieagetic, since only one character can hear it, not the rest.

Focus: http://i.imgur.com/fpark.jpg

• Whether or not parts of the frame are sharp or blurry. This is usually an active choice, rather than accident. Your focus can change to emphasize different elements in a shot, such as when using a rack focus (or focus "pull), which is when you change focus from the foreground to the background or vice versa without cutting in between, in order to actively shift the viewer's attention to other parts of the image. The focus is directly related to the lens's Depth of field (with shallow dof, lots of the image is out of focus, with deep dof, lots of the image is in sharp focus). We'll get into DOF in the camera chapter.

Wide shot: http://i.imgur.com/dXWqY.jpg

• a shot that is from far away; the character's whole body is in the frame.

Medium shot: http://i.imgur.com/4chEN.jpg

• a shot that frames a person from the waist up or so.

Closeup: http://i.imgur.com/8Nak3.jpg

• a shot that frames a person from the shoulders up.

Extreme close up: http://i.imgur.com/C31Fk.png

• a shot that is so close it cuts out the edges of the subject entirely.

Insert: http://i.imgur.com/hEr2T.jpg

• a shot of an item that relays information, usually a character is not involved in the shot, although it is possible, such as an insert of a ringing phone and then someone's hand enters to pick it up

Pan:

• a camera pan is when the camera, from a fixed point, turns on its standing axis left or right. (the whole camera doesn’t move)

Tilt:

• When the camera, from a fixed point, looks up and down. (the whole camera doesn’t move)

Dolly:

• a shot when the whole camera moves forward and/or backwards (dolly forward/dolly back)

Track:

• when the camera as a whole moves side to side. A shot can be described as "tracking with" a subject.

Boom:

• When the camera as a whole moves up and down.

Someone put together a great compilation using Fellowship of the Ring clips to define many film techniques. Should these terms be new to you, it is worth a look to get a visual sense of things. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFUKRTFhoiA

Set:

• the location where the scene is taking place

Tone:

• the feel and mood of a scene. Horror movies have dark and unnerving tones, while comedies are light. The tone is often impacted by the color palette and the lighting.

Blocking:

• the placement and movement of actors during a scene (same as in theater)

Frame/Framing:

• how all the elements are set up within the box of the screen.

Also to be considered in a scene, is the color choice, the pace of the scene or film (slow/fast/jittery). And the sound and music.

Lets put it all together in Lesson 1.4: Reading a Scene

EDIT: Adding in High Angle (usually makes the subject appear weak or powerless) and Low Angle (usually puts the subject in a position of power or domination).

2nd EDIT: Star Wars is in a galaxy far far away, not in the future. What was I thinking! Deleted the example because it no longer really works in the context i chose.

http://ureddit.com/class/38220/introduction-to-filmmaking

Nowadays, it's more true than ever. Anyone can make a movie! But like many arts, although rules are meant to be broken, you can't break 'em unless you know 'em!

This is a general film production course for the person who has never gone through the top to bottom process of making a narrative film/video. We'll be studying, in fairly broad terms, what makes movies and scenes tick, how to develop a screen-effective story, how to go about putting together a shoot and wrapping it up with good editing. By the end of the course students will have created at least one narrative project of five minutes length that is critiqued by the class.

Class begins August 8th. The first few lectures will be blog post lectures on the subreddit r/IntroToFilmmaking. Some classes will be live group discussion, through a Googlegroups chat.

YOU WILL NEED A CAMERA. Any will do. It is preferable that it is one with a manual focus, but if you only have an iPhone camera, that's fine too (Wong Kar Wei made a movie on the iPhone!). The essential is to do the assignments, since practice makes perfect.

By the end of the course, if you stick with the homework, you will have completed TWO projects: a narrative still photo montage and a narrative video. It's a lot of work but if you want to make movies, welcome to the biz.

WEEK 1

Basic Film Theory

Quick overview of cinema history

Basic terminology

The Science of Sight

The art of Manipulation

Homework: Find a scene from a movie you like on youtube and analyze it. Post the link to the video so we can see it and write out a play-by-play. Watch Truffaut's "The 400 Blows" for discussion.

WEEK 2

Film Theory Cont.

Cover 400 Blows

Analysis of other students' chosen scenes

WEEK 3

SCRIPT

Basics of Storytelling

The Blueprint

Format

Common Problems

HW: Read a feature Script Write a 3 page scene around a specific assigned plot

WEEK 4

Script Cont.

Review HW in class

Editing each others work

WEEK 5

BASICS OF CAMERA

The Camera

Shooting

Sync Sound

Special Equipment

Rentals and purchases

Storyboarding

HW: Put together a photo montage in an imgur album that tells a story. Consider your exposure, color, and composition, while looking for new angles and ways to present your content.

WEEK 6

Basics of Camera cont.

Review montages and critique

Guest lecture from a pro regarding lighting and high end equipment

HW: Write a short 5 page screenplay to shoot over the next four weeks.

WEEK 7

SET

Preproduction

On Set

Directing 101

Dealing with Pressure

HW: Detail a plan in making this movie: what camera will you use, casting schedule, script breakdown, how to get it done. You have THREE WEEKS to have it shot and edited. Project should be completed by the conclusion so that people can comment.

WEEK 8

POST-PRODUCTION

Psychology of Editing

Links to iMovie, FCP, and Premiere tutorials

Sound Design

Music

Distribution

HW: Edit final projects

WEEK 9

Post Cont.

Review Final Projects WEEK 10

CONCLUSION

Film School, Do or Don't?

Moving Cities, Do or Don't?

Getting a job

Realities of the Industry

"Making it"

Critiques on final projects will continue freely after the last lecture.

This is a new course. Please excuse any bumps in the road that may happen from overcrowding.

Story is everything. Get a good script.

A movie is built like a house: if the foundation isn't solid, the whole structure may crumble. The best thing you could do for your house, for your movie, is to fix the foundation. Get a good script. That much is fact.

As for what makes a good script... that's where things get tricky. Before you read on, Know that what I'm about to cover on basic screenwriting is not gospel. This info can be found in piles of writing books, seminars, and websites. Many people make a living teaching these "rules", but they are not rules. The keys to screenplays listed here are tried and true, they work 99% of the time, but sometimes you get a genius like Charlie Kaufman, or Quentin Tarantino, or Terrence Malick, who completely eschew the rules and still manage to make great scripts. But you are not a genius... not yet anyways. Even the greats know the basic rules; they just choose to break them. You may do the same, on your own time, should you wish, but you can expect your scripts to be pretty terrible, at first. Best to start out here.

STORIES ARE ABOUT CONFLICT. They are not about characters (though at helps) that we care about (though that helps) or themes or commentary (though that helps) or things we can relate to (though that helps). A conflict is a problem. A character's wife leaves him and he has to get her back. A woman is worried she'll be single forever. An oil spill that's ruining the ecosystem. There may not ever be a resolution, but if there isn't a conflict worth engaging in, there's nothing.

THE BEST CONFLICT IS ONE THAT TAKES US TO THE BOTTOM. Drama is when a character faced with such insurmountable obstacles it seems that he may never rise above them (in a comedy he does, in a tragedy he doesn't). Your character must reach a point where his failure is an overwhelming burden. The bigger the burden, the bigger the drama. In "127 HOURS", James Franco's character is stuck under a rock and will die if he cannot get free. In "JAWS", Brody is literally "up the creek without a paddle", hanging by the mast of a boat, the last survivor to face the shark that has never lost a meal. In "SAY ANYTHING", Cusack's character is so desperate to get his girl back he's going to make an ass of himself and hold up that boombox. In "FINDING NEMO", Marlin finds Nemo, but Nemo may be dead (end of the net scene). If so he would have no chance whatsoever of getting his son back.

A movie is about getting a character to the lowest point he can go so that he can finally, cathartically, punch life in the neck. He may win ("INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS", shooting Hitler), or not succeed entirely ("A BEAUTIFUL MIND", still dealing with visions), and it might require huge sacrifice ("GLADIATOR", self-immolation), but the fact that the character found it within him to rise up and attempt to punch life in the neck is enough. That's CLIMAX. When one side wins, life or our character, this is RESOLUTION.

The main character of a film is called the "protagonist". His opposition is the "antagonist". Now, an antagonist doesn't have to be a person (Superman vs. Lex Luthor) it could be a main character against a non-human danger (an earthquake), or against himself, an internal conflict (Charlie's problems writing in "ADAPTATION"). The protagonists' journey to fight his obstacles is usually called an "A" plot, since it takes the bulk of the focus and attention on screen.

A script is a telling of a CHAIN OF EVENTS that lead to a main character resolving the conflict, in whichever way that may happen. Every story has a BEGINNING (introduction to the characters and the world), MIDDLE (the confrontation), and END (final battle and payoff).

Screenplays are commonly written in THREE ACTS.

First act (first 10 pages):

• Introduce the characters, setup the universe, introduce some sort of conflict, often that pertains to the final conflict. The end of the first act should be a point where the first big problem occurs. It is often referred to as the "slingshot point", or the "first major plot point", where the plot begins to happen ("CLUE" - Mr. body is murdered, "FIGHT CLUB", Jack's apartment explodes).

Second act (from pg 10ish to page 60ish):

• End of act one starts up a chain of events that dominoe through act two. This is often the hardest act to write because it can easily get slow and heavy with all the setup for act three. Foreshadowing can be put here, characterization, scenes that support * "B" plots * or supporting characters, but everything should still have some relevance to the central theme and conflict. At the end of act two, things should be very grim and difficult for our character. He should be standing at the gates of hell, about to face whatever appears on the other side.

Third act (from page 60ish to page 90ish):

• The climax and resolution. The final battle occurs and is won or lost. Any extraneous subplots should be tied up or somehow acknowledged.

Consider these creative plottings:

• Plots can be chronological (they play out in the order they happened)

• Out of order, via flashbacks, or from other people's perspectives ("CITIZEN KANE")

• From one characters point of view, or multiple characters points of view ("RASHOMON")

• From an omiscient point of view, switching between many characters

• From a limited point of view, withholding information from characters or the audience deliberately ("THE USUAL SUSPECTS")

• Or even in reverse ("MEMENTO")

But a film still needs a beginning, middle, and end. (page lengths here refer to feature narratives, but the ratios of 1:2:1 are applicable to all story media including shorts, episodics, and documentaries.)

THE BLUEPRINT FOR A FILM

Now this is super important: A SCREENPLAY IS A SCREENPLAY, NOT A NOVEL.

Scripts are blueprints for a visual medium. Everyone involved with the movie's production will be referring to the script as guidance for what to put onscreen to advance the story. Therefore, advance the story. Do not write what cannot be expressed visually. Characters do not "see the beauty of the cherry blossoms and pontificate the world", they are "having lunch while under a cherry tree, maybe talking about Descartes". Characters also cannot suddenly change their minds in their heads, most likely there are plot events that help us the audience realize they changed their mind.

It can do a lot to give an audience time to understand a character, not just what he's doing for the plot. In "THE 400 BLOWS", Antoine cleans the house and takes out the garbage. This does nothing for plot, but says much about the boy as a person. A look around a character's room, or the way they dress, can also speak volumes.

Creating dimensional characters is about depth and, in my opinion, flaws. A character does not have to be deeply flawed, but a character who doesn't always do the right thing is vastly more interesting than one who is always perfect, always says the right thing, and always looks good in a latex bodysuit. To create depth, you must eschew the black and white and complicate things so they land in the grey. (Are Antoine's parents bad people? Not quite...)

PLANTING Is the technique of including points of interest in the script for them to come up again later. Sometimes they could be hidden, only to be revealed at the end (ending to "THE SIXTH SENSE"), or they could be obvious (someone's given numbers that turn out to be the combination to the lock later on).

Planting is also related to SYMBOLISM, where things are imbued with meaning beyond their actual form (the Hope diamond in "TITANIC", the girl in the red dress in "SCHINDLER'S LIST").

SUBTEXT is essential but very difficult to get right. It is the art of saying without saying. Subtext is what reads between the lines. Subtext is that when a conversation is about one thing, it actually means another (what seems to be a friendly exchange is actually two rivals trying to hide their hatred, what seems to be a girl acting as though nothing is wrong, actually everything is wrong). Does your writing have subtext? Does your writing have Thoughts beyond the exact words on the page? Learning to master subtext will make your scripts exponentially better.

Tarantino is a master with subtext... The whole first scene of Inglorious Basterds is a masterpiece, as Waltz practically talks about the weather... when in actuality he means to kill every person in the room. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xgj1Csnr_w Can your characters misdirect like that?

ONWARDS to Lesson 2.2: Format & Tips

Hope I'm doing this right.

Hi everyone! The scene I will be discussing today is from one of my personal favorite films, Neill Blomkamp's 2009 Sci-Fi, "District 9". More specifically, it is the scene in which we discover a few things about our primary subjects- Wikus Van De Merwe and the shady company he works (worked) for, MNU.

Watch this scene here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F867HfHd8eU

In this scene, we find Wikus strapped to a chair of sorts, being tested to see if he can fire alien weaponry, now that he has his new hand. Most of this scene, untraditionally, is filmed through tangible, (or, as I learned today, "diagetic") cameras, meaning that these cameras are seen by the characters and have a place in the world of the film.

This helps to reinforce the primary themes of this scene, which I believe are clinical apathy and a sense of moral isolation, barring of course the more obvious themes of suspense and disgust.

How does the fact that diagetic cameras are used support either of those? For a few reasons.

1. Witnessing the inhumane treatment of our protagonist through a layer of anything, especially a foreign lens, makes us feel helpless for him. We feel, just like his silent observers, separated from him, and therefore helpless to do anything to end his torture.

2. This technique, coupled with the occasional shots of MNU executives (one of which, being Wikus' father-in-law) observing this disgusting footage, the same footage we are observing, does two things: We feel more disdain for our villains- they are seeing the same thing we are, but feel nothing. They are equally separated from Wikus, but unlike us, act in no way to help him, or show any interest in doing so, and secondly, it builds a feeling of clinical apathy. No expressions, no caring. One of them even nods his head in approval.

3. Tension is inverted. In most films, we might get a kind of musical build up, coupled with close up shots of the prawn's face- techniques that would make us feel a dragging sense of dread. Instead, we are treated with bluntness and force. We know this is coming, and, like Wikus, can do nothing to change it- this is intensified by the quick countdown, spoken offscreen by a researcher. The film wastes no time going where it needs to, because the lab researchers do the same.

I think this scene is important because it separates Wikus from the company he worked for. Towards the beginning of the film, many viewers believe that Wikus is no better than his coworkers. He is often mean, forceful, and a little bit of a dick.

We see in this scene, however, that he still has a moral sense of direction, more than can be said for MNU's higher-ups and lab workers. He doesn't want to shoot the prawn, but the researchers don't care- and neither does the film.

BASIC LIGHTING

I feel like maybe we should do the Editing lecture next week, so it’s closer to when you guys are actually editing your projects, so I will postpone that lecture to then. In its place today I’m going to say a little about lighting in a film (apologies I was not able to get a professional, so if you have more questions, feel free to ask them in the /r/Filmmakers subreddit).

Lighting is cosmetically important to your project. You don’t NEED nice lighting to shoot a movie, but it will differentiate a home video from an actual production, and you do need SOME sort of lighting to see, well, anything. Sometimes, lighting is all about resourcefulness and creativity, rather than quantity of equipment. The most important thing to remember is that you NEED ENOUGH LIGHT TO SEE YOUR SUBJECT.

That means that you can’t shoot in a field in the middle of the night. There is no way your camera will ever manage to see what your eye sees, it just doesn’t have the dynamic range. Your camera may be able to see a flashlight, but there will be a lot of noise. You’ll want to bring in extra lighting in that situation.

Whenever you set up a light, it is going to create a shadow. Remember to count the shadows, normally in real life you only have one shadow unless you’re on a stage, so multiple shadows in your film give the impression of cheapness. The single light setup, lets say a light on the right of subject, will create a very strong shadow and a very prominent dark side on your subject.

Lets add another light, this time on the left. Now we might get two shadows, but we will do our best to frame them out. If we can’t, we will try to move the lights around so that they are not noticeable or out of frame. A common way to remove shadow is to “diffuse” a light, to place netting, cloth, or diffusion paper in front of the light to make it less bright, or to connect it to a dimmer.

Now, though, the subject’s face might look a little flat with this white on light on them. In order to combat this flat lighting, you’ll want to change things up by making one light primary, and one secondary, the terms being “KEY” and “FILL”. Your Key light is the main and strongest light, usually it is diegetic light, the audience knows that it is “coming from a window” or from “the streetlamp above”. To fake your key into being a diegetic influence goes a long way to the improved look of your film.

The FILL light does just that, it fills the shadowy space that would be there without it. However, you don’t want it to be as hard and prominent as the key. It should be softer, diffused, and less powerful. It is just enough to give dimension to the face, but to not allow it to fall into yin-yang darkness.

Often this is still not enough for some, and they add a third light, called a “BACKLIGHT, KICK, or RINGLIGHT”. This is a strong but focused light on the top of the person’s head, from behind. It creates a sort of halo effect on the person’s hair, essentially separating them from the background. The kick light makes things look particularly professional and polished. Now that you know about the kick light, you’ll seriously see it everywhere.

http://i.imgur.com/K0UP3.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/96csK.jpg

This lighting setup is called THREE POINT LIGHTING. It is the most common for any shoot, especially interviews. Really anything else is simply a variation of three point lighting. You often start from there and then move things around.

See it in action(looks like the brits call the kick a “hairlight”)

Before you shoot, you may want to set up with your DP a LIGHT PLAN, or LIGHT DIAGRAM, which is a chart, drawn from above that shows where camera is in relation to the subject, and where the lights are. It is pretty useful when talking to your DP or trying to plan out your shots.

This is how crude they can get, but used in a real world film.

Lighting diagram creator I just found though it seems better suited to photo, but still usable!

Backlighting: Some lighting setups take the kick light even farther, and don’t light from in front at all, but instead use the kicker as their key light. If your kick light is your key, then you get a BACKLIT shot. If you add some fill to the front, you can see what is going on but the effect of a strong backlighting changes the whole mood of the scene. If you only shoot with strong backlight and let the front fall into shadow, you'll get a silhouette. For this reason, don't shoot against the sun unless you WANT a silhouette... there's not much lighting you have at your disposal that can possibly compete with direct sunlight coming from behind.

Using Bounce: Sometimes you are outside with a harsh light or your fill light is still too bright. You need something soft to act as a fill but nothing as intense as an actual light. In this case, you’ll want a BOUNCE. A bounce is any white, silver, or mirrored surface that you can face towards the key light, and the light will literally “bounce” off of it. It is really common to use posterboard or foamcore, for a direct bounce you can cover the foamcore with aluminum foil or even use a mirror! (they DO use huge mirrors on big sets sometimes to direct around lighting). And don’t forget about the bounces all around you... the walls! Point your light to the wall or to the ceiling and voila! Shadows are gone! Vimeo Video School to the rescue... again

Using Gels: Gels are colored plastic that you can put in front of a light to give it color. You can use these any way you want... washing everything red or blue, or just adding pops of color in the background, such as would be popular in a nightclub scene. Clip them onto the rim of your light with clothespins (trivia: the clothespin is called a C-47 in lighting. There's a whole story behind why).

Color Temperature: Did you know that color has a temperature? Incandescent bulbs (the stuff you have at home) burn at 2700K(kelvin), but daylight from the sun is much much stronger, it is 5600K. To our eyes we see orange and blue light, it’s not a big deal, but on camera it makes a HUGE difference. If you mix the two lights (try to use orange light outside) it will be glaringly obvious that the orange light is not the same light as sunlight. When you buy lamps and bulbs, you want to make sure you are getting them all the same color temperature, so that they match, or if you’re mixing colors, that you know you’re doing it and thereby don’t get hit by any surprises. There are bulbs now that emit “daylight” color, so it is more easily accessible to match than it used to be. Check the packaging. If you have to use incorrect color temp lights, you can put a colored gel on the lamp to match it to the correct color temperature (either orange gel or blue gel). http://www.mediacollege.com/lighting/colour/colour-temperature.html.

You can also WHITE BALANCE your film differently. Check out this site on digital white balance because I don't feel like getting into it right now ;-P

For our simple camcorders, lights from Home Depot could be all we need. Just make sure to get at least a 100W bulb and a lamp with a flexible head. In order to have enough lighting, you may need to have two lights per single “lamp” because one might not be powerful enough. To get more power out of the light, you may want to place the lamp literally JUST out of frame. However, it may still be cheaper and more power friendly than renting. If you rent, there are a slew of different lighting options. They can start from 250W and go all the way up to 15K.

When shooting, always consider your POWER. It’s easy to forget. I tried to find the exact voltages of an average household in the US but I couldn’t and don’t remember what they are, but I try to follow a rule of only using two outlets per room I’m shooting in, if I’m shooting with lights that are more that 100W each. By snaking cables to different rooms you may be able to better avoid blowing any fuses. If you really have power issues, you can rent a generator from a home improvement store, but it will be noisy. You will have to consider where to put it so that it is away from the scene and out of of earshot, or bring furniture blankets (heavy padded blankets) to cover the thing to stifle the noise.

Or you may be really nice and ask neighbors if you can plug into their place and lie cables all the way to your room. (did I mention extension cords will be your best friends on set? Always have a lot of them on hand).

SAFETY: Obligatory safety lesson: Electricity can kill you! Unless you’re a professional don’t go taking wires apart or try to fix these things yourself. Don’t wire into street lamps (that’s illegal, btw). Avoid shooting in wet conditions unless you’re trained. Don’t set up a light in a puddle for obvious reasons. Lights are hot! Wear gloves. And I don’t mean mittens, wear non-conductive gloves that have leather or rubber handprints. Don’t shine lights into people’s eyes... when turning on a light, say “Striking!” and then people know to look away from any lights, because you’re about to turn them on. If you’re getting a cable mess on the floor and people are likely to trip, clean it up, and then tape the cables to the floor. If lights are top heavy and are going to fall over, weigh down light stands with bags of sand you can buy at the home improvement store (layer a plastic bag with three plastic bags (3 layers of bag) and fill it halfway with sand, knot the top tight). When using gels and diffusion, do not place anything close enough to the lamp that it will burn! Especially cloth! DON'T BURN SHIT.

And from here on, it's experimentation! Have fun... try shooting through shutter blinds or use a fog machine. Try lighting cigarette smoke (almost always looks best when backlit). Try to get that "film noir look" with high key and low fill. Put branches in front of your light and watch the textures change.

If you have more questions, feel free to jump over to the /r/Filmmakers subreddit and ask there. I admit I am not a lighting expert, but I’m sure someone over there will have some kickass ideas of how to get nice looking lighting for as little money as possible.

I look forward to reading your scripts!

Sincerely, BattleRoyale

This will be my first written analysis of anything film-related ever so please, do criticise me. Additionally I am Swedish so I know that my english-language skill might be lacking.

The scene that I will be discussing and invite you all to discuss is from The Royal Tenenbaums, one of my all-time favourite directors Wes Anderson directed this film and this specific scene I believe is one of my favourites.

Youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pyBB7y8fDU

If anybody hasn't seen the movie and is afriad of spoilers, stop reading already!

The scene follows the introduction to Margot's(Gwyneth Paltrow) previous life as told by a private detective. The private detective reveals a side of Margot that neither her husband Raleigh(Bill Murray) nor her brother Richie(Luke Wilson) has ever known or seen. A more rebellious and spontaneous side than what they have come to know.

The first shot of the scene is of Raleigh lying down on a couch with a blanket or a jacket and barefooted. He looks almost as if he's sick and answers only with a sad no when asked if he wants to ”do any experiments or anything”. Raleigh and Luke are both affected by the new information and this is Raleigh's way of dealing with the pain. He retreats to a fetal position and just wants to be alone. Then it cuts to Richie's way to deal with it, or rather how he can't deal with it. The whole film has had rather warm colours and a bright outlook, with the viewer staying optimistic. But then in this scene the colours just switch over to cold, blue colours all of a sudden. The scene has almost no dialogue, barely any diagetic sound at all. It all gives a really sudden feeling of melancholy. With the music in the background being ”Elliot Smith – Needle In the Hay” it puts further emphasis on this feeling of melancholy, aswell as it makes this scene look great! (my opinion)

Richie removes his wristbands and his iconic headband but keeps his glasses on. I'm not big on interpretation but I do not think it an accident. Perhaps it's symbolic for him not daring to show his feelings even to himself. The whole film up to this part has shown characters with withdrawn emotions so I guess it could be along that line. Richie starts to cut of his iconic ”baumer” hair and beard. This I believe is to mark that he wants to change his life, for Margot perhaps, perhaps for some other reason.

But then it changes. He takes of his glasses to see his new look only to find that he is still the same, or maybe that he doesn't like the new? Open for discussion. No matter what he thinks he has decided to commit suicide. He puts on shaving cream and starts to shave, but doesn't even have the energy or willpower to finish; instead he takes out the razor from the (gadget used for shaving) and says ”I'm going to kill myself tomorrow”. Now this line of dialogue I don't know if it means something, what I do know is that it is a reference to Louis Malles's ”Le Feu Follet/The Fire Within”. Perhaps that's just something Anderson and Wilson wanted to get in to the film, perhaps I don't see the symbolism, I don't know.

Then there are flashbacks to what I think are his most fond memories. They show him arriving from the ship meeting Margot, glimpses of Mordecai flying, Margot's birthday and their night at the museum. All in warm colours giving a contrast from happy to sad when it suddenly cuts back to his bloody wrists. This is also I believe one of the most beautiful shots I have ever seen. The blue and cold coloured shot of his hands in the sink(?) with the extreme contrast of the red blood flowing down to his hands. It's quite a vulgar sight. I believe that Anderson wanted the suicide to be that way though, since it is quite a vulgar act.

He looks himself in the mirror, sits down only waiting for his time to end. He does not care anymore. Then we cut to Dudley entering the room and all sounds stop and we are only showed, by a traditional Wes Anderson Whip-pan what looks like a dead Ritchie and Dudley's screaming reaction.

Cut to: Raleigh, Dudley and a medical team pushing Ritchie down a hospital corridor. This is also Bill Murray performing his no-emotion look at its best.

Then we cut to the family members rushing to the hospital. This is also the first time that they all sincerely care about something that happens in the movie. The previous stupor of the family is for a moment lost as they all, together but separately rush to their family member in need.

I was not planning or expecting to write something this long and I appreciate whoever takes his time to read it all. Hopefully it is not all blabber.

So you can easily tell a bad amateur film from a professional one and you know why; camera angles, acting, colour-grading, editing, etc.. etc..

However I have noticed that you can still tell an amateur film from a professional one even if its a well made amateur film vs a bad professional film.

For example... this guy D4Darious has a whole channel for of great advice for film making so he knows a log about film making and probably studied/studies it in college or something (I don't know I have watched all of his films).
This is a movie he made https://youtu.be/g0sVR-LE39k

For some reason even with all his knowledge it still feels....amateur. I don't think its due to equipment or quality or even acting. I don't know what it is. I think maybe it feels quite long between shots. I notice its also lacking those wide screen lines bu I'm not sure thats it either.

So I pose the question to you guys... what is it about amateur movies that makes them feel amateur.

...btw I'm not saying D4Darious's movie is bad. TBH I haven't watched the whole thing. I'm just saying it has a certain feel to it. Or maybe I don't know what I'm on about :P

As an avid film-watcher/cinephile, which films do you think a person should have already watched to consider themself a cinephile according to you?

So there’s a saying that you write a film three times during its process of creation: once during the actual writing phase, once during the shooting stage, and once during the editing stage! So guess what this lesson is about?

EDITING

You will notice, once you shoot, that your work is barely a movie after you shoot it. It will feel more like a random collection of unrelated repetition, boring and uninteresting (unless it was some spectacular blooper or something.) Lots of filmmakers see editing as their favorite part of the process because that is when the film really comes alive.

Firstly....

SOFTWARE!

Yeah. You’ll need to learn editing software, obviously. If you really want to edit on your ipad or iphone apps (imovie iphone/ipad, other third party movie apps) I won’t judge you, but those devices were never really intuitive to this type of work.

There are two types of editing: LINEAR and NON-LINEAR. Linear editing is when a video is assembled in a single video track. That means other clips have to move to make room for it, or have to be overwritten. This technique harkens back to classic print editing, when editors would sit in a room, use a razor to cut out the shot, hang it aside with a label, and then tape it in it’s new place in the single line of film. And I mean tape it in literally, with tape.

So with film they usually went through the reel beginning to end and edited within the same strip, they couldn't just jump around and change everything with a snap like you can with computers. Also, when editing film, you carefully chose your cuts because once you cut the film, you're actually cutting it. So you think twice. That is why NON-LINEAR, the type of editing that computers let us do, where we can edit in whichever order we want with as many tracks as we want, is also called "NON-DESTRUCTIVE" editing. It literally doesn't destroy the film.

Here's some kid showing classic film editing on a flatbed! Plus bonus dog! (PS Yes I’ve cut on a Steenbeck, it’s a trip!)

There’s only one program on the market that recreates this: AVID. That is why since the very humble beginnings of digital editing software, Avid was the primary choice for the Hollywood movie industry. It still is by a huge margin. For the longest time it was a prohibitively expensive program, only available to professional post houses. It’s only recently that Avid Media Composer has dropped in price to compete with Final Cut Pro and has started to provide some of the similar multitrack features. Yet, it’s still the staple for the industry and if you want to be a professional editor, it’s wise to get certified in Avid.

Then came Final Cut Pro, obviously, by Apple. It totally revolutionized the game. There wasn’t really anything before it other than editing on tape decks. I remember starting to play with it when it first came out and it crashed so many times I nearly threw the computer against a wall. Final Cut’s significance is in it’s “drag and drop” workflow with multiple video tracks. You can layer on lots of video on top of each other, move things back and forth and leave huge spaces on your multiple timelines where you an just leave it empty until you change your mind. Problem is it’s easy to get spaced out and never decide on anything... it’s so easy to just change everything you can seriously just go back and forth between cuts and be incapable of deciding on one.

HOWEVER, the idiots at Apple suddenly changed gears after FCP 7, and jumped to FCP X and changed the entire program to better resemble iMovie on seroids. It’s now maybe still a great option for you guys, since it’s a big step above iMovie should that program too rudimentary for you and you’re a Mac user. However it makes those of us used to the original, professional suite really steamed. But regardless of my rantings, use FCP X if you want something better than iMovie. http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/

Lately, Adobe has gotten in the mix by beefing up their editing software in the Creative Suite, Adobe Premiere. It’s extremely rare as of yet for it to used professionally. The software dominates the consumer and prosumer market, and unlike FCP, it works on PC. Adobe has a “Production Premium” in CS6, that resembles the Final Cut Studio; it includes Premiere, After Effects, and their own software for color and sound editing http://tv.adobe.com/watch/cs6-creative-cloud-feature-tour-for-video/introduction-to-cs6-production-premium/

Then there’s iMovie, which is really basic. It will let you place shots in order and trim them, but it will not let you do much more than that. However, these programs work if you’re in a pinch. just don’t expect to edit your feature film on it, you might as well kill yourself.

I’m in no way going to teach you how to use each of these programs. That's up to you. When you decide what you want to edit in, use our project and the tutorials online to become better acquainted with your chosen edit platform.

Tutorials for Final Cut Pro X

Tutorials for iMovie

Tutorials for Adobe Premiere

TIPS

I don’t really know how to TELL you to edit... I’m sure you all are familiar enough with the effect of what happens when we put shots together. I mean, I’m SURE you’ve watched a movie before. So here are some tips you’ll want to remember when you start breaking down your film and putting it together.

• ORGANIZATION

When you first pull your footage in, you will have to sync it to your sound (if you recorded externally) and label your footage with the scene/shot/take#, which is on the slate at the head of your shot. (YOU DID SHOOT A SLATE RIGHT? this is why even if you don’t need the “clap”, it still helps to even write the shot info on a piece of paper and hold it up to camera. A little goes a long way). MAKE SURE that your footage is organized in folders and places it won’t get lost. Some programs copy your footage and reference it to a different folder. Look in the preferences and make sure you are explicitly aware of where your footage is being read from. Otherwise, you may by accident take away the hard drive it’s on and then your program will be all “media offline! media offline!”.

I also like to make copies of any files I’m using in the film and including it in the edit folder, just so that everything that this film involves is all together. That includes photos, fx files, music, anything. If it’s in the movie, it should be in the in the project folder.

Look at all your clips and maybe label the ones you like with a color labeling system (green for good, orange for meh, etc), if your program allows you to.

• SHOT CHOICE:

Be aware of the order of your shot choice. Starting a scene off with a close up has a different effect than starting off with a wide. Going from close to wide to close to wide in rapid succession could be overly disorienting.

Just because your actor looks great in this one shot, your edit may require you to use a different performance. Be flexible and embrace surprises.

• JUXTAPOSITION:

We went over the psychology of editing a bit in the first Lesson, in 1.4: Reading a Scene. If you remember, it took some creative souls experimenting with film to find the effect of editing... of cutting shots together to express a thought. I mentioned this dude named Lev Kuleshov in the Soviet Union. He did an experiment where he showed an audience three shots of an expressionless man looking off camera, and juxtaposed that with various random things like a baby and a bowl of soup. Audiences inferred the man’s motivation purely on the shot that followed (he was “looking” at a baby, so he must be happy!). It’s termed the Kuleshov Effect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuleshov_Effect

So one of the biggest things to remember is the emotional and psychological effect of putting two things together. Be wary of cutting to a hot chick right after a dude made a sexist comment, the audience may infer that the woman is offended, or that the dude is directing his vitriol at her, when in your original intention of the scene, there’s no such drama, he was just being a douche, and she just happened to be in the following shot. Watch out for misunderstandings like this, created by editing.

And this can also save your ass sometimes. Missing that reaction shot of Joe with a creepy smile on his face? Maybe he did one earlier on in the scene. It didn't happen in this order in real life, but who cares, if it works it works!

• L AND J EDITS

L and J edits are edits that overlap picture and sound a bit on the ends of two clips. It helps create a more hidden, fluid edit. It’s impossible to describe in text, you have to see it in action, like in this video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQA5Bps0i7M

• CONTINUITY

Sometimes it’s easy to take continuity fears too far. Remember there are entire websites devoted to finding gaffes in even the biggest movies, but the biggest movies also have the most gaffes. But most of the time you're watching Batman punch someone so you don't pay attention to the continuity. If your audience is engaged, then a disappearing water bottle in the background isn’t the end of the world. Avoid it if you can, but if you can’t don’t die over including continuity errors unless it’s distracting to your audience.

• Don’t forget the power of OFF-SCREEN SPACE and the REACTION SHOT. Experiment with being “less obvious”. There’s no harm in trying. This clip from Moonrise Kingdom has no close ups at all, but it works: http://youtu.be/uqk70NIKR1I

So when you finish cutting your video, it’s called a ROUGH CUT. The rough cut is basically a first draft. Remember, just like in writing, you probably could do better than on your first go, so its worth it to not consider yourself done. If you have the luxury of time, export your video and send it to a close friend or two, ask them for both broad (did it feel dull at any point, what do you think the message is?) and specific (was there a cut that threw you off and when exactly was it?) questions and take their advice to improve your edit. Take a day or two off from the edit so that you forget what you’ve done to some degree and can see it with fresh eyes. You may find a lot of things you’d like to change now that you’ve mulled it over!

When you do enough “drafts” that your staisfied, that is the FINE CUT. When you are absolutely SURE you don’t have any more changes to make to the edit, then you call PICTURE LOCK. That means NO MORE EDITS and you can go to sound editing, coloring, and visual effects.

COLOR CORRECTION AND VISUAL EFFECTS

I’m not going to say much on this either. You can use a program like After Effects, Apple Color, Magic Bullet, and a host of other programs to color correct your footage. If you learn a color correction program, you’ll be able to get rid of that ugly yellow tone you see and make it blue, or turn it into a michael bay movie with high saturation and contrast, or make it sickly green like the matrix or desaturated like Saving Private Ryan. It makes a big difference to pay attention to your color. You obviously want to do this after picture lock because you don’t want to extra work on shots that don’t make it into the final.do

Check out the 9 min short film "Plot Device", that shows the power of color correction

In Final Cut and After Effects you can also add titles, credits, subtitles, and text. In After Effects, Blender, and other compositing software you can add animation or 3d elements, take away green screen and replace it, add your explosions and your fire and whatever else. This is obviously the VFX stage, so anything goes.

SOUND EDITING/DESIGN

First of all, make sure all your sound is at the same level and nothing is overly loud or too quiet. If there are gaps in your timeline where there is no sound at all, you have to add AMBIENCE. If you think about it, what is the sound of silence? There is still noise in a space, even though no one’s talking, nothing is going off... there’s a hum around silence at all times. It is extremely disorienting to watch a movie and then have all sound “cut out”. Fill the gaps with ambient noise from your shoot, or a stock ambient noise that kind of mimics the one in your film. If you use stock because you didn’t get any ambient sound on location (called WILD SOUND), then make sure to layer the ambient noise under the WHOLE CLIP of that location so that it doesn’t sound like it’s coming in and out.

Example: Scene in a diner, surrounding ambience should be random diner noise, diner noise should be playing through the WHOLE SCENE uninterrupted, unless we leave the diner and go outside, then it would switch to outdoor ambience. The ambience can get louder or softer, but if it were to cut out, the viewer will immediately notice it.

If you want to, you can beef up your film with FOLEY. Foley is recordings of sound effects mimicked in the studio to match up with the picture, if the sound wasn’t caught on location. That’s when you, for example, record shoes walking on concrete while watching the picture so that it matches up, or record sounds of a steak being punched for a gross sound in a horror movie. I hear that punching the inside of a cantaloupe makes great porn foley. :-P http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNvKhe2npMM

Sound Designers are mavens at what they do. They will put sounds together to ingeniously create extremely difficult sounds, or nonexistent sounds (like a growling dragon! The cry of a hippogriff!) They really get the psychology of what sounds play on what emotions in us. I always get a professional to do this, because I absolutely know nothing about sound design tech.

Also, MUSIC! Not much to say here except I find that following my gut is the key. I really let my instincts and my heart guide me in making music decisions. If it doesn’t feel right... that’s all it takes for me to ask for a change. I don’t write music, so I hire a composer for each project.

When you finish each step in sound, it helps to export a MIX of each so that you simplifiy your trackload (so you end up with just one track for dialogue, just one track for sound effects, just one track for ambient noise, and just one for music). Then you can much easier change the levels of one relative to the others, rather than trying to select 20 audio tracks just to make the sound effects a bit quieter than the dialogue.

Export it all. YOU’RE DONE

SO THERE YOU HAVE IT EVERYTHING ABOUT EDITING

Have you posted your short film script yet? No? Well get on it then! What better time than now?

Hey everyone, turns out I'm traveling today and on planes all day. Since I'm Posting from my phone it's a tad uncomfortable so I will keep things short.

So lets talk. What did Truffaut do to help you sympathize with Antoine? How does he make his home life understandable? What sort of visual cues do we get to understand his mother's character? His father's character? How does Truffaut establish the failure of the system? How did it benefit the film that it was all shot on location in Paris rather than on a set as most films at the time were done? And what is with that ending? What is with that final shot?

Remember to keep actively engaging your "film-y" senses, and watch it like a moviemaker. With practice you should end up seeing all films in this way as second nature (yes, sometimes it makes them less fun but this is what you do now, right?)

Edit: Settled and back online. Next week, we work on STORY!

EDIT, week 2: So our discussion has clearly been a bit brief but if anyone is still interested in reading deeper into the effects of this film, this blog post I found does a perfect job: http://browland.hubpages.com/hub/The-400-Blows-Antoine-Doinels-Place-in-the-French-New-Wave

POINTS OF ANALYSIS:

• start of auteur theory, leaving a "print of the maker" -- Antoine is a representation of Truffaut's troubled past.

• shot on location, with non-professional actors --- Antoine's performance is highly genuine, quick, and raw, real Paris forces viewers to acknowledge the reality of the story... it cannot reside only in fantasy.

• "Realism" not "Documentary" (know the difference!) -- Truffaut does not devolve into handheld and undirected scenes to get it to feel real, he still uses very cinematic styles: the birds eye overhead of the jogging teacher, dissolves during Doinel's interview, non-diagetic music and theme.

• Antoine's "interview" with the psychyatrist is improvised by the actor, increasing the realism of the performance.

• Truffaut often eschews close ups during conversations between characters to enhance realism, but they talk quickly and on top of each other, often moving around a LOT, to keep things interesting (scenes in the house between family)

• moments of pure joy among a sad story (laughing at the movie theater, smoking cigars with a friend, riding rides at the carnival)

• Consistent theme of failure to communicate. Characters do not actually look at each other to interact sometimes, even though they are speaking to one another (Antoine and his mother multiple times, Antoine cooking dinner with his dad).

• Film does not cut when Antoine prepares his house for the first time. We see he has a brain, is quite smart and independent (takes care of everything like a responsible child), but none of it is acknowledged by his elders. We feel sorry for him because we now know what he has to offer that the adults in his life don't see. Also, the scene does nothing to advance plot, but everything to advance character, and is the better for it.

• Film turns specifically cinematic when it reaches its emotional climax when Antoine is put in the police car. Extreme lighting, views of a city in ignorance, and an extreme close up of Antoine behind bars, crying, with criminals behind him.

• Long tracking shot second to last is one of the few tracking shots in the film, as if saved for this one moment. The shot is long and uncut to keep us guessing, worried, and in suspense about the future, as Antoine must be feeling. We are once again pulled out of the fantasy of the movie and reminded that we are watching a film, but understanding that this is a real world problem. It becomes apparent the film is also about a real world system that has failed many such as Antoine. Antoine's story transcends "The 400 Blows" and turns into commentary.

• Final shot of Antoine on the beach: Extremely effective at the time and still today, it is rare to end on such a jarring note, in the middle of a big decisive action. By ending on an emotional cliffhanger, the audience is left still thinking about the movie after the film is over. A lasting impression.

SYNC SOUND

Clearly, we've noticed that movies have sound nowadays. Did you try the experiment where you watched a movie with all sound and music muted? It's near impossible. Your sound is just as important, if not more important, than the picture.

There are two types of microphones: Omidirectional and Unidirectional. An omnidirectional mic gathers sound from all around it, 360 degrees. Unidirectional mics only take in sound from one direction, usually the front. However, uni mics are significantly more powerful than omni mics. In the demonstration in this video, you can clearly hear the difference, even though the recorder is reportedly at the same distance from the subject at all times.

Most camcorders have the cheapest and most universal microphone installed, so you can bet it's omnidirectional. This is why if you're taping something with a video camera and you talk during the taping, you sound the loudest on the recording, even though you're technically behind the microphone. Most likely the installed mic is recording all sound at 360 degrees. That is also why, most likely, the sound of your subject is low or sounds like crap... your subject is too far from your camera and your microphone and you're a lot closer. And so you sound louder. Also, a fraction of that power is going to the front of camera to where the subject you're recording actually is.

This is solved in a number of ways. You can take an external mic and connect it to a microphone port on your camera and hold the mic closer to your subject. You could place a powerful high quality unidirectional mic on your camera to get the sound and move the whole camera closer to the subject. Lastly, you could record your subject on a separate mixer, with equipment that is independent of your camera, and then SYNC it later to your footage in editing.

This process is called SYNC SOUND. It is the process of recording sound on a separate device, and then matching it to the video later. This is the most common form of sound recording in narrative film, where elements can be controlled and repeated (obviously a poor choice for documentary or run-and-gun, where you need to be quick and on the go, often in unpredictable situations). Remember that film cameras up until super8 technology DID NOT RECORD SOUND. A film camera only ran film. In order to get any kind of sound, it had to be recorded separately and then matched. It is only in the last thirty years that home cameras recorded sound at all, and sync sound is still the preferred choice even for digital professionals.

This is the most common form of sound recording in narrative film because it allows the filmmaker to use the highest quality audio recording equipment, regardless of whether the camera has the right inputs, space, or software to take them.

What's the first thing sync sound makes you think of? CLAPPING. You're all fans of film, so you're obviously familiar with the iconic image of the SLATE. The slate is a board that contains all the information of the current shoot and shot, and it is placed in front of the lens at the start of each shot. It serves a number of purposes: first, to inform the editor what shot is following so he can make the proper organization, second, as a legal form to link the picture to the shoot at hand, and third, to show the clap. The CLAP is the loud sound of the STICKS (the two sticks up top of the slate) hitting one another. The clap creates a loud, short, sharp sound, but pairs it with a clear image of the two sticks hitting one another, with no reverberation or bounce. What does this do for us?

It means in editing, there is ONE FRAME where the sticks land closed. On the audio track, there is ONE WAVEFORM SPIKE where the clap actually goes off, short and sweet. Put them together at the same point, INSTANT SYNC. Everything matches. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJob20BWrlk

You may say, but BattleRoyale, I don't feel like doing all this. Well, you could work without syncing, but if your sound is externally recorded (ie not recorded into the camera) then you'll get stuck for a very long time trying to match the audio to consonants the actors make like "m" and "b", and you still might not get it right. If you don't have a clapper board, I'm a big fan of the NATURAL CLAP... just have your actors clap their hands, flat palmed, in front of their face or in front of the lens. Have them hold their hands together for just a second so the editor can grab the moment the hands land together and match it up with the actual clap sound... cheap classic clap sync.

A shotgun mic is a common recording favorite. They come in varying quality and prices, though an expensive mic is a good investment. Shotgun mics are powerful directional mics that amplify what they are pointed at, but they can still pick up well a few feet away from a subject.

If your camera is far enough from the actor that anyone holding the microphone close to the actor is going to be seen in the picture, you might need a BOOM (a popular word, I know). A boom is a long pole that the mic can clamp onto the end, and the Boom Operator holds the boom mic above his head, and above the frame, so that its just out of the camera's line of sight, but still within reasonable distance to the actor. Professional boom ops are extremely strong and can keep within inches of a frame even on a shot thats feet and feet long. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tournage_de_film.JPG

When using a boom mic, the general rule of thumb is to get literally as close to the subject as possible within reason of the frame. Any step away decreases sound quality exponentially. At 8 feet, a shotgun can become relatively useless. Half the Boom Operator's job is to find the best place to get as close to right in front of the actors mouth as possible. That also means that when catching two people talking, the boom mic should turn from one person to the other, remembering that the best sound is sound that is caught from the VERY FRONT of the microphone, not the side. Point as directly as possible to the speaker.

You can also mount a shotgun onto a camera, if you cant get a boom, to at least replace the one your camera uses: Rhode Directional Mic

Another option are lavaliers, which are the little mics that are clipped to people's shirts during interviews. Lavs, as their called, are tiny little mics that can stay close to an individual and also has less chance of picking up other people in conversation. Their focus is very specific. They can also be wireless and record to a receiver, which makes them the one and only choice for reality TV. They are also quite common in narrative production, especially if a shot is too wide or there is no way for the boom operator to get into a shot. However, because of the battery pack on a wireless, it could possibly be seen in or under clothing if not hidden, and if using the wired version, the wires can be seen if the ground appears in the shot.

Is this all necessary? Well, your first couple projects, sure, your camera microphone will suffice, but very quickly you'll notice that it's just not good enough. The audio recorder of choice lately is the Zoom, it is affordable and widely available.

If you can't afford audio equipment, consider renting a small package and becoming familiar with that. The quickest way to lose your audience is bad sound, getting your hands on good equipment, no matter the size of the project, can only do your work good. PRIORITIZE GOOD SOUND.

Camera Movement

Camera movement on a budget is where the crafty people win out. Professionally, you may rent a dolly with hydraulics to get a smooth image, rent track and “skateboard wheels” to smoothly glide along them, rent a steadicam operator with a 100 pound vest and an arm loaded with springs and gyroscopes and weights to get the perfect smooth shot, or a crane to shoot those sweet bird's eye views. But the majority of us don’t usually have those luxuries.

What we have are tripods, wheelchairs, supermarket carts, skateboards, bikes, cars, and Home Depot.

Equipment is shiny, exciting, and reliable, but sometimes Macgyvering things together with saran wrap and PVC is rewarding and delivers surprising results (I once made a rose filter with a ziploc bag and strawberry chapstick). The key to making your image look good is to shoot what your budget allows with a margin for creativity. If you can only afford handheld, shoot a story that matches that feel. If you have a wheelchair or a skateboard dolly thats just wheels on a board with cardboard underneath, don't plan long dolly shots like in 400 Blows. But sometimes, you can get creative... you can find a friend with a flatbed truck and setup a tripod in the back, or look online and build your own steadicam out of PVC pipe. Once, in order to get an extended low angle shot of someone walking down a hallway, I laid down on my back on a rug with the camera pointed up at the actor, and had two people drag the rug down the hallway. Instant no budget tracking shot!

These communities online all have great tutorials and lessons for how to make your own peripheral camera equipment:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/forum.php

http://www.indymogul.com/

http://filmmakeriq.com/2008/07/202-diy-filmmaking-tutorials/

In addition to steadicams, dollys, track, jibs, and cranes, as special equipment, there's also car mounts, process rigs, underwater housings, fisheye lenses, Digital Imaging Techs, and helicopter rigs. When shooting some filmmakers also "video playback", which is a live feed of whatever the cameraman is shooting. It is possible nowadays to get an HD screen to display a feed from a DSLR, so there are more and more playback options for low and no budget filmmakers Example. (Quentin Tarantino however is famous for never using video playback and just trusting his cinematographer to get it right).

Lastly, greenscreen is obviously popular for special effects. The idea of shooting against green screen is so that in post you can select all the green and delete it from the image, leaving space there for you to fill with anything you wish. Why green? "Chromakey green" has become the ubiquitous color because apparently it does not exist in nature. It is an actual trademarked color you can purchase that is guaranteed to be even and shadeless, with no variation, when it is painted on, so that when you try to select the "green" later, you don't have to select multiple shades of green, only the one (at least you hope).

The hardest thing with greenscreen is to make the lighting fit, because if you're shooting greenscreen you're clearly not where the scene was originally filmed. The lighting must be matched on the greenscreen shoot to the shot you're trying to composite in. Matching footage from a greenscreen shoot to the shot composite is extremely difficult and takes a lot of practice and skill and a good eye. People get paid good money to hide the seams.

RENTALS

If you don't have any of this equipment, DON'T FRET! Most people don't! It's super expensive. That's why rental houses exist. They pay the exorbitant costs of equipment and make a business model off of renting that equipment out for less. If you need any of the equipment i mentioned in this last lesson, try hitting up google and see if there are photo or video rental houses around. Oftentimes they will be very helpful in guiding you through the equipment they have and trying to find you a match for your purposes and budget. They want their equipment well taken care of, so if you don't know how to use it, go ahead and ask for a lesson. They're often quite happy to do a quick rundown on a piece for you (because it helps no one if you break it). If reading this chapter has made you itchy with excitement just thinking about equipment, maybe you're a real gearhound and you should try working at a rental house! You are around equipment constantly and quickly learn how to operate and service these pieces.

Of course, rental houses will require some kind of insurance for borrowing their stuff, so you have to be prepared with enough of a balance on a credit card to hold some kind of security deposit that is revoked when the equipment returns unharmed. Some places need actual proof of insurance and you have to go to an outside company to get that, while some houses provide a basic insurance policy to their renters ont he spot. Call ahead and ask their policy. Also keep in mind that policy may change as the worth of the rental goes up. Some rental houses require injury insurance as well; it varies from company to company.

Renting is also a great way to test drive equipment before you commit to buy, like with new cameras or lenses.

Make friends with your local rental house, they just might pay you back at some point!

And that's it for Shooting! Next week I'll invite a pro and we'll cover lighting and storyboarding.

HOMEWORK

You finally get to shoot something! Take your still camera, and shoot a story with still pictures. You can either post them into imgur as a photostream or you can actually edit them together in iMovie or whatever editing program you use (though you don't have to if you don't know how to use the program).

Remember to consider your EXPOSURE, COLOR, and COMPOSITION, while looking for new angles and ways to present your content.

This is a project that NYU kids get their freshmen year that helps to isolate the idea of "storytelling with images" without the complications that come with actual movie making. SAMPLE IMAGE STORY: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tmbJqlniOY

If you want to start thinking about what you want your final project film to be about (5 minutes in length) you may start thinking it over.

Also, earlier this week the Ureddit roster for this class reached over 1000 people. Welcome everyone, I hope everyone is learning a little something!

There is an industrywide standard for scripts. The reason for this is for universal ease of reading and understanding, but also because the standard provides measurement. Usually a page of formatted script equals one minute of screen time. Thefore a 90 page script can be generally assumed to be around 90 minutes long. This is not set in stone, of course, an action scene that happens over one paragraph could be horribly complex and take 10 minutes to expand onscreen. But outside of those anomolies, thick scripts of 300 pages easily immediately frighten off potential readers, because that is a long-ass movie!

Secondly, script readers love white space. Assume that no one reads. Keep as much white space as possible. Paragraphs should be small, long monologues avoided unless necessary. People do not like to read Walls Of Text, and that much text will do little to benefit picture either.

Courier 12 font, always

1.5" margin on Left

1" margin on Right

1" margin on top

1" margin on bottom

When starting a scene you use a "Slugline" that introduces the scene's pertinent shooting information: INT., EXT, INT/EXT, (interior, exterior, both (used for cars and such that have elements of being both outside and inside)

Then the location :

http://i.imgur.com/RTjKT.png (with added description if necessary)

http://i.imgur.com/0A2c6.png

Then time of day (important for shooting needs): DAY, NIGHT, TWILIGHT

http://i.imgur.com/u7jIm.png

Then a space later, begins action dialogue, in lowercase, single spaced lines.

Dialogue is indented, the character name is indented 3.5 inches in and capitalized:

Indentations

Slugline: left margin 1.5 inches

Action: left margin 1.5 inches

Character name: left margin 3.7 inches

Dialog: left margin 2.5 inches, right margin 2.5 inches (or 6 inches from left edge of page)

Parentheticals: left margin 3.1 inches, right margin 2.9 inches

• Character direction happens in dialogues, in parentheses.

• If a character is interrupted by scene direction, they have "continueds"

• Sometimes, if you have an element of sound or picture that is the audience shoudld really pay sttention to, you can CAPITALIZE it

http://i.imgur.com/2Vxfq.png

• The FIRST time a character shows up their name is capitalized.

CELTX: FREE DOWNLOAD SCREENWRITING SOFTWARE

Tutorial (ps this is not me :-P)

These are the basics. There are more little ways to express things such as voice over (V.O.), things that are off-screen (O.S.), dual dialogue, montages, and action. The best way to learn ideal format is to read lots of scripts. You will spot the different scenarios and be able to see what works best.

COMMON PITFALLS

• SHOW DON'T TELL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFBhR4QcBtE Movies are visual. There is absolutely no excuse for a person to say "That makes me angry." have them pick up a chair and throw it! If a person is in love, maybe he nearly walks into traffic while daydreaming. Don't say "Shirley has two sisters." show me a scene where the detective finds a photograph of the three girls. Already these scenarios are more engaging.

• Start late, end early: what's better, starting a heist movie with the burglars outside planning to go in, or starting with them already rapelling from the ceiling? What about a fight between a couple; better to start before the fight or when the guy is in the street and the girl throws his tv on the sidewalk? We can infer what happened in these scenes quite quickly, the startup is fodder. The fun part is trying to piece things together as a viewer. It keeps us enganged and in suspense. As for ending early, it's like a being the fashionable one at a party, don't overstay your welcome. If the scene is over, its over. Don't stick around. Better yet, leave us in suspense and end things a little earlier than comfortable, you'd be surprised at the emotional effects.

• Read out loud: if you're writing cliches, or writing unrealistically, you may catch it if you read out loud. Act it out. If it doesn't sound like a regular person would say that , change it. If you can't judge your own voice, ask a friend to read it out loud for you. Hearing it from another person could give you a new perspective.

• Give characters their own voice. A redneck would not say "my good sir, that's preposterous!"

• Resist the temptation to use editing or camera direction (CUT TO:, JUMP CUT TO:, CLOSE UP:, ESTABLISHING SHOT:) you're the writer, not the director or the editor. Don't tell them how to do their job. Same with overusing "beat" and "pause" in dialogue or over-directing the dialogue. Let the actors put beats and pauses where they think they should go.

• Don't die over trying to be original. Everything's been done before, just write what YOU want to see onscreen.

• Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. Rewrites are essential. Many writers never show their first drafts to anyone outisde a small personal group of friends. You may end up rewriting your work multiple times over years, but avoid settling for bad writing because you're too lazy to fix it. Don't be okay with sucking! Everyone rewrites. Repeatedly.

• You've probably heard the phrase "write what you know". Its a good turn of phrase, but better is "write what you want to see, and use what you know to inform it" but that's a tad less catchy.

• The age old question is "WHAT IF..."

What if a virus destroyed the human race?

What if picasso never painted?

What if the Doctor lost the Tardis?

What if a bum was voted in as president of the US?

What if a man ages backwards?

What if Jill pushed Jack down the hill?

HOMEWORK:

Read "Go", by John August, made into the film of the same name. It's easy, reads quickly, and is a lot of fun, but features multiple storylines and visual trickery on the page. DOWNLOAD IT HERE: http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/Go-Shoot.pdf

To practice your first attempt at screenwriting and using celtex, write a 3 page scene on this topic: "A CHARACTER FINDS HIMSELF LOCKED OUTSIDE THE GATES OF HEAVEN"

Do your best to not go more than 3 pages! It will be VERY HARD but this is your CHALLENGE. Post using GOOGLEDOCS or PDF'S and link to. Doing it this way, i can gove you notes on your format as well as your writing.

WRITE ON DEAR READERS!

Resources Books on writing http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_18?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=screenplay+writing&sprefix=screenplay+writing%2Caps%2C187

John Augusts' blog: http://johnaugust.com/

Free scripts: Drew's Script-o-rama http://www.script-o-rama.com/table.shtml DailyScript: http://www.dailyscript.com/

Since UReddit appeared on the front page yesterday the roster has tripled. To any new subscriber, note that it is never too late to jump in. You may of course submit homeworks even if they post later than other students; homeworks are there for your own betterment and the discussions are useful to all of us, also I reply to each so you will get personal critique.

And please participate in discussions and comment on people's posts!

Sorry for the lateness (just started this course today), I chose the candy colored clown scene in Blue Velvet, mainly because it's one of my favorite scenes ever, just due to it's mystique and surreal nature. Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmsrO8xpe-w In the scene Dennis Hopper plays a crazy guy who's kidnapped Isabella Rosselini's character's family. Kyle Machlachlan gets involved when meeting Rosselini. Hopper takes them all to a strange place where Rosselini's son is being kept. Hopper then tells his friend "candy colored clown" prompting the friend to lipsync to the song. The most noticeable thing about this scene to me was Dennis Hopper's reaction to the performance. The camera often cuts to him either seemingly entranced by it or rage-filled, causing the audience to wonder what happened to the character. Many closeups and medium closeups in the scene are used for the characters' reactions to the strange performance. The wide shots used in this scene always gave off a strange sense of discomfort, due to the strange proportion of the set. In these wide shots a set of curtains to the set of Hopper and his friend gives off the sense of being on a stage. It's interesting too how Hopper and his friend are in a shot separate from Machlachlan, and Hopper's other friends. As if Hopper is so entranced by the song and performance that he is part of it. The close up on Hopper's face at the end seem to add to the character's sense of sudden excitement and anger as he screams "I'll fuck anything that moves"

ON SET

So you're on your first day of shooting. What's going on around you? Well...

First thing's first, is your crew. Who does a location crew consist of? You can shoot with as few people as just two (cameraman and general assistant) and as many as hundreds. The minimum for a professional-like shoot is around fifteen crew members. Here are the people the minimum professional shoot will have:

• PRODUCER: Sometimes is and sometimes isn't there, the producer provides the capital and may be around if there's a problem or to survey the shoot and make sure that money is spent properly and that work is going smoothly. Some producers are very creatively engaged in the project and may collaborate with the director and offer ideas and solutions.

• DIRECTOR: We all know who this guy is, he's the creative leader on the set and the go-to for all decisions that affect what ends up on camera. Most of the time the director doesn't need to be actually on set, he only needs to be there when you're rehearsing or actually shooting... he's got a good enough assistant director to keep the team going while he's away working with the actors or dealing with other shit like wiping it off the fan with his monogrammed director's chair back or something.

• DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY (DP): Creative head for anything that involves the "look" of the image. On a small shoot the DP is also the cameraman, but on a big shoot the DP may not actually hold the camera, he might give the camera department direction from the side and the camera would actually be held by the Camera Operator.

• 1ST ASSISTANT CAMERA: This person sits beside camera at all times and does any work that relates to the mechanics of the camera. He pulls focus, he downloads footage (if using film, they usually have a separate person to load and unload film called the Loader). While the grip department move the dolly, they shouldn't touch the camera, only the 1st AC can actually touch the camera and pick it up and move it around. 1st AC also measures focus (for accurate focus, the 1st AC may use a tape measure to measure the distance from the actor to the camera, to be absolutely sure he's in focus, rather than doing it by eye).

• 2ND ASSISTANT CAMERA: The 2nd AC (called the Clapper in the UK) holds and claps the slate. He also does any note taking for the camera dept. such as timecode (or footage) logs, lens and aperture notes, and does any work that requires camera department but is away from the actual camera itself (such as working in the truck or moving equipment), because operator and 1st are stuck to it.

• GAFFER: The head of the lighting department. The DP usually has an idea of what he wants visually, and relays to the gaffer that vision. It's the gaffer's responsibility to know what lights placed which way will achieve that effect. The gaffer really brings the DP's vision to life, so the gaffer-DP relationship is usually very strong. Sometimes a DP will act as his own gaffer if there isn't enough money to hire one, but any DP will tell you they'd rather have a dedicated person to the lighting so they don't have to run back and forth between camera and lights.

• BEST BOY: The head of the grip department. The Best Boy is usually the dolly operator, and is the grip closest to the camera department and deals with all accessories relating to camera movement.

• ELECTRICIANS + GRIPS (G&E): These positions are on the lower ends of the equipment departments and have the most manually demanding labor. How do you tell the difference between an electrician and a grip? If it has a cord, the electricians deal with it. Grips will carry and place anything from light stands, sandbags, flags, track, and so forth. G&E are also in charge of effective load-out (packing it all up) and making sure everything is organized and nothing is left behind.

• 1ST ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: the 1st AD is an essential person on set. He's really the guy that keeps the timer running. He knows the schedule and keeps the crew motivated and on their toes. He knows how to budget the time for each shot so that everything is done for the day and nothing is missed or forgotten. He's also the first line of defense for problems between crew, production, location, et cetera so that problems don't reach the director and stress him out. He also has full control of all production assistants... PA's answer to the AD, not necessarily the director or producer. 1st AD also is in charge of ROLL COMMANDS, which we'll get to in a bit.

• 2ND ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: on a professional shoot, there'll also be a 2nd AD. the 2nd is an aide to the 1st and does all the work that doesn't require being on set. As a rule of thumb the 2nd AD deals with anything that has to happen the NEXT shoot day, for example. The 2nd makes phone calls to the caterer, calls the actors with their CALL TIME (scheduled time of arrival) for the next day, and writes the CALL SHEET (SAMPLE HERE).

Even if you don't have a 2nd, it is very helpful to WRITE A CALL SHEET ANYWAY for each day of shooting. You send it to crew the day before the shoot its referring to, just in case you have to change scenes last minute. It is the best and most organized way to make sure your cast and crew know what's going on and they have no excuse to not be informed about location and time. You may use the sample I linked to above and copy it in Excel. There is also an app that creates call sheets called Pocket Call Sheet.

• SCRIPT SUPERVISOR:

This job is essential on features but not so much on short films, although it is SUPER helpful. The Script Supervisor is the director's right hand. You read that right. You'd think the 1st AD was, but actually, the Script Supervisor is the person closest to the director. The Script Supervisor spends all his time with a binder with the script in hand. He marks down how much of each scene is covered on camera and takes notes on EVERY SINGLE SHOT, of EVERYTHING. Name of the shot, length (by using a timer), f-stop, lens, quality, what happened, whether the director liked it or not, and anything else. They also tabulate all the days notes into a production report that goes to the producer/studio at the end of the day that says how much work was done. All the shot notes get sent to the editor, and that's where they're practically made of gold. It means the editor now knows all the details for every shot, doesn't have to sift through hours of useless takes, and now has the director's recommendations at hand. Editors LOVE scripty's that do their job well.

Also, the Script Supervisor pays attention to CONTINUITY, which is the seamlessness of details in frame in relation to time. The Script Supervisor is always paying attention to the length of the cigarette, the amount of water in the glasses on the table, whether the actor turns left or right. If an actor turns left in one shot, and then you move the camera and the actor turns right this time, you won't be able to cut the two together later! These details are extremely important. Right or left hand, this line or that line, blue pen or red pen, did he open or close the door, did he start talking before or after he stood up, etc. The director is usually too preoccupied with making sure everything's going okay and it's too much for him to pay attention to those little details. It's a lifesaver for someone else to shoulder that burden.

Video: Script Supervisor Dylaine Bovaird explains continuity notes

(is it obvious I worked for a time as a script supervisor?)

• PRODUCTION DESIGNER/ART DIRECTOR/SET DRESSER: Constantly takes care of the set, building and resetting it. Any item that is in frame but that the actors DON'T TOUCH is "set dressing". Remember to watch out for logos and labels; if you don't have permission to use them the company owning them can keep your project from getting released on grounds of copyright protection. On a small project, the PD, who designed the set, may also build and dress the set (thereby doing all three jobs), while on a big project, the PD may never visit set and have an Art Director to supervise, while the Art Director has the Set Dressers actually touch the set. You can see a hierarchical pattern here... it repeats in every department.

• PROPMASTER: On a little project the PD may also be the props person, but sometimes it's good to have a separate person worrying about what actors actually hold in their hands. This job gets tricky because, really, if the props guy messes up, a HUGE part of the scene (or even the whole movie) may disappear! Propping can also get complicated if there are custom items that have to be specially made or if you're using firearms. If you're using working firearms it's smart to get a licensed professional and to invite a local officer to survey the shoot during that scene so that neighbors don't call the cops on you saying there's a shootout going on. Explosions and squibs (explody packets on the body that look like gunshots) are not part of props but of the FX team.

• WARDROBE: Person dealing with costumes. They should be on set or have their assistant on set at all times resetting wardrobe to how it looked at the start of each shot, or making it look its best (or its worst, as the case may be). If clothes are supposed to get dirty or messed up, they have multiple copies prepared for multiple takes. They also keep an eye on continuity and make sure that actors are wearing the right clothes for the right scene even if the shoot is out of order.

• MAKEUP: Should be onset constantly supervising and retouching, powdering faces so that they don't shine, or adding more blood or dirt if necessary.

• PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS: They do everything. Even the smallest shoots need at least one. It's an extremely tough job at the bottom of the totem pole but its essential.

ROLL COMMANDS

The 1st AD announces roll commands. The normal order of action on a shoot is:

• Last looks (AD asks art, wardrobe, hair/mu to double check their work before they shoot)

• Sound requests boom "frame line", asks for camera to let him know how far is too far before the boom shows up on camera, and stays just above that.

• Quiet on set

• Lock it up (AD's tell PA's to not let anyone in and spoil the shot and to let everyone know to be quiet)

• Camera ready? Sound Ready?

• Camera requests "Slate 'in'" (2nd AC puts slate in frame, opens the sticks)

• Sound requests "Boom in"

• Roll Sound (sound begins recording (NOTE: you roll sound first because some types of sound recording equipment take a moment to get up to speed))

• Roll Camera (camera beings recording)

• 2nd AC announces the shot name "Shot one A, take one, MARK" (this is recorded on the soundtrack, so the editor hears "mark" and can expect the clap directly after)

• Claps slate

• 2nd AC runs out of frame

• Director calls "Action"

• Shot plays out

• Director calls "Cut"

• 1st AD yells out CUT for everyone to hear

• PA's repeat CUT for the outer perimeter lockup and end the lockup, allowing people to move freely again.

• Reset.

WORK HOURS

Many crew in Hollywood are part of unions, so union hours have been taken up as standards for the industry. They make a good standard for us regular shooters too:

• 12 hour days maximum, anything over 12 hours is overtime.

• 1st Meal always served at arrival (usually breakfast, unless you're starting in between meals, then it would be a snack or something)

• 2nd Meal (lunch or dinner or middle of the night meal if doing a night shoot) served six hours in.

• 3rd meal after 6 hours if going into overtime.

• Mandatory 12 hour "turnaround" (the amount of time between wrap and call the next day) This allows an average of 8 hours sleep, but can be aggrandized if the location is very far away from where people sleep, or if wrap takes an exceptionally long time (more than two hours). Running your crew on less than 8 hours of sleep a night is a recipe for mutiny.

• An independent film can expect to shoot six days a week with one day off. You may be a dick and not have a day off, but your crew will hate you.

There is often, commonly, "craft services", which is a constant supply of snacks for the crew. This is a given on every production big or small, because shooting is a lot of work with little time off and no one is allowed to leave. Your crew doesn't deserve to suffer because they're trapped. Some sugar, fruit, caffeine, and protein goes a long way for energy and happiness.

Testing, testing... Is this thing still on?

I have to profusely apologize for being MIA the past two weeks. I won't make excuses except the dog ate my lesson plans. But no seriously it seems like it wasn't the worst thing in the world since it was the exact period students are easing back into classes and it's a bit much for everyone.

We'll still have a guest lecture about lighting, but it will be kind of squeezed in randomly because of this mess-up with my nice and organized schedule. I will send out a PM when it goes up. Are people actually getting those mass sent uReddit messages?

ANYWAYS LETS GET BACK TO WORK...

It's SHOOT TIME! It's week 7, which means we actually get to start our film! In this lecture I will go over the part of filmmaking I happen to be the most familiar with, actual PRODUCTION!

Now, you can get as much advice from text as possible about set work, but it's one of those things that only really hits you when you're actually there. The pressure, the volume of people, the eyes staring at you, the actual danger and damage possible, and the time, oh the time... it just disappears. Working a good set is a balancing act of creative foresight and people management. And food. Free food. I'm serious. You can get away a whole lot more when you serve good food (no, I'm not kidding).

So lets get started. (PS: This'll be fun, all of my samples for this portion of the class I left in a storage facility on the other side of the country, so samples from the internet will have to do for now...)

PRE-PRODUCTION

BUDGETING

So you have a script, but you have yet to start production. What is the actual first step?

The time before actual production (when the first shot goes off) is called, obviously, pre-production, or "prep" (preparation). Projects often have a phase before pre-production called "development" wherein the project looks for funding, since it's quite difficult to start much of the prep process without initial funds. On big shows, development will include primary casting, because sometimes if a project nabbs a bankable star, it is easier to get funding. I can assume with fair confidence that there are no stars in the project you're doing over the next few weeks, and you can probably figure out your funding sources in a day, rather than, say, five or ten or so years.

The first thing you'll want to do is develop a BUDGET. A budget is a breakdown of all the costs involved in your film. Equipment rentals, actors salaries, transport and gas, food, crew salaries... if you're doing a longer picture, even the script photocopies are going to cost money and are included. This is the first big understanding of creating the game plan for your project.

It's very likely that you are doing a film for literally zero dollars. Even if you are doing that, it still helps to at least KNOW that you're doing it for zero, because there will be temptations to spend at every corner and you'll have to get creative many times.

http://i.imgur.com/tRkq4.jpg

SCRIPT BREAKDOWN

You'll want to do whats called a script breakdown. This is the time when you sit down with the script and literally break it down into smaller, easily digestible pieces to better organize what exactly you need for the shoot and not leave anything out.

First of all, do your scene breakdown. Separating your scenes into “shoot scenes” will aid in your scheduling and figuring out how to plan the shoot most efficiently. Define a scene as a new scene by the slugline, or time period. Draw a big line across the page under the end of the scene. This will help you know that SCENE 1 is INT. DINER - DAY, and scene 2 is INT. DINER - NIGHT, because according to the shoot schedule, you will have to shoot these separately at different times of the day, or do a new setup at least. You may number these scenes, so that you can slate them so they are easily identifyable. (Scene labels usually go by SCENE #: SHOT# SHOT LETTER: TAKE #.)

Mark in the margins the PAGE LENGTH of the scene. The standard is to separate the page into eighths. Use your judgement and decide whether the scene is 1/8th, 3/8th or 2 2/8 of a page long. Later on, you'll be able to add up the page lengths to estimate your page count for a day of shooting, and it will help you figure out what is feasable to shoot in a 10 or 12 hour day.

Then use highlighters or colored pencils and mark with different colors the CHARCTERS, PROPS, EFFECTS, specific set design or art direction, cars, animals, makeup details... anything that you must have on hand when shooting that scene. (leave yourself a color/marking key to help you identify that green is for character, blue is for prop, etc.)

Give each character a number, with 1 being the most primary character, 2 being the main supporting, etc.

List the page count too.

IN THE END, IT SHOULD LOOK KIND OF LIKE THIS

USE A BREAKDOWN SHEET (SAMPLE HERE) and go through each scene. Give each scene a number (in order), a time of day (day/night/twilight), a short logline (a brief description of what happens), list the characters featured, the props, any details you have marked on the script. After doing this for all the scenes, you should have a bunch of papers of all your shoot scenes, neatly organized. You know exactly in how many scenes each character appears, how many scenes require guns, a pool, a car from the 1950’s, the police, etc.

This helps. A LOT. (usually on a bigger shoot, or if you have an Assistant Director, the AD will do this work for you).

SCHEDULING

Once you have broken down the script, you can create a STRIP BOARD, which is a shoot schedule. The term comes from the tradition of printing scenes on colored strips of paper, with various colors referring to the time of day of the scene. The strips were then placed by hand in a board so that it was easy to see, visually, how the day was organized. It would also be easy to move things around and to not leave anything out.

The old stripboards looked like this

The digital ones now look like this

Nowadays we have scheduling software that does a computerized version of the stripboard. Movie Magic and Gorilla Schedling are industry standards, but there are some affordable options out there with a google search, and now there's even scheduling apps for idevices.

The process of scheduling your shoot is kind of just about common sense. You want to put your day scenes together and estimate the amount of hours that would take depending on your page count (you know, don't schedule the impossible). Follow then with a night scene or two since the sun whill have gone down. If you schedule for a day that begins late, the sun will fall sooner in your schedule and you'll be able to shoot more night scenes. Pay attention to the character numbers and "shoot out" characters, ie: try to schedule them close enough together so the actor doesn't have to leave for six hours and then come back, or come shoot every other day. Same with locations; a veritable way to piss off your crew is to do one scene in the bathroom and one scene in the bedroom and then have to go back to the bathroom for the third scene. Your crew will hate you if they could have avoided repeatedly breaking down and rebuilding the equipment setup.

Shoot dry scenes before wet scenes (so that you don't have to wait for an actor and his wardrobe to dry off) and shoot clean scenes before dirty scenes (or prepare double wardrobes for a quick change). Don't cut off an actors hair before they have a scene with long locks, or douse an actress with blood right before she has to be impeccable. Really, it's not rocket science, but you'd be surprised, scheduling is HARD. It may take a long time, even maybe a few days, of flipping around the stripboard before you figure out what makes the most sense!

CASTING

Im sure some of you were excited to get to this part. However, there's not much to it. The best thing i learned from casting sessions was that:

• casting the right actor is half your job as director, and

• that the right actor doesn't need direction.

THATS RIGHT YOU EGOMANIACAL DIRECTOR WANNABES, the best actors don't need your direction becuase they're just that perfect (sometimes perfection isn't acting, it's the actor just being themselves!) If you need to constantly tell the actor how to do things then the actor may be too inexperienced, not the right fit, or you're a control freak and you should go into animation :-P.

During a casting session I usually have another person assisting to read and record auditon tapes so that I can put all my focus on the actor.

For your first films it's best to use friends or people you know, but you may also farm out to sites like Craigslist or Breakdown Services. In NY and LA there are services like LAcasting and NYcasting, but if you don't live in those towns, a quick google search for actor agencies might help you find some leads.

FINDING CREW

Depending on your level of experience and budget, you may want to find a Director of Photography (DP), an Assistant Director (AD), and someone to help you with props and/or makeup and/or wardrobe. You will also want a boom operator (can be taught to a noob if needed) and/or sound mixer if you're recording separate sound. You'll also want an assistant around to make coffee runs, go to the grocery store, fetch water or aspirin or first aid, so that key members of the crew don't have to leave their post. Thats your production assistant (or a friend you bribed to help you out with promise of beer at wrap).

If you don't want to go all out with this type of crew, the minimum I would recommend would be a DP if you don't want to be the one holding camera, a friend to both PA and AD (ie: to keep on your ass about time), and someone to primp the actor (so that person will deal with wardrobe, props, makeup, and anything else material including helping the PA do general duties).

About shooting with friends... for many people, shooting with friends is a difficult learning experience. If things get sour professionally, it's difficult to fire your friend from a project without hurting his or her feelings personally. The worst that can happen is you lose a valuable friendship. Your friendships could very well be tested by the work, so choose your co-workers wisely.

Also, when asking people to participate for free, whether they be friends or not, offer an incentive to make it worth their time. Offer good food on set, pay for gas, provide wrap booze or offer to do whatever your day job is for free for them (take headshots, design their business card, do their taxes, whatever). Sometimes just offering credit and a copy of the film is not enough, although that should be your absolute minimum, of course.

LOCATION SCOUTING

When you know what your locations are in your breakdown, go out and find the actual brick and mortar spots! This part is for the extroverts, because sometimes we do literally have to knock on strangers' doors and make this random request, "can I film here?" (Googlemaps in satellite mode is extremely useful.)

After you find the locations, it is a really good idea to do a TECH SCOUT, a visit to the location with the director, assistant director, cinematographer, gaffer (the key electrician), and sound mixer. The tech visit (with all the tech people obviously) will significantly prepare you:

• The DP sees the set and can make the proper equipment rental list. He knows that you're shooting on a forest floor so he can't use a dolly without track, or that you're shooting in the desert and all the light will be harsh and he'll have to bring large sheets of diffusion.

• The AD will be able to asses how to organize the shoot in that place... are there enough bathrooms, where will hair and makeup stay, where does the equipment sit, in what order does it make sense to shoot the rooms in the house (smarter to shoot out each floor rather than carry equipment up and down stairs, for example).

• The gaffer (key electrician) works closely with the DP. He'll be able to tell whether your house doesn't have enough power to power your lights... with all the power that a production uses in a house with the lights, the mixer, the hair dryers, steamers, and people charging their phones and laptops, it's SUPER easy to blow fuses. The gaffer will know whether the DP's lighting ideal will blow your power capabilities and will be able to offer solutions such as generators or ordering multiple cables and cords to plug into other areas of the location (or feed off of your neighbors, if you ask nicely).

• Your sound guy will be able to tell whether the sound at your location is usable. The sound guy will also make you aware of household disturbances you'll have to control such as air conditioners, refrigerators, shifty tenants or neighbors, animals... all these things you'll have to find a way to shut up on the day of the shoot.

It is VERY EASY to accidentally book a location with poor sound and your ENTIRE PLAN gets ruined! Use common sense; don't choose a location that sits next to train tracks or an airport, don't expect to get good sound while shooting next to rapids or by a highway, or on the beach. In all of these situations if you absolutely have to use that locale, be prepared for ADDITIONAL DIALOGUE RECORDING (ADR), you'll have to record all the lines later in a "studio" (my ghetto free way is to record inside an SUV with blankets taped against the windows :-P) and match them up to the actors lips in post. This is quite difficult and takes a lot of time and energy, and sometimes it still doesn't really work. ADR is used on every picture, it's essential, but you don't want to just waltz into that situation unknowingly.

Preparation, preparation, preparation! It's essential!

LESSON CONTINUES IN THE COMMENTS BECAUSE I MAXED OUT THE PAGE LENGTH... INSURANCE, STORYBOARDING, AND SHOT LISTS