Intro to film
Different modes of production
Studio production
Private funding
Large scale production
Stars
Very important in big in large production
Without a star no one will read the script
Very powerful
Controlled by distributors
Director less important
Producers hold final cut
More resources and more time for production
Easy access to the market
Pre-sale
Large crew
Notion authorship unclear
Standardised stories and style
Same ending
Repetitive plot
Not taking risks
Goal is to make money
- Having a distributor is how you make a movie in Canada. The condition. Tax credit with Canadian distributors
Independent production
Less or no stars
Director has more power
Combination of private and public funding (multi party funding)
limited market
Smaller crew
Limited time to produce
Small production and DIY
Usually with unknown or amateur actors
Director is king
writer/director is also uninstall the producer
Director holds final cut
Very limited or even non-existent market
Very small crew
Authorship clear
Film production process
Development
Start when a decision to make the film is made
Estimated budget
Fundraising
Script development
Securing “stars”
Securing a director
Securing key crew
Once the script is finalized and the funding complete, we move to…
Pre-production
Refers to all aspects of pre-production before camera and sound roll
Script breakdown (scenes, locations,characters, props, stunt,etc)
Shot list (useful to use index cards, spreadsheets etc)
Previsualization (story board)
Casting assembling a crew
Location scouting (permission)
rent/budget the necessary tools (costumes, props, etc)
Budgeting
Scheduling
Productions
Principle photography
The film being actually shot
Direction
Camera operation
Lighting
Sound recording
Productions design
Acting or interviewing
Most expensive and shorter part
When completed, it's a wrap
Post production
Usually the longest part of the process
Organizing footage and synchronizing picture and sound
Picture editing (rough cut, fine cut,)
Colour correction
VFX
Sound editing (dialogue, sound effect, folly, music)
Mixing
Finishing
Mastering
Making a dvd, blueray etc
Distributing it
Blueray
Fixing the product to fit
Distributions
Distributor acquire right ot the film
Rights licensed to a distributor are usually restricted to a particular communication channel, geographic areas, or timeframes
Launch the film in the marketplace
Promotion and marketing (posters. Trailers, press kits)
The distributor approaches exhibitors
Making copies available in different languages and formats (subtitles, versioning, dubbing, etc)
Release cycle:
Theatrical release
4 months later: airline
6 months: dvd, pay per view, VOD
DVD/Blue Ray
Pay tv
free tv, etc
An overview of a film crew
Productor
Owns rights to the screenplay
Raises funding
Supervise financial and administrative aspects of the production
Works with film commissions
Take care of legal aspects of the motion picture
Hires key personnel
Makes deals with distributors
Director
Has an overall vision of a project
Overseas all creative aspects of the film
gives directions to all cast and crew, and makes sure everybody works in the same direction
Is responsible for making the story come to life
directs performance of actors
Manages technical decisions (regarding camera, sound, lighting, etc)
First assistant director
Assists the director and, to some extent, the producer
Breaks down the script
Estimates the shooting time
Creates a workable production schedule
Making sure everything is done on time
Heps create an environment where cast and crew can do their job in a effect way
Runs the set
Second assistant director
Help AD
Directs background action
Directs extras
Helping with scheduling and booking equipment
Creates the call-sheet
Script supervisor
Known as "continuity person”
Some still use the term "script girl”
Is the memory of the whole production
Keeps track of what was filmed, technical errors, major comments made
Taking notes of details to make sure shots match perfectly
Take pictures (polaroids) of the action, the actors, etc
Produces a continuity report that the editors will use
Productions assistant
Assist the first AD and the production manager
Works with many crew members
Does all sort of tasks (administrative logical, etc)
May move from a department to another depending on needs
Camera department…
Cinematographer or director of photography (dp/dop)
Camera operator
Gaffer
First Assistant Camera (1st AC)
Second assistant (2nd AC)
Cinematographer
Heads the camera and lighting department
Is responsible to achieve directors desired look
Makes decisions lighting and framing
Helps with color correction
Etc
Camera operator
Camera man/worman
Operates the camera
Uses the appreciate lenses
Executes the shots asked by the cinematographer
First assistant camera
Focus puller
Makes sure the subject is constantly in focus
Second assistant camera
Clapper loader
Operate the slate (clapperboard)
Loads the film stock or manipulates flash cards
Organises, cleans, transports, the camera equipment, etc
Gaffer
Chief of lighting technician
Is the head of the electrical department
Executes lighting
Sound department
Production sound mixer
Location sound engineer
Sound mixer
Is the head of sound department
Is reasonable for recoding all the sounds needed on the set
Chooses the right microphones based on production needs
Chooses recording devices
Mixes audio during films
Boom operator
Assists the location sound recordist
Takes care of microphones placement
follow s camera during camera movements
Uses a boom pole to capture precise sound while having the boom or boom shadow out of the camera frame
Art department:
Production designer
Is the head of art department
Responsible for the overall look and visual of aspects of a film
Designs style for locations, sets, graphics, props, costumes
Uses color, texture, space, to convey a specific mood or context
Provided sketches, scales drawings and models
Plans and monitors art department budger
Art director
Helps implement the production designer’s creative vision
Translates visual ideas and concepts into actual imagery
Takes care of small visual details, including set dressing (making a set look real and lived in)
Like putting books on the bookshelf
Understanding genre and storytelling- week 2
Film budgeting
Cast and talent
Length of program
single -camera vs multi-camera
Location vs studio
Film stock vs video
Crew labour: union vs non-union
Number of days of shooting
Etc
Budget main section
Telefilm canada standing budget template
Above the line
Section a = (property, script, development cost, producer, director, stars if any, etc)
Below the line (section B,C, D)
Section b = production (cast, crew, production equipment, other production fees)
Section C = post production (labor, equipment, laboratory, sound editing, music, etc)
Section d other (incident cost, general expenses
Public federal funding
Telefilm canada
Canada media fund
The canada council for the arts
Canadian film or video tax credit
Public provincial funding and tax credit programs
Ontario creates
Private funding
MG (minimum guarantee)
Pre-sale (tv, foreign etc)
Bell fund
IPf cogeco Tv production program
The rogers group of funds
Shaw rocket fund
Love money (family/friends)
Crowdfunding
Deferrals
Understanding genre
Genre = a french word for type or kind
Genre is defined bu
Aesthetic elements
Sociological factors
Cognitive aspect
Historical aspects
Refers to a specific category/ class
Use familiar recurring patterns, style, themes and convention
Is a category of production and a category of consumption at the same time
Function of genre
Responds to viewer’ need to differentiate movies and navigate the cinematographic offer
Provide for filmmakers a manageable and well defined framework
Offer easily marketable “product” for producers and distributors
Generic conventions and “family resemblance”
Every genre operates to some extent within generic conventions:
Recognisable and reproducible characteristics that are shared by movie of the same genre
Film of the same genre have “ family resemblance” wittstein formal model in philosophy
Genre participates to a certain tented homogenization in the film and television industry
Genre and horizon of expectation
Every genre constitutes a promise, a pledge for a certain type of spectacle, or pleasure, or emotion
We can associate to the genre the concept of "horizon of expectation” by the germain historian Hans Roberts Jauss.
Few characteristics of a road-movie
Road and mobility
Car, bus, motorcycle, trains and other stagecoaches
vagrancy , marginality, freedom
Definition is often of symbolic nature
Geographical trip and initiatory journey at the same time (the hero changes)
Arrival is not relevant
Meaning: runway, rebelliousness, quest, healing
Paradox of mobility and fluidity
Ex. Thelma et louise, get on the bus…
Few characteristics of comedy
Humor = primary target
Laughter created by observation of manners and mores of society/character
Comedy
The screenplay: 3 goals/ 5 steps
3 goals:
Attract a producer
Be a reliable foundation for the schedule
Guide the director , the cast members and the crew
5 steps:
Have the idea (usually triggers a lot of reachers)
Write and outline (beat sheet) brief summary of your story, plot point by plot point
Write a treatment (step outline) more in-depth version of your outline. Is a detailed summarization of the characters and events that will unfold throughout the story. Doesn't generally contain dialogue
Write the script
Write again
The thirty-six Dramatic situation
Created and described by georges polit (1867-1946)
Polti claimed to have taken the idea from carlo gozzi )1729-1806)
According to polti, the thirty six dramatic situations are the basics for all stories
Types of stories
Plot driven story
The actions drives the story
Casual structure (action/ reastion/action, etc)
Character driven story
Story is mainly about the character, from purely a human perspective
Motivation more intel
Character goes through an emotional journey, and undergoes transformation, etc
Used mostly in independent production
The three act structure:
Set up
Confrontation
Hell
Point of no return
Resuscation
Conclude everything
Character in 7 steps
Environment, education etc
Physical traits
Personality traits: sensitive, coward, adventurous
Psychological
Relationships
Family friends, coworkers
Do they play collective sport? Are they antisocial
Occupations
Social status
Name
Motivation
Story and conflict
Conflict dictates the story
Conflict = the clash of opposing forces that make the story possible
From the character's perspective, conflict is what prevents him from achieving easily her/his goal
Conflict can be either external or internal
Without conflict, we wouldn’t know the character
Conflict is structured
A good dialogue must…
Give an information
Move the story forward
Reflect the situation and the character personality
Help differentiate the characters
Brief and clear
Not repeat what is already known or what appears on screen
Not state the obvious (dialogue on the nose)
Have a subtext
Break down of a script - Week three
Helps determine
How many days the shooting will take
How many days an actor i needed
How many days a location is needed
Content of each scene
The budget
The schedule
Etc
Page count
Rule of 1/8th (give an information on how long a scene is )
Ex a scene is 1 page and 2/8
Board (or stripboard) and scheduling
Contains all the major information from the script breakdown
Each scene has a row (ie strip) in the schedule
Gives a ‘birds eye view’ of all the scenes and their corresponding elements
Shooting order has to be done in most efficient way based on:
Location
Cast member
Day or night
Interior/exterior
Storyboard
A pre-production tool used as a visual layout of a complex scene or sequence before shooting
Series of frames (panels) at key moments
Help transition from script to screen saves time and production costs
Allows the filmmaker to visualise and refine ideas
Serves to communicate ideas to production team
George Melies (1861–1938) used to previsualize his work
Story bareignas we know was created by walt disney studio
Information in storyboards
Sketches, drawings or other
frame
aspect ratio
shot type
shot number
camera angle
camera movement (using arrows)
Character movement
Etc
Sound - Week 4
Sound
Is the physical vibration
Repetition of waves and their perception by the brain
Audio
Is the representation of sound, not sound itself
Sound is divided into two parts pressure and time these are the fundamental basis of all sound waves
Frequency and amplitude
Frequency = sometimes
Referred to as pitch
The number of times per second that a sound pressure wave prepares itself
Amplitude = sound pressure level (related to loudness)
Audio frequency is measured in: hertz (hz) cycles per second
Sound and human perception
The human ear can hear sound in the range of 20hz to 20 000 hz
Lossless
Compression algorithms preserve audio data so the audio is exactly the same as the original source (wav, aiff, flac)
Lossy
The audio compression formats delete data that your ear can't perceive in order to make flies easier to transfer, for example over the internet (mp3, ACC, and ogg, vorbis)
Recording high quality audio
Intuition
High quality microphones and recorders
High fidelity recording setting (96khz/32-bit vs 48khz/16-bit)
Actuality
Mic proximity (placement) much more important than mic quality
Monitoring (visually and audibly) is the key to high quality audio
Notions about audio
Signal is what your trying to record, Noise is everything else
Noise floor– sum of unwanted signals generated within the entire data acquisition and signal processing system
Unwanted noise when recording
Sound perspective: evidence a sound is near, far, stationary, or moving
Audio monitoring
Headphones (to monitor level) = should be totally cover your ears
(avoid headphones)
Volume unit: meter is a device for visually measuring the level of sound intensity with audio equipment. All cameras and sound recording devices have built in VU metres
Recording and common sound problems
Over modulation/peaking/clipping
Solution = monitoring
Low levels (low signal to noise ratio)
Solution = monitoring
Excessive noise
Solution = address problem with recoding environment and/or recoding hardware/cables
Bottom line: record at the right level without noise
Audio track: mono vs stereo
Monaural or monophonic audio
One track audio recording
Virtually all microphone are mono
Stereo-phonic sound
Two tracks (2x mono) audio recording
Stereo playback: two separate audio channels to reproduce sound from two microphones
Microphone types
Omni-directional: best sound reproduction but indiscriminate in directionality
Lavalier (lapel): omni-directional, but very close to sound source
Directional (cardiolid)
hypercardiolid/ shotgun: less warmth and sound fidelity than omni, highly directional
Audio recording techniques
Place microphone as close to source as possible (but not too close)
Test the loudest sound and give yourself 6db headroom above that to avoid “peaking/clipping” (over-modulation)
Shotgun microphones require phantom power (+48v)
Use blimp or wind screen to reduce wind noise
Avoid AGC (auto gain control)
Always record 30 second ambient sound (room tone) at end of shoot
Operating a boom with a shotgun mic
Rationable: usually better to have a microphone moving independently of the camera for better proximity to source
Angle downward from above at 45 degrees angle towards subject’s mouth
Stay out of the camera operators way and avoid interrupting action
Maintaining visual (silent) communication with camera operator
Watch your cables to avoid someone tripping over it
Microphones are sensitive – minimising handling noise
Watch for shadows casting by boom pole
Monitor audio always
Nomenclature and categories of sound in film
Soundtrack: all the different layers of sound used within film, including location sound, dialogue, sound effects (fx), foley sound, and musical score
Location sound ( also known as production sound or direct sound): sound recorded during production (filming)
Dialogue: sound production by characters speaking
Sound fx: recording sound added to the location sound in post-production (editing)
Foly play: sound recorded live to add to the track to enhance aspects of the sound, ie. a door creaking, a wolf howling
Musical score: music added to the soundtrack
Diegetic sound: sound that comes from the film world; those sounds that you wold hear if you were a character in the film
Non-digetic sound: sound from outside the film world, that characters within the film world would not be able to hear
Contrapuntal sound: sound that contrast strongly with the image that you see on screen
Composition Week 5
Types of shots
Wide shot (ws)
Full shot of everything, establishing shot
Full shot (fs)
Camera shows character from head to toe
Cowboy shot (cs)
Medium full shot
The character is shown from head to knee or mid-thigh
Medium shot (ms)
Mid shot, or waist shot show subject from head to waist, known as sweet spot shot
Medium close-up (mcu)
The camera frames the subject from chest to top of the head
Close-up (cu)
Camera frames the characters face
Reaction shot, psychological
Extreme close up (ecu)
Very close framing a part of the face
Very intimate
Very tightly emphasis on a particular part of face or object
Insert shot
Camera frames subject very specific detail, usually from characters point of view
Angles
High angle shot
Camera is higher than the subject
Higher perspective =subject looks smaller, “inferior”
Bird eye view is an extreme version
Low angle shot
Camera is lower than the subject
Subject looks larger
Eye level shot
Neutral angle
Camera is at the subjects or subjects eye level
Oblique shot /dutch
Dutch angle, Dutch tilt, canted angle, German angle…
Camera angle is slanted to one slide, so that the horizon line is not parallel with the bottom of the frame
Camera movement
The panoramic (pan)
Camera rotates horizontally from right to left or other without moving
Establishing a location by offering a panoramic view
Reveals something (actions, character
Follows a character
Tilting (or tilt)
Camera rotates upwards or downwards
Used to revel and element
Dolly
Camera physically moves on a dolly tracks away or towards the subject
Dolly in = the camera move towards the subject
Dolly out = moves away from the subject
Zoom
Optical moment
When the focal length of the lens is adjusted to obtain a different angle of view (from wide to close or vise vera)
That techniques create an illusion of movement without the camera actually moving
Tracking shot
A shot in which the camera moves alongside the subject
Can be done with dolly
Image composition
Rule of thirds
Applied in film, photography, painting, drawing, design, etc
Rule states, to create a visually present image, we should divide frame into 9 squares
Ratio
Ratio ⅔ to ⅓
Leading lines
Framed in such a way that they “lead” the eyes toward a point of interest
Key component of an image
Tend to naturally follow the lines that are visible in an image to see where they lead
Can be used to draw attention to something, create a sense of depth and perspective
Lead room
Nose room, leading space
Compositional technique
Designers are negative…
Head room
Amount of vertical space
Continuity- Week 6
Point of view
First person point of view
POV, First person shot, Subjective camera
We see events through the eyes and perception of a charter
Internal focalization
Viewer = Character (in terms of known information)
Third person POV
Action is seen from perspective of an ideal observer
The main character or the camera is still immersed in the story but detached from characters inner thoughts or experiences
Typically, the camera eye
The most common point of view used in cinema and television
External focalization
Viewer < character
Can be obtained using an over-the shoulder shot of a character seen on screen (intimate but still third person)
Omniscient point of view
A perspective (of a specific person or an unspecified voice) from which we know everything about the character, including what he/she thinks
Gods eye view = all seeing and all knowing
Almost always require narration
Zero focalization
View > character (in terms of known information)
The shawshank redemption (frank darabont, 1994)
Continuity
The art of combining the components of a film to obtain a coherent and consistent sequence of events and action, from shot to shot, from scene to scene
Shooting for editing
Successive shots must match
Taken care of by director, script supervisor, first assistant director and almost all departments
Why continuity
To fully control where the audience looks and what we see
To make editing as unobstructive as possible
To keep the illusion of reality = invisible editing
When we don’t notice the cuts between shots, we can better concentrate on the story
To remove acknowledgement of filmic apparatus
Continuity of story
From scene to scone, sequence to sequence, all the elements must work together to create a consistent, intelligible flow of events
In class tragedy, it’s known as classical unities (Aristotle unties)
Unity of action - a play should have one main action
Unity of place - should cover one single physical space
Unity of time - the action should not make more than one day
Continuity of content
All visible elements of a film to be consistent
Props
Wardrobe
Hair
Makeup
People visible on the screen
Elements in the background
Time displayed on a clock
etc
Continuity of movement
A movement started in shot A must continue in shot B
Be sure the whole movement in both shots
Continuity of position
If an object or a character is in one place the first shot , then they must be in the same place in the next shot
Continuity of time
allows us to manipulate the order, duration and frequency of story time
Time can be controlled and manipulated through:
ellipsis
Overlapping
Screen time: the amount of time an action take o the screen
Story time: the amount of time this action would actually take in the story
Ex.
The act of brushing your teeth may take up to 3 minutes = story time
In screen time this act can take 15 seconds
Elliptical editing; screetime < story time
Overlapping editing: screen time > story time
180- degree rule
The 180-degree rule ensure that the relative position of character or object in the frame remain consistent forms shot to shot
The rule states that we draw an imaginary like between two characters and keep the camera on the same side of this 180-degree line
Breaking the rule = “jumping the line” or “crossing the line”
In that case, positions are inverted, and any sense of spatial relationship is lost
shot / reverse shot
Consecutive shot used usually in dialogue scenes in which two characters look back at each other
30-degree rule
When filming a subject/character in two consecutive shot you need to move at least 30 degrees in order to avoid a jumpshot
Jump cut
If two consecutive shots of the same subject are edited together and there is not a sufficient shift in camera position between shot1 and shot 2, there will be a noticeable jump on the screen
Shot list
List of all shot used and the plan of how they will be used
Angle, movement, shot type, int/ext, subject, description…
Made by director
The camera - week 7
Category of digital camera
Smartphones
Consumer cameras
Simple
Personal use
Smaller imaging chips
Less expensive
Smaller and easier to operate
Made of mostly automatic features
Impossible to manually adjust certain parameters (exposure, focus, audio level, white balance ,etc)
Fixed lenses
No XLR input for professional sound equipment
Prosumer camera
Low to mid range camera
Smaller than broadcast camera
Good enough for any job
Full manual image control
Most XLR input
Bigger image sensor
The upper and cera usually have interchangeable lens
Ability to feed timecode for mulit-camera recording
Professional camera
Larger size and larger weight
XLR input
Shoulder mounted
All have interchangeable lens (prime sense, zoom lenses)
Allows to input timecode for multi camera recording
Larger imaging chips (better image processing and higher image quality)
Digital camera
Very large image sensor (super 35) = larger than pro camera
Cheaper than professional camera
Interchangeable lenses
Blackmagic
Red cameras
C300 , c500
Panasonic ag-af100
Sony pmw-f3
Used for cinema, less for tv
DSLR
Digital single lens reflection
Photo camera with possibility of recording high quality video
Used for
Beautiful images because bigger chips
Interchangeable lenses
Low prices
Twice the quality and half the prices of professional cameras
Limitations
Movement
No XLR input
Limited recording time
Features to look for
Manual controls
Resolution: full hd and more
Large sensor
XLR input
Digital media card instead of tapes
Camera anatomy
Camera body
Sensor
Lens
Aperture
Control the lighting
Shutter
How fast the shutter of the camera closes
Rapid speed allows light in
Hand grips
Recording button code
Power switch
Zoom control
Secondary zoom control on top of the handle
Secondary record button
XLR audio port for plugging a microphone
Audio control panel (under monitor)
Audio level dials
Exposure ring/isris
ND filter switch
Focus ring
Focus mode control
Settings
Video formats
Resolution
Frame rate
interlace /progressive (image scanning)
White balance
Zebra
Autofocus
Never rely on autofocus
Not reliable on low light settings
Not reliable if another subject or object cross the foreground
Use only exceptional, incontrollable situations
Focusing
To obtain a clear and sharp picture, you need to focus
Has to be done manually
Zoom in on your subject’s eyes
Adjusting the focus ring
Zoom out to get to the desired shot size
Readjust shot without losing focus (if position of subject and camera are the same
In bright sunlight, the lcd is hard to use to judge focus
Use lcd hood or your camera viewfinder
Focus tools
In most hd camera, giant picture but tiny monitors
External monitors
Video monitor (portable colour tv, dvd player, etc)
Peaking (color outline around anything in sharp focus)
Doesn't perform well in low light
Lenses
Optical tool used to direct light to a film strip or a digital camera senor
A series of glass that convex (rounded outward) or concave (rounded inward)
A lens is defined by two factors
Focal length: distance (in/mm) between the point of convergence of the lens and the film or digital senor
The focal length determines the angle of view
Low focal length=wide angle of view (cover more of a scene)
High focal length = narrow angle of view (cover less of a screen)
Aperture: the opening of the lens that lets in light to the camera
Two of the most important types of lens
Prime lenses
Fixed focal length
Sharper and lighter but less flexible
Zoom lens
Different focal length
Contrarian more glasses
Heavier, bigger but more flexible
Versatile
Depth of field
Distance between the nearest and farthest element in an image that is sharpe
Refers to have of of an image is front or behind the subject in sharp focus
Shallow dop= visual effect where the subject is in sharp focus, but the background or foreground are soft focused blurred or vice versa
Image with element partially out of focus
Can be used
For a dramatic effect
Isolate a character or an object
Direct audience attention
Racking focus = shifting the focus of the lens during a shot
how to obtain shallow depth of field
Image sensor size (bigger the chip the better)
Aperture (the lower the f-stop, the more shallow DOP
Focal length
Long telephoto create more shallow depth of field than wide lenses
If a zoom lens, go to a maximum telephoto setting (move close or father away to get the composition you want)
Distance
The farther the subject is form the background and the close he is to the camera lens, the more DOF we can obtain
Any combination or more of this parameters will guarantee a nice, poetic, maybe dramatic shallow depth of field
Exposure
The more light you have, the better the image you will get
Exposure factors
Available light (sunlight, forests, candle light, etc)
Focal length ( the longer the length, the more light you will need for correct exposure, and vise versa)
Aperture: settings (iris) : the more the aperture is open, the more light passes through the lens and the brighter the image will be. The more the aperture is closed, the darker the image
Imager sensor side: the bigger the sensor, the more light it captures
Aperture
Refers to the hole in a lens diaphragm through which light travels to enter the camera
A larger hole allows more light to hit the camera sensor, creating a bright image
The smaller hole allows less light into the camera, creating dark image
Aperture is expressed in f-stips , aka f-numbers
The smaller the number after the f, the larger the aperture opening in the lens and the more light
Smaller number brighter
Higher number darker
Shutter speed
Shutter speed is a measurement of the time the shutter is open
A smaller door (shutter) that opens and closes to exposes each form of film for a given moment of time
Shutter control how movie subjects appear in an image (sharp or blurry)
The faster the shutter, the shorter the time the camera sensor is exposed to light, the more you are able to freeze the motion and have your object sharp
The slower the shutter, the longer the time the camera sensor is exposed to light, the more the moving object will be blurry.
In a normal shotting, the rule is to have shitter that double the frame rate
24fps → 1/48s to obtain normal motion
30fps→ 1/60s
60fps →1/120s
Do not forever to adjust the exposure after switching shutter speed since it affects the amount of light in your image
Shutter speed can be used for aesthetic purpose
Beside dealing with motion, it is used to control exposure. Doesn't generate noise like iso/gain
ISO
Refers to camera sensitivity to light
Sometimes used as a synonym of gain
Uses when the set is too ark and the image underexposed
Help to get better exposure by artificially boosting the light to have a bright image
Low ISO = 100 or less
Medium ISO = around 200-400
High ISO = over 400
ND Filters
Neutral density filters
Usually on the left lids of the camera
Iso
Lowers the intensity of light but with out affecting the colour of an image
Allows to shoot wider f-stop and not losing the shallow dof
Usually used outside of daylight to avoid overexposure
In the nd filter switch, the higher the number, the more brightness is but down from camera lens
The screw on filter (separate)
Zibra strips
A function that helps judge (and correct) exposure (specifically with small LCD monitor in daylight)
Activate by turning on the zebra button
They highlight the overexposed parts of the image
They are only seen on the LCD screen but are neither recorded or displayed on an external monitor
They usually don't constitute a problem unless they are the subject face or on other important details
To correct
Lower aperture
Nd filters
Reframing
Take the sky out of the frame (if outdoors)
White balance
Process used to accurately balance colors in an image
Must be done manually for better results
Should be done every time the lighting changes
Activate manual WB mode in the camera setting
Hold white sheet of paper or other
Put it in the same lighting setting as the subject
Zoom in to make sure the white paper fills your frame completely
Adjust exposure
Push the white valence button
Week 8 - Production design
Definition of mise-en-scene
Means “putting into the screen”
Control over all the visual in front of the camera
Main components of mise-en-scene
Offers the filmmaker 6 general areas of choice and control
Lighting
Costumes
Costumes
Contimes can play casual roles in a plot
Quick signal for characterization and setting
Express social status
Can be for their purely graphic qualities
Chosen in relation to settings (contrast with neutral background etc.) to highlight figures and pick out characters
Makeup and hair
Help human face register well in film
Mot noticeable in horror and science fictions films
Makeup and hair helps actors look like a historical character
Highlights expressive qualities while being unnoticed
create/ hide wrinkles, sagging skin and discernible imperfections
Plasticine components and rubber are used to create bumps, bulger, and layers of artificial skin
Props
Objects that actors pick up
Can have a literal or symbolic meaning
Tells something about the character
Blocking: movement and performance
Blocking = planning the positions of:
Actors in relation to each other
Action in relation to set or location
Camera placement in relation to actors and special set features (close, far, hight, low, etc
Is done for every scene before placing light and doing the set dressing, etc
Blocking a scene
What is the scene’s function in the story
What does the audience need to know at that specific stage of the story
What are the relationships between the characters
Whose scene (perspective) is it?
What information can be left to the audience’s deduction or imagination
Where is the scene’s obligatory moment?
Is there anything the audience should learn, but not the characters
Is there any foreshowing
Production design
Related to (sometimes part of) mise en scene
Refers to the process of development an overall visual lock (concept, colors, set, costumes, makeup, props, etc) to a film
Give a film a visual identity, helps tell the story and create an emotional response
Functions?
Historical verisimilitude (period film, etc)
Sense of time and place
Translating the narrative into visual ideas
Psychological role
Interpreting the characters visually
Communicates genres visual traditions and conventions ( film noir, western, gangster film, horror, science fiction, etc)
Atmospheric role
Two levels
Physical design
Poetic metaphors ( that communicate on an intellectual, subconscious, physiological, and emotional level)
Three main focus
Colour
Texture
Architexture
Production design and colour
The production designer creates color palette for a film, the chosen range of colors is a way of expressing and defining the world of the film
Production design uses colours at different levels (light, costumes, hair and makeup set, props etc
Colors play a casual role (to help tell a realistic story) or convey a symbolic meaning
An effective narrative and symbolic tool
Production design and colour
Warm colors: tend to represent tenderness and humanity
Cool colors: represent cold, lack of emotions…
Hot colors: represent sexuality, anger, and passion, heat
A momochromatic
Earth colors
Red is a color rich in symbolic meaning: fire, hell, satan, sexuality, and rage
Green is associated with environment, tree, grass, health, peace
White can suggest cleanliness, sterility, or spirituality
Bright colors represent happiness, frivolity, joy, etc
Role of texture in production design
Creates authenticity: evokes age, wear, use, and passage of time; and reflecting the results of environmental conditions on a a surface
Dust is a common aging agent that is easily used
Contributions to the veracity of the story: a texture adds realism and a tactile sense to design
Brings life to design: a flat set will appear artificial
Can reveal characters social status
Can create a secondary meaning
Production design and architecture
One of the most significant influences on production design was architecture
Architecture was brought to cinema by carbaria
Production = a recreation of rome, three centuries bc
It involves set construction in some instances
Architecture and meaning: beyond the visual aspect
Use architecture to express social and political ideas
Week 9 - lighting and color
The basics of light
Has 3 primary colours
Red, green, blue (RGB)
light is addictive by nature (ie. combining the 3 primary colour produces while light)
Adding two primary colours creates secondary colours
Light intensity
Refers to the brightness of the light
Factors that affect the intensity of the light
Size and power of the bulb
Distance from subject
How close a bulb is to ta flector etc
An exposure/ light meter can help determine light intensity
Quality of light
Refers to how large a light source is, and how it affects shadows on the subject
Hard light: sharp, clearly visible shadows, look more harsh, specially when shinning on the subject's face,etc
Soft light
Bright and almost no shadow
Obtained by diffuse, broad source of light (light reflected off the wall or a bounce board, sunlight in a cloudy day)
Can be obtained by higher key light combined with enough fill light
Also abstain using diffusion tool like gels or chinese lanterns to reduce shadows usually on close ups
When hard light is bounced off another surface or shine
Colour temperature
Refers to the color appearance of the light
Color temperature is measured in degrees Kelvin (K)
Every light source has its own color temperature
Describes how warm or cool a color will appear based on the light spectrum = warm
White balance
Pure white in the camera pov
Indoor lighting 3000k
Outside lighting 5600k (daylight)
Process used to accurately balance colors in an image
Must be done manually done tor better results
Should be done very time you film
Three point lighting
Gels and diffusion
Gels = coloured, transparent sheets of thin plastic
Change a specific portion of a light to achieve a custom, light
Types of gels***
Party gels
Coloured used mainly in music videos
Effect gels
filter/change the colour of light to create an effect
Colour correction gels
Alter the color temperature of light source
Neutral density gels
Reduced intensity of light source
Diffusion gels
Change the quality of light
Effect gels
Aka color or party gels (style)
Used to control color
Available in a large palette of colours and shades
Add colour to a scene or it to create a mood. Ex. warm or cool feeling
Colour correction gels
Correct the color temperature of a light source, mainly for continuity
2 main types
CTO (colour temperature orange)
CTB (colour temperature blue)
CTO and CTB gels come in different grades in order to cover a large spectrum
Neutral density gels
Used to control light by reducing its intensity
Does not affect the colour
ND gels come in ranges that reduce the intensity from ½ to 4 stops of a light
Useful to make the same bulb more versatile
Diffusion gels
Use to control quality of light, making hard light soft
= control size, shapes, intensity
Soften hard edges
Can reduce hotspots
Control contrast (highlight and shadows
Thinker diffusion produces softer light
Lighting set-up
Setting the camera first (we can’t rely on our naked eye to judge light)
We need our subject or standby during lighting set up
Safety
Use heavy dirty thick leather work gloves
Extension cord
Keep the light away (2-3 meter away from anything flammable object)
Use stand heavy enough to hold the type of light you see
Aspect ratio
Ratio of width of an image to its height
16:9 is the most common right now (know the numbers)
Week 10 - Editing
The Kuleshov effect
Done by lev kuleshov, its believed to have happen around 1910
Intercut of an ivan mosjokine’s headshot with:
Bowl of soup
Young girl playing
a woman in a coffin
Emphasize the power of editing
Linear/non-linear editing
Linear is analogical going in order of the shots unable to go back and change anything from beginning to end
Non-linear is when you go back and change, modern editing is non-linear
Post-production workflow…Why?
A lot of people with different and complementary skills
People that don't know each other but have to work on the same project
A relatively large number of steps depending on the side and the scope of the project
A lot of complex tools and procedures
A lot of documentation and raw data
Having a completion deadline
Having financial constraints
And most of all a required quality
The need for a workforce…
A process where task, documents and information are passed from one person/team to another for action according to a set of procedural rules
Set of steps performed in a sequential manner to achieve a goal
Film project documentation, planning, file, and asset management, review and approval under one umbrella
Putting the movie components together in order to obtain a desired final project
What for?
Productivity
Consistency
Save time
Optimise resources (money, etc)
Reduce (often costly) errors
Organize version and editing
Reduce stress
Improve team collaboration
Improve video distribution in multiple formats
Servers as a stabilizer in constraining environment with a lot of moving pieces
A good workflow must
Set clear, optimal and repeatable rules
Should be possible to summarise in a diagram
Get the team to sign–off, adopt and implement the process
Match the process to tool functionality
In an ideal world (budget, time , accessibility, etc), the process should drive tool selection
Online workflow
Editing with native
Offline/online workflow
Low res editing then export into a better device to then get a high res
Starting with the end in mind
Creative intent
Tools
Know-how
Other parameters
Cost on whole process
Content genre
Budget, market, deadline, language, etc
Choice of camera
Choice of audio recording equipment
Etc
Shooting
Dallies (raw audio/video)
film/tape
Storage/backup
Data wrangling (transferring all the raw data without loss or corruption from camera to computer or hard drive)
Use of slate
FPS, aspect ratio etc
Continuity report /worksheet
Room tones
etc
Media asset management
Dallies received and backed up
Media acquisition (“natitly” or by transcoding)
“Interpreting” footage (frame rate, interlaced, etc
Organization (customising file names, sorting, bins, folders, color code, etc)
audio/synching
Assembly (add/arrange clips on a timeline)
Editing
Cutting
Trim (shorten) clips
Proper length, order, rhythm, style, etc
Add transitions, other simple effects, titles (text)
Different drafts (re-dits)
Technical feedback
Storytelling-related feedback
review/approvel
Picture lock
Sound editing
Assembling the audio tracks
(re)syncing
Editing dialogue
Removing unwanted noise
Foley (recreating, replacing, recording sounds, etc
ADR (automated dialogue replacement = dialogue re-recorded in studio with the actors)
Adding sfx (sound effects)
Music
Composing an original score
Recoding
Or using an existing sound track (buying a licence, etc)
Mixing (the music)
Mixing
Layering the edited sound (dialogue, effects, recorded dialogue) + music in a good listening environment
Normalizing (change the overall volume to reach a target level)
Equalizing (adjusting the balance of different frequency components
Finalizing
Exporting multiple formats and file for different uses and screening environments: master, mix stems (slipts), compressed files (file internet platforms,etc), music and effects track ( nondialogue sounds), etc
Visual effects (vfx)
Need clips at the maximum resolution for vfx
Creating visuals impossible to capture on set
Rotoscoping (trace over live-action footage, frame by frame, to create realistic
Motion graphics
Amination but with text as the main component
Titles
Logos
Idents
Text effects can be done in photo shop, after effects or both
Conforming
Used if the editing is done using lower quality clips (offline)
Moving the entire sequence and time line from one application to another while keeping everything as it is
Replacing the lower quality media (proxies, etc) with the native higher quality media
Color grading
Creating an overall look of the movie
Corrections (color, saturation, contrast, hues, black level, reference white, etc)
Consistency from shot to shot
Grading (adding atmosphere and emotions to shots
LUTs (lookup table)
Making sure the movie is broadcast legal (keeping the luma aka brightness and chroma (color) in the lim level)
Mastering
Minor adjustments if needed
Everything is now wrapped
master= image sequence or Video files+ audio files = highest quality file available for everything that follows
Quality of sound
Device resting
Volume controlling
Compliance with delivery specifications
Etc
Week 11 - Editing Cont’d
Continuity editing
Shot matching and smooth seamless construction invisibility of cuts/ edit
Removing acknowledgment of the filmmaking/filmmaker's presence
Spatial unity
Screen direction and eyeline match
180 degree rule
30 degree rule
Continuity of life, props, costume, colour, etc
There are four types of relations between two shots:
Graphic matches: when consecutive shots are connected based on visual similarity
Rhythmic cutting: shots are cut together scouring to a pattern or rhythm - length of each shot depends on a specific beat
Spatial relations: recreation unified space, using separate shots from editing different angles and sizes. Ex: shot/reverse shot. Parallel editing
Temporal relations: expresses order, duration, and frequency of events. These include flashbacks, flashforwards, ellipsis, overlapping editing (the same events is repeated in the two consecutive shots
Types of cuts
Hard cuts = the most standard
shot/reverse shot
Crosscutting: alternation of shots of at least two lines of action happening in different locations, often the same time.
Cutaway: cut to show what’s around
Jump cut: appearance of a temporal gap between similar shots.
Match cut (graphic match)
Contrast cut: cutting between two different shots that are similar…
J and L cuts: unifying two shot to make it jarring
Montage: series of events that took place in a large amount of time condensed, short shots
Editing: transitions and effects
Cut: a clean break between shots
Dissolve: shots are superimposed ( fade out in shot A+ fade in Shot B) = overprint, overlay
Fade in: gradual transition from a black or white clip to a shot. Has an audio counterpart
Fade out: gradual transition from a shot to a black or white clip
Wipe: one shot replaces another over time through a graphic pattern. (right to left, top to bottom, "opening blind” effects, etc)
Rule of six
A cut must satisfy these criteria at the same time:
Emotion (51%) be true to the story/ moment
Story (23%) serve the story progression
Rhythm (10%): creates rhythmic coercion (pace, flow, pattern, etc)
Eye-trace (7%) direct the view eye to a specific element of a shot, etc
“Two-dimentional plane of screen” (5%): respect the stage line (3 dimensions transposed to two) = 180-degree rule, 30-degree rule = appearance of continuity on screen
“Three-dimensional space of action” (4%): continuity of actual space (spatial relation between characters, objects, etc)
Tips
Use customised names for your flips
Focus on story first
Have a picture lock before working on sound, colour, titles, etc.
Use false “cuts”
Duplicate a sequence before and after any major change
Use cutaway
Use b-roll to create tension, or illustrate elements of the main story
When working with an effect, to get back your clip, use reset instead of deleting a clip
Colour correction
Correct exposure (or brightness of an image)
Fix white balance
Match clips
Create a look
Adjust saturation
Adjust contrast
Hue
The name we call colours
What we most often think as colour
Saturation
Intensity of vividness of a hue
Full saturation means that the pure base hue is used
Brightness
How bright it is