VFX! and Ghostship.
It takes great skill to master the art of special effects.
Ghostship is a fantasy/horror flick about a haunted ship. Most of the movie was based upon special effects. The ship wasn't real and it was a set and the sea etc were made real through special effects! The ghosts were also done with special effects and it was a pretty good film I must say.
I think most of the filming were done in front of a blue screen so that the editing and special effects processes were made easy.
In a nutshell, even though I don't intend to major in digital video, the knowledge that I have gathered from this course will be useful for me in time to come. I'm not sure how yet but I know it will help me somehow in the future.
I recommend this course to anyone who wants to learn more about movie-making!.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Lecture 11.
Editing Guidelines.
1,
Motivation- To create an interesting scene, there has to be motivation behind each shot, which will lead to a reaction that the viewer has expected to see.. This could be anything from a slight eye movement or glance or anything that keeps the audience's attention.
2,
Cut on to when the subject moves, from this, the attention will not be distracted by the cut and steady transition will be achieved. By cutting between action and continuing the flow in the next scene, you wont even realise the jump cut.
3,
As soon as the visual statement has been made, cut away to the next scene. The problem with most amateur films is that they concentrate on a scene for too long and the interest is gone. If good editing is done, the editors should know when to cut a scene to hold the interest.
4,
Emphasize the B-roll, or supplementary footage. This is very useful in terms of cut away’s which may add information such as, close up reactions and support material to the original footage.
5,
If in doubt, leave it out.
1,
Motivation- To create an interesting scene, there has to be motivation behind each shot, which will lead to a reaction that the viewer has expected to see.. This could be anything from a slight eye movement or glance or anything that keeps the audience's attention.
2,
Cut on to when the subject moves, from this, the attention will not be distracted by the cut and steady transition will be achieved. By cutting between action and continuing the flow in the next scene, you wont even realise the jump cut.
3,
As soon as the visual statement has been made, cut away to the next scene. The problem with most amateur films is that they concentrate on a scene for too long and the interest is gone. If good editing is done, the editors should know when to cut a scene to hold the interest.
4,
Emphasize the B-roll, or supplementary footage. This is very useful in terms of cut away’s which may add information such as, close up reactions and support material to the original footage.
5,
If in doubt, leave it out.
Lecture 10.
Editing Theory Part 1.
Editing is very important.
VERY.VERY.
It makes or break a movie.
So what is Editing?
"Editing is the act of completing the pacing and narrative structure of a film and its soundtrack by cutting and splicing the shots together to make a final, comprehensible story.Editing is important because it allows the director to film out of order, to make multiple takes of each shot, and it allows for aesthetic decisions to be made after filming is complete. The editor has tremendous control over the basic continuity and message of the production"
There are 3 types of editing: Continuity, Acceleration and Cause and Effect editing.
Continuity -
To preserve the fluidity of an event without showing the entire scene .Continuity cutting shortens time showing only the necessary events in a scene. An event can be contracted or expanded attention can be focused and meanings made, depending on the number of shots- the shot not the scene is the basic unit of film construction. Each new scene usually starts with an establishing shot to show that we have moved logically from the previous scene.
Acceleration -
Showing the audience something that naturally we want to figure out, a wedding, a funeral…etc at the start, then working the series of events from the start which ultimately lead to the beginning scene. This is relevant in shows such as CSI and almost any crime related piece.
Cause and Effect -
Sometimes we can assume the cause of the effect because a scenario is obvious, for example, someone crying, or being happy etc. However, this is again another example of the cause and effect method being implored on a different wavelength; editors have the power to change perceptions of their audience. They may be crying with happiness, instead of being sad.
I just saw the movie Dreamgirls a few days ago and I realised the movie used every editing element.
Editing is very important.
VERY.VERY.
It makes or break a movie.
So what is Editing?
"Editing is the act of completing the pacing and narrative structure of a film and its soundtrack by cutting and splicing the shots together to make a final, comprehensible story.Editing is important because it allows the director to film out of order, to make multiple takes of each shot, and it allows for aesthetic decisions to be made after filming is complete. The editor has tremendous control over the basic continuity and message of the production"
There are 3 types of editing: Continuity, Acceleration and Cause and Effect editing.
Continuity -
To preserve the fluidity of an event without showing the entire scene .Continuity cutting shortens time showing only the necessary events in a scene. An event can be contracted or expanded attention can be focused and meanings made, depending on the number of shots- the shot not the scene is the basic unit of film construction. Each new scene usually starts with an establishing shot to show that we have moved logically from the previous scene.
Acceleration -
Showing the audience something that naturally we want to figure out, a wedding, a funeral…etc at the start, then working the series of events from the start which ultimately lead to the beginning scene. This is relevant in shows such as CSI and almost any crime related piece.
Cause and Effect -
Sometimes we can assume the cause of the effect because a scenario is obvious, for example, someone crying, or being happy etc. However, this is again another example of the cause and effect method being implored on a different wavelength; editors have the power to change perceptions of their audience. They may be crying with happiness, instead of being sad.
I just saw the movie Dreamgirls a few days ago and I realised the movie used every editing element.
Lecture 8.
Sound and Soundtrack!
These are important elements in a movie as without them, a movie will not be as good because music is used to convey emotions and buil tension and climax.
First of all we need microphones to record sound. The boom, plant, lavaliere and radio microphones are some of the types of microphones used during a move shoot. Recording might seem very easy but it's one of the 4 elements that has to be taken into consideration when making a movie with good audio.
Narration –
Is responsible for holding together visuals and can be approached 2 ways. Character based or voice of god. Narration is often used to fill in events, or give the viewer an insight into characters from a 3rd person POV.
Music-
Is a tool used to enhance emotion, time, character profiles and climaxes. Music helps add emotions to make the film more relatable.
Using other people's music is expensive and when using it you have to ask the recording company's permission first! Another method is probably to compose your own music.
Sound effects -
This is used to make scenes more real. Animation movies mostly make use of sound effects to make the movie more realistic. Since it is a cartoon, every single sound has to be made from scratch, from walking to coughing to hitting to fallingt down to the sounds of traffic, the wind and more! Kudos has to be given to sound effects pros because of their clever ideas.
Dialogue -
This is also part of the 4 elements. Everything has to be in synch. In some movies, if the dialogue could not be captured by the microphones, dubbing will take place in the studio. In animated movies, actors are hired to be voices for the characters.
I did a presentation with my group this week on Music and Soundtrack. We chose Monsters Inc. Without music and sounds this movie would be nothing. But thanks to the pros, the movie was a success!
These are important elements in a movie as without them, a movie will not be as good because music is used to convey emotions and buil tension and climax.
First of all we need microphones to record sound. The boom, plant, lavaliere and radio microphones are some of the types of microphones used during a move shoot. Recording might seem very easy but it's one of the 4 elements that has to be taken into consideration when making a movie with good audio.
Narration –
Is responsible for holding together visuals and can be approached 2 ways. Character based or voice of god. Narration is often used to fill in events, or give the viewer an insight into characters from a 3rd person POV.
Music-
Is a tool used to enhance emotion, time, character profiles and climaxes. Music helps add emotions to make the film more relatable.
Using other people's music is expensive and when using it you have to ask the recording company's permission first! Another method is probably to compose your own music.
Sound effects -
This is used to make scenes more real. Animation movies mostly make use of sound effects to make the movie more realistic. Since it is a cartoon, every single sound has to be made from scratch, from walking to coughing to hitting to fallingt down to the sounds of traffic, the wind and more! Kudos has to be given to sound effects pros because of their clever ideas.
Dialogue -
This is also part of the 4 elements. Everything has to be in synch. In some movies, if the dialogue could not be captured by the microphones, dubbing will take place in the studio. In animated movies, actors are hired to be voices for the characters.
I did a presentation with my group this week on Music and Soundtrack. We chose Monsters Inc. Without music and sounds this movie would be nothing. But thanks to the pros, the movie was a success!
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Lecture 7.
Lighting plays a very important role in flim-making. Let's face it, if there's no light you can't see anything so there won't be any movie.
The 3 point lighting system is the most basic and fundamental rule in lighting. The first light is called the Primary Light, the second Fill Light and Hair Light. These lights help to tell the story and make the character or scene look better. For example, bad lighting can make a character's face look flat and we don't want this.
Different types of lights that are common in the industry are:
* Redheads
* Totas
* Quartz lamps * HMI lamps
* Fresnel
* Ellipsol spots
* Broads
* Backgrounds
* Beam spot projectors
The 3 point lighting system is the most basic and fundamental rule in lighting. The first light is called the Primary Light, the second Fill Light and Hair Light. These lights help to tell the story and make the character or scene look better. For example, bad lighting can make a character's face look flat and we don't want this.
Different types of lights that are common in the industry are:
* Redheads
* Totas
* Quartz lamps * HMI lamps
* Fresnel
* Ellipsol spots
* Broads
* Backgrounds
* Beam spot projectors
Lecture 6.
Framing is a very crucial part to film-making. There are various kinds of framing and they range from wide-angle to close-up shots. These techniques help the director to ell the story by emphasizing certain elements. These elements include tension, emotion and other finer details.
Composition is defined as orderly arrangement of fragments within scenes and draws upon two subheadings.These subheadings are Static and Dynamic. Static is about the content of fixed images hence providing limited movement but Dynamic covers the effects of time.
Composition is defined as orderly arrangement of fragments within scenes and draws upon two subheadings.These subheadings are Static and Dynamic. Static is about the content of fixed images hence providing limited movement but Dynamic covers the effects of time.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Lecture 5.
To quote from the Dogme 95 website, "DOGME 95 has the expressed goal of countering “certain tendencies” in the cinema today". Dogme 95 is basically an idea devised by Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg in 1995. The film business, they concluded, had become overly dependent on special effects, fancy camerawork, and other techniques of production. Rather than being built on the bedrock foundations of drama - actors playing real human beings in a story - movies were becoming more and more dependent on special lighting, impressive sets, optical effects and all the other modern effects of showbiz. The vital essence of film, dramatic narrative, was in danger of being submerged in the glamour of hollywood. And as if this weren't enough, they also concluded that the cult of personality surrounding the film director was detrimental to making good films. Movies are not the work of a single visionary, they argued, and too many directors spend time making "artistic statements" to gratify their own egos when they should be concentrating on characters and story. From this, they created a movement to try and move way from "hollywood-type" productions. Until now, 19 Dogme films have been made and many more are to come.
Here are the 10 Vows of Chastity:
1. Shooting must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in (if a particular prop is necessary for the story, a location must be chosen where this prop is to be found).
2.The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. (Music must not be used unless it occurs where the scene is being shot).
3.The camera must be hand-held. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted. (The film must not take place where the camera is standing; shooting must take place where the film takes place).
4.The film must be in color. Special lighting is not acceptable. (If there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera).
5.Optical work and filters are forbidden
6.The film must not contain superficial action. (Murders, weapons, etc. must not occur.)
7.Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden. (That is to say that the film takes place here and now.)
8.Genre movies are not acceptable.
9.The film format must be Academy 35 mm.
10.The director must not be credited.
Dogville, a film by Lars Von Trier is a movie that used very minimal settings to tell a story. The set is basically one big room and to tell the places apart, words were used to describe where everthing is. For example, the outlines of gooseberry bushes have the text "Gooseberry Bushes" written next to them. While this form of staging is common in black box theaters, it has rarely been attempted on film. The bare staging serves to focus the audience's attention on the acting and storytelling, and also reminds them of the film's artificiality.
Dogville is not a Dogme 95 film but it was directed by the same person who started the Dogme 95 movement. Everything was very minimal. The movie was told simply without any special effects. It was heavily focused on acting and story-telling. The movie bored me for a couple of minutes but it turned interesting when I began to realise that it was actually very good! Maybe because I didn't have enough sleep the night before.
I for one agree and support Dogme95 films because I truly feel that movies nowadays are too generic and rely too much on expensive effects to tell a story rather than talent.
Here are the 10 Vows of Chastity:
1. Shooting must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in (if a particular prop is necessary for the story, a location must be chosen where this prop is to be found).
2.The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. (Music must not be used unless it occurs where the scene is being shot).
3.The camera must be hand-held. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted. (The film must not take place where the camera is standing; shooting must take place where the film takes place).
4.The film must be in color. Special lighting is not acceptable. (If there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera).
5.Optical work and filters are forbidden
6.The film must not contain superficial action. (Murders, weapons, etc. must not occur.)
7.Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden. (That is to say that the film takes place here and now.)
8.Genre movies are not acceptable.
9.The film format must be Academy 35 mm.
10.The director must not be credited.
Dogville, a film by Lars Von Trier is a movie that used very minimal settings to tell a story. The set is basically one big room and to tell the places apart, words were used to describe where everthing is. For example, the outlines of gooseberry bushes have the text "Gooseberry Bushes" written next to them. While this form of staging is common in black box theaters, it has rarely been attempted on film. The bare staging serves to focus the audience's attention on the acting and storytelling, and also reminds them of the film's artificiality.
Dogville is not a Dogme 95 film but it was directed by the same person who started the Dogme 95 movement. Everything was very minimal. The movie was told simply without any special effects. It was heavily focused on acting and story-telling. The movie bored me for a couple of minutes but it turned interesting when I began to realise that it was actually very good! Maybe because I didn't have enough sleep the night before.
I for one agree and support Dogme95 films because I truly feel that movies nowadays are too generic and rely too much on expensive effects to tell a story rather than talent.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Lecture 4.
Storyboarding is essential to establish the look of a film. It helps the director, cast and everyone else who is working on that patricular film to be able to "imagine" how the movie would look like which in turn will make the filimg process a lot easier for everyone. The most interesting part of the lecture for me is the 180 degree rule. I researched and read more about this because I couldn't actually comprehend what it was in the lecture. Basically it is a rule to make sure that the characters in the scene have the same left/right relationship to each other.
Though it was a short lecture, I learnt a lot about the importance of storyboarding.
Though it was a short lecture, I learnt a lot about the importance of storyboarding.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Lecture 2.
Screenwriting is interesting.
It's funny how everything has a formula. From visualising to scriptwriting to screenwriting. The Screenplay Fomula is particularly familar to me because I have read about it a few months ago and so I was quite ecstatic that it was covered in more detail in the lecture. Before this I have never actually thought about plot points yet they are the most fundamental thing in every movie that has ever existed. Plus, plot points appear more than once in a movie to make it a really good movie. That is certainly something that I will look out for in movies that I will watch in the future.
The lecture also covered abbreviations and how some of it is for camera angles like WS, LS, MLS, ECU, etc. I hope that this will be covered more in later lectures because I find it rather interesting.
It's funny how everything has a formula. From visualising to scriptwriting to screenwriting. The Screenplay Fomula is particularly familar to me because I have read about it a few months ago and so I was quite ecstatic that it was covered in more detail in the lecture. Before this I have never actually thought about plot points yet they are the most fundamental thing in every movie that has ever existed. Plus, plot points appear more than once in a movie to make it a really good movie. That is certainly something that I will look out for in movies that I will watch in the future.
The lecture also covered abbreviations and how some of it is for camera angles like WS, LS, MLS, ECU, etc. I hope that this will be covered more in later lectures because I find it rather interesting.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Lecture 2.
The lecture in the second week of this course was about Visualisation and Conceptualisation.
Basically, the lecturer talked about how we have to be creative and innovative when we are thinking about making a movie.
We should try and be as creative as possible and the sky is the limit but we still have to think about some limitations like the budget and time.
The lecturer also mentioned a couple of things about scenes. He mentioned how scenes can set the mood for a movie. A movie with many scenes can usually grab the attention of the viewers as it means that there are a lot of things going on but some movies like the movie the lecturer showed us ( the one with Uma Thurman) relied on one scene and really heavy dialogue. But was still interesting. I guess it depends on how good the director is.
The 5 elements for movie making was also very interesting because a good movie usually relies on those elements. I don't think a movie that did not have those elementswere successful and that's something to think about. My goal is actually to find some good films that didn't have some of the elements. Hm.
So the homework given was to name a favourite movie for each genre so here goes:
Action Films: Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)
Adventure Films: Gladiator (2000)
Comedy: White Chicks.
Crime Films: Requiem for a Dream.
Drama: American Beauty / Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Epic Films: Shakespeare in Love (1999)
Horror Films: The Ring (Original Japanese Version)
Musicals: Chicago.
Science Fiction: The Matrix
Western Films: How the West was Won.
Chick Flicks: My Best Friend's Wedding.
Basically, the lecturer talked about how we have to be creative and innovative when we are thinking about making a movie.
We should try and be as creative as possible and the sky is the limit but we still have to think about some limitations like the budget and time.
The lecturer also mentioned a couple of things about scenes. He mentioned how scenes can set the mood for a movie. A movie with many scenes can usually grab the attention of the viewers as it means that there are a lot of things going on but some movies like the movie the lecturer showed us ( the one with Uma Thurman) relied on one scene and really heavy dialogue. But was still interesting. I guess it depends on how good the director is.
The 5 elements for movie making was also very interesting because a good movie usually relies on those elements. I don't think a movie that did not have those elementswere successful and that's something to think about. My goal is actually to find some good films that didn't have some of the elements. Hm.
So the homework given was to name a favourite movie for each genre so here goes:
Action Films: Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)
Adventure Films: Gladiator (2000)
Comedy: White Chicks.
Crime Films: Requiem for a Dream.
Drama: American Beauty / Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Epic Films: Shakespeare in Love (1999)
Horror Films: The Ring (Original Japanese Version)
Musicals: Chicago.
Science Fiction: The Matrix
Western Films: How the West was Won.
Chick Flicks: My Best Friend's Wedding.
Lecture 1.
The reason why I chose to do Digital VIdeo Foundations is because I have always loved movies. And I am thinking of getting into the Media business hence this subject is perfect for that. I've always wanted to know what goes on behind the makings of every movie. I hope this course will enlighten me further on that topic.
Many people thought that we were going to do some production with this course but I didn't. Partly because I read the course outline for this subject 5 times before actually choosing to do it. So I think I can safely say that I have a brief idea of what it's about.
I'm looking forward to completing this course and I hope I'll learn a lot from it.
Many people thought that we were going to do some production with this course but I didn't. Partly because I read the course outline for this subject 5 times before actually choosing to do it. So I think I can safely say that I have a brief idea of what it's about.
I'm looking forward to completing this course and I hope I'll learn a lot from it.
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