Movie making ver. 1.0
First, learn English!
If you are taken by the “urge” of filmmaking, please start by taking a look at every single type of additional material inside dvd’s, that would be a good place to start. If you have already checked upon at least twenty or thirty different making of’s, you should then take a look at the complete collection of Movie Magic half-hour shows, where you can find even more very visual info on the subject. Else, if you have already done that and your spirit is aching for more, you can start by thinking if this is really what you want to do, and settle for nothing less than a serious shopping on Amazon.com, where you are to search trough many, many titles to start on this. If you are to be the next Spielberg, you should start by reading a book written by the most famous independent producer, Mr. Roger Corman, who published a book on how he produced over a thousand films and never lost a dime, this is a great book because you get quite an exciting overall view on film production, without the specific details. You can also get to understand scriptwriting by taking a look to Syd Field’s books (where you’ll find about format, structure and genres), you can also start on photo basics by getting Micheal Langford’s books on laboratory and photography basics, they are truly inspiring, and for those who never learnt traditional photo before this digital era we live in, they are a great guide. If you want to go a little in depth with the History of cinema, you should then take a look at George Sadoul’s book on movie making history, it is somehow updated frequently and it is one of the most serious books on the subject, it goes from Lumiére bros. and Alba Edison to Quentin Tarantino and Takeshi Kitano; it provides a world wide view. This would give you quite a time for a while, all of them require dedication to be read to the end. That would be it for the theory, but still, while reading those books, you should start spending some time hangin’ around a production company, if you haven’t got a studio near you, you can always take a look at the tv spots production agencies, where you can get quire a view on filmmaking from the actual professional hands-on training, you can go and talk to the people in there (starting obviously by getting to know the secretary, person who can always provide you the exact info on who to address and else, the actual possibilities of having an interview done. For that, you need to know that there are two ways of coming to a production agency, you can get through production or through the director. What’s the difference? The difference is that the producer will most likely get you inside as a production trainee, where you can learn on the real biz by sticking like glue to your production manager. The other option is quite more comfy, but it is not a true way to understand the movie making world, yet you are to meet all sorts of creative people, from production designers to hair dressers and even the stars and models hired for all the gigs you get from your boss. It does sound good already! If going into production, you should consider you are to be the perpetual slave, you are to be the warrior, the one who stands along for everyone else that doesn’t: you will certainly pay off any thing you learn in this process, for it is to be a rude and difficult way up from here, but if you play your role with integrity and learn to become a true professional, you are to have a good time working in this Oh so absorbing business.
For starters, that would be all. If curious enough to keep on, we are to talk about this in the future, cause I plan on having this as a guide for beginners in this era ruled by media. Next time we will be discussing over where you can find the appropriate info you’ll need to do your next step. We will probably expose some basic movie theory, and provide links and texts as possible. To all those out there lookin’ for something,
Best,
MiHo
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Ok here it goes again!
So... I’ve got into a production agency, but what about the knowledge?
Here goes film history 1.01
First thing you should know is that movies are an optical illusion that happens inside our eye. It is actually some sort of deficence in the way are eyes are made by nature, that lets the image be burned into our vision cells just behind our iris. Thus, images proyected at a 24 frames per second produces in our brain the sense of movement.
Then, you should know that movies where born through the extense work of people like (list is short though it could go on forever):
Lumiére Brothers (who take credit for inventing the cinematographer)
Thomas Alba Edison (who made vast investigation over image animation and film making)
George Meliés ( who changed the views for scenes and sketeches and invented some FX)
Sergei Eisenstein (who developed a rich theory that delt with montage and film semiotics)
Fritz Lang (creator of Metropolis and M)
D. W. Griffith (who made expensive epic stories)
Then after sound came to life, it brought us the art of people like:
Stanley Kubrick (always the perfectionist, he developed FX and even a special lens for his film Barry Lyndon)
Akira Kurosawa (who made collosal epic battles and even visual poetry – re; “Dreams”)
Andrei Tarkovsky (developed a very spiritualized film making theory, he is one of the most admired directors for his true talent for portraying the human condition and life itself)
George Lucas (researcher and developer of technology for sound and film)
Francois Truffaut (who was part of the french Cahiers du cinema)
Jean Luc Godard (who along with Truffaut and other great directors who where part of the french nouvelle vague)
If you go deep into cinema History, you will find that it has been used mostly in three ways:
- As a document producer.
- As an alternative media for narrative and expression.
- As a spectacle and biz.
It has lived for over a century and it has seen great technological advance. At first it was a small crew job, and it was a difficult task for there where no viewfinders mounted over the cameras, the rolls where short, and the cinematographer was mostly used for making “views” that where then projected to the people. The “views” where mostly short documentaries, but after the playful discoveries and tricks developed by Meliés and others, it became more like the thing we know these days. It most have been quite an experience to look at “Voyáge dans la lune” or even the “Great train robbery” in their original screenings. Imagine those days for a second, it was the breaking of a new century. Light and phone lines where born by those days. Production studios used mostly sunlight to shot their films, vast warehouses had huge sheets pf white cloth to diffuse light and generate a much workable source of soft light. Imagine having no people to make special fx through post, the star system was yet to be born.
Then the magnetic band which records sound was created. Movies became a more expressive media. It really added to the image and else to narrative. Soon the movie Industry was born, along came the stars and glamour. Huge production houses opened (most of thos remain to our days), but independent film making has lived since the cinematographer came to life.
Through all cinema history film makers have relied on their hability to handle the cinematographer (cameras nowadays). There are hundredes of cameras, but there are mostly a few film formats (then, they have changed through the years and will probably change more as time elapses and digital cinema matures – yet this is another story we are to go into soon). There has been great masters of cinematography like Charles Pathé (owner of the studios that bear his name) and Gregg Tolland (photographer of Orson Wells’ “Citizen Kane”) Absolute control over image without a view finder. He is a true great name in cinema history. He spent his life doing films with the most important directors and stars, he trained another great master of photographic procedures, mexican cinematographer, Gabriel Figueroa.
While cinema learnt language, filmmakers learned to express in this creative media, cinema became also a form of art, and it has branched into genres and forms; and it has also gone through periods (just as painting has) like expressionism, realism, surrealism, abstractionism, and many other “isms” (as cuban writer Alejo Carpentier relates on chapter numer one of his first book “Ecué Yamba Ó” – which, by the way is one good novel!). People like Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí had their shot as surrealism was born with “Chien Andalu”, a weird short film that overwhelmed art circles and critics around the world.
Sound has also been developed through the years, from Nagra recorders (magnetic reels) to Dat recorders; from mono to stereo to dolby to dolby surround to THX! A hell of a research had to be done and more of that was the worked poured so we can hear the light sabers in “Star Wars”, or the distant choppin’ of a helicopter coming as it plays music over warfields in “Apocalypse Now”; or even the slightest wind in a documentary.
Film labs turned into post-production facilities. Technology was developed and turned from the old cutting and editing tables, to sophisticated hardware through which you can do modifications to the original negative just before turning it into a full lenght positive celluloid roll. Editing has seen its most artsy moment at cinema beginings, it used to be a large and methodical process to trim and paste the celluloid strips. Moviolas where hot at those days. Computers moved them over as the hardware and software became more specifical, we can know even render alternative realities full of visual fx in just minutes through complex software like the Flame of Inferno you can rent at not so cheap costs in many post-production facilities all over the world.
Direction has also changed a lot since the cinematographer. There was a time when a mistake was just that, a mis-take. Nowadays, you can trim pieces of the original frame and mount it over a digital composite of the final edited frame. So, you can take out things that where out of bounds during the actual filmation, but here a HUGE problem is born. Most of actual film makers believe that post-production is the light and that it is capable of mending errors made while exposing the film (I mean there are posibilities –read on). It is, but in schools you are actually thaught to film with care; this means you have to be careful of exposure so you don’t have problems, this applies to be careful of directing actors and all other stuff related. You are to be delicate and turn small things into magic and the first step towards doing it is just taking the time to notice errors. This may require training, but most of the film makers have been image consumers, in a way they understand its language; taking this a step forward is actually learning how a film (short of full lenght) is made. This way, if you are careful enough to get the film exposed correctly, you will expand your posibilities through post-production, you will be able to perform a wide range of changes and work over the well exposed film. Else, you will have the opportunity to mend minor errors in mayor ways. The post is supposed to work fine and smooth if you do your work during filmation.
As for music, it has always been the same process, music is composed for the film proyected. On the early days, there used to be a musician playing piano as the proyection was made, actually going along with the film; now it is all put inside the magnetic band and then broke into channels that spread the sound for us to have an illusion of volume and space. Though musical theory has changed, the actual sounds that make us “feel” have always been the same. Musicians have translated feelings and states of ming through varios tones. There is vast theory dealing with composition, but the needs inside cinema expression possibilities have always been the same, thus, the scripts simplify this by marking a “hint of” whatsoever it is the mood intended.
Production has its ways and each project has its own boundaries and it usually deals with real loads of money. There are low budget films, but even those represent in a fair way a decent amount of bills. Yet, with the digital technology, storytellers can get their chance and do cheaper productions that can be transposed to film; some years ago it seemed that video was just an amateur thing, but HD technology going homeware, things are just starting. Independent films are now a reality, even video blogs are “inn”, resolution is not the most important thing, there is going to be a chance to produce high quality video with just a handycam and a personal computer.
Next thing you now, you are editing full feature high resolution flicks right at your room.
God save us from crap! The worst award winners could be you or your neighbors and friends. Sounds nice! Gonna make something about it.....
Miho
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Ok guys, so we are on to our next step in this crappy text.
We have gone through some filmmaking History, but you will be wondering if all this nonsense is going to help you at all.
First thing here is that if you really want to be spending your future days in a production house or at a post-production facility, you might want to take a look at what has been done through the years. There is a clear reason for you to do this, you need to know how the technology that help us create films has been growing since Cinema first years; It might be useful to know what has been done before.
But then, this whole blog is about helping you enter into de moviemaking world, and it is not intended to be a course of Cinema History, though I will always love the topic, cause my love for movies grew as I watched films made by Fritz Lang, Meliés, and a whole bunch of incredible artists that had made us enjoy every single frame of celluloid they’ve done.
Then, this blog is about how a young person can start into the movie making biz.
So.. you might ask yourself: Ok, I’ve gone through some movie History, and I’ve gone through a lot of music videoclips and a bunch of television stuff I love. But now what?
Ok, next thing in mind is... if you are ever to go into this biz, you are to know that it is a very difficult way up, unless you are Spielberg’s son, it might be a little difficult to get the budget to produce a feature film. So if you came into this world after watching how Dawson went from his “Creek” to work as Spielberg’s AD, you are about to flip out. You should know there is no such thing as that. Though Hollywood is not about what you can do, it is said Hollywood is about who you know. And I think this is true. I mean I am currently in no Hollywood production, because that is not my stuff right now, but I’ve had friends working over DNA Digital Neural Axis (company that produced effects for Martin Scorcese’s Aviator and for a James Cameron flick).
So next thing to do is ask yourself what is the area in filmmaking that really grabs me?
Which areas can I grow into?
Would it be as a film producer or as a film director?
Most of you might think it would be as a director, but some people would find they would really enjoy the day when they are part of an Art Department, or when they are given a project to develop, or even when they write a new exciting and breath-taking story. Or you might even get caugh by the idea of animating objects and characters, or editing. There are many posibilities, you just need to really know what you want to do.
If producing is your goal, then you should know you are to be responsible of managing accounts, meeting talent and crew and keep everything in sight for the production to work.
If you are planning on directing, I would recomend that you spend some time building up life experiences, there could be hundreds of theatrical theory and acting stuff, but you never now a face or circumstance until you live through it. Besides, if you are directing you wouldn’t wanna be “referencing” other flicks, I mean this works for some guys, but not with the critics. You should know what you are talking about in a film. I mean you should be able to understand the story in a way that characters actually live through your vision and inside the cast you select. And I don’t mean with this that you just can’t go and “homage” your favorite scenes, no, I mean you can do this when you take a scene and make it yours; when you put some of what is has inside. If you are directing and you can’t do this, come on, get a retirement and dedicate yourself to another thing. People are sick of watching remakes, specially mature audiences.
If you want to become an editor, you should get in touch with the software involved in the process. If you have the chance to start working on an Avid system, you are in the right track, if not, you can always start by getting to know software like Final Cut or Adobe’s Premiere Pro. You should also get acquianted with things like Stone, Flint, Smoke, Fire, Inferno, Combustion, Cleaner and the likes.. there is much to learn and you can take a peek at all this software by going to the webpages and downloading a demo. You can download almost every one of the programs mentioned before, except for those high-end softwares. But I recommend you take a look at Adobe, Autodesk, Final Cut and Avid. You are to find there everything you might need to start.
If you are thinking on becoming an art director, you should get to know much of the human History. You should know that this is part of the knowledge inside an Art Director or a Production Designer, with the only exception that the late is also a bit of an architecht. I could say that this is probably one of the most complicated areas in filmmaking for much of the image depends on the work of these guys. I mean, there is the thing about aesthetics, in which the framing of the picture helps, but you should remember that the things inside this image are taken care by the Art department.
Next and most important part of making movies is actually having the power to shoot a powerful image. It doesn’t matter if you are working on Hi8, 8mm, 16mm, super 16mm, 35 mm, Imax, DV, Mini DV, or HD. This is the work of the cinema photographer, to know all the formats available and be able to get the quality needed for an image to work in a production workflow. Nowadays, there are many posibilities for correcting images after they are filmed, but this is no excuse, if you want to do a film as a director of photography (DP), you should know the basics on photographic exposure as well as digital exposure performances. You should also know which are the cameras and lenses that work for your production, and even the lights and filters you should apply to get a desired look.
There are hundreds of other areas, from gaffer to grip, from assistant director to runner, from compositer to animator. There are, I insist, many many areas to work in, even those that deal with public relations and accounting.
But now, there is a real deal about making a film.
You should have a story.
This means you should write a script about that story.
In a way, the screenplay is the first step in movie making. You can either write it yourself or you can go a long way and buy it from a writer. It doesn’t matter how, the thing is that you have this script.
This is script is to be read by the producers and the director at early stages of development.
It is to be chopped into multiple pieces for detailed production analysis. This is called a Breakdown. When you do this, you make lists of everything there is to be needed, from actors to props, from locations to set designs and to the SFX shots. Then you decide the material that is to be used and the cameras that will shoot the film (in which decition the DP has the final word). This is a labor done by the producer in conjunction with the direction deparment.
After this process is done, the next step is to create a budget based on the breakdowns of the script. At this point you might have storyboards or you will be thinking in creating them. All of this process is called development. This also involves scheduling every single thing from day 0 to the last day of post-producing. This is actually done when the project gets a “green light” from a producing studio.
So for know, here are some more pointers for you guys who want to dig this world.
Next we will be talking about some interesting things I’ve been promising lately. We are to be checking on the diferent formats for movies and video, we will talk about a bit of what is the resolution of an image, and we will see some of the History on this matters.
Untill then, I hope you have enjoyed this blog so far. Who knows, maybe in the future you will be the one trying to reach out and talk about movie making!!!!
To all of you cinema lovers out there,
Take care!
