Transcript
The following transcript was automatically generated and may contain errors in spelling and/or grammar. It is provided for assistance in note-taking and review.
So I hope you enjoyed the films that you just watched in the film section of this. They are very neat. A lot of these older films it is really kind of a fascinating perspective looking at the world as it was back in the 1890s and early 1900s. This section that we are getting to is going to be about production. What is going to happen is we talk about the big picture concepts and show you the films. In this part we will actually get into the nuts and bolts of how production works. works. I use this term production and it’s kind of a catch all term. But production, if you look at a whole, the creation of films, this production process, it really is very practical. That’s one of the things I think I like about filmmaking is that there’s a certain logic to it and there’s a certain sheer practicality to it. Filmmaking is really not very abstract. Now the films may end up being abstract in some ways, but filmmaking itself is about people, it’s about equipment, it’s about putting things together, it’s organization, it’s about planning and all this goes together.
That kind of leads me to the first point is that production really requires forethought. That thinking about what you’re going to do and planning what you’re going to do is a huge part of production. The idea of just kind of showing up with a camera and just kind of shooting whatever, that’s not really how it works. Not to get what you need, not to be effective. And the bigger the project, it usually requires even more planning. So that’s important to realize. before you do. It’s going to require equipment and you’re going to have to know all the equipment and pieces. You have to plan, do you need extra batteries, do you have all your actors, do you have all your sets, do you have all your locations cleared? Do you know how long it’s going to take? Have you structured your script? Have you broken it down? All of these pieces are going to be part of the equipment and the things that you’re going to need to shoot a short film or even shoot a documentary.
It’s going to require a subject. You’re going to know what you’re going to shoot, how you’re going to shoot it and you’re going to have to know how all of this fits together. Practice and just experimentation help a lot in this regard. Now all of the production process is usually divided into three phases and there are names for these three phases and they’re extremely hard to understand and difficult so I want you to listen with me. The first part is called pre-production and that’s where you’re planning and writing scripts and hiring actors and figuring out locations. The second is called production and/or principle photography where it’s where you’re actually doing the filming and you’re on set and you’re capturing basically all the images that you’re wanting to use and the sounds you’re going to use in that process and so forth. And then finally the third part is post production and that’s where you’re editing and working on sound, you’re mixing the sounds, you’re adding in additional color work to this and adding any effects you’re going to add in.
And that’s really it. In the common case it’s pre-production, production and post-production. And I’m going to call them these three things. When I refer to these areas I’m going to use their very hard to understand names. And so as you go through it these are just what is known in the process of essentially planning, shooting and then taking what you’ve done and editing it and making something meaningful with it. Now in our first section on the big picture we talk about this process of production, of film making. And I’m going to remind you of these things that you’re going to need to have something to capture everything with. So what you capture with you’re going to need a camera, a video camera. Now this could be kind of a consumer camera, it can be something like a Panasonic or Sony kind of a handy cam type camera that’s out there. It could be a DSLR camera, that’s a digital single lens reflex.
What these are are the Canon’s or the Nikon’s or some of the other cameras that are basically an old SLR camera or a DSLR for the digital but they are now able to record and you can put interchangeable lenses on them which is really nice. We use a lot of these and that’s one of the options we use for filmmaking. They always usually require a tripod or some kind of a setup if you’re going to do any handheld with them. They are really nice, they do allow you to lens it, which means you are changing the lenses. That is an option. Or you can have a prosumer camera. You may actually have access to a Sony or a Panasonic or a JVC or even some of the RED equipment that is out there. Those are actually getting a little bit more to the professional side, so I don’t encourage you to use that. You need something that is going to be smaller that you can work with. But a lot of the cameras that you have got, I want you to have, you are going to need something that you can have some control over.
Now I would encourage you to avoid using an iPhone or a flip camera unless it’s just absolutely necessary. The iPhone captures images in kind of a funny way and everything is always wide. I mean you’ve got to be really close to take it. Its light sensitivity is not as good as other cameras. So if you can find something and get something you can either rent it or you may already own it that will enable you to take a little bit better quality image. And again the nicer the camera that you can get a hold of the better the image that you’re going to have. to be too nice but just better than a phone camera. You’re going to need a tripod. Some ability to put that camera and make it still and that tripod, they don’t have to be very expensive but the tripod needs to match the weight of the camera. Now you may be asking me or wondering so what camera, what tripod? I don’t know and this is where filmmaking comes in.
You’re going to need to figure out what fits your budget and what fits your equipment needs. So I want you to be thinking I’m going to be filming this, I’m going to be moving around with this, what am I going to need to do. As I said before, the process I’m going to give you, I’m going to give you the tools, I’m going to give you the big picture, you’re going to need to go out and find this for yourself. So go online and read articles, go watch YouTube videos, educate yourself on what’s out there and then figure out what you think is going to be the best fit. Now you’re also going to need a camera operator and that’s going to be you. So when you get your camera, a lot of people get a camera and just start shooting with it. I would encourage you to go read the manual, figure out how it works, figure out if you’re going to be adjusting for the white balance for instance and you’re going to understand what white balance is.
We’ll kind of talk about that but that’s something you can teach yourself. If your camera has a white balance, is it automatic or can you turn it off to manual so that in different settings the light inside a room is going be a different temperature or a color temperature than the light that’s outside. Lights inside are a little more yellow and lights outside are a little bluer. This all has to do with color temperature and it’s the way God made light. It all flows and there are different Kelvin degrees to it. It’s a little too complex but white balance does this. Look up white balance. Teach this to yourself what white balance works, if you want to control this or not. But what it’s important to do because if you’re inside and you’re pointing the camera inside an indoor light and all of a sudden go by a window, what will happen is you’ll see the color shift. That’s because the automatic white balance is adjusting for outside light versus inside light.
You need to be able to control that so that you get a steady image. If you have a white balance on your camera, that’s something you need to figure out. Reading the manual will tell you how to control that on whatever camera it is you have. Once you’ve got your equipment, you’ve got your camera operator, which is probably going to be you or someone else that’s taking this class with you, you’re going to need to figure out something to shoot. So whenever you’re producing, figuring out your subject is very important. And in this first time, when I give you your assignment, what I want you to do is I want you to look for things with an intrinsic action. Something that is basically interesting, a single action that’s developing. So maybe it’s someone taking out the trash. This may seem kind of simple to you, but you would set your camera in a certain way that would show someone taking out the trash.
Maybe it’s someone raking up some leaves. Maybe it’s someone, a bus driving up. It can be any number of things. Use your imagination and think if I set my camera still up and just capture this image, what would be interesting in and of itself to capture? Now, I want you to shoot outside first because the light’s going to be better, but there’s a lot of interesting things that go on outside. Inside usually requires you to do more. Not that there can’t be interesting things outside, but I want you to get out and I want you to go to a location. It can be inside in your house or in your neighborhood, but I want you to do something outside. This is going to, I wanted to have a discussion here in terms of production about permission and rights in filmmaking. So, you’re going to probably be wandering around town doing things and filming things in different places. Every location, every city has different rules.
I would encourage you to contact your local film commission and find out what are the general rules for students. Students kind of fall into a funny category. You’re doing educational use and so there’s a lot more latitude that you have than I as a professional, semi-professional film maker have got. So contact your film commission and ask about this. Some of the rules that you generally know is that if you’re on public property and are filming on public property you can pretty much film anybody or anything that’s in public. Now also if you are given permission to shoot on private property, so if you’re given permission to go shoot in maybe your father or your father’s friend or your mother’s office, whatever is out there, school, that’s private school, you have to get permission. Once you have permission you can film on those premises. It’s important though that as you’re filming be sensitive to safety always.
You don’t want to set up in a spot like the middle of a street. You won’t want to set up on a sidewalk. The police are kind of known to go out to watch and they stop you and they say don’t film here, don’t continue to film, you need to get out of that area. However, there are public spots. You can go to the film commission and get permission to shoot in certain areas and they will tell you how to do this. The key here is just guys is be smart. Think about what you’re doing and I want to encourage you, this is part of the process of learning to be a filmmaker, to understand how to shoot in a certain area. Don’t take it for granted you can just shoot somewhere. Think about how do I do it. A lot of times you are given a lot of latitude to students but I want you to begin to understand how to work inside the environment that’s out there. Now what’s going to happen is you’ve gotten your equipment, you’ve gone out and shot something and we’re going to discuss here in the assignment section what that looks like.
You’re going to need to be able to move to post production. So when you come to post production you’re going to have to have a computer, a PC or a Mac or something else that can offload this material and you’re going to need editing software. Now editing software comes in all shapes and sizes but most Macintosh computers and most PCs come with them. Usually they come with either iMovie or they come with Windows, I think it’s called a Windows Movie Maker. This is the base level But for this class you probably can do everything you want to do with that. Now you may have other equipment and I’m not encouraging you to have to go out and buy this but if you do decide you want to use this this is great stuff. Final Cut Pro, there is things like Adobe Premiere and Vegas and other equipment. We will be doing things that are very basic in this class so in many ways you’re not going to need all the bells and whistles these programs will do.
But they’re good programs to use and if you’re wanting to do filmmaking long term you’re going to have to leave iMovie, leave Windows Movie Maker and go to something a little more prosumer level like Final Cut, like Adobe Premiere. Once you’ve taken your movie off, you’re going to be able to upload it to the internet. So you’re going to get an internet connection and you’re going to have to create an account. We’re going to be using Vimeo. It’s free, but Vimeo lets you post things to their account there. It’s kind of a site that’s designed for filmmakers and folks that are really in the craft. It doesn’t have all the junk that YouTube does. And some of the encoding, so encoding means it takes the, once you upload it, it encodes it and makes it into a format that can be shown on a computer. They’re usually a little higher quality than YouTube in a lot of ways. Once you’ve done that you’ll then take that link and copy it and put it in the, basically there’s the assignment section, or it’s kind of a lesson question and answer.
It’ll make sense and you’ll see it in our little lesson thing here on the DVD, or excuse me, on the, whatever I’m trying to say. See I told you I’m going to start to lose my mind on some of these things. On computer. Take that, blow that link up and other friends and people will be able to see this that are inside the class and I’ll take a look at it if I have time and can comment on it. Now, all of this process of production is that you’re going to have to be thinking and laying down steps for what you’re going to do. So be thinking what’s going to be interesting, brainstorm and then go through this process and that’s going to be, we’ll talk about here in a second, what that first assignment looks like. But make sure you’ve got all the equipment and you’re going to go out and like I said, you can also rent some of these things, borrow it from friends. Borrowing is always a good thing to do. It doesn’t cost you anything and so long as you take good care of it you haven’t lost any money that you can put to something else. So once you finish this then go and you can go look at the assignment section and we’ll explain what you need to do for this first time out.