The Craft of FilmmakingHow to express story, themes, and emotions through filmPresented by Shant Joshi

Who am I?

Shant Joshi

Director/Producer/Writer

1st Year Undergraduate @ York University

BFA Film Production (Hons.)

Films have been showcased at the New York Film Academy, the Planet In Focus International Film Festival, and the TIFF Next Wave Programme

What is filmmaking?

Definition: “The making of motion pictures” (Merriam-Webster)

A picture tells a thousand words. A picture captures a moment in time

Rather than freeze that moment, we recreate it by playing multiple images together at 24 frames per second, creating the illusion of motion

For our purposes today, filmmaking is to use and control MOTION in pictures to tell a specific story

Anyone can make a film

Any object that captures motion images is a “film” camera

From your phone…

To your pocket camera…

To your DSLR…

To your old Super 8 camera…

To the huge Hollywood film/digital camera.

What makes your film different than a big budget Hollywood film or a home video is how you use your tools to tell your story

Watch “They’re made out of Meat”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tScAyNaRdQHow does it use filmmaking techniques to tell a story? Let’s find out!

Main Components of Filmmaking

1. Camera Framing- Where do you capture the MOTION?

2. Mise-en scène- What MOTION, or lack of motion, are you capturing?

3. Editing- How much of the MOTION is seen?

Other concepts not discussed in the workshop:

4. Sound- What do we hear during the MOTION?

5. Lighting- In what light do we see the MOTION?

Camera FramingFraming a shot is to determine how your audience sees the subject in MOTION.

Much like how in theatre you use character position and levels on stage to send a visual message to your audience, similarly the camera manipulates the perspective of the action

This is made up of 5 major parameters:Camera Distance

Centered/Decentered Framing

Camera Angle

Depth of Field (Perspective Relations)

Camera Movement or Mobile Framing

Camera DistanceVarious Distance Types:

Extreme close-up (ECU): When a singular part of the face/body fills the frame

Close-up (CU): When the head fills the the frame

Medium-shot (MS): A shot of the character from the waist up

Medium Long Shot (MLS): A shot of a character from the shins up

Long Shot (LS)- A shot of the full body of the character

Extreme Long Shot (ELS)- A shot where the full body of the character is seen but is small in comparison to the environment

Our example: Character reading a book on a chair

How does the changing of distance influence our perception of the MOTION on screen?

Centered vs. Decentered Framing

Centered: Putting your subject into the center of the frame

Decentered: Putting your subject off to the side

Decentered (Rule of thirds): By putting your subject on the right or left third of the frame, the empty space can be used to tell something (emptiness? Completeness?)

Camera Angle

Low-angle (LA)- A shot where the camera is below the subject pointing up

High Angle (HA)- A shot where the camera is above the subject pointing down at it

Overhead shot/Bird’s eye view shot- A shot taken directly above the subject

Depth of Field (Perspective Relations)

Wide angle lens: Shallower depth of field. Wider look. More distance between various depths

Medium Lens: General Depth

Telephoto Lens: Deeper depth of field. Boxed in/focus look. Flattened image. Less distance between various depths

Mobile FramingPan- Camera is stationary but is turned from left to right

Tilt- Camera is stationary but is angled up and down.

Dolly/Track- A cart with wheels that holds the camera. It moves to allow the camera to change positions

Crane- A mechanical device that carries the camera through various movements both high level to low level and left to right

Handheld- When the camera is mounted on to the camera person as they move through the space

Example: Character gets up and moves through the space

FRAMING MANIPULATES FROM WHAT PERSPECTIVE DOES THE AUDIENCE SEE THE MOTION

ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT FRAMING YOUR SHOT?

Mise-en-Scène

Translates to “placing in the scene”

This refers to every thing you see in the frame of an image

Perfect authorship or auteurism is to have a purpose for every single object in frame

Includes:Setting

Props

Costumes and Make-Up

Colours

Performance

Purposeful Settings

Props and Costumes

Significant objects which has an important function in the film

Often repeatedly revealed for effect to the audience

Think about “They’re Made Out of Meat” and how it uses props

The cigarettes

The playing cards

The chewing gum

The pop culture magazine

The suit that the man wears

The fez with a red coat

Each object has it’s own significance

Movement & Performance Style

Stylistic elements of performanceAppearance

Gestures

Facial expressions

Voice

Noises

Think about “They’re Made Out Of Meat” How is the performance of the aliens different than the performance of

the group of friends?

the cook and waitress?

the man in the trench coat?

Through performance how does the filmmaker express the story to the audience?

ANY QUESTIONS ON MISE-EN-SCÈNE?

Editing“Film is truth at 24 frames a second, and every cut is a lie.”

–Jean Luc Godard

“The first cut is always the deepest” –Amnon Buchbinder

We can’t cut from theatre but we can from film.

Use your cuts wisely!

Make sure that you maintain a rhythm and a sense of continuous MOTION

Basic Hollywood Continuity Editing

Basic shot order of a scene1. Establishing shot: Establish where we are

2. Master shot: Looking at everything important to the scene

3. Close-up: Of character that is talking

4. Reaction shot: Of character that is listening

5. Return to Master shot

Match cuttingShot 1: Close-up of man in suit as he looks at the bottom left of frame and begins to sit down

Shot 2: Three quarter long shot of man in suit sitting into diner booth

Doing this only is generally BORING. Add some flair with your editing. Make your cuts meaningful.

Flair it Up! With Editing.Cut-in

When you are watching a long shot and the film cuts into a closer look at the specifics of the scene

Zooming vs TrackingExample of character reading book

(Skip to 0:35) Man of Steel clip. The quick zoom http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-EdLrzZutE

Cut-away shotsMoving to another shot of something other than the main focus for a couple of seconds.

It adds effect

Think about “They’re Made out of Meat” and the cutaways to the friends and the waitress-cook

Editing Software AdviceiMovie (for Mac/iPad users) is a good place for first timers

Fairly easy to use editing software.

Not very precise cuts

Can not handle enormous amounts of media

Adobe Premiere Elements (for Mac/PC users) is a good place to start learning how to edit film more professionally

Adobe Premiere Pro (for Mac/PC users), Final Cut Pro 7 (for Mac only), and Sony Vegas Pro (for PC only) are great editing software for the aspiring filmmaker

AVID Media Composer (for Mac/PC users) is the epitome of professional editing software

These are all good, but are only tools for your mind to use through editing craft to tell a story

ANY QUESTIONS ON EDITING?

ANY QUESTIONS FOR LIGHTING, SOUND WORK, OR USING A CAMERA?

Watch “They’re made out of Meat”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tScAyNaRdQHow does it use filmmaking techniques to tell a story?

ANY QUESTIONS IN GENERAL?

THANK YOU!