The Craft of Filmmaking

1. The Craft of Filmmaking How to express story, themes, and emotions through film Presented by Shant Joshi

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. Watch “They’re made out of Meat” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tScAyNaRdQ How does it use filmmaking techniques to tell a story? Let’s find out!

6. Main Components of Filmmaking • Camera Framing- Where do you capture the MOTION? • Mise-en scène- What MOTION, or lack of motion, are you capturing? • Editing- How much of the MOTION is seen? Other concepts not discussed in the workshop: • Sound- What do we hear during the MOTION? • Lighting- In what light do we see the MOTION?

7. Camera Framing • Framing 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

8. Camera Distance • Various 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?

9. 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?)

10. 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

11. 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

12. Mobile Framing • Pan- 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

13. FRAMING MANIPULATES FROM WHAT PERSPECTIVE DOES THE AUDIENCE SEE THE MOTION

14. ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT FRAMING YOUR SHOT?

15. 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

16. Purposeful Settings

17. 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

18. Movement & Performance Style • Stylistic elements of performance • Appearance • 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?

19. ANY QUESTIONS ON MISE-EN-SCÈNE?

20. 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” –AmnonBuchbinder • 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

21. Basic Hollywood Continuity Editing • Basic shot order of a scene • Establishing shot: Establish where we are • Master shot: Looking at everything important to the scene • Close-up: Of character that is talking • Reaction shot: Of character that is listening • Return to Master shot • Match cutting • Shot 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.

22. 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 Tracking • Example 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 shots • Moving 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

23. Editing Software Advice • iMovie (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

24. ANY QUESTIONS ON EDITING?

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

26. Watch “They’re made out of Meat” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tScAyNaRdQ How does it use filmmaking techniques to tell a story?

27. ANY QUESTIONS IN GENERAL?

28. THANK YOU!