Film School in 30 Minutes

1. Film School in 30 Minutes - Introduction: no saint, no pope, no general. No president has ever had the power that a full makeup. That's the power to talk to hundreds of millions of people for two hours in the dark. Hi there. My name's David Ritchie, and I'm an emerging filmmaker based in the wondrous city of Cape Town in South Africa. So you have this itch to tell a story, but you don't know where to start. Luckily for you, by the end of this course, you'll be able to translate your story idea into a script, put together a full crew, prepare and conduct a successful shoot a piece together film that you can submit to festivals or even host private viewings were. Now. These skills will be useful if you're looking to go into the advertising world marketing or general filmmaking audiences in cinemas. So I invited Join me on this journey as we learn about filmmaking. I hope you really enjoy this course. Here we go 2. Storytelling: stories. Why do we tell them? How should they be told? What should they be about? Throughout history, stories and myths have been the building blocks of our civilization. They fabricate the essence of what it means to be human and is used to teach others in order to survive, thrive and immerse ourselves in. The more we know about a past, the better we are prepared for our future. So when deciding on which story to tell, dig deeply into your own history and what valuable lessons you've picked up along the way, chances are that somebody is going to relate to it. In order to craft a while around the story, you need to be familiar with the three act structure, character arcs, turning points and thematic questions. A great story is not what happens, but rather what happens to who start developing a character Bible for your protagonist and really give this a lot of attention. What is the age demographic and what class of their in What is this situation at home? Like the relationships with the moms, dads, siblings, their friends, who are their best friends? What are they? Hobbies? Job? Do their What's their favorite food. Their favorite shows, you know. What are they? Character floors. They strengths. What are the core desires and one of the obstacles in the way of this desire? Remember, show. Don't tell the audience Different forms. Genres have different tropes and styles and ways in order to have characters organically unfold. Have a look at the link below. More info on this stuff. The opening image. What is the first scene that your viewer witnesses? What is the dramatic question that is raised for the audience? Why should they invest their time in order to have it answered? Your audience needs to empathize and sympathize with your main character. Thematically, what does your foam explore in the human condition? The first act is all about building your characters world. When and where is it? What are the norms? What is not. The first turning point is known as the inciting incident. This is the point of no return. When an event completely changes the world around them, they are left with a big decision, and once they proceed with it, there is no turning back. Who, What is the opposing antagonistic force off your phone? Is that some evil villain trying to destroy the city is their opponent in a marathon. What is at stake for your character? It's about getting what your character needs, not once. What is the internal conflict that your characters at war with within themselves? What is the emotional mental floor that they need to address in order to gain what they desire? Obstacles? This is often another person presenting some form of challenge midpoint. This is a revelation off key knowledge to your character that completely turned their world upside down. Disaster. All hope seems to be lost, but some magical spark reignites there will change climax. This is the penultimate conflict where your protagonist needs to confront their antagonistic force with a new sense of self. What lessons have they gained along their journey To achieve this? Then we move on to the descending action where our character returns home changed. This is just a brief guide on the three act structure. The three X structure mimics Life Act one, active three. I see something I process. It changes a result I could speak hours about. This topic in five minutes is not enough time to dive deeply into the subject But one vocal highly recommend you reading is John York's book into the woods. It'll deepen your knowledge about storytelling off both why and how we tell them. 3. The Script: the script scripts play a very important role for the production of your film. If it ain't on the page, it ain't on the stage. It serves as a blueprint for you and your entire team to gather around and brainstorm which techniques used would be the best way to tell your story. You're director of photography, sound man, producer, editor and composer. All need to know what is happening in the story so they know how best to operate in their field of expertise. The script is composed off scenes in which your characters are presented with various challenges. Each action line of dialogue and character introduction must propel the full forward to the climatic appoint. Let's take a look at how a script should be formatted. The fund should be in 12 point Korea format, with 1.5 inch left margin. A one inch top right and bottom margin page numbers are to be displayed in the top right corner. Off the page, scenes are number to the left and describes where they are. For example, exterior or interior day or night on the location is based at when characters are introduced in the action lines. Make sure to print them in capital letters as well as any key details about the scene. I props, effects or different sounds. This makes it easier for you producer to know what is essential to organize. Character names are printed 3.1 inches from the left of the page. Dialogue is printed 2.5 inches from the left of the page. Try not to directly reveal to the audience what is happening. Rather let the subtext of the dialogue and action show how characters are feeling about something the screenplay is meant to describe the feelings of vote on how the events unfold on screen. 4. Pre-Production: Logistics: Before you begin shooting your film, you should be able to present a treatment file to prospective investors. We're going to invest either the time or the money, and this explains how exactly you're going to execute the production. What is your tagline? What is the synopsis and what is the logline? These are essential descriptions and sentences that you will consistently used to promote your phone product or even in an elevator pitch. You need to define who your target audiences on who will benefit the most from viewing this film. What is the main concept of theme and mood of your phone? How do you plan to relay these ideas? How using phone techniques do you plan to convey these themes and moods? What are the main themes and moods of your film? What is another full that inspired you? Why did it inspire you? How was it related to your film idea? Don't assume that your reader knows the movie you're talking about. What style of shooting are you planning to have? What kind of lighting and colors do you plan to implement? What is a phone that has a similar style? Why do you think this style would work for your phone. Where do you want to shoot your movie? How is it important? How will set decoration, wardrobe and makeup help you achieve the theme and mood that you are hoping to convey? How is your choice of actors or acting style important to the way the story is told? How is the music and sound effects important for telling your story? In conveying the themes and moods, it often helps to think of this much early in the production that when you're shooting, you can have the tempo in mind. So what you need to have done before picking up a camera is the following. Secure your locations with location release forms, prepared your props, costumes and set designs identified. Which shots will require special effects or green screening. Rehearsed the dialogue, scenes, performances and all stunts with your actors scheduled when you'll be shooting, which seen according to which location on lies with the director of photography and prepared your shot list 5. Pre-Production: The Crew: your forms. Quality will be highly dependent on the skill set off your team around you. Try and working volunteer around other production so you can build up a network of professional people to contact when you're ready to produce your phone. The director. This is the captain of the ship. All major creative decisions need to be channelled through him or her for approval. It is their vision that you are all trying to achieve. They will usually stand near monitor with some headphones on watching actions unfold in front of them so that they're pleased with the performances before heading into the editor of the film, the producer. Usually, the producer says, in organizing financial aspects of Full, they'll look at the script and identify what is needed. Wit. They are the overseer off the budget and schedule the screenwriter. He or she is responsible for crafting the subtleties that make the film original, from the dialogue to the character relationships to their actions. The director of photography, he or she works closely with the director, and this is probably the most important relationship On set Together, the two will decide on how to use the 15 elements off Miss Unseen to paint the pictures off this story. The lighting assistant cinematography is painting with Light. A lighting assistant helps getting the right balance of lighting across their subjects. They understand the three point lining set up on always works closely with the director of photography, the Sound Man. He or she is responsible for capturing the dialogues of the actors as well as any other ambient sounds that happened to be at the location. The production manager here, she is responsible for translating the story, from the written words on the script to the visuals on a storyboard. The art director. He or she is responsible for the costume, makeup, props and design off the set. And finally, but certainly not least, the cost. These are the people that will portray the characters written on the script and bring your story to life. 6. Production: Lights, Camera... Equipment: So now you have your screenplay, a film crew, and it's time to head into the production phase of your first vote. The production phase is often the shortest but most expensive part of your project. The most important thing to consider here is what equipment you'll be using to produce. Your phone story always comes first, but the equipment used does determine the league of filmmaking that you're in for entry level filmmakers and iPhone, and it's camera will do just fine. Just make sure that you focus on recording sound as well. It's often the most under look part off filmmaking, but forms half of the audio visual experience for semi professional filmmakers. A deer salah such as the Canon five D, Sony, a 73 Panasonic GH five or Fuji X T three will do just fine for filmmakers really looking to go all out and if you can get your hands on one a red dragon or area, Alexa is considered to be the cream of the crop. These are used on your favorite Netflix shows. Now it's a lot cheaper to find people who have the own gear rather than rent out gear from rental houses and then have other people operate that their rates will be a lot more negotiable. And they will be more comfortable operating their own gear. Now, in your production phase, you're producing needs to ensure that the right people aren't the right place. This is what a course shit is useful so that everyone knows which scene is being shot. When with who. When you've secured your team, make sure that this is sent out 1 to 2 weeks before the shooting commences on it. He should include the meat up, location and schedule for the day. The director and the GOP should also have thoroughly discussed the script and written a shot list to run through and complete according to the dialogue and actions organizer shots . According Toa, where the cameras positioned on which lenses you using included in the list, you should have your shot size. How far are close is the shock to your subject. Is it an extreme wide? Is it a wide? Is it a Medium wide is in medium close. Is that a close up? Was it an extreme clips up? Then you will need to describe the shot angle Is the shot being taken from a low angle from a high angle at head level from bird's eye view. Different angles give different fields to the emotional tone on the shot. Then you need to describe the movement off. The camera is going to Dolly. Is it going to boom pan, tilt, roll track or remain static? Then you need to look at your lens focal length. Is it gonna be a wide shot with the 10 millimeter? Is it going to be more narrow shot with the 50 millimeter or even extreme narrow shot with 135 millimeter? As you're making films, you need to experiment with these different lenses so that you get a feel for how different lenses give you different effects. Then you need to consider your aperture. How in focuses your subject compared to the background, for example, how blurred out is your background? Are you using a low aperture or high aperture? Finally, you need to describe what is unfolding in front of the camera. What actions are occurring with your characters, what dialogue or they're delivering. These are all the elements that make up a Sharpless that will help you on your director of photography, execute a smooth shoot unset. Make sure that use a slate or clapper board to mark the take of the shots your capturing at which particular scene. It also serves as a marker to synchronize the song. Do not underestimate this, because it will save you hours of time in post production. 7. Production: Acting: Okay, so you have a whole crew and cost in one location working towards one goal, illuminating a story that has been written on the script. There is a sacred bond amongst all costs and crew between the two words action and Cut. This is where the director needs to carefully make decisions that yield the successful performance with the cost and choreograph with the camera. He or she will have the final say of when to move on to the next scene or shot after so many takes. It could be one or could be 100 takes. Just remember that timing is off the essence, and sometimes an assistant director who will usually do most of the shouting onset will have to keep the ball rolling and yank the director to move on. Remember that 80% of your story can be told with 20% of your shots. This is known as the parade, a rule. It applies not only to form but a host of other areas in life. So pick these shots carefully and focus 80% of your efforts on them. Sometimes ideas will occur in the spur of the moment, so trust your gut on whether to give it a go or no one of the elements off filmmaking that I cannot stress enough is continuity. This, the illusion that all the actions occurring in the scene happened fluidly and no changes to the set. Props, costumes, makeup or character positions disturb the flow of the scene, which your viewer might find jarring. Have one dedicated person the script supervisor onset, taking note and ensuring that all the actors maintain continuity. The relationship between the director and actors is crucial. It is important that they create believable characters audiences to be immersed with. The director needs to give his or her actors the right information of action, verbs and context from which to stem their emotions. From once you've completed the shot list of your script, backed up all the footage and sound in three different places, it's time to call it a wrap. Move on to the next stage off the filmmaking process 8. Post-Production: Editing: So now you have all of your sights and sounds of his story, and it's time to begin stitching it all together. In order to begin the process, you will have to use an editing software. I recommend Adobe Premiere Pro. It's user friendly and provides a great workflow from assembling your shots, adding effects, enhancing the sound and color grading the Final Four. First things first, organizing all of your sound and footage, group all of his shots by scene into different burn directories and then label the shots according to subject shot and take. You probably want to also synchronize all every sound the shots. First merge them into new shots and then include them in the BIN directory. Whilst you're categorizing the shots, take some time to scrub through the takes and take note which ones you'll use in the final edit. Keep your script nearby and begin making select shots on your timeline on color coding them according to the scene. It usually helps to also begin adding your music at this point in order to begin editing to its temper. Now, when it comes to editing, there is one guru industry expert that is highly regarded as one of the greats, and that is Walter Murch. He works by what you call the rule of six and a ranks. Hao and editor should decide on which shot to cut to next, and it describes the following emotion. What do you intend the audience to feel? Story. Does the cut move the story in a meaningful way? Rhythm is the cut at a point that makes rhythmic sense. I trace. How does the can affect the location and movement off the audiences focus in the frame two dimensional plane Off the screen is the access followed properly three dimensional plane of the screen Is the cut true to established physical and spatial relationships? Once you have compiled a rough first draft of the edit, it's time to begin refining it. 9. Post-Production: Refining: great stuff. So you have a rough edit off your phone, and it's time to really start tightening it up on the final touches. Let's look at the aspect ratio. This is the ratio of your with to hide off your film. For example, your phones usually play YouTube videos at a 16 to 9 aspect ratio. Most phones and cinema are played at a 1.85 to 1 or 2.39 to 1 aspect ratio. Next, we're going to look at the sound, some elements of the soundscape that you always need to consider on the following the volume and clarity of the actors. It's helpful to understand how compression and parametric equalization works in order to get your actors vocals sounding crispy clear. You don't want their voices drowned out the sounds in the cinema to make sure to thoroughly test this ambient sounds. These are the background sounds that give your viewers a sense of where they are and texture the environment, for example, the sounds of a city at night time or the crashing waves at a beach sound effects. These could be comical sounds, wishes, washes or any sounds that emphasize any sort of movement, changing locations or any other actions unfolding on screen. Fully these air sounds recorded off to your production. Andi. They emulate the sound seen on screen, for example, recording footsteps at home on different surfaces that's unfolding in front. The musical school can have a dramatic effect on the feeling that you form evokes. So make sure that you carefully select or compose a track that has the right harmonies and tones that you're looking to enhance the form with. Once you're happy with soundscape of your film, it's time to start looking at the color grade. You need to decide on a color palette that enhances the tone of your phone. Different colors will evoke different feelings. For example, horrors will tend to have high contrast ing dark undertones and the grade wealth. Romantic comedies tend to make use of bright colors and saturation. Now, once your final edit has been grated, it's time to add in your credits. This is where you give mansion to everyone that was involved in the production off the phone from everyone in front of the screen, your actors and extras to the people behind the camera from the crew. To whose backyard you might have been feeling it. Once you have your final film exported and completed, it's time to make those posters get those teaser trailers out there and begin marketing it . 10. Conclusion: So there you have it. You successfully taking your idea that you once had in the bath and turned it into a motion picture. In this course, we've covered the basics of story structure, the format of the script, the logistics behind organizing a shoot, the team that forms your crew, the equipment used to capture your story, the conduct of shooting on set, assembling your sights and sounds onto a storyline and fine tuning the sound color to match the tone on the film that you're aiming to make. There's so much to learn in the film on the only way you can really improve your craft is by watching them and making them. So pick up a camera in any shape or form pointed and shoot. Now you're a filmmaker. Of course, like most projects in life, more complete them, the quicker you'll be able to move onto the next one. As you begin to make more phones, you begin to grow your audience and develop your own unique style. So challenge yourself with different genres of full and always remember that the role you play in the world to illuminate the stories that people need to see a hero to entertain, to educate, to enlighten, please be so kind to rate review and share this course with fellow filmmakers as it helps us to create mawr content in you in the future. Thank you for watching this course. I hope it helps you on your journey to becoming a better filmmaker. And I look forward to hearing if you've successfully made one and submitted anyway. Happy Days, Happy filmmaking.