Becoming a Film Director and Professional Producer: The Art of Filmmaking

1. The Art of Filmmaking: Hi, my name is Wabillo Babe. I am a film director, actor and film score composer. But I think I'm just a curator, an artistic soul from a very young age. My passion has always been telling stories. In the beginning, I did it using my toys. I was seeing and feeling every single detail of the world I was creating with them. But one day, that was not enough. It just was not enough. That dream really inspired me to use these tools to bring all my humination to life. Just as I tell stories with my drawings, now I tell them by drawing with light. I love working in front of and behind the camera, Designing every detail, the light, the scenes, the sound, and even creating characters to live several lives in one. I have created this course to share with you everything I know about filmmaking. I had learned in my experience filming my stories, and the knowledge I was able to learn at the best film school in Spain. I just want you to be able to fulfill your dreams, like you can see that I did on the screen. Making movies is a way of life. You just have to inspire some brave friends and artists like you and lead them to dream until they see the dream come true. In this course, you will learn step by step how to develop an idea in order to properly turn it into a story. You will learn about semiotics about the different types of scenes. You will learn to manage a production team from the cinematographer, editors, composers to technicians. You will learn to correctly select the actors who will represent your all these so that you can create movies even with a limited bubject. As a final project, you will have the task of writing a synopsis on one single page accompanied by its respective tack line and high concept. You must also select an image that semiotically identifies that project. I wish you good luck. My name is Valdilio Penis and this is my adhere in full making. 2. Camera & Lenses: Hello people. I want to start this course by showing you directly what you are surely most anxious to know. The movie camera, this extraordinary instrument, this tool that we had used for so long to tell stories, simply recording, moving images, allowing us to tell that story that we want to tell so much. However, let me mention that the truth is that the most important knowledge you need to know to become a film director has nothing to do with actually using the camera. And that is what you're going to learn throughout this course, later on of course. But obviously, we need to know the camera too. I mean that you know the most important aspects to take into account of a film camera so that you can use it or even give precise instructions to the cinematrographer or camera operators. Let's start then. The movie camera is an instrument that allows us to capture impressions of light through a ****. This **** interprets the lights in a certain way, letting it pass to the camera sensor inside, which will take several pictures every second, usually 24 frames per second, to create that sensation of the moving image. In the past, these photos were recorded on a film role, but today, all this process that was previously analog was transformed into a digital work. I mean, everything evolved until a digital movie camera arrived like this one that I have here, that instead of simply recording everything on a film role, they record all the information on a memory card. You can imagine all the work that a digital camera saves, just the camera system itself, creating a single video file that contains all those photos or frames per second. However, there are digital cameras, which combine the technology of the film role with the memory card to have both types of recordings. There are directors who are really interested in this analog process and the type of texture that this process generates in the image. Of course, these cameras are very expensive, but as far as we are concerned at this moment of this course, since we are generally independent filmmakers, or maybe we want to store a small production company for example. It's important that you learn to differentiate two very important things, the digital cinema camera and the DSLR camera. The main difference between the film camera and the DSLR camera is the recording format and the quality of the sensor. I think the size of the camera speaks for itself. Generally, the DSLRs are cameras to take photos that also allows us to record video, and whose features allows us to record video quite well, even at a professional level. However, due to the size of the cameras and their characteristics themselves, the sensor generally doesn't have that sensitivity to light that a professional cinema camera can has. I mean, the system compresses the video in a reduced format that is simpler and easier to it, but at the same time, they lack a quality that allows an editor to deeply correct the color of the video. Which means this. I told you that the cameras take 24 photos per second or more. Each of these photos has a resolution, The resolution that any photo camera has. But the resolution has to do not only with the number of pixels that the image has, but also with the amount of information that each of those pixels is going to have inside. When it tell you that the DSLR camera records in a compressed format, it means that each pixel of each video frames has less information. Here you can see an example of a DSLR footage. Although it looks very good, the information that each pixel has is much less than that of an uncompressed format. Despite that, there are very good DSLRs that will allow you to record a high quality, compressed format, such as Bress format, for example, which is designed to do everything possible to preserve image quality. This is important to know because many of you are going to buy a DSL camera, and this is what you should consider when buying when. So just make sure the camera has the best possible sensor even though it records the video in a compressed format. I'm going to leave you in the description of the lesson, the best options for me. On the other hand, there are professional cinema cameras like the one you see on the screen. The most important difference as I mentioned, is that professional movie cameras record in an uncompressed format so that the system can record all the possible information from the light sensors. Which are very sensitive. Professional cinema cameras have a great sensitivity to light. In addition, the sensor allows capturing a greater dynamic range of colors. This is really useful for video editors because it allows them to modify the color of the images even if the lighting is not perfect. That is the reason why the system is recording in files without compression to record as much information as possible to have a better result. On the other hand, professional cameras do not get hot. They are made to work for many hours in a row. In addition, they have many more audio inputs to record professional audio. And on the other hand, today most of them allowed you to record at more frames per second in match, more resolution of what a DSLR can do. On the screen, you can see various images recorded with professional film cameras. We are going to address now the most important parts of the camera, a film camera like this one. Those details that you must know to be able to direct a film production and advertisement, or a short film for example. There aren't really many, but since you want to be a director, you must know them in order to communicate your ideas properly to a production team. The first thing you should know is what makes the image have quality. Is it the ****? Is it the camera? Is it the light? Let's say that. It's a sum of all. Let's start with the first. Mainly what most influences the quality of the image is the quality of the ****. It's necessary that the **** be really professional and sophisticated there. Photography lenses in cinema lenses, the main difference is that filmed lenses are more sophisticated and uncomfortable since they are specialized in bringing out the best of what we are recording. In the case of photography lenses, they are adapted to the needs and practicality that a photographer requires when it comes to taking photos, for example, the difference in weight between one and the other is an important factor. And this is due to the nature of the **** itself. Both photography and cinema lenses show something. They have a first ring to control aperture and a second ring to control focus. The aperture diaphragm ring allows us to control the amount of light that will enter the camera sensor and the focus ring, the sharpness of the image. Of course, since cinema lenses are of better quality, they have larger aperture, that is, they have a better capacity to let the light in. There on the screen, you can see an example of a diaphragm. The more the diaphragm opens, the number is smarter. Those numbers are the universal way to identify the aperture of the diaphragm. Just remember that the smaller the number, the greater the aperture. Don't get confused with that. However, in the case of photography lenses, many of them have a third ring that allows us to change the Zum of the ****. That is, since they are more practical lenses, they allow the photographer to change from 24 millimeters to 105 millimeters by simply moving that ring. This is something important, because when it comes to cinema lenses, we need a **** case that contains each of the lenses that we want to use. That is 120, 4 millimeters, another 36 millimeters, another 50 millimeters, so 105 millimeters, et cetera. I'm going to explain something important to you regarding the lenses, the focal length, but I will also mention this later on in the course that you remember it well. The focal length is the ability of the **** to get closer to an object in detail. The greater the focal length of the **** is, the greater the millimeters will be. Therefore, we are going to see objects very close. We are even going to be able to get very close to objects to see their details and even get closer to objects or places in the distance. On the other hand, a **** with a short focal length, a loss to capture a greater amount of space within the image. I mean, the angle of view is wider. I don't mean to say that you cannot capture a large space with a **** of more millimeters. What I'm trying to say is that the smaller the millimeters of the lenses, the more space you will be able to capture, even though that spot is very close to you using the other ****. With a higher millimeters, you would have to move much farther out of the space to capture the same amount of space. Of course, all this means that the lenses distort the image, and you are supposed to remember this by heart. All lenses will distort the image. That distortion has a cinematic meaning. We will see that later on in the course. Pay attention to this example. On the screen you can see the difference in the way each **** distort the shape of the bust. Using the **** of more millimeters, the image seems to widen more towards the sides, and the perspective in the image is felt less. Now I'm going to switch to 24 millimeters. With this photography ****, you may notice that the bust looks much farther away, despite the fact that the camera is at the same distance from the object as when using the previous **** in order to make the same previous shot. Now I have to get closer to the bost. Now you can notice how the strong perspective distorts the image due to the nature of the **** and its wider viewing angle. Look at the two images at the same time so that you notice the difference in the distortion of the image. Photography lenses are similar to film lenses. Only lighter and more practical adapted to the circumstances that if you are a photographer, you are on the move moving from one side to another. Therefore, photography lenses have a stabilizers image, many of them have auto focuses connected to the camera body in our Er tubes. Additionally, you should know that each of the cameras, both film and photography, have a specific adapters rink that allows them to connect the **** to the camera. You should take that into account when it comes to buy on the lenses. Regarding the camera, I mean the camera body. The most important characteristics that USI directors should know are the following. The first thing is that you are going to be able to control the ISO and the temperature in the camera setup. The ISO is the sensitivity that the sensor will have to capture the light. As simple as, the higher it is, the greater capacity of the camera to capture light. For example, in the case of night shoot, for example, if you increase the ISO, the camera could capture much more details of the night. Of course, the more ISO the camera has and the better sensor, the more expensive the camera is. On the other hand, in the case of temperature, it's a color present that the camera will have when capturing the image. There are warm temperature with colors more towards red, and the cold temperatures with colors more towards blue. Another one of the main characteristics of the camera is the resolution and format. As for the resolution, there are several formats, HD two K, which is larger, and six key, or eight key as well. They are the number of pixels for each frame in the video. In film cameras, you will also be able to change the aspect radio. This allows us to change the shape of the image captured radius so that it's wider towards the sites or more squared. This is used to adapt the image to the possible screens. Here you can see three examples. The four thirds aspect of radio, which was that of the old televisions, also the 169, which is the most common today in all digital televisions, and the 23091, which looks like the screen of the movie theater. This has nothing to do with the resolution itself, but with the appearance of the video. The other parameter that you are going to be able to control in the camera, it's the frame rate. I mean, the frames per second. The cinema generally has 24 frames per second. But if you want to record something and then put it in a slow motion later on in the edition, remember that there must be more frames per second. Because if it isn't a slow motion, we have to keep seeing 24 frames per second even when the image moves very slowly. So we need more frames per second. For example, 60 frames per second, or 120, or even more. And finally, is the recording format. Movie cameras record in an compressed format. One of the most common formats is the M X, but generally they also give the possibility to record a high quality, compressed format called Progress. All I have just shown you is everything you need to know as a film director about the technical elements of the camera. Everything else is irrelevant. What is going to make you a good film director has nothing to do with knowing the camera. Fortunately, we are going to see all that on this course and I mean this very seriously, don't get hung up on technical aspects. Because even if you want to be a cinematographer, for example, what you really need as an artist is to have the ability to develop good images, good stories, and a good cinematic product until the next lesson. 3. Lighting: Hello people. This lesson is very important because everything comes down to telling stories with light. My purpose with this course is to give you the tools so that you can tell stories by making movies. In order to achieve this, we must be aware of what light means in sine. One of the best sources of inspiration that we can have to understand the use of light is the painting of the Baroque era. Many people think that what made the paintings of those great masters attractive was the realism of the dramas, and this is not the case. In fact, there are painters, today, draughtmen, who can make realistic drawings that are much more real in detail than those of the any Baroque masters. The first thing to understand is that there is not only one way to light the scenes. It would be like saying that there is only one way to paint. In this sense, you must take into account that what I'm going to teach you at this moment is my point of view about my experience, lighting scenes. I am a painter and a draughtsman. I studied at the most prestigious art school in my country. I was able to learn what those elements were that made great painters an artistic reference. If there is a moment in the history of art where light became an artistic signifier, it was in the Baroque era. One of the greatest exponents was Carvallo, who truly dedicated his life to transmitting emotions with light. But there were many others who were inspired by Carvallo to transmit emotions as well while painting. One of the main objectives of lighting in the Baroque era was to preserve the three dimensionality of the faces and the figure ground concept in the compositions. The painters found that the best way to achieve this was to use a main light source coming from one side. So that the contrast generated on the face would aesthetically show the depth of the face and its place in space. This is one of the reasons why, even outdoors, the best hours of the day to illuminate are at dusk and at down. Because the light comes from the side, generating that three dimensionality that was used in the vogue in this sense as a directors. When lighting an interior in, you can use a main light source from one side, which can be artificial or natural. In the example that you are seeing, it's natural, that is, the natural light that filters through the window. But pay attention to this Baroque painter named Johannes Beer Meer, who did exactly the same as what I'm doing here. His workshop had large windows through which the light filtered from one side. And he created scenes with people in the same way as in a movie. In fact, there is a movie about this painter where Scarlet Johansen is the main actress ger, with a pearl urine. This is the principle I used to create lighting in my sines. However, the main light source was not always the only one. Sometimes it was necessary to preserve the figure ground concept. In paintings, this concept means two things. On one hand that the main character in one way or another, detached from the background, even if the background had no meaning. And on the other hand, that there was a connection between the environment and the character. To achieve this, the painters added a second back light source that outlined the main character so that she stood out from the background. This light could be of any nature, It could be natural. I mean, the reflection generated by mirrors or some white clothes that was commonly used at that time. Today, there are more sophisticated tools such as rebounders that are much more efficient. But on the other hand, the light could also be artificial. At that time, candles were used. Obviously, nowadays lamps are used, but if it is necessary for the scene, you could also use candles. Additionally, this second light could be in different positions. First, as I mentioned, from behind, to detach the character from the background. But it was also used to change the color of the shadowed part of the face. I mean that the part of the pace that is shaded has a soft light that makes its texture interesting. On the other hand, this soft light tells us about the place, about the illuminated things that are in the place, and that is telling things with light. Let's see now a couple of examples on the screen. In this odor scene, I use this principle. The morning light illuminates one part of the face, but the cave darkens the other part. Generating that natural vocolic and pictorial sensation in the image. Now look at this other example, which is inside a house. The main light enters through the windows, illuminating one of the sights, but there is an extra light produced by the candles. These two examples are scenes in different environments, but they both share the same principle. Of course, there are other types of more commercial lighting, but my purpose is to teach you to tell stories with light so that your movies look compelling, artistic, and interesting. There is an important detail to take into account regarding the camera and the lenses. It's that the aperture of the lenses should never distort the natural light of the place and objects, because it changes the nature of the shape of things. Plus, it just looks terrible. Additionally, we must try to set the ISO as low as possible, so that the camera sensor doesn't make any effort to capture the light. And you are supposed to set the **** aperture to a point that the image really resembles what we are seeing directly with our eyes. When it comes to lighting for film, cinematographers generally try to blurre the backgrounds to pull the main character out of the background when necessary. To achieve the ND filters are used. They could be internal, meaning they come with the camera by default, or external, which are added with accessories. The filters are then used to lower the intensity of the light, thereby allowing you to open the aperture of the ****, so more details enter the sensor without burning the image. As a consequence, we managed to further improve the cinematic quality of the image, because we can further blurre the backgrounds and make everything look softer and more cinematic. Fortunately, this is not the only lesson in which we will talk about light. Since it's an intrinsic subject to all cinematic language. I highly recommend you immerse yourself in the world of art, of painting, so that a true sensitivity to emotion through light emerges in you go to museums, go to photographic exhibitions, for example. Something very important. Instead of paying for Netflix, pay for filming or be platform there you will find better number of movies from all over, around the world, Very well qualified in which light is used with true talent. It doesn't matter if your purpose in life is to make commercial films or advertisement. It doesn't matter because if you manage to have better artistic references, if you managed to have a greater sensitivity to lighting, everything you do would be the byproduct of all those references. And therefore, you will reach a higher artistic level until the next lesson. 4. From an idea to filmmaking: Hello people. Where we start when it comes to writing script, every movie, every film project. Starts from an idea. An idea that we want to tell and break down into the cinematic language. But before starting typing the first word, we must be fully aware that this idea must contain in itself the audiovisual created concept of the film project. We want to make, the short film we want to make, or even the advertising we want to create. You must remember that advertising also contains that white cinematic language. Like many other types of audio visual projects today, this main idea has to be written and crafted in some way that any production team can properly understand and develop. In this context, there is a work tool that allows us to capture an idea on a page, the film script, or a screenplay, which is nothing more than a tool that allows us to communicate with each person on a production team. In other words, different production teams should be able to capture the main idea of the same film project in their respective shootings without distorting a script too much or modify it. But the ideas are supposed to start from a foundation. I mean, before creating an entire screenplay, you must have a glimpse of your project, a glimpse of your story. So there are writing devices that allow us so arise in ideas before engaging in the film project. In depth, there are two pieces of conceptual information about our story or the film project itself. We can present this in two ways. On one hand there is the high concept. On the other hand there is the Tac line. But what is the difference between these two? The Tach line is a tool that allows us to summarize the content of the story of a movie in order to generate an understanding in the audience, in the viewers. This is the main goal of the Tac line. In addition, the Tac line is not going to allow us to give production team ideas to create the film project itself. The tack line is generally a phrase, statement, a sentence that contains the concept, what the bureau is going to see in the movie theater. Taking this into account, we can not only use the tag line, but also the log line, the store line, and finally the synopsis. This last one would be the last step. Recapitulating the tag line is a sentence. The log line would be a kind of paragraph, for example, that contains the whole story. And finally, the story line, which would be almost the same as the synopsis. Usually the synopsis takes up a whole page and the story line, half a page. I'm going to use as an example of the movie Alien in the space. No one can hear you scream. This phrase could perfectly be on the movie poster or the landing page of a platform to invite you to watch the movie, for example. This is a perfect example of a tack line because as soon as you see it, you start wonder why am I going to scream? Will I feel like I want to scream in the movie theater, watching the movie? That is the question. What is so terrifying that I'm going to scream in the movie theater? So it's a phrase that invites us to see the film directly. Straightforward, but on the other hand, the high concept works differently. The high concept is not made for the audience. It's made to give a main conceptual idea so that the creatives set designers, custom designers, et cetera, screen writers, and the whole production team have a concept in their minds about the type of product they are going to create. Let's use the movie Titanic as an example. What is the high concept of this movie remain on Juliet on a ship? You cannot stick that phrase on the movie poster, first of all because it's almost the spoiler. And additionally, it lacks emotion and storytelling. This is the high concept of the movie. I mean, James Cameron went to the production company to present this project. He broke into their office with a painting of the sinking ship, the Titanic, and told them, Romeo and Juliet on this ship, obviously a ship that is going to sink, which is perfectly dramatic. The viewer knows what the end is about, but the main characters don't. That is the irony. Obviously, we can use either the tack line and High Glen concept to conceptualize our work in order to delve into each stage of development of a film project. But let's suppose that what we want to do is a film project. A project that we want to see in the cinema. In order to establish the first ideas of the film project, we must know what the objective of our project is about. Will our film be a project whose goal is to bring people to the theaters, for example? Or do we want our film to enter the official selection of some European festival, for instance? There are two different goals. Do we want to completely capture the viewer's attention or do we want to transgress the traditional cinematic language? These are the questions you are supposed to create. Those are two available options that we had to set from the very beginning. We must know that to determine the type of language we're going to use in writing, for example, the United States. They are specialized in the globalized commercial language. I mean, because they control a large part of the industry, that is an option. But on the other hand, there is the European market and even the Stern market whose target audience is quite different. It is a kind of experimental cinema and it's aimed for about all intellectual elites, who are the ones who supports film criticisms in the most important festivals in Europe, for example. But regarding this, there is something very important to take into account. You must leave the prejudice away from you before tackling any film project. We must understand that there is no more artistic language than others. Because either superheroes and social movies both have chances to fall into commonplaces. Despite the fact that a film project is an artistic creation, its development have practically the process of an academic investigation. Because we must be clear about the objectives and the tools we're going to use to meet that objectives. The screenplay was developed at the beginning of the 20th century by a group of anthropologists, psychologist, businessmen, et cetera, also producers that they wanted to find an industrialized way to make money by bringing as many people as possible into a movie theater. As a consequence, they managed to craft nerted tool structure based on the process of attention in human beings. A process of attention previously studied by psychologists. In that result in the construction of a structure with different point of attention to keep the audience connected to the screen for a specific period of time. But additionally, this structure is sustained by a type of attention in human beings, involuntary attention, a kind attention that humans cannot control. This is the kind of attention that the story is used to engage the audience, to engage people. For instance, the attention that we have when we see a sudden traffic accident in the middle of the street. No matter how busy you are, you can't help but turn to the accident to see what happens. So starting out from this principle, they build a three act structure which was divided by plot points that capture the audience attention throughout the whole story all the way. Additionally, this structure starts with the first act and ends at the first plot point. I mean, the first act, then a second act, then there is a midpoint right in the middle of the story. And finally, a second plot point that leads to the third act. This entire three acts journey had to be experienced by the character who is the protagonist of the story. This journey should contain the dramatic arc of our story. This dramatic R is going to allow us to be connected with the character throughout the whole story. Throughout the movie, our main character starts this journey with a kind of thoughts or ideas and then learns a lesson by experiencing this journey, this story. And finally, at the end of the movie, he is another person inside or out. Almost all successful movies throughout the history of the cinema have this particular characteristic. Additionally, it's important to know that since commercial cinema must ensure the connection with the audience to ensure a box office, they tend to use this structure much more because it's necessary for businessmen to have a guarantees. In this sense, we have a lot to learn from commercial movies, for commercial cinema, although we must also take into account that we're going to find more similar stories in commercial movies for this very reason. In a certain way, these characteristics should be present in both in the cinema and commercial films. But at the same time, we must try to be original. This is the reason why in the cinema try to break the rules. But breaking the structures in itself doesn't mean that you are going to be good. We need to do it creatively. In order to be successful. But this is not the only important characteristic of indi, experimental cinema. In fact, this kind of cinema can be found everywhere. Not only in Europe, we can find it in Asia, Latin America, and the United States in itself. In this sense, many times this kind of cinema tries to portray a moment, a content, a time, an age historical event that is more important than the story in itself. In fact, there is a growing wave in recent years of releases of these kind of films. A perfect example of what I'm talking about is the movie of Rome. In this film, the protagonist, the main character, the housekeeping girl, doesn't have an important goal even though she got pregnant without planning in the story. You know, she's trying to solve that problem, but her goal is not that important because the important thing is to portray the context where she is living. The context where the story takes place in that context is the famous tragedy that happened in the '70s in Mexico, the Corpus Christie Massacre. For the director, it was necessary to portray Mexico in the '70s to make the viewer feel like they are witnessing what happened in Mexico at that time. The story itself, the character, is the pretext to craft that kind of stories, that kind of movies. We could compare them with the Baroque paintings of clue, or where there were some small characters, but there were simply a pretext to portray a beautiful landscape. On the other hand, in commercial cinema, this doesn't usually work because going back to the case from how many people could be generally tercet in the mass crime Mexico. There are generally intellectual people, people who come from a different background and who are interset more than a classical structure of a movie. But let's review this structure because it's not as simple as it seems. Does a structure represent in the character's journey? Our character begins a story in a world where there is a relative peace. This world is presented in the first act, but immediately at the beginning of the first act, something happens in the character's world which shakes the life of the character. This character has to face this situation to finally make a decision that will drive him forward. This decision will always be to overcome that situation, that conflict that was presented to him at the beginning of the story. Once he makes this decision, the character enters the second act, where it seems that he really is going to make it. This is the first part of the second act is called final games, but this second act has a middle point where there is a major and unexpected obstacle at that moment. The antagonist force of our story, which can be presented and represented by another character. For example, maybe a group of characters, or a climatic event. Whatever it is, that force seems that it will manage to defeat our main character. But at the end of this second act, our character thinks deeply again and he gathers the strengths to make another decision. The most important decision in the story that leads him to the second plot point of the structure, he makes that decision. We are in the third act, which is that resolution of the story. I highly recommend you to watch Alfonso Quaran movies because he manages to create both commercial and indie movies. He manages both languages. I had already commented on run before, but he also directed Gravity. These two films had completely different languages, but they represent exactly what I'm trying to explain to you. Additionally, it's a faithful proof that you can make extraordinary movies using either these two languages. The example of gravity is classic Hollywood cinema. Perfect because the main character is an inexperienced astronaut girl who was hired for his ability to repair satellites. When the movie stars, everything seems normal. It seems that nothing can distort that tranquility of the mission. The kind of sensation of a good first act, because you should be very surprised by anything that happens later on. But suddenly, an avalanche of debris of a Russian satellite is headed towards her mission. This shakes completely the peaceful world where she was. She fights to survive with the captain, but the first plot point arrives. She has to make the decision to go alone. From there on, she can go back. She cannot go back. Only she can go forward overcoming all her fears for being an inexperienced astronaut. At the midpoint, she encounters all kind of difficulties. It's something more difficult, of course, until a moment where she loses hope at the end of the second act and she turns out the space module, this is just before the second plot point, where everything seems to be lost, but suddenly the cap time appears again, which is only her imagination, of course. I think you can watch the movie too, to check this out. But this dream prompts her to make another decision, to turn off the space model. Again, the space shadow. This decision is the second blood point of the story that leads us to the resolution of the film. The way I'm telling you, it seems very easy. But what is really difficult is adapting any story to the structure so that it surprises us every time we see the movie. You could also combine these two languages in order to move and surprise the audience. You know, it's a very creative way. From my point of view, these two languages are both commercial. Because once you make the social contract of asking people for money for a ticket, I mean to sell the ticket, watching your movie, the audience is expecting to see something in return. They want to feel something in return for that amount of money. In the case of more independent and experimental films, is a kind of industry supported by the middle and upper social class that usually consume these kind of films. Of course, traditional and classic cinema will have much more public audience because it's seen by all kinds of people. It's important to be aware about these two worlds, especially when we are starting to make movies so as not to waste time and money. This ability of adaptation is what will make us much more successful, any aspect of the life itself. As I told you before, it's necessary to get rid of prejudice in order to be more creative, and above all, to become producers from the very moment that we are creating an idea. These are very common film school dissertations. If you're planning to get into one, you need to know all of these before you tackle your first film project. On the other hand, one of the challenges that we usually take when we are starting to make movies is the short film. Everything that I had explained to you previously is based on being able to approach the short film in the right way. In the proper way. The short film has several functions, several objectives. For example, something very important. It's impossible to squeeze the future film story into 15 minutes short film. It's impossible. Human beings need more time to understand complex stories. However, you can use a short film to rehearse with your production team. For example, your production cue. I mean, everything you need to carry out a professional shooting with lies and costumes, and professional actors and the entire technical team. There's another very important thing that you can try with the short films. One that will help you to really boast your future film projects. And that is the construction of a character. Because the character is going to be the reflection of the audience during the story. In order to develop this character and prepare it for the writing, we must build a character worksheet where we are going to write all the beliefs, characteristics, features, customs, fears, and secrets of the character. On the other hand, there is also a difference that will depend on the project we are going to do. For example, if our project is a classic and traditional story, each of the characters features must have a purpose in the story. In other words, the possible skills and even defects that our character has must allow him to achieve the goals of the story. But on the other hand, in a more experimental in India story, the characters features are not necessarily connected to the goals of the story because they are part of the background of the story. For instance, in Roman Rome, the characteristics, the beliefs, ethnicity of the girl are selected to represent her social class, her social context. And they are not connected at all with her goal and the story. I mean, the character is part of the objective of portraying the environment. Writing is a very long process of patience. A film director doesn't necessarily have to be a screenwriter, but he must know the language to be able to properly portray what the screenwriter wants to tell. This is the end of this lesson, but I will wait for you in the next one, until the next lesson. 5. Screenplay Page: In this lesson, you're going to see how the screenplay page looks like. It's important to take into account that any page of any screenplay, of any audiovisual production will also look like this. Where should we start? We must start by understanding that a page of any screenplay always represents 1 minute of a film. This format originally comes from the time it usually takes to read a page of any screenplay. But it's not a constant because it could take more time. The first thing to learn about it is the scene headings. Headings allows us to describe the journal in specific place where Acene takes place. But not only that, but also the time when the scene is happening. The time of a day's important because the production team knows what lighting will be in that scene. The first detail we find in ASN heading starting from left to right, will be the information about the nature of the place where the scene will be filmed, indoors or outdoors. With the aggreviation NT for interior and EXT for exterior. Next would be a period right after that period. You must type the specific location where the scene takes place. Then another period right after that period, you must type the general place. Then another period right after that, you must type the moment of the day. You can write day or night, or sunrise or sunset as you wish. They are just lighting details. On the other hand, when it comes to type headings, if the character moves from interior space, exterior one, we must write the abbreviation INTS, ET, to indicate that our character moves in that way, because the scene will have both illuminations indoors and others. I tell you this because there are locations that have both illuminations. Like the inner quadrangle of a castle, for example. On the other hand, you must remember that a screenplay is always written in units of action. Each sentence represents a unit of action. For instance, Odio enters the room, Odilia sits in the chair period. Vodlio eats an apple slowly, full stop. Each paragraph represents a set of actions that happen at a certain time. It's important to learn to play with those actions, and more importantly, is learned to play with those time jumps between the actions. Because it allows us to summarize a long period of time, you are supposed to highlight and select the most important actions of the story. This technique is called ellipses. By using this technique properly, you will be able to summarize and filter a large amount of information so that the audience can better understand the story. An important foundation for knowing how ellipses works is to understand the difference between dietic time and non dietic time disis a narratives time space continuing. For instance, if the story is about a person's biography, a biopic for example, where the character lives 50 years of lifetime. The dietic time is 50 years. But non dietic time is the narrative time. For example, the 2 hours that the movie lasts. This is the reason why using ellipses to perfection is going to allow us to tell great stories in a short period of time. Examples of an excellent use of this technique are the movies for scan, for example, Benjamin Button, written by Eric Growth. In both films, a large amount of lifetime is summed up during the two or 3 hours that the films last. On the other hand, the character's name is too important. Try not to change the name of the character while writing. Sometimes we change wrongly the name of a specific character, which must always be the same throughout the story from the beginning to the end. When it comes to create the dialogues, every single dialogue has a heading which is the name of the character who is talking. The names are always capitalized and centered. Additionally, just under the character's name in parenthesis, we must write the motion in which the character is saying that dialogue. It's very important that, but pay attention to this. Sometimes the voice of our character is present. But we are not seeing a character. I mean, we are hearing his voice. But we see another character at that moment, or the cameras focus on an object or some view, or some landscape. When this happens, you must write next to the character the abbreviation period, which means of screen, to indicate that the voice is there, but the character is not visible on the screen at that specific moment. On the other hand, if we are hearing a voice over, that is to say the voice that doesn't come from a character himself in the scene. I mean it's a narrator, for example, or a character narrating something. We must type next to the character heading the abbreviation between parentheses V period, which means voice over. Mindmap, I not ego. When we pro yo. On the flip side, it's important to note that also transitions between the scenes are represented in the screenplay. It's not a very significant detail because during editing, editors and directors often play better with the transitions to improve the rhythm of the story. However, there should be a guide so that the most important transitions are present in the screenplay. First of all, when we go from ACN to another, it's understood that there is a transition between them. But sometimes we need to indicate that there is a cut to black. For example, in those cases should be written at the end of the scene in a line to the right. We could also write, for example, fade out or dissolve to result match the solve two, et cetera. Additionally and not less important, of course, if the transitions are at the beginning of the scene, for instance, a fade in, et cetera, they should be written on the left. In general terms, this would be the most important elements that any screenplay should have so that it's properly written. But I must confess that each writer has their own style. For example, sometimes writers add more details, like camera movements for example. But this is only allowed if you are the director of your own screenplay. What you must always remember is that your screenplay must be written in images. You must describe the images and avoid poetic sentences. The screenplay is a work tool to a production team to have a guide for develop the story just using cinematic language. I see you in the next lesson. 6. Semiotics: Hello people. In this lesson, we're going to talk about semiotics. If there is something that has to do with film directing, it's semiotics. Semiotics is the science that studies the meaning of images. The ideas inside an image. Filmmakers have to interpret screenplay. In order to do that, the film director is supposed to gather as many concepts as possible related to the story, style, and theme. The most important conceptual elements of the story must be included in the images. Every scene, every image, every sequence must contain the concept of the film in our story. But where should we start to be able to meet that in the audiovisual language? We must start with the concept that comes from the painting in the Renaissance. During the Renaissance, when all those great painters that we know today began to emerge, they thought about two fundamental elements, character and background. The figure ground concept. You could summarize that the character and the background at that time were related to the character and the context. A character in scene is exactly the same. There is a character in a specific place or moment where this character is doing actions. In the Baroque paintings and Renaissance paintings, there was always one or several characters that stood out from other things. This characteristic was trying to tell us a story. But not only the character is telling about the story, but everything that surrounds him, those stories told through paintings, were understood by the viewer due to the amount of time the viewer was spending contemplating the painting. When we invest enough time to contemplate an image, we can discover things. Find out what the author is trying to tell us in cinema is exactly the same. If we give a frame enough time in the final cut, we can allow the viewer to perceive things that perhaps cannot be seen with a naked eye. As a film directors, as long as you have the ability to convey the greatest amount of information and the best quality of information to the viewer's mind, the quality of your audiovisual language will be better. I'm not saying that you should flow the viewer with information, but you must try to creatively and artistically and craftily to give the viewer enough information to understand and feel your story deeply. The image itself has the ability to touch our minds directly. Because in fact, human beings think in images, We must take this into account because depending on the context in which the events or actions of our story happen, the scene could have completely different meaning. This is fundamental to be able to tell the stories and transmit emotions. But what would be the most important element to understand smotics of the image with respect to the screenplay? The dramatic irony. This is a smutic tool. This is a tool that author uses while writing to make the viewers feel that they have more information about what is happening in the scene than the very characters of the scene. That process generates emotions in the viewer, because as a spectators, we want to know what the character's reaction will be when he finds out what is really happening in that scene. For example, in horror movies where we see that the protagonist is approaching the place that we know it will be a great danger for him or her. Another example would be when the protagonist approaches a room where some ghost is waiting for him or a murderer is waiting for her. What does this have to do with semiotics? It works quite similar because we must make a question, how much does the viewer know about the subject that is entering to our sign anymatic frame? In other words, due to the general knowledge that the audience may has, our frame may include in its symbols and signs information that this audience already has in its mind. This communication process is fundamental because as a filmmaker, we must know how to interpret what are the signifiers encodes that our society or our possible audience has in order to communicate effectively and powerfully with them. In these terms, even the distribution of color of our shot give great impact to the meaning of our scene and sequences. So I would dare to say that most of the problems related to screenwriting have nothing to do with artistic skills, but with the ability to communicate properly with the audience. We must always ask ourselves a question. Is the communication process between the author and the viewer working well? Short films are very useful in this term, because when we are advice directors, especially in film schools, we tend to blame the audience for not being able to understand our films, when in reality we are not being able to convey the information we want. Because we are not adding enough information to the shots, to the background, to the sound dimension, and above all, we are not giving enough time to each frame. In the final cut, all this understanding should be a priority for us. Let's take, for example, the movie platform. The story of this movie is not the most important thing. In fact, I would dare to say that even its ending is excessively conceptual and vague. But the most important attractive thing about this movie, the metaphor, it represents the platform in relation to the class struggle. This class struggle is present in the Western world. We all know this struggle, and all of us, in one way or another, are affected by this class struggle. It's impossible not to feel identified when we see a platform that is a elevator whose letters represent each of the social classes. Additionally, also in the movies world, I mean the platform, we can wake up at any of the levels, leaving the reality of the different social classes. Another perfect example would be the movie Rom drama. Everyone who went to see it, at least in Mexico, knew of the existence of the massacre in the '70s. A massacre when more than 100 students were killed in a square by forces connected to the state. This is a background of the film. As I told you in a previous lesson, the story of the girl is not that important. It's the most important thing. It's the content in the historical moment where she was living. One of the things that stands out in this film is that these tragic events that we are aware of in the film. The protagonist herself is not aware of the magnitude of what is happening. And it's something that describes the character as well. It's her mindset and education level that makes her aware of the social prominence around her. This is a dramatic irony which makes the film artistically attractive. All this is part of the power of the semiotics in a film, and we must learn to use it to acquire that sensitivity. On the other hand, you also have to know and remember a quote from a great communication philosopher, Marshall Mclichhan. The medium is the message. This means that the way in which we communicate content, the way in which this content reaches the audience, outsizes the message itself. The cinema is full of this. Sometimes it doesn't matter how deep our message is, but the way we transmit that message can generate a deeper understanding in the viewer. For example, how many movies today talk about the same topic? How many movies nowadays talk about love or bravery, or hate, or passion, or revenge? Is the narrative, poetic and semetic resources that will allow the viewer to feel more deeply connected with the message. Many film teachers from my college said, all the stories had already been told and there was nothing new. It's completely true. The only thing that will change is the way we tell those stories, that point of view and how we use those audiovisual resources to tell the story. On the other hand, do not under rate any feature of film. Most John directors underestimate the sound and musical resources in film. And that would say that they are an essential and fundamental part of the content of the film semetic system. Meaning of all the elements in a movie. And everything in a movie is telling something from the customs to the last frame of the mandage. The Revenant is a perfect example of what I'm telling you. This movie is a simple revenge story. The classic story of a character who wants to revenge on someone who killed one of his relatives. How many movies have you seen that tell us that story. There is a whole long list quote from Gladiator to the most commercial and simple movies. But the truth is that in the Revenant, its frame is crafted as a connection between human beings and the natural world, the human environment. And despite everything the character is passing through, the character stops for a moment to contemplate what surrounds him, because the nature always has a chance to surprise us. This is deeply ecological. You know, it tells us about the exploitation and abuse of the American indigenous people. This is much more significant and important than the act of revenge itself. In fact, at the end of the movie, the antagonist character. Tells to the main character. Have you come all this long way here just for revenge? That phrase give meaning to the whole film? It gives value to the film because we say whoa. It was worth it because we were able to deeply contemplate so many things on this long journey, all the way. That is the reason why Alejander Gonzalez was awarded the Oscar for Best Director, because in fact, his story is extremely basic. I would say from a point of view that it's even a weakness of the movie. But despite all that the director managed to prove with his film that he has the ability to turn that basic story to something extraordinary. I would say that the key, the secret is to be aware of how people think today. I mean, what do people talk about today? What do people suffer today? I mean, the way we could vary the point of view of any story we have, but we will have to find a better way to communicate with the audience. Another perfect example of this process is the movie Maria's story. This movie gives us a different point of view about the marriage. I mean, so many baker is talking about impossible marriages. Impossible loves with tragic and romantic endings. But this movie simplifies everything to a context as common as a divorce process, a common couple. It's not only the divorce process, but the emotional process that the couple go through during the divorce. And even the end of the movie surprises, because even though we want everything to be resolved, the divorce is finally consummated. That was a very successful movie. All people who had gone through a divorce felt completely identified. Anyone could say that it was done intentionally deliberated for commercial purposes. But the difference is that the Director wanted people to relate to it. And that resulted in a great commercial benefit. He made something profound that is good, and since it's good, it's commercial. On the other hand, we could do something simple, ephemeral and flashing that could also be commercial that may not remain in people's hearts. It's the ability to remain in the history of art, in the history of cinema, and in our memories as well. That gives great value to films. I mean, there are even award winning films that don't remain in the people's hearts because they were awarded due to the circumstances of the moment. I mean, because there was no better movie, but sometimes there are fantastic movies are not awarded at all, but had great artistic content and remain in people's hearts forever. As Andy, he spent that break, hundred in the shade, sprains little smile on his face. It's also important to remember that one of the main characteristics of independent and experimental cinema is that its directors give much more time to the shots. That is, for the viewer to contemplate every detail of the shots as if they were paintings. So that they try to give it a deeper reading on the content of the shots. But however, try to be aware that sometimes the shots don't mean anything. Directors are only trying to show off being intelligent, for example. But sometimes the shots do have deep semiotic elements that must be read carefully to perceive deeper sensations. On the other hand, commercials also play with semiotics because they aim to make the viewer fall in love as quickly as possible to sell a product or an idea. The best commercial producers are experts in storytelling in semiotics because the success of the audio visual business translates directly into incoming earnings. I think that today, commercials try to make us fall in love faster and faster. Because of today in social networks you have to be very fast. Because the race to control minds is massive and continuous. On the other hand, we must understand that when we are contemplating an image, a shot, there is an unconscious part of our observation. That is receiving information when we are perhaps concentrating on the main character that is part of the go grand concept. And it's necessary to be aware of this constantly if you are going to be filmmakers. There are good examples of this in the cinema. The movie Parasites is an incredible example because there are several elements in the background of the film. I mean, for example, in the locations, in the characteristics of where the families live. Those details are telling us about the social classes in the story. For instance, the poor family lives below the ground level while the rich family lives on the hills. Additionally, at the end of the story, the father of the poor family is trapped in the house basements, for example. These things are telling us about the concept of the story as well as even the rainy weather in the most tragic stages of the story. All this is about semiotics. And it's a slow learning process that requires making mistakes and asking ourselves about the content of our movies, our short films, and each one of the audivisal pieces, no matter what genre they have. My biggest piece of advice is that you should fill your mind with different artistic languages. Painting, theater, music, poetry, literature, because in fact, the cinema and the movies include all these resources. The seventh art is basically the Aesthetic Union, almost all known art forms prior cinema H Cinema is not just moving images, it's much more than that. It's full of very deep concepts that go beyond knowing how to operate a camera or any technical elements of production. Try to put all this into practice. Try to fill your life with art. This way you wouldn't have to make an effort when creating a shot with deep meaning for your story. I see you in the next lesson. 7. The Scene: Hello people. In this lesson, we're going to talk about the scene. What is a scene? A scene is a set of aesthetically ordered actions that aim to narrate a specific part of the story. Therefore, from a production point of view and directing point of view is the central production event on which the screenplay is a structure. But when it comes to screenwriting, this is quite different. What are the types of scenes when it comes to screenwriting? There are three types of scenes, mainly which can be midst with each other. The action scenes, the reaction scenes, and the descriptive essenes. Let's start with the action scenes. This has nothing to do with special effects or complicated fight choreography. For example, we are talking about the screenwriting. The action scenes are those scenes where the character arrives at a place, for example, with a goal in mind. This character manages to complete our goal. Or not as simple as that. Obviously, this is going to generate a consequence, a sequel in the story. On the other hand, the descriptive scenes quite different. The only goal that this scene has is to depict the context in which our character is living. Or the environment where he is living, in which the events of the story are happening. But there is always a direct or indirect objective, ignorant to our sense. For example, sometimes our character is contemplating an event or a fact that action usually changes the character's mind to keep moving forward in the story. That is, that it's always generating a sequel that helps the story moves forward. The other hand, reaction scenes are quite similar to action scenes. The only difference is that our character is going to arrive at a place and something happens to him or her, which is going to produce a reaction in this character. This will obviously generate a sequel and it will change the story or move it forward as well. I basically the difference between the action scenes and the reaction sense is that in the case of reaction sins, the events of the scenes will be generated by an external element to the character. However, all this has a thin border in which the two types of scenes are separated or mixed. For example, a character might approach a place with a goal in mind, but something totally unexpected happens to him that obviously changes the goal of the, the goal of the scene. Try to use this creatively to reveal the story, events. Let's see another example. Imagine this situation. You are coming back to your home to fit your back, for example. And you managed to get it and you continue with your day. That would be an action scene. But the reaction, a sine with this action scenes would be that, for example, you are coming back to your home to fetch your bag. But it happens that in front of your house, two robbers assault you and you fight them and they give you a beating. Your actions will arise from the action generated by another person. Taking this into account everything I mentioned before, it's important to know that we can mix the types of sense because the descriptive elements could be also mixed with a different kind of sense. I mean, the reaction of sins and the action of sins, thereby improving the semiotic quality of our cinematic language. For example, by adding something descriptive at the beginning any scene, we can summarize information that maybe it would need for an extra scene in the shooting. Additionally, if there is something that will make us great filmmakers and writers, it's having the ability to describe really deep things in the frame. It's not enough to show a character doing an action. There are so many details that can be scene. That is why there are scenes that are so descriptive and so attractive that we completely forget what the character could be doing at that place. What is happening is that the place and what we are seeing is so powerful that we feel completely overwhelmed. Sometimes there are isolated moments in the story, in the scenes, even in one single shot, but they take our story to the next level. On the other hand, there is another very important element in the construction of scenes, the movement. The movement is a principle that Kurosawa discovered. It's closely related to the fugal ground concept. Due to the psychological phenomenon of human beings previously studied. Throughout the history of cinema, it was demonstrated that when people are watching a movie, cannot stand to see on a screen for a long period of time. Characters who are in the same state of rest in which people are watching a movie, I mean the process of contemplation needs to rest. Tranquility. But we need that there is always movement in the images. This is the reason why. Always in good movies, even if two characters are just talking, there is always a choreography of movements where the actors are, for example, getting up, Maybe they are just walking down the street smoking a cigarette or having lunch. Characters are doing anything to make the audience feel comfortable as they were watching a real scene, a real moment. In fact, a character smoking is so common that it's almost a commonplace in the case of Ursa, he created the sensation through the background in the scenes. For instance, he would create a conversation where there was rain in the background or maybe a river flowing in the background. Actors didn't have to do any choreography to add movement to the scenes. So it's a very basic principle. This is the reason why large audiences love action movies and special effects. The movement is very attractive in the eyes of the viewer. This doesn't mean that we must deliberate, lead to unnecessary actions to respect that rule. It's our task that these actions are completely justified and natural to make the viewer feel comfortable with. On the other hand, in general rules, ASN usually has a classic in structure similar to that of a complete story since many of them had clear objectives. Therefore, they had a beginning, a confrontation, and end a resolution. You must remember that in the screenplay. The scenes are told with energies that narrate action is always in the present. It's important to pay attention to the point of view of the scene. I mean to make the viewer feel that they are seeing the point of view of the character who is leading the story. I mean, it's a common mistake because sometimes a bad point of view leads to a misunderstanding. Because we don't give enough time to the shots of the character's face in especially when this character is contemplating the events of the scene. This must be detailed in the screenplay so that it doesn't cause confusion or dispersion in the viewer. Recapitulating the screenplay is a chain of events that are from the point of view of someone important to the story. On the other hand, when you are shooting the scenes, don't forget the importance of lighting in the visual aspect. The visual details, we must ask ourselves, what are the colors that evoke our sense? Is our scene happy? Is it tragic? Is it informative? What is the feeling you want to generate in the viewer? We must pay close attention to this because we can contradict the objective of the scene with inappropriate lighting. Lighting has the ability to spoil all extraordinary acting work. The lighting will generate an atmosphere that will even improve the actor's performance. I mean, acting is a very difficult job. It requires a lot of concentration, and during a shooting, there are too many distracting elements. We have to do everything to improve that concentration. But not only that, but while you practice and write the scenes and you layer, shoot them and make the final cut, you will realize that many times the scenes were not bad but the lighting, because from my point of view, lighting is a tool that should be considered very moment that we write a story. However, remember that as a film directors, we can vary the lighting of Sen in order to improve the narrative power. In the same way as lighting, colors are important and are closely connected to lighting. Therefore, to the global audiences, there is a global interpretation about the meaning of colors. For example, traffic lights are the same all over around the world. The effects of these three colors has been scientifically analyzed. What I mean is that we should try to use color as a universal language that help us communicate emotionally with the audience. On the other hand, there is also the sound language which works as a fourth dimension for the viewer. Remember that audiences are perceiving everything through their senses and everything is being processed through their minds. The sound design is one more layer of information. We must try to master it to involve the viewer in the film atmosphere and the sensations that are going to be experienced during the movie. This is not only as a film directors, but also as a film writers. We must add the sound element as a cinematic medium to tell the stories. I'm going to give you an example. Let's suppose that our screenplay is telling us this. A very tired soldier is walking in the middle of the body. The soldier comes across dead bodies of the other soldiers. As he walks, the soldier sees the corpse of an indigenous woman and then turns around and sees another indigenous woman crying in the distance. Okay, this could be our scene, but we have the option to replace images with sounds, images like the crying woman in the distance, for example. Let's check it out. Did you notice you realize how you can ignore a visual image in the screenplay and replace it with a sound image? This is the art of filmmaking. The screenplay said that there was a crying woman in the distance. In fact, the crying woman is there. But we don't see her on the screen, but we are listening to her in the distance, giving even more mystery and depth to the story, to the scene. This is your job as a film director. As a filmmaker, I highly recommend you not waiting for a shooting to come up with the kind of ideas. Obviously, these ideas could come up in the days leading up to the shooting, But I really suggest that we start imagining then, by the time of writing the screenplay, or by the time of the general reading of the screenplay before the shooting, we are going to watch another scene with the same character, a whole sequence in which this character has the objective of revealing to his father the reason why he left the house. It's a quite a long scene. Let's check it out. Poco look Dios los Los Paocai. A stores vitamin. Yes'm pres win. You can Tao land to me Papa Matt Yeboa. When swear E. Pedro Yo notice the different sensations in the scene. Most of the things that I mentioned so far that should be in scene are displayed. In that example. The characters are moving while they're talking table. One of them gets up from the chair, for example, and then there is a voice that seems to be telling something directly to us. But it's actually telling this to his father during the whole scene. The sound is very important in that example, but we will see that later on in another lesson concerning soundtracks. Try to remember the color, the movement, the characters objectives, the very few good ground concept that you saw previously. For example, there are movies that even had confusing stories, that there is not completely a clear objective, a clear goal, but there are scenes that are consistent enough to give the viewers attention and leave us thinking about deep things. Scenes that invite us to ask ourselves questions about our lives, about our everyday situations, those kind of scenes, even from the point of view of another time. Scenes that connect deep things through the semiotic elements. In writing, try to ask your own questions. Is mycin an action scene? Is my sine a reaction? A scene is a descriptive one? You will need these questions. When it comes to writing. Put all these into practice, and I see you in the next lesson. 8. The Production Team: The production team. The production team is the army that we are going to command to carry out our film project. To carry out every single stage of a film project. But what is the foundation of this team? What is the axis? The central column of this team? It all starts with the producer. The producer is the manager of our film project. A project itself should not be different of building a house, running a business, starting a company, et cetera. In fact, most of the problems concerning production happen because we are not aware that production is quite similar to those examples I mentioned before. But who is the producer? The producer is a administrator manager, who supervises all the stages of a film project with the goal of turning the initial idea into the film. That means that depending on the needs of our project, the producer has to be involved even in the initial stages of the research on the subject that our movie will have. Also the castings, the locations that the screenplay needs, all the logistics of the shootings. I mean, everything you need for the shooting to be carried out successfully must be managed by the producer. And above all, the proper administration of the film budget so that all the stages are fulfilled. All the stages should be complete from the initial idea to the moment of the film distribution. The success of a producer is to finish the film with the objectives that were set at the very beginning. Therefore, from my point of view, the producer is not the most important, it's at least one of the most important managers in the film project. Many times the directors are their own producers. It's important to take on this responsibility from the beginning, especially since the producer is also involved in how to sell the story of the project to a film company example. On the other hand, the richest people in the film industry are the producers. Because they are the ones who have the foresight to analyze what movie the audience might be requesting and then develop film projects based on that. It's important to know that as a John directors, John filmmakers who are beginning their film career. We must learn to take each of the different roles that make up the construction of a film above Ble. Because in the case of independent cinema, it's generally financed by two main sources. First, self funding. You will raise the money for your first short film and therefore you will have to manage your Bud Jets so that the money may cover all the goals of the project. Second, financing program. Funding programs, which are a type of private or state institutions that grant funds to finance noncommercial film products. On the other hand, producers don't work alone. They have production assistants who are in charge of doing the different tasks that the producer may has. Taking into account all of this, the producer has many responsibilities. Therefore, she or he will need to complete many tasks that will be delegated to those producers. It means that we can have as many assistants as we want. It all depends on the budget of our film project. Next on the list is the assistant director. The assistant director is the right hand of the film director, but not in the creative sense. I think almost everyone, when we start hearing about assistant directors, we think that this must be quite similar to the director's work. But in fact it's not. That is why we ended up somewhat frustrated. Assistant director basically perform facilitate tasks, the film director should not do that. The director has his mind focused only on artistic creation. But I would say that the main task of the assistant director is to manage the time during the shooting. The AD must have a list of all the scenes that have to be shoot. For instance, in a day that only has 4 hours. The AD must guarantee that all those scenes are filmed in that time. In order to chip that, he must manage timing, including the time that the crew will spend eating or having a snack. Another aspect that is in the hands of the assistant director is the discipline of the film crew. You cannot imagine how important it is because production teams are made up of people who have personal needs problems, people who are sharing with others, and who may also get distracted. I don't mean to say that the AD should be a kind of cop, but she or he must try to ensure that the entire teams focus on the scene and supervise that they are carrying out their task. In fact, who says action in shooting is the AD. The rest of the assistant directors, which may be one or two more, are doing all the logistical tasks that facilitate the director's work. Next in the list is the script. This is the one that has the responsibility of making a list. And keeping an order of all the scenes that has been recorded during the shooting, highlighting any eventuality that has happened during the shooting of the scene. For example, if the scene was really good script should write it down If there was something wrong in the scene, the script should also write it down. In general, rules maintain the order of each scene so that during the editing, that is the montage of the film. The editor can identify each of the files that are on the memory disk, knowing each one of them to use them or not, which were the most important takes of the shooting? Basically, the script is closely connected to the work of the AD because it has to do with the control of the shooting. It's very important for the script to take order of all the contingencies that may appear in the shooting. That is, for example, if the director happens to change something in the screenplay at the last minute, for example, the script should write it down. Because possibly that change will generate changes in the future. Since, I mean a detail that has been changed in the story or a screenplay should, could affect the future of the story. The clapper loader is the one who carries the clapper board. The clapper board is a tool that allows us to identify the scene inside the frame at the beginning of the hot. In general, the clapper board demands include the following information. The name of the memory disk, the number or name of the scene, and the take number. Because you must know that the scene can be repeated several times. For many reasons, the editor must visually recognize the shot information in the editing software. Obviously, one of the main reasons why the clapper board is useful is due to the fact that you have to synchronize sound with the image in the friction projects that heat generated by the top stick on the clapboard allows us to know at what point synchronize the audio and the video in the editing software. I mean, since the audio and video, it's often recorded on different devices. In each department, there are other roles whose function is facilitate the work of the main operator. In the case of lighting, there are some specialized ones, such as Gaffer and chief lighting technician, who, for example, is in charge of measuring exactly the light that should be applied in the scene. He knows exactly the power of each lamp to generate certain lighting by basically their assistant of the director of photography, for example. In general rules, the difference between a low cost and high cost production is precisely that number of assistants in the team. Because the truth is, while the director of each department is more focused on the creative part than the solving operational problems, the result in quality will be better. There are cases like the Mexican Director of Photography Emmanuel Luveski, who is used to operate in the camera because this is proof that he comes from a training where he learns every part of the process. So don't be afraid to take multiple roles in a low budget project. On the other hand, art direction is that department that ensures that all the elements that are within the scene, for instance, the stage design, the costumes, the props, all these elements must be connected to the story. All those elements should tell us as much as the screenplay. Those elements that are in set design must have qualities in terms of a structure of color, semiotics as well. So that those desperate V scenes that I mentioned before fulfill their objectives. Obviously, it's a joint effort between the director of the film and the art director, and they must travel the same path that leads to tell the stories through images. The art department is closely connected and the sign department, because what the semiotic elements that we add to the scenes are more expensive, especially and complex. This will imply a higher cost for the film, higher buckshed. On the other hand, the sound technicians are also important, which should not be forgotten because the sound must be recorded properly in the shooting following the lest the catering team is the one in charge of the foot details. And most importantly, try not to think that producers are the ones in charge of solving the foot problems. It's an amateur mistake. Another important department that is connected to the production team is the costume design, the costume department. This department is also quite connected with the art team, since it's the art department and the director and visual creatives who choose the colors that the costumes may have, but the costume designer is the one who makes them. There's also a war drop supervisor who is in charge of taking care of the costumes during the shooting. But in most of shootings, this ward drop supervisor is among the make up team assistants. It's important that enough people are always delegated for this type of work. Sometimes they are very simple tasks, but they are delegated. People who are carrying out creative work on the shooting and that is a problem. This is detrimental to the production quality. When it comes to manage a production team, it's necessary to referentiate the people who will do creative work and those who will do technical work. The first one are the most important. The technical staff must ensure that this creative work is as good as possible. Although a single person can be in charge of several tasks during the production stages, you must combine this task well, For example, you know that the production process has different stages. For example, the art director may be working with the art department prior to shooting. The film director must be working with all departments of the film, et cetera, But on set it works differently. For instance, I can direct and being an actor at the same time on set. I don't find any problem with that, because those tasks are either artistic and creative, but they are connected. But actually, I'm not able to be a director and a production manager at the same time. Because the ladder is going to have to solve a lot of problems on set. You must have a great producer at the beginning. This same producer can be the head of a production and also this person must love being and manager. I mean, a producer must know about Excel Software Administration, and this producer must have networking skills to interact with people who can carry out our film project. I would say that the artistic part of the production is having the ability to visualize an idea and knowing if this idea is worthwhile. Finally, the film director. The film director is the creative manager who is going to carry out the creative part of making a movie. Directors must know very well every department of the production team. A good film director must know everything. Music Cinematography, history, news writing. The more knowledge you have, the more ability you will have to communicate with the other creative managers of your project. Also, you will be able to convey anything to the audience through the cinematic language. Directors must also get the ability to have a great creative overview of the film is not only the visual part. I remark the song is very important, is 50% of the cinematic language. On the other hand, one of my best pieces of advice is for directors to be mostly involved in the writing process. Screenplay, in the construction of the story. It's important to have something to say as a director, to generate on voice on style. It's really worth directing stories that are involved with our lives, because only that way you will have the ability to better imagine a movie. Even though directing someone else's screenplay can be extraordinary too. We must have our own voice when generating our point of view. I mean, the greatest directors in the history of cinema have the ability to write the stories because they know the language very well. That is the difference between author cinema and traditional cinema, but regardless of whether it's made or Hollywood or not. Regardless of whether it is a special effects movie or not, or a superhero story or not. The director is involved with the writing process and add a unique vision of his storytelling. On the other hand, knowledge should not be limitation for filmmakers. They must always be willing to learn day after day. Try to watch all kind of movies, you can learn from all of them. In all of them, you can find valuable tools that help you to build your own language. Additionally, having knowledge of different departments will allow you to protect the film project. Because you will be able to know if what the art director or sound designer is telling you is true or not. I'm going to give you an example. Some time ago was working in a shooting as a sound assistant, but it was not that professional shooting. You know, I was doing a favor for a friend who was studying director, She didn't know or underestimate the knowledge that I had about sounding shootings. I don't blame her at all because that is part of the learning process. But this may happen to you is likely to happen to you. What happened was that inserting a scene, we had to record the sound of a conversation. I was holding the microphone with its respective extension stick, like this in this way, but she had never seen that. The thing is that I was doing it in that way because we were using a unidirectional micro. Therefore, I was holding the micro from the bottom to the top in this way to pointing out at the character's mouth. The voice was being recorded properly. At that moment, I knew that because I had experience with microphones, because I had worked with them all my life, not only in filming but also music recording studios, where I saw how the sound engineer used them to record the sound of the drum. For example, when you were going to record a drum set there, you should place microphones in different positions to capture the sound of each part of the drums. In the case of the drum symbols, you must position them at the top because they are at the top. But anyway, in the shooting, I was positioning this unidirectional microphone towards the character's mouth, in this position from bottom to top. But the director felt completely confused because she had only seen in the photos of the shootings that the sound assistant put the microphone from a bot. This was a big problem for her because she forced me to change my position just to make her feel safe in that photo that you are seeing. At this moment, the sound assistant is using an omnidirectional microphone. Meaning that this microphone has the ability to generally capture the sound of the three dimensional space in front of you. That is the only way to place that kind of microphones as close to the faces and not appearing in the frame. But that director didn't notice. She made the mistake of giving me the wrong instructions. The sound was, or it was recorded inappropriately because of the lack of knowledge on this subject. This is why I emphasize it's better to investigate, to be curious about each department in order to make the right decisions during filming, during all the stages of the film project. But we are going to see all of this so that you can have a map out path to follow in this beautiful career of becoming film directors and being able to carry out any kind of film project. I see you in the next lesson. 9. Shots & Lenses : The types of camera shots and the use of lenses. This topic is really interesting because it begins with a great question. A question that I always ask myself because it's a permanent doubt when it comes to shooting. It's the film director the one who chooses the types of lenses and set, or the director of photography or cinematographer, if it's the film director in charge of framing, especially the framing that will result in the balance of the image. Why is the cinematographer given full credit for the directing photography? Obviously, the cinematographer or director of photography has the responsibility of ensuring the final framing of a shot, but the ideas for those shots come from the director of the movie. The main task of the cinematographer is the lighting of the film. But in any case, what concerns us to this lesson is to know what are the formal aspects that the shots must have in order to be well created and professionally directed. It's important to know that this lesson is not going to be the only lesson that is going to talk about the elements of the shots in the lessons of camera movements and movements within the shots. We're also going to talk about things concerning the balance and the elements of the composition, as well as semiotic elements that help tell the stories. I invite you to always try to feel free and open to experimentation, to break the rules and try to develop your wrong way of doing things. Let's start with a long shot. The goal of this shot is to present the character in a context. In order to identify this character in a specific geographical space. Remember that this space can tell us things. In this kind of shots, it's crucial that we use the figure ground concept because there will be sterile layers that will give us information about the story and that kind of shots. There's also the extremely white shot which is a more distant version. In general, rules, these kind of shots are given enough time in the editing, in the final cut so that they can be read properly in detail on the screen because the details will be seen in a smaller size. Additionally, we could have two or three sentences in our screenplay that are represented in a single white shot. Therefore, the viewer must have enough time to make the correct reading of the image. Another important shot is the full shot. Its goal is to focus more on the character doing some activity that involves the movement of the body, whether it is fighting or packing a suitcase, or walking down a street. The background is also important in these shots to know where this action is happening. This character can be an animal, can be a car, a person, whatever. Doing an action in sing, that is the full shot. Unlike the previous shots, our character occupies a lot of space in the frame. This shot is also important for portraying the encounters between people in conversation. For example, conversation from a general point of view. Generally in editing after a great general shot, we usually move on to the kind shots. However, it's not a rule at all, but it's a good way for the viewer to make a fresh and comfortable reading of the sequences and images that are representing our screenplay. These shots are usually very striking, especially when we play with perspective elements that allow us to feel the depth of a large space with different elements in the distance. The next one is The Cowboy Shot, which was made for cowboy movies, the westerns, to show the characters guns. This is where the shot is apt to little above the knees. It's a medium way shot, but more close. Here we can see an example. Our character is quite close and we can see the expression through his face and body. It's obviously not something exclusive to cowboy movies. The funny thing about this shot is that despite the fact that it was invented for cowboys standing still, waiting to fire. Nowadays, this shots is almost always combined with movement where the man approaches or moves away from the character. The next one is the medium shot. In this shot, we are going to see the character much closer to the head of the hips. It's very similar to the cowboy shot. In fact, there are directors who use it for the same types of scenes. Conversations for example. But it's much more common to see the median shot in conversations than cowboy shots. It's an expressive shot. Its goal is to see the character's expression, although it is not focused on the face following the list, there is also the medium close up shot which is a bit closer. The choice of these shots on the scene will depend on, overall, on the importance of the attention given to something by a character in scene. For example, when a character is listening carefully to someone's speech. This sense, there is a close up also, which is the maximum point of attention of a character. The background loses total importance. It's usually out of focus because we are focused only on the phase that is attending to something. That phase can be contemplating an object in detail, of course, an important conversation or some exchange of glances. These shots must have very careful lighting because we are working on the most valuable instruments for the act. The pace that lighting can be detrimental to the actor's expression for to take great care and the lighting is suitable for the actor's features, for example. On the other hand, there is also the extreme close up, which is focused only on the eyes to show even more attention. This shot can also be used for objects, for example, or things contemplated by someone in close detail. Those important elements within the story which must be detailed. Because of their importance, it's important to take into account that when, for example, we must read something written to understand the story, a shot must be close enough and it must be also long enough to read the information properly, without any doubt. I mean, in order not to reach a point in the story where we need to have known that reading that information, previous information was surely essential to understand the blood of the story. All these shots are chosen for the director. In fact, many of the directors make a story work that are referential drawings of the type of shot that will be filmed. Another important aspect is at what angle and at what location the camera will be. That is the point of view of the shot. The first type of shot with respect to angle is the very view shot. An overhead shot is from way up high, looking down on the character and a good amount of essenery surround him or surround here. You can also combine this angle with the previous shots. I mean they can be near or far. Remember that the whole set of previous shots had to do with the balance and the shape of the frame. But these are with respect to the angle. The creativity that you may have will help you to have better results. These two characteristics will always be present in all of our shots, and they will practically the visual calligraphy that you will use to represent the story of the screenplay. Next one is the high angle shot. The camera points down at your character. It usually creates a feeling of inferiority or looking down on your subject. Here is an example of a high angle shot from one of my short films. You must take into account that you can also use different types of framing. That is, the shot may be closer or farther away even having this type of angle. This angle is very common when we want to portray your character in his dear ability. You can also use it to portray intimate moments where the character is isolated without caring about anything around him or around here. The following is the low angle shot in cinematography. A low angle shot is a shot positionated anywhere below the eye line pointing upward. It can even be below the character's feet, Which is called the extreme low angle shot, in the same way you have seen with the prior angles. It can be a close low angle shot and can also a distant low angle shot. It will always depend on what you want to portray within the frame. I think that a basic reference to perform both high and low angle shot is to take into account the level of your yes, your horizon, if your eyes are above is the high angle shot. If they are below, it's a low angle shot. From that point of view is quite simple. There's no specific degree of angle that you must have. Feel free to apply your creativity. But in general rules, it's usually an angle of 45 degrees, perhaps a little more or a little less, no matter what angle it is, so long as the viewer doesn't feel uncomfortable looking at the image. The next one in the list is the over the shoulder shot, a popular shot where a character is captured behind the shoulder of another character. You can capture the characters anywhere for a medium close up, for example, where you are able to see the shoulder, neck, or back of the head of the other character. You know the kind of shots are useful for showing the face reaction during conversations. It tends to place more and an emphasis on a connection between two speakers. These shots are the classic of conversation, especially when we want to make the viewer feel as if we were the person listening to the other character in the scene. But the most interesting thing about this kind shot is that it could also be combined with an entire shot. For example, when we see the other character in the distance, a character in the distance. But we see the contour of the back of another character who is contemplating that character in the distance. You can play with all the possible frames, both near and far. As soon as you represent the interaction between two characters. There is also the back shot, it's simply the camera reposition, add just behind our character. It's usually used to see the point of view that the character has, but including the character within the frame. As you can see in examples on the screen, I have used it several times in my cinematography, allowing me to show the entire and Ari in front of the character. These shots are made to be witnesses and protagonist together with the character who is contemplating a place. But it could also be a character facing something that is much bigger than him. A challenge. For example, the profile framing shot. This allows us to see the character from only one side. It's generally used to see the character during a moment of contemplation. For example, in this shot, the character is looking at the dead girl on the rock. But with a lot of attention, the Dutch shot, the Dutch shot is simply an inclined shot that in general has the purpose of generating imbalance in portraying action scenes. But the truth is that it is not always the case. Sometimes directors use this only for aesthetic purposes. That is, to give a different touch to the cinematography of the film. It was very common in '80s and '90s to use this shot to improve the aesthetics of the scenes and sequences, to give a sophisticated touch to the cinematography. Remember that among film scholars, speculations sometimes arise about the cinematography language. In fact, this is one of the main defects of independent cinema. I mean, sometimes they try to vollish the scenes and shot with artistic concepts that are not real in the movie. They tend to speculate with that shot. That happens a lot, therefore we must be very careful while using it and not try to deceive ourselves and others with this. However, I invite you to use it freely, but not least the frontal shot, which would be the way you see me at this moment, totally frontal. I'm going to show you a few examples of all these shots to check them out for a few seconds. But how important are cinema lenses in the construction of a cinematic image? What are they so important? Most of you who are watching this course are people who want to learn what is starting out in audio visual world from my point of view. One of the most important things you can learn in this course, in that even it will serve as a tool in your film career, is to know that all cinema lenses distort the image. All of them, 90% will transform the image that we are trying to capture with the camera. The lens is a device. It's a glass that will interpret the light that is passing through it to project an image on a digital sensor of the camera. But why are the lenses so important for the film director? Because the type of lenses will be chosen by the director. The cinematographer can also suggest pumps and even make a decision. But it's the director must have the last word. Another important detail is that I had come across many video creators who don't really know what really makes an image look great. I tell you this because I can't imagine that many of you are thinking about perhaps making some investment in audio diesel equipment, for example. Therefore, you are going to try to choose which equipment to buy to achieve the best quality at the lowest possible cost. I can tell you with confidence that what makes the image look great is the lens. Actually, you can use a camera from ten years ago, but if that camera has a completely professional lens, and when I say professional, I mean maybe $100,000 get lenses. I assure you that the image you should will look perfect. Can I tell you this? In case you have a object to carry out your film project? You have a buc jet paying more attention to the lens than to the camera. Of course, it's not enough to have incredible lenses. You must know how to use them and how to use them properly. In order to achieve that, we must learn the language of perception in space and painting. Realistic painting is a great source of inspiration and learning because these people had no other tools but to sit down and carefully observe how the image is distorted in human vision as we approach and move away from objects. For instance, if you're going to make a great general shot of a line scape, for example. You could do it with any lens, but you must be aware of what you will be able to capture from that line scape with each of those lenses. For example, you could use a 16 millimeter lens. What the lens is going to do is squeeze the image so that even though the distance between the camera and the space you want to portray is not that long, the camera will have the ability to capture a very wide space. But this 16 millimeter lens must distort the image to achieve that. Therefore, it would look different. But on the other hand, if we use a 120 millimeter lens, if we want to capture the same landscape, we must move away enough to fit all the landscape into the frame. Because the lens is not going to distort the landscape to fit it into the frame. In conclusion, we would have two landscapes with the same details inside the frame but with completely different look. All those details are supposed to be taken into account when it comes to using lenses, because to the extent that we distort the image for aesthetic purposes to generate a beautiful sensation of perspective in the shots, we will have a more visually beautiful film. And even change the meaning of the images, the meaning of the sense. On the other hand, the Lensens will also have to do with our casting because depending on the face features of an actor, a lens will be more appropriate or not for that person. And we must respect a certain distance between the camera and the actor so as not to detrimentally distort the actor's appearance in terms of actors bodybuild or an actress facial feature. For instance, sometimes some directors try to find leading actors with some similar trace for the same movie to achieve this, Which is not a route at all because you could work the shots of the main actors differently. And it usually happens high quality professionals. Cinematographers are those who respite, distorting the image. They don't damage the beauty of the model of the actor. Also, they focus on playing with all the elements of the composition. But they don't limits themselves of bringing the camera closer to the actor's phase to generate the sensation. Most of the problem is that distorting an actor's phase is a visual signifier and we cannot do it that randomly. For example, in every two in the remnant distorts the Capris phase to delve into the psychological dimension of the character. It is a perfect example of what I'm telling you. I mean stone in a deliberate and thoughtful way. That is a character who is contemplating all the things around him from his madness. It's a film whose tone itself is about the connection between the human being and his environment. Sometimes snovid directors use lenses to randomly and unthinkingly distort the image, to brag that they are capable to do it. But there is not cinematical meaning behind the lens selection. That is terrible, because a random selection of lenses, just for experimentation, for example, can contradict the message behind the screenplay. Film directing is based on the screenplay and the use of the. It is one more tool to get the best out of the story and fill the viewer with emotions and sensations. Remember that one of the most frequent problems in filmmaking is the communication process between the author and the audience. It must be our priority that each communication process is clear enough or at least to be clear, allowing us to capture the smaller details in either objects and pass. On the other hand, additionally, high millimeter lenses are the most similar lenses to human vision because they don't distort the image too much. We can play with the full range of lenses to capture more or less details. On the other hand, the lower millimeter lenses focus on capturing more space, Despite the distance the camera has to that space, you can have these two options to capture more space or capture details. Feel free to play with this. I showed you an example with the human face. The image of a man portrayed with different lenses, playing from the range of 60 millimeters to 135 millimeters. Stop the lesson if you want and watch every single change, because it really changes the look of that guy. There is another important thing must tell you, particularly the lower millimeter lenses are much more expensive than the higher ones. I don't know exactly why. But I suppose that this ability to capture a large amount of space, even though the camera is close to a space, implies that the lens has a class with a more complicated design. I highly recommend you that at the beginning, when you cannot afford a good low millimeter lens. Try to direct your movies, or short films, or whatever, with the higher millimeter ones. Because for example, using a low quality 24 millimeter lens, we can reveal the low budget of our film project. Another important detail is that lenses with a larger aperture allow more light enter to the sensor. Therefore, the image will look much better. In fact, the problem with low millimeter lenses is that it's more expensive for them to have a larger aperture. And I think that is the reason why the lower millimeter lenses are more expensive than the others. The problem is always that as creators, we are motivated always to distort the image because evidently the best cinematographers do it aesthetically and beautifully. But we cannot forget that the cinema is very expensive and that even in many movies that seems to be independent in a Lob object, they are using very expensive lenses to do even handheld shots, you had to be very careful with that. Another important factor that has to do with lenses is the time it takes to change the lenses. When it comes to shootings, I mean, the amount of time the camera assistants will take to change from one lens to another, it's a valuable time during the shooting, so you should try it as far as possible to organize your shootings based on this. I mean, sometimes it's easier to change the camera from one place to another than to change the lenses because the lenses are extremely delicate, they must be treated with care. And also each lenses requires different camera shatter settings. It's important to know that nowadays there is a great advantage with the resolution of the cameras, and I will give you an example. Let's suppose that you have to shoot sin at sunset. Only last 30 minutes to finish. Also in this scene will be a conversation, a king conversation. You didn't have time to change the lenses in order to record all the shots you need. For example, you need to create two long shots that include the two characters and several close ups of the character's face. Speaking, if your camera records in four key, there is a way to shoot everything, not wasting time. If you use, for example, a 50 millimeter lens and you position the camera far enough away to capture the two characters in the distance, you already have the white shot, but since you have recorded in four key, you could crop the frame later in the editing process to take only the face of the character. And trust me, you will have the result quite similar to that of the 80 millimeal lens or more. But even though listened carefully is not exactly the same, it's important to emphasize something regarding the use of a steadicam or lies and lens in traveling. When it comes to using a high millimeal lens, the forward and backward movement of the shot is more difficult to notice due to the fact that the lens is zuming in, in the image. However, the lateral movement will be more evident in not only that, but the shake of the camera due to the friction on the rail, for example, due to the movement of the camera system. All of that will be much more noticeable with a higher millimeter lens. Try to see good cinema to have good reference to follow when it comes to using cinema lenses in Quentin Tarantino, James Cameron, or Good Enough in that. But also Tarkowski, the Russian filmmaker, was incredibly good in this regard. He made his films a legacy of visual learning for future generations of filmmakers. Take all this into account, put all this into practice, and I see you in the next lesson. 10. Camera Movements: The camera movement. What is the most important thing in this lesson? It would make no sense to waste this lesson teaching you what a doll in or all out, or a traveling, or a travel out is about. I think that is something that you can find on you too, from any tutorial. Any tutorial will explain them to you easily. It's not worth wasting this lesson on that, basically, because all these movements names explain the direction in which the camera will move, either on the static or the rail or a. Even if this movement is performed by a drone, it works the same. On the other hand, there are some old fashioned film scholars who are stuck in false theories about the camera movements, quite similar to what I explained to you about the Dutch shot. And they relate the camera movements and traveling to certain emotions in the scenes. This makes no sense at all because the cinema has been evolving shots. I mean, there are shots that were initially used for order movies that nowadays are used for comedy. Because the language is changing, the language evolves. So it's as if I told you that paintings about love should always be read or in a specific format. It doesn't work like that. Cinema is evolution. Arquaron are proof of that. The only movement that from my take on is still used in the same way and it can be useful for you is to doll in to represent interest and thought. When a character is looking at an object or to someone else in a thoughtful way, the camera will usually doll in towards the character face slowly or towards the object slowly. On the screen you can see several examples quits the Tic. Tell me when, when did it goes? It go no way. The V, the only way to see how to use the rest of the traveling movements is to watch many movies. So that you can see how the camera moves today, how the language is today. But above all, you don't lose the desire to experiment. In fact, the shoot lesson is much more valuable in this sense. Taking all of these into account, the most important thing in terms of camera traveling movement, regardless of the kind of device you're using with it's the cinematic anchor, because it's the most common mistake made during shootings. Many camera operators and cinematographers forget the quality of the shots and composition during the camera traveling. The main characteristic of a good traveling is that it allows the moving sequence to stay aesthetically balanced as possible during traveling. In order to achieve that, we need the cinematic anchor. Basically, this consists of establishing some guide points during the traveling, during the path that our camera will have to preserve the balance of the image and the quality of the image during the traveling. The framing created by the camera operator must rest on these guide points to propel the movement towards the next point of traveling. These anchor points allow us to have a map of the root of our traveling in continuous shots. This is a must because in production terms, using a steady cam requires various operators and assistants to ensure the scenes are shot properly. On the other hand, we must study the nature of the surface where we are going to walk and we are going to trace that route. I mean, the traveling has two main goals. First of all, to give the viewer the feeling that he is present in the place of the scene is happening. And also, in many cases, to represent the character's point of view as if we were the character himself. No matter what the semiotic goal is, we must understand that the most important thing is that we must do it technically so that you can use it in any time. The anchor point is a kind of constellation, a constellation that is made up of a set of stars that form a larger shape. For instance, the Orient constellation is made up of points that forms the entire shape. But this constellation may have any shape. Horse, a bear, for example, anything. Let's try to imagine a path of the camera as the lines of the constellation. The traveling works the same. What do we need is to locate the points in the path that the camera is going to take so that these points, the framing is perfect in terms of balance, shape, and depth. I mean that the image quality and aesthetics terms must be perfect as well. Obviously, the main idea is that the camera may be balanced throughout the whole, the way all the traveling. But depending on the traveling, this will not always be possible. Because in the case of a kind of traveling that is forward and backward movement is easier. But in the case of irregular traveling, when the steady cam means traveling irregularly throughout a place, is much more difficult. In this sense, we must always remember the rule of Earths. This rule proposes that an image should have a balance based on the binocular vision of human beings. Means is a scientifically analyzed theory that has proved how human sight focuses its interest in perception on the four meeting points that divide the image you are watching at this moment. This happens because the brain focuses on one eye while the other complements the vision. This technique claims that aligning a subject with these points creates more tension, energy, and interest the composition then simply centering the subject in the middle of the image. This rule of theories should be used not only on camera traveling, but also in steel shots as well. It's part of the composition. It's something important to take into account for directors and cinematographers. I'm going to leave you an example of a cinematic anchor and a continuous shot that we did in one of my works. The character stars behind a stone and then continues walking until he finds his father dead. I want to know what that does see. Did you notice, did you notice that at the moment the character is behind the stone about to get up? There is a cinematic anchor perfectly created. The character gets up and starts walking, and immediately the camera gets up with him. The shot continues in an American shot, the cowboy shot framing the cinematic anchor is also present during the walk and he is seeing his father. Obviously the camera is moving backwards, but there is also updown movement that adapts to the character's position. But you can notice that during the traveling, that essential rule of the third is always respected so that the viewer feels pleasure when watching the entire sequence. We must also play with the elements that are going to move in the sequence. That they adapt in one way or another to the aesthetics of the image. That is to say that despite the freedom that the actor may have on the scenes, there must be a kind of choreography that allows us to respect the frame balance. This is another example where the soldier is walking in the middle of the body. The sequence is also balanced throughout the traveling. At the moment the corpses are seen on the ground, the cinematography quality is preserved. It's important to remember that the cinematic anchor must also be used with drones in many occasions. It's important to note that depending on the head of the flight, it will be easier to maintain the quality, but other times it will be more difficult due to the nature of the flight and the wind. In this sequence shot with the steady can you are watching on this moment, the camera is traveling to the sights, but there are moments where the camera rests fixedly. In those moments, we must try to respect the frame balance. This, another example is a perfect balance drawn shot followed by another aesthetic sine traveling through all the trees to the naked eye. The entire movement seems very soft and delicate, but in reality, there is a great difficulty due to the nature of the ground on which the camera operators and directors of photography are working. The truth is that even with perfect conditions, the camera operators and the director of photography don't always have the ability to respect the aesthetics of the traveling. This is crucial to add a great cinematic quality to the film or any Audi visual project. Today, there are automated tools to perform this. Traveling production companies spend lots of money to get their sequences filmed to perfection, since this perfection causes greater visual pleasure for the viewer. On the other hand, you must remember that imperfection is also a language. Sometimes steady and continuous shot can be shaking a bit, but that makes us feel next to the character who is experiencing something stressful, as in the case of a battle or a chase, for example. This imperfect movement of the camera has some meaning for the viewer. We must learn to use it as well. In general rules, the camera is the viewer's point of view. If you had seen the revenant, where there are practically no cuts. All these continuous shots are made to make us feel witnesses of the story. That is the cinematic power of long takes and continuous sequences. Try to rehearse and practice a lot so that you develop a ability to move the camera throughout any space. As I told you before, the movements are as many as you want in the direction you want. The most important thing is the quality, the violence, the visual aesthetics in that emotion that your shots may have. I see you in the next lesson. 11. Movement within the Shot: Hello people. In a previous lesson, I mentioned to you about the movement that should be in the shots, even though the actions that happened between the characters are not in motion. Obviously, this is subjective also because sometimes non motion inside a frame is justified. But in any case, I previously mentioned to you about the approach where the image had to have a certain movement to capture the viewer's attention. I'm going to show you an example of a scene of a short film that I made before, although this short film was in fact my first short film, obviously full of imperfections due to my inexperience. But there were good things in it. And one of those things was ASN in particular, where the main character, who is a soldier runs into his lover who is dying by a river. And this river is still moving in the background. Sometimes these kind of things will happen, not planning at all and during the shootings. And I must confess that it's something that came up at the moment for the simple reason that we thought that the frame seems better having that river behind. But what we were not aware of at that time is that unconsciously our mind found that picture with the river flowing behind. As more attracted to the Kurosawa principle. Let's watch the scene then. Masa Masada realized what I was trying to explain to you. Although there is some movement in the characters because, well, because the soldier moves tightly. Despite that there are not on movement in the frame but in the background, the water is still flowing. Kurosawa did this a lot, especially in the movie set and sunray, take this into account when developing urosines. Try to do it from the very screenplay. From the screenplay, there is a cinematic sense that can be better represented by the director. And it could be some things moving in the background, some cars, or the sea waves, for example. But try to experiment with that, with the image of your own work. No matter what type of project it is. It could also be an advertising. But this cinematic tool has been a great value in the history of cinema until today. These decisions are also obviously related to the composition of the Shot Us age. When there were not such sophisticated tools for cinema traveling, it was useful. Camera traveling also helps to generate this sensation in the viewer. But since we will not always have these kind of tools, we must learn to work without them in order to be more creative and artistic without a big object. I will see you in the next lesson. 12. Creative Vision: Film direction and creative vision. This is one of the most important lessons of this course. There was a great piece of advice that they used to tell us at my film school that was that a great film director is not only one who makes a great movie, but one who manages to make a great movie with a limited budget. If you are a film producer or a film director, to the extent that you get to administrate those little means or reduced budget in a very creative way. I mean that you have made your audiovisual project seems more expensive of what really was. In one way or another, your film project will be successful, so you will stand out as a good filmmaker. The creative vision not only has to do with budget, but also with the human efforts that the film project displays by the work team. I'm going to give you an example. Let's suppose that our movie will have one scene of the party in a flat, but that scene is going to be represented with a sequence shot of 20 seconds. I don't necessarily have to produce an incredible party with all its details, thereby increasing the budget of my film project. You could perfectly do a small section of that party and capture certain details of the party are really representing the screenplay. And take up that precise time adding cinematic sound elements powerful enough to represent that party without explicitly building the whole mess in an apartment. Unless it was really necessary for the story, you don't have to create the whole party. Everything we add to the screenplay has to be related to be able to go through all the stages of the project. That is from the initial idea to the release of the film. In that historical work, that historical short film that I have been showing you in the lessons, there are several scenes that work under this principle. All the scenes inside the house are an example of this. Because the house doesn't look completely like that. The composition and shot layout were set in a way that make you think that it's an old house from the 17th century. I didn't need to recreate all the house details to perfection because I was not going to use all those details. This factor is crucial to be able to better administrate the film project. On the other hand, we cannot take the big Hollywood productions as an example to make an independent project. It makes no sense. The conditions are not the same. Maybe in Hollywood, they could afford to create an entire village next to the house because maybe it would be needed, as in the case of Titanic, for example. I mean, there were many places built on the ship that were never used, but that is because they can't afford to do so. But most of the locations and places appear in the film. I highly recommend you always try to save efforts in this regard. On the other hand, there is another important factor called the minimalism in the same work. In many scenes we see the same character walking through beautiful landscapes. For example, those scenes where the character is moving through the Valid, I didn't need to build a castle to make the viewer feel that they are in the 17th century. Simply by making an excellent costume design, you can provide the audience with enough information about the time of the story. What I'm trying to say is less is sometimes more. Because if we only see two characters wearing incredible costumes in an incredible art direction, using few elements around, we don't need to embellish anything else. All these elements combined with some beautiful landscapes that are thousands of years old, there to the rest completely, we can use this principle with all the elements of the film. With all the signifiers learning to choose the settings where the scenes will be filmed, for example. Additionally, it's important to become a kind of a stage explorer. Scouting is the process in which we are going to look for those places where we are going to shoot our movie. At that precise moment the future of your project is set, we should not underestimate this task. Another great example of this is Terminator movie. The first one, the first one, Terminator, the movie cost around $1,000,000 We can assume that for that time, the '80s, $1 million were more money. But in the context of Hollywood in LA, where action movies cost between maybe 50 or $100 million, what James Cameron did was a real fit, First of all, it's a great story with an extraordinary storytelling. And secondly, the minimalism. Last but not least, this film is largely told through three characters. The casting is magnificent. Arnold Schwarzenegger really looks like a cyber, but not only that, but the inner skeleton of the cyber is only seen in a few scenes, and the metal skeleton is incredible too. James Cameron made the cyber design by drawings a lot of artwork and sketches so that the art creative team could build it in the best way as possible. The rest of the movie is a street chase movie. Like another movie in that time where someone is running away from the murderer. But I think that Terminator is incredible. The story behind it is that boast all the elements in the story using only three characters, only three people sharing one single story, one single night. And it's an extraordinary commercial film, as deep as psychological as the impact of the technology on the destiny of humankind. James Cameron is an extraordinary example because he writes his screenplay himself in Terminator One. He did it in such a way that he didn't have to add too many scenes from the future. What it would mean to increase that 1 million buck jets. A great strategy to do is to be aware of what are those elements in our surroundings. I mean, let's suppose that we live near a beach where there are the remains of a shipwreck. We must ask ourselves, I could write a story from that landscape that I can use it in a, in a story. We must take advantage of those things. Maybe we will go on a trip to an interesting place where we can easily get to. Maybe we managed to know interesting places that can work for our story as independent directors. So you're not supposed to start writing ideas before thinking how to shoot them. It's going to be much more difficult because you are going to need a whole production team that can carry out that. So in the end, when you are an independent director or producer, you are the one who has to do the first steps of the production team of the production project. That is why creative vision is so important, because it allows us to design projects and stories with real odds of developing. On the other hand, a director's creative vision allows us to use metaphor to add meaning to the elements within the story, enhancing the poetic language of the film. Poetry in films is very important. Don't think that poetry is only for artists and deep people. All human beings like poetry. Filmmakers are deep people. The reason why you might not see as much poetry in commercial television or in commercial movies, it's not because shallow creators don't like poetry, but because it takes a lot of effort of time to create poetry. So you had to fill yourself with art. You had to sit on a chair and think a lot in order to create poetic ideas. On the other hand, most business people, business producers, want quick answers, even though those quick answers cost a lot of money. Quick answers are easier than sitting down and writing down poetry. They are very poetic ideas that can represent very expensive assets. Sometimes the problem in movies is that they are very explicit, they leave nothing to the imagination. Storytelling has to do with this. The art of storytelling is precisely making people imagine things from what you are telling about. Always remember this for your film projects. I see you in the next lesson. 13. Best Actors: How to choose the best actors. I think this is one of the most abstract and profound topics above of all because it will be related not only to the sensitivity that all you may have, but also to the perception that you may have of movies in how you perceive the behavior of people around you. Actors are those faces that are going to identify our movie. The actor is going to take the path of the screenplay character also, this actor, in a certain way, is going to the events that we are going to build by writing a story using cinematic language. However, there is something that we must know. The phase that we are going to choose will not be disconnected from the perception that human beings in the global village have. I mean, humans have a established idea of what can be expected from a person with particular characteristics and behaviors. I tell you all of this because one of the initial stages of a film project is the casting. In the casting, we have the challenge of choosing the actor who has the greatest number of characteristics and qualities that fit the character of the story. The selection making process behind castings begins by understanding what we are seeing on the screen. What we are watching on the screen, are we seeing the character, are we seeing the actor? Are we seeing the person who came to the audition? Basically, what we watch on the screen in a very simple way is the mixture of three fundamental things. In the first one is the character, what is written in the screenplay, in the story, I mean, all the characteristics that our character has, I mean, how developed the character is and how true his characteristics are to convince the audience throughout the story. The second thing that we see on the screen is the actors skill. The ability that he has or she has to do a convincing performance. But don't be confused by this. I'm not talking about playing the character, I'm just talking about the ability the actor or actress has to act in a convincing way. Naturally recapitulating, we have the first which is what is written on the story, and the second the actress skill. But there is a third which is very important and the most people forget who is the person who is the individual, who is that person behind the actor or actress? I mean, have you ever wondered who is that actor when he or she is not performing? That person who came to the audition. That individual will also be on the screen. What you watch on the screen is the unit made up of three elements as if it were the Holy Spirit. This unit obviously has a common goal, which is to represent the character and generate empathy. On the other hand, there is a commercial idea that the faces that appear on the screen and that should appear on the screen must be beautiful faces. In most cases, this is far from reality because everything will depend on the audiovisual production that we are going to make. In fact, this mistake is one of the most common in the world of cinema. In fact, the problem lies that we have the perception that the cinema works as a quick advertisement. Fast advertising has another rules, because in fact, the common audience doesn't even have time to see the advertisement to the end. Even though when it only lasts 20 seconds, the viewer will accompany the character by his physical appearance for a very short time. I think it's something very basic and simple. Advertising needs you to stay looking at the screen about 15 or 20 seconds by watching how attractive the person looks. Additionally, if I am selling you a product or a service, you are possibly watching the advertising and you will see the product or service. Or even in a simpler case, if I want to buy a shampoo, I'm supposed to see a very nice hair on the screen. If it's a tooth paste, I must see beautiful teeth. All the faces displayed in advertising are also based on that, a quick impact on the audience. The problem arises when advertising begins to build the stories. When they try, when they need to keep the audience connected with the stories that resemble reality, the rules change automatically. These rules change because the viewer begins to think much more. And as a consequence, one need arises in this viewer empathy, one of the most difficult qualities to find, since the viewer has to feel identified with the character in the story. This is one of the most important details and we must get right in the construction of the film, because no matter what kind of project it is if we had to tell the story with a character. We must analyze the characteristics of that character in depth. I mean, you are supposed to ask yourself honestly how that character really looks like in real life. I will give you an example. Let's imagine that our character is a scientist, a scientist who could be mature, maybe 40 years old or maybe he is a 30 year old scientist. The, he doesn't matter too much, but he is a scientist. From there, we have to ask ourselves the right questions. What is the kind of movie we want to make? Is it a movie like Avengers, for instance? From that, you can ask yourself if a scientist in Avengers really looks like a real scientist or not. What does a scientist look like in real life? That is the first question we must ask ourself. Have we ever talked to a scientist? Have we ever talk to an investigator? How does a math teacher looks like? This is what the character really looks like. Or is it that we are deliberately trying to make the face that seems beautiful to us fit into our character just because we think it's a beautiful face that should be in front of the camera. Those are the questions. That is why we have to be honest with ourselves and most of all with our characters. On the other hand, intelligence and sexuality are two very complex dimensions, and both are shown in our body expressions. For example, it's almost impossible for an actor who is not a very intelligent person in real life. It's impossible for him or her to represent an intelligent character properly, because intelligence is that dimension that is shown in our body, in our voice, in the rhythm of our voice, in our gaze, and even how the muscles of the face move. A very handsome person physically doesn't behave like an average person. And one of the reasons is that in many cases, but it's not a rule at all, don't judge me, but in many cases, the world is easier for them because everyone is willing to smile at them. I know that it's not something easy to understand. But I'm not talking about acting actually, but how an intelligent person behaves and what makes a person intelligent is a great question. For example, why is Merrill Strip a better actress than Megan Fox? Because she has said by herself, in interviews, in many interviews, that she was not the most beautiful actress. Therefore, she knew that she should try harder. As a result, she is the best actress. On the other hand, Megan Fox, who was so beautiful at the beginning. I assure you that she was selected from all the advertising spot castings until the time when she was in a movie without having make an effort. The effort that Mel Strip did, Megan Fox didn't have to. It's normal. The world works like that unconsciously. We all know that it works like that. We can see an example when we talk about Avengers, because it's interesting how is the selection making process behind casting. Let's make a comparison between the actor who represents Thor and the older who represents Ironman. Why the director of the film, together with the casting team, selected Cream Ham Worth for Thor and Robert Downing Junior for Irman. At first glance, it seems that it's only because Robert is older, but it's not entirely so because the first Ironman movie in which he was the protagonist was in 2008 and he still look on, the truth is that Robert Downey Junior, at least in physical terms, external terms, is not as handsome as ref Hemworth. Robert doesn't look like a heartbreaker. In fact, the older he gets, the more he looks like a, someone intelligent. And a proof of that is some of the movies in which he plays, always plays someone intelligent, like the case of Sharlock Holmes. But let's see another example, the extraordinary movie, Shawshank Redemption. One of the things that makes this movie fantastic is the outstanding casting. But if you didn't know, one of the options to start this movie was Brad Pitt. But Tim Robbins represent a much cleverer person. Not only that, but you could also say that Tim Robbins is an average person in terms of beauty. Therefore, when we see the character, we are not admiring his physical appearance, his physical characteristics as Perhad we would do if he were Brad Pitt. Conversely, we only see his inner world and his inner qualities which make us perceive and feel a completely serious tone of the story. I don't mean to say that Brad Pitt is a bad actor, Not at all. In fact, he's an excellent actor, but most of his characters are not usually very intelligent people. They are angry, passionate, brave heartbreakers, and great soldiers. Let's look another example, the case of Anthony Hopkins. He's another person who looks like someone intelligent. But the truth is that he is actually a highly educated and intelligent person in real life. And all that intelligence is displayed in his corporal expression to his physical expression. We're going to notice that intelligence is in his voice and in the way he pronounces each word. In real life, Anthony Hopkins is a very intelligent person. He is a musician. He is an artist, so he doesn't have to make any effort to speak well. And the reason is that he was not that handsome, So he took a lot more effort to get cast in movies than Brad Pitt. So we all know that Brad Pitt has been on the screen since he was a teenager. And even though he is an excellent actor, he had to fight against this sometimes unfair but universal prejudice. So that is why we had to be clear about the characters features. Remember that regardless of the actors skills, there is an individual person behind the actor. This individual person is part of what we are watching on the screen, what we are going to see in our character. Of course, if you want to play with this deliberately to mislead the viewer, Perfect is justified that you can play with what the viewer respect from a beautiful person or not. An example of this is the movie American Beauty. At the end of the movie, we realized that the typical pretty blonde girl in the '90s style was actually as a stamp as you expected. First of all, she really loved her friend and she was a urgent, deceiving everyone, both her friends and the spectators, making believe the contrary throughout the story, through her speeches and through her physical appearance. On the other hand, another important aspect in casting is that you should try to get rid of the point of view that you have of the person behind the actor. Sometimes the selection we make has nothing to do with whether the actor looks like the character or not, but rather the fact that the real person behind the actor really likes us. It's typical, it's a very common mistake. There are very bad actors who are very nice people who tend to seem very authentic in casting, in auditions. Another important theme is the sexual dimension of the character. This topic is delicate because sometimes people feed alluded too. But the truth is that sexual dimension in our mind is shown in our corporal and physical expressions. Sometimes there are heterosexual people who try to represent homosexual people and vice versa. They have not understood the corporal dimension of sexuality because we can notice the sexual orientation in their body. Many people have complained about this because many directors put straight people to represent gay people. But it's not a rule. But the truth is that there are gifted actors who have an extraordinary ability to represent any gender, regardless of their sexual orientation in real life. Because they're really aware about how the characters move and speak so as not to make the viewer feel substracted from the story. I'm going to recap this topic of casting, because I want you to keep in mind that casting can be both a great opportunity or a direct path to failure in the selection of actors. And tell you this, because we are humans who make mistakes, we are not exempt from making mistakes. The first thing is to understand that the casting is a job interview. Therefore, all the variables of the job interview will be there. Above all things, the charm of a person can played against. I highly recommend you that the selection process can be at least 70% linked to the actor's video, real or video book. This is the fairest way to make it in the end, it's the true curriculum of the actor. In the custom, we're going to meet the person and perhaps verify in one way or another certain abilities of the actor. Cassin is also to know the actor's background, where he is learning, comes from, et cetera. But surely you will have the actors say some lines. But the truth is that many times the casting itself doesn't provide us with enough information about the actors will look on the screen. Only the video book can do it for sure because in the casting, there are two fundamental factors that can be detrimental to the final choice. One of them is the charm of the person. And I'm going to tell you a story that has to do with this. Once I was looking for an actor, for a character to play an old and experienced infantry captain for a short film, I had two options. One option was a very good, but not well known theater actor. And I had another option that was a well known television actor in my home country. The problem was that the person who did theater didn't have a video book. And since he hadn't played in many other visual things, he didn't have a way to show me how he looked on the screen. In fact, he knew this when he went to the audition. So he went with a shyer and more careful attitude that I misunderstood. Because in fact, the person was secretarily preparing for the role, improving their horse riding skills. For example, rehearsing the possible challenges that even learning to master ancient weapons to suit the character, he was doing whatever he took to get the role. But he didn't find a way to prove that he was qualified for the role. And this was a shame because there was a great chance hidden behind them. In reality, every casting making process behind a film has to anticipate this happening. On the other hand, the second actor, when he arrived to the casting, to the audition, he came with the most reliable attitude in the world. I mean, when I was listening to his voice, I found him so sure about himself. At the same time, we could more or less have any idea of what he would look like on the screen because we had already seen him on television. Therefore, the most logical thing was to choose him. And so it happened, and we chose him because we thought he was the most appropriate. In fact, we never had any doubt about it. But then after the shooting, I realized that the person was not ready for the role, and the answer was always there and we didn't know how to see it. The truth was that all the television references we had were from comedy films. Not of an actor who could do a drama in a serious and powerful way. Not only that, but even the ego, the confidence of the person was detrimental to his performance. Because since he was well known and our production was not that fancy, he thought that he would be prepared for any challenge. The result was that we had to rewrite the story of the short film to try to get rid of all the lines of that character. That is what I tell you. That certainly the most important thing is the video book. In fact, I believe that the great Hollywood productions are made like this, because even though they do a kind of casting, a kind of addition, the video books of the actors are previously analyzed in detail. Therefore, directors already has a previous selection. Only the video book can provide us that information. But not only that, but there is an actor's energy that you are not able to see until the final cut of the film. That is not possible to see in the audition. Therefore, the video book of the actor the better guarantees you will have of his success. But it may happen that you are starting in the film world and several actors who go to your audition then have a videobook. You as directors should prepare the casting, the audition well enough with good cameras and recreate a certain type of setting as best as possible to stimulate performance. And you as directors will have a better reference of what the actor will look like on the screen. But my point of view is that if you want to have a reliable result, you should mix everything, the videobook with the audition. The last thing I tell you is when it comes to starting and making short films, an actor who really wants to play the role is much more reliable and worthwhile than a very good one who is not worrying too much about your film project. Really wanting to play the character is something that will always be worth it. I see you in the next lesson. 14. Directing Actors: Directing actors. This part is very important because it will allow us to address how the relationship we must have with the actor should be not only from the point of view of the director, but from the point of view of the entire production team. That relationship begins from the very moment we choose the actors, from the audit, from the casting. At that moment begins a journey that we will take with the actor throughout the entire film project. Our work with the actor has two stages. One in the reproduction stage and the other one in shooting. In filming, the reproduction part consists of all the preparation and construction our actor will need to play a character. This also divides in two things, the physical aspects and the dramaturgical qualities. The physical preparation concerns that sometimes our actor or actress matches the character, but he or she lacks certain physical conditions that make the characters features plausible. This must be taken seriously. We must talk with the actors and actresses and we must reach agreements. But not only that, but the preparation of the character, the physical preparation has to be included in the budget. I mean, sometimes it's not a limitation of an actor, but it's not within his possibilities to pay for that preparation. Sometimes we think it's only the actors task to prepare for the character. And if he is a patient actor and with certain economic means, perhaps the same actor or actress invest in his preparation. But we cannot add this as a variable to the project. In most of cases, the actor or actress doesn't have to invest her money on that. Of course, I'm speaking to you in the context where you are starting to do film projects. But what I'm trying to say is that if we set aside money of the budget, that preparation of the actor, we are going to see the character's preparation displayed on camera. The actor must be the character. Remember that this is basically the difference between cinema and theater. Theater is a representation, that is, all the elements that are on the stage and even the costumes and the appearance of the actors are allegories. They are metaphorical elements which work very well in theater because we are aware that we are watching a play. But in cinema it's different. Cinema is as if you were seeing reality. It won't work the same. The camera is like a getaway to reality. So if the character requires a skill like jumping, running, and even convincing the audience that they are able physically prepared to do activity. All those skills or physical qualities must be visible on the screen. Sometimes it takes a lot of preparation to achieve it, to make it. This preparation is not going to be related only to the physical aspect, but to the effective relationships that, that there will be between the characters in the film. The truth is that this is a challenge that many directors don't approach in that way. There are directors who are more conservative. But I think that if you're going to do a story, for example, where there is a couple who are going to be lovers, or become lovers during a story, there must be chemistry between the actors. A spark, a chemistry that, although it may not exist at first, it must be developed. This kind of chemistry must appear, because otherwise the discomfort will be seen on the camera, which will be detrimental to the film, of course. But pay attention when I say that there should be chemistry. I don't mean that the actor should have an affair during filming or become lovers in real life. But that kind of chemistry that prevents not to be ashamed for touching each other. Therefore, there must be some basic principles in the casting and in the cold which are to let the actor know. Which are in general terms and general rules, the most challenging actions that he is going to do in the film project. For example, there are people who don't feel comfortable doing romantic scenes in another one. Who are not feeling comfortable doing erotic scenes with the specific actor, actresses who they had to act with. All of these are detrimental factors for the project. Therefore, in a certain way you had to let the actor actress know in the casting that he or she must do all these things and challenges because these kind of emotions are not easy to play. Believe me, the performing Mets really want to do it. Let's see an example. For instance, on the screen you can see an advertising spot where I played. And there is a girl who has a challenge of representing my Gul friend in the story. Everything looks great. But that feeling is because he has been my friend for years and we have known each other for years. We are not lovers at all, but since we have known each other for years. We had the confidence to do that performance. In other words, there was an advanced path, which was an advantage to represent the lovers. But if that road is not done, we must create coexistence between the actors so that the actors feel comfortable talking to each other, touching each other. That there is no difficulty in filming. That there is not discomfort on said, it could also be the case that they don't know each other and they do it perfectly. But generally they are rehearsal of the complicated scenes to be able to solve those problems before the shooting, during filming. These problems cannot be solved on sad because every second costs a lot of money. This is not only for emotions between lovers, but the relationships between a father and son, A mother and a daughter grandparent, and any kind of relatives that imply great affection. In my experience, friendship between actors is something powerful, even more than Romans. It's far more that kind of trust that you can feel with your friends. As directors, you have to try to create the environment that allows the actors to build this friendship. There are some examples in the history of cinema, great movies where the actor seems to have a great connection, That chemistry that is so good that you must take advantage of it. The second stage of the actor direction has to do with the challenges on set discipline. This has to do with the conditions that must exist on set so that the actors can play in the best way. I mean, the most important thing for actors while playing is concentration and relaxation. In order to ensure this, it's necessary that the production manager has the ability to generate that on set, to generate discipline among the crew members. That is not that easy job. There are many times where the actors must resort to the emotional memory technique, which consists of a connecting with a personal memory of any nature to evoke the motion that the scene needs. This process is very complex and requires absolute silence on set. This silence is sometimes difficult to chip on set because there are 20 or 30 people working in a specific task and it's a common situation, people talking about production problems, et cetera. But despite that, the actors are trying to focus on emotion and recreate a reality in their minds, and that process is very difficult. At the same time, not to mention that the actor or actress has to play in front of an entire production team. There are a whole series of distracting, intimidating factors that must be taken into account. On the other hand, directors, when dealing with actors, must take into account breathing. This process is important to stimulate emotions. The normal breathing process is essential for the actors. You must pay attention that the nerves are not preventing the actors from breathing. Sometimes the actors stop breathing due to the tension generated, but the noise is on set. That is why I mentioned to you about discipline. Discipline is the only thing that will guarantee this onset. Obviously, the created team cannot take care of this. There must be a production manager who does it. On the other hand, there are other aspects that are important during filming. When we are shooting a scene where an actress is looking at some point in the direction of her gaze. Can be no crew member crossed because the actor must concentrate on her mind and what she's seeing can distract her. I mean, we cannot wait for the actor to tell us, hey, sorry, could you move to another place? Because she is losing concentration. This cannot happen. And said, we must know that from the very beginning because there are moments in the performance that are unrepetable. In the case of conversation, since this is easier, because only the main actor of the scene is in our frame, but the other actor can be in front of the main actor vision to make field in the conversation. But when we are in a contemplative scene, when our character or actress is looking somewhere or something in depth and thought, there can be no distracting elements in front of her vision. Not even the director should be in front of the actor. Sometimes you have to limit the number of people in set so that the concentration is not lost. On the other hand, the same is going to happen with the camera traveling. No camera movement should limit the actor's performance, neither the camera movement, not the direction of photography. For example, sometimes the director or cinematographer is so focused on the aesthetics of the shot that they force the actor to make a natural movement in order to be perfect balance to the frame composition. This doesn't make any sense when this happens. This is an underlying problem in the shooting. But there is another important aspect when directing actors, and that is understand the difference between theatrical and cinematic acting language. In most cases, the artists world tends to think that theater actors are better than film actors. This is a big mistake because the two languages are completely different. We cannot approach film actors from the point of view of a theater director. The main problem is that plays are made in production terms for an audience located a much greater distance than the distance we are going to have with the screen. Therefore, the actors have to gesticulate, I mean, move their faces and bodies in a way with a language that last person in the theater can fully see here, understand and fill the story. In cinema, this doesn't happen, the distance between the actors and the camera is very shorte. The performance must be completely natural. It's a completely different challenges. In many cases, there are theater directors in the castings who are not able to understand this difference. On the other hand, in terms of acting, theater is representation and cinema is reality. For example, it's possible that you are a great theater actor because of your astronic abilities, adapt to that language, but you cannot adapt that to the cinema language. I mean, this is completely normal in that astronic language can perfectly represent any motion in theater. And that is the reason why many times there are directors who choose actors from everyday life. I mean, they choose a person who seems interesting to them and then audition them to see if they are capable of behaving in the same way in front of the camera. Acting in movies is very complex, cruel, and sincere. Because in movies it's very difficult to lie. Very difficult. Perhaps in theater, you could be deceiving the audience by exaggerating your crime. For example, exaggerating your anger in a play. It could work because everyone is aware, that is a play. But when you are acting real emotions, acting completely naturally in a movie scene, keeping your focus, not thinking you are acting, is a very difficult task. I mean, you had to be aware of how the voice of a human being changes in a natural conversation. The different tones of voice, how we move, how we look. Finally, I highly recommend you as directors to observe people around you in the everyday life. Learn from gravity, from your own relatives, when they are crying, when they are angry, when they are happy. I see you in the next lesson. 15. Sound design: The sound design. This lesson is strategic because the idea is that you have the ability to manage the sound department and above of all things that you lose fear to deal with sound design, there is sound editing and sound recording. Let's start with the sound recording. The fundamental principle is to record the actor's performance in acoustic terms. It's the most important thing when it comes to shooting, because the actors actions are often unrepeatable. It's the actor's talent in the purest nature. The sound should be faithful to the performance displayed in the shooting. For this to be possible, it's necessary to use professional microphones. With condensers, there are unidirectional microphones and omnidirectional, We are supposed to learn them to use them all depending on what we are going to do on set. That will depend also on what the sound designer is going to do next in the editing. In general rules, when it comes to recording the sound of sin, there will be two main acoustic sources. Those sources recorded by Bomb, which is that stick that holds the microphone above the boom, can actually hold either unidirectional or omnidirectional microphones. That is very simple. The omnidirectional microphone allows us to capture the general sound of the place in a relatively open area nearby the microphone. On the other hand, we use unidirectional to capture a specific sound source. I mean, we take the same boom stick by pointing out the microphone towards the person's mouth, for example. But this unidirectional microphone can also be used to capture the sound of an actor's action. For instance, the actor's footsteps, clothes, anything. The microphone will isolate the sound of the environment in a large percentage, leaving only the one we want. All these audios that we capture will be used by the sound editor later on. But on the other hand, we can use this boom to complement another kind of microphones. For instance, we can use a tie microphone, like the one I'm using right now, to capture as closely as possible the actor's voice breathing or panting. The problem with this microphones is that since they are hidden inside the clothing, the richness of the higher frequencies are lost. Of course, the size of the microphone also limits the sound quality somewhat. But we can mix perfectly with this boom using either the two types of microphones, omnidirectional or unidirectional. But on the other hand, we have to be aware of the film directing principle when it comes to using each of these combinations. When we are shooting sin, for example, we choose how or how far the camera is from the actors. Let's suppose that we choose a meeting shot, or an American shot cowboy shot that reaches the knees. And there are two characters having a conversation. The sound captured by the time microphone is not the most appropriate because there is a distance between the camera and the actor's face that doesn't match with the distance between the time microphone and the actor's mouth open. In that case, the most appropriate thing would be to hide the boom with the directional microphone in such a way that it's not seen within the frame. Point towards the actor's mouth, capturing a good sound voice with enough distance that matches the middle shot. Or that American shot. I have seen this mistake made even in a professional level. But pay attention. This doesn't mean that the, thy microphone cannot work for this kind of shot. But if we used them in the edition later on, we would have to add Revert to the sound so that it represents that distance between the camera and the actor's mouth. If we find a way to use the boom, well, the sound quality will be much better and real. However, the time microphone can be very useful and aesthetic. In the following case, let's imagine that we have to do an open shot. This wide open shot with these two same characters having a conversation in the background. The sound of the time microphone recreates the intimacy that they are having, as if we were witnesses of that conversation. But seeing them from the distance, seeing them from outside, it's cinematic, it's artistic, and this is a special case. But in general rules, we must respect the distance. Obviously. The closer the shot is to the face, the closer the voice is hard to be heard. Even if you need to capture the whisper in the, Thy microphone seems to be suitable for that. The unidirectional microphone would be much more useful and beautiful due to the proximity of the shot. The sound technician will have the possibility of moving around and getting closer during the recording so that the microphone points towards the mouth. And we will have a high quality recording. Of course, they are very expensive level ear or thy microphones are just as good as the average uni directional microphone. But I'm talking about a context where you want to shoot a short film or a low back jet movie. It's important to know that the sound technician is coordinated with the script. That person who takes the order of the shot so that the editor can identify the data on the recording device later on. Remember what I told you about the clapper board. The clapper board, top stick is recorded by the device and the scene identification that the clapper loader says will be recorded also. On the other hand, when we had already shot sin and we have recorded actors performance, it's necessary to make a wild track. A wild track is nothing more than the recording of all those sounds that the actors make in the scenes, the cloth, the steps of the environment. These sounds will be used by the sound later on to do the sound editing in layers, which will allow to create a more immersive acoustic experience. To recap, remember that there are unidirectional microphones and omnidirectional. Unidirectional will allow you to record what we have in front of us in the target we are aiming at with the boom. On the other hand, the omnidirectional will allow you to record everything is around the microphone. In the nearby space on the screen, you can see a graph where is depicted how the microphone behaves. The bubble is the space from which it's capturing sound. Each microphone has these graphics in its instructions to know exactly how it works. Remember also the distance between the actor's mouth and the microphone must be coincide with the shot. That is critical, because it will provide a very professional touch to your work. An example of this could be a scene where the actors is screaming. For example, the microphone cannot be in the actor's mouth. It cannot be a ti, microphone. Because to make the scream sound real, the sound of that scream must bounce around the entire space where the actor is always. Remember that sounds travel through air. All of that is part of the sound design for sound editing. From my point of view, the most important thing as director is to have pants in the mix. As a narrative element, sound design is made in layers. We can play with every element sounding in the scene and also with the proportions in terms of how far and how nearby there are. Therefore, we had the possibility of playing with this as a tool to build point of view, to build environments, and to add distant elements in sin that are part of the narrative richness of the film script. We can create very complex environments by adding sound elements in the distance. Well equalized, as directors we have to be able to give these instructions to the sound so that he uses it as a language. I'm going to show you an example of this. It's the same scene that I showed you in the past lessons where the woman was crying in the distance. But this time you're going to pay attention to something else. Try to find some good headphones and pay attention to how the characters footsteps moved from right to left. You know just how interesting this is. I mean, we expanding to make you feel the presence of the character in the space is a great narrative device. In the same way as the woman crying in the distance. It's also important that you develop sensitivity to reverberation. Reverberation is that effect that allows to enlarge the space where an element is sounded. For example, it's possible that in your shot, the only acoustic source that you have is the sound from the Time microphone. But Racine is in a charge hole in the sound edition. You should be able to provide the precise instructions to the sound editor to add these effects to the voices and have a general notion how much rever should be applied to those voices. This is not exclusive to the sound editor. You must also provide your point of view and precise instructions. But not least is that we must take into account the wind and the environment. I mean, the atmospheric details. They must be added in layers to the sound editing. All of these are part of the sound design and works as a narrative device that generates an immersive experience for the audience. Put all this into practice and remember to never be afraid to make mistakes. I see you in the next lesson. 16. Director's Strength: The director's strength. This quality is the central axis of the film project. Is what defines the director's attitude and the connection that he may has with his army. That little army, that is the production team or the production crew is not that different from an orchestral director. The film director is that person to be trusted creatively and artistically, is that person who must convey calm and confidence to the work team to delegate actions based on the general vision he has of the project. A film director cannot be a person who only knows how to operate the camera or how to write a script. A film director has to know everything he or she has to know a lot of things, a lot of everyday things, general knowledge, art history. The film director is supposed to know many things in order to have tools that allow him or allow her to communicate with the creative production team. And of course, to craft his own language. In order to create trust in different departments, it's necessary to speak with a clear point of view. We must have the ability to speak in the language that the sound designer, sound engineer speaks. The language of the cinematographer, speaks the language of the screenwriter. That is the reason why directors need to know what a script is like, what the writing devices are, and also the blood points how to build a Aracure. We can have a great general idea, but if we don't know how to explain it in the appropriate technical language, the communication process with the created team becomes useless in the sense it's important. A inner humility is that kind of humility that nobody observes, that nobody realizes that you have it or not. But that inner humility is what allows you to always continue learning. That is, never feel that you know too much about something in your mind. Another important aspect, especially when it comes to star leading and a small film crew, is that you must be an example of effort for your team. If there is something common that happens in some film, in shootings, it's ego struggles. Sometimes it seems that one person works more than another. And I believe that the director in this matter should be an example of discipline and effort. Although the film director is involved in the creative part, you must make the team feel that you are working as hard as everyone. Make them feel that you are as busy as everyone. I have seen many times during all these years, especially in advertising projects, in advertising contexts where the director is just sitting in a chair, just looking at the monitor, talking from confortable position in the end that will be seen in the final finish. Because the director is not aware of those little details that are what take your movie or film project to the next level. I mean, to achieve that, it's always necessary to have a general artistic vision that in one way or another, the director is constantly taking care of. It doesn't matter if it's an advertising, There is always this general artistic vision that must be taken care of in detail. The most important thing about this vision is knowledge. Knowledge is the only thing that allows the director to note or find out the ideas of the different created teams are possible or not are plausible or not, if they are worth for the film project or not. On the other hand, it's important to talk about respect. It's so important to talk about this at this time. Because many of you are going to start working as assistants of any nature in film and you are going to move on to higher positions as you progress in your career. It's important to respect the director, the decisions, leadership role at the time of shooting. Sometimes it's common for experienced actors, those who have already been filming for many years, they pretend to give guidelines to John Directors, I'm not saying that they cannot make suggestions, but they must respect director's leadership because the team is supposed to have put their trust on him or her. And that attitude can be detrimental to that trust, thereby spoiling the workflow on set. The work team needs to feel confident in what the director is doing, if you actor or actress, or an assistant, or technician, and start arguing with the director. At the time of shooting about his ideas. It's a total disrespect because regardless of whether you are right or not, because maybe you are right, but it's not your responsibility. It's not your job and you will damage the director's image of confidence and set, and most importantly, they are going to hate you for doing that. In addition, always remember that sometimes the director has an idea in his mind and we are not capable of seeing that. So we must follow the directors quietly and respectfully to learn always and be open to help. I really invite you to become a kind of sponge of knowledge, learn about science, about politics, or anything that can fit your creativity. On the other hand, you must get involved with the new audio visual technologies that have to do with the new forms of communication and storytelling. Nowadays, it's increasingly difficult to surprise the audience because the ways of narrating are repeated over and over again. It's necessary to know about new narratives and storytelling to improve our audio visual language. But in any case, an example of this is art. In his latest films, what he has done is transferred the new language of video games to cinema. I mean there are in video games called Open World, where the character we control represents a avatar. This character is interaction. And living in a world as if we were ourselves in art to want to transfer those sensations and experiences to the cinema. Especially in the Revenant and Bertman, those films make us feel like a video game. Generally, these in movies are full of continuous sequences that allow us to fill in the place. The absence of cut allow us to have an immersive experience. And this kind of experience are the subject of the new technologies. But not only Nartu has worked with this, even in another movie called 1917 by Sean Mendez, he also plays with this. It's important to take into account that that was not in the script. It was the director's mind because they had been in the context with the new ways of the story telling. We must ask ourselves if we are in enough contact with the new languages and technologies. That is why I tell you that a director must creative capacity to creatively and artistically solve all the challenges of the film script. Remember that the film direction is always interpreting a film script. The more tools you have to do it, the better it will be. That is the reason why I believe that the contemporary era requires that we know a little about everything. Because nowadays, there is more and more access to the information everywhere. I mean, the access to knowledge is not as limited as before. On the other hand, the film director also has to have a network of responsibility with his environment. Not only the environment, but also the society to which he belongs. Almost all of us have a message to give. Sometimes we are not aware of our own message. But that message has to do with what we live as human beings, what we saw around us during our lives, and also with our shortcomings. That is the true fuel of the film director, no matter what anyone else says. What really takes your story to the next level is the motivation you have about it. How much desire you have to tell that story. Because only when we love a story too much, we managed to make the necessary effort and see the minimal details that would lead your project to success. Only when we give a lot of dedication to a project can we inspire other people. At the beginning, we are going to have to get together a work team. And that work team must trust your idea. Even trust you when you are making mistakes. And to be able to do that, you must make others fall in love with your project, with your motivation, have a vision that your project will be successful in order to convince that word team that you are going to reach the goals that they are setting for themselves at the beginning. I must also confess that you cannot wait for all the answers to be resolved from the beginning. There is a percentage that is always at risk. So risking is always good. If you don't risk, you don't win. So at first, don't be afraid to do risker things because from there you will realize that sometimes are possible to do a plausible, even though you have a small budget. I also invite you to do a scientific process called focus group. Once you make your film or commercials do a focus group, it's much more reliable than asking your film teachers about your film. What you are going to do is gather enough people that you think may be clear. Obviously people who like cinema and ask them about your film. Get a space for discussion to find out what is their opinion about your work. Always take them into account. And I see you in the next lesson. 17. The Editing: The montage, the editing. The most exciting moment once we had finished our shooting. Once we had recorded the sound, well, once we had all the elements with which we will assemble the film, it's time to edit. But there is a capacity that the film director has to develop when it comes to editing, whose fundamentals come from the screen writing stage? Obviously, in this matter, the script. It's also important, I mean, the crew member, he or she has the guidelines to keep the order of the scenes and also which are the best shots, the best sequences and sounds that were recorded. To have a reliable idea of what the editor is going to use in the montage. But the truth is that when it comes to filmmaking, not everything is completely set. That means unexpected things happen. I mean, unforeseen events that are often good and sometimes we don't realize these details at the time of the shooting. Sometimes we are not aware of some details that the camera managed to capture during shootings because we are distracted by so many things that it's possible that some very good elements or details escape our sight. However, when we do the first viewing of the footage, I mean the data, we had to have the ability to extract new things from it, things that fit the film, that nurture the story, that make it grow. Because we must have signifiers that help us accompany all those ideas that were shot based on the screenplay. Once we visualize the data, the second task is to find out what the best moments of each scenes are. As directors, maybe during the shootings, we told the script to take note of a specific scene that we thought was good, for example. But maybe later on when we visualize the raw material, we realized that another sine is fatter and we had to be able to detect. Good editors usually do it, but we cannot leave all that responsibility to them. As directors, we must make the selection of the best moments of the shots. Remember that usually set several shots of the same performance are recorded on several takes. We must have the sensitivity to use the best of the best in terms of cinematography, color, camera, and actors performance. I know that maybe you are thinking right now, what does the editor do? So, editors are supposed to do this by themselves. The problem is that the one who has the vision of the movie is you. If the editor is really good, he will do the work better than you. But I insist that we start making movies. That is not going to happen in low object projects, for example. There are always limitations of all nature. Sometimes the opportunity to do a great job is lost by editors who are not capable to do that job. Good, who don't know how to choose the best of the shots and sequences. It's a shame that your project in which you have worked so hard to make it possible is waste because of it. But what is essential in editing? What is the most basic principle? Editing has to start from the screenplay. Since we know that the screenplay page is 60 seconds long, we should be able to edit that page to make the 60 seconds together in editing. In other words, in the data we are likely to have a lot footage related to one page of the screenplay, but the editor must organize that footage in such a way that it doesn't exceed those 60 seconds. The problem is that if you exceed that time in a specific moment of screenplay, you can destroy the pace and narrative of the movie. I mean, the non dietic time. The most interesting thing about this process is that it allows us to discover how long the actions in a story really last. By editing, we will become better writers because sometimes we try to squeeze a sine to squeeze a quite long action into one single paragraph, that action actually lasts more than 1 minute. The problem is that if we write that action in a narrative part of the script, that altogether should last 35 minutes, we are adding extra minutes and minutes to that part of the screenplay, and as a consequence, destroying the rhythm and the location of the plot points in the story. All of this is related to the structure that we already saw in the previous lessons. Maybe if we do it in one or two sequences of a feature film is not that problem. I mean, we exceed 1 minute or even two in some specific sense. But when it comes to making a short film differently, this that's affected because most of short films are supposed to last 15 minutes or less. This exponential equation of adding minutes to the sequences is really going to create a problem for you. This whole process is going to change your mind as a film director because you're going to have to develop narrative skills that allow you to summarize part of the screenplay. I mean, knowing what is really important or not for the screenplay, the truth is that as a film directors, when we are shooting a series of scenes, we have to do a editing in our mind. In fact, I think this should start from the very writing process, but the only way to become a better writer is to know how long a scene really lasts, or any unit, a faction of it. One piece of advice that I give you is that while writing, try to use musical pieces to control the time of actions. In this way, you could rehearse with the actors with the rhythm and time of those musical pieces. You will know exactly how long the actions are and the screenplay last. On the other hand, it's necessary to pay close attention to the musicality and the rhythm of the scene. Emotion must be controlled in the progress of the scenes because sometimes we must exchange them so as not to cause discomfort in the viewer. It's possible that a part of the screenplay has a very strong emotional charge between consecutive emotional scenes in the montage, but we are able to solve that. I mean, in the same way as a son has several parts that the audience relaxes and get excited at certain moments. Our movies will also have that feature. Summing up, I would say that the most important elements are these, the selection and filtering the best moments of the shots and scenes. Remember that the rhythm and the motions in the scenes are supposed to be aesthetic and pleasant for the viewer. In addition, the most important thing is that if we are working with a screenwriter, as long as we have more editing skills, we will be able to communicate better with that screenwriter as well. Because we will know if what they are writing makes sense or not. Perhaps the screenwriter comes from the literature and we should take them to the field of cinema. All these details are important to making. Understand how long the actions really last on paper. On the other hand, there are many software when it comes to editing Premiere, Abbott, Da Vinci, all of them are perfect. On the other hand, generally editors also do image color correction. But a really professional level, there are two completely different jobs. Color correction really requires a technique of another nature, also a specific device, and specialized screens to correct the color of the images properly. The most important thing in editing is knowing that the film is not ready until the editing making process is finished. Besides if there is someone who can become a great movie writer, it's an editor because almost always they have to repair those mistakes that are previously made in the screenplay. Professional editors have seen so many sequences and scenes, thereby having enough ideas about the rhythm and emotional structure of a mondage. On the other hand, in editing, you can sometimes repair direction mistakes or to correct the cinematography in terms of amount of light that AC should has. For example, nowadays it's customary to record with much higher resolution than the final product. We can reframe the shots and create a new shot with better balance. For example, it's a second chance in visual terms. Actually, it's something very simple that can be done in any editing software that allows you to practically make a new direction of photography from any shot. On the other hand, a question that I always get asked, should the editor be able to edit the sound? Yes, he can do it. But a non professional level, I mean, if you want a completely professional result, it should be done by a professional sound designer in a software solely dedicated to that. Video editing is something that is becoming more accessible to everyone. I mean, there is many accessible software to it professionally. In fact, Youtubers or most of them are very good at editing video, but one thing is to edit a video for Youtube or Instagram, and another completely different is to edit a movie or an advertising spot. The skills are not the same. The specialization in software is not the same actually, and above all, the knowledge about cinema is not provided by any editing software. To be able to edit cinema well, it's necessary to know everything we have been talking about so far in order to have the precise tools to handle any software very well for any film project. I see you in the next lesson. 18. Soundtracks: Film scoring and soundtracks. Maybe this is one of the topics that I must connect with in terms of sound and music. Because the soundtrack is the music that will be in the background of our scenes. Selecting where the music goes into the montage where it should start playing. And stop is a task that requires a lot of practice. It requires watching many movies and developing as much sensitivity to find out which is the most appropriate music that our story needs. Basically, this knowledge begins by understanding the scoring. On the other hand, the dietic music. Dietic music is all those songs or music produced by elements in the story, in the scenes. For instance, in Titanic, the small orchestra that play at the party and even while the ship is sinking, it is a very creative way of using music that belongs to the soundtrack, of course. In fact, in the case of Titanic, it was the composer himself, James Horner, who composed the music of the orchestra. But Quentin Tarantino also uses this for things like music devices in rooms like stereos, et cetera. Another example is the movie Braveheart. In that movie, in the scene where we see the Scottish at the funeral of Wallace's father playing the bagpipes, that is an extraordinary dietic music because it allows to connect a music that the composer has created, especially for the film, to the reality of the story. That gives added value to the film because not only the audience is hearing the melodies, but the characters are also hearing it. Another challenge when trying to mind in what the soundtrack will be is knowing how to choose the exact emotional touch the music may have. This emotional tone has to do with the time in which we are making the film project. When I say time, I mean the year. What I'm telling you this, because no matter how much in love we are with those soundtracks from '90s or even older, the music in movies has changed and keep changing. As a film director, we must understand that technology has changed music and we have to know those changes in terms of sound and how traditional orchestration has gone to digital orchestration. Of course, all the sensations generated by the music depends on the film gebre. But with respect to what I mentioned to you about the mixture of music with technology, an example of this is hands. There is a scene from the Moving Interestler, where hand simmers unleashes all his compositional power through digitally synthetized instruments in order to build a music that represents the size of that great sea wave of that planet full of water. He managed to use the low frequencies of digital instruments to build an immersive experience into this giant sea wave crossing the sky. Obviously, that was the wish of the director, Christopher Nolan, who told Han, I need the music that represents all the power of that Unknown ocean. On the other hand, as film directors, we must be aware of the use of low frequencies. For instance, that music sounds a low enough frequency so that it doesn't collide with the sound of a sine with the dialogs, for example. That was not possible 20 years ago because technology did not allow it, because traditional orchestras cannot reach such low frequency. But nowadays you are able to do it because today digital instruments can reach almost any frequency. Even to trigger sometimes as low as the soup buffer. That means that composers are using these elements to create things that the composer of '90s were not able to create. Check out this example of a soundtrack I composed for one of myosins using low frequencies. Yes too. See I'm pres wine you Catalano to me, Papa Mata. Yago Pepa, When I swear P. Pedro go, oh I. How do you notice how interesting this is? It's a soundtrack made entirely with digital instruments. It also has traditional orchestration arrangements using media technology, but it has a contemporary sound. It's necessary to understand this language, to also be able to communicate with the composers properly. To foster this commmunication process, it's necessary to understand the noting Noting is the process in which we add musical pieces of any sources to the montage, to the editing in order to assemble the scenes with the possible rhythm and music they may have. That is extremely important because there is no way to describing words exactly what kind of music you want for your movie. The composer needs to have clear references in terms of instruments, tone, melodies, and rhythm. It's very common, even at a professional level. You can imagine how common it is to make this mistake simple because you didn't have this knowledge, thereby making a composer to make music without giving him any reference. I mean, just talking him and trying to describe in words the music you want. That will make the composer waste a lot of time and effort. As a film director, you have to be able to give the composer enough references by using noting. The composer tells you honestly if he's capable or not to make that music. These pictures that you are watching at this moment are from the movie cast away, which has an extraordinary noting, of course, a great soundtrack by Alan Silvestre. You know that the character leaves a large part of the film on the island. We don't hear any music. Only the sound of the sea in the silence that tells us about the loneliness that the character has. But it's not until he leaves the island on the raft and crosses that big wave to escape that moment where he continues rolling towards the ocean. And then he turns around and sees the island from the far right there. The music at that moment begins to play. That music composed by Alan Silverstreet. Why does it play right there? Because now we are beholding the island from memory. So the music is representing everything that the character is feeling inside. Once he leaves and says goodbye to the island with his eyes, we don't need to see memories of what he did on the island. We already saw that. And we have it in our memory. In the same way as the character has it now. We are just feeling the same as the character. I mean, we remember the love, the cry, the effort, and the time he lives on the island. Those are the moments that make us fall in love with the cinema. It's an extraordinary way to make a noting. A very good noting that the composer didn't need to create too much music for the movie because only the right amount was needed for a specific scene. There are movies that have a lot of music and they are also extraordinary. But even though try to in the music well, so in order not to do what bad movies usually do, I mean write 2 hours of music and then lower and raise the volm of the music throughout the film. Finally, I highly recommend you listening to a lot of music. We all like music. The more music we listen to, the more tools we will have to communicate with the composer and with the editors. Thank you very much and I see you in the next lesson. 19. Special Effects And Visual Effects: The special effects and visual effects. If there is something that is going to have a direct impact on the film object is the amount of special and visual effects that our film may has. However, we must try not to see a special effects or visual effects as something that will give a wet bite on your film object, thereby limiting the possibilities of making it. We must try not to see this as something that is impossible to do with limited means. On the contrary, we had to see it as a possibility to do incredible things as independent directors. I mean, by using special and visual effects properly, we had the chance to do things that perhaps, would be impossible to do it in the traditional way. First of all, we had to differentiate the special and visual effects. It's something very simple. Special effects are effects made physically set, like wounds, real explosions, blood fire. But on the other hand, the visual effects can be exactly the same by using a computer device, using digital technology addition. When it comes to creating effects, it's always best to start by understanding a basic foundation about cinematic effects, observation layers. When I started working on historical films, I understood the topic about observation layers coming across providers which offers customized services for any kind of film project. I understood that depending on the kind of shot and also the characteristics of the film project, all the details that appear on the screen in terms of costumes props, will be crafted with more or less details. I was asking about a quotation for some prop rifles at that time, for a large number of soldiers. And the first thing they asked me was, how far is that army in the scene? Do they look far? Do they look nearby? Because depending on how many rifles details were seen in the camera, it was going to be necessary to put more or less details on the rifles, thereby increasing the back jet that is fundamental when making a movie back jet. Imagine taking this exponentially to a large production. We could spend a lot of money doing useless things, thereby squandering the back jet. This topic is not only for film directors, but also for good film producers. I'm going to give you an example. Let's suppose that this is the shot. Look at how far away these audios are at that distance. It's not possible to see the small details, data had to be completely real. I mean, it's not necessary for all those customs to be real. Therefore, it's also not necessary that all effects at that distance be a special effect. Because if we mix that general shot with a closer shot where maybe six or ten soldiers appear, I mean few soldiers who have completely real rifles and clothing. The viewer would not doubt the rifles and clothing of that distance shot are exactly the same. The same visual illusion happens with visual effects. So when we use visual effects to replace things that are not in our possibilities to do, we will be able to play with this same principle to make it. Of course, we will be using special effects up close and on the other hand, visual effects from far away, thereby saving a lot of money. Regarding human attention process, it's important to know how visual effects and also special effects work. When a person is watching a movie, his psych increases by 20 points due to motivation. In other words, the viewer can really tell when a visual effect is convincing or not. This cannot be underestimated. Therefore, to convince the viewer with our effects, it's necessary to play with the duration of the shots, especially when the visual effects are not of the highest quality. So what I'm trying to teach you is that from the very beginning, you had to know what are the shots of your shooting, where the visual effects are going to be in those shots, and what is the duration of these visual effects. All of these, so that defects designers had real odds of doing those effects. This could be fire horses, explosions, weather, digital army is anything. I'm going to give you an example if you want to make a horse army. I mean, you want to have a horse army on your sine, but what you have are five horses on set. You could perfectly combine close shots of those five horses with a large shot, with an entire horse army created with three them. Modeling. Because in the context of an indie movie, it's easier to get a few good horses and then hire a three D animator to may design the rest of the horses well enough in a clever shot, not showing too much details, thereby getting a completely professional look. You cannot imagine how many movies you have seen in which this strategy was used. And you haven't noticed it. Remember again that the special effects are those that are made physically on set and the visual effects are those made digitally. On the other hand, despite technological advances, there are directors who prefer to use real effects than the digital ones. You had to learn to mix them as well as possible to cause the visual sensation. Both kind of effects require resources, require Bok Jet because special effects demand objects, substances stunts liquid fuels and specialized stuff. On the other hand, the visual effects require specialized team that has to spend hours and hours in front of a computer working on it. So you are supposed to start planning this from the very beginning, from the screenplay. The screenwriter, from my point of view, has to learn to write a screenplay based on a specific kind of project. I mean, if I'm going to write a independent moving, at least in terms of visual and special effects, the scenes must be written in the context of an independent movie. We cannot write impossible things to do. Let's take a look at this. On the screen, you can see an example of what I'm telling you. We're going to see horses in the scene, and the first horses we see are obviously real. But then in the shot where the house is burning, burning in the background, the horses are designed with visual effects. When you see this scene for the first time, you don't doubt it. Because if you are focused on the story and previously you see the real horses, you wouldn't doubt that those horses you will see later are fake. Later on, there is even another scene where an army approaches a mountain at that point of the story. If you were concentrating on the story, you are not going to wonder if the soldiers are real or not. And that is due to the human attention process. I'm going to leave you the Holy scene, so that you can see everything in better detail. He did you notice maybe seeing it at this moment in isolation, you are able to notice it. But the truth is that at this point in the story, you have already seen several real scenes with real horses and soldiers. So doubting if they are real or not in one single shot is not likely to happen. The shot is not that long. Maybe as I already told you that they were made digitally, you are ready predisposed to see them in that way. But if you were experiencing watching the movie for the first time, it's very difficult to notice it. For example, look at this battle at the beginning. In fact, even in terms of production, you can tell if they were able to do this battle with horses and props, et cetera. You won't be wondering why that little group of soldiers at the end would not be real. Notice that there are soldiers wearing blue uniforms. The soldiers that we saw at the end approaching the mountain were also blue. You can add as many referential factors that help to make the precise reading if you want the precise reading you want regarding this scene. Of course, James Cameron is an expert at doing this because he managed to do it in such a way in Terminator and Titanic that even if you were a professional, and you notice that there are digital elements mixed with real shots, you are not going to complain about it because everything is so powerful that you are not going to focus too much on visual effects. I mean, what I'm trying to say is that the best strategy to hide a special and visual effect is to have a good story when the viewer is connected throughout the whole movie. So they're not supposed to pay attention to those details unless they're really bad, of course. But in general terms, as you have seen so far, it's a mixture of various distracting factors and elements. What make the special and visual effects look real. But you may wonder what you can do to access digital technology to make the visual effects. Of course, the truth is that there are certain kind of visual effects in which you don't need a great professional expert to make them look real and to look good enough for your story. The gunshot and blood effects that you saw were made with a library that has been around for a few years called Action Essentials. These libraries are nothing but previously short videos with all those elements like sparks, explosions, blood, dust, et cetera. And these little videos are recorded with a green screen or a green background. Then with the chromakey process, they remove the background. They then pack a ap, these little videos as a product called Action Essentials. Ideally, you should do these videos yourself, but this requires money. Of course, if you don't have enough money to afford creating those visual effects from scratch, I highly recommend you to purchase Action Essentials or any similar video you can find in line. Because the wrong way would be to try to do what the company that designed the action essentials did, but not having enough money to make it. So you're moving is going to look like you are somehow trying to look professional and failing. The most important thing about this knowledge is being successful, because even having all the money on the world. Remember that if you don't have a good story, a good project audience is likely to become more connected to the special effects than the characters, and that is absolutely detrimental to the film project. I see you in the next lesson. 20. Ending The Art of Filmmaking: Well, this filmmaking course comes to this end. The most important thing is that I'm going to update it eventually with more lessons, especially concerning the understanding of cinematographic language. I believe that this is essential to become better, better filmmakers, better videographers also put everything into practice. As I told you, consume quality art, develop your own sensitivity to moving images, and also the sound dimension. Well, if you like this course, you can leave me a review because it will help me a lot to create even better courses than this one. Until the next time.