Tips to Consider for Beginners in Filmmaking
Film making is very hard but not impossible. With the advent of YouTube and similar posting sites, anyone can create a masterpiece and offer it to the world. Let’s start small though with a five minute original. So what do you need?
A Plot – A good story is not necessarily blood guts and gore; it can be a heartfelt story that means something to you. A documentary, fiction, drama, any subject matter is relevant as long as it is a story that you truly believe needs to be told. Where do all the socks go?
A Script – Now a plot and a script are two diverse beasts. A script is a recipe as to how the plot will unfold. Make it detailed. Know how you will impart the plot. This may be through actors interacting between themselves and the environment; you may use imagery or simply film events as they occur. Whatever your method know exactly what you are expecting, your intentions and realistic expected results.
Equipment and Resources – You don’t have to be paramount studios to shoot footage but having good quality basics will be reflected in the product you produce. Sound and lighting are usually the areas that are paid the least amount of attention and these are the two major areas that will let your production down. Don’t buy, hire! Most equipment these days comes with a training DVD or you can you tube how to use the equipment for your shoot. You can also post advertisements on appropriate sites seeking technicians with equipment who may work for credits, kudos or in some cases.
Cameras – Who is your audience and where are you screening your five minute wonder? If your intention is to screen your epic in a studio, then film with a studio quality camera. If your sites are lower, then so will be your camera. There are exceptions to camera and equipment quality, sometimes the content of a film can be so watchable that it eclipses any quality issues that the viewer might have.
You will need to splice your movie together. Most computers come with preloaded software that will enable you to put a rudimentary film together or you can download trial software. Just keep in mind, crawl before you walk, and walk before you run screaming full tilt down a mountain waving your arms.
Why Study Film Making?
Do you love a film making? Even a small school college education is getting expensive, but a film college, being a specialized kind of school can be even more expensive than a general education school. There are several reasons that Film College is so expensive and why some schools are more expensive than others. For any student who is interested in attending a film university or a parent of these students, it is important to investigate exactly what the cost will be and to compare the schools in terms of price, quality of education and other factors. The name of the school itself might be one of the most influential factors for the high cost of film education. The more prominent a school, the more they can charge for their film courses. As soon as a school gets a mention in a newly successful filmmaker’s bio or an interview with a producer or director, the price of education there will go way up, automatically. The bigger the name of the successful alumni, the higher the price for that film university will go up.
The location of the film college will also be a major factor in the cost of the education as well. Film study is a bigger business in some areas of the country than in others. Clearly, schools in areas like California and New York will be more expensive than a film university in Paducah simply because of where they are located and their close ties to the film and theater industry. There are other locations that can drive up the cost of film university education because of film festivals and other film related events.
While these are certainly places with the fertile soil to plant the seeds of vision and creativity, they are also the places of expensive film education as well. Another factor that can increase the cost of the film college is not only where the school is located but where the student is from as well. The farther the student must travel to get his or her education, the more the school will cost. The cost of travel back and forth, the cost of living at the school as well as the cost of meals while there should also be considered in addition to the cost of the film courses themselves.
The History of Filmmaking
The earliest use of moving pictures was an outcome of simple optical devices such as magic lanterns which display still images in a rapid sequence. Such device includes the projection zoetrope and the projection praxinoscope. Such early motion projection devices were demonstrated as early as the 1860′s. Reel-based film projection was not established until the late 1880′s, with much advancement contributed by Thomas Alva Edison. By the early 20th century, films such as The Great Train Robbery innovated on the art of film-making.
By using pictures that were mainly similar, but with slight differences, the presenter could communicate the effect of motion to the viewer. Naturally, the images used in these devices need to be warily designed to attain the desired effect. The underlying principle remains the basis for the cinematic genre known as animation. With the development of photography, and principally of celluloid film, it became possible to directly capture motion in the real world. Previous methods sometimes required individuals to look into a special device to perceive the pictures, but translucent film made it feasible to use a projection system to display images for an entire audience. These “moving picture shows” came to be known colloquially as movies.
The cinema was firstly purely a visual art, and many silent films were created. Presenters soon found it functional to give a commentator who could narrate the action and fill in dialogue between characters. Within a few years, films began to comprise subtitles that could display dialogue when the actors on screen “spoke.” This rendered the function of a commentator largely unnecessary.
In the 1990s and 2000s, blockbusters and franchise films have become an important part of the film industry. Cross-promotions with fast food chains and toy manufacturers, as well as international distribution, have made movies like “Titanic” and “Jurassic Park” the ambition of most major studios, signaling a move away from small, character-driven movies. The technological advances in extraordinary effects and 3-D cameras have also allowed for more opportunities for this type of work. As time passes by, filmmaking is getting advance. So, there is nothing to wonder about.
Different Challenges Of Event Filming
Event filming is more than just positioning a camera at the action – it’s about capturing the mood, the atmosphere, and the nuances that make an event unique. Hire a crew that has familiarity in filming with different ideas of events from product launches, to company kick-offs or even sales training to award ceremonies. In fact, the most important moments of your event are to capture and edit an engaging film for people to see again and again.
Event filming have huge cost-saving benefits, like training sales people who weren’t there, re-use in global internal communications, or re-purposing for PR. No matter what type of event, you should strongly consider that can be re-used as a corporate asset right through your organization. Even private or public seminars and conference, event filming can complete several purposes for conferences and event organizers. So you have to get a lasting record of your event for future references and provide a sales tool to attract next year’s visitors as well as exhibitors and of course give such products that you can use in order to add importance to your event by making a good record of presentations. This is particularly for people who cannot attend but would like to acquire a DVD of seminar content.
On the other hand, event filming can throw up different challenges that demand skill, understanding and the right tools or equipment from any video production company. Moreover, working in noisy and busy environments, for example, will have poor lighting either too much or too little demands specialist equipment and expertise. Event filming has been taking place for years and it is not new to the world of commercial business. The benefits of capturing such events are great and you will probably find that just about every major event you’ve ever been to have captured at least the keynote speakers. In addition, event filming is never been easy job because there are different means or techniques that you need to follow and some of them must be keep in mind in order to create a big success in your business.
On The Spot Filming
On live filming, there is no such story board being presented or used. All are impromptu and even the date has never settled. On the spot filming is all about how you will handle the work with the very unpredictable and sometimes stressful event. Live filming commonly happens on taping the conferences music concerts with the use only of to cameras worked in different angle and locations. Of course, the mistakes are always there and times that you have missed the chances of beautiful scenes. Even the event is on the spot, you can always come an output with a beautiful result.
On cases of live filming always remember that the closer you get the more and great visual audio information you’ll be able to capture and to grab. You must set your camera ready and the eyes must be alert. Add some fashion that you can have a glance and making a beautiful and stylish angle that will make the result more beautiful. Having a distance shot only tells that you are likely want to portray the surrounding on the location. Be at you best on portraying it and always show the best figure as well as the angle wherein people may see its beauty at best.
The result of the film also has something to do how you adjust the light and dimensioning on it. If the focus is on the certain scene or object, it must be centered and focused. The wide shot would be the establishing the shot as you will give the viewer or the audience the overall sense of the place where it took place. Get your camera set on always. There would be likely on the front shot and other must be on the back space. Take a good sense of filming the beautiful angle and the image. Take a little pinch of love, emotion and passion on what you are doing. If you have love on your work, there will be a great output if you will apply philosophy and ethics of everything you will do. Remember that work without love is slavery.