FLTV Making Movies 1 Lecture Notes PDF

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FLTV Making Movies 1 Lecture Notes...

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Lecture 1 (6/3/20): Introduction Lecture What makes a good filmmaker? ● Creativity (1% inspiration, 99% perspiration) ● Teamwork, communication and flexibility ● Critical thinking, analysis and problem solving Watching films like a filmmaker ● Cannot just enjoy films, must watch and figure out what techniques were used in it’s making ● Ask yourself questions as you watch ○ i.e what cameras were used? How much is visual effects/live action? What colour scheme are they using to create a mood? Half of lecture - Spent watching Singing in the Rain whilst completing a Socrative quiz live ___________________________________________________________________________________ Lecture 2 (13/3/20): The Magic of the Movies (How films are made): Singing in the Rain Main theme; In order to find love, you need to break through and be real/genuine. ● Falling in love is like having the ground unravel beneath you; Cathy shakes Don’s confidence but also key with him finding success. Film argues love is like an umbrella/shelter in a storm and can help you get through hard times. ● Truth vs. illusion; to find any real happiness in Hollywood, must be in sync with yourself. See this when Cathy is revealed to be the real singer in the film rather than Lina. A lot of directing is editorial; must make choices as a director about how you want a scene to go Sketch storyboards PRODUCTION PROCESS: ★ Divided into three major parts… DEVELOPMENT: Screenwriting, optioning the script, financing the film ● Pre-Production; hire crew, equipment, storyboard scheduling, location scout, block and rehearse actors, casting, budgeting, choose hair/makeup, construct sets, make costumes, prop designs/buy, rehearse stunts, design special FX ● Production; The shoot ● Post-Production; story editing, sound design, music, dialogue recording, sound mix, colour grade DISTRIBUTION: Distributing the film the exhibitors, television, video on demand (i.e Netflix) and DVD, marketing the film

Need the ‘Green Light’: ● Zeitgeist; what is it that people are talking about currently/interested in? What’s fashionable or topical currently? ● May not have a cast that is good enough Producers: ● Have to be savvy business people ● Must be risk takers ● Need to understand deeply how movies work on a creative level and how/why audiences react ● Producers will often have more than one film going at the same time (perhaps multiple in development, a film or two in production, or filming more than one at the same time) = Producer has a ‘slate’ of films. Casting: ● Crucial film ● Must cast correctly - ‘half of directing is casting’ ● Need to be plausible (i.e can’t have a 50 year old playing an 18 year old) ● Business - if people haven’t heard of the actor, harder to sell = makes it hard for actors to break into hollywood Blocking ● Precise staging of actors in a performance ● Where actors are put/moved around or how actors move around in the frame ● SPACE, SHAPES and LINES Location and Tech Scouting: planning for locations ● Location scouting; practical matter/creative process - find where to shoot ● Tech scouting; know if there is electricity, electrical department (high voltage) to power electrical equipment like lights, how do we get gear to set/on set, technical concerns, sound Production: Core team: Writer (writing the screenplay, redraft the screenplay), Director, (interpret the script, work with actors and heads of department to realise directorial vision) Producer (finance the film) Heads of Department ● Assistant Director ● Cinematographer ● Production designer ● Gaffer - head of electrics ● Grip ● Sound Recordist

Production Team: ● Production Office (may not be on location with you) ○ Production Manager ○ Production Accountant ● Locations Manager ● Continuity ● Casting Director Camera ● Camera operator ● 1st AC/Focus Puller ● 2nd AC ● Data Wrangler

Grips ● ● ●

Lighting ● Best (Lighting) Babe ● Electrics

Sounds ● Sound recordist ● Boom operator

Best (grip) Babe Camera Grip Dolly Grip; moving the trolley with camera (on wheels)

Art Department: ● Art Director ● Set designer ● Construction foreperson ● Costume Designer ● Props manager ● Hair and makeup Post production: ● Offline editor ● Online editor ● Assistant editor ● Visual effects designer ● Sound mixer ● Composer Colour grading: ○ Colour grading refers to the choices a colourist makes (often from the director) to enhance ○ Enhancing; match other colours ○ Tools: ■ Adobe speedgrade, DaVinci resolve ■ Analyse colour and light levels ○ Need monitors ○ Don’t go overboard - have thematic reasons for the colour grading decisions

Lecture 3 (20/3/20): Genre Patineur Grotesque, 1896 ● The Humerous Roller Skater ● Marius Sester The Limelight Department 1897-1910 ● Set up at 69 Collins Street, Melbourne ● ‘The Salvation Army’ Film Department ● Australia’s first film studio ● The Soldiers of the Cross (1900) - the first use of film in a full-length dramatic representation in the world. ○ Opened at the Melbourne Town Hall (September 13th 1900 and toured Australia) ○ 13 short films, over 200 glass slides, hymns, music, prayer, oration and ran for over 2 hours ● 6 years later in 1906; first feature length narrative film is released on boxing day: ‘The story of the Kelly Gang’ ● Lumiere Brothers: ‘It has no commercial value” - How to make $ Which part of the film did we like best? What must a comedy/horror/thriller/detective/love/family film do? ● Genre sets up expectations with the audience, it is a promise ● Each genre has methods of fulfilling this contract with the audience Sound: ● The Jazz Singer (Oct 26th, 1927) al Jolson ● THE FIRST USE OF SYNCHRONISED SOUND As a result of sound, movies now could have…. Music and Dialogue: ● Movies became known as ‘The Talkies’, silent actors careers ruined ( some had terrible voices/couldn't act or talk) ● Screwball Comedy; popular in 1930s-40s ‘Bringing up Baby’ ○ Preceded by decades of fighting across Europe for women to get the vote (NZ and Aus first countries in world for women to get the vote) ○ A hybrid of both comedy and love story ○ Fast talking, battle of the sexes ○ Usually the women is sophisticated, self-confident, higher class, active in the story, battle physically and verbally, deception, chaos ○ “Sex comedies” without the sex

Comedy Everyone has faults, must accept these as no one will be perfect GENRES: ● Romantic comedy ● Slapstick ● Documentary ● Satire ● Parody ● Romantic comedy ○ Screwball Comedy ● Buddy movie ● Travelling angel ● Character based comedy ● Black comedy ● Musical comedy ●

Tragedy (Drama) ●

Teaches us faults will kill us

GENRES: ● Action ○ Superhero ■ Marvel ● The Avengers ● Adventure ● Documentary ● Thriller ● Science fiction ● Horror ● Fantasy ● Family ● Love story ● Musical ● Satire ● Art house

Thriller - ‘North by Northwest’ (1959), Alfred Hitchcock (hidden identity) ● Suspense ● Main character is an ordinary person ● May have injury, vulnerability or weakness ○ Has amnesia ● Threatened ● Fight or Flee ● Main desire to escape ● Will the character survive? ● Moody lighting ● Influenced by German Expressionism Action: ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Fight battle, explosion every 10 minutes Relentless pace Fastest cutting of all genres Fighter Desire combat Must save the world or part of it Challenges, violences, fights, battles, physical feats, frantic chases Erotic locations Central character has naivety Massive heroic score Good and Evil Usually win

Detective: ● Main Character - catch a criminal, solve a crime and/or seek the truth ● UK detectives about intelligence while USA detectives generally about character ● Fundamentally concerned with the truth ● Who is good, who is bad, who is innocent, who is guilty ● Main character will often question their own innocence or guilt and that of ally, person they love, partner, everyone. Who to trust? Want to find the truth. ● There is a lot of emphasis on the plan; the plan used to commit the crime, the plan to hide the crime, the plan the detective will use to find out who did it and the truth ● Contain more revelations then other stories and typically someone is brought to justice in the end Crime: ● Similar but more emphasis on the criminal and the fight between the hero and the criminal ● More like action films - more emphasis on the battle between the criminal and the opponent than in detective ● Criminal may be the main character Horror: ● Surprise ● Main character rarely a hero, usually a victim, often an ordinary person ● Destroys or defeats a monster ● Monster is often the main characters greatest fear made physical and ours ● Maybe a ‘ghost from the past’ ● About unconscious fears ● The monster represents what is underneath once the veneer of civilisation falls away

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What is human and what is inhuman - horror comes from the inhuman trying to enter into the human community We are fearful we won't survive Horror shows everything shutting down

Fantasy: ● Fantasy shows everything opening up ● It is about the magic that is found even in the most mundane worlds ● It explores the possibilities buried in each of us and buried in our world ● Explores imaginary worlds to show us the possibilities in our own world EXAMPLE USED: Frozen - Let it Go Bollywood: ● Completely different from hollywood ● One or two big stars lead ● Great songs. A hit or two essential ● Spectacular dance set pieces (5 or 6) ● Melodramatic plots, huge arcs ● Romance, tragedy, comedy, action, adventure, anything you can throw in ● Often formulaic plots ● Kissing taboo (less so now) ● 2-3 hours long. Value for money essential. ● Happy ending essential

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GENRE . A way of grouping films together An agreement or understanding between the film-makers, the industry and the audience A promise that the story is a certain kind of type and we will have a certain kind of emotional experience ○ Audiences will feel disappointed if these promises are made (i.e if you don’t laugh in a comedy film) We want genres to fulfil those promises and at the same time we want something new and a little bit different ○ Genres are constantly changing ○ Hybrids are more common There are many other ways of thinking about films. For example, underlying story forms including myth and fairytale. Used to have a long lasting effect on audiences.

Lecture 4 (27/3/20): Secrets of Screenwriting “All the things we achieve are things we have first imagined and then made happen.” (Australian Author, David Malouf) Where do ideas come from? ● The brain ● Every writer starts with a blank page ● Writer got annoyed and handed a blank page to director; no one would dare do that What film do you imagine while the screenplay is read? ● Actual Film: Japanese Story (written by Lecturer, Alison Tilson) ● Treaty Now: Indigenous song about having a Treaty, Hiromitsu driving across Aboriginal land ● In a suit; a stereotype of Japanese business man, need to make people like him ● Make him feel at home in a foreign place ● Every scene heading has INT. or EXT. = know if filmed inside or outside ● If writing a script, write in present tense in Courier 12 point. Write in simple sentences Punctuation Matters: ● Need commas, full stops e.t.c ● i.e; Lets eat grandma…. Questions raised? ● The unanswered question. ● Lots of questions ● i.e with the screenplay just read; who is he? Why is he in the desert? ● …..Surprise  and Suspense; every time you have questions, create suspense. Writing a film is like writing poetry; Short period of time and must make every moment count. You must find precise moments that create maximum feelings in the audience. Process of someone writing a screenplay: ● 1) usually do not see this as it is a very private experience usually Dialogue in Screenplay: ● Indent it both sides from the action and put the main at the top everytime Images and Sound: ● A simple trick to writing a story in film/Visual sequence; Write down what you SEE and HEAR in the order you SEE and HEAR it. DIALOGUE - Subtext and Exposition: ● A story is something you tell someone. ● A dance between a storyteller and an audience. ● You take the audience on a journey.

 wants something and is having trouble getting it and in the end, either Many stories boil down to…..Somebody gets it or not.  ADLY and is having a  LOT OF ● Then you can say for a complicated approach….Somebody wants something B trouble getting it and in the end, either gets it or not. ● OR...Somebody wants something and is having trouble getting it and either gets it or not, but along the way they have learnt something and changed (transformation story) Story Structure ● 8 sequence structure ● 3 act structure ● 5 act structure ● 22 step structure ● Myth structure ● Fairytale structure “Change is the universal aspect of all...sources of story” (Ursuala le Guin, Steering the Craft) Mono no aware: ● Sense of appreciation of life (i.e cherry blossoms) ● Sense of the fact that life is precious, small moments are beautiful

Lecture 5 (2/4/20): From Script to Screen Defining the Problem: How do you turn words on a page into a meaningful moving image? ● Filmmaking is often problem solving Script Reading: ● Brings together heads of department, actors ● Opportunity to see the story on page; sense it lifting off the page ● Can see what’s working/not working so well ● May have editor, composer, cinematographer there as they all have special insights into story and provide feedback for a next draft of script Prepare, Prepare, Prepare ● Preparation is key to a successful film shoot ● Simply cannot prepare enough to make a film The script breakdown: ● A single page of script is eight inches, 12 courier font = about one minute in screen time ● Forms basis of production, editing ● Designer; marks up the script (i.e elements of script in pink = all the props mentioned in the opening page every prop highlighted in pink throughout the entire script, another colour for cast, wardrobe e.t.c so ALL ACCOUNTED FOR) - this is then transferred to a script breakdown sheet ○ Allos shoot to be planned and broken down and to ensure that all props, wardrobe turn up at the right time Constructing the film 1. Location/studio space (including props and set/location dressing) 2. Shots: (camera position, frame size + shape, lens size and camera movement) 3. Light: hard/soft light, warm/cold 4. Actors/performers/costume: position of them in relation to the space (BLOCKING) 5. Sound/music If you can get all these elements to work together, you can get a successful transformation from page to script. Need ALL these elements to be combined Mise-en-scene - a method of making: ● A creative tool/method of making that all the heads of department use to ensure they are creating collaboratively; “intersecting domains” ● THE FILM MAKERS PALETTE - all intersect ○ Visual composition: Design, Light, Frame ○ Performance: Characterization, Blocking ○ Sound + Music: Diegetic, Non-Diegetic ● Directors statement: work through all elements to convey image as a director Apocalypse Now (1979) Director: Francis Ford Coppola Solve a creative moving image problem (EXERCISE):

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Opening shot has three visual elements: boy, net curtain window; create one shot and using all three elements storyboard this scene

DON’T NEGLECT SOUND: ● Sound can externalise the embodied emotional interiority of a character ● Sounds can profoundly influence the audience's perception of a movie image they are look as  BJECTIVE ● SUBJECTIVE versus O

Lecture 6 (21/4/20): Visual Storytelling Man on the Moon (1999) ● Director: Milos Forman ● Writers: Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski ● Cinematographer: Anastas N Michos Shot sizes:

The Kids Are All Right (2010) ● Director: Lisa Cholodenko ● Writers: Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg ● Cinematographer: Igor Jadue-Lillo

Aspect Ratios:

Moonlight (1995) ● Writer/Director: Barry Jenkins ● Cinematographer: James Laxton American Honey (2016) ● Writer/Director: Andrea Arnold ● Cinematographer: Robbie Ryan Groundhog Day (1993) ● Director: Harold Ramis ● Cinematographer: John Bailey Long lense vs. Wide lense ● LONG LENSE:

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WIDE LENSE:

In the Cut (2003) ● Director: Jane Campion ● Writers: Jane Campion, Susanna Moore ● Cinematographer: Dion Beebe Aperture:

Citizen Kane (1941) ● Director: Orson Welles

Force Majeure (2014) ● Writer/Director: Ruben Östlund ● Cinematographer: Fredrik Wenzel The Golden Ratio ● The curious mathematical relationship, widely known as "The Golden Ratio," was discovered by Euclid more than two thousand years ago. It is believed to feature in works of art from Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa to Salvador Dali's The Sacrament of the Last Supper. (From Mario Livios, ’The Golden Ratio’)

Khartoum (1966)

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Directors Basil Dearden, Eliot Elisofon Writer: Robert Ardrey Cinematography: Edward Scaife

RATCATCHER (1999) ● Writer/Director: Lynne Ramsay ● Cinematographer: Alwin H Küchler Open and Closed Framing ● The Beckoning Silence (2007) ○ Director: Louise Osmond ● Raging Bull (1980) ○ Director: Martin Scorsese

Touch of Evil (1958) ● Writer/Director: Orson Welles ● Cinematography: Russell Metty Goodfellas (1990) ● Director: Martin Scorsese ● Cinematography: Michael Ballhaus Jaws (1975) ● Director: Steven Spielberg ● Cinematography: Bill Butler

Lecture 7 (21/4/20): Directing - Meaning WHY? HOW? ● We are not looking for a consensus. We are looking for a conversation. (Sidney Lumet) ● All films are political. ● Those who create successful stories always seem to be aware of themes that arise from their lives that involves unfinished business ● In a well made drama I want to feel “Of course that was where it was heading all along.” (Sidney Lumet) ● Inevitability does not mean predictability Green Book ● Director: Peter Farrelly ● Depending on who you ask...Green Book is either the pinnacle of movie magic or a whitewashing sham. ● Best Picture at Academy awards ● Mahershala Ali - Best Supporting actor ● Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly - Best Screenplay TABOO - Olivia Altavilla ● Let the material tell you what it's about. ● There are no small decisions in filmmaking Rabbit Proof Fence ● Writer: Christine Olsen ● Based on a book by Doris Pilkington ● Director: Phil Noyce ○ They followed the rabbit proof fence. ○ They walked over 2,414 kms ○ It took them 9 weeks. ○ They were 14, 10 and 8 years old girls. ● Daisy Kadibil - real life story ● Rachael Maza - Dramaturg Rabbit Proof Fence Once Upon a time in Anatolia ● Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan ● “Writing a novel is like trying to drive a car at night, you can only see as far as yourHeadlights, but you ● can make a whole trip that way.” E. L Doctorow ● “We need to slow down our life’s beat in order to sharpen our perception.” Nuri Bilge Ceylan ● “He loves his characters and he empathizes with them, they deserve better than to be shuttled around in a facile plot, they deserve empathy. So do we all.” Robert Ebert Toni Erdmann ● Director Maren Ade Bran Nue Dae Rachel Perkins Sue Brooks: There’s nothing that I would rather be than to be an Aborigine, and watch you take my precious land away.

Lecture 8 (8/5/20): Directing - Meaning Difference between a director and producer: ● Producer responsible for raising money, negotiating and hiring crew and cast members, looks after financial management of film and marketing and distribution of the film. ○ They will often bring a script, commission it and hire a director ○ Often a number producers involved - executive producers, producers and line producers ○ DIFFERENCE WITH EXECUTIVE AND LINE PRODUCER; Executive usually has financial interest in film or bring financial composure, while a line producer is somebody who oversee the crew, cast and scheduling e.t.c ○ Usually only one director; works with image and sound A director; ● Needs to have something to say. ● Needs to be a good communicator. ● Needs to plan well. ● Needs to be able to respond quickly and clearly ● to changes. ● Need...