The Camera Basics

I was working on one of the Four Month Film School Films on Saturday. Besides the fun that we have shooting the film, one of our goals is that people come into our film course and learn how to make films professionally.

So before the film shoot, we train the course participants relentlessly in the various aspects of cinematography.  Here are some of the important areas.

Framing.
When people start with  a camera, they often frame poorly. For example, many people leave too much space above a head in  a shot. Simply leaving a small amount of space over the head is all that is needed to make the shot look better.
Many people have no idea about the Rule of Thirds. Learning how to use the Rule of  thirds improves composition dramatically.

Smoot Panning and Tilting on the Tripod  
Jerk panning and rough Tilting is one of the biggest learner blunders. This will draw attention to the camera work and take the viewer out of the story.

Learning how to do Smooth Handheld
Handheld does take time to learn but it is a very valuable skill for the emerging Film Maker as often there may be situations where they have no steadicam or tracks.

Exposure:
Getting spot on exposure is so important for the budding cinematography. In it’s simplest form, exposure is found by moving the F Stop Ring to the correct F Stop for the lighting conditions.
The correct aperture lets in the right amount of light so as to produce the best exposure. Learning how to do this is important for the budding film maker.

Focus
Learning how to focus on static shots is very easy. Learning how to focus pull is a skill that needs to be taught in a practical session. When the camera moves or the subject in the frame moves closer or further from the camera, it will be necessary to pull focus.

Booming
Booming is such an important part of the shoot. Learning how to get the boom into the best position to maximize the best location sound is essential. If  you do not get great location sound, the film will feel very amateur to the viewer. Sound Presence determines a professional or an amateur film.

Lapel Mic
Placing a bug mic on the actors is an important skill to learn particularly for the wide shots. Many beginners have no idea how to place the mic on the actors.

Blocking.
Learning how to block and move the actors on set is so important. This is a skill that can only be learnt on set. Blocking is the solely directors job and it can create a dynamic scene or destroy a scene

Coverage and Shot listing for a scene
Learning how to create a shot list is priceless. Directors need to know how to express the feeling of the scene via their shot selection.  They also need to make sure that they have coverage for all of their scenes.

The above are some of the many items that one needs to learn as a Film Maker. The difference between amateur and professional is so vast and makes such a difference to your film.
I strongly advise you to learn how to make a film professionally  You can do so on one of our Film Courses.

Till next time Have a great one

Hot Talent Club is launched – Creating the Film Maker Stars of tomorrow

Post: Creating the Film Director Stars of Tomorrow- Hot Talent Club is launched

 At International Film Base,  we regularly are sent job opportunities and film production requests that we can not take on. It has been a frustration seeing these opportunities going to waste.   We are also involved in many of our own feature film productions and other peoples film productions that we have been commissioned to produce. As a working production company, it has been a great pleasure to employ the very best talent from our film courses on to these productions over the years.

Late last year,  I decided that I wanted to create a non-profit Club that would support and help the most talented film makers. The club would   immediately make their advanced film dreams happen once the  four month film course had concluded.  I wanted to create a vehicle where they could quickly get film industry employment and make their very own passion film projects. This would include feature films documentaries and short films and no hanging around. These projects would happen immediately with solid enforceable deadlines.

Late last year, I came up with the true vision for our film courses and productions at International FIlm Base.  I coined the phrase “Creating the Film  Director Stars of tomorrow.”  Out of this vision, in late February this year,  the Hot Talent Club was born and launched in Sydney and  in the next few months in Melbourne.

What is the Hot Talent Club?

The Hot Talent Club is for people who have completed our 4 Month Film School in Melbourne or Sydney.   It is a mix of exceptionally motivated and ambitious film makers who want support and crew other film makers while making their very own passion film projects.

In the Hot Talent , you will  find a mix of exceptionally talented actors, make up artists, producers and Directors. These people all have one thing in common.  They all want to move to the A List. All of these people are committed to being players in the film industry, now and  in the future. What this means is that the Hot Talent Club creates the energy matrix for these players to make their mark with every film that they are involved in.

At  each  monthly meeting a project will be launced with a deadline for production and for completion and the Producer or Director is held accountable to that deadline. Out of the Hot Club we expect to see A List Film Directors and Producers making feature films and TV drama and documentaries  for the world.

You may ask “How do I get into the Hot Talent Club?”

Every selected  person must attend our Four Month Film School in Sydney or Melbourne.  They must show  comittment to their film projects during the Four Month Film School. The candidate should have the fire in the belly and a desire to work exceptionally hard to make their film the best that it can be.  At the end , the top 3 -4 people  are invited to join the Hot Talent Club. Each person is selected by the Hot Club Panel.

Ultimately, we want one or more of our members to go to the very top in world cinema and make films that get seen by the world. The overall purpose is to create the film production hits and the Director Producer Stars of tomorrow.

So if you are inspired to start your film career now, please look at our Four Month Film Courses in Melbourne Sydney or  our One Week Adelaide Course. There is no faster way to get on to your first serious film production completed.  We are conducting interviews for our Four Month Film Schools right now. Book by phone on 1800 131166

The Film Editor- the true star of any Film Production

POST: The Film Editor is the true star of any Film Production

Today, I want to focus on The Film Editor.

Learning all about the Tools of the Trade

This morning I read all about the Oscars.  Kirk Baxter, an Australian, has just won back to back Oscars. Kirk won last night for the film ” The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. *  Yet it hardly makes the papers.  For many people, film  editors are these nerdy characters who spend way too much time in small rooms. Yet in reality they are the true stars of any Film Production.

Tropfest was one of the big film events in February.  Tropfest is the worlds largest film festival which takes place at the Domain in Sydney. On the Saturday I attended Tropfest Roughcut with about 150 other film makers.     Speaking at the event were non other than

Geoffrey Rush, Actor (The King’s Speech, Pirates of the Caribbean)
Kieran Darcy-Smith, Director (Wish You Were Here), Actor (Animal Kingdom)
Jason Ballantine, Editor (The Great Gatsby, Wolf Creek, Wish You Were Here)

Jason Ballantine is certainly one of the most talented Film Editors with a raft of great film credits all ready attached to his name. Yet he is very humble.  Yet, he is one of the most important  creative people working on Great Gatsby starring Leonardo DiCaprio

I always find it amazing that Film Editors never get the credit that they are due. I am going to be controversial and say this the Film Editor is the single most important crew member after the Film Director.

Many outsiders do not realize the following fact.   The Film Director will spend most of his or her life in post production. The Shoot might be only 6 – 10 weeks while post production will often consume about 9 months after the film is finished. Peter Jackson spent just over  a year shooting the Lord of the Rings trilogy and then spent three years in Post Production.

It is the attention to detail in Post Production that pays off. If time is spent on post production, this will dramatically make the difference between a  really good film and an average film.

Let me clarify Post Production. Post Production includes the

Picture Edit (today’s subject)
Colouring and Grading
Visual Effects
Titles
Music
Sound Postproduction
Conforming formats such as DCP.
The Film Director is involved with all of the above.

Booming and getting the very best location sound

On the film set, the film director only gathers the building blocks of  the film and of course it is very important to get the very best building blocks. However the edit and full post production is where the film is made. There is a gulf of difference between a really good edit and an average edit. In the former,  the film is dynamic and engaging. In the latter the film stinks and is considered a Turkey.

However the edit is one area that is neglected in the short film arena. Many emerging film makers believe that the film is complete, once the shoot is over.

The mindset is this …..  ”Oh yes there is still a bit of editing and music to do but the film is now shot and it will only be a short time till the film is complete.”
The emerging film maker  then confronts reality. Post Production can suddenly feel like a never ending process.

Picture Editing  is an art form that  only came into existence when  motion picture was invented back in the late 19th Century.  Before 1896, there were many fine actors who acted in theater  and there were many stories been told in different mediums. Photography had been around for a long time. Music had been around since the dawn of man.

Motion Picture editing only started once we could shoot motion picture.  Therefore it is the purest season of film making. It exists totally out of the need to cut motion picture and create the illusion of a story.

Editing up to the early 1990s was a cumbersome process. I remember my first films back in the late 80s. We used to edit on Steenbacks. We would literally chop the film with a small guillotine and splice it back together with splicing tape. Any visual effects would be chalked on the film print and sent off to an Optical House where the effects would be created.

How times have changed for the better.  We now edit in the computer and anyone can do it from anywhere. I often edit on the airplane when I am on long flights. You will only know the difference great editing makes once  you start to make your own films. One of the areas we focus on in our film courses is Post Production. A large part of the course is dedicated to post production with 5 sessions spent finishing the film.

Many emerging film makers find the shoot so exciting and fun. The adrenalin is running and once the film is shot, they then are

Course Production Filming on Set

confronted with post production which is insular and slow.  Suddenly there is only two people.  The Director and the Editor sitting in front of a computer actually making a film. Not so exciting for many people.

To me personally, editing is one of the best parts of film making.  When one sits down to create magic and a memorable engaging story, the hours fly by.  I believe that if you want to be a Film Director it is important to love this season of film making.

You have a choice as a Film Director.

1. Learn editing and become an expert at editing and cutting your own short films and anyone else you can volunteer for. I  personally think that if you can learn to edit, it will pay off in the  long run.
2. Find an experienced or up and coming editor and work closely with them on your films

How do you do this?  The first step is to enroll on a really good film course

Till next time , have a great one.
Colm O’Murchu      Director
http://internationalfilmbase.com/

* If you have not seen the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, please see it. It is a wonderful film that engages you from the beginning to the end. David Fincher  is at his best in this very engaging thriller set in Sweden

5 ways to make your film shoot work effectively

Directing a Shot on "Dealing with Destiny"

Film Shoots are always the fun part of Film Production.  Most people on our Film Courses love the Film Shoot and find it to be the biggest learning curve.

The Film Course Participant learns more on the Film Shoots than any other part of our Film Course  The reason for this is  team work.   A group of people bond and make a creative endeavor.  There are many laughs, intense moments and character tests. The satisfaction of creating a film that will be seen by millions of eyes in the future also adds a sense of purpose and excitement to the shoot.

However the amateur film maker can make a mess out of a Film Shoot and end up having a very challenging time. How can a Film Director make the most of a Film Shoot?  Prepare Prepare Prepare.

How does one make a Film Shoot fun and memorable. Here are five areas that one can focus on.

1. The Script
2. Actor Rehearsal
3. Plan the Blocking in Advance
4. Shot list and/or Storyboard
5. Pushing the Standard High.

Learning how to Boom Properly on our 4 Month Film School

1 Know your Script: 

Driving into the Australian Outback in mid summer can be inspiring.

 Post:  Driving in the Outback can be inspiring.

Praying for Inspiration

Valeska and I took off for about ten days and went to outback NSW and rambled from town to town, going with the flow and only moving when we felt like it. We did not see a drop of rain and loved  the constant blue skies.

Before you ask, “How can you go to a part of the world that has temperatures hitting the 40C mark (105 F)”, please let me explain.

Well I did have a mission. I wanted to come up with a great story outline and treatment for our next screenplay.  I love the great open spaces of the outback and country New South Wales. Very inspiring. No tourists are crazy enough to go out here in the heat of summer and that is exactly why I love it. It feels like the real deal,  like a road movie.

Our goal was to create an awesome story outline  and utilize the passing scenery and all the quirky cooky and very friendly characters we met on the way.

Ok our bomb does not look the best but it got us around

Idea after idea flowed and nothing seemed to gel. We would come up with one story outline after another and then trash them.  We could only find enough for B Grade film.  Story after story idea was tossed around and then trashed.

Even  at Lightning Ridge where black opals are mined, we could not get a story outline that was a winner.  All the story ideas, we came up with in the first eight days of traveling just seemed to be a cliche and stale.  From Coonabarabran to Gundegai to  Lightening Ridge to Bourke to St George , we created only garbage. Our characters seemed to be just flat.

Exasperated, I was about to give up on Day 8 and just enjoy the rest of our road trip, when it happened. We were approaching Moree when something on the radio sparked me off. Suddenly an amazing idea floated into my head. I got out my IPhone recorder and started flowing with a story that would prove to be so cool and original and dare I say it “Fresh”

Road going to the West

Valeska and I then started talking about the story and more flowed. Out of that amazing creative dimension called creativity,  scenes spouted out at a faster rate than we could record them.

There was an excitement about this idea that was missing from all previous ideas. We were suddenly on fire.

The next day we went back to the story and it still seemed like a really fresh story.  More ideas and more scenes appeared to us and we felt that sense of flow that happens when you hit oil. I reflected on inspiration and what happens when a story truly appears.

Here are some of my thoughts:  I believe that finding a great story is like searching for gold. You have to shift a lot of dirt to get to gold but when it happens it’s priceless. Then it’s like striking oil. Ideas and scenes spew out at an alarming rate faster than you can process them.  To get to this point I believe  that you need to trash bad story outlines as soon as you know it. This saves you so much time and stress later.

A Beer always helps

Today I am knocking out a 20  page treatment of the story that will encapsulate the whole film from beginning to end. Then the story is submitted to my 3 week test. In other words, will the story be as strong at  the end of Janaury as it is now. If so, I will fully comit and move on to producing and developing the story as a  film.

What is the movie called ,   “Hot Streak”.   30% of the film takes place in California and the other 70% in Australian outback towns. Our lead character is American and most of the supports are Australian. Anyone interested in investing, get in early.

If you are interested in creating a really cool story, look at our
4 month Film School in Sydney . The first two weeks is all about developing a story and writing a screenplay or please look at our Weekend Film Schools in Adelaide and Melbourne 

Till next time, have a great one.

Colm O’Murchu

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