What Can Make A Movie Look Like A Film
Originally posted summer of '09
I have had an interesting summer, worked on my first feature, Biology 101, and my first web-series, Q: the Deconstruction of Cupid. I was a boom op on the feature, and the Production Sound Mixer or "sound guy" on a web-series. These are two completely different animals, but the awesome thing about films is that they have the same prep and execution. One is just a larger scale than the other. The feature had a crew of about 30 working on it during principle photography and the web-series had about 10 of us.
Now, I'm not bagging on Q, cause there was no where near the money that was backing the feature, but while shooting Q, it just seemed like I was on a student film. Where the feature felt more like a well oiled machine. This plays directly into how much time and money is put into a project.
So I ask you, please spend as much time getting EVERYTHING worked out. scout locations with the key crew (DP, Director, Production Sound Mixer, Gaffer, AD) at a minimum. That way you get different perspectives on the locations and the crew can start figuring out the problems that will come up during filming instead of having to figure it out on set while the clock is running. A good motto to go by would be PLAN THE SHOOT, SHOOT THE PLAN. That way your not wasting time trying to figure things out as you go.
Telling Stories Thru Cinema
Originally posted by Pia Romans.
Story telling has kept the listener/viewer riveted. It's how we share ideas, emotions, and lessons and touch our psyches at the core. Throughout the ages story telling has manifested through spoken words, acted out upon on the stage, through still images on the canvass, and ultimately through moving images on the screen.
Cinematography: Writing with light.
Light: floating photons of energy...elusive...ethereal... blithe.
And yet we've managed to capture it. And through magic, focus it. And through skill, communicate with it.
Its become an enchanting medium with which to share our stories; ideas, emotions, and lessons. It reaches beyond cultural boundaries. Its images are human. The sounds of laughter and sorrow are the same in any language, and the images that draw on these, universal. This visual connection reaches off the screen and communicates individually with each viewer. As we watch the story unfold visually, we feel transported to that event. We feel were a part of what's happening there in front of us, in the story, as a quiet bystander. Whether with compassion or distain we watch the images dance before us leading us through its tale, and somehow we're magically involved and connected. Perhaps it's this reason alone why Cinema has such a powerful hold. We have visceral reactions. Pupils dilate, pulses race, and chills cross the skin. Those images move us emotionally...and the ability to move someone emotionally whether to tears, laughter, or fear is quite compelling for the artists as well as the viewer. And it's in this way how we tell our stories.
Somewhere in our minds we know these films are just light and shadow but the influence they have is the mystical drug that draws us back again and again for more. We allow ourselves time and again to suspend our disbelief while we journey psychologically and emotionally through the artist's story. We revel in the ride as the drug of Cinema washes over us and watch the story. And the good ones, I mean the really good ones, impact us like a fond memory and those stories stay with us forever.