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David Lean's Scene Transitions

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Week 13 - Storytelling With Sound

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Here is a great video on the importance of using sound in storytelling. LECTURE: Guest speaker film composer and sound designer Tim Labor will join us at 2 pm today. He will talk about adding sound to (your) short films, musical composition and sound design for film and theatre. Despite whatever presets there are in Premiere, scene transitions are not limited to wipes, fades, or dissolves. Let's examine the work of David Lean and see what unique ways we can find of cutting picture and sound together to make transitions really shine. Activity Review and critique of rough cut  If time allows: Working in groups, find a memorable film clip (5-30 seconds) that uses sound in a clever way, to help tell the story, or to transition between scenes. Present your movie clip and findings to the class. Do NOT use the beach scene from JAWS, or any of the clips from the above videos.  You can use clips from Hitchcock films such as Vertigo or Psycho, clips from films we watched this semester, ...

Final Project, THE LENSE AND MAGNIFICATION for those filming with cameras instead of their phones

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  The Lens and Magnification These terms from Module 6 have to do with the camera lens and magnification. The  focal length  relates to the magnification of the image: how much "zooming power" is available in a specific lens. It is measured in millimeters. Different lenses have different focal lengths. The  standard  focal length shows what you would see through one human eye. The focal length is  50mm  and is suitable for a mid shot. If you put a 50mm lens up to each eye, you would see exactly the same way as if you were not looking through the lenses. A  wide  focal length is  35 mm or less . You capture more visual information than the standard lens. It is a focal length that fits more of a  scene  into a  frame . With a wide angle, you can make the subject you are focusing on look very large in comparison to the background. As your focal length increases, you start to see what is called  background compression . T...

Schedule due dates and film length Final Project

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  You have a minimum of  two minutes and up to to four minutes  to tell your story. Characters, environments, and plot points need to be easily understood by an audience in order to be successful. You are telling a story in a very short amount of time. Your idea can be very simple, but with a genre in mind and your cinematic storytelling toolkit, you can achieve something significant.  Be sure to review all your notes on the modules that covered film language, and good luck with your preparations for your film project! DUE DATE FOR FINAL FILM IS DECEMBER 9TH Target dates - Storyboards / Shooting Script week of November 11                      - the Shoot Week of Nov 18                      - Rough Edit and any ReShoots week of Nov 25 (Thanksgiving Week)   ...

Week12: Music and Sound

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Lecture/Demo The importance of sound. Activity Show storyboards in class for final film. View final film examples from previous semesters. Assignment Finish planning for final film. Assemble Animatic. Think about the use of sound for your final film. NEXT WEEK NOVEMBER 26TH YOU WILL BE FILMING. Why Is Sound Important in a Movie? Many films that we grew up with are memorable not just because of the story and characters, but because of their musical scores. What would the film Jaws be without the famous shark theme? This is a great example of the technique known as  leitmotif . This is when a film's composer creates musical themes that are attached to characters in the story. When the character appears and is a key player in a dramatic scene, a leitmotif makes the scene that much more memorable. Another iconic example of this is the Imperial March from  The Empire Strikes Back : Just imagine watching this film without the audio. A pretty dismal scenario! There are three types of...

Week 11 Film Analysis: Character and Performance

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Michael Caine Teaches Acting In Film "The theatre is an operation with the scalpel, I think movie acting is an operation with the laser." Michael Caine teaches in this documentary the art of movie acting. One of the 9 elements of Analysis that we have been studying this semester is character and performance. Are the characters believable? Did the acting help you to believe the characters were real? Just as important is an actor's presence on the screen. If an actor commands your attention so that you can't look away, they're probably performing well. How do the actors convey information using their bodies and faces? After watching the documentary, please fill out the ClassMarker Quiz, 3 short paragraphs on Character and Performance  in film. An added note for last week's storyboarding and shooting script class: HOMEWORK WEEK 11 Add camera and lighting instructions on your storyboards and do your filming for your final assignment THIS WEEK,  Think about how sou...