Film Articles

Article / Updated 09-15-2023

Today’s smartphones are so sophisticated, and the technology so advanced, you can shoot a professional looking short movie, or even a full-length feature on your smartphone. Your phone probably shoots 4K broadcast quality images — something that many older expensive video cameras can’t even do. Some of the advantages to shooting with your smartphone include: You just point and shoot. You don’t have to fuss with bulky movie lenses. No manual F or T stops to deal with. No depth of field or focus headaches. No exposure issues. No need to lug around a heavy, bulky camera. Your phone is always with you — ready to capture that million-to-one encounter or shoot that on-the-spot great idea. Shooting in landscape mode The first thing you have to remember is you’re shooting a movie, not a photo, not a selfie, and not something you’re just going to post to Facebook or Instagram. So, you now have to remember to turn your smartphone sideways. This is called landscape mode. The normal way you’re use to holding your phone is profile mode. Note that landscape mode resembles the dimensions of your 16x9 TV. Note also that when you watch YouTube videos or feature films on your smartphone, you turn it sideways for the image to fill the whole screen. If you don’t shoot your movie in landscape mode, you’ll have black bars on each side of the image, and your movie will not fill the entire screen. So, landscape, don’t profile! Always make sure your smartphone is charged and ready to go. Shooting video on your phone drains the battery faster than talking or listening to music on your phone. Take off with airplane mode You’re moving in for the perfect shot, the actors embrace, and you’re capturing a priceless moment — and then your perfect shot is interrupted by your phone ringing — your camera is ringing! “Cut! Hello? Hi mom, I’m busy, shooting my movie.” It’s happened to me. Go into your phone settings and put your phone on airplane mode. All the functions of your phone will work except your shoot won’t be interrupted by another phone call or annoying text. You want your smartphone to be a 100-percent dedicated camera for your shoot, not a communications device. Steady as she goes Your smartphone is already a sophisticated movie camera. Most smartphones have a built-in stabilizer to ensure steadier shots. Often, you can handhold your smartphone for many of your shots, especially moving or following shots. Steady as a rock For steady tripod shots, you can get special adapters for your phone that have a tripod mount, so you can attach the phone to a tripod for rock-solid shots or for smooth panning ones. You’ll find plenty of smartphone tripod adapters on Amazon for as low as $5. Shooting format and resolution Before you start shooting with your smartphone, you need to go into your camera video settings. You will have a choice of resolution quality. Usually the options are 720, 1080 (2K) and 4K. I’m sure that 6K and up will soon be available for your phone. I recommend shooting on 720 or 2K because the quality is awesome and both resolutions are broadcast quality. If you shoot in 4K, you will very quickly eat up a lot of storage space on your phone. In the video settings, you should also have the choice of shooting at 30 frames per second or 24 frames per second. Choose 24fps for a more film-like look. A great smartphone app called Filmic Pro will add even more professional shooting options to your already advanced smartphone. Saving your movie files Depending on your smartphone’s built-in storage capacity — or if your smartphone has a removable SD memory card — you will have to constantly offload (transfer) your shots to an external hard drive or your computer. If you don’t, your phone’s memory will soon fill up and you will have no more room to shoot anything. Some smartphones connect to your computer via USB and allow you to download your footage this way. An iPhone allows you to wirelessly download your footage from your phone using Airdrop. This allows you to easily and effortlessly download your footage, which then you can erase (trash) off your phone and continue shooting. There’s also a great (free) app called Simple Transfer, which is absolutely one of my favorite apps. It lets you view all your phone’s photos and movies on your computer desktop, and you can choose which shots you want to download from your phone to your computer in one batch — so you don’t have to transfer one shot at a time. I absolutely love this app so much it’s on my phone’s main home screen. Many smartphones are now synced up with the cloud, so, chances are, your smartphone footage will automatically download to your computer if both are talking to the cloud. I can’t emphasize this warning enough. If your phone is talking to the cloud and your footage is automatically downloaded to your computer, be absolutely sure to move those shots (digital video files) to a separate folder outside your camera roll. If you don’t, they will all get erased in the cloud when you erase them off your phone. They will also get erased off your computer and any other device that also talks to the cloud. This is one major flaw of syncing with the cloud — most people think they can trash stuff on their phone to free up memory because it was transferred to their computer and lives in the cloud, but in reality, your computer is talking to the cloud and unless you transfer it out of your camera roll into a folder on your desktop, you’ll lose everything. All your movie files will be saved to your camera roll in your phone and filed under Videos. But move your movie shots out of the camera roll into a special folder that isn’t mirroring your camera roll in the cloud. Miniature camera equipment The great thing about your movie camera being your smartphone is that everything is light and portable. Your phone is also small enough to mount on a car dashboard or adhere to the car window (on the inside) for great single shots of your driver and passenger or a nice two shot from inside the windshield. Or, turn your phone around so it’s looking out your windshield for a nice POV (point-of-view) shot of the road. Use a selfie-stick as your camera crane for high shots or low to the ground shots. (See the following figure.) Cut a slot out of a paper cup to make a tripod to hold your phone — this also works great as a dolly, too — and just slide the cup along a desk top or the floor. Try furniture sliders to slide your smartphone along carpets or hardwood floors for smooth dolly shots. If you want professional-looking dolly shots, check out Dyno Trek. It’s a miniature, motorized dolly system (also called a slider system) built just for smartphones. It comes with tracks that magnetically hook together for flawless, smooth movement. You can dolly in and out and side to side, or turn the track vertically and get dolly-up and dolly-down shots. You can program the speed of the dolly and even set it up to move in sync with your smartphone for time-lapse shots or stop-motion animation. The kit is lightweight and portable and comes in a sturdy carry case. If you have an older smartphone that you put away after you bought the latest and greatest upgrade, it may be time to dust it off. Even though cellular service isn’t activated on your old phone, all its camera functions should be working fine. It’s really an iPod without cellular service. But you still have Wi-Fi! This old smartphone can be used as your action backup camera (make sure it’s not a big deal if this extra phone gets damaged or destroyed). Place it in the middle of a quiet neighborhood street and have your actor in a car drive over and past the camera. Just make sure he knows to keep the smartphone between the tires! Secure this “B” action camera on the outside of your car for some dramatic driving shots. You can even find a car suction cup mounting device for your smartphone on Amazon — or, just use lots of masking tape on the phone to secure it. (I recommend tying the phone down securely — just in case. The wind could catch it and send it flying!) Throw the phone in the air to a friend to simulate the POV of a ball being tossed back and forth. I recommend doing this on the grass in case one of you misses a catch. Use several smartphones to capture your movie Pretty much everyone on your crew (even if there’s just two of you) has a smartphone, so any one of these could be used as a second or third camera on your shoot. If you have two actors talking, you can save time by having one smartphone on each actor, instead of using one camera to shoot each actor separately. You can also use an extra smartphone for your wide shots, and another for close-ups (just don’t get the phones used for close-ups in the wide shot!) Apple’s latest iPhones feature a triple-camera system that allows users to shoot multiple different-size shots at the same time with just one smartphone camera. Apple's iPhones have three different lenses: a telephoto lens, a wide lens, and an ultra-wide lens. Using a revolutionary app developed by Filmic Pro, each lens can record its own file — thus creating three different-sized shots at one time. It’s like three cameras rolled into one smartphone. It’s also invaluable for documentaries and spur-of-the-moment events. Another ingenious advancement with the Filmic Pro app, is the ability to use the iPhone to shoot an interview in which both the interviewer and the interviewee are filmed at the same time. The app records footage from both the front and back camera at the same time and creates two separate digital files. So, you don’t have to have two separate cameras to shoot your interview! This unique technology is absolutely a game-changer for the independent filmmaker shooting with an iPhone and the Filmic Pro app! Great sound on your smartphone, too! Not only can your smartphone shoot great, broadcast-quality digital images, but it also gives you pristine digital sound recording. To get the best of this, plug in a professional directional microphone. You don’t want to use your built-in smartphone microphone because it only picks up good sound close to the phone, or ambient sound from all around your environment. Some wireless sound options can record sound directly into your smartphone without the hassle of tripping over wires. Røde makes the Wireless GO, which is perfect as a wireless, compact microphone for your smartphone shoot. Your Smartphone Is an Entire Production Studio Your smartphone gives you a camera to shoot your movie, and it can give you great sound. But that’s not all. You pretty much have an entire production studio in your pocket! You can even write your screenplay on your smartphone with the Final Draft app. Storyboard on your phone with storyboard apps like Blocker by AfterNow (an absolutely amazing 3D app) and Storyboard Animator for free. You can create a shot list on your phone with an app called Shotlist – Movie Shoot Planning. You can also download stock footage and sound effects right to your phone. In post-production, edit your entire movie on smartphone apps like the free iPhone version of iMovie or myriad Android editing apps. And, when you’ve completed your movie, use your phone to upload it directly to YouTube or Vimeo!

Article / Updated 04-27-2023

Editing is more than just piecing together shots into scenes. Understanding the story and the best way to tell it is an art. Editing controls the feel of your film and can make or break the illusion. To edit well, you need to know on what frame to start your shot and on what frame to end it, when to cut to the reaction shot (a visual response from another actor in the scene), and when to stay on the main character. Some of the elements you need to consider when editing are Pacing: The length of shots and scenes gives the entire film a pace — a feeling of moving fast or slow. You don’t want your film to lag. Scene length: Keep scenes under three minutes if possible, so they don’t drag on and seem monotonous. Order of shots and scenes: By arranging your shots in a particular sequence, you can dramatically affect a scene’s meaning. See the later section “Linear versus Nonlinear Editing” for details. Cutting on action: Most shots cut (or edit) better on action. If your actor is opening a car door, have him or her repeat the action while you shoot it from different angles or shot sizes (such as a close-up or a wide shot). You then can overlap the shots as you cut on the motion. This is also called matching, and it helps hide the cut, making the transition appear seamless. Matching shots: You want to join static shots with static shots, and moving shots next to other moving shots. If you have a fast-paced car-chase scene and the camera is moving wildly to follow the action, a sudden static shot of a car sitting quietly at a stop light will be jarring. (Of course, that may be the effect you want.) Varying the angle and size of shots: A jump-cut happens when shots that are too similar in appearance are cut together, making the picture look as if it has jumped, or that the actor has popped from one spot to another. In order to avoid a jump-cut, you need to vary the angle and size of the next shot. One way to avoid a jump-cut is to shoot a cutaway of an actor’s reaction or of a significant object on-set that you can use to tie two different shots together. An appropriate cutaway can often save the day. Showing simultaneous action: You can cut back and forth between scenes happening at the same time. This is called cross-cutting. Or you can make a parallel cut, which is showing the simultaneous action with a split screen. This was often done on the TV show 24. Choosing the best take (or combining the best of several takes): You shoot several takes of a particular scene so that you have a choice in the editing room. Obviously, the more takes you have, the more choices. You can also combine parts of various takes — the beginning of one take, and the end of another, for example, if you have a cutaway to insert between them — to create the scene you want. Choosing an editor: Cut that out! You need to decide whether you’re going to edit the movie yourself or get a fresh pair of eyes to do it for you. Many directors avoid editing their pictures because they’re too close to the material and want to bring another perspective to the story. That’s why, on a big studio production, a picture editor starts assembling your shots and scenes together as you’re shooting, and a sound editor edits the dialogue and other sound elements. You can place an ad seeking an editor in the classified section of many film and trade magazines like Backstage (www.backstage.com) or search online at www.crewnet.com for an editor near you. Look for someone who has at least a few films under their belt and ask to see a sample of their work — do they cut scenes tight so they don’t lag? However, if you’re on a small production, you’re probably your own editor. You’re in good company, though. Robert Rodriguez (El Mariachi and Sin City) prefers to cut his own films. One of the advantages of hiring an editor is that they can start assembling what you’ve shot immediately after the first day on the set. This means that your editor can tell you while you’re shooting whether you need extra footage: a cutaway (a reaction shot or something that helps piece two other shots together seamlessly) to make a scene work better, a close-up of some person or object, or an establishing shot (a wide shot of the location that orientates the audience to where the scene is taking place). Shooting enough coverage You need to shoot enough coverage so that you have plenty of different takes and interesting angles to choose from. Every time you add another angle to a scene, you make it more interesting and less monotonous. Using just one shot in a two-minute scene is like having a stare-down — and that’s just dull and annoying (unless it’s a bet to see who wins). The camera never blinks — that’s what cutting is for. Cutting is like blinking from one shot to the next. When you watch a play, you don’t stare at the stage as a whole the entire time; you concentrate on the individual actors as they speak, or on a prop or action sequence that catches your attention. If you don’t have time to shoot several angles, then create movement in the shot, such as having the camera follow or lead your actors as they’re walking and talking. Make the shot as interesting as possible. Some directors shoot a ratio of three takes to get one shot (3:1), and some shoot ten or more. The editor’s job is to find the best take or to combine the best of several takes with cutaways. As you start to piece the movie together, it magically begins to take on a shape of its own, and the story starts to (hopefully) make sense. Assembling a first cut The first step is piecing together what is called an assembly cut, rough cut, or first cut. This is the most basic cut possible, showing the story in continuity (because often the scenes are shot out of order, out of continuity). Editing the visuals of your movie is very similar to writing a screenplay. The first assembly of footage is like the first rough draft, putting things into perspective and giving you a feel for your story. After you have your basic cut, you start shaping, trimming, and cutting until your film feels complete. Like dancing, there’s a rhythm to cutting — it flows, and everything feels like it’s falling into place. Don’t be discouraged if the first cut doesn’t excite you. The pacing may seem too slow, the performances may appear dull. I’ve often been disappointed with a first cut — and apparently, many big studio directors have had concerns after working on their first cuts. After your first cut, you start to get a sense of how to tighten up the picture. You start to cut out long boring exits to the door, pauses that are too long between lines, or a scene that isn’t working and that won’t be missed if you cut it out entirely. You may even want to reshoot or add a completely new scene to make the picture better as a whole. You need to do a lot of shaping and adjusting before your masterpiece shines through. It’s like molding something out of clay — you have to keep chipping away until you like what you see. Also, remember, you are seeing the movie still in its raw form because color-correction, sound effects, music score, special effects, and other elements have not been added yet. Building a director’s cut The director’s contract usually stipulates whether the director gets to make sure their vision is followed in the editing room by approving the final cut of the movie. This final, director-approved cut is called a director’s cut. The director usually views an assembly, or first, cut (scenes assembled loosely in continuity according to the screenplay; see the preceding section) by the picture editor. The director then gives the editor suggestions on where to place specific shots, close-ups, and establishing shots; how to change the order of things; how to tighten a scene; and so on. Usually, a director gets a director’s cut based on their clout in the industry. Ultimately, the big studio has the final say in the cutting of a picture if the director doesn’t contractually have final cut. For example, Steven Spielberg always gets final say because he’s earned that honor and proven himself to know what works and what doesn’t. George Lucas always has the final cut because he doesn’t report to anyone but himself! With the release of most films on DVD or streaming now, many directors who didn’t have the clout to get a director’s cut theatrically in their studio contract now have the opportunity to get a director’s cut featured as one of the bonuses on the DVD or streaming sites, such as on iTunes. Chances are, you are your own studio boss, so you decide who gets final say on editing. You will probably have the director’s cut because you report to yourself! Photo finish: Finalizing a final cut Many times a studio screens a version of the movie to a test audience (a group of people brought in to watch and rate the picture). The audience members fill out a questionnaire, and the studio (or the director, if they have final cut) evaluates all the comments from the screening and may re-edit accordingly. After all the editing is finished and approved, you create the final, locked picture approved by the studio — or by the director if they have the authority to make the final cut (which you probably do have if you’re an independent director). Now the postproduction work on sound begins, and the composer can start timing the scenes that will be scored (set to music). Listening to the sound editor In addition to editing the picture on your movie, you have to assemble and edit the sound elements. These elements are prepared by the sound editor, who is most often the picture editor and even the final postproduction sound mixer on an independent film. The sound elements are put onto separate audio channels (called tracks) and then mixed down into a final soundtrack that combines all channels mixed together. Some of those edited sound elements include: Dialogue (may have separate dialogue tracks for each actor) Sound effects (can have unlimited sound-effects tracks) Music (usually one or two tracks for music) Ambience (background sounds like birds chirping, an air-conditioner humming, ocean waves crashing, and so on) Dialogue editing is as important as your picture edit. The sound editor has a variety of elements to consider, such as overlapping conversations or starting a character’s dialogue over the end of another character’s shot.

Article / Updated 04-25-2023

The key to recording dialogue in digital filmmaking is placing the microphone as close as possible to your actor without the microphone appearing in the shot. Also, aiming the microphone in the direction of the sound helps to keep the dialogue clear. Aiming your microphone can help you get a clear sound. If you’re using an external microphone on a boom pole or a handheld, it’s important to keep it as still as possible when recording because this prevents the device from picking up any noises from the boom operator. Microphones are very sensitive and can pick up noises, including from the hands holding them. The best way to detect unwanted noises is through a pair of headphones. Without headphones, any unwanted noise can easily go undetected, noticed only when you’re importing the footage into the editing tool later. You can use closed‐back headphones, which surround the ears and cut out most of the noise coming from the outside, so that the person monitoring sound can mainly hear what is being picked up by the microphone. These can be expensive, but a budget pair starts at only around $10. If you hear a distracting background noise through the headphones when filming, such as from a plane, gust of wind, or passing car, stop filming and wait for the sound to pass, and then retake that shot. If the sound of a plane appears in the background in one shot and not in the next, the sound will be uneven between shots, and this will sound odd for your audience. The following list describes a few ways to avoid recording unwanted noises during filming: Turn off any air-conditioning units or fan heaters while filming. Microphones can pick up noises that sometimes humans can’t even hear when filming. Make sure all cellphones are off or on silent when filming because if they go off, they can bring a shoot to a stop. Also, sometimes a cellphone’s roaming or searching signal can interfere with the camera and can be heard on the recorded audio. Avoid pointing the microphone in the direction of any clear background noise, including roads, waterfalls, or fountains. Again, these sounds can come across clearly in the recording and can make it hard to hear dialogue. Avoid filming in empty rooms because they can create distracting echoes in your recording (unless, of course, you want echoes in your film). To eliminate echoes, place hand blankets on walls to help deaden the sound.

Article / Updated 04-17-2023

You can use colored gels and filters to achieve certain effects in your digital film. There are different colors of light, which is measured in kelvin. This determines how cold or how warm the color of light is. Daylight is in the middle of the scale. If your shot is cold or too blue in color, then you can set your camera’s white balance higher to make the shot look warmer and more natural. If you’re shooting indoors using the lights in your house, your shots may look orange or red, and lowering the white balance setting on your camera will make your shot look more natural. Most cameras have an automatic white balance setting, which measures the color of the light in the room and changes the white balance setting automatically. You can set your white balance manually, however, because sometimes the camera gets it wrong. To find out how to adjust the white balance on your camera, have a look at the camera’s instructions. You can get different types of filters for film lights that can change the color and mood of a shot. These filter gels are specifically designed for use with studio lights, so they can withstand high temperatures. Some homemade options may not cope with high temperatures as well and could be a fire risk. Colored filter gel sheets can be bought from camera stores for around $5 per sheet, or you can save money by buying them in variety packs. Some lights come with colored filters. Colored filters are handy tools to have when shooting. If you want to create a moonlight effect for a nighttime shot, for example, you can use a blue filter or you could lower the white balance on your camera to create a more blue and cold feel. If you want to create a warmer more sunny effect, on the other hand, you could use an orange or yellow filter over your light or increase the white balance setting on your camera. Here are shots of an actor with and without a blue filter. The blue filter throws a blue light that makes the shot look cold. Making your shots look cold can add a special effect to your film. Most lights used for film can be quite harsh and can create strong shadows around the subject or character. To reduce these shadows, use diffusion filter paper (also called a scrim), which, when placed over your lights, spreads the light over a scene. This helps reduce shadows and create a more natural‐looking light. It also softens the light on your actors’ skin. Here is a shot of an actor with and without diffusion paper. Diffusion paper designed for studio lights can be bought from camera stores for around $5 per sheet. Diffusion lights are a good inexpensive option. Light doesn’t always have to be used on a subject. You can use lights to light the background of a scene instead, which adds depth to a shot. You could also add a colored gel to the background light to throw some color on the background. Any light you add to a scene needs to have a reason. For example, adding a blue filtered light onto one side of an actor’s face would look odd to viewers unless there was a good reason for it to be there — such as, say, to represent the moonlight shining through the window onto the actor.

Article / Updated 04-12-2023

Interviewing someone on camera can be tricky; this video gives you some tips on how to position and frame your interview subjects and how to direct them. It’s a good idea to plan your film before beginning the interview. Knowing how to frame your interview subject will help improve your digital film. First, you need to decide on the type of shot you're going to use for your interview subject. Mid shots and close-ups tend to look best when someone is just talking. You want to see their expressions and possibly their hand movements. You might want to do mostly mid shots but zoom in for a close-up shot when the interview subject is expressing a lot of emotion. Next, you need to decide whether you want the interview subject to look at the camera or to look off camera. If the interview subject is speaking directly to the audience, like Nick is in the video, have them speak to the camera. If they are answering interview questions, have them look to the right of the camera or to the left of the camera and place them in the opposite third of the frame using the rule of thirds. You can even position the interviewer there so that the interview seems more natural. You also want to give your interviewer some direction in how they answer questions. It's important that they repeat or paraphrase the question back when answering on the film. This helps you avoid yes and no answers to questions that the audience is not hearing. Filming documentaries: Tips for filming interviews If your documentary film will include interviews, you may wish to shoot them first, because your subjects’ answers may help you choose what to include in the rest of the documentary. The subjects that you are filming for the interview are unlikely to be actors or people used to being on camera, so it’s very likely that they’ll be nervous, and they may make mistakes. It’s your job as a filmmaker and director to make them feel as comfortable as possible. You can do this by introducing yourself and your role within the documentary film and by explaining to them what will happen during filming and what you would like them to do. Many interview subjects think that they only have one chance to get their answers right, which may make them feel more nervous. Try to keep them calm. Explain that you’re there to help them, and that they can retake the interview if necessary. Allow the subjects to practice their answers in front of the camera: This may help them feel more comfortable and allow them to think about what they’re going to say in the documentary interview. Framing the subject in your documentary interview You will want to frame your subject as you might want to frame him in your documentary film. If you have extra lights you can use, consider using the three‐point lighting technique for the interviews. Make sure you set up the lighting and equipment before your subject arrives. You want to be sure both you and your subject are as comfortable as possible. If you’re still setting up when the subject arrives, you’ll be under pressure to get started quickly. This is how mistakes often happen when filming documentaries. It’s also important to think in advance about how you’ll record sound. Do you have an external microphone you can use or will you be using the onboard microphone? Remember to check for background noises and any other distractions while filming the interviews. Mid shots and close-up shots give the most natural look to a documentary interview. You could use both. You might start with a mid shot for the first question, change to a close‐up for the second question, and then back to a mid shot for the third. This means you can cut out the questions from the interviewer when editing, leaving just the answers. When these pieces are assembled together, this can look like one long answer from the interview subject and you can change the camera angle as he or she moves from one answer to the next. Make sure the interviewer stays quiet while the interview subject is answering the questions because you don’t want any interruptions in your documentary film from off‐camera noises or laughter. Removing background noises during editing can be difficult and sometimes impossible. Remember to use the rule of thirds. Looking off‐camera during the documentary interview Many filmmakers film documentary interviews with the subject looking away from the camera because this can be more comfortable for the audience to watch. Your subjects should look at the camera only when they’re talking directly to the audience. This technique is mainly used when filming TV presenters. To get this effect, have the person asking the questions to sit to one side of the camera, then ask your subject to look at that person when answering. Remind subjects that they can retake the answer if they make a mistake. You can also ask your interviewer to smile, nod, and keep eye contact with the subjects while they’re answering questions. This can help them feel more comfortable. Question in the answer when filming your documentary interview Before you start filming your interview, ask your subject or character to answer the question fully, and to include the question in the answer. For example, one crew asked their subjects what their role was in the film. If the subject just said “camera operator,” this may not make any sense to the audience when the question was cut out later. If instead the answer was “I’m one of the camera operators in this film,” then viewers would have no trouble understanding. Your subjects may forget to do this for every question, however, so you may have to remind them from time to time as you film your documentary. Check here to find additional tips for filming a good documentary.

Article / Updated 02-22-2023

The Academy Awards, casually called the Oscars, is a formal awards ceremony to honor the best achievements in filmmaking from the previous year. The Academy Awards, from the nomination and voting processes to the ceremony itself, are overseen by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Academy has more than 10,000 members and is a professional honorary society of people involved in all aspects of making movies. The first Academy Awards were distributed in 1929 at the Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood. Cinema has changed since then, and so have the categories for awards. Currently there are 24 awards categories presented at the ceremony, with more Oscars handed out for other lesser achievements before the formal ceremony. Some top categories of Academy Awards are Best Actor/Actress in a Leading Role, Best Actor/Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Costume Design, Best Music, Best Visual Effects, and Best Animated Feature Film. One of the more prestigious award ceremonies in the world, The Academy Awards ceremony is televised in over 100 countries. Those who love cinema tune in to see how their favorite movies and performers fare. Those who love fashion watch to see what the celebrities are wearing — which is often the latest in couture with astronomically expensive (usually loaned) jewelry. A film must open in the previous calendar year in Los Angeles County to qualify for the next year's Academy Awards ceremony (the one exception to this is Best Foreign Language Film). Often, if moviemakers think they have an award winner on their hands, they'll release a movie in the last week of the year to qualify for the upcoming awards. For example, Silver Linings Playbook was released on December 25, 2012 and was nominated for Best Picture and other Oscars in January, 2013). Conversely, the 2009 Best Picture Winner, The Hurt Locker, was first released in 2008, but didn't release in Los Angeles County until 2009, so it won its Best Picture award in 2010. In late December, all Academy members receive ballots to select nominees for the next ceremony. For most categories, Academy members vote only for their peers (directors vote for nominees for Best Director, actors vote for nominees for Best Actor, etc.). The exceptions to this are for Foreign Film, Documentary, and Animated Feature Film categories, which are nominated by special committees made up of members across the Academy, and all members are allowed to vote for nominees for the coveted Best Picture award. The winners for each category are determined by a second voting round, which is opened up to all members of the Academy for most categories. Here is some fun Oscar trivia: Walt Disney won more Academy Awards than any other person, with 26 Oscars (22 for his films and four honorary awards). Edith Head won more Academy Awards than any other woman, with eight Oscars (all for Costume Design). Katharine Hepburn won more Academy Awards than any other actor/actress, with four Oscars. Jack Nicholson, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Walter Brennan are tied for male actors winning the most Oscars. Meryl Streep has been nominated for more Academy Awards than any other actor/actress, with 21 nominations (she's won three times). Three films are tied for winning the most Oscars total: 11. These films were: Ben-Hur, in 1960; Titanic, in 1998; and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, in 2003. Tatum O'Neal is the youngest person to win an Oscar — she was 10 when she won Best Supporting Actress for Paper Moon (1973). Anthony Hopkins is the oldest person to win the Best Actor award; at age 83, he won for The Father in 2020. Before that, it was Christopher Plummer, who was 82 when he won for Beginners (2010). James Dean is the only person to be nominated for two posthumous Academy Awards, for East of Eden (1956) and Giant (1957). Beatrice Straight holds the record for winning an acting award for the shortest role — in 1975's Network, she was on screen for 5:40 minutes. Woody Allen has been nominated for 21 Academy Awards, but he's only attended the ceremony once (in a year he wasn't nominated). No one really knows how The Oscars got its name. One story is that an Academy librarian saw one of the first statuettes and exclaimed "it looks just like my Uncle Oscar!" Another story is that Bette Davis named it after her ex-husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson, Jr.

Video / Updated 11-17-2022

In this video, you learn about the rule of thirds for framing digital video shots and gain a better understanding of the types of shots in filmmaking you can take from extreme wide shots to extreme close-ups. The rule of thirds, although not a rule that can't be broken in filmmaking, is all about how to frame a shot or where to place the subject in the scene. To understand the rule of thirds, visualize imaginary lines crossing your viewing area. When placing your subject in the scene, you place them on one of the intersecting lines. For a vertical shot like the one shown in the video, you place the subject on one of the vertical lines. For a horizontal shot, you would place the subject on one of the horizontal lines, making sure that the focal point (what your audience is looking at the most) is where the lines intersect. When taking shots in filmmaking, you have several types to choose from, depending on how far away or close you want the subject to appear in your digital film. A wide shot, also known as a long shot, shows more of the surrounding scenery or a wider view. A mid shot or medium shot is commonly used for television shows and is good for showing hand movements and facial expressions. A close-up is great for capturing facial expressions and emotions in your digital film. Close-ups, like the one in the video, often show just a subject's face. Extreme close-ups in filmmaking show strong emotions and fine details (like wrinkles or skin flaws). How to use the rule of thirds in digital filmmaking Framing shots for your digital film is not just about pointing a camera at a subject and pressing a button. You should take time to consider the best way to frame your shot — every shot — because doing so will always pay off in the final edit. The rule of thirds is one of the most basic and important rules to remember when shooting your film. It’s not really a “rule” in the strict sense, and you won’t be arrested for not using it, but it does make your shots look better. The rule of thirds was first used in paintings and photography and then later in film and TV. Instead of placing subjects in the middle of the frame, artists, photographers, and filmmakers use the rule of thirds to position their subjects and actors to make the shot look more interesting. Here’s how the rule of thirds works. Each of the images below is an identical shot of one of our actors. The second frame has been divided into thirds, horizontally and vertically: three sections across and three sections down. This is where you get rule of thirds from. The goal in this shot was to draw attention to the actor’s eyes, so the shot was framed with the eyes two‐thirds of the way up the frame and two‐thirds of the way across the frame. This leaves the actor positioned more to the right of the frame. You could move her more to the left instead, but because the actor is already looking to the left of the frame, positioning to the right is the preferred choice. It’s better to leave some open space for the actor to look into. As you can see, moving the actor over to the left of the frame looks odd and crowded, and may distract the audience from the point of this filmmaking shot. Using the rule of thirds is like riding a bike: It takes practice. If you use the rule of thirds often enough, framing shots this way will become natural to you, and you’ll be able to do it easily in your filmmaking without thinking about it. Next time you watch a movie, look out for the ways the director uses the rule of thirds. Sometimes you can spot moments in films where the director intentionally breaks the rule of thirds to make the shot feel awkward. (Just make sure you spot these moments quietly. Constantly pointing out awkward shots may annoy your family or friends.) Types of shots in filmmaking The beauty of digital filmmaking is that you can move your camera around and change your shot types throughout a scene. Choosing the right type of shots for your film can enhance a scene’s look and build emotions and mood. Be sure to take time in choosing your shots. A wide shot, also known as a long shot, shows your audience more of the scene you are filming. You do this by zooming out on your camera or by simply moving your camera farther away from your subject or character. Here is a wide shot; next to it is the same shot with a grid superimposed on it so you can see how it was framed using the rule of thirds. As you can see, the actor’s head is framed in the top left. Some filmmakers like to start their scenes with a wide shot. When a wide shot is used this way, it’s called an establishing shot, and is used to show more of the location surrounding the subject or characters in your scene. Imagine you’re filming a scene, and you want your audience to know that your characters are on a beach. One way to do this in your filmmaking is to begin the scene with a wide shot showing your characters, the sky, the sea, and the sand. Instantly your audience knows the characters are on a beach. When framing a shot, look out for any straight lines you can find, either horizontally or vertically across the shot. Use these lines to keep your framing straight. For instance, the shot above is framed so that the horizontal line of the shot follows the line where the grass meets the trees. An extreme wide shot is filmed even farther away from your subject or character — in fact, sometimes they’re not even visible in the shot. This shot is great was for filmmakers to introduce the location of your scene. Often blockbuster movies establish the location of a scene by using an extreme wide shot that includes landmarks, buildings, or sights that the audience will recognize. Shooting a mid shot in your film The mid shot or medium shot frames the characters from a space above their heads to a point roughly midway down their bodies. This shot is the most commonly used shot on TV and film because it’s great for capturing hand movements, gestures, and facial expressions. Here’s a mid shot taken from a DVD series. The mid shot is used a lot in news reports because it focuses the audience’s attention on the upper‐half of the bodies of your characters. Because the viewpoint of a mid shot is similar to your own viewpoint when you’re having a conversation with someone, it’s also the most natural‐looking shot for an audience to watch. It’s a great shot to use for conversations and dialogue with small groups of people. A two shot is a mid shot used to film two characters together. A two shot is often used in TV when two presenters host a show. It can be used when you have two characters side by side sitting together or walking, or when they’re face to face at a dinner table or having coffee. Over-the-shoulder shots are great for conversations between characters who are facing each other. With an over-the-shoulder shot, you see both characters at the same time but only one character faces the camera as you film the shot. Over-the-shoulder shots are fun because they allow you to see the expressions on a character’s face. Because the character faces the viewer, over-the-shoulder shots can make the audience feel like they’re in the conversation. Over-the-shoulder shots also can be used within close‐up shots to capture more expression from your character and to build emotion. With over-the-shoulder shots, it’s common for actors to look at the camera during filming because the camera is very close to the shoulder of the second actor. Actors looking at the camera can be distracting to the audience. One way to keep your actors from looking at the lens of the camera during filmmaking is to move the camera farther back away from the actor and then zoom in. See what happens when an actor looks at the camera? Shooting a close‐up shot in your film Bringing the camera closer or zooming into your subject or character creates a close‐up shot. A close‐up shot is a great way to show a character’s facial expressions, which can help build emotions in your film. Directors normally use close‐ups in scenes to show how a character is feeling. This degree of detail is hard to get with a wide shot or mid shot. Because close‐up shots convey so much detail on the actor’s face, these shots can allow actors to express subtle emotions. An extreme close‐up shot comes in even closer to your character or subject to show an even greater degree of strong emotions or fine detail on a subject. If you want your audience to know that your character is really angry, say, you could use an extreme close‐up of the actor’s face to show the anger in her eyes. You can use an extreme close‐up for any shot in your film that requires a lot of detail. For example, if you want to show the object that your character has in his hand, you could use a cut‐in to an extreme close‐up shot of that object. A cut‐in is a close‐up shot used to show detail on an object or on a part of the subject already visible in the main scene. In this scene, it is important that the audience see the key being passed from one character to another.

Step by Step / Updated 11-14-2022

Sharing your digital film with your family and friends is great, but you may want to reach a wider audience. Sharing the film on a video‐hosting site like YouTube is a way to do that. The library of videos on YouTube gets billions of views every day, and some videos there have been viewed hundreds of millions of times. Uploading your film to YouTube allows you to share a link to your film with friends and family around the world and get comments and reviews. Before uploading your films to YouTube, however, make sure you have permission from a parent to do so. To upload your film to YouTube through iMovie, follow these steps:

Article / Updated 11-14-2022

You just press Record, right? Making your digital film is not quite as simple as that. Take your time. It’s important not to rush when setting up your camera. Rushing can lead to mistakes. It’s a good idea to make sure everything is set up before you call the actors in. If they arrive early, get them to read through their lines while you prepare for the shot. Directors often give instructions to cast and crew as part of the filming routine. If you watch behind-the-scenes footage from films, you can sometimes hear the directors calling out instructions to the team. These may seem like code if you don’t know what they mean. The following list describes some of the most common: The director gives instructions to the team. “Quiet on set”: This grabs the attention of the crew and actors around and warns them you are filming and that everyone should stop talking. If people continue to talk, you may need to shout louder. “Roll sound”: This is a cue for the sound operator to start the sound recording (if you’re capturing sound separately). It’s also an opportunity for him or her to warn you of any unwanted noises. If all is clear and your sound operator has set the sound recording, he will respond with “Sound rolling” or just give you a thumbs‐up. Ready to capture sound for your film. “Roll camera”: This is a cue for the camera operator to start the camera recording. When she’s done this, she’ll respond with “Camera rolling.” Remember to keep your finger away from the Record button while filming — you may accidentally press it again and stop recording. The camera operator is ready to capture footage. If you watch behind‐the‐scenes documentaries about the making of films you see the camera operator shout out “speed” instead of “rolling.” This is a leftover from the days when the cameras recorded onto reels of tape. On those cameras, the motors inside the cameras would need a few seconds to get the reel of tape rolling at the right speed. Back then, the camera operator would wait until the camera was rolling at the right speed and would shout “speed” to let the director know it was okay to record. This term may be out‐of‐fashion, but some camera operators still use it. You can use either “speed” or “rolling”; it’s up to you. “Slates”: This is the cue for the person with the clapperboard to introduce the scene and take number. Take one! “Action”: This is the last instruction to be called before the scene begins. It instructs the actors to start acting. Time to shoot some action. “Cut”: This instructs the camera and sound operator to stop recording after the actors have finished the scene. It’s important not to shout this too early: You may need the extra video footage later, when you’re editing your film. After many of the instructions called by the director, the crew is expected to respond — to confirm, for instance, that the sound and camera are rolling. Even if you’re filming on your own, it’s good to call out the instructions as a reminder to yourself and also to let people around you know that you are filming. It’s good to get into this habit for when you work with a larger film crew. Importing your footage from your camera can be done in two ways, as explained below: Importing directly from the camera: This involves connecting your digital video camera to the computer directly via a USB or FireWire cable. Your camera instructions will be able to show you where the USB or FireWire connection is on your camera. Your editing tool should recognize when the camera is connected and you can import your footage from the camera. Editing is a very important part of filmmaking. Importing from the media card: This involves removing the media card from the camera and inserting it into a media card reader connected to your computer. Your editing tool should recognize the media card when it’s inserted and you will be able to import the video clips from your media card. Using a media card makes transporting your footage easy.

Article / Updated 11-14-2022

Special effects aren’t just limited to illusions that look real only through the camera lens or after the postproduction stage of your film. Makeup is make-believe that can walk and talk without the magic of the camera but through the magic of talented makeup artists. Many people think of beauty makeovers when they think of makeup artists. You don’t normally think of monsters, alien creatures, and flesh wounds — but the world of the makeup artist is a broad one. Applying prosthetics Prosthetics is a term associated with artificial limbs. In the world of special effects makeup, however, prostheses are used to create additional limbs, burn victims, and monster effects (often all the sick, gross stuff). Prosthetic pieces, also called appliances, are usually made of foam latex, which can move much like human skin and muscles. Makeup effects artist David Miller designed the conehead makeup for Dan Aykroyd and the entire Conehead population in the film Coneheads. He also designed Freddy Krueger’s makeup for the Nightmare on Elm Street films. (Miller was working late one night trying to decide on the look of Freddy Krueger and glanced down at his melted cheese pizza — inspiration hit!) By gluing latex prosthetics in sections over his face and head Christian Bale was completely unrecognizable as Vice President Dick Cheney in the film Vice. You can also do mechanical makeup effects, like a head-cast made from an actor with features added to a fake head. I made a cameo appearance as a werewolf in one of my short films several years ago. My sister Marlene, a professional makeup artist, and makeup artist Jack Bricker took a cast of my head by pouring plaster over my face, leaving straws in my nostrils so I could breathe (that was the only time in my life that I’ve ever been plastered). When the plaster dried, they used the mold to design the werewolf head in latex and added hair and an extended muzzle to the dummy head. To save time and money, they only made a half-head because the final shot was a profile, and the camera would never see the other side. Here’s looking at scleral lenses Remember Michael Jackson in Thriller with the devilish eyes? Jim Carrey’s strange eyes in The Mask, and The Grinch? What about the White Walkers with the ice-blue eyes in Game of Thrones? The apes with the black eyes in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey? The actors all had to wear special contact lenses. These special lenses are called scleral lenses, which have funky pupil designs and are fitted to cover the actor’s eyes like conventional contact lenses. Linda Blair wore scleral contact lenses for The Exorcist and then again when I revisited her possessed state in my comedy spoof The Linda Blair Witch Project (see the following figure), where she finds out she’s possessed by famous comedians (did you know that possession is nine-tenths of the law?). You can stream my short on YouTube. Be sure to purchase scleral lenses from an optometrist or from eyewear specialists like Dr. Morton Greenspoon and Dr. Richard Silver, who have designed and provided special scleral lenses for many Hollywood blockbusters (including The Grinch and Men in Black). Although specialty stores, especially during Halloween, carry designer effects lenses, you don’t know if they’re made by a reputable company, and the lenses aren’t fitted to your particular eye shape. Not only could they cause discomfort or infection, but worse, damage to your cornea. Always consult an ophthalmologist before putting anything in your eyes! Take a bite out of this Another skill of the special-effect makeup artist is designing and creating teeth that fit over the actor’s own bite. A mold is taken of the actor’s real teeth — very similar to how a dentist takes a mold impression to fit you for a crown or veneers. The artist then sculpts a new set of molars — from ghoulish monster or vampire teeth to rotten buck teeth like Austin Powers. Refer to the preceding figure for an example of vampire teeth that fit over the actor’s own incisors. Pulling out your hair with lace hairpieces Lace hairpieces, including beards and mustaches, are used on almost every movie, and quite often on the main actors. Sean Connery wore a lace hairpiece throughout all his James Bond movies. You’ve often seen actors that you know are bald in real life sprouting a beautiful head of hair for their latest starring role. Even actors with hair have been known to wear lace pieces when they are becoming a different person on screen, as, for example, Tom Hanks playing Fred Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Lace hairpieces are created by a specialty makeup and or hair artist. Ron Wolek designed and meticulously punched one hair at a time into a piece of lace netting for Ed Asner’s Santa Claus beard in my film Santa Stole Our Dog. Real hair or yak hair is often used. The weaved hair tied into the netting is then cut and shaped like a real haircut, or trimmed into a beard or mustache (often on a mannequin head so the actor doesn’t have to sit there for a long period of time).