Film Riot brings you the best DIY filmmaking tips to help you do movie, video and film special effects on the cheap. It's not just how-to though. Delivered by real film makers, the show is interesting, entertaining, and wrapped in a hilarious easy to swallow coating.
How to Build a Camera Jib for Under £140 ($200) - Film Riot
Film Riot is a how-to trip through filmmaking from the hyper-active mind of Ryan Connolly. From how to make great effects to following Triune Films through production, Film Riot explores the art of filmmaking in a way you've never seen.
How to Build a Camera Jib for Under £140 ($200) - Film Riot
Anyone starting out in film should watch this. Quentin Tarantino once said that if he had gone to film school he would have graduated with a toothpick. But someone like Robert Rodriguez goes to film school and comes out with El Mariachi. I know this is true because I was there when he said it.
To add to his list of growing accomplishments; Director, Writer, Editor, effects, Composer, Producer, Studio Mogul, Chef and creator of film franchises. Rodriguez is also a pro-active teacher and evangelist of film making. His move to Producer is a natural progression.
Below I bring your 3, 10 minute sessions from his guerrilla film making school. In the first clip Rodriguez talks about guerrilla Film Making in general and in next two clips he goes in to detail about setting up and creating shots, using El Mariachi as a case study.
Rodriguez is more than happy to share his learnings with others while offering inspiration. If these clips interest you keep an eye out for his book: " Rebel without a Crew: Or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker With $7,000 Became a Hollywood Player."
The Dutch Tilt, also known as The Dutch angle, Dutch tilt, German angle, oblique angle or canted angle or Batman Angle.
The Dutch tilt is a camera shot in which the camera is deliberately slanted to one side. This can be used for dramatic effect and helps portray unease, disorientation, frantic or desperate action, intoxication, madness, etc.
Dutch tilts are typically static shots but can also be used with simultaneous panning and/or tilting.
Dutch angles are frequently used by film directors who have a background in the visual arts, such as Tim Burton (in Edward Scissorhands, and Ed Wood), and Terry Gilliam, who used Dutch angles in Brazil, The Fisher King, Twelve Monkeys, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Tideland to represent madness, disorientation, and/or drug psychosis. In the Evil Dead trilogy, Sam Raimi used Dutch angles to show that a character had become possessed.
Dziga Vertov's 1929 experimental documentary Man with a Movie Camera is known to contain one of the first usages of the Dutch angle, among other innovative techniques discovered by Vertov himself.
Other notable uses of the Dutch tilt can be seen in:
Batman, Dutch angles were used extensively in the original TV series and 1966 film of Batman, where each villain had his own angle. Scenes filmed in any villain's hideout, when only the chief villain and his henchmen were present, were invariably shot at an angle departing extremely from the horizontal.
The Third Man makes extensive use of Dutch angle shots, to emphasize the main character's alienation in a foreign environment. An anecdote of cinema lore alleges that once filming was completed, the crew presented director Carol Reed with a spirit level, to sardonically encourage him to use more traditional shooting angles.
It was used a lot in German films of the 1930s and 1940s. This is where the name German angle came from. The Dutch term is said to have been a mistranslation of the German Deutsch. @flickerdrome adds: Generally horrible technique, but can be a great effect – Evil Dead, The Haunting (Robert Wise's) & Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf.
RAY HARRYHAUSEN and TONY DALTON will be signing An Animated Life at the Forbidden Planet Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR, on Saturday 24th October 1 – 2pm.
The last great animator before the introduction of CGI, Ray’s book takes us through sixty years of bringing dreams to life. From harpies and skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts to the six-armed Kali in Sinbad, Ray explains the films' journeys, from original concept through to the critics' reviews, as well as the basics of special effects and stop-motion animation. Now re-issued in softcover, An Animated Life is a wonderland guide through a golden age of SFX magic.
Mr Harryhausen is responsible for the barrier breaking animation in much loved classic films such as; Clash of the Titans, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, One Million Years B.C., First Men in the Moon, Jason and the Argonauts, Mysterious Island, The 3 Worlds of Gulliver, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and many more.
Where Forbidden Planet London Megastore 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR
Using a Clapper, Clap board, clapper board, Clap slate 1. Color Reference Stripes 2. Running Time Code 3. Scene Number 4. Take Number 5. Camera Roll Number 6. Director 7. Director of Photography (D.O.P.) 8. Date 9. Episode Number (if filming for TV)
The Clapper 1. Color Reference Stripes These stripes serve as a standard color reference for the people who edit episodes of Andromeda, so that they can make sure colors are true-to-life (unless they are intended to be otherwise). Because the colors are always in the same place on the clapper (i.e., Red is always first, Blue is always second, etc.), the editors will immediately know they have to fix something if the colors on the clapper appear out of place. 2. Running Time Code Each frame of film used in the making of Andromeda has a number assigned to it. The numbers you see in the digital display on the clapper are the numbers being assigned to the frames of film being shot as you watch. These frame numbers come in handy when directors, editors and other behind-the-scenes folks leave notes for other Andromeda workers: They can indicate exactly which piece of film they're talking about without having to resort to descriptions like "It's the scene where Dylan fires his force lance." Frame numbers are much more accurate and get the job done more efficiently. 3. Scene Number In each episode of Andromeda, each scene has a number. The scene number is indicated on the clapper so that the film being shot shows the same system of scene numbering as the script. In the image above, scene 26 is being filmed. 4. Take Number Each time the actors perform a given scene, it is called a "take." Take numbers are shown on the clapper so the editors can understand the director's instructions when he or she indicates which performance of a given scene should be used in the final cut of an episode. In the image above, Take 1 is being filmed. 5. Camera Roll Number This is just like the film you shoot in your camera on vacation: Sometimes you shoot so many rolls of film, you have to number them in order to keep track of them. It's the same situation here. Each physical roll of film (which can be used to shoot up to 20 minutes of footage) used to make Andromeda gets a number. Most of that film is transferred to videotape and/or digital format for editing into the final product. If, for some reason, a picture problem is spotted in editing, the Camera Roll Number tells the editors can see exactly which roll of film to look at to see if there was a bad spot in the film, or if the problem lies elsewhere. 6. Director The name of the person directing the episode is shown on the clapper. The director oversees every aspect of production and has final approval on many decisions made about an episode. 7. Director of Photography (D.O.P.) Also often referred to as the cinematographer. The D.O.P. oversees the composition of each and every shot used in an episode of Andromeda. 8. Date Clappers used in production of Andromeda show the exact date on which any piece of film was shot. 9. Episode Number (production) Andromeda clappers also feature the production episode number. This number differs from the numbers you eventually see in the Official Episode Guide because the shows are often filmed in a sequence different from the order in which they are broadcast. So while production episode #509 is the ninth episode filmed for that season, it may be broadcast as the fourteenth episode of that season, making it broadcast episode #514. The Official Andromeda Episode Guide uses the broadcast episode numbers to identify specific episodes.
For full certification to operate a clapper board. One has to be able to mark up:
Production information: Director, Director of Photography, Production Company and Production title
Scenic information: Day or night, interior or exterior, stock numbers, scene and slate numbers, take numbers, roll numbers, pick-ups, guide tracks, syn/MOS, A and B cameras and symbols
On behalf Raindance David Freeman will offer an analysis of the BIFA and Oscar winning movie. Slumdog Millionaire will be discussed and broken down scene by scene.
Working as a writer and producer, David Freeman has written and developed scripts and other properties which have been bought or optioned by Columbia Pictures, MGM, Paramount, Castle Rock, Buena Vista Television, Atlas Entertainment, Hearst Entertainment, and many other major film and television production companies. He's a long-standing member of the Writers Guild of America.
The workshop has been taken by Writers, Directors, Producers, Stars, and Key Creative Executives behind: Minority Report, Good Will Hunting, The Fugitive, E.R., Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Simpsons, The X-Files, Total Recall, Face/Off, 12 Monkeys, King of the Hill
Ticket Info: £10 To book, call Raindance on 0207 287 3833 or click here.
In film and television, an establishing shot sets up, or "establishes", a scene's setting and/or its participants. Typically it is a shot at the beginning (or, occasionally, end) of a scene indicating where, and sometimes when, the remainder of the scene takes place. It's usually a long (wide-angle or full) shot at the beginning of a scene (or a sequence) that is intended to show things from a distance (often an aerial shot), and to inform the audience with an overview in order to help identify and orient the locale or time for the scene and action that follows; this kind of shot is usually followed by a more detailed shot that brings characters, objects, or other figures closer; a re-establishing shot repeats an establishing shot near the end of a sequence.
For example, an exterior shot of a building at night, followed by an interior shot of people talking, implies that the conversation is taking place at night inside that building. (Of course the conversation may in fact have been filmed on a studio set far from the apparent location, because of budget, permits, time limitations, etc.) Establishing shots may also use famous landmarks – such as the Eiffel Tower, the Colosseum, the Empire State Building, or the Statue of Liberty – to identify a city.
Alternatively, an establishing shot might just be a long shot of a room that shows all the characters from a particular scene. For example, a scene about a murder in a college lecture hall might begin with a shot that shows the entire room, including the lecturing professor and the students taking notes. A close-up shot can also be used at the beginning of a scene to establish the setting (such as, for the lecture hall scene, a shot of a pencil writing notes).
Establishing shots were more common during the classical era of filmmaking than they are now. Today's filmmakers tend to skip the establishing shot in order to move the scene along more quickly. In addition, scenes in mysteries and the like often wish to obscure the setting and its participants and thus avoid clarifying them with an establishing shot.
An establishing shot may also establish a concept, rather than a location. For example; opening with a martial arts drill visually establishes the theme of martial arts.
Film Riot brings you the best DIY filmmaking tips to help you do movie, video and film special effects on the cheap. It's not just how-to though. Delivered by real film makers, the show is interesting, entertaining, and wrapped in a hilarious easy to swallow coating.
