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This program looks at animation, a style of filmmaking that gained popularity during the silent era of the 1920s and has remained extremely popular from the 1930s to the present day. Animation still remains a labor-intensive and time-intensive process as the artists and crafts people behind contemporary animated programming are still essentially applying the same processes as the early animation pioneers - two frames per image, holds and cycles and synchronization. This program includes two practical animated tutorials as well as some classical animation from the early 1900s.
Cinematography looks at what a camera operator is responsible for and how they make the decisions to create the look the director desires. This segment will focus on cinematography, or camera work and how this tool helps in the creation of the story. The role of the camera operator, or cinematographer, can be highly artistic while simultaneously requiring significant scientific and technical knowledge to be performed well. From the birth of motion pictures in the 1890s to the talkies of the late 1920s, cinematography was of paramount importance to successful narrative, since in the absence of dialogue to record, footsteps or closing doors to anticipate, or music to incorporate, the camera could capture the moving image only. In the first decade of motion pictures, the role of the cinematographer or camera operator and director were one and the same, but as cinema evolved, the duties of the director and cinematographer diverged. In this program we review Academy Award winner, James Wong Howe, who pioneered dollying and handheld camera techniques as well as the use of unconventional light sources. We take a look at his 1938 film Algiers, which earned Howe his first Academy nomination for Best Cinematography, focusing on the moving camerawork.
This program discuss three big jobs in motion picture making; screenwriting, producing and directing. The director is responsible for the overall feel and look of the film and decides on the use all of the other process of movie making - lighting, editing, mise en scene, cinematography and sound which ultimately reflect the director's control and vision. Explore films from major directors of cinema and learn how a script is formatted. Includes the opening scene from the Howard Hawks film His Girl Friday, Stanley Donen, the 1951 musical Royal Wedding, Vin-cente Minnelli, comedy film Father's Little Dividend, Frank Capra, 1941 film, Meet John Doe, John Huston, 1953 film Beat The Devi and Michael Gordon's 1950 film, Cyrano De Bergerac.
Documentary talks about some of the different styles of documentary filmmaking from the birth of cinema to the present day. It is a multi-part look at the history, techniques, movements, and people who create the magic that we call motion pictures. Todays program will talk about a style of filmmaking outside of the normal fiction or narrative films that we as audience members are used to seeing, that is, documentary filmmaking. With the birth of cinema in the 1890s, spearheaded by America's Thomas Edison and Frances Louis and Auguste Lumiere, filmmaking progressed in two directions. Edison brought his subjects before a stationary camera to his tarpaper-covered studio called the Black Maria built at West Orange, New Jersey partly because the camera required multiple people to move it. While Edison was bringing people to the Black Maria to have a pie, the Lumiere brothers created the cinematographe. The resulting camera mobility allowed people to go out into the world and both document events and project films. Included are a number of clips from classic documentary films. Features the 1934 documentary Song of Ceylon, 1935 British film Housing Problems, the 1936 film The Plow that Broke the Plainsand, 1938's film The River, 'Why We Fight' and the 1944 film, The Battle of San Pietro.
This program looks at the very birth of cinema in the late 1800s through the talkies in 1928. It is a multi-part look at the history, techniques, movements and people who created the magic that we call motion pictures. The dawn of the moving image began early in the 19th century with the discovery that a surface treated with a photo-sensitive emulsion would reveal an image when exposed to light. These first photos, or tintypes, were crude forms of photography improved upon by the creation of more flexible photo-sensitive material, or film, which resulted in better still photographic images. Photographic images whose subjects were photographed in slightly different positions could be flipped in rapid succession to create the illusion of subjects in motion. George Eastman, of Eastman-Kodak fame, created a celluloid film stock that could be wound on a reel, resulting in the first actual example of moving images on film. Experiments in the 1890s by W.K.L. Dickson and William Heise, under the auspices of the Thomas Edison Company, resulted in the invention of the Kinetograph, a vertical feed camera which exposed film and had a row of sprockets on each side of the celluloid strip, much like our conventional 35 mm film today. Featured are early films from Thomas Edison, The Lumiere Brothers and George Melies.
This program focus on editing and how this process helps tell the story in a motion picture. The editing process follows some simple steps: takes the raw footage from the camera after it is developed, select the shots and combines them into sequences which will themselves be combined to create an entire motion picture. Completing these steps sounds easy enough, but in reality, editing a film extends beyond arranging shots into a completed project. Deciding which shots to use and their length requires creativity and discernment. Editing is sometimes described as an invisible art, because if the editor performs their job well, the audience, never notice the cuts. We are simply engaged in the story. Editing discusses how a film is cut to create the story we see on the screen. This program features a long take, from the 1950 film Cyrano de Bergerac, Establishing shot, from the 1937 film A Star is Born, A point of view shot, when the camera replaces the eye of the character and we see exactly what the character sees - the opening of Naked Kiss from 1964 and cutting on action, from John Houston's 1954 film Beat the Devil.
Film genre, or the classification of film into categories is based upon designated characteristics that distinguish one film from another. Genre explores what characteristics indicate a film genre like horror, musical, Western and comedy and how viewers understand the story put before them. They remain a useful way to categorize and distinguish most films, so that audiences know what to expect. Most film critics agree on ten film genres: action-adventure, comedy, costume films, epics, horror, musical, science fiction and fantasy, suspense, war, and the western. This program discusses the following films and the genre of each - Angel and the Badman, The Road to Bali, Royal Wedding, My Man Godfrey and The Big Combo.
This program focus on lighting and how a cinematographer and lighting engineer work together to showcase what is put before the camera. Lighting is a crucial component to filmmaking because it enables the director to say, Look here, not there, or to light up an entire scene so we can peruse what's in the film's frame. Without light we are left with this 'LIGHTS OFF' nothing. We need light to see the film and we need lighting engineers to handle and control the lighting so the director can attain the look they want. Quite often what makes an average production exceptional is the lighting. This program discusses what tools are used to create different lighting set-ups and uses a number of examples to illustrate how this important element is decided. Lighting design falls into two categories, High-Key lighting and Low-Key lighting. High-Key lighting provides relatively bright, even illumination of the film frame or scene, the kind the director and producer of a big-scale musical productions may choose to showcase 60 dancers and 20 chorus singers and their elaborate costumes. Low-key lighting is focused lighting with strong contrast. Low-key lighting creates fast fall-off, which means that the image goes from light to dark very quickly, falling off into shadows or darkness. Low-key lighting works well in horror films, or any film in which a director wishes to create suspense or keep you guessing what is in the dark, inky shadows on the outskirts of the frame. This program discusses the following films and the lighting of each Royal Wedding (musical) the scene is brightly lit throughout in both, wide and medium shots. Night of the Living Dead (horror) to enhance the suspense, the lighting creates shadows which heighten the mystery. Flying Deuces (comedy) like a musical, relies on a high-key lighting set-up, eliminating almost all shadows.
Mise-en-scene looks at how filmmakers make decisions about what is put before the camera. It includes costumes, props, set design, positioning of actors and much more. Mise en scene is a term that refers to all visual elements that appear within each frame of a motion picture. Without various features of mise en scene, a moving picture would consist of only a series of flickering black or light-infused frames, since even a colored screen would provide visual information that some might consider an element of mise en scene. A French phrase which translates roughly as £á?placed on stage, Mise-en-scene is a broad concept often difficult to define for film because it only exists when considering a combination of elements within the frame or camera's eye. Basically, anything to be filmed the setting, the costumes and make-up, the movement, facial expression, and position of actors on screen, and some elements of lighting is considered mise en scene. The concept of mise en scene for film shares a lot with theater production in that props, sets and blocking of actors are all deliberately chosen for particular effects, although the physical space of the stage and theater often limit or dictate how mise en scene is perceived by an audience. Features the Western, Angel and the Badman, silent film, Caligari, costuming Cyrano de Bergerac and lighting (an air of mystery) Film Noir.
In this program we go global, or look at global cinema. While American cinema has had a wide-spread influence on world popular cultures almost from the beginning, many other nations have had significant national film traditions that have also had an influence. But, rather than provide a panoramic view of each national cinema, we're going to concentrate on some of the most influential world film movements and filmmakers since the beginning of cinema. Includes some of the major foreign film movements, such as Italian Neo-Realism and French New Wave.
Sound investigates the various types of sound, how they are recorded, and how they are incorporated in a film. Besides the visuals in moving pictures, sound also contributes to part of those magical effects. This program will focus on sound design and how life can be breathed into a project through the use of carefully selected and carefully placed sounds. When we think about or talk about them, we can categorize all sounds into one of three categories: dialogue or voice, music, and sound effects. Sound effects can be sounds that occur naturally within the film itself or sounds that add to the overall impact that the film presents. Music is quite often not part of the film itself, but a musical track that adds to the mood of the film. Both music and sound effects are usually classified as either diegetic or non-diegetic sounds. Simply put, non-diegetic sounds are those which do not occur within the film, while diegetic sounds occur inside of the film's action. This program features diegetic and non-diegetic music in the 1950 film D-O-A Atmospheric sound known as foleying in Meet John Doe and manufactured sound elements (suspenseful mood music, a ray gun emission, the whirling of flying spaceships) in the 1953 Killers From Outer Space.
The Golden Age of Hollywood motion picture making was a period of almost 30 years, beginning in 1928 and ending in the mid-1950s. This program focuses on the classical Hollywood era of the 1930s through the 1950s. The hosts discuss and present clips from some of the films which made this era of Hollywood so memorable including the musical Dixiana, the western (Fighting Caravans), A Star is Born, The Vampire Bat, The Little Princess (Shirley Temple), Father's Little Dividend with Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor.
By Mark Morris
Good filmmaking is no accident. Everyone involved in the making of a good film, in front of and behind the camera, needs to follow certain basic steps in order to be sure the story being told is captured properly. One important step to understand and to avoid is crossing the 180 degree or stage line, which is the main purpose of this visual how-to. Here the producer uses a film-within-a-film style, the setting of a U.S. Civil War surrender with a battalion of re-enactment actors, a quality ante-bellum location, a steadicam, a flash pot, an authentic soundtrack, animation, graphics, some magical effects, and a tongue-in-cheek editing "angel" to stop a fight between the writer and the director of the film to deliver a fun lesson in camera placement, camera movement, actor blocking, cutaways, and 4 tricks to avoiding jump cuts.
From shooting fight scenes to perfecting your action scene transitions, this program demonstrates many ways to help you create and improve your Action Videos.
Essential techniques on capturing audio for video. Learn how to place microphones for interviews and events. Tips on using wireless lavaliere microphones, hidden microphones, boom microphones and digital video recorders. From mic placement to understanding wireless technology, this collection combines many techniques to get you started with capturing Field Audio!
Online Video Production gives you new insight into creating video projects for online video sharing sites. As an extra bonus, the DVD comes with several of Videomaker's best articles (in .pdf format) with specific interest to creators of online video, including compression techniques, shooting video for the web and online video marketing advice. This DVD will help you get the best out of internet video!
Learn classic special effects used by Hollywood FX creators. From glitter FX to making bullet holes, fake fire and safely running your actor down by a car, this DVD takes your special effects skills to a higher level. With creativity & knowledge you can incorporate some big budget Hollywood techniques using low budget camera tricks and editing software. Discover how to use green screen effects to put your characters in any setting. As a special bonus we have included step-by-step screen recorded presentations of how we produced some of these special effects using Adobe premiere, Adobe Photoshop, and Particle Illusion.
Teaches advanced tricks on the best way to work with light and shadow in your production. As an extra bonus, this disc has some of our best associated articles for viewing this DVD on a computer.
"Rosabella" is the name given to "Rosebud" in the Italian version of the acclaimed Orson Welles' classic, Citizen Kane. Here we trace the 20-year story of the great actor/director's life in Italy through remarkable film footage, as well as impassioned interviews with those who lived and worked close with him at the time. Private sentiments of Lea Padovani and Paola Mori, his third wife, are revealed; plus rare footage concerning Citizen Kane, Macbeth, Othello, and the unfinished Don Quixote and Julius Caesar. Sub-titled.
Review
"This excellent documentary reveals the passionate influence Welles' Italian experiences had on his personal and professional life." -National Review
A tremendous behind-the-scenes' look at the making of the feature film, A River Runs Through It. Everyone involved, including Robert Redford, Brad Pitt and Tom Skerritt, discuss their roles - on camera and off - in transforming Norman Maclean's challengingly, personal novella about family, religion and the outdoors into a great feature film.
In this DVD, director Aristomenis (Meni) Tsirbas covers the basics of one of CG animation's least understood components: camera and staging, specifically in the context of effective storytelling. By breaking open one of his award-winning short films Meni reveals his creative process for designing a sequence to play clearly and dramatically. Story beats are broken down, camera motions are developed, and important narrative tools such as zoom factor and depth of field are explained. A detailed Do's and Don'ts section guides the viewer to create polished, compelling, and tasteful camera animation by addressing proper use of motion curves, avoiding the 'digital curse', and overlaying the right amount of camera shake.
TOPICS COVERED:
Scene coverage
Scene blocking
Breaking down action
Camera framing, motion and shake
The camera axis
Zoom factor, F stop and depth of field techniques
Working with motion curves
Telling a good story
Review
"Meni is a unique film-maker because he knows how to do everything on a project. He's a true auteur, and that's what allows him to use everything that's necessary to creatively push a project and combine all the elements to tell the most concise and clear visual story possible." - Shane Acker Academy Award Nominated director and animator "9"
In this DVD, John presents the new Camera Sequencer in Autodesk Maya, a toolset that allows users to create camera shots in a non-linear editing-style timeline within Maya. Using the Camera Sequencer, the viewer will learn production methods of building full sequences in Maya, shot-by-shot, which can then be playblasted as movies for editorial and animation. John begins by exploring the Sequencer menu and tool bar, and doing a general run down of all the exciting new functionality. Using a simple cycle of animation, he uses the Sequencer to "shoot" the animation from various camera angles, and edits the resulting shots until they begin to tell a story. Learn how to use the non-linear editing functions of the Sequencer - cutting, trimming, scaling and sliding shots on tracks, and look at methods to create and group alternate camera setups for easy presentation. John will also show you how to import a set of storyboards which have been exported from Final Cut Pro, and how to build a sequence of animation from these storyboards. This lecture will give animators, previs and rough layout professionals the ability to create full sequences of animation directly within Maya, quickly and efficiently.
TOPICS COVERED:
Shot Creation
Camera Creation
Sequencer Preferences
Sequencer Tools
Shot Grouping
Rendering Movies
Non-linear Sequencer Editing
Importing an EDL
Importing Audio, Rough Layout
Review
"I'm always looking for great ways to expand my knowledge base within Maya, and John Clark's Maya Dynamics DVDs have quickly helped me get up to speed on the inner workings of the often overwhelming dynamics module. His clear, concise lessons and methods are a one-stop-shop for all your effects development needs." - Michael Ford Senior Character Technology Supervisor Sony Imageworks
In this DVD, director Aristomenis (Meni) Tsirbas reveals the essentials for creating properly animated stereoscopic imagery. Although Maya and LightWave are used, the course is platform agnostic and can be used with any animation software, even if it doesn't have stereoscopic tools. Meni guides you through a comprehensive overview of all the major principles of stereo filmmaking. Meni begins with a biological discussion of how the human eye perceives stereo imagery, and then covers the principles of 3D, including near and far divergence, the conversion at the screen plane, and working with camera movement. After creating a final render, he completes the lecture by showing how to display animated stereo sequences. This is a comprehensive yet simple to understand lecture that gives artists all the tools needed to generate exceptional stereoscopic imagery.
TOPICS COVERED:
The biology of the human eye and its limits
Maximum divergence of near and far objects
Convergence and the screen plane
Converting 2D CGI to true 3D
3D do's and don'ts
Maya's stereo tools
Final output and display
Review
"Meni is a unique film-maker because he knows how to do everything on a project. He's a true auteur, and that's what allows him to use everything that's necessary to creatively push a project and combine all the elements to tell the most concise and clear visual story possible." - Shane Acker Academy Award Nominated director and animator "9"