Film Evolution: Phase 5

Have you been tracking along with us?  Identified a phase that you’re on yet…

PHASE 1: 1895 CINEMA IS BORN - the first phase of every filmmaker wherein we shoot everyday life, devoid of narrative and capture a ton of moments on film, a small percentage of which is genuinely usable, entertaining footage.

PHASE 2: 1902 FILM AS THEATER - Capturing limited stage-like drama (wedding videos, church plays, a friend’s joke, etc) – these are films with a linear plot as the action happens.

PHASE 3: 1903 EDITING IS BORN - Shooting with Post-production in mind, telling a narrative with shot selections, and shooting/assembling your film in a non-linear fashion.

PHASE 4: 1908 INCREASING YOUR FILM LANGUAGE - The Ultimate Film School. Making short films every week.  Experimenting with the visual storytelling process and various genres.

Or perhaps we haven’t gotten to your Phase, yet?  Alrighty then, Mr. Big Shot…let’s keep moving right along…

The Jazz Singer is a 1927 U.S. musical film. The first feature-length motion picture with synchronized dialogue sequences, its release heralded the commercial ascendance of the “talkies” and the decline of the silent film era

“Singing in the Rain” was a great recap of that transitional time and its’ inherent problems:

- What if your star didn’t have a good voice?

- Charlie Chaplin held out until 1940s “The Great Dictator” to make his first talkie because he was afraid his audience would reject a talking tramp

- The Camera was less “free” than before because of accomodating the microphone – camera techniques changed, lighting techniques changed, set etiquette changed

I know, I know you’ve got your shooting style down to a science.  You wave your Canon 5D around on a Monopod for some awesome Matrix-like Camera angles.  You attach your GoPro to everything including your Poodle to get REALLY creative shots.  You shoot next to waterfalls and fountains, you shoot next to train tracks, you shoot wherever the heck-fire you want to.  You’re free.  You’re liberated.  You’re NOT doing synchronous sound.  M-O-S.

M-O-S is most fun to define as “Mit out Sound” and then you say it like zee Ghermans and it humours the whole crew and life is good.  But technically, it means “motor only sync” or “motor only sound”.  Do you want people to talk and their lips to match their words?  That is sync sound.  Are you slamming a car door and people are walking up a gravel driveway?  Sync sound.

Of course we’re used to Video Cameras doing much of the work for us.  They’ve spoiled us actually.  They even come with microphones right on them.  You hit record and it marries the audio and the video all on to one lovely card or tape.  Lovely.  That is called SINGLE SYSTEM SOUND.

A lot of people are filming events with Canon 5Ds and such.  They’re recording picture with the Camera and only an audio scratch track on the camera.  Then they’re plugging a Zoom Audio Microphone into the Sound Board of the venue and then using software like Pluraleyes to sync the audio with the video.  This is DOUBLE SYSTEM SOUND.  Sound recorded separately from picture.

One thing is agreed upon by all.  Sound slows down production.  Because now you have to make sure you have a microphone close to the talking actor.  The further you are, the more ambient or room sound is picked up.  If you attach a lapel microphone to someone’s clothes you have to watch for clothing rustling or other movement.  If you’re using a boom microphone, you have to worry about keeping it out of your shot or lighting.

And Audio peeps are notoriously per-SNICK-ety!  Like it’s their job.  Cause it is.  Some common complaints you’ll hear from audio:

“Wahhh, there’s an airplane passing by overhead.  This sound is unusable garbage.  We must wait 20 minutes for it to round the curvature of the earth just to be safe.”

“Wahhh, an Air Conditioning unit just kicked in mid-answer in that interview.  The sound from that take is unusable garbage.”

“Wahhh, we can’t film beside this Highway/Ocean/Rock Concert/Sports Event/Generator/Crying Baby/Barking Dog/Cicada Swarm because the sound from that take will be unusable garbage.”

“Waahhhh, the actor yelled his line this time instead of whispered, so the sound from that take will be unusable garbage.”

“Wahhhh a butterfly just sighed heavily in the next county over as it alighted upon a carpet, so the sound from that take will be unusable garbage.”

One way to speed up production is to unplug your Sound Recordists headsets which cuts down on about 98% of problems for him/her to complain about.  Just let them know it can all be “fixed in post!”  They love that.

Speaking of Post-production, once you’ve gotten pristine sound recorded in the field, your job is only half over.  Usually there is a bunch of sound design, effects, music cues, etc to be woven into your film or video after it’s edited together.  Here is a great behind the scenes from JURASSIC PARK which explains some of the intricate (and fun!) sound designing process.

And here’s some more behind-the-scenes videos from “Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings” (Part 1)…

And “Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings” (Part 2)…

That’s Phase 5: Audio.  Instead of just music and moving pictures on the screen your work now contains interviews or actors’ dialogue.  With dialogue, you’re able to move away from theater or pantomime acting to genuinely nuanced performance.  You’re now being mindful of how you acquire audio in the field so instead of on-camera mics, you’re using lavaliers, boom mics, handheld mics, etc, to record the sounds you want, and weed out the sounds you don’t want to take with you into Post.  You’re also thinking in terms of music and Sound Design.

Musically, you’re setting a tone for a scene with the score you’ve selected.  You’re cutting shots to the music beats.  You’re allowing music to be a participant, a character in your story.  Is your music orchestral and pastoral?  Is your music brassy and ska-like?  Is it a cute-sy little guitar and/or ukele riff played by an equally cute-sy hipster twenty-something whose first name may or may not be named Zooey?  Or is the “music” for your scene just a heartbeat?

Your Sound Design is also helping you fill out a 3-dimensional world around your characters.  Your film takes place inside an apartment but you can hear neighbors constantly arguing next door.  Or the El Train rumbles past every morning at oh-dark-thirty.  You add general office-y type sounds to an office scene to sell the illusion that your film and your story extends beyond the borders of the screen we are watching.  Phones ring, Elevators ding, Birds sing, Cash-registers cha-ching, uh…Elvis is king.  Okay, got caught in a rut there and couldn’t pull up in time.

Anyway, this is the dimension of Audio.  Another Powerful Tool in your filmmaker toolkit.  And when to use sound or music or dialogue becomes equally as important as when to use silence.

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FILM EVOLUTION: 7 PART SERIES

Some would say that Film History is “BOR-ring!”  Maybe.  But, you know what else history is?  NOT boring! In this 7-Part Series, Wired4Film takes us on a Filmmaker’s Journey.  From the Lumiere Brothers to Lightsabers.  And remarkably, film history is repeated in your own Film Evolution: From your first Squirrel Video to becoming an After Effects Black Belt Level-138 Wizard.

PHASE 1: 1895 CINEMA IS BORN - the first phase of every filmmaker wherein we shoot everyday life, devoid of narrative and capture a ton of moments on film, a small percentage of which is genuinely usable, entertaining footage.

PHASE 2: 1902 FILM AS THEATER - Capturing limited stage-like drama (wedding videos, church plays, a friend’s joke, etc) – these are films with a linear plot as the action happens.

PHASE 3: 1903 EDITING IS BORN - Shooting with Post-production in mind, telling a narrative with shot selections, and shooting/assembling your film in a non-linear fashion.

PHASE 4: 1908 INCREASING YOUR FILM LANGUAGE – The Ultimate Film School. Making short films every week.  Experimenting with the visual storytelling process and various genres.

PHASE 5: 1927 WHAT’S THAT SOUND – Audio counts.  From field audio to music and sound design.  Rounding out your screen world with sounds.

PHASE 6: COMING SOON

PHASE 7: COMING SOON

No matter what level you’re on, there’s always room to grow.

Let’s make a movie!

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Film Evolution: Phase 4

So to RECAP

PHASE 1: 1895 CINEMA IS BORN - the first phase of every filmmaker wherein we shoot everyday life, devoid of narrative and capture a ton of moments on film, a small percentage of which is genuinely usable, entertaining footage.

And then…

PHASE 2: 1902 FILM AS THEATER - Capturing limited stage-like drama (wedding videos, church plays, a friend’s joke, etc) – these are films with a linear plot as the action happens.

And…

PHASE 3: 1903 EDITING IS BORN - Shooting with Post-production in mind, telling a narrative with shot selections, and shooting/assembling your film in a non-linear fashion.

All filmmaking books are not created equal.  And if it’s an academic text, run as if your life depends on it.  Because it does.  You actually run the risk of a third-degree hernia in your Medulla Oblangata or worse!  Becoming a PhD in Film studies.

You know that t-virus that zombies carry which turns their victims into zombies, too?  Well, Film Scholars also carry it.  Their dissertations and doctoral theses and books will render most filmmakers unconscious.  They’re the lucky ones.  The others will go on to become film scholars themselves.  It’s a vicious cycle and needs to be Kony2012′d and soon!  Don’t believe me?  Read for yourself the opening paragraph of a friend’s book…

“Positive church relations with the moving pictures did not spring forth overnight.  A history of theological resistance to images and amusements colored the uncertain reception that church leaders gave to the novel invention.”

Whoa!  Settle down!  Breathe deep!  You’re okay. You’re oooookay!  Come back.  It’s okay.  Sorry, but you didn’t believe me.  I don’t even know if that paragraph was in King James English or what?  DON’T RE-READ IT!  Geez are you crazy?!?!  Now a few of you out there actually fully appreciated and understood that paragraph.  I suggest a strict diet of “3 Stooges” and bad reality programming (redundant?) like “Toddlers & Tiara’s” to pull you back from the academic edge.

Perhaps you don’t understand the Film stratosphere so allow me to elaborate.  First you have FILMMAKERS. Those out there making it happen.  Living the dream.  Beneath that layer, those who can’t make movies (or are done making movies) called FILM TEACHERS.  And below that, are people that can’t make movies and can’t teach movies called FILM CRITICS.  And after several more layers and layers of scum and garbage you have BLOGGERS.  And well, I wouldn’t wish that upon any of you!

There are a lot of good books on filmmaking, though.  One of them that tops this somewhat dubious list of Amazon’s Must-Read Books on Filmmaking is actually a good one called, “Rebel Without a Crew: Or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker with $7000 became a Hollywood Player.”

It’s a fascinating story of how Robert Rodriguez shot “El Mariachi” on film for $7K and sold it to Sony and made a bazillion dollars off of it.  Even MORE inspiring because he did it in the early 90s before the Canon 5D or Final Cut Pro or any of the tools we’ve come to know and use which make filmmaking a delightful breeze on a summer morning with spinach powered 4×4 trucks full of hopes and unicorns.

Anyway, one of the things he talks about is that before he ever went to film school he made about 20 or so short films using friends, family or whomever was available.  He wrote scripts, shot them, edited them, and premiered them for his family.  He credits this repeated process with being the absolute greatest film training program he could have undertaken.

What he has described is Phase 4.

PHASE 4: Increasing Your Film Language (1908)

D.W. Griffith enters the film scene.

He makes over 500 films to his credit.  For a period of about 3 years was doing a film (one ten minute reel) a week – THE ULTIMATE FILM SCHOOL. He is called the father of early film “language”.  Not that he discovered all these film techniques, but that he used them all together to good effect.  Closeups, Cross-cutting, etc.

Early filmmakers were hard-core, dude!  They would write a script on Saturday and Sunday.  On Monday they’d go out with their crew and film it for a few days.  On Thursday they’d edit it.  Friday they’d premiere it.  Saturday they’d start over on the next one.  Working with the same cast and crew made it easier to repeat the process on a weekly basis.  But in so doing, D.W. Griffith made 500 films in 3 years.

To borrow from the modern vernacular:  ”That’s hawt”

This is a film trailer for D.W. Griffith’s feature length masterpiece, “Birth of a Nation” (1915).  The subject matter is a whole bucket load of white supremacist, but the mastery of the technique is notable.

Again, there was no USC Film School in 1915.  There was no NYU.  No Full Sail.  No Director’s Commentary on the DVD Bonus features.  This trial and error approach gave Griffith the on-the-job skills that he needed.  He tested techniques over and over each week with his crew.  He taught himself how to tell a story visually.  He learned when to use a wide shot, when to use a close up, when to cut and when to dissolve.  He was increasing his film language.

Dolly shots, panning shots, crane shots, tripod shots, handheld shots, steadicam shots, mounted shots (helmet, cars, airplanes, dogs, etc)…each one of these shots says something very different than the other.  For example, in one of the STAR TREK movies they used a lot of steadicam shots on board the Enterprise because that floating sensation of the shot was a device they wanted the viewer to feel the “floatiness” of space.

The handheld nature of Spielberg’s SAVING PRIVATE RYAN opening beach scene gave it a newsy, documentary immediacy to it.  A slow tracking shot or dolly-shot adds dimensionality to a 2D image because we get to see the foreground, midground and background moving in relationship to one another.  We associate dolly shots with high production value and artistry.

I’ve known quite a few filmmakers (usually students) who have made one or two short films and then decided they’re ready to make a feature film!  They may be Idiot Savants.  But more often than not, they’re just idiots.

Go make dozens of short films.  Experiment.  Do a comedy, a film noir, a murder mystery, an action flick, a silent film, a documentary.  Play around!  If it doesn’t work, move on to the next short.  And grow!  Add tricks to your filmmaking tool-kit.  Add technique to your skillset.  Add to your film language.

And for the love of God, do NOT hang around Film Scholars.  Woo woo woo, nyuk nyuk nyuk.

You’ve been warned.

TOMORROW: Phase 5 – What’s that sound?

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Film Evolution: Phase 1

I’m a big fan of film history.  There.  I admit it.  Now if you put your ear close to your computer monitor and listen carefully, you can hear the sound of dozens of readers clicking and gesturing away so fast they’re leaving skidmarks on their trackpads.  Why?  Because history is “BOR-ring!”

But you know what else history is?  NOT boring!

When you realize that how far you can make it as a filmmaker depends in part on the sum total of film tricks you have up your sleeve, you begin to look around for ways to add to what I call the “Filmmaker Tool kit.”  After studying the evolution of film from about 1890 forward, I had what Mr. Smee from HOOK called: “An Apostrophe!”

Simple really, but the premise is that every filmmaker takes a similar course of discovery as we learn the filmmaking craft.  Phases that have taken our film forebears 120 years to progress through we now tick through at an advanced pace.  Some filmmakers will spend years in a particular phase, others will spend minutes before moving on.  Confused?  Me too!  So let’s move on and you’ll just have to trust me that I’m about to drop some of what the kids call “Naw-luj” on you.

PHASE 1: 1895 CINEMA IS BORN

Antoine Lumière (the father of Auguste and Louis) considered the potential of motion pictures when he watched a demonstration of Edison’s Kinetoscope in Paris. Very impressed, he returned home and described what he saw to his sons, but he also added, “You can do better. Try to get that image out of the box.”

Following their father’s advice, Auguste and Louis began work on creating their own camera. Within a matter of months, the Lumières had patented their own device, then nameless, for “obtaining and viewing chronophotographic prints.” On March 19, 1895, the Lumières used their invention to film workers passing through the front gate of the Lumière and Sons factory. This is the date that has gone done in history as the moment when “cinema” was born.

Lumière camera operators ventured to Mexico, Russia, Japan and most points in between. In fact, the only continent that they did not step foot upon was Antarctica.

The slackers.  Thus the world would have to wait another 110 years for “March of the Penguins”.

Anywho, are you ready to watch this first cinematic masterpiece?  No, you don’t actually have time for popcorn.  Maybe a Twizzler.  One of the short ones.  Already unwrapped.  No, seriously, you might want to bite it and be chewing and THEN start the film.

“La Sortie de l’Usine Lumière à Lyon” (1895) Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory.

Wow.  And how did they follow up this Epic Cinematic tale?  Well, with this classic classic rom-com of hijinx and hilarity…cue second Twizzler, cue: “Train Arrives at Station”.

Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (The Lumière Brothers, 1895)

Ahem.

So, sure, we can laugh a snooty pretentious film laugh and point fingers and blame the inaccessibility of foreign film, but we have all been here at PHASE 1.  This is the phase where we are using our Camera to capture everyday life.  These are films with little to no plot.  My grandmother started her film career in 1980-something with the purchase of this gigantic VHS Camcorder.  How big was it?  The camera was SOOOO big that on one occasion G-ma was in such a hurry I had to point out that she’d actually shouldered the family’s Chevy Impala, after she’d driven the VHS Cam to the store for groceries.  We had a weird family.

Alas, G-ma never progressed from Phase 1.  She got locked into some sorta infinite quantum film loop and every time we went to see her (EVERY time I tell ya!) she would have a new video for us to watch about the squirrels in her backyard.  No plot.  No action.  Just squirrels.  20, maybe 30 minutes of squirrels eating from bird feeders, rooting through the grass, staring off in the distance lamenting their squirrel lot in life, etc.  Phase 1.

Kinda like what happened to James Cameron after TITANIC where he went on this underwater/Titanic binge for about 10 years and almost got trapped in his own quantum film loop.  Fortunately he resurfaced for AVATAR and seems to be progressing again.  Grandma was not so lucky.  We had to stage an intervention.  ”Intervention” of course being a fancy term meaning “dropping a camera repeatedly until it no longer records properly.”

But this is the birth of cinema in your Film Evolution.  This is your first baby step.  It’s handheld, it’s badly composed, poorly lit, the audio is from an on-board microphone, and God help us if you’ve discovered the zoom function at the same time.  Get the Dramamine!  On the other hand, it has an immediacy, it’s happening now, and you either captured a moment or, equally as likely, you double-punched record completely missing it all together and then proceeded to record 5 or 10 minutes of camera walking footage.  The modern equivalent of today’s pocket dial.  Where you kinda wanna hear the whole long message to see if you got any golden nuggets, but usually is just a complete waste of 5 minutes.

The first time you picked up a camera, think about it, what did you do with it?  Whether it’s 35mm, 8mm, MiniDV, VHS, VHS-C, BetaSP, Hi-8mm, Canon T2i, iPhone, whatever…at some point you stepped into Phase 1 by hitting record on a moment in time.  And I would be willing to bet you, dollars to donuts, it was not art.  And if, in fact, it was — and continues to be — Squirrels, I give your kids or grandkids the full right to “intervene” ASAP!

TOMORROW: PHASE 2 – FILM AS THEATER!

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