by: Andrew Seltz
A common dream among independant filmmakers shooting digitally is to deliver a movie that looks like it was shot on 35mm with a huge budget. We want to impress people and there is a certain look that says, ‘you are a real filmmaker!’
More on Make Your Video Look Like Film
If you like what you’ve read, buy me a latte and help fuel my late night writing sessions.By: Andrew Seltz
Bad shooting habits are easy to start and hard to break. Slating your shots is a habit you need to make yourself learn to love.
Slating refers to the process of shooting a short segment at the beginning of a take where the camera is focussed on a board (the slate) that has information written on it that uniquely identifies the take.
Slates used to be small chalkboards, but can be plastic boards with washable markers or even a small whiteboard and marker purchased at the local office supply store. Any surface that allows you to write and erase will do.
Many indie filmmakers make their first films by grabbing the camera and shooting a few things. A short while later they sit down at the computer and digitize all those cool clips they just shot and edit away. They watch the results, get excited, and decide they can make a movie - no problem!
Using the same techniques, they shoot hours of footage over the course of days and months with little or no thought to how they will find the shots they need later in the editing room.
Later, when it comes time to edit, they spend countless hours hunting through this pile of footage trying to find a take they need to make a scene work. They can’t speed through the footage either. They must watch it in realtime to listen for the breaks between different takes and hoping to find what they were looking for.
It is easy to avoid this scenario - slate every take. Make sure you have the scene number, shot number, and take number recorded for every one. It is also helpful to record the name of the production, the director’s name and the cinematographer’s name along with the date. You never know when you’ll be asking others to help you edit your masterpiece.
Create a shooting rythm that includes slating. Use it every time and it will become a habit.
Taking good notes during the shoot will also speed your editing work. When you have a good take (or a bad take with portions you think might be good) write down the information from the slate and include notes to help you remember why you liked the shot. This will help you identify the shots to look for later and save you lots of time.
Sometimes you will need to roll quickly to catch a shot that is happening now. Working with animals and kids is often like this. If you don’t have a chance to slate the beginning of the shot, slate the end and hold the slate upside down to indicate that the take is ‘tail slated.’
If you are recording audio, be sure to speak the scene, shot, and take number into the microphone as well. This will create an ‘audio slate’ that can be used to identify your audio should it get seperated from the video during post production.
If you like what you’ve read, buy me a latte and help fuel my late night writing sessions.By: Andrew Seltz
You have found the perfect house to be your ‘beach cottage.’ One problem - it is nowhere near the beach.
Are you doomed… No!
One of the coolest aspects of filmmaking is that adding two shots together can suggest a reality to the audience the is greater than the sum of the parts. When you do this to make two different locations appear to be one it is called cheating a location.
Cheating a location requires finding two places that can be plausibly connected (a house that opens up to an underground cavern is a tough sell.) In the case of our opening example it is a house and a beach.
For this to work well, the houses lawn and the beach must look like they can be connected. (It is possible to build a partial lawn on the beach or beach on the lawn to help with the transition, but try to find locations that have similar characteristics.)
Steps to cheat a location:
To link the locations together we will show a character walk out of the front of the house and toward the camera. Then, in the next shot, we will turn the camera 180 degrees to face the beach and show the character walking away from the camera toward the water. When edited together, the character will appear to walk out of the house and down to the beach in one continuous location.
To firmly link the two locations together in the audience’s mind you must create a visual anchor which will subconciously make them believe that the two places are one. The anchor is an object that is present at both locations.
If you place a pile of children’s toys in the yard that the character walks past and include it in both shots, the audience will connect them in their minds. It will distract their attention away from any inconsistancies in the transition. You could also choose a picket fence, a lamp post, or anything else you can include at both locations.
It is very important that you carefully match the lighting direction and quality. If it is high noon in the first shot and sunset in the next, the illusion will be broken. The same will happen if one location is shot on a clear day and the other is overcast.
If you are linking interiors, take notes about your lighting setup at the first location (some digital camera still shots are good too) and recreate it at the second location as closely as possible.
Since you are likely to be shooting the locations on different days, it is easy to forget a costume detail or the exact direction you had a character walking or looking during the first shoot. This is another instance where taking digital stills is very helpful. Careful notes and visual reference material will help insure that you don’t accidentally get something wrong and spoil the illusion.
If you can, have a copy of the first location’s footage available to review.
It is exciting to realize all the ways in which you can invent new realities when making movies. A few datails and a little creativity are all that is required to create your illusions.
The first time I cheated a location it was a rush. Everytime I watched the sequence playback on the screen I knew that making movies was what I wanted to do.
If you like what you’ve read, buy me a latte and help fuel my late night writing sessions.By: Andrew Seltz
It only needs to look real!
Reality is an artificial limitation in the world of film and video production. When you let it cloud your judgment you make unnecessary compromises and miss the opportunity to raise your work above your budget.
I once worked on a shoot where the director wanted to create a visually dramatic sequence where one character was looking out a window through the verticle blinds. He would then turn away revealing another character standing in the doorway across the room. A quick rack focus and we would have a nice opening to a scene that created a little tension.
The trouble with our situation was, we were shooting on location and the room we were in just happened to be on the second floor. There was no way to get the camera up high enough outside to get the shot. There was also no way to get a light up high enough to create a moonlight effect on the outside of the blinds.
If you have not already picked up on it, that is the voice of reality talking. It is the one leading you through conversations about how you will need to build a platform outside or that the shot is impossible and you must cover the scene with more conventional camera placements.
It is important that you learn to tune this voice out of your head. Making movies is not about respecting reality, it is about manufacturing the illusion of reality to dramatically tell your story. You need to find the voice that says, “who said the blinds have to be on the window?” That voice will steer you to creative solutions.
Robert Rodriguez makes the point in Rebel Without a Crew that lazy filmmakers throw money at a problem. Creative filmmakers invent solutions. When you don’t have money you spend creativity, and that is what we did.
Realizing that the blinds easily unhooked from the window was the first key to solving this shooting challenge. The blinds were the visual clue that told viewers that the character was looking out the window. We could move them 3 states away into a garage and, if the rest of the visible set looked similar, the audience would accept the shot as being ‘at the window.’
To solve our challenge, we hung the blinds from 2 light stands. They were placed about 5 feet away from the actual window to allow room for the camera and a light (we needed a blue gelled light for our ‘moonlight’ effect.
In order to keep the visual feeling that the characters are across the room from each other, we used a slightly wider angle lense which exaggerates the distance.
One light with a blue gel helped create the illusion that the blinds were being lit my moonlight, and the rest of the room was lit the same way as it had been for the scene.
The actual setup for this shot took about 15 minutes and the finished product blends perfectly with the rest of the scene and provides the dramatic effect the director wanted. It ‘looks right!’
It is easy to feel boxed in by the reality of the locations you are shooting in. Walls and ceilings and furniture can feel like very real boundaries. But, ‘cheating’ is a tool as much as your camera and lights. Good filmmakers use it all the time.
The next time you find yourself trying to solve a complex problem on a shoot ask yourself, “what does the audience need to see to believe this scene?” The answers will surprise you and your movie will be better for it.
If you like what you’ve read, buy me a latte and help fuel my late night writing sessions.
