Introduction to
Filmmaking
Now is a good time to
switch off your mobiles
Ex.1 – ‘Who am I ?’
• Take a large piece of paper
• Using the whole sheet draw a comic-style
sequence – 3 cells max
• Theme ‘who am I ?’
• Have a beginning, middle, end
• Make it outrageous, big & dramatic
• The story in images should make sense
without dialogue
Ex.1 cont. – ‘Who am I ?’
• Give your comic sequence to the person
sitting behind/in front of you.
• Introduce yourself
• Insert big voice bubbles – and fill them in
• You are the new author of the sequence.
Your interpretation needs to be very clear
and specific
•
Pass on to a third person sitting
next to you.
They need to let you know if it
makes sense
Introduce yourselves & DISCUSS
Then write your name on the top
and submit
Who?
Dr Greg Dolgopolov
(UNSW)
Contact Details
• gregd@unsw.edu.au
Course Coordinator
If you have any questions
– come & see me
Email: for an appointment or to
discuss matters
put UIBE in subject heading
Image & Sound literacy &
experiment
Introduction to Filmmaking:
is an introductory production course
It is not really a theory course
It is a pre-production course for
developing concepts & the
imagination
Develop a film & media
audio-visual creativity -working low tech & lo-fi
Encourage creative
collaborations &
teamwork
Introduce some basic videomaking
techniques and film grammar
Generate a bunch of ideas and
concepts for future development
Fire up the imagination and provide
a framework for realising your
unique stories & concepts
Hands-on
Introduce a hands-on approach to telling stories and exploring ideas:
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Prepare concept outlines, storyboards & soundscapes
Introduce effective creative workflows
Capture and generate images and sounds
Develop documentary and cross-platform concepts
Write a short script
Become a script editor
Design your project photo-essay
Figure out production logistics & budgeting
Work on an adaptation in a group
Figure out which is the best means of
production and distribution
Experiment with storytelling & image and
sound production
Develop unique content and challenging ideas
for future production
Idea
s
Course Outline
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Photography & image literacy
Film Grammar: framing, shots, camera
Designing films for Sound and soundscapes
Scriptwriting, Adaptation
Portfolios
Assessssssment
Photo-Essay
(Solo) Due Week 2 Monday 4pm
20%
A stills exercise using photos and your own voice
to tell a factual, emotionally powerful story (2
mins) Exegesis (500 words)
Submitted online on your portfolio website and as
a .mov file on disk
Scriptwriting & Script Doctoring
(Partners)
You will need to write your own original short fiction
film script
Length: strictly 8 pages.
Include a log line, synopsis and exegesis.
Script may contain only ten lines of dialogue.
It needs to be very genre specific
You will also need to script doctor your partner's script Write up detailed commentary & constructive feedback
Submit your script and the accompanying feedback. Your
partner submits their script and your feedback.
Workshop exercises &
portfolio
All course work needs to be presented and
archived on your portfolio site
This includes work for submission, your preproduction materials and a selection of your inclass workshop exercises.
Adapting a Classic (Group Production)
As a group you will select, prepare for a preproduction submission a film ‘classic’ scene of your
choice (5 minutes max).
As a shot-for-shot remake you will need to stick to the
script, the shots, the mise en scene, but you can
change the meaning or the inflection.
Alternatively you can adapt a literary classic –
Focus is on pre-production materials and film style
Individual Exegesis (500 words)
Portfolio
Wix Weebly Wordpress
Tumblr
Put up a film on your site that is
the ONE film you would
recommend
www.hoogerbrugge.com
Preparation
• If you have a camera enabled mobile phone or
a digital stills camera or a video camera - bring
it for the next few weeks
• Photo-essay/digitale – start thinking about a great
idea
• Adaptation Proposal ideas now. What do you want
people to think/feel/say about your idea?
• Figure out what you need to practice or learn in
order to realise your idea
• Download celtx.com – its FREE!!!!
Lars Von Trier
The Five
Obstructions
• Doco or Experiment?
• Directed by: Jørgen Leth
& Lars von Trier.
• Denmark (90 min) 2004
• Director Lars von Trier
assigns five different
impediments to Danish
experimental filmmaker
Jørgen Leth. In each of
the assignments, Leth is
to remake his 12-minute
1967 film The Perfect
Human
Reading 1: Andrei Tarkovsky
• Most famous Russian
filmmaker since Eisenstein
• metaphysical preoccupations
provoked ongoing hostility
from the Soviet authorities
• Visionary approach to
cinematic time & space.
• commitment to cinema as
poetry
Sculpting in Time
Stalker (1979)
• cinema's capacity for
capturing time
• long takes that allowed
time to flow through an
individual shot.
• contemplative, imagistic
style emphasised the
integration of characters
with the world around
them, both through their
positioning in the frame
and through slow, probing
camera movements.
Sculpting in Time
• Proposed a cinema based
on the rapt observation of
the present moment as
opposed to a plot-driven
preoccupation with what
will happen next.
• Rhythm over montage
• Focus on cinema as art
and not as message
Objectives
• To explore the creative and communicative possibilities
of film, video and other audio-visual technologies
• Present a wide range of audio & visual examples, from
cinema classics to the latest music videos and a range
of short and experimental films
• Explore the creative potential of sound and image with
an emphasis on film grammar, photography and the
development of original concepts
• Act as a preparation for 3rd year Video Exercise & provide a
hands on approach to making sense of film theory