Color and lighting- Amelie

Most films that you watch try to replicate the "natural" look of the world you see with your eye. But other films purposely create an unrealistic color scheme sometimes to invoke and emotions other times to simulate something surreal or unnatural.

Different from the painter's color scheme, the primary colors of film are red, green, and blue. These three colors are known as additive colors. Also unlike the art world the base of all primary colors when mixed together is white instead of black.

How to light a scene

Lighting is an essential part of moviemaking. Half of the struggle in filming is controlling the light to create the right mode for a scene. Film stock, Lens, Aperture, F-stops, all deal with lighting control. With the quality and ability of cameras to capture light improving, less and less are filmmakers restricted by not having enough natural light. Any filmmaker just starting out should know the different type of light and the basic lighting techniques.

The Sound of Movies

You may have seen the film The Artist, if not it's a good movie and the perfect example of how sound took Hollywood by storm and "talkies" became a new normal of the cinema experience. So how is sound recorded?  It's the same concept for digital and analog(film), the difference is in how the information is stored.

Film

The differences between film and digital footage begins with the camera. Film is digitalizing. Less and less are movies shot with film. Instead movie begin and end with digital cameras and editing. However, knowing about the history of film is valuable for anyone interested in cinematography.

Sound in animation- The Voice Actor

Acting is one thing, but voice acting is another and yes it's still acting. Half of what brings a character to life in an animated film is hearing them speak. I'm using Howl's Moving Castle cause it's one of my favorite movies and before I saw Christian Bale as Batman, he was Howl.

Wizard Of Oz -Look of Film

Film looks different from digital, but a lot of old movies are being remastered and updated to an HD looking format. To show the rapid changing of film look at The Wizard of Oz. You may be familiar with the 1939 film (the one that had sound and Technicolor), but just fourteen years earlier there was a 1925 a silent black and white film.

Mise en Scene- The camera Lens

The camera lens bends light into the camera focusing it against a sensor or film stock. Digital cameras use a sensor while film cameras use film stock.

Film stock comes in  color and black and white. Black and white film stock has five layers while color film stock has up to fifteen layers. Both types of film have an emulsion layer, where the image is created. The process is based upon light exposure.

Mise en Scene -camera placement

The camera's placement sets up a shot from angles to lens, tiny little movements here and there increase the drama of the moment.

Timeless Formulas

Have you ever watched a movie and had the vague feeling of deja vu? You ask yourself, didn't I just see that somewhere else? You probably did. Expanding upon the Three Acts of a Screenplay, there is something called a formulaic Screenplay. I recommend finding the book Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting you'll ever need! Written by an "insider" it explains why somethings seems to always be present in certain movies. 

How editing changes a scene

After actually filming a movie, the next time consuming effort is on editing. That is where the magic happens.

Below is a scene in a basic screen play format.

The Departed: The Power of Cross Cutting

The Departed is one of my favorite movies. I'm not usually into crime or gangster movies, but this lighter version doesn't have all the violence but still tells a good story with enough action and suspense to entertain.

Cross Cutting is like parallels. Billy Costigan (DiCaprio) and Colin Sullivan (Damon) are opposites. Castigan works and earns everything. Sullivan is handed everything. Costigan is a good cop pretending to be a gangster. Sullivan is a gangster pretending to be a cop. This movies just does such a great job of pitting these two against each other and building the suspense of who will be discovered first.

O Brother Where Art Thou? Breaking down the three acts

How does the story begin? As the audience when we watch the finished product, but before the camera even beings to roll a story has to be established.

The screenwriter, before the producer or director, has to create a script and present sell his or her idea.    The screenwriter has one shot to make the perfect impression, if the reader is not hooked after the first page then the movie never gets made. O Brother Where Art Thou? is one of my favorite comedies. It may be odd to hear that I like it so much because of the screenplay rather than the laughs, but writing a comedy is hard.  I appreciate that the movie never strayed off track and didn't resort to vulgar or idiotic tactics.  So how does O Brother Where Art Thou break down?

The Playwright vs. The Screenwriter

What is the major difference between a playwright and a screenwriter?

CGI in Animation

CGI and animation seem like an obvious combination, but before computers and digital software, the pencil and paper were the creators. Cel animation has it's charm. Below is a quick overview of the transformation of animation.

The Fall: Real vs. CGI generated sets

The Fall became one of my favorite movies because of it's visual beauty and the endearing story. I recommend trying to watch the movie, but I selected this clip because it shows a little bit of the beauty of on location shooting.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHfieDi3xwc

Hopefully you've seen this movie before. If not go no further there are SPOILERS.

The Mute Challenge

So what is a story driven movie? Well everyone's got their own opinion, but this is my method of deciding if a movie is story driven or not.

I call it the mute challenge.

That's what that movie was about?

I remember going through a film class and I didn’t think about it at first, but soon little phrases like “The director’s vision” or “This invokes this emotion” or “What audiences got out of the film was a…” Or perhaps the worst "This director is such a genius…" Really cause I had no clue till you told me? All these lessons on how I was to learn how to interpret film. That’s when I started thinking do I need to be told what i interpreted?  

I’m reviewing films with that in mind, I’m not here to tell you what you should get out of a film, I’m just here to provide you with descriptions of the techniques used in movies. Film is a personal experience where no one can tell you how a movie is meant to effect you. No perfect formula that will guarantee an Academy Award winning movie. Most of the time it’s a combination of many elements

I like this film because of the script, this film because of editing, this one for the soundtrack. Who knows why you like a movie, no one but you.