Section
3:
Fundamentals of Digital Filmmaking
FUNDAMENTALS OF DIGITAL FILMMAKING
SCMC 3201
THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, TWIN
CITIES
FALL 2010
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CLASS INFO |
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Professor: Hisham Bizri |
Course hours: T 2:30-5:15 |
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Voice: (612) 625-8460 |
Course location: Nicholson Hall 315 |
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Email: hbizri@umn.edu |
hishambizri.com/teaching/umn/fall10/digitalfilmmaking1/ |
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Office hours: T&TH 1-2 (146A Nicholson Hall) |
CSCL office: 235 Nicholson Hall |
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is an introduction to the practice of digital filmmaking. The main focus of the course will be practical, affording students ample time to write, direct, shoot, and edit (including post-production) original works of fiction using digital and optical means. In doing so, students will begin to master the use of digital and optical tools such as the camera, optics, light, color, and the computer to tell stories. We will inform this practical focus by attending to how films are made is terms of space, light, action, dramatic structure, montage, and the overall visual vision of master filmmakers. Our productions will also be shaped by our own life experiences as well as other art forms such as music, painting, theater, photography, sculpture, and poetry.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
To teach the fundamentals of digital filmmaking. Our goals would here be to:
1. Study the technical
aspects of digital and optical filmmaking.
2. Analyze filmmaking techniques.
3. Learn how to construct narrative
and non-narrative strategies.
4. Discover formal aspects of
filmmaking.
5. Study the relationship between
filmmaking and other forms of art making: painting, music, and literature.
6. Expand and sharpen our viewing and
interpretive skills.
7. Make short films.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
· Mandatory class attendance and participation. Students are not allowed to arrive late or leave early.
· Technical workshops: various workshops dealing with technical and aesthetic aspects of film. There will be in-class demonstrations, viewings, and discussions.
· Readings (average of 50 pages per week). The technical and aesthetic aspects of film are vast. It is up to you to decide what to master. However, you are required to acquire all basic concepts and technical know-how of filmmaking.
· Filmmaker's journal: this includes your notes on the technical and aesthetic aspects of the course, your stories, treatments, scripts, shooting scripts, production notes, sketches, and daily dreams and reveries. You are required to review it with me at the end of each month.
· Filmmaker's creative reference book: you are to collect in this book a vast data of your favorite poems, photos, paintings, music, newspaper stories, etc. You are required to review this with me as well at the end of each month.
· One 3-minute film (groups of two, developing one's own creative voice): a self portrait (silent) and a sound film inspired by a story from the current Minnesota newspapers.
· One 5-minute final film (individual creative vision): must be a fiction and not a documentary
· All films must be accompanied by a written report discussing the technical, aesthetic, and overall concept behind the film and why it was made; two pages long
You will have access to equipment at: http://studiob.cla.umn.edu. A handout will be given out on the first day of classes on where and how to check out equipment. However, you need to buy your own external hard drive. We recommend that you buy a 1TB of Western Digital MyBook Essential or My Book Studio Edition. You also need to buy your own DV tapes; please buy three Sony PR (DVM-60). They are all available at the U bookstore.
(Available at the U bookstore; additional handouts in class)
· Blain Brown, CINEMATOGRAPHY: THEORY AND PRACTICE (Focal Press, 2002)
· Blain Brown, MOTION PICTURE AND VIDEO LIGHTING, Second Edition (Focal Press, 2007)
There will be several handouts throughout the semester on the craft and method conceived by master filmmakers, cinematographers, editors, set designers, and music composers.
(Time permitting)
NARRATIVE FILMS
· INTOLERANCE (D.W.Griffith, 163 minutes, 1916)
· STAGECOACH (John Ford, 96 minutes, 1939)
· CITIZEN KANE (Orson Welles, 119 minutes,1941)
· ROME, OPEN CITY (Roberto Rossellini, 100 minutes, 1945)
· HIS GIRL FRIDAY (Howard Hawks, 92 minutes, 1940)
AVANT-GARDE FILMS
· LA GLACE A TROIS FACES, aka THE THREE-SIDED MIRROR (Jean Epstein, 33 minutes, 1927)
· FABLE FO FOUNTAIN (Joseph Cornell, 6 minutes, 1957)
· THE END (Christopher MacLaine, 35 minutes, 1953)
· KISS, (Andy Warhol, 50 minutes, 1963)
· THE DEAD (Stan Brakhage, 11 minutes, 1960)
(Assignments must be completed on time; late work will not be permitted)
1. Filmmaker's journal and
reference book (30%)
2. Two film (40%)
3. Final film (30%)
Grading
Scale
A+ = 97-100%; A = 93%; A- = 90%
B+ = 87%; B = 83% ; B- = 80%
C+ = 77%; C = 73% ; C- = 70%
D+ = 67% ; D = 63%; D- = 60%
F = 59%
If you don't attend regularly, doing so for the entire duration of each class, you will get an F even if you complete all assignments. This is a production course and missing any workshop will prevent you from completing your films properly.
WEEK 1
September 7 [Introduction to the course]
Discussion topics:
What is the course about; what is my teaching approach to
filmmaking in this course; what is expected of you.
Studio topics:
Overview of equipment
Creative Exercise:
Filmmaker's journal and reference book
Readings:
Bordwell and Thompson, FILM ART, "The Significance of Film Form" (available
at: http://lingo.uib.no:8000/1646)
WEEK 2
September 14 [The frame #1]
Discussion topics:
Schools of visual space
Studio topics:
Camera
Creative Exercise:
Self-Portrait
Readings:
Cinematography, "Filmspace" (pp. 1-28)
Cinematography, "Visual Language" (pp. 29-44)
Screenings:
LA GLACE A TROIS FACES, aka THE THREE-SIDED MIRROR (Jean Epstein,
33 minutes, 1927)
WEEK 3
September 21 [Lighting
#1]
Discussion topics:
Schools of lighting
Studio topics:
Lighting equipment
Final Cut Pro basics
Creative Exercise:
Self-Portrait (pre-production)
Readings:
Motion Picture and Video Lighting, "Fundamentals of Lighting"
(pp. 35-57)
Motion Picture and Video Lighting, "Basic Scene Lighting" (pp.
58-85)
Cinematography, "Lighting as Storytelling" (pp. 157-166)
WEEK 4
September 28 [Editing #1]
Discussion topics:
Schools of editing
Studio topics:
Final Cut Pro revisited
Creative Exercise:
Self-Portrait (production)
Readings:
Cinematography, "Cinematic Continuity" (pp. 79-102)
WEEK 6
October 5 [Writing for the screen #1]
Discussion topics:
Schools of writing
Studio topics:
From treatment to script
Creative Exercise:
In-class treatment
Self-Portrait (post-production)
Readings:
Handouts
WEEK 6
October 12 [The frame #2]
Discussion topics:
Visual function of the frame
Studio topics:
Optics and video shooting
Creative Exercise:
Self-Portrait (DUE)
Newspaper story (Pre-production)
Readings:
Cinematography, "Lens Language" (pp. 45-60)
Cinematography, "Camera Dynamics" (pp. 61-78)
Cinematography, "Optics" (pp.177-192)
WEEK 7
October 19 [Lighting #2]
Discussion topics:
Visual function of lighting
Studio topics:
Exposure and color
Creative Exercise:
Newspaper story (Production)
Readings:
Cinematography, "Exposure" (pp. 103-126)
Cinematography, "Color Theory" (pp. 127-140)
Motion Picture and Video Lighting, "Lighting HD, DV, and SD
Video" (pp. 86-98)
WEEK 8
October 26 [Editing #2]
Discussion topics:
Visual function of editing and the construction of space
Studio topics:
From Final Cut Pro to DVD Studio Pro
Creative Exercise:
Newspaper story (Post-production)
Readings:
Cinematography, "Set Operations" (pp. 241-253)
WEEK 9
November 2 [Writing for the screen #2]
Discussion topics:
Script and shooting script
Studio topics:
Visualize word and action
Creative Exercise:
Newspaper story (DUE)
Readings:
Handouts
WEEK 10
November 9 [Sound Design #1]
Discussion topics:
Schools of sound design
Studio topics:
Capturing sound
Creative Exercise:
Final film
(Treatment)
Readings:
Handouts
WEEK 11
November 16 [Sound Design #2]
Discussion topics:
Visual function of sound design in studio and location films
Studio topics:
Sound in Final Cut Pro
Creative Exercise:
Final film
(Pre-production)
Readings:
Handouts
WEEK 12
November 23
[Thanksgiving week]
Screening:
INTOLERANCE (D.W.Griffith, 163 minutes, 1916)
WEEK 13
November 30 [Final Film]
View and critique rushes
WEEK 14
December 7 [Final Film]
View and criqiue final cuts
WEEK 15
December 14
All films are due.