Tips for making the most of film-making

Filmmaking

Filmmaking (or, in any context, film production) is the process by which a film is made.

Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages including an initial story, idea, or commission, through screenwriting, casting, shooting, sound recording and pre-production, editing, and screening the finished product before an audience that may result in a film release and an exhibition.

Filmmaking takes place in many places around the world in a range of economic, social, and political contexts, and using a variety of technologies and cinematic techniques

Filmmaking

Stages of production

Film production consists of five major stages:

1. Development: The first stage in which the ideas for the film are created, rights to books/plays are bought etc., and the screenplay is written. Financing for the project has to be sought and obtained.

2. Pre-production: Arrangements and preparations are made for the shoot, such as hiring cast and film crew, selecting locations and constructing sets.

3. Production: The raw footage and other elements for the film are recorded during the film shoot, including principal photography.

4. Post-production: The images, sound, and visual effects of the recorded film are edited and combined into a finished product.

5. Distribution: The completed film is distributed, marketed, and screened in cinemas and/or released to home video.

Pre-production

The production company is created and a production office established. The film is pre-visualized by the director and may be storyboarded with the help of illustrators and concept artists. A production budget is drawn up to plan expenditures for the film. For major productions, insurance is procured to protect against accidents.

Pre-production also includes working out the shoot location and casting process. The Producer hires a Line Manager or a Production Manager to create the schedule and budget for the film.

Post-production

This stage starts when principal film production ends, but they may overlap. The bulk of post-production consists of reviewing the footage and assembling the movie and taking it to the next step that is editing.

“WORKING WITH PINNACLE"

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File menu import commands:

Choosing Import from the file menu has the same effect as clicking the Import tab: it opens the Importer. The menu provides three other importrelated choices as well. Each of these opens a Windows file dialog to permit import of files from a hard drive or other local storage.

• Import previous Pinnacle Studio Projects lets you load movie projects created with earlier versions of Studio.

• Import Studio for iPad App Projects lets you bring in projects exported from Studio’s companion app for the iPad.

• Quick Import lets you directly select ordinary media files – photo, video, audio and project – for import.

Import from file

There are two methods for importing media files and project files from file-based storage media including local hard drives, optical drives, memory cards and USB sticks:

• Select My computer in the Import From panel of the Importer to select specific asset files or groups of files for import.

The Exporter

The Pinnacle Studio

Exporter helps you over that last hurdle with tools for taking your movie to its viewers, whoever and wherever they might be. Create a digital movie file in the format of your choice, burn a DVD, or upload directly to destinations in the Cloud like YouTube and Vimeo, or to your personal Cloud-based storage area in Box.

In both the Movie Editor and the Disc Editor, a multitrack timeline occupies the lower part of the display. Most of the ‘clips’ on the timeline come from the Library; a few types, like automatic background music, are generated with special tools.

The media editors

Corrections from the timeline: When you open one of the standard media editors by double-clicking a timeline clip, the correction tools are again available, but in this context they apply only to the clip in the project, not to the underlying Library asset.

Transitions and Effects: When they are invoked from a project’s timeline, the media editors also offer a wide-range of enhancements for all three media types in the transition in, transition out, and effects groups.

Transitions let you punctuate the passage of one clip to the next with anything from a barely perceptible dissolve to an audience- awakening flare.

Pan-and-zoom:

The Photo Editor provides one more tool, pan-and- zoom, of its own. Like the effects just discussed, panand-zoom can be animated with keyframes to create any desired combination of simulated pan and zoom camera moves within the boundaries of a single photo.

Link - The Picture In Picture Effect

● The Creative Elements branch is shown open in the illustration at right, revealing its subsections. Each is either a type of special effect (Effects and Transitions), or

● a special media type. Ready-to-use, royaltyfree

Link - How to Add Effects and Transitions

● collections of all seven types are included with Pinnacle Studio.

A portion of the Movie Editor display, with the compact view of the Library at upper left, the Player at upper right (partly visible), and at bottom the timeline, with the Navigator panel open in its upper region.

Your current position on the timeline corresponds to the video frame shown in the Player when it is in Timeline mode. The current position is indicated by a vertical red line, at the bottom of which is a draggable scrubber handle. Another vertical line marks the same position in the Navigator (see below).

The Storyboard displays a sequence of icons representing the contents of one track. Effects (magenta) and corrections (green) are indicated on the top edge of the icon; the length of the clip is shown on the bottom.

Adding clips

Any photo, video, audio clip, project, Montage or title can be added to your project by simply dragging it from the Library to the Storyboard. An insertion line appears to indicate where the new clip will be placed. You can select multiple clips to add them all at once.

Timeline settings

Editing mode

Trimming

Changing the length of clips or gaps on the timeline is called ‘trimming’. Multitrack trimming is a valuable editing skill. By trimming multiple tracks at once, you can assure that the clips coming later on the timeline maintain their relative synchronization.

Two gaps and an audio out point have been selected for trimming. Because one trip point has been created on each track, the entire production stays in sync when trimmed.

Studio can create movie files in all of these formats:

3GP

• Audio only

• AVCHD/Blu-Ray

• AVI

• DivX

• DivX Plus HD

• Flash Video

• Image

• Image Sequence

• MOV

• MPEG-1

• MPEG-2

• MPEG-4

• Real Media

• Windows Media

Link - Pinnacle Studio 17

How to Evaluate a Movie, Video or Film Clip

To evaluate a movie, video, or film clip (or something from television [TV]) and determine if you want to use it for your research look for:

Purpose: Why was the movie, video, or film clip (e.g. found on YouTube, Hulu, or news site/TV station) created? To:

Inform

For example: how to do something (fix a drain, repair a computer, learn how to use a computer program). Give an overview of a recent event or issue.

Entertain

For example: good old-fashioned motion pictures (usually at least 60 minutes long; most at least 90 minutes long), TV shows (comedy/drama), music videos, celebrities (e.g. interviewed, doing bits), stories, pratfalls, jokes, etc.

Share information

For example: hobbies (knitting, cooking, gardening; some step-by-step), fandom (sightings of celebrities), familial news (new baby waving or smiling).

How to Evaluate a Movie, Video or Film Clip

Advertise/sell a product or service (business/marketing)

For example: almost any product or service imaginable from automobiles to zumba DVDs, dog sitting to private jet services. Promotions of upcoming shows (theatrical, film, TV) or events.

Influence views, beliefs, elections (advocacy)

For example: candidate PR material, films on topical issues (education, environment, poverty, health, etc.)

Personal enjoyment

For example: pages created by people who wish to promote themselves and/or their interests/hobbies. These may have some or many of the above mentioned purposes. Some of these are aimed at a small audience of friends and/or family members. Others are viewed worldwide, some unexpectedly so.

Elements of a Review:

Required elements

• A thesis: an arguable claim about the value of the work with reasons.

• Evaluative statements, usually a combination of overall evaluation and specific strengths and weaknesses of the work.

• Description of the work: How it looks, sounds, feels, tastes, smells (if relevant). Sometimes more esoteric elements are described, such as the tone, stance, or political orientation. Sometimes its effect on the viewer is described.

• Plot summary, sometimes a separate section, sometimes woven in with evaluation and analysis.

Elements usually or often included

• Discussion of relevant criteria, with maybe an explanation of why these are the most important. For films, consider which elements of a film get awards. Most often discussed are directing, acting, plot, and cinematography. More general criteria include depth of thinking, emotional impact, authenticity in relation to what is being depicted, wit or cleverness of the writing, and originality.

• Background information to provide context. This can be information about the historical setting, people, or events; the society depicted; other works produced by the filmmaker or writer; key ideas involved in the work (e.g. political, philosophical, or artistic ideas), and production history.

Elements usually or often included

• • Comparison/ Contrast with other similar works, with the source material, with sequels or prequels, etc.

• Classification/Division: a work can be placed in a class, such as a particular genre (e.g. sci-fi, historical drama, documentary, French New Wave) and then distinguished from other items in that category.

• Reception: How the film was received by audiences and/or critics; awards it has won.

Elements usually or often included

• Analysis: Discussion of how the film works, what makes the characters tick, what the film says about the society that produced it, why audiences responded as they did, etc.

• Narrative: Sometimes a story of the reviewer’s experience with the film or the issue it depicts is relevant and interesting. For example, a war movie reviewed by a soldier who fought in it or a refugee who fled from it has an added emotional heft if the reviewers discuss their experiences, particularly while evaluating the film’s authenticity.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.