Monday [March 2] - 3:00pm
Story team finalizes the ending sequence and puts it into leica.
Tuesday [March 3] - 3:00pm
Group meeting. Discuss changes to leica and distribute new scenes.
Is this correct?
Saturday, February 28, 2009
More Waterfall stuff
Here is the inspirational image for our final scene, along with the location sketch- we still need to compile the boards we have drawn so far and tighten it up. Anyone who has had their layouts approved, feel free to move forward!
*ALSO* If by chance someone has a layout in progress that they want approved in any stage (before monday) Then feel free to scan it into one page (character layers aswell!) with field and grid and we can make comments on it so you can progress. Otherwise I know some of us will be back in Oakville by monday eve.
Great work on what has been looked at so far! you guys are definetly all improving and that will reflect in our film!
Nate
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Waterfalls
Hey guys just wanted to let u know i found some nice reference stuff for watefalls and misty kind of shots. Just go on 4shared its in a folder. HOLLA
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
STRUCTURE
from "Directing the Story", by Francis Glebas:
EXERCISE: watch a scene from a movie that is at least five minutes long. Then continue reading.
---
In a simple description, describe the story. I'm sure you'll find that this is easy. It probably went something like, "This guy was trying to get this, but this other person got in the way, so he..." You remember the events of what happened.
This next step is trickier. Now I want you to draw, in simple stick figures, the sequence of shots that told the story. This isn't so easy. In fact, it can be very difficult. But you know the story, why should this be so difficult? We remember the story but not how the story was presented. How the story is presented is the structure.
All stories need to be told with words and or pictures, so we must put our story into some structure that tells the story clearly and dramatically. As you just saw from our experiment, when we watch a story for the first time, we don't pay attention to how the movie is structured. If the director has done his or her job correctly, the first time we watch a movie we get "lost" in the story. By directing attention to the flow of telling the story, the audience won't pay attention to the acting, cinematography, blocking, editing, lighting, art direction, sound effects, and musical score. Instead, the audience will be watching people struggling to achieve their dreams and acing insurmountable obstacles. In other words, they will be "lost" in the story.
If this is the director's jobs, what happens to all of this structural stuff? Is it invisible? Why doesn't the audience see it? The fact is that the structure is totally visible. We can see the editing and hear the background music. It's all there. When we watch a film for the second time, we can pay attention to it and see how the film is structured, but during the first viewing, we simply are not paying attention to it.
Many books that I have found on filmmaking say that we willingly suspend our disbelief when we watch a movie. There is no "willing suspension of disbelief."
Let's say I go to a movie. I buy a ticket-check. Buy popcorn-check. Find a seat-check. Willingly suspend my disbelief-what? I cannot remember ever going into a movie theater and willingly suspending my disbelief. I don't even know how. Belief is automatic. As long as the structure presents a filmic world that is seamless and doesn't break the spell by calling attention to itself, we get sucked into the world of story.
STRUCTURING STORIES
What is structure? It is a relationship between the parts of something. What are the parts of a film story? The parts are comprised of the narrative questions and the delays and answers to those questions. The structure is simply how the movie story is presented-which shots are chosen and in what order. This structuring of the events of the story is what can make the difference between a simple plain story and one that is unforgettable and profoundly moving.
So what separates the events from the structure? Why don't we notice the structure if it's right there in front of our noses? The director tells and shows us a story. Like magic, we're distracted by the story, and don't notice how it's put together. It drops below our threshold of attention. This is an imaginary line separating what we notice and what we don't.
Any part of the structure can cross the line and come into our attention. It is the job of the director to direct the audience's attention to the events of the story by careful attention to the structure.
---
hope that helps. what I got from it was 'epic scenes should be epic for a reason', basically. otherwise it's just calling attention to itself unnecessarily.
EXERCISE: watch a scene from a movie that is at least five minutes long. Then continue reading.
---
In a simple description, describe the story. I'm sure you'll find that this is easy. It probably went something like, "This guy was trying to get this, but this other person got in the way, so he..." You remember the events of what happened.
This next step is trickier. Now I want you to draw, in simple stick figures, the sequence of shots that told the story. This isn't so easy. In fact, it can be very difficult. But you know the story, why should this be so difficult? We remember the story but not how the story was presented. How the story is presented is the structure.
All stories need to be told with words and or pictures, so we must put our story into some structure that tells the story clearly and dramatically. As you just saw from our experiment, when we watch a story for the first time, we don't pay attention to how the movie is structured. If the director has done his or her job correctly, the first time we watch a movie we get "lost" in the story. By directing attention to the flow of telling the story, the audience won't pay attention to the acting, cinematography, blocking, editing, lighting, art direction, sound effects, and musical score. Instead, the audience will be watching people struggling to achieve their dreams and acing insurmountable obstacles. In other words, they will be "lost" in the story.
If this is the director's jobs, what happens to all of this structural stuff? Is it invisible? Why doesn't the audience see it? The fact is that the structure is totally visible. We can see the editing and hear the background music. It's all there. When we watch a film for the second time, we can pay attention to it and see how the film is structured, but during the first viewing, we simply are not paying attention to it.
Many books that I have found on filmmaking say that we willingly suspend our disbelief when we watch a movie. There is no "willing suspension of disbelief."
Let's say I go to a movie. I buy a ticket-check. Buy popcorn-check. Find a seat-check. Willingly suspend my disbelief-what? I cannot remember ever going into a movie theater and willingly suspending my disbelief. I don't even know how. Belief is automatic. As long as the structure presents a filmic world that is seamless and doesn't break the spell by calling attention to itself, we get sucked into the world of story.
STRUCTURING STORIES
What is structure? It is a relationship between the parts of something. What are the parts of a film story? The parts are comprised of the narrative questions and the delays and answers to those questions. The structure is simply how the movie story is presented-which shots are chosen and in what order. This structuring of the events of the story is what can make the difference between a simple plain story and one that is unforgettable and profoundly moving.
So what separates the events from the structure? Why don't we notice the structure if it's right there in front of our noses? The director tells and shows us a story. Like magic, we're distracted by the story, and don't notice how it's put together. It drops below our threshold of attention. This is an imaginary line separating what we notice and what we don't.
Any part of the structure can cross the line and come into our attention. It is the job of the director to direct the audience's attention to the events of the story by careful attention to the structure.
---
hope that helps. what I got from it was 'epic scenes should be epic for a reason', basically. otherwise it's just calling attention to itself unnecessarily.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)