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Understanding Filmmaking

Discussion in 'The RedBanned Bar & Grill' started by Sam Miller, Oct 1, 2017.

  1. #1 Sam Miller, Oct 1, 2017
    Last edited: Oct 1, 2017
    In Mike's recent masterclass for orchestration presets he mentioned how important it is to have some knowledge about filmmaking conventions. In order to become more effective composers it would be useful for us to have a repository for sources that provide insight into filmmaking conventions.

    Hopefully those with some experience under their belts can chime in from time to time and help us sort the wheat from the chaff.

    A few video essayists that I like are Lessons From The Screenplay, Now You See It, and Every Frame A Painting. Lessons From The Screenplay has a video on Evoking Emotion that I found particularly interesting with regard to deliberately breaking conventions and using leitmotif to exploit the audience's expectations.

    As far as books go, Richard Bellis' book, The Emerging Film Composer is quick and enjoyable. It reads like crib notes for the film composer's process and avoiding conflict with other people on the project.

    I'd love to see what other people find useful and to hear others thoughts on the sources I've mentioned above - especially if you think they're completely full of shit!
     
  2. #2 Mike Verta, Oct 1, 2017
    To understand filmmaking, you transcribe. You shoot movies; on your phone, whatever, attempting to achieve a dramatic goal. One exercise is: Man comes home, and is greeted by a woman. No words are exchanged, the scene is no more than 30 seconds long, and you do variations: She is glad to see him; she is surprised to see him; she is terrified to see him; she is apathetic about seeing him. You plan it, you shoot it, you edit it, you do the sound and the music for it. You can do this with freeware. You could spend a year on this exercise and it would be better than a degree from USC.
     
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