Gleneagle Film

1. Shooting Days

Make sure to grab all of your equipment quickly and review your settings!!! Groups that films today and tomorrow with the other groups as their actors and you will switch Friday. On Monday we will edit and on Tuesday we hopefully finish filming the second groups’ project.

Setting up the Audio

On the T3i and T5i cameras: Press “Menu” and go to the fourth option in. Scroll down to “Sound Recording” and press “Set.” Change the mode to “Manual,” the drop the recording level down to the first notch like in these photos. This will largely disable the equalization of audio and nearly eliminate the room ambiance.

Recording close to your actors in a quiet environment? Grab a shotgun (camera mounted) microphone. Make sure to check your connections and frequently review clips to make sure you haven’t lost the proper connection.

Otherwise, please grab a boom and sound kit. Review the procedures and be sure to constantly monitor audio levels. Make sure the microphone turned on and is as close to your actors mouths as possible.

Please try to avoid camera’s 3 and 4: they are the older T2i model and do not allow for manually removing the pre-amps.

1. Partner Pitch

Pitch your concept to your partner. A classic pitch is usually a summary of the story idea in twenty five words or less that conveys the exposition (who, where, and when), the inciting incident (what has happened) and hopefully hooks your audience. You want the excite them on your idea, getting them to exclaim “Now THAT is a movie I need to see!” After you’ve verbally pitched the idea, take a few minutes to read over each script, discuss the merits of each, considering qualitative traits (“your idea is so funny!”) and technical traits (“my idea is on the moon with two robots, which might be too difficult for this project”) to decide on which of the two scripts you want to produce.

2. Revise Script

Edit, edit, and edit some more! Work together to rework the dialogue to sound natural and consider the script from every angle. Time it out to see if it is too long or too short to see if you need to bulk it up or edit it down. Complete the final draft and print four copies of. Save it as a printable PDF with the name “[lastinitial][firstname]_Dialogue.PDF.” Whichever script you need printed, save it as “[lastinitial][firstname]_Print.PDF” and submit it through Teams and Mr. Gilbar will print five copies for you.

1. Storyboard

Work together to visualize your story in advance. Work quickly with simple stick figures to show the sequence clearly. Please remember that you could always stray from the guide and shoot additional shots later on, but that these are just the shots that are absolutely necessary to tell the story.

2. Complete Shot List

Fill out a shot list, putting it in the logical shooting sequence. This will be your road map when shooting, so take care of it!

3. Prepare Actors

Pair up with another group who will be working as your actors. Explain the idea, walk read through the script, and show them the storyboard shot-by-shot so they have a good grasp of what will be happening when you shoot. Switch and look through the other script. Have time? Practice reading through the lines and say them aloud!

1. Conflict Through Dialogue

We will be producing a 60-120 second film that shows a conflict between two people that is resolved through dialogue AND NOT action. We will be working in pairs to produce this film that follows the plot chart we’ve studied this week, including…

1. exposition: establishes the location and characters before the story begins
2. inciting incident: the conflict that deviates from normal events.
3. rising action: as the stakes increase, the conflict intensifies.
4. climax: a solution is found! the viewer is given some catharsis.
5. falling action: where intensity declines, leading finally to the…
6. resolution: that ties up the story nicely and helps clarify the themes, morals, or lessons learned

The three primary areas of focus for this project are:

• storytelling (follows plot structure, captures audience interest)
• writing (believable dialogue, clear)
• audio (capturing good, clean audio)

The three secondary areas of focus for this project are:

• acting (timing, delivery, authenticity)
• cinematography (camera placement, movement, building tension)
• music (source audio that matches the tone/mood)

Here are five great samples from past students:

1. Plausible Deniability
2. Stuck
3. Practice
4. Buds
5. Pen Pals

2. Dialogue Composition

Today, we will come up with a short story based on our personal experiences that follows the plot structure. Fill out the provided form and identify the essential elements of your story. Complete a second draft if necessary. When you are done, you can begin working on your screenplay. I recommend using WriterDuet, a free, web-based and collaborative screenwriting program. Alternately, you can use Google Docs (with the Screenplay Formatter add-on) or Microsoft Word or another cloud-based composition program. You will not be marked on proper formatting, but if you are interested in learning, there are lots of helpful videos and even books on the subject (we have copies if you are interested!). We will have thirty minutes today and thirty minutes tomorrow to work on this first draft of the script. The general plan for next week is…

Today: Write first draft independently.

Tomorrow: Pitch to partner, debate merits, and choose a script you want to produce. Develop that script.

Friday: Complete and print the final draft. Draw your storyboard. Complete a shotlist. Test out and practice using audio equipment. Meet with and prepare actors.

Monday: Group 1 shoots, group 2 acts.

Tuesday: Group 2 shoots, group 1 acts.

Thursday onwards: Reshoots as needed. Begin edit of rough cut.

3. Conflict Through Dialogue

We will be producing a short film that shows a conflict between two people that is resolved entirely through dialogue. It will be marked out of thirty based on the criteria on Teams. Start drafting your script. It should be about one page long.

1. Storytelling 101

We are going to do a crash course on story structure by looking at a handful of Pixar short films.

1. exposition: establishes the location and characters before the story begins
2. inciting incident: the conflict that deviates from normal events.
3. rising action: as the stakes increase, the conflict intensifies.
4. climax: a solution is found! the viewer is given some catharsis.
5. falling action: where intensity declines, leading finally to the…
6. resolution: that ties up the story nicely and helps clarify the themes, morals, or lessons learned