Gleneagle Film

1. What Makes a Good “Feedback Sandwich?”

Just like a real sandwich, this can be done well or incredibly poorly.

A bad sandwich has…

1. insignificant top bread that is discounted by a ‘but’
2. meat that is negatively phrased, personal, and not constructive
3. bottom bread that struggles to compensate

Example: Dinner was great, but you made it too salty. Thanks though.

A good sandwich has…

1. meaningful top bread that highlights successes
2. criticism that is positive and constructive
3. bottom bread that is encouraging and acknowledging the effort

Suggested Successful Comment Format:

I like the use of __________, it makes the ____________.

Suggested Improvement Comment Format:

I found that _____________, it could be _________ if it __________.

Suggested Acknowledgement Comment Format:

[Say anything positive that affirms their effort!]

Example: Dinner was great, I really liked what you did with the rosemary and lemon on the roast. I think it could have been even better if there was salt on the side as it was a bit salty for my taste. Let me know when you cook it next, I’d love to see how you did it!

2. Peer Critique

Sit back and relax! We will be watching the “Shoot the Shots” films for the the first part of class and will come up with some general guidelines for ourselves afterwards on how we can improve as a class.

3. 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

4. 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 that you and your partner can access. 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!).

5. Filming Sequence

We will have roughly 30 minutes today and thirty minutes on Monday to work on this first draft of the script. The general plan for next week is…

Today: Brainstorm/write rough draft independently.

Monday: Finish rough draft. Pitch to partner, debate merits, and choose a script you want to produce. Develop that script together.

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

Wednesday: Group 1 shoots, group 2 acts.

Thursday: Group 2 shoots, group 1 acts.

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

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

1. Find Composite Layers

Start collecting your “plate shot” or other assets! Get a photo or video of the background you had in mind (i.e. a spooky forest), any foreground elements (i.e. a bush in front of you), and/or pre-made special effects (i.e. a lightning strike). You can even start assembling them together in Premiere!

2. Shoot Your Clip

Students will be brought down a few at a time to film their clips. Mr. Gilbar or one of the film 12s will help. Once everyone has filmed their clips, they will be uploaded to the Class Resources folder in Teams. Please just take your own clip.

3. Exercise Screenings

Once everyone has filmed their clip, we are going to watch and analyze a handful of the initial exercises.

1. Final Cut of “Shoot the Shots”

Finish your rough cut of the “Shoot The Shots” project and begin correcting colours and adding audio (ambience, SFX, and music), your production logo, credits, and titles. This is the last dedicated studio time we will have to work on this, although you’ll have up to a ~45 minutes to work on it over the next couple of days depending on how quickly you get through our green screen exercise. “Shoot The Shots” will not be due until early next week. We will be filming and editing the special effects shots on Thursday and Monday and introducing our storytelling unit next week, but you won’t have much studio time remaining to work on this project.

2. Colour Correction 101

Problem: My video is too warm (yellow-orange) or cool (blue).

Solution: The white balance was incorrectly set on the camera when shooting. Go to the “Color” workspace (on the very top panel) then go to the “Color Correction” section in the top-right corner. Adjust the topmost slider left to “warm” the clip or right to “cool” the clip down. There are other sliders to play with below that will manipulate the exposure, contrast, and saturation. You can get an excellent result this way, but it still isn’t as good as having the White Balance properly configured when filming.

3. What the Green Screen?!

Pretty much all special effects in film are created through compositing multiple images or videos together to create an optical illusion. We will look at some famous examples of how this has been done in mainstream film over the years. If you are interested in learning more about how it works, you can watch a series of videos that show the history of greenscreening and some useful tips. Afterwards, we will look at some past examples.

4. Keying (Luma and Colour) Demo

We will shoot review demo footage of the class and and look at the various ways to key out portions of video. For a more detailed guide, check out this step-by-step walkthrough on how to get the best possible result!

5. Green Screen Exercise

I have produced a quick and simple demo deconstructing how this process is typically done. Try to come up with a clever idea for an 8+ second idea to show-off both your planning/execution skills in shooting, as well as your compositing abilities in Premiere! You can capture your footage as a pair/group, but each member of the group is responsible for editing together their own “version” of the project. The more creative and complex, the better your mark. This is a quick, two day exercise, so you must plan and shoot on the first day so you can quickly get to editing.

6. Discuss and Pitch!

Tell a neighbour what you are planning to do to see if they have feedback. Could it be too hard? Inappropriate for school? If you feel good about it, confirm your idea with Mr. Gilbar or our peer tutor. Come up with a plan as far as how you’ll need to stage the shot on Monday/Tuesday. Remember, do not wear any green!

1. Editing “Shoot the Shots”

You will have almost the entire week to work on “Shoot the Shots!” Please use all of the available time to make it the best possible film it can be. Make sure to keep your production documents (i.e. your notes/script/storyboard) safe as I like to be able to refer to them when marking this project.

1. Organize and share footage with all members.  –  M
2. Review footage. Reshoot as needed.  –  M/T
3. Rough Cut  –  T
4. Add logos (both filmmakers; yours first, your partner’s second), title, and end credits.  –  W
5. Add music, foley, sound effects, etc.  –  W
6. Correct lighting, colour, add special effects, etc.  –  W/Th
7. Caption with shot type.  –  Th/F
8. Export versions with and without captions (brief demo next week before assignment due date)  –  Th/F

2. Colour Correction 101

Problem: My video is too warm (yellow-orange) or cool (blue).

Solution: The white balance was incorrectly set on the camera when shooting. Go to the “Color” workspace (on the very top panel) then go to the “Color Correction” section in the top-right corner. Adjust the topmost slider left to “warm” the clip or right to “cool” the clip down. There are other sliders to play with below that will manipulate the exposure, contrast, and saturation. You can get an excellent result this way, but it still isn’t as good as having the White Balance properly configured when filming. There is also a new colour space option that we will be exploring.

3. Sound Editing 101

Problem: There are distracting sounds in the background!

Solution: Reduce the gain or eliminate the in-camera audio entirely. Sound effects can be rerecorded or quickly pulled from our network. Remember that We have an amazing library of nearly 20,000 songs and sound effects available on the network. Parse through the many folders, and when you find a sound you’d like to use, copy it to the project folder on your computer’s hard drive (do not drag it directly into your project!). You can also pull sounds from Youtube and other streaming sites using a downloader like iyoutubetomp4.com, but be sure you are only doing so under Fair Use.

4. Edit Rough Cut of “Shoot the Shots”

Edit “Shoot The Shots” project and bring in all of your clips to create a rough cut prior to correcting colours and adding audio (ambience, SFX, and music), or titles. Grab a camera and reshoot as needed! We will be introducing our storytelling unit on Friday, but you won’t have much studio time remaining to work on this project.