Charlie Citron
VIDEOGRAPHER
ChuckCity Productions
ADVANCED CINEMA ASSIGNMENT:
You will have three days to complete the following assignment. It comes in three parts, roughly assigned to a three-day period:
• A storyboard
• A planning stage
• Shooting and editing the story
PART ONE: The Storyboard
You have below a list of shots with specific camera angles that you will need to have drawn and labelled correctly in whichever order you decide:
Feet walking
Hand on door knob Letter on desk
Light switch Lamp/light turns on/offEyes
2nd eyes
Gasp
Gun
A door closes/opens
A gunshot
any, will be on-screen)
(closeup) (closeup) (medium) (closeup)
(wide)
(closeup)
(extreme close up)
(closeup or extreme close up) (up to you!)
(wide/ close-up)
(can be on/offscreen; if offscreen, you have to choose what image, if
Feel free to organize them in whichever order you so please. Whatever isn’t specified can be manipulated; for example, camera action and movement. When you’ve done this, storyboard each shot in a creative manner. What story can this tell? Could some of the objects listed be specified creatively (human feet vs. dog feet etc)? Will you add dialogue, or keep it silent? This stage shouldn’t take super long. Once you’ve done this...
PART TWO: The Planning Stage
You’ll have to work with your fellow advanced students in order to put your pieces together. We don’t have the actors yet and the beginners in the class will likely be busy with their own projects, so keep that in mind. Plan where you’ll get your props, where you will film, and who will help you on your shoot. You know the drill. Agree to help your classmates on theirs, too. Try to get this done on the first day, as shooting will be a long process.
PART THREE: Shooting & Editing The Story
If your storyboarding and planning has been successful, this should go smoothly barring any technical difficulties. You should edit your own piece. This stage will probably take the remaining two days.
The storyboard was the main focus of the assignment. I had some prior experience drafting storyboards before this, on some films I worked on last year. My first step was printing out the storyboard template, to put the pictures in. I then drew out what I had envisioned the film would look like.
The planning was admittedly, rushed. In a quick, 3-day assignment, there's not a lot of time to plan out every shot, you have to just do it. My biggest problem was finding actors, and finding spots to shoot my film. The actor crisis was solved by Quinn, a student in the class over, who was nice enough to help me out (all advanced students were busy making their own films). For the shot location, I just ha to wing it. It doesn't really matter what's in the background, so long as the composition of the shots are there.
The shooting, as usual, was the fun part. Its nice to just get out and get my hands on a camera after not shooting any footage since last spring. Composing the shots (i.e focusing, setting the aperture, framing) was slightly difficult, but luckily the amateur in front of the camera had patience. The biggest thing was adjusting to the 7D. Learning how to manipulate the camera to get a look I want. The shooting as of this moment, is not yet complete. Its hard to pump out even 8 shots in 45 minutes time. Especially when you're dealing with everyone else who's moving in and out of your shots,and messing with the lights. The editing is yet to be done, more on that later.
Note: There's more to be added, here is just the placeholder to avoid a 0