Thursday, June 28, 2012

Line Producing -1


Paul hellerman line producer on :

Jungle warrior

Red heat

Back to the beach

Reservoir dogs

Four rooms

Pulp fiction

The Mexican

Bang bang you are dead

and all tarrantino movies -

DGA training program, to become a producer

Line producer is the 1st person to see the screenplay.

Line producer looks at:

Budget

Schedule

Production plans

Tracking costs

Oversee operation oversight

Finance / bond company

1st ad and Dp are the 1st people to go , if a bond company has to step in .

Line Producer interacts with above the line people

They are responsible with casting / story / all atl, they have creative input on aspects of the movie the ATL is the highest paying position in a film

UNIT Production manager does not give creative inputs, they just manage money.

UPM is DGA position

Line Producer : looks at all paper work, they sign all chq’s

Also writer deals / cast deals / director deals - finance and legal( business affairs )

People who report to Line Producer

Assistant director (responsible for time management)

Production coordinator – responsible for every aspect of production, they manage the office, is one of the most difficult jobs.

Good traits as a Line Producer are:

Take on responsibility

Deal with stress well

Can see the bigger picture

Deals well with personalities

Find alternate solutions

Get creative solutions

Production coordinator never goes to set.

DP and Production designers are hired and do report to Line Producer

Miramax and newline and cinetec were bought up by bigger studios and the quality of films dropped,

Now it is about making money the 1st weekend alone,

Bigger companies can’t allow smaller co’s to make profit

Movies like: bonnie and Clyde/ gas food lodging/ sex lies videotapes/

What lies beneath

Are no longer possible

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Producing documentaries -1



Documentaries – 30 to 90 minutes

The different genres are:

1. Propaganda – e.g. – Olympia

2. Essay film e.g. – color of desert by Petra, it is about why something is the way it is? It is reflective in nature.

Why is the desert yellow or white or … no right answer, just something that one wonders about.

Another e.g. – roger and me by Michael Moore.

3. Biography

4. Compilations

5. Theses (activist, NGO) films

6. Reportage

7. Travel (essays)

8. Travelogues (which talk about where to stay, how much are hotels for) what to do there, where to go.

9. Observational – cinema verte

10. Social issues – this draws a huge audience

11. Investigation-

12. Sports and music – event centered film,

13. Process films – following a person as they go to a place, n how they interact, like say Annie lebovitz n how her shoot happens how she goes about things.

14. Recreation – the situation is recreated

15 reenactment - there are actors and it is staged.

Documentary movies to watch

WASTELAND - IT IS well structured story, almost like a feature,

It is an e.g. of social issue, process film, biography / observational/ compilation.

BEUNA VISTS SOCIAL CLUB- DIR BY WIM WENDOR – PRODUCED BY DEEPAK NAIR

THIS IS AN EG OF TRAVEL FILM, EVENT CETERED FILM,

THE BEACHES OF AGNES – E.G OF BIOGRAPHY, RECREATTION, PERFORMANCE

ANNIE LEIBOVITZ – THROUGH THE LENS,

IS AN E.G OF OBSERVATIOBAL BIOGRAPHY.

FARENHEIT 9 / 11 BY MICHEAL MOORE, IS A PROPAGANDA / THESES FILM (director has an idea what he wants to say, n is saying that through his film)


Nanook of the north – is not a true cinema verete

Weeping camel 1995 eg of Nature , observation, cinema verete style .



As a process write a review about every documentary that you see and what affect it had on you?

Monday, June 25, 2012

Improvisational acting -1


Game 1

Woosh – pass the imaginary ball in a direction

Bong to change direction with the ball

Bridge to pass a player

Hyperspace to put the ball in air n anyone can get the ball

Stand in a circle and play the game above.


WATCH HOW MUCH FOCUS IS NEEDED, CAN YOU REMEMBER TO DO IT ALL , PARTS OF MEMORY IS USED THAT WE OFTEN LET SLACK.


The rules are:

HAVE FUN

MISTAKES ARE GOLDEN

LISTEN LISTEN LISTEN


INTUITIVE LISTeNING

GAME 2 : stand in front of your partner and look at them intently, notice all that they do, ( stand toe to toe) notice there expressions , how they stand , how there face twitch ... now one of the partners start to move and the other person follows, without moving your feet, both are not moving there feet , be really focussed, listen to your partner in all ways possible. BE present and LISTEN.

LISTEN TO YOUR PARTNER, don’t be thinking of what brilliant lines you will come up with.


Do things together; you want to support your partner.

GOING BLUE – is referred when naughty things are referred at.

Ideally try to avoid that, as audience might feel uncomfortable

Try to tell a story, not just be funny always.

Be hyper alert

Stage picture: be aware of your scene be aware of your stage partner


Story book- gives information

How to bring character choice

Emotions

Make things up one does not need to be the smartest person in the scene, support the others


GAME 3 : talking heads

Have 4 people stand up together and have them tell a story, where you keep interrupting and POINTING TO A PERSON TO CONTiUNUE THE STORY, keep changing the players and let them continue telling the same story. The genre of the story should be pre decided and story should work towards that.


GAME 4: Have 7 people stand together in" 9 pin" formation and shoulder to shoulder, n then one person is the leader , n the whole group has to move in one of the 4 directions, as the leader moves, it could be a person in the back or in the middle or in the side who is the leader, remain in formation, the idea is to listen with all awareness and with all parts of your body and mind.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Soviet Cinema and influences

The soviets were of the opinion; cinema can have its own language with - use of editing

Man with a movie camera – a movie where it was edited with stock footage to make sense.

They believed in using editing to create meaning.

Eisenstein: art historian, theorist, and film director,

Idea of editing – not a creation of invisible continuity between shots.

Creation of conflict between shots in order to produce meaning.

Avant guard - optical music, cinematic painting - they were against cinema being narrative / literal/ close to literature.

Kuleshov Experiment – Juxtaposition of different element to give different meaning.

Japanese and Chinese Based – on writing,

The Copulative Heliography-

Dog + mouth = bark.

Child + mouth = scream.

By combining 2 depictables one can create that which is undepictable.

Different idea of editing

Repetition

Intellectual editing

Killing suggested by shot and editing.

Firing suggested by shots and the way it

Is edited.

Combinations of shots to recreate the feeling without showing the action that would make one feel so.

In 1960 Alfred Hitchcock used Eisenstein

Method’s to edit.

Sound is used to cover edits (i.e. – cuts in edits)

Hollywood and use of soviet cinema:

E.g. _ linking of scenes/

Wipes

Fades

Superimposition – function to imply compression of time and space.

Movie – 1941 Meeting John Doe.

Slavko Vorkapich

M – Maytime 1937 – Robert Leonard

M – Requiem of a dream 2000

EISENSTEIN DESIGNED INTELLECTUAL EDITING.

M – WALK ABOUT 1971 BBY NICOLAs Rouge.

Is an example of intellectual editing?

Soviet montage – teq uses in citizen Kane, psycho, Requiem of a dream 2000.

Soviet Montage - creating of metaphor, parallel editing, e.g. – godfather, color purple, and walk about.

TV shows that’s are interesting:

Breaking bad,

Pushing daises

Once upon a time.

Other movies to watch out for:

M – the age of innocence – martin Scorsese

M - Roger and me, 1989 Michel Moore,

Are films that use soviet style montage and editing?

French NOIR -

Italian noir

European cinema after ww2,

1945 – 1950 neorealism

e.g.- Movies like open city /paisan

French new wave – e.g. – Bergman,

Pasolini,

Szabo

GODDARD pioneered ump cuts – interrupts during a single a single shot, with abrupt change of background. Goddard often discarded rules of continuity, jerky editing.

Neorealism’s Influence – Movie -The 400 blows 1959 by Truffaut

Movie -Stage coach, movie by john ford violates axis at times.

New wave 1960 ‘s – narrative is open to improvisation and non-diegetic element, not much focus on continuity

Editing violated classical rules.