Thursday, October 31, 2024
Tuesday, September 24, 2024
Portrait of a person, place or thing: MINI-DOC EXAMPLES
Acid Brass- watch this!
About a thing- the piano
House of Elegance. Produced by students at University of Texas Austin
DJ SPOOKY- that Subliminal Kid
Process of dj'ing
Super simple approach- for a good storyteller
about beehives
Sugar coated- about subcultures
Katherine L Ross about porcelain and soap
exemplifies interview with B-roll
Student work at SIUC:
Etherton Switch from Tobias Mattner on Vimeo.
exemplifies interview with B-roll
Student work at SIUC:
Etherton Switch from Tobias Mattner on Vimeo.
student work: El Procedure: Short by U Chicago student Coya Castro
More student work
Welcome to Goreville made by Tyler Sullivan, 2013 RTD 365A
Pastor Holder by Evan Brown 2013 RTD 365A
Sunday, September 8, 2024
CIN 400 / RTD 365 FALL 2024
CIN 400 / RTD 365 FALL 2024
Class meets: Monday and Wednesday 11-12:50
COMM 1116 (Soundstage)
Professor Sarah Lewison slewison@siu.edu
Office hours Monday & Wed after class and by appt
Office: Communication 1050E
Teaching Assistant- the fabulous Ashish Kumar ashish.lnu@siu.edu
Tuesday, April 4, 2023
Drew Yepsen handpainted film experiment
While working on my cameraless film I took very simple approaches and tried adding my own complexities and methods. I worked exclusively with one extended piece of film from an old war movie. The scenes I chose, soldier staring and a flag waving, allowed for me to work with scenes that were darker and lighter. This produced several different results. I did two main things which was scratching and the coloring. Scratching was the first step across the entire forty second clip. I used an exacto knife, sand paper, metal scrub and a nail file. All of these methods led to very different looks and I found that the overall scratch quality and depth varied between each one. I found that the nail file was great for clean lines on a smaller area and the metal scrub was great for depth and clear damage. When it comes to colors, I tried all kinds of fun methods. Prior to much of anything I soaked the entire film in sweet tea vodka for a day. This gave it a strange darker tone and made the emulsion very sticky.
I put it outside to dry where it got covered in all kinds of earth Some of these dirt and grass marks can be seen on the final film. After drying and then cleaning to get, most of, the sticky off I went to work on color. I used acrylic paint which did not show up much outside of a shadow. I found that sharpie markers worked great for clean vibrant colors. I found that dripping a paper towel in water, coloring on it with the sharpie, making it wet again then applying to the film left this amazing water color look. You can see an example of that below in the first screenshot. This weird mix of green and blue came out great. A lot of the red came from dousing it in fake blood. The color is bright and it showed up great! Overall, I found that scratching before applying color, letting it dry and then rescratching is a great method to add depth to the film. Layers of color can be added using this method and it came out great! Two screenshot examples are below!
Sunday, January 29, 2023
3 Ways to Establish Visual Rhythm in Your Film
By V Renée
August 26, 2018
What is visual rhythm and how can you use it to make better, more interesting films?
Visual rhythm is incredibly important in filmmaking because it establishes the flow of a story, a flow that can really make or break your film. While both good and bad rhythm put your audience on the edge of their seat, one finds them there because they're excited and engaged and the other finds them there because they're getting up to head for the door, so it's supremely important to know how to use visual elements wisely.
In this video, the team over at The Film Look shows you three ways in which they established the rhythm of their film The Asylum Groove to create an interesting, engaging, and meaningful story using visual techniques that are not difficult to implement into your own projects. Check it out below:
Keep in mind, I'm not talking about pacing here. When we talk about pacing, typically we're talking about the timing of the editing, like fast and frenetic cuts that pump up the action versus slow and meandering ones that let audiences marinate in the moment. Rhythm has more to do with story progression, like establishing a clear beginning, middle, and end and creating patterns to reveal important narrative information.
Let's take a look at the four techniques mentioned in the video:
First and final frames
Video essayist Jacob T. Swinney's "First and Final Frames" series taught us so much about the importance and power of bookending your film. It can show you if you've got a clear beginning and end, how your protagonist has changed over the course of the film, and it can also tie up your story nicely if you add a little visual hat tip to the beginning of the film at the end.
August 26, 2018
What is visual rhythm and how can you use it to make better, more interesting films?
Visual rhythm is incredibly important in filmmaking because it establishes the flow of a story, a flow that can really make or break your film. While both good and bad rhythm put your audience on the edge of their seat, one finds them there because they're excited and engaged and the other finds them there because they're getting up to head for the door, so it's supremely important to know how to use visual elements wisely.
In this video, the team over at The Film Look shows you three ways in which they established the rhythm of their film The Asylum Groove to create an interesting, engaging, and meaningful story using visual techniques that are not difficult to implement into your own projects. Check it out below:
Keep in mind, I'm not talking about pacing here. When we talk about pacing, typically we're talking about the timing of the editing, like fast and frenetic cuts that pump up the action versus slow and meandering ones that let audiences marinate in the moment. Rhythm has more to do with story progression, like establishing a clear beginning, middle, and end and creating patterns to reveal important narrative information.
Let's take a look at the four techniques mentioned in the video:
First and final frames
Video essayist Jacob T. Swinney's "First and Final Frames" series taught us so much about the importance and power of bookending your film. It can show you if you've got a clear beginning and end, how your protagonist has changed over the course of the film, and it can also tie up your story nicely if you add a little visual hat tip to the beginning of the film at the end.
The Rule of Three
I'm not sure why this is a thing, but it is. Many theorists say that when something shows up three times in a film (or anything really), it establishes a pattern. "Why do patterns matter in filmmaking?" Because they give those repeated elements more importance, which means your audience is going to pay more attention to them. "But why do patterns matter in terms of visual rhythm?" Because, as the video points out, it's often just the right amount of information your audience needs to recognize something as vital to the scene, character, or entire film without belaboring the point and boring them.
I'm not sure why this is a thing, but it is. Many theorists say that when something shows up three times in a film (or anything really), it establishes a pattern. "Why do patterns matter in filmmaking?" Because they give those repeated elements more importance, which means your audience is going to pay more attention to them. "But why do patterns matter in terms of visual rhythm?" Because, as the video points out, it's often just the right amount of information your audience needs to recognize something as vital to the scene, character, or entire film without belaboring the point and boring them.
Bridging shots
The Film Look shows you a great way to create a nice flow between your shots and different sequences. By adding an element, whether it's a certain color, object, or movement, from the previous shot/scene/sequence, you create a visual bridge that allows your audience to make a connection between the two otherwise separate events.
If you want to see how the Film Look team used these techniques in their own work, check out The Asylum Groove below.
The Film Look shows you a great way to create a nice flow between your shots and different sequences. By adding an element, whether it's a certain color, object, or movement, from the previous shot/scene/sequence, you create a visual bridge that allows your audience to make a connection between the two otherwise separate events.
If you want to see how the Film Look team used these techniques in their own work, check out The Asylum Groove below.
Wednesday, January 25, 2023
ASSIGNMENT 2: Shooting for the Edit
READ THE SECTION on Continuity Editing:
- Moving Pictures CHAPTER ON EDITING by Russell Leigh Sharman
READ THE SECTION on Continuity Editing:
Continuity and Narrative: Coverage, zoning, cutting on action
- How To Shoot A Scene With A Single Camera multiple versus one camera narrative
Dulac, The Seashell and the Clergyman : Note: Dulac is known as an experimental maker
LINKS:
Basics- Read this chapter on montage and editing
Film as phenomena: Simultenaeity and the shattering of the solid world
Picasso and Braques go to the movies: Braque believed an artist experienced beauty "… in terms of volume, of line, of mass, of weight, and through that beauty [he] interpret[s] [his] subjective impression...”[17]"objects shattered into fragments... [as] a way of getting closest to the object... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Braque
One shot: observing the world
Continuity and Narrative: Coverage, zoning, cutting on action
How To Shoot A Scene With A Single Camera
Dulac, The Seashell and the Clergyman : Note: Dulac is known as an experimental maker
Discontinuity
Jump cuts: Note: not all the examples in this otherwise great tutorial are true jump cuts. Some are zoned cuts on action. See if you can figure out which is which.
Story Denali- storytelling from POV of dog
Experimental: Found footage and layering: creating a dialogue
Songs for Earth and Folk by Cauleen Smith https://vimeo.com/71024774
My name is Oona by Gunvor Nelson clip https://vimeo.com/242768525
Example films from students
Montage made from the everyday
SIUC Student works:In his essay about the long take as used by
Quattro Volte Film Clips
LINKS: Basics- Read this chapter on montage and editing • Moving Pictures by Russell Leigh Sharman o Soviet Montage and the Kuleshov effect o Kelly Reichart on Elaborated Time Film as phenomena: Simultenaeity and the shattering of the solid world • Picasso and Braques go to the movies: Braque believed an artist experienced beauty "… in terms of volume, of line, of mass, of weight, and through that beauty [he] interpret[s] [his] subjective impression...”[17]"objects shattered into fragments... [as] a way of getting closest to the object... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Braque One shot: observing the world • Bela Tar by Kevin B Lee • Bela Tar Visions of Europe Continuity and Narrative: Coverage, zoning, cutting on action • How To Shoot A Scene With A Single Camera • How to tell a story in 5 shots • Graphic matches and matches on action • Graphic matches in I want Candy from Marie Antoinette • Dulac, The Seashell and the Clergyman : Note: Dulac is known as an experimental maker Discontinuity • Jump cuts: Note: not all the examples in this otherwise great tutorial are true jump cuts. Some are zoned cuts on action. See if you can figure out which is which. Story Denali- storytelling from POV of dog • My Dudus (story) Experimental: Found footage and layering: creating a dialogue • Songs for Earth and Folk by Cauleen Smith https://vimeo.com/71024774 • My name is Oona by Gunvor Nelson clip https://vimeo.com/242768525 Example films from students Montage made from the everyday SIUC Student works:
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