Synopses & Reviews
Now there is no reason to prevent anybody from making a film. The technology exists, the equipment is much cheaper than it was, the post-production facilities are on a laptop computer, the entire equipment to make a film can go in a couple of cases and be carried as hand luggage on a plane. Mike FiggisIn this indispensable guide, Academy Award nominee Mike Figgis offers the reader a step-by-step tutorial in how to use digital filmmaking technology so as to get the very best from it. He outlines the equipment and its uses, and provides an authoritative guide to the shooting processfrom working with actors to lighting, framing, and camera movement. He dispenses further wisdom on the editing process and the use of sound and music, all while establishing a sound aesthetic basis for the digital format.
Offering everything that you could wish to know on the subject, this is a handbook that will become an essential backpocket eference for the digitalfilm enthusiastwhether your goal is to make no-budget movies or simply to put your video camera to more use than just holidays and weddings. Mike Figgiss films include Internal Affairs, Miss Julie, Time Code, and Hotel. He received an Oscar nomination for Best Director and Best Screenplay for Leaving Las Vegas. In this guide, Academy Award nominee Mike Figgis offers the reader a step-by-step tutorial in how to use digital filmmaking technology so as to get the very best from it. He outlines the equipment and its uses, and provides an authoritative guide to the shooting processfrom working with actors to lighting, framing, and camera movement. He dispenses further wisdom on the editing process and the use of sound and music, all while establishing a sound aesthetic basis for the digital format.
Offering everything that you could wish to know on the subject, this is a handbook that will become an essential backpocket reference for the digital film enthusiastwhether your goal is to make no-budget movies or simply to put your video camera to more use than just holidays and weddings. Table of Contents Introduction
1. Choosing Your Weapon, Learning to Love It
2. Excursions into Super-8, 16mm, Super-16 and Hi-8
3. Customised Cameras, Video Aesthetics
4. Pre-Production, Part 1: The Budget
5. Pre-Production, Part 2: Location
6. Lighting
7. Camera Movement
8. Working with Actors
9. Post-Production
10. Music
11. Distribution
Coda "Now there is no reason to prevent anybody from making a film. The technology exists, the equipment is much cheaper than it was, the post-production facilities are on a laptop computer, the entire equipment to make a film can go in a couple of cases and be carried as hand luggage on a plane."Mike Figgis, author of Digital Filmmaking "Balancing an enthusiasm for the possibilities of the technology with an admirably old-fashioned sense of technical rigor and a "'no excuses' policy for why you haven't made your film yet, Figgis might actually be the ideal instructor for digital filmmaking. Certainly his own filmography does not lack for experimentation with both process and surface aesthetics (though I confess I often tend to like the idea of a movie like Timecode better than I like watching it) or for solid comparative experience with more traditional filmmaking. And thankfully, he never bogs down in wonkiness or tech-speak, perhaps in part from an awareness that technological changes will render his lectures obsolete if he spends time on menu settings or file codecs. On a practical level, he's as keenly aware of the new labor and disciplines that the technology imposes as he is of the time it saves and the crew positions it eliminates, while on a more personal level, he can be impressively passionate about how nothingnot cameras nor money nor professional standards, not even traditional notions of cinematic beauty or storytelling grammarshould get in the way of telling your story."Spencer Parsons, Houston Chronicle
Synopsis
Now there is no reason to prevent anybody from making a film. The technology exists, the equipment is much cheaper than it was, the post-production facilities are on a laptop computer, the entire equipment to make a film can go in a couple of cases and be carried as hand luggage on a plane. --Mike FiggisIn this indispensable guide, Academy Award nominee Mike Figgis offers the reader a step-by-step tutorial in how to use digital filmmaking technology so as to get the very best from it. He outlines the equipment and its uses, and provides an authoritative guide to the shooting process--from working with actors to lighting, framing, and camera movement. He dispenses further wisdom on the editing process and the use of sound and music, all while establishing a sound aesthetic basis for the digital format.
Offering everything that you could wish to know on the subject, this is a handbook that will become an essential backpocket eference for the digital film enthusiast--whether your goal is to make no-budget movies or simply to put your video camera to more use than just holidays and weddings.
About the Author
Mike Figgis's films include Internal Affairs, Miss Julie, Time Code, and Hotel. He received an Oscar nomination for Best Director and Best Screenplay for Leaving Las Vegas.