Filmmaking Certificate

Full-time 4 weeks (20 consecutive weekdays; hours: 10.00 – 17.00). Students are expected to work additional hours outside the normal teaching days including evenings and weekends.

The introductory course is designed for students with no prior experience or knowledge of filmmaking. For those students who are considering further education leading to a career in film, it provides an invaluable grounding in the basic principles and enables students to make a considered choice about a future in a highly rewarding industry. The course is a useful starting point for students intending to apply for a place on the one-year Diploma at the LFA.

For those who do not wish to pursue a career or further training in film, this course is an inspirational, comprehensive and enjoyable introduction to the world of filmmaking, providing students with creative and collaborative skills that can be useful in any vocation.

Unique features of the course

• Practical training by industry professionals
• Small groups with excellent tutor to student ratios (group sizes 6-12)
• Short films produced are shot on professional Super 16mm camera equipment
• All materials included in the course fee
• Professional actors employed
• Show reels made on completion
• Work experience opportunities on LFA Diploma graduation films
• Editing experience on linear (Steenbeck) and non linear (AVID Media Composer) methods compared and contrasted

Course Aims & Outcomes

Students should leave the Academy with:

• a foundation of up-to-date knowledge and practical skills that can be applied in novice filmmaking or assist in successful applications for further training
• Vastly improves chances of gaining entry level jobs into the industry and establishing a career
• a DVD show reel of shorts
• certification
• creative collaborations for the future with other students
• a fast-track onto the LFA Filmmaking Diploma selection process

Course Overview

Students are guided by industry professionals through the process of making non-synch 2-minute short films from storyboard to screen, gaining knowledge and skills in the following key areas: story development, storyboarding, use of 35mm stills camera, directing, producing, cinematography and editing.

Introduction To Storyboarding

• Drawn image story boarding exercise and debrief
• Overview of the 35 mm stills camera including camera basics, lenses, film stock, framing, focusing, exposure and light meters

Overview of 35mm SLR stills cameras

• Camera basics: using SLR stills camera to demonstrate body, shutter, view finder, film transport mechanism
• Lenses: focusing, focal length and aperture
• Film stock: size, reversal/negative, speed (ISO), daylight, Tungsten
• Using the camera: choosing the lens, framing, focussing, setting the exposure
• Exposure: what is it? Aperture, shutter speeds, film sensitivity, how is it measured? Incident light, TTL meters

Film Theory
Part One

• A whistlestop tour through film grammar and story construction
• Dramatic construction
• What is a story? A story is a causally-linked series of events carried out by agencies called characters. We can see this at work clearly in any fairy tale. This introduction explores the centrality of characterisation in generating this cause-effect chain.
• We explore an approach to 'mapping' characters that reveals their potential for generating the kinds of tensions that are the engine of any story
• Students analyse this in a particular film and then apply these ideas to their own projects
• From this angle they are introduced to exposition, dramatic irony, suspense, disclosure, reaction/action and peripety (resolution).
  Part Two
• Telling your story with the camera.
• Students learn to analyses the effect of particular decisions about camera position and movement on the effectiveness of a particular film narrative.
• These insights are then brought to bear on their own plans for shooting their projects.

Directing

• The director’s role as story teller and team leader - communication and team dynamics
• Practical workshops and feedback developing story ideas from storyboards to short films
• Workshop in working with professional actors including an introduction to method and techniques and a presentation from two professional actors. Each student directs and shoots a simple scene on video, creating backstories, subtext and motivations for the actors
• Staging and shooting a scene, shot size, understanding the basics of mise en scene
• The camera – the director’s responsibility in understanding the functions of the camera and ways it can be used to express story
• The ability to plan shooting through the appropriate use of shot lists and story boards

Producing
Interactive classroom-based tutorials using short film screenings/discussion and hard copy examples illustrating the distinct phases of production: pre production, shoot and post production

• An introduction to the phases of production: pre-production, shoot and post production
• Production team roles and their responsibilities
• The basic principles of budgeting, scheduling and organising a production
• A tour through professional production administration and paperwork including call sheets, script templates, budgeting and scheduling, crew and actor agreements
• LFA paperwork templates, production procedures and crew roles for short film making

Cinematography
Part One: Introduction to the Moving Picture Camera - 16mm Arriflex SR2. Overview of the role of cinematographer and the camera department

• Camera basics: The care and handling of film equipment, battery management, basic camera operation and magazine loading
• Over/under cranking
• Shutter
• Focussing: focus pulling and depth of field
• Slates and camera sheets
• Practical exercise in magazine loading in a changing bag
• Hands-on training during short film shoots in camera operating, focus pulling and clapper loading – screening of rushes and debrief

Part Two: Introduction to film lighting

• Types of light, contrast ratios, colour temperature
• Lighting equipment: demonstration and practical exercises in lighting techniques including basic electrics, health and safety, clamps and stands, diffusion and reflectors
• Colour correction filters
• Practical exercises in taking exposure meetings
• Tutor support and guidance in lighting techniques during short film shoots

Editing
The Role of the professional film editor – introduction to the discipline and techniques of editing on Steenbeck (linear) and post production sound on AVID XPress DV (non-linear).

• The director editor relationship
• Introduction to the cutting room and the Steenbeck
• ystem working on 16mm film
• Cutting room equipment and consumables
• The cutting copy
• Edge numbering
• Logging
• Editing demonstrations using student rushes
• Basic introduction to picture editing and continuity
• Screening and debrief of student work
• Basic introduction to sound editing on AVID XPress DV
• Editing theory

The course culminates in:

• in a short test and questionnaire
• a screening of completed work with feedback