I just saw the film Departures at the Grand River Film Festival. It was a film that described the undertaker subculture in Japan in terms of funeral rituals and traditional ceremony. Departures was truly an amazing movie with both somber and comedic moments. It’s always difficult to create a film that makes its audience laugh and cry, but in regards to Departures, it certainly captured the mixture of emotions regarding the ceremony of death through which we celebrate the gift of life.

Here’s a moving scene when the main character, Daigo, reminisces about his childhood as he plays on his old cello:

Mr. Yojiro Takita from Japan, director of Departures, takes questions regarding his film.

-Remy

Writer’s Block will be a series of posts aimed at helping new writers learn more about writing for film/television and ultimately improve their writing skill and ability.

Format

The document for writing for film and television is the screenplay.

The screenplay should follow a number of format guidelines. Here’s two quick guidelines you should know:

Scene headings

For example, every scene should have a “scene heading” (a.k.a. “a slug line)”:

EXT. ROAD – NIGHT (TEXAS/MEXICO BORDER)

A million stars wink in the night desert.

1)   INT. or EXT? – “EXT.” simply means “exterior” (as opposed to INT. for interior), which just defines whether this is an interior or exterior scene.

2)   WHERE? - Next, where is the scene happening? Give the location of the set. In this example, a “ROAD” is used.

3)   TIME OF DAY – Is this scene happening during the day or at night?

It is important to use scene headings to place the reader/viewer in the middle of the scene to feel to mood, level of tension, and environment of the scene, so remember to include these in your screenplays!

Telling a Visual Story

When writing for television and film, you are no longer just writing words, but you are now writing images and sound.

Now it sounds strange, but it’s true. What you watch on television and at the movies had a screenplay of some sort written by writers who visualized the final product and wrote it out in text form. Ultimately, the end result is a visual, not textual, story.

Now what does it mean to write an image. It means visually describing, creating, and developing a frame, a shot, a scene, or a whole movie. Writers should be able to “see” the shots, “see” the emotions expressed on characters’ faces, “see” the background, “see” the foreground, “see” the missing parts and be able to “see” what fits and what doesn’t.

This ability to see the final with a “film-maker’s third-eye” will grow and seem natural with enough practice and a little studying of camera techniques, camera angles, etc.

Creating/Developing a Character

A character is a figurative or hypothetical person, but this doesn’t mean that it should be far from real at all. Characters should have histories, emotions, behavioural tendencies, desires, strengths and weaknesses. This goes for even the most unrealistic and whimsical of characters. The goal is to make these characters come to life, stir up emotions in the viewer, help the viewer relate to the story through them, and if possible, make the viewer fall in love with them. Keep this in mind when creating and developing characters for your story.

Dramatic structure

I’m sure we’ve all seen this in lit class but I’d like to refresh your memories a bit. Dramatic structure traditionally has five components:

• Exposition – provides the background information needed to properly understand the story, such as the protagonist, the antagonist, the basic conflict, and the setting. The exposition ends with the inciting moment.

• Rising action – after the inciting moment comes the rising action. At this point, conflict is clearly seen as the story progresses.

• Climax (or turning point) – The climax is the big change in the story. If the story is a comedy, things will have gone badly for the protagonist up to this point; now, the tide, so to speak, will turn, and things will begin to go well for him or her. If the story is a tragedy, the opposite state of affairs will ensue, with things going from good to bad for the protagonist.

• Falling action – During the falling action, the conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist unravels, with the protagonist winning or losing against the antagonist.

• Denouement (or resolution) – The comedy ends with a dénouement (a conclusion) in which the protagonist is better off than at the story’s outset. The tragedy ends with a catastrophe in which the protagonist is worse off than at the beginning of the narrative.

This structure is helpful for creating a basic story that involves a protagonist, an antagonist, and conflict, but many great films break the rules and were able to tell a story without a linear storyline. Feel free to bend/break the rules and explore what works, as long as the finished product turns out to be a truly amazing visual story.

For more information check these websites out:

Screenplay format reference: http://www.trilane.com/ref/index.html

Freytag’s Pyramid: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramatic_structure

Camera angles: http://www.mediaknowall.com/camangles.html

Monomyth theory: http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/00212/monomyth.html

Check out this promotional ad that UWFCC members Jeremy and Tiffany made for the Grand River Film Festival. We spent the day around our house trying to think of imaginative ways to use what limited household items we had. Let me just say that salt is a fickle friend. I was also thinking of smashing a banana but then thought the clean-up might be too messy. Anyhoo, check it out here:

The Grand River Film Festival takes place this year from October 22nd to 25th, showing movies like Departures, An American Crime and Pontypool – as well as cool events such as the Indie Lounge. It’s happening right now, folks, so if you want to buy film or event tickets check out their website at grff.ca.

Hello everyone,

So I booked a meeting time spot for our club two weeks ago, but it turns out our email slipped between the cracks at the FEDs office, but I followed up recently and, good news, we finally got a room for our first general meeting!

Fall 2009′s first UWFCC General Meeting’s details are as follows:

Date: Thurs, October 29

Time: 7:30-9:30pm

Location: ML (Modern Languages) Building – Room 212

Will there be snacks and free stuff: YES!

NOTE: ML between Environment 2 and Needles Hall, across from Arts Lecture Hall

Meeting Itinerary

• 7:30-7:45pm (15 mins): Time to mingle. Meet and greet. Wait for latecomers. =)
• 7:45-8:00pm (15 mins): Short introduction of the UWFCC, this term’s club structure, goals, projects, and executive team.
• 8:00-8:15pm (15 mins): Short tutorial about an aspect of film-making (e.g. writing, filming techniques, storyboarding, etc.)
• 8:15-8:30pm (15 mins): Q&A. Group discussion. We open the floor.

At this point, those who wish to leave the meeting may leave if they’d like.

Those who wish to stay to learn about how they can get involved with the club to produce content and work on projects, stick around for the Workshop portion of our meeting.

Workshop Session

The Workshop session is a new concept, but I’m interested in seeing how it goes.

Basically, people interested in making films can get together with other like-minded members, talk about ideas and if it all works out, they can create a team. Bring your camera to the meeting if you want to chat with others about ideas and find team members to work with.

Be warned if you start a project on your own with others, it’s your own (and your team members) responsibility to see your own project through if you’d like to see a finished project.

I suggest teams be composed of a director, an editor, someone with a camcorder and knowledge on how to operate it, writers,  and actors/actresses.

Other potential roles include costume designers, make-up artists, storyboard artists, etc., if you can manage to communicate and work together effectively.

Time is running out and we only have about weeks left to film before exams get here so keep that in mind when intending to work on putting something out. Your idea needs to be realistic and the executive of your project must be done smoothly and quickly.

The UWFCC can support you through advice and sharing your content through our website and YouTube/Vimeo channels. We don’t provide equipment but we’ll see what we can do if you’re really stuck in a rut. Send us an email: theuwfcc@gmail.com.

If you would like to use the Workshop Sessions to meet with more specialized groups to chat, socialize, and take on projects, here are some ideas for groups, we wouldn’t mind seeing.

Technical Engineers

People of all fields may join this group. The main goal of this group is to build new film-making tools that would be added to the group’s inventory. The team will have a team photo added to our wall at the end of the term and have certificates showing the club’s appreciation for their help with the project you were involved with.

First projects in mind? Build our group a working steadycam. The next project will be a portable green screen studio, and if we have time for it, a high FPS camera.

Must be able to solve problems with knowledge and skill.

Email us with “Technical Engineer” as the subject.

Club Art and Design Department

Are you an artist? Are you an artist?

If yes to both answers, email us with “Club Artist and Designer” as the subject.

Writing/Storyboarding Group

Wanna learn how to write for film/television. This group will learn format, structure, grammar, narrative models, and even edit each others works (if you’re not shy about sharing your work that is!) Just a laid-back group focused on improving the writing skills of members. If you enjoy your English and Literature classes, you should really consider joining!

If interested, email us with “UWFCC Writer” as the subject.

Maple Pictures Marketing Team

The UWFCC is a partner of Maple Pictures and they frequently send us cool free stuff to hand out.

We would like teams to hand out stuff to students (past promotional items include t-shirts, free advance movie tickets to specific shows, and discounts on DVDs).

Promoters will receive free items of their choosing. The amount will be based on what and how many items we receive.

Thanks in advance.

If interested, please send us an email with “Maple Pictures Marketing Team Member” as the subject.

Acting Team

No experience is necessary, but skill is needed. We select our actors for our works based on audition. This is a form of quality control for our videos and is a necessary and professional process that will ensure that everyone has a fair audition for the projects.

If interested, please send us your picture, and an email with “UWFCC Actor” as the subject and we will contact you about audition dates.

PHEW!

That was a long post. Well, thanks for your time and I’m looking forward to our first meeting.

All the best,

Remy Choo

President of the UWFCC

DEPARTURES
2009 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

The Grand River Film Festival (GRFF) is a weekend-long festival that occurs this year from October 22rd to October 25th, 2009. It is a festival for the region of Waterloo, Kitchener and Cambridge and is held in conjunction with the Kitchener Children’s Museum. It plays a lot of great Canadian and international films, as well as offering an workshop for aspiring filmmakers this year called the “Indie Lounge“. This year they offer live stunt demos including jumping off a roof and setting themselves on fire (stuntment from X-Men and Flashpoint), workshops on creating film action scenes, advice on funding/distributing/licensing, developing high quality films using your own digital devices, and also on the art of editing and direction.

This region definitely needs a source of new entertainment and outside perspectives beyond the multiplexes which offer blockbuster movies at the local malls. It’s also a great chance to match up with like-minded people who are interesting in the art of film and filmmaking. Hopefully with time, this festival can become a place where people will go to see great movies and create a buzz much in the same way the TIFF does.

OTHER FILMS
Some films screening here will include “An American Crime” featuring Ellen Page and Catherine Keener, “Every Little Step”, a documentary about young dancers hoping to be in the musical “A Chorus Line”, and “Krabat”, a German movie that is the adaptation of a children’s fantasy book where a boy learns magic from an evil sorcerer.

One of the films this year is a Japanese film titled “Departures”, about a cellist who loses his orchestra job and finds himself being an undertaker for funerals. If you’re a fan of classical music or foreign films in general, I would definitely recommend that you check it out. There will be two screenings of the film, and Yôjirô Takita will be the Guest of Honour at the festival.

HOW TO FIND OUT MORE
Simply phone the Children’s Museum at (519) 749-9387 for more information. Tickets to see the movie cost $7 each. Check out our Facebook event for this movie as well as the official GRFF site.

Publicity stunt after publicity stunt, both intentional and slip-of-the-tongue, Kanye West has gotten pretty good (“as far as geniuses go”) at hitting the front page of the news blogs and shocking the world with his outbursts and unexpected behaviour.

I, for one, believe Kanye has got to be the realest dude in the music industry today. I mean, the guy has close to no filter between his head and his mouth. The result of his split-second sayings reveals raw opinions and perspectives that some might find offensive and disrespectful, but ultimately, has a sort of flawed logic that is both right and wrong at the same time. You can see all the wrong twists and turns that Kanye made in his mind that led him to believe that “President Bush doesn’t care about Black people” and how “Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time”, but ultimately, this is the logic of the brash, the emotional, and the wild souls of our world.

How fitting then is it for Spike Jonze, the director of the new film, “Where the Wild Things Are” to also be the director of this short film starring Kanye West titled “We Were Once A Fairytale”. Full of foolish split-decisions, quick mistakes, and the stinging sensation of regret, Kanye West must, in the end, face his own ego (and I mean literally face his ego).

Enjoy.

EDIT: Sorry, guys. Kanye had to take it down.

-Remy

Citizen Kane, 1941, is often seen as one of the most influential films that ever existed. The film about the life of a wealthy man from childhood to death. A man who owned the newspaper publishing world, we learn about his descent from idealism into a pursuit of ruthless and cruel power. The story is revealed in flashbacks by a reporter who wishes to know the meaning of Mr. Kane’s dying word: Rosebud.

The director, Orson Welles, was only 25 at the time. This lesson will look at some filmmaking techniques he used incredibly effectively: Deep focus, Deep space, Low-angle shots, Backlighting, and Mise-en-scène.

Deep Focus

In the past, only the people and things close up (the foreground) were in focus. Now, everything in the frame in focus at the same time: both the foreground and the background. This is known as deep focus, and Kane was the first film to employ this technique.

Deeo focus requires the cinematographer use the correct combination of lighting, composition and the specific camera lens in order to produce a larger *depth of field*. This specific placement of design elements is known as *mise-en-scène*. Cinematographer Gregg Toland had used this technique before in an earlier film he had worked on called “The Long Voyage Home”, but this movie was the first time he had used it extensively.

Deep focus was particularly effective in scenes that depict Kane’s loss of control and personal isolation. The space between the foreground and the background are symbolic of the his power: the space he commands, and the space in which he has no power.

The above movie frame shot is an excellent example of deep focus cinematography. There are 3 main planes in this scene: the mother up front, the father at the door, and a young Kane outside the window in the background. This gives the audience a *choice* of where to look, rather than limiting their attention to focus. Here, all the characters are looking at the paper – the viewer is given the chance to look at what is important in the scene through the “eye lines” of the other characters. The focus in this scene is on the mother signing away the control of her son’s life – whom we can see is playing outside. Watch the scene below:

Deep space, also known as deep staging, is part of the mise-en-scène. It places significant actors and props in different planes of the picture.

Look at the two shots in the same scene. First, Kane is in the background, dwarfed by giant windows that are 6 feet above the floor. Now Kane is in the foreground, and the windows look of ordinary size. This is a great visual pun and shows how deep space can emphasize the power or significance of certain characters and props.

Watch the scene where these shots come from. Note at the beginning of the scene, the man is reading a newspaper – when he lowers the paper, we see a man sitting across from him. Mr. Kane then enters the scene.

Low-angle shots basically means shooting your camera from the floor, or closer to that level. By lowering the camera, Welles showed *ceilings* in many of his scenes for Citizen Kane. This was very new, because normally ceilings are hidden in movies – the sound stages usually have no ceilings, or are cluttered with microphones and other equipment. Take a look at the ceiling shown in the scene below – it’s not often you see that!

The frame shot below is an example of extreme backlighting. Backlighting is light that is intentionally cast onto figures from the opposite side of the camera.

The backlighting in this scene turns the characters into silhouette figures because of the line created by the light. The characters appear anonymous because of the technique. This is an expressionist technique, especially in German Expressionism – lighting distorts reality in order to convey emotions. Cool, isn’t it?

As mentioned in deep focus, mise-en-scène is a french term which describes all elements place in front of the camera on set. It includes settings and props, lighting, costumes and make-up, and figure behavior.

In the above scene, we are introduced to the love of Mr. Kane’s life – Susan Alexander. Look at the placement of the shadow across her face and the man’s back in the frame. Mise-en-scène tends to be very important for realists.

Hope you enjoyed this lesson!

© – Tiffany Budhyanto, UWFCC

The National Film Board of Canada is Canada’s public film producer. Recently, its website upped the ante in the digital media universe and now allows anybody to view, online, some of the hundreds of film they produce. The NFB produces tons of documentaries, experimental films, animations and children’s shorts. Check it out here; something is sure to peak your interest.

One documentary which caught my eye was “Everybody’s Children”, a documentary about two refugees who come to Ontario to start a new life. Joyce, 17, fled the Democratic Republic of Congo to avoid being forced into prostitution by her family. Salieu, 16, witnessed the murder of his mother in Sierra Leone. Monika Delmos follows these two as they try to fit into this new country, face teenage pressures as well as go through the refugee application process.

Other videos you should check out include this trailer for a stop-motion animation called Madame Tutli-Putli, a woman who goes on an existential journey between real and imagined worlds as she takes a train ride. You can watch the whole film here.

- Tiffany

Interested in getting a more professional look-and-feel in your videos and also getting better footage from your filming sessions? Try the poor man’s steadycam. With materials under $14 USD (that’s $14.48 to my fellow Canucks), you can steady your shots and make them look cool. Cool like this guy (designer of “the poor man’s steadycam, Johnny Chung LEE):

-Remy

Here’s a great story by Constantin Pilavios called “What is that?”

-Remy