At long last I am proud to present the movie that Moby doesn't want you to see: "Giant Baby Attack!" This film is a demonstration of the concepts of dissonance and ostinato as they are found in the Poltergeist score, written by Jerry Goldsmith. Dissonance (a clashing or unresolved musical interval) and ostinato (a constantly recurring melodic fragment) are staples of the horror genre. To see how these concepts work to make otherwise brave people sleep with a light on, read more.

If you're a science fiction fan like me then you've probably seen your fair share of the SCI FI Channel. I think I can even say without fear of marital retribution that the SCI FI Channel is hands down better than the Food Channel. One of the great things about the channel is that they fund their own "Original Movie" productions. And the movies they produce are great. Take the case of "Grendel", which debuted about ten months before Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf hit theaters. It was the exact right product at the exact right time.

I'm so enamored of their productions that I wanted to find out what kind of people actually work for the SCI FI Channel. As luck would have it I was able to get in contact with Ron Fernandez, the screenwriter for "Grendel". Ron also wrote Rock Monster for the channel.

Here's how Ron broke into the business:

If you've ever physically spliced two pieces of film together you know how magical the 24 fps frame cadence is. I don't know if there is a psychometric test that can confirm this, but it seems like the images linger just long enough to make a lasting impression, while maintaining the proper motion of objects. When Sony 24p cameras were first used to shoot a feature it was clear that a new age of cinema was upon us. In today's article I am going to detail a low cost workflow that will allow you to shoot high definition video at 24 fps.

This workflow employs the tools detailed in my previous workflow article. To recap, it relies on a low cost HDV camera (the Canon HV20) and a low cost post production environment (Adobe Creative Suite 3). There are two reasons why HDV was selected for the video format: camera cost and disk space requirement. When it comes to cost per pixel, HDV cameras cannot be beat. HDV is considered a consumer format and as a result the cameras are a fraction of the cost of DVCPro HD gear. In regard to disk space, you'll find that the 25 Mbps data rate of HDV allows you to squeeze 5,000 minutes of footage onto an entry level PC with a terabyte of storage. The DVCPro HD format, on the other hand, eats up to four times the disk space and also requires greater disk throughput (which means your disk subsystem needs to be gold plated). Don't get me wrong, we're not against professional gear here at Free Film School, we just want to define an affordable option for filmmakers that aren't sitting on a big pile of cash.

Let's begin with your camera set-up.

There's not a whole lot of show business going on in Silicon Valley, so when I heard that Santa Clara University offered a screenwriting class I thought I'd sit in and see what kind of gems could be found. The fact that SCU offered the class really caught my attention. As you know there are more scam artists than you can shake a script at preying on the Hollywood bound. If you're an actor you'll be told to get new headshots and take acting classes. And if you're a writer you'll be tempted to salve your artistic anguish with an occasional dose of screenwriting class. So what kind of pill is SCU selling?

Here's some insightful career advice from Darryl Barker (Beethopia). Darryl started his career with an internship under George Lucas that lasted all of one day:

Before we get into the details of my recommended HDV workflow I thought you might like to see just what success in the web video space looks like. Take a look at this YouTube Insight graph, provided by Solomon Chase:



This is a chart of the daily views that Solomon gets on YouTube. Solomon is a young cinematographer based in Georgia, and his impressive, stylized videos are a YouTube sensation. He gets emailed by directors that want to work with him; men want to be him and women throw their underwear at him. He will get to work in his chosen profession until the end of days.

When I first spoke with Solomon he was completely shocked by his success on YouTube. He told me that the response was so overwhelming at first that he didn't even get through all the email. Months later he discovered that the director of the Winnie the Pooh movie wanted to work with him (among other offers). When I asked him if he wanted to work on features his response really surprised me. He said that he wanted to work on short films to keep the quality of his output high and then build from there. This is a guy that, when Hollywood calls, doesn't even read the email. How'd he do it?

Today's column is being written for the filmmaker that does not have $10,000 laying around to spend on their cinematic debut. If you have a big chunk of change you'll find no end to the people that'll help you spend it (whenever I want to put a huge hole in my budget I call Snader and Associates ). But I don't want to see you spend that kind of money. HD technology is moving so fast that whatever you buy today is going to be gathering dust in a couple years. That's why an affordable HD workflow is so important. It's a great way to try out the format and learn the pitfalls without parting with your hard-earned cash.

I'm going to review a workflow that employs a $600 HDV camera, a $600 software suite and a $1500 PC. What kind of results can you expect for $2700? Take a look at the clip I'm running at the top of this article. The filmmaker, Solomon Chase, garnered almost 100,000 views on YouTube with this clip (which exemplifies affordability). And just look at the thing. It's gorgeous. It's dripping with gorgeous. They'll have to mop the gorgeous off the floor once the clip leaves the building. And the whole thing was shot with a $600 camera.

Just recently I was able to pry a "how I broke into the business" story out of the hands of Ashley Michael Karitis. Ashley is currently a student at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and his script "Saving Tulips" was just named a finalist in the 480 competition.

For those of you that have not lived under the yoke of the 480 process, it's a "competition" that USC runs to see which students will actually get to make a final thesis film. Only a few thesis films are shot each year, which means there are numerous students at USC that spend $35,000 a year to not make a final film. I know, it boggles the mind. Now do you see why your parents were pushing for Free Film School?

Here's Ashley's account of how he broke into the business with an internship at an independent film production company:

Today were are going to look at a key video concept that is taught at USC: tempo. Three things control the tempo of your film: your editing paradigm, your on-screen action and your music. What do I mean by editing paradigm? Your editing paradigm is the expectation you set up in the mind of the viewer from the edits they've seen thus far. If you take the case of the film "Iron Man", you'll find that most of the action shots run somewhere between two and four seconds in duration. This is consistent throughout the entire film. The audience is trained early on that they need to pay close attention, and they are also comforted to know that scenes will be paid-off quickly. It is a joy to watch a film with a tight and consistent editing paradigm.

You can't do much about on-screen action after the film has been shot, so let's move on to music selection. If you take a quick look at the short film I've prepared for this article, you'll see a chase scene set to the theme music from "Indiana Jones" (composed by John Williams). The music has a very fast tempo (allegro) and is somewhat agitated (agitato). Music that is allegro agitato adds energy to your video, regardless of the video content. If the on-screen action does not fit well with the energy created by the music the result is a visual discord that makes the audience want to leave the theater, go home and write scathing reviews for the New York Times. This is what we want to avoid.

How can we bring the soundtrack into harmony with the visuals?

I just received a great "how I got into the business" story from Melinda Briana Epler, production designer. She turned down an offer to work for free on the Richard Linklater film "SubUrbia" but made such an impression on the production design team that they eventually offered to pay her, proving that you can break into the business and make a car payment at the same time.

Melinda writes:

I promised that we would get into low-cost HD camera gear next, but before we come down to Earth I thought we should keep our heads in the stars for one more post. Let's take a look at the camera set-ups that are employed when money is not an object and assistants are hired so phones can be thrown at them. Let's look at the camera set-ups of the rich and famous.

It's finally time to get your hands on a camera. Here's Bryan Singer with his. Since this is Free Film School we're not going to have access to the Panavision Genesis HD camera that Bryan prefers, but neither will we waste your time with the silent movie nonsense that USC starts you out with. We're going to look at an affordable HD workflow that will allow you to easily publish to the web. I mean, 86 million people watched Evolution of Dance. That's 47 million more than the number of people that went to see "Superman Returns".

You've probably heard me say there's no money in web video, but the web is the best way to get immediate feedback on your work. At this stage in your career you need as much audience exposure as possible. Using an HD workflow and distributing your results online will give you both useful skills and a chance to see how your work resonates with bored teenagers the world over.

We'll first look at how workflows evolved over time so that we can come up with the most optimal HD workflow.

Indie Slate ran a great article this month in which low-budget auteur Jeff Burr (Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3, Puppet Master 4) said,"I think film school can be very beneficial to a lot of people. It all depends on expectation and intent. If you are just going to mark time and then use the school's equipment and feel you know it all already, then don't waste your time and money; just make a movie." Jeff attended USC Film School but left partway through the program after making the short film "Divided We Fall". Jeff said about his student experience,"In making the movie, we broke a lot of rules ... and it was apparent that USC wouldn't back another Burr/Meyer epic, so I felt it was time to leave." Jeff went on to direct over 20 feature films. One could argue that leaving film school launched Jeff's career.



At the other end of the spectrum is the sorrow of Wendy Milette. Wendy's bio says she received her Bachelors degree from USC Film School's Critical Studies program (graduating top of her class) and her MFA from USC Film School's Production program. What Wendy's site doesn't tell you (which you can find out from this incredibly detailed blog) is that Wendy was one of the chosen ones at USC. She was the TA for the head of the editing department. She was selected to direct a 581 (i.e. USC funded her film). She was provided every opportunity that USC could afford. And after graduation she shot one short film and then never worked again.

What conclusion can be drawn from this tale of success and woe?

Now that you've heard more career advice than you'll ever need it's finally time to start developing the technical competency you'll need to make compelling content. There are dozens of departments that you could specialize in, but there is one concept that you must learn first no matter who you are or what you do. Since you're enrolled in Free Film School you should refer to this concept as "mise en scène" (you'll sound more like a film student if you use random french terms like this).

What this concept refers to (other than the literal translation of "put in the scene") is the unique affect that sets, lighting and camera placement have. Why should you care about mise en scène? Well, since you're not developing content for the theater you can move the audience perspective around (you have the option of using different shots, different locations, etc.). This makes film unique and compelling and as a result we need some way to describe this unique effect. Today we will review the mise en scène of "V for Vendetta".



This is V's lair. This is what happens when you have amazing camera and art departments. Notice that even though the focus has been pulled off V and the background is completely blurred you still get a sense of the full depth of the location. This is because the lighting design highlights object edges and at the same time allows for deep shadows. There's also a great three point set-up that really makes Natalie Portman stand out.

Let's look at some additional examples...

I don't know about you, but I really like "how I broke into the business" stories. Howie Wiseman just sent me a great one about Shelley Winters and the low-budget film City on Fire: