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Class Introduction

Lesson 1 from: From Photo to Film

Andrew Scrivani

Class Introduction

Lesson 1 from: From Photo to Film

Andrew Scrivani

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Lesson Info

1. Class Introduction

Meet your instructor and gain an overview of the class in the first lesson. See how the skills and instincts that photographers have can be adapted to video with the right education.

Lesson Info

Class Introduction

Hey, it's great to be back. It's been a little while since that stood in the studio and has been a whole lot of stuff going on in my life and in my career, and I, as usual, decide to turn around and share it with all of you. So, um, one of the big things that I've been doing recently is, as you know, maybe from prior classes I have been directing. But that was mostly in the commercial space. And in the subsequent two years since I've been here, I have moved into a production role as a producer at a film company. So not only am I still doing my photography, but I am also now moved into film in a very big way. And you'll find out, uh, shortly throughout the course over the next day and 1/2 what exactly that looks like for a photographer. And I'm hoping that my instinct, when I first started to develop this class, was on Lee when I was directing. In talking about how there were certain things that I found very intimidating about moving into the film world without a film education and a lo...

t of that had to do with the terminology so that the genesis of this class was that stepping into that role as a season production professional and feeling like a complete newbie was really unnerve ing for me and sitting in, um, bars Or, you know, with friends on set talking to other photographers who are also being asked to move into the video space or move into the film space. They had similar anxieties about it because there are a lot of things that we know as photographers. But they are called something different on a film set. And that, for me, was the motivation to share in this type of a setting with an audience and with students, um, my transition and struggle with that and then how learning that a lot of what we do translates very well. And if you're open to it and you open toe learning and you gotta and you're gonna learn to cram a lot of stuff into your head, um, we're gonna go over a lot of that the next few days. So let's ah, let's get started with, uh, with my first look here and one of the things about my photography and my move into the moving visuals was that I always really liked the idea of implied movement in my photography, So there was something very cinematic about that. So it was something that appealed to me, and it was something that I was very eager to learn more about is to how to put it in motion. But it was It was something now the transition that proved to take time. So I think the idea that we have these innate kind of sensibilities as photographers lead you to want to do something in motion, but then putting the skill set together. But it's also trusting your instincts. So I think a lot of what I learned along the way was that I had these good instincts that just needed some education to go with them. So this is a This is a shot of one of the biggest commercial that I've been on, and it was probably one of the biggest learning experiences because if you can tell, I am extraordinarily stressed out sitting behind that monitor because this shot wasn't working. And when you're on a big set and you'll see the call sheet for this commercial lead in the later slide. It was enormous amounts of pressure. Something wasn't going right and it was really, really hard and I was still relatively new. And now I have a crew of 60 people working on this particular shot. 60 people used to working either by myself over to other people. So this struggle is riel and you just have to push through it. So I bring this up only because I want you to know that it's not easy for me either. It's just not. It's something that you have to deal with, overcome, learn and adapt. And if you have the the drive to do it, you'll be OK and good people around you. And I think that's the other thing that we'll talk about consistently through. The process here is that you need to trust that there are other creatives in the room and we've done this in food photography, right? We've talked about food stylists and prop stylists and producers who are there to help you and support you on a bigger project. But this is on a completely different level of trust because now you are asking people to do things that you have absolutely no idea how to do, and you have to trust that they do them well and letting go a little bit is part of that learning process. So that was a big lesson for me. And it's definitely something that I would encourage you throughout the process over the next few days to do. Here's what we're gonna be going over over the course of the next few days, Um, translating the skills that we already have, which have mentioned is that trusting those instincts, understanding your frame, all the things we've learned about the technical aspects of photography, there are parallels, and Anna logs for us throughout. Terminology is the thing that was like I said was the genesis of this course understanding the language, and I'm still learning the language. The idea is that the more you're there, the more you do it, the more puts baked in. But it is something that's new, and it is can something that can feel like a barrier. But it shouldn't be, um, the the general concepts of filmmaking versus photography so, like there are broken up into different basic concepts, and some of them are the same and then we add these other pieces, and that changes the equation. And those are the things that we want to focus on learning while we take with us the things that we've already brought. Opportunities. This is a big part of what I really want to talk about in terms of as a photographer. As a photographer, you bring with you an entire group of skills that don't always just translate to one job on a film set. We're gonna go over all of the types of opportunities that could be there for you, depending on what your interests are, where your strengths are and the things that you feel you're driven towards. So there's the phases of video and film making, which were three very distinct phases, and we'll go over all of them. And we're gonna open that up to a lot of questioning because people will have questions. Um, we're gonna do a great demo about camera movement and understanding the what we how we move the camera, what it's called when we moved the camera and why we moved the camera. And those things are really imperative in understanding, sort of the metaphoric meanings behind filmmaking. and way we moved the camera and all of the different layers of storytelling, and we'll talk about that as well because we live as photographers in this visual world and it's a visual. It's a very static, quiet world. And what we learned through filmmaking is that we take that with us. But then we just keep layering and layering and layering and maybe some of the things you're aware of and maybe some of things you're not. So we're gonna take a lot of time talking about that production protocol. This is a very big difference between the photo world and the film world, because production protocol is standardized in film and when you understand that it becomes standardized and again that you get the language and you'll get it baked in. You understand why it's has to be that way. It has to be that way because it's so complex. And if it wasn't systematized, it would be chaos. So we're gonna talk a lot about production protocol. We're gonna go over some gear, the things you may be familiar with now, clearly, ah, lot of the equipment that we're using on a day to day basis has the ability to shoot video. Most of us who are transitioning out of photography and into film are using DSLR is that have video components built in, and those have gotten very, very good. And it's a really good tool to start with and honestly it There are people who are shooting features on those things, so we clearly have a range of equipment that we could use. And there are different price points, just like every other time I've taught about equipment and gear in this room. We've talked about the idea that the piece of equipment you have on you is the best one at that moment, and that is true for filmmaking as well. I have a friend and a colleague who you'll see his picture in my deck, uh, later, who just completed an entire feature film on an IPhone, and it looks incredible. So the piece of equipment you have is the one that you should use and actually learn the rest as you go. Um, coverage coverage is something that we've talked about in photography work as well, when we're shooting for a magazine or we're shooting a slideshow story or if you refer back to my class about narratives when I was here. A creative life. We talk about coverage in terms off, trying to tell a cinematic story with photographs. Coverage has a very different meaning. Well, I wouldn't say different a additional meanings in film, because what now you're thinking about in terms of not just making the pictures, but also what you're handing off to the editor and what kind of cinematic tools that editor needs to make the narrative as strong as possible. And that is just in terms of what you get on the screen, not in terms of all the other things that go in post production, which is our last part of this. So understanding. How you can prepare yourself in pre production for post production is very important because, as you'll see when we go through the sector different phases of video and film production, you'll see that the actual shooting part is maybe the smallest part. It's the planning, and it's the post production that goes where all the time is. So these are all the parts that were gonna be take we're gonna be talking about, and we're going to be getting kind of deep and taking deep dives on and obviously opening up to the floor and the Internet for questions.

Ratings and Reviews

Nev Steer
 

A very well explained class on starting in film production from the viewpoint of a person with a successful photography background. Thanks Andrew.

Nutmeg
 

Student Work

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