Lessons

Lesson Info

Introduction: Still Photos vs Video

Hi everybody hi guys here hi everyone on the internet um this is a very interesting time to say the least what a mess this camera has made of things right? I mean it's been just a little over a year since this thing came out it was the candid five d mark too and a year ago, a year and a half ago uh I was a twenty year uh veteran of photography I guess veterans the right word but uh I've been around for a little while a za photographer working for the new york times and other publications and I picked up this camera cannon took three friends with me and went out to shoot over two nights in new york city um and shot a short I call it a bad cologne commercial called reverie and I would never have imagined that, uh a year and a half later so maybe a little bit more than that I'd find myself here doing a live broadcast with two thousand people watching from all over the world talking about hdd essel art cinema you've got to remember these things weren't out. You know, a year and a half two ...

years ago um you have to use these clunky camcorders uh or have a fortune or go to film school to able to use a film camera and now you have these uh, people from all over the world uh photographers, filmmakers jumping in headfirst into this new realm of cinnamon that's a pretty fascinating time it's also pretty fascinating that we're doing this you know, we've got eight people here watching the live who hopefully won't fall asleep and a few thousand more people online and it was really exciting it's a little freaky tohave you know this thing going out live to all these people so welcome um and I think we're just going to go ahead and kick it off and get going um there's the first slide and um today we're going to start slow and I think one of the main points I want to make is that you see a lot of gadgets in gear behind that's cool I know you all want to see this it's going to come so every little gizmo you see back here almost every single thing that I could get my hands on that has been either invented or reinvented over the past two years we're going to talk about and show to you one at a time and people who have never shot video are going to be introduced the things they've never seen before and I think people who have quite a bit of experience are gonna discover new tools they've never seen before we're also going to go over the high end gear the middle level here and the low end gear so if you're just starting and you don't have you know, a few hundred a few thousand dollars to throw into this more likely a few thousand we're going to talk about ways to just get started. This is gear that allows you to make, quote unquote, professional looking video. But I think the main concept I want to get through right now is that the key to successful film making is not this. Ok, the key is successful. Filmmaking is content there's a very big differentiation between when a still photograph is and what the film is and we're gonna talk about that little biggs I know a lot of you are photographers who are now transitioning into this motion world and there's a lot of really important differences in terms the way you think in terms of way interact with people in terms of the way you put things together. But if there's one thing that's absolutely pivotal you could never lose sight of is that whether it's a music video to a lesser degree but a short film, a narrative film, a documentary it's all about the content if no matter how glitzy, no matter how steady your steadicam move is, no matter how beautiful your lighting is, if there's no content there if there's no concept, no story, no screenplay, I congar unti you very quickly. People will lose interest immediately and given the amount of time an effort and resource is going to put into this this is one of the most important concepts I really want to start off with. I know a lot of you out there want me to start playing with these things right away that's how I would and I've got to tell you, I spent my first year in this realm studying all this year I was involved with trying to develop it with a lot of manufacturers you've gotta remember this stuff didn't exist two years ago literally, so it was a nephew to try to make this happen. This is about not only telling a story, but getting in some sort of emotional response with your audience is about making a connection when you make a photograph, you're trying to do that as well. It's on a very different level um let's talk quickly about that the photograph versus the motion picture here's an image you see here and there it goes, I did that on purpose because that's, what happens with film there's? A very distinct difference between film and a photograph of a photograph exists it's a still image that doesn't move and is a very key difference between a still photograph and film when you think about, for example, some big events in history like nine eleven while you may remember the looping video of the plans crashed in the towers most people that I knew back then when I was a photographer, the new york times would react to the images and remember some very key images from that event and there's a reason for that it's not a question of whether the still image is more powerful than film, which it can be a times it's more of a question how you consume that on your red when you think about it, we live in a world where there's twitter, you know facebook, email, web tv, it's going at such a fast pace and this still photograph is one of the few times you stop and stare and think it's one of the very few things that we do is an audience where we actually pause for one moment in the day it could be five seconds in the morning on your paper. It could be two minutes staring at a photograph on an ipad that's a very pivotal and key difference between the way you as a photographer trying to reach your audience with that one decisive moment versus creating a film. So obviously with the photograph, the image obviously doesn't movements very basic, but don't forget that because you've got to capture a perfect image think about it when I would go out into the field. I would say to myself, I've got to get that one image today that's going to show up on the front page of the new york times that tells the entire story of the day in one image that has multiple layers of information or perhaps just one but whatever that one image is, it doesn't matter what the entire twenty four hour experience that I have is it's all about that one pinnacle moment that is not only hopefully aesthetically pleasing that's beautiful oh or visually, you know, engaging it's about the content and the story behind it as a photographer some of you may have heard the term the decisive moment only got to play so coin this he's the father of photojournalism and the idea for him was that in any activity there's a pinnacle there's an apex where everything comes together in an absolutely magical way as photographers we obsess about capturing that moment and never we never forget that it will never, ever happen again that's the magic and the challenge of, say, photojournalist and to be true whether you're a filmmaker or a photographer there's always gonna be the decisive moment and you have to be ready to capture that moment has no saturation in terms of the audience that's what you can't forget as well as a photographer, you tend to get a vory a bit obsessive about how your final product is how every single shot is remember that as a film these shots fly fruit in front of the audience they move from one to the next to the next the next so while you definitely want to make concentrate on making those perfect shots by shots by shots don't forget how long it may last on that screen and how perhaps what's much more important is supposed to having thirty or forty shot strung together perfectly each it's how they relate to one another and how they move the audience and a very key important point I believe that a still image can live on beauty alone in other words a photograph need not say much to be effective you take a beautiful photograph of a sunset there's not missile anything groundbreaking aboutthe sun rising or setting everyday it happens every day and hopefully you can see if there isn't cloud cover but people for some reason will stare at that photograph put it on their wall because it has some sort of connection with um everyone of your audience members have it has a different connection with that photographs they could make their own opinion on about it there's no distractions no music it's not starting in beginning and ending somewhere it's just there to be seen and watched very different than film we go into the motion picture it's it's a body it's a hole it starts somewhere and goes in a very fixed speed to assert end and people how many people pause your films, how often granted, we have tivo now we have the pause button on blue ray players on our max or whatever it is, but that's, not the way films conceit consumed people don't you know, unless you're like film students are real big critics pause your scene and rewind it and deconstruct it, they just passively sit back and watch it. So in general, when you go watch a film or tv, it tend to slouch back in your couch and consume it. Basically, you're letting go, you're a lot less intellectually engage, perhaps than when you're looking at a photograph and you're being you're basically hoping to be taken on some sort of experience, some sort of emotional or cognitive experience from start to finish. In other words, the filmmaker is in many ways doing all the thinking for you and trying to take you on a certain path it's really, really key as you guys that either already filmmakers becoming filmmakers are transitioning into film never forget this fact that you are performing fruit, your camera and the people in front of it and the subject matter to an audience that is going to be passively consuming this and, of course, one of the major concepts of film is it's made up of a lot of different parts and the hole is always much greater than the individual parts never forget when you watch the academy awards and they show you a scene without the music track on it. It really just goes ah, really quick when they add sound effects when you see a fantastic actor you know, inglorious bastards was a film for me recently that just showed how incredible writing and acting khun really steal the show, and to me this is a really important point as your transition from still to photography you have to have that content you have to have that connection, and while making a beautiful photograph, it could make you a very successful photograph. Making a beautiful film alone doesn't quite cut the mustard. In fact, you'll find, ironically, that you'll lose your audience much more quickly with a very beautiful film with no content than a film with a tremendous story or script that is horrible technically and that's a very, very, very important point. It's simple, but content in film is absolutely key, and just to be clear over the next three days when I say film that could be a music video, it could be a documentary, it could be a webcast it's all about the moving image, and I'm just using film as kind of an overall overarching term and the visual and this is something I was very hard for me as a filmmaker or becoming a filmmaker and a zoo I mentioned earlier I was a photographer for twenty years is that as a photographer, the image was absolutely sacrosanct. I work with fantastic reporters with fantastic art directors who would put everything together on the web or on the news, but my only goal is a photographer was making that still image sing and connect with people as a filmmaker. The visual is very much a part of the whole and the big differences to me as a photographer, if you make a fantastic still image, it can stand on its own, and visuals are king. Obviously in film visuals are not king, they're really part of the puzzle, and more importantly, they're somehow less important than the content and that's hard for any and you still photographer going into film to realize that their art, their visual art khun, come very secondary to the written word in this case the screenplay or the concept or the music. Remember how many movies you've seen out there that made you remember because of the music is the soundtrack, or because of the dialogue or the line's very different level of interacting with people, so that's it in terms of theory. Um I think I needed to hit on that because if you just start diving into this the point he's their tools that help you make a better film hopefully we'll talk about how having too much gear like this can actually really slow you down and in effect make you a terrible film maker because you focus on technique we've all seen the hollywood blockbusters these days that had every single special effect unbelievable crane moves unbelievable uh three three d or c g I we walk out of there entertained but sometimes we leave there with absolutely no connection emotionally or intellectually and people say how was it and you kind of go uh it was it was entertaining maybe okay, I want to talk a little bit about, um what photographers might be experiencing as they go into filmmaking and I think this is they're very basic concepts that you probably already know. But until you make this transition um you're not gonna believe think about as a photographer for twenty years it was about me picking up the camera and going out there and finding a photograph other than checking with the reporter that was working with or the editor aboutthe story um it was all about my finding a visual way to tell a story and I guess more importantly the key is you don't have to work the reporter or anyone as a photographer you can't really go out there and do your own thing, and you could be extremely successful by yourself as a still photographer with no support from anyone and think about that that attracts a certain type of person, right, kind of a solo personality into rugged individualist there's a reason photographers have never unionized or have no rules or have no set rates it's because they don't talkto another? Of course we do, but it attracts a certain kind of a renegade personality that doesn't really want to fit in society doesn't really want to talk to people, they say, you know what? Don't talk to me, I want to be a fly on the wall, I don't want to interact with you, and I'm very happy in my element. You know, some people even like people, they go out and they shoot sunrises, landscapes, you know, I go in helicopters sometimes when I want to be away from people because I don't talk to anyone. I just interacted what's down there, I've absolutely no interaction. The wave affecting what's happening fifteen hundred two thousand feet below it's, a different type personality whereas a filmmaker or a director, a dp, anyone that an actor it's about finding people and working with them, it's about getting along with them and most importantly, it's about understanding that to a certain degree and I don't want to get too complex too quickly you can make your own films all by yourself you could make a fantastic film of raindrops in cityscapes and have a mute actor doesn't say anything and falling around if you even have actors get away with that, of course, but for the most part is you get into filmmaking or documentaries it's about collaborating with others we're going to have someone who's helping you with a second camera or your camera someone who's helping you with lighting perhaps or with audio you no longer just go out pick up your camera and go and I usedto have while I was still a photographer only filmmakers coming to meet a man I really wish I had your job and I would go I wish I had your job you guys got all the cool toys you got all these cool lights you got these big budgets, I'm just here with my little camera you know my little thirty five millimeter lands and still camera and I've got nothing else. I've got no assistance no p a is nothing no cool special effects I want to be you in there like we want to be and I'm like why why would you want to do that? They would always say because you just get to pick up your camera and go make your shop you know, to talk to anyone, you know, to clear it with anyone, you don't ask for permission, you're not to discuss it, just go ahead and do it, and they were yearning for that liberty. While I was yearning for the collaboration, I was surrounded by films, I was a kid, my first memory, my father was a set photographer, we work for premiere magazine. My very first memory in life is of two mercedes, you know, driving to stunt cars crashing into each other as machine gun fire was shooting them up, you know, with with fake bullets, that's, my very first congressman, memory as a child. So I was on on sets, you know, with bertolucci, with my father taking pictures of the set, and I was surrounded by that it's been a very important part of who I am, so I've always known that at some point in my career, I want transition into film reverie happened as a fluke. I saw the camera, I saw the quality, what was coming out of it, and I said, I got to get my hands on that five d mark to prototype, it wasn't meant to come to me, and we'll get to that in a second, but this key up here, I think you guys all need a pause on because some of you that are watching are gonna watch this workshop your successful talk photographers you're beginning photographers and at the end of this workshop you may go you know what filmmaking simply isn't for me it's not what drives me I like that feeling of getting up at four o'clock in the morning or starting at midnight and going out there by myself with absolute quiet and fighting my image no one's breathing down my neck saying you know when's the next shot you know the actor is not ready uh the lighting's terrible I know we're not transitioning fast enough you're on your own with a small bag if you even have a bag as a filmmaker it's quite a bit different and I tell people in my workshops that I do if one or two of you leave this workshop for one hundred two hundred on the web saying I don't want to ever do film it's just not for me I think that's okay I think that I've done you hopefully I think a service by showing you what's involved and scaring you off not for the purpose of scaring you off to help you realize that this may just not be for you because there's a certain kind of personality tracking the photography in a certain kind of personality tracked the film and there's a lot of overlap it doesn't necessarily mesh at all also is a photographer the beauty of it for me is that you go out there without any plan sometimes sometimes you're working on story sometimes you're working on s a or a book or a theme that you're looking to illustrate that span of a more advanced level for photographers but you can literally the beauty of it is pick your camera up and have absolutely no clue what you're going to shoot that day that's what drew me to photojournalism in street photographer and I was fifteen and I start you know, shooting as as a still photographer um I would just go on the street new york of new york and take one camera one lens the only thing I owned at a fifty millimeter lens and a few rolls a tri x black and white don't walk around and find pictures and there's something really kind of cool about that it's kind of like meditating if you get into that zone you could go walking for eight ten twelve hour days and granted your legs are going to kill you at the end of the day you're back may kill you if your cameras have you have lots lots of gear on you but you can walk out of there absolutely refreshed ok we're as a filmmaker in general is severely much more proactive it's a lot more of pre production a lot more of thinking in advance what what you're going to do it's a different kind of mental ex besides, you know, you could go out there and shoot nature shows that's one thing, but even then you've got to figure out how to get the gear over there, what gear to get over there, visa's, customs, all that fun stuff that, uh, I gotta be honest, I hate that stuff I really respect logistics, and I was actually one of parts I was really good at as a photojournalist and trying to kind of, um, for example, and I covered katrina, I would help photographers coming in and make sure they had their sat phones ready their water, a roll of quarters because cellphones and work and you couldn't call collect from new orleans, you know, logistics are always very important, but you know what, I've never more excited than when there's something beautiful happening in front of the camera and we're lucky enough to capture it that's what really drives me so as a filmmaker, it's kind of a different thing mentally don't don't uh, we see that, and I think already talked about this, the idea of picking up a camera and running out it's something you do every day is a photographer. As a filmmaker, you may need that tripod that fluid head you may need some sort of device to hand hold it, you may need to loop it's a different process the beauty of it is that these new cameras for the first time allow you to pick up a still camera in effect and shoot full hd video with out of the box we'll talk about all all next three days about how to make it more professional, the ergonomics etcetera, but at least you could do that, but you'll find it's not as easy as turning on a camcorder you know we'll get to that little bit later, let's talk about key building blocks where you talk about the story in the concept all right, I'm not the reason I'm repeating this over and over again is that, you know, we have to before you get started really think about what the final product is in a film, all right? You've got to realize it's gonna be a whole it's gonna come together and in many ways you're kind of like a chef going up shop in the morning for your ingredients unless you know what you're going to cook that night it's kind of scary to go to the market and randomly pick, um, ingredients and don't forget that as photographers it's kind of what we do, you might just go and shoot a beautiful sunrise in the morning than a photo journalism piece of someone walking through a slit of light in the street that we might take a portrait we might plug tilt shift lands and go on the roof of building and make it cool tilt, shift, photograph that have absolutely no relationship from one to the next as a filmmaker, uh, it really tends to help you to know what you're going to make that night at the end of project motion. Uh, is a big one. The definition of photography is the recording of light. Okay, in other words, a camera, uh, records light onto a still image. Some of you may not know that the first thirty five millimeters still cameras made by, like, in order to process just a small part of thirty five millimeter motion picture film. In other words, back in the day when they were shooting full motion pictures, they didn't wanna have to process entire spool of film to see their exposure. They would cut a little bit of it, put it in a like a shoot a picture processes that small piece of film and that's how thirty five millimeter was eventually eventually born okay, way after the dig era type and all that fun stuff. Um, the definition of cinematography is the recording of motion again, it's a very obvious thing that there's motion in film, but you can't forget the fact that it's not just the fact that things are moving in front of your camera it's also today, how you move the camera itself as one of the absolute biggest key points in modern film making all of this I call this junk behind me that gives the mounts the cranes, the fluid heads, all our tools that help you move the camera and a certain professional looking way. Okay, they're tools allow you get from point a to point b in a very smooth fashion. Your goal as a filmmaker is to understand that it's not just about moving the camera randomly, but you move the camera for a purpose you're telling the story with that movement, you're trying to engage your audience and get a certain type of emotion from them by the way you move or don't move that camera, and that is an entire study of things you know, people will talk about, you know, the fact that if you pan from left to right, a western audience is going to feel much more comfortable. Then if you pan from right to left, think about how simple that isthe go left to, right, just look at your screen and it feels right go rightto left it feel slightly uncomfortable because we've been taught to read from left to right, and for some of you out there, that may be just a totally new concept you never thought about. I can admit to private reading books about it I would never have thought as a photographer although I pan left to right right to left was kind of like a a or b option, but if you want to create some sort of stress in your piece, go right toe left same way if you go from top two bottom on your frame from top left to bottom right? Right it's called screen direction by the way your audience is going to feel like in other words, someone walk from the stairs on your on your short the top, the left stairs down to the right like it's inevitable journey it feels comfortable whatever's coming is coming really naturally, whereas if you tilt and pan from bottom left upper right, it feels forced it feels like a difficult journey, okay and that's just the way you move the camera on a stationary pivot point there is a tremendous amount of theory behind us and I find absolutely fascinating we're going to touch on some of that in the next few days but only some of it you know you could buy a good good book on screen writing um out there and I'll try to rember toe point you towards one that I find that's pretty awesome sound I've done quite a few workshops and I get the team and go to shoot and we're shooting our very first shot and we roll and someone yells action and they start the scene and I'll stop and say you forget something and they look at me days and ago anyone recording sound as photographers uh and it's less self filmmakers uh you have to respect the fact that fifty percent of the information going to your on fifty percent half of the information is going for their ears when you go to a film or you watch on tv you consume me with your eyes and your ears you don't smell it, you can't feel it um not yet you have seats now being made that will move you as you watch your blockbuster film at home have seen those you have olfactory things coming smells that will be there at some point and different temperatures on a technology being developed for that you're gonna have holographic images some days we have three d going on now, which is a big craze, but don't forget that sound is so important and if you really want to break down what differentiates a motion picture blockbuster film from an indy the number one factor people will tell you is the quality of the audio it's how good the audio is on the actors, the fully people making sounds and the sound track so don't forget sound it's absolutely we'll go over some some tools and then editing there's one thing that I think any photographer knows you either have it in the can or you don't, and perhaps the can is a wrong term here that we're talking about film, but you either have the picture or you don't, and one of the hardest lessons that I would learn is a photographer with some veteran photo journalists and other photographers is they would say, yes, I have an editor, uh, at a company called all sport who was named darryl lingam, who would look at your photographs and ugo it's? Just not there, mate it's, just not there. I'm so sorry, but it's just not there, and what he meant was the photograph is almost there it's so close to being right, but you didn't get it. And the most frustrating thing about being a photographer is you can't fix that. Sure, you can crop it in a certain way you khun great it or color corrected in a certain way, but ultimately, if the image was miss or not there it's it's so unforgiving but there's absolutely nothing you can do to get it back and that's. What makes the job of being a photographer, sometimes quite stressful is now you have one chance to get it it's also what makes it incredibly exhilarating. When you get the game winning touchdown at the super bowl from the perfect angle at the perfect moment that's what makes photography absolutely exhilarating you sell them get that in film and the key point is, even if it's not there in film, a good editor can very often fix it or you can go reshoot it different concept entirely editing is absolutely one of the single most important things in film uh, when I first saw the first cut of reverie on the second time I watched it, I found it boring the way it was initially edited because it was edited to the original storyboards that we had I won't even call him storyboards such a rushed fashion, but when you as a filmmaker look at your little short and you're bored with it on the second try, you know you're in severe, severe trouble and I told the editor, andrei costantini, is this the way you added it? You would get it if you had been asked to do on your own and very politically said, you know, very adeptly said no, not necessarily the way I would approach it. I'd seen a little uh siri's of shots that he cut together and I saw it was really cool it was very non linear and I said, we've got seven hours I'll let you do your read it because I don't know what I see here I don't want to show to anyone and I'll give you free rein to do however you want as long as you promise me you'd make the deadline face he went for it so when we'll show you reverie and little bit we look at it look at how absolutely non linear it isthe it's not his traditional story line it's not the most fascinating story line at all but the way it's edited makes that peace come tto life that's a very key important concept I'm killing this point on story I'm sure people going to say but um the success of the film and my opinion will depend not only of the quality of story or the message of trying to communicate with us documentary or even a music video I really can't step away from those because because really just be people drumming on a guitar and just visually interesting and people focus on the music but it's not only on the quality of story but also how you tell it that's the other part of filmmaking in directing you can have the most amazing story and if you don't know how to tell it, guess what doesn't quite matter so don't forget that last part of it um you've got to know how to use lenses how to use lighting how to cut pieces together to make it fascinating motion discussed is quite key and um realize that when the five d mark two came out remember the amount of like locked off or stationary shots that were out there with like boca or you know, out of focus lights in the background I want to pick one out there's a chance the first might be listening or not, but there was one I don't want to go too far in the detail that I remember watching and you know, I could feel the drool coming out of my mouth as I watched it okay, there was just, you know, what's the discovery channel site that has all the sunrise and sunset for thirty minutes you know, I'm talking about sunrise earth you know, uh I could watch that for about thirty seconds till my eyes glaze over okay, I still respect what they do, but when photographers get into film, they really get married to this idea of just having the camera locked off and not moving and the reality is not only is it week storytelling in terms of filmmaking, but more to the point you've got to remember that our audience today I mean, I don't have people have dropped off already uh just by their nature uh just has no attention span whatsoever you've got to keep people interested you gotta, you know, keep the camera moving at all times to keep things happening remember the mtv days with cameron move randomly around and shake for absolutely no reason just to make sure the young people want there's a reason for that? You know, uh I think we all have a bit of lizard brains these days where we just you know, I read something for thirty seconds jump on the next twitter jump onto this turn the tv on that thing and it's because we need these impulses you know, it's a whole different discussion that I think it's a very destructive thing uh, overall, but it is what it is, so when you make a film remember you've got to keep the camera moving not just to tell a better story which you can but look at films these days and see how seldom you see locked off a series of locked off shots one stationary shot, another stationery shop, another stationary shot another station here doesn't really happen you almost always have the camera moving or at the very least subject moving from one shot to the next. You know, I think I just said that a light I think the single biggest challenge for what I would call an experience photographer going into film is learning lighting uh four motion pictures it is a very different beast it's the exact same principles to a certain extent but the tools and language could not be more different you know, a lot of filmmakers don't know what a grid is one of most basic lighting tools that we have they do have soft boxes you know they call him these cameras uh they do have hardened soft light, but for the most part it is entirely different vocabulary on an epic scale so as you transition over into film, you're going to find that lighting is going to be your biggest challenges because you know how to light as a photographer you don't say no howto light as a videographer filmmaker and uh don't forget that when you light for a still image you're lighting for this one shot that's you picked the perfect angle where the light lines of just right on the eye and the shadows perfectly placed where is in film as your camera moving your subject moves, things are constantly changing and that's a really, really, really key point um the light itself could move you know either because of civic is moving in between different spots of light or a spotlight is following them or not things you can't do in still photography it's pretty fascinating sound uh we talked about sound effects, dialogue, music and how they're all part of this big filmmaking experience uh for those of you that start off, I think very few of you are gonna have a good screenplay to go off most of your gonna be learning how to move the camera, how to cut things together and you'll find how the most boring sequenced sequence of images or in this case, shots khun absolutely be saved by a great soundtrack. All right, because it takes you to an entirely new level, and, uh, we're giving you this, but people are taking notes in the audience, which is cool, but we're giving you the presentation, so I'm not that you want to watch the whole twelve or twenty hours but feel free to take notes but just know that it is gonna be available. Um, but sound is going to be a very interesting part. Uh, I really recommend we're gonna get to the audio part. I think in part three today that you take the time tow, walk around your home, your neighborhood with a set of headphones and a microphone and realized absolutely fascinating is to experience life with just your ears. You know, obviously blind people have to do that because they have no choice, but they have an entirely different appreciation of this world, obviously because we don't have a visual interpretation of it, but they have a very incredible, keen sense of hearing, and I get remember, people spend their entire lives as audio technicians and fully artist people in little rooms making sounds for movies and they really obsessed about finding absolutely fast anything to do so I really recommend you do that some point uh dialogue askey you know, I think going back to collaboration is going to find people you want to work with that I have great ideas, great scripts one of the key mistakes I made going into films I thought I had to come up with all of my own ideas and right? And if you look at almost any great film out there the majority of them not all a lot of our written screenplays at least are written screenplays and often an adaptation of a book or an idea. So, um, you know, what's a recent movie um I mean, almost any movie these days is based on a certain novel or book, so you don't always have to come up with the entire concept. You do have to come up with a dialogue uh but the overarching idea come from someone else that's kind of the beauty of it editing this goes to add yesterday who I think it a great analogy that I have already use a little bit of which is it's the reason there's a fire there it's like cooking, you know, editing is the final process of putting all the ingredients together and I think a key factor that that he made sure that was great which is what I've always said about a good photographer does not necessarily equate to being a good editor of your own work as a still photographer. The same goes for editing just because I think he said, if if you, uh, if you breed cows or certain livestock and you're the best reader in the world and you make the best quality meat, are you going to hire that person to cook your meal? You think about it just because you're a fantastic farmer doesn't mean you know how to cook that's a very important analogy, I think to filmmaking just because you're a fantastic story teller and you know how to use your fantastic ingredients, this fantastic shot here, this fantastic scene or set of dialogue or audio doesn't mean you know how to put together, so I have a tremendous respect for editors. In fact, I think it's important for everyone that wants to be a filmmaker of any type to learn how to edit to do it themselves. But if you can't at the very least sit in with your editor and have him explain to you every mistake you're making and how you're making their lives difficult there's a concept called coverage and filmmaking where you know you're shooting a scene of this gentleman talking of that gentleman, so I want shot a and shot b, but then you've got it give us a little more to cut to a wide shot, a detail of his hands on his knees, and he tells him, nodding to give the editor the right ingredients to put it together. So if you're shooting a farmer out in the field, you're going to shoot on opening shot of this gorgeous farm at sunrise. Then you're going to shoot a picture of the farmer waking up, walking out a detail of this of his hand on the handle as he opens the door, a detail of a handle opening open of the sorry, the door opening with a silhouette of a farmer walking out the environment, the key turning on the tractor, him putting his foot and walking up and sitting down the tractor. It's a serious of shots and help you tell a story and take the audience from a to b it's a very different way of thinking, but you've got to give those ingredients to your editor, and one of the biggest things in almost any field these days is garbage in garbage out. If you don't give those ingredients to your editor, they have to be absolute genius is to make you look good and that's, why you'll pay so matters a lot of money to help fix your screw ups, I don't have that shot, oh my god! How could I have forgotten that shot a lot of times you don't forget a lot of times you run out of money a lot of times you don't have time the lights break down towards the end your camera breaks down and the pivotal shot in your film never were shot that's when the almighty editor will swoop in and say, well, if you put this in this way and that here in this here and that you're not here and switch the entire order around not only can you get away with that and look like a genius you can also make it much more interesting thank you, wayne maybe about ten minutes acumen and then come back to the equipment perfect. Yes, yes, I have a question out of the chat room um who inspires you today and who in your opinion is doing it right? Uh um, you know, this is a tough question I've always had. People have always asked me who is your favorite photographer who's your favorite filmmaker? I never had just one um and I'm gonna reminisce I'm gonna kind of escape that one right now I have something other things on my mind by just saying that I've always looked to as many photographers you know, when I was a younger guy I would look at as many magazines as many newspapers in fashion in photojournalism in fine art and all these different fields like food photography I'll never do food photography can stay that right now and say between now and the end of my career I will never like you ever shoot a photograph of a cheeseburger you know for burger king it's not my thing okay, I see how things are done it's pretty scared um and but I look at them I study them I obsess over them and try to really think about how those people did it uh same goes for filmmaking I look a documentaries I look att internet movies I look att what people are entering into contest uh I look at classical movies you know, for those of you that have never seen an orson welles film a hitchcock film a stanley kubrick film I mean, who inspires me today uh I got to say one of moves I saw recently to them um I mean, one was tarantino's uh, inglorious bastards because of the acting and the content um I thought that, um I mean, frankly, I tend to go back towards more of the classical films any orson welles if you haven't seen citizen kane go out right now and get it um if you haven't seen hitchcock by a home means please educate yourself uh stanley kubrick full metal jacket blade runner uh, brazil, by terry gilliam is one of my absolute favorite films. Uh, I also the fondness for the more hollywood movies like e t, um, close encounters of the third kind of somewhere in between e t and like, uh, uh, two thousand ten, um and two thousand ten thousand won doing with its two thousand one right where they were in two thousand ten. I kind of got that that's not gonna happen. Um, any film that really just makes you have some sort of visceral or intellectual reaction, you know, brazil by terry gilliam, was an example of the film that you're gonna have to watch three or four times before you get it. But the concepts behind it are so applicable today and was made thirty or forty years ago. Um, and I find that fascinating. Um, I know I'm forgetting a lot of films that I really love. Um, you know, I love the music in the untouchables. I love that scene, the stroller growing on the stairs. I just think that scene is an absolute masterpiece of building tension, so I guess it didn't skate. I didn't skirt it too much, but the point is, try to consume as much as you can. And try to analyze it. I think the biggest mistake you could make were in regards to film it's just sit back and watch it and consuming you should do that in the first layer and see how it reacts with you. But if you want to study film you gotta have a pause button. You got to go back and watch that same scene three or four times and pay attention the screenwriting on the first pass then how the camera moves on the next how it's cut on the next how it's lit there's a fantastic amount of things to look at. Yes, if everything is about the story do you find still photographers are capable of doing that? Or do you find that developing a great story is dependent on collaboration with the producer and the writer? And you talk to that a bit, but maybe a little bit more again, I think you'll find photographers and film makers were absolutely incapable of telling a story um and some that make quite a lot of money doing it uh and you'll find the opposite. Um some people are born able to do it all by themselves. It exists. I think spielberg is a good example of someone who has incredible control over everything from start to finish. He has an incredible ability to communicate exactly what he wants to every member of his crew a lot of us including myself need to collaborate with people uh and welcome it uh the big thing you gotta understand is if you're the director you know who doesn't want to be a director? I mean come on until you do it and you realize the amount of responsibility that that you hold, you have to have an idea of exactly what you're looking for the end goal of subtext your story but you also have to try and draw out the best in your crew members and have them add layer upon layer upon layer and it's what I love about filmmaking is you may have an okay visual you've got an unbelievable actor with an unbelievable screenplay and it just sings at a little music or sound to that and your gold yes, yeah, we're talking about the solo project being in control you're basically being the director as a photographer and then coming into this collaborative environment where and how can you talk a little bit about where you started with backing off with relinquishing that control maybe give some thoughts of like from the photographer's perspective, I'm just getting into this, you know I find it hard to relinquish that control the creative control and and as as as you got tow er get more involved with these films um, you know, you had to rely on people and that sort of it's sort of scary for if tyre for um it's it's scary for everyone it's a massive kick in the head coming from photography going in the film and the hardest thing for me was actually not being behind the camera having a camera operator who was actually shooting when I shot the jamie o'brien uh uh documentary I guess you'd call it, um for the underwater stuff that was someone else shooting I wasn't even in the water it's too dangerous um and all I could do is a director was say I'd like this child like the shot of the hand going for the water from the other other side I'd like a shot, you know, going from underneath the water the top to kind of show the depth and communicate the shots that I was looking to get with another artist another technician and that's really hard is a still photographer different in a good shot is not from here to their it's. From here to this a millimeter an inch could make the difference a millisecond between a great photograph and the worst photograph in the world and it's really hard to let go of control so then I started collaborating with people and I made the next mistake wishes to say you go into a meeting and you goto work with someone else's say, what do you think? Because to me it was fast any work with other people? I welcome that I love the cloud your process meant for twenty years I've been working about myself granite with art directors and editors are for the most part, it's a very solo individuals like way of doing it. You know, the buck stops with you as a director, the buck to us also stopped with you. There has to be one person who knows what they're single vision is otherwise you get to be disaster. I've worked with other directors and, um nocturne for example it was difficult. Uh I love the directors we all got along really well, but it was a good lesson. Um, that you have to have one person who knows what's going on at all times. We all have different skills, but we were trying to share a bit too much over. You know where the entire piece of certain certainly went and you have to have one person who has everything makes sense in their mind. All these little pieces, they're disjointed somehow makes sense. So the mistake I made initially was I would say to people, what do you think? What do you think? What do you think and start considering and everything and the danger with that is that when you elicit comments um you might get some very good ideas that are absolute excellent on their own, but that won't fit it all into the puzzler trying to put together. So as a director, you have to have a very clear vision of where you want to go. You have to able to communicate clearly and concisely and effectively to the crew members on different parts of of the entire process. What that vision is where trying to head and said a very clear guidelines of what this piece is, what type of film is this? What's the mood what's the look what the genre. What are we trying to say? What are the key themes? Uh, what are you gonna be wearing? What type of light environment are gonna be? Very you know, is they're very dynamic, you know, wizard of oz color palette, or is it a very subdued, uh, color palette with very, very, you know, film noir, light, you've got to communicate that with your with your your team and then elicit feedback that makes sense? You can't just say, I don't know what I'm doing, I'm gonna figure it out on the go that is the biggest mistake you could make a record show up on set the day of the shoot and not really know what your shots are going to be. Not really know where you're trying to go with it and trying to figure out the day off you will have an epic disaster I guarantee you're really this is where we're going the proactive this is reactive I spend a heck of a lot more time pre producing or doing so much of your work prior to ever showing up on set the more work you do beforehand the more smooth your chute will go raises a photographer I found as a photo journalist especially you want to know what the story of the day wass you want to know what you want? Try and get but you have to be reactive because it's breaking news no one really know you wouldn't be here if you knew it was gonna happen. It's part of the excitement so you have to know general what's going on in politics and whatnot but you have to react on the fly to a major change. A very different film making yes. Can you talk about one of the things you talked about his light khun b in constant motion giving a couple examples of how you might use light in motion toe add to a scene so think about someone riding in a train for example at night or riding in a car and the light is just washing them on and off ah think about someone walking in an empty warehouse in and out of puddles of lights, you've got shafts of light coming down and the person's going from being lit to being completely black and silhouetted perhaps to being lit and think about how that can create a certain kind of mystery and a certain kind of feel so when you feel are you here is a good example of hearing some footsteps coming at you and all you're seeing is a silhouette or even total darkness it makes the audience fear something that's coming to them, whereas if you show someone walking up towards you it's completely lit, you give it away, you know, it's your magician as a filmmaker so many times you want to start from the back of their head or you want to show a point of view shot where someone is looking out it's actually the person's point of view shot by the camera and that creates more doubt and fear and people because they don't know what's looking at think about the movie jaws you didn't see their chart for a very long time. The better example, I think is aliens where you almost never ever saw that little thing you know little guy with a big teeth until later on and wasn't it much more scary to never see what was chasing them? Just hearing them and seeing people get got gobbled up, disappear that's filmmaking the biggest mistake would have been to reveal that that you know, ugly looking thing is actually that that examples of fantastic uh you know, make up job and all that but you know how many terrible horror films have you seen where you see the guys with the horrible makeup on too early and just kills all emotion almost becomes comical at that point with a question on the back from the chat room? This is kind of going back to what you talked about earlier but you say that photography is more individual and filmmaking that is more collaborative, but what about documentary filmmaking? Is that a good option for some somewhere someone who is in between and would you say that documentaries take justice must or would you say that takes just is this collaboration documentary that ultimately depends on the size of your crew but absolutely documentary is one of those those places where you could just be by yourself with your camera and the subject and, uh, being a photo journalist, you know, in training you're from by background info journalist in say the size of the crew is going to kill your documentary you've got, you know, five people in the room with two different cameras a sound operator, producer and a director ah, that kind of kills the natural moment obviously, so absolutely documentary is somewhere in between but that being said alice was like horrible thing to say reality tv is a form of documentary you know to the most obscene you know edge of it but they are trying to supposedly capture what happens at all times multiple cameras obviously take it to a whole different level where I'm sure obviously they make things happen and the orchestrate stuff but in terms of documentary this somewhere in between but you'll find that um there's many different ways of doing documentaries ah lot of them involve a lot more people they're going to see if the end you know um during the shoot the goal in my opinion of a good documentary is to make it look like it's just the camera and the subject in the room and never allowing one to realize that there's more happening there um and uh that's that's kind of one of the big goals yeah um monsour and dubai would like to know is there a particular challenge to being married and having a family and having the career path that doesn't yeah I mean that's how many divorced filmmakers and photographers do you know our people who've never had families um that is uh one of the biggest juggling acts of my life given the amount of travel that I do one of the big reasons that I'm doing this workshop I had an idea of doing something like this three or four years ago when I was out with someone we're talking it at maybe um and we said you know we love teaching we love interacting with people but there's gotta be a better way than leaving our families you know used to speak for forty five minutes somewhere in the u s takes me three days to fly out there get there that day and fly back and you might speak to a hundred people that day or mr lamb's ten or fifteen or workshop you know less than twelve it's not the most effective way of doing things that's why today is a very big experiment you know you've got you know, over a few hundred people watching over the internet live and of course they can you know, get the download later on and watch it at their leisure but I think it's a much more effective way of communicating with people albeit the ridiculous amount of gear we have here an effort? Yes. Yes another question from the chat room what do you think holds beginners back the most and how do you get past that uh what holds beginners back the most is understanding er two things how the shots will come together in the end so the edit and storyboarding process and understanding it's a whole package it's not just one shot with the next shot the next shot it's how the first shot transitions to the second shot making it not abroad to making it flow from one to the next and uh the second um probably the most important barrier is more much more jittery than the photography I would say the gear so, um handheld shaky video doesn't really cut the mustard and get away with it for a certain point in film handhelds a technique it's a choice toe add drama and when a bomb explodes and a movie scene, you're going to want to have the moment after that which shaky video because it helps add to the tension and the uncertainty and the chaos if you shoot your entire film with shaky video you know, like the mom and pop, you know, recital videos people can't stand watching or the constant zooming in around and that's where dolly is a steady cams just on a most simple level of fluid head a tripod to stabilize your video comes into play uh let's talk about equipment real quick if you could put that up on the street and, um, you know, one of the jokes that you know some people made about me initially with this new agents are crazy is that I had so much here, you know, uh and if anything that would be the number one criticism I would make of myself as a filmmaker during my first year is that I really got focused on this stuff and it was important for me because I was learning a new trade I was learning also how to make these cameras work in the same way is what I was seeing on tv and on movies it was important to me I can't stand handheld video okay? And in fact these cameras are probably the worst at doing handheld stuff they really sing on a steady cam origin or dolly like nothing else we'll get to that but equipment is keep I think a lot of you see this we're contraption on the screen I I um that is scary and I'm convinced the keyboard on the back of that gentleman's bag is there to allow the directors say be quiet I don't care about your opinion just pan left pan right and do what I say um but yeah, we have someone in the chat room who would like to know if that is a ghostbuster you know what it is more of a chance that he is a ghost buster than a filmmaker. Uh, the reality is you can knock this I do think it's a bit extreme, to say the least uh, but technical stuff has become a big part of filmmaking, all right? Because people were constantly trying to push the envelope personally, I would love to see in the next ten years a reversal back towards content in stories maybe it's that I'm relatively old I'm thirty five years old, okay? I'm old and like internet terms I like orson welles films most people watching us may never even have heard of who orson welles wass um I spoke to one of the gentlemen works with marcus the other day was it about star wars about orry t how I remember as a child uh lining up for stuff for e t is the first movie ever lined up outside with fear to go watch the premiere and market was like, yeah, I wasn't born for that once I don't quite have a recollection, you know, so different strokes for different folks, you know, anyways this, you know, is a scary thing, so we're not quite going to this extreme that's actually a very advanced I think it's an s I took a very advanced camera on the front there and lots of wizardry uh and we'll talk about it that's cool because I'm not allow you to get some amazing shots if I'm correct I believe that same camera that was used in, um some dog millionaire all right, so the dp I had a computer or a recorder in his backpack, but I think cem cem dry ice around to keep it cold it was running through the streets, I think it was moved by them correct ah, with that very camera there and a prime lens on it because you cannot run for the streets of mumbai very narrow alleyways with an ar e camera you're gonna kill yourself and someone else as you run into them so technology could be your friend technology can really be your enemy. We'll talk about that too. Uh, so you got to know as a filmmaker just as a photographer what's in your toolbox what's available to you what exists? Uh, ifyou're trying. You know, I worked for a client recently who described the shot where you wanted me to walk around someone do a three sixty as that person was walking and I said, well, that's a steadicam move do you have the budget for steadicam operators like no, no, no, no, no, no, we can do that handheld and the answer was no we can't it's physically impossible to while in marcus was operating on this when he contest that's trying to walk backwards with a hand held camera with no stabilization on it and trying to do a three sixty around someone while they're walking is basically begging for disaster in two rounds one the footage go look awful unless you really, really need that like, you know, crazy, you know in the middle of war feel to it and more than anything your operators like again a trip and fall and hurt themselves destroy your camera so no your equipment and know that for certain shots you do need to study camp and for certain shots you may want to set the dolly dolly tracks your chemical very smoothly moved back backwards affords you also learn that you can spend fifteen minutes setting up your dolly shot but you're going on ly going to use a very small section of that dolly and you might as well have done it with your two legs in your hips and just lean forward and back and I'll take you heck of a lot less time to do that ten times in a row like this and take the one best take then it will to set up an entire dolly and equipment needed very key concept will kind of get into um one of my favorite sayings as a photographer was just because you have it doesn't mean you need to use it all right for photographers out there you know that when you walk out there with that backpack filled with fifty to seventy pounds of gear which I would do with the olympics for example I've covered for five a limp six and you go out there with seventy pounds of gear you can't move you don't want to go up there to get that shot it's too far away you're dying you're exhausted your back is killing you you see a picture right there it's like what lens do I use? Which one on then I know you know sometimes it's nice to have one camera one less same goes with filmmaking to the worst degree it's exponentially more difficult it's great to have a jib with you it's going to slow you down a tremendous amount. All right, so you got to realize just because you have a gear doesn't mean you need to use it it's a very very important key concept that I learned the hard way again during my first year filmmaking with jamie o'brien we shot with the red and we'll get into that camera and I would show my crew at five o'clock in the morning it would take them forty five minutes to get the camera ready at four five in the morning in the dark a camcorder take it out turn it on you're ready to go don't lose sight of that these cameras do certain things really well right now as of today, if I were issued a documentary I would not shoot it on hdtvs sellers I would shoot parts of it on hts lars okay, but the logistics of working with this camera documentary are going to slow you down and to me as a documentary photographer filmmaker this story is key. You want those moments you cannot afford to miss those key moments in that person's life they're going to happen once and you can't be say, hey marcus, can you get me the red rock micro you know, full fall focussing ring I want to switch lenses and miss it you know it's a different process, so we'll get to that little bit camera supporting here over the next few days we're going to do it in stages, all right, we're not this is also very important along with just because you have this need you need you mean you need to use it just because we're going to show this gear to you over the next three days doesn't mean you need to buy it on a number of levels you may not be able to afford it b you don't necessarily need it and as a budgeting filmmaker I have to give one of most honest piece of advice. If you want to learn how to direct and shoot a film, pull out your iphone here three gs and shoot video on it and try to string that together into a short film. You will learn so much more about sequencing shots together about how to transition from shot eight to be to see on how to move the camera because you won't be obsessed with a jib dolly lenz anapa chur lighting let all that stuff go if you want to be a good director good filmmaker let all this gear go for a while and think about story and how the pieces fit together. The problem is, every single on these pieces of year they slow you down, they constrain you, they allow you don't do this thing, but not that with an iphone or a camcorder or point shoot shoot video, you don't have to worry about this stuff, and I think if you paid attention in the beginning, that other stuff in here and in here is what films are all about, this is stuff that could be your biggest enemy, so we're going to go over try pots or what they call in the video and film world sticks it's funny, you say, give me some paris sticks and photographers like that, you know what sticks and you'll find, you know, the language of film and photography are very funny in that they have no correlation, one other they don't have f stops until may have t stops, but they mean the exact same thing, basically they're a bit different, they're actually true f stops, but, uh, you know, uh, one big joke that I think it happens in every film said as you find a p and you say go back, go back, go find me some f stops, you send the payout to find you're messed up you know they come back eight hours later so I've looked everywhere I can't find that stuff like the big joke on saturday t stop or whatever it is uh but different different uh terms so tripod is going to be one of the very first things you're gonna want to invest in is a filmmaker to stop that shaky video okay tripod is a very uh basic thing um you don't have to buy a two thousand dollar carbon fibre tripod you could buy twenty dollar whatever as long a stationary and one of the biggest scott we're going to get into is that everyone has different needs and different budgets okay you can get a steady cam or a dali you can also borrow wheelchair many of famous filmmaker has shot some great shots in a wheelchair being pushed by crew member okay tracks a lot less attention uh you want the simplest way to stabilize your camera take a bolt you look at this on youtube for this on the put a bolt on the ground with string and screw that into the bomb your camera pull up on it and kind of creates a natural tension to stabilize it if you have brad pitt in front of you and angelina jolie on mr mrs smith you don't want to have a bolt and a piece of string okay and more to the point you don't wanna have a three hundred dollars fluid head or tripod that slips on you or that can't support the way when you're photographing or filming mr and mrs smith or a big major blockbuster you're gonna wanna have a five or ten or twenty thousand dollars fluid head, which is the next thing we're talking about a fluid head is basically the tripod head. Alright, if you all do, we have those marcus that's where we start with the gear right here. Um if this is what your tripod had looks right now, like right now, if you're a photographer, you are not going to be able to pull off a nice pan and tilt off of this head. Okay, it's just not meant for its mento lock in place. It is not meant to do a smooth pan or tilt. All right, uh, this head right here it was an o'connor head I play one switch to the other camera is a five thousand dollar hit. Most of you that are buying a seven hundred dollars camera are very likely not going to invest in a five thousand dollar fluid head. If you're shooting a film that you are putting a certain amount of money into, I will not go shoot anything without this head, okay that's just me that's the level that I want to aspire to because this allows me to make films there is so much better looking in terms of way the camera moves then it's not even a good example that one of the cheaper heads but that's me uh this here is a do we have the five oh three years it's locked down on something okay, this uh is a gets so twenty one eighty and we're gonna have slides for these later on so, um I know so you're goingto start clamouring for what's the name of that again and where can we get it that's coming all right, we're gonna go over these this is the only one that is not going to be up there so it's a get so g I tco two one eight oh, this is a good way to start. Okay, it's two hundred eighty bucks I believe and it's got a very basic fluid head on it here's the key every photographer that I know you know we get the tripods and the head say twenty pounds maximum of five pounds max we all load them up with two hundred pounds and wait till the thing almost is breaking off when we stop it we're taking a still image we don't care how to move the biggest thing in any one of the video gear is they all have ratings over how much weight they can take they start to release, not perform when they're overweight so this head is cool with a bear five d mark too and a small lens not saying two hundred not a five hundred let me draft for but a twenty millimeter on a five. This is a good starting point for one hundred eighty bucks. I would not recommend you try to make an independent film with this head. That being said, there is something to be said for how small and lightweight it has not passed that around. Um, and I'm getting a little ahead of myself here because we're gonna go over these again one of the time with the people here actually interact with them. Uh, this is a five. Oh, one htv again, this slide will definitely come up in, like, an hour or two with the image of it, the price and the link it's coming. Um, this is a three hundred something dollar head and it's, actually pretty good. The main thing is, though, it's screws into, um, a regular trump doesn't have a bowl on it. So as you try to level it, um, it's gonna be a bit of a nightmare, we won't get into that again. We're going to go over that slowly and take our time. But you know, what I'm trying to make initially is you've got a hundred eight hour head, you've got a three hundred dollar head uh back here on one of these things is a two thousand dollar head and you've got a five thousand dollar head we're going to go do that throughout this workshop I'm going to show you the low end, the middle end and the high end on everything because everyone has different needs and expectations alright, you probably don't need a five thousand dollar o'connor when you're starting off you'll look really good at what you do um it's probably very, very well out of your budget personally at what level I'm trying to produce I won't leave home without it it's one of the things that is absolutely part of my basic it I am in love with this tripod and you know when you have certain pieces of gear that you're actually in love with I could say that about the o'connor because when you you could touch it with one pinky with a fifty pound camera and it moves like butter and you can start going one direction and change your mind and not have it you know, bump okay sliders we'll go over that as well a slider er is you wantto well uh kind of walked back here is this contraption here and basically, you know, if you can see it on the live broadcast, you can slide when you unlock it the camera from left to right right in a very smooth fashion or ford and backward or up and down whatever you want to do it's a very simple way of getting the camera from pointing to be in a straight line smoothly okay um we'll talk about that in detail and you guys will get to interact with it I'm gonna show you for uh three different sliders and different price points and you'll immediately get why you'd spend three hundred dollars on one versus two thousand dollars on the other okay, uh dollies are simply tracks with some sort of ice upon it uh they start from very basic two we have the micro dolly here, which is a great way to start tracks you can lay down for yourself, it's very light you can pack it with you, you could even take it on the carry on uh on board the plane it's how compact it is and I love it for what it this we'll talk about how a slider could be heck of a lot more useful than a dolly because your ground isn't even you don't want to spend two hours leveling the tracks and then we'll talk about what we're not going to show you unfortunately a fisher because we don't have room for it you know the idea of writing on a dolly as an operator that's a bit high end for I think ninety nine percent of the audience here a jib is one of these things back here. It's a way to make that mtv move with cameras swishing through the audience. Uh, please never do one of those shots if you can afford to do the whole they're swooping down shot in the film. You know, this is one of the most poorly used tools in television that I think in filmmaking when used well is one of the most important storytelling devices, so we'll talk about it and that's, the micro dolly will get to it. We also have a port, a jib? Um jib that is both a slider and energy. It pretty cool. So these are the different tools? Uh, we're also going to throw in a steady cam uh, towards the end, um, you know, rocky was was the first film with a steadicam where rocky is running up the stairs. Uh, if you remember, um, uh, shining as well was also one of the very first movies where you get a little kid on the tricycle going through the hallways. And you've got one of the founders of the guy who invented steadicam backpedaling with him and allowing the camera just flow around. Uh, the scene you watch any live tv, you'll see these guys of the big jacket around them with an arm and a spring on it that allows the count just kind of float in midair and it's one of the most fascinating tools in film we're going to show it to you here reply not going to use it in our um in our little lives shoots that we're going to do because that's really one of the areas that I think you know you can't just pick up the steadicam and know what you're doing people take weeklong courses and spent years of their lives perfecting how to use that so the steadicam is a fantastic tool but like a lot of gear I would say it must come with an operator that knows what he or she is doing all right? So we'll talk about that uh time management one of my favorite acronyms in life which I really wish I could follow is kiss keep it simple you said it I did okay, I'm the stupid sometimes or most of the time I don't keep it simple I overthink things I try to make something too complex all right keep it simple and anything you do in life go from point a to point b with the least amount of resistance in between you see a brick wall in front of you don't think about how fast you going to run through it or how you're gonna hold your elbows how about walking around it okay? It really applies to filmmaking because you have a lot of different considerations are going to make me and trying to pull off any shot and there's a big risk versus reward thing in any film, okay, you can do a very simple shot or a very complex shot never forget you can probably pull off two, three or four simple shots if not ten in the time I'll take you to come to take one complex shot and you may absolutely fail on the complex shot and have nothing to show for that one hour. Whereas you know what? That's where the editor comes in, if you don't have the gear, just use what you have don't go crazy, okay, which brings us to reverie reverie uh to me is a very successful bad cologne commercial. Okay? The story behind it quickly is that I was going to have lunch at cannes to meet someone they cancelled their date have supposed be on a wednesday and this had come our tuesday. Come back on a thursday or friday I picked friday randomly, I show up to candidacy, my friend and as I'm walking in, I see these white boxes being pulled out of a case and I know what those are, those are prototypes of something I'm not supposed to see, and the person was pulling him out absolutely freaked out that if he were working at apple a trapdoor would have opened up he would have fallen down to his death for allowing me to see that everybody granted people should know that I work with cannon uh as one of their explorers of light uh that's one of the few endorsement relationships I have um and you know I'm somewhat part of the family um to a certain degree in that you know, that's that's the camera I've chosen to work with and uh my being there was not the biggest breach of anything but they didn't make me sign a nondisclosure agreement immediately. In other words, if I told anyone they would take my house to steal my kids away um and they showed me the prototype of the five year mark to here's the key they were saying that camera out to three other photographers not to me but when I saw that camera that little light above my head didn't kind of go on, it exploded and burst and I said, I have to have this camera I have to use it this is the most amazing thing I've ever seen something remember what you of those of you who saw reverie, how you reacted when you first saw that that film it was a pre visceral reaction for a lot of people because to that date we had never seen, you know, twenty four by thirty six full frame footage with a still leads coming out, anything that was affordable to us, the only thing we had was to go to a major motion picture, and here I was a small the body right here with this lens, actually, and we were walking around the cannon office is in my jaw was absolutely dropping keep in mind this was so new that they didn't know what format the shot it when they gave me the five year mark to that and give me a manual. Um, I didn't know this, so I put the laughter exponents we've used back but not a focus and still so you can shoot with your index finger and you can autofocus with the back button. I did that automatically. I didn't know that was canceling out the only exposure lock that existed at the time and no manual so reverie was shot full auto, and you'll notice there's one shot where you pan down the chrysler building, you can see the iris closing down, but reverie was shot in full auto because I didn't have a manual. I had to speak that night, so I found the camera existed at noon by four pm I convinced them to lend it to me, and that night I was speaking at an event and I had my assistant my guys are in the car uh it was raining on their forget left him in a dark car with cameron said figure it out because I got to speak and we gotta shoot tomorrow uh again I was not supposed to give in this camera I begged and begged and begged and on the seventh time that I asked them I said, listen, these cameras are going to sit in the fedex warehouse all weekend just let me borrow it for, you know, the weekend I'll ship the photographer who was selected on monday I just want to see what happens and kanan said, all right, just enough already we'll lend it to you just, you know, shipping on monday and write us an email about what you think about the camera that's all that they wanted and they said, you know, we're not sponsoring you, we're not paying you anything we don't have any budget for this, you're on your own, whatever you produce is your own just go ahead and have fun and we don't expect anything in return. I knew I wanted you something I had no idea is going to be reverie and I ran out I was on stage at the delivering a speech and getting I phone pictures of models and at first I only wanted one model doesn't have any money my wife convinced me to get a male and a female model and I knew I wanted a helicopter, you know, we all have our vices that's mine helicopters obviously not one of the cheapest ways to move around. Uh, but that's my backgrounds as an aerial photographer in part. And that night at midnight, I had my friend yoni brooke, who was my intern when I was a new york times as a staff photographer myself who was now a documentary filmmaker, I had him come with me and help me put together a shot list. We don't have a storyboard with a basic shop list, and again I left candidate for pm on friday, I yelled action at four p m on saturday and we shot over two nights in new york. We didn't have film permits, we didn't have location scouts, we didn't have any budget, we had three people with my car, two models, a makeup artist and a cap, and what you'll see next is reverie keep in mind it was shot with the gear I had available to me it was very, very key if you watch this realized I didn't have cinema lighting, I didn't have dali's chibs follow focusing units nd filters I had nothing, I had one piece of equipment that I wasn't too dumb, I asked them at cannon if I could borrow a set of sticks and a fluid head that's literally the on ly video gear that I had other than my still lenses and one prototype cannon fire demark two with one battery so everywhere everyone shot over two nights here's a short piece if you haven't seen it yet what I want you to keep in mind is in when I would like you to keep in mind as you look at this film if see how the camera moves given the lack of fear that I had paid attention to it and think about it and here we go no way thing wait yeah, wait I want you to realize how the timing of this happened I started I wrote a piece two years ago called the cloud is falling that was written about six to eight months prior to what the economy turning and what happened to the presidency happening uh that actually sadly ended up being pretty on target. And then newsweek sent me to cover the beijing olympics and they realized they didn't have an issue to publish in the middle of it. So they asked us to block so that allow a lot of people start following me. As I was blogging every day from newsweek I didn't like blogging I thought blogging was like the worst way to like, you know, self promote yourself and then I read blog's like chase jarvis uh rob haggard's a photo editor david hobby strobe ist er, andrew heatherington is what's jackie nori blog's to me really hit a chord because they weren't about self promotion, they were about sharing information that says, you know what? That's actually pretty cool. I really don't care how cool you are or what your last shot uh, unless this content is really that interesting, but if you're going to talk about concepts and going to share information that to me, start to make sense. So I started blogging in the beijing olympics, but I run too, really want to understand is this was shot in two nights on a self imposed budget of five thousand dollars for a lot of years, a lot of money, I realize that, uh, for a photographer, five thousand dollars for a commercial photographer is what I would spend to send out a few thousand mailers across united states editors, do you think I should have spent five thousand dollars on mailers are on this there's? Not even a question to me. The beauty of it, though, is ten years ago you had to know someone at universal studios or warner brothers or a big studio or television show uh, broadcaster to get the kind of audience that I got, what I use, I used a free wordpress blawg and a video player that was free that cost me nothing uh, turns out I have so much band with being used that had more band with using those two days for all of canada usa than they would for the entire year. For the printers, photography, everything. So they got it. They got a little bit of a shock there, but the point is, I used stuff that's available to every single one of you out there. And that is to me, one of the most key points I don't want to forget. You have access, albeit look at the world around you. Newspapers are declining, magazines declining, all my god, the end of the end of the world is near. No, I mean, you have access to this stuff that we could never have imagined that five years ago, no one could ever have gotten a video that they produced in two nights in front of two million people. It's been seen over five million times. This thing was seen by more people in one week than some movies they're seen in their opening weekend. Okay, that have millions dollars behind it. So, that's, a fascinating time to be part of this world. Where it's, about your ideas, it's about the content and how it goes viscerally across people, you know, people, I think, are hopefully carrying less and less about how glamorous your transformer movie is and more about your ideas, so keep in mind the technology that was out there and I think how important that is and how you all that's the key you don't have to be spielberg for george lucas or michael bay strange selection of directors to get movies out uh, to a mass audience any more, you can have your laptop with your eye movie on it that comes free and a seven hundred dollar camera and a twenty dollar lens, and if you have a great idea and you are intelligent about how you tell that idea of that story, you could have an audience that is unlimited as long as people have access to the internet and that has never happened the history of time that I can see and I think it's, why it's the most fascinating time to be part of this world and keep me up all night in super excited so here's reverie again, try this shot by shot. That very first shot is one that got a lot of attention because you know, we'll talk about standard video cameras, but you saw how out of focus the background went and the beautiful boca, which is what the word is for that how light becomes this beautiful circle happen on that one shot there's that local we're talking on and that's something that people hadn't seen from, uh, cameras out there before, you know, try and get out of focus. Background with average camcorder is impossible when people saw that they went, oh, wait a minute, what's going on here, the next shot you can see jimmy. Its feet are completely out of focus. That was shot in eighty five. One two on his couch on my couch. Actually. Sorry. Uh, and again, that the light was actually being emanated from the tv. I had my laptop plugged into my tv with photo shop open, and I was using a saturation slider in the lightness to go up and down to create the flickering. Now, two things happened there. Wanna use technology to make it happen, too? The camera is sensitive enough to pick up that light the average film camera or camp, or is not sensitive enough to pick off the light off your tv and have that be light source. And iphone people is enough of a light source these days to shoot with these cameras. That's revolutionary we were driving down the tunnel here's that shot was mounted on the side of my car or show examples of that. This is probably one of more recognizable shots of the film that was a fluid head that was the only time that I actually used the video piece of gear everything else here is mostly handheld or mounted either onto the car itself or the helicopter. I didn't have steady camps, I didn't have dollars or jobs, and I remember getting slammed by some sent by people saying this guy doesn't know anything about motion within the camera, and I was like, no, I think I do, but I'm smart enough to not try to do a steady camera for that a steadicam and I was also afraid of the jello effect that we always talk about, and I didn't want to whip pans and stuff like that. More importantly, didn't have the gear, so I used what I had and that's what you guys would all do is filmmakers, they're starting use what you have don't worry about what you don't have so three suction cups in the front of my car there was a police lie on the side of the car. Uh, that's what those red and white lights are. This is natural light two o'clock in the morning or three o'clock in the morning, it's a four hundred to wait granted that's me no one's gonna have, but I had it as a former sports photographer is just two light bulbs in the background, creating a huge boca, a silhouette of a woman in this case, alex the model on here we go driving by the u n you noticed I burn the red light on that one uh this was a pretty fascinating shot of alex the red light in front of her other brake lights from my car and behind is another car's headlights you can't do that with the average camera we'll talk about a little performance these cameras handheld in times square driving at three o'clock in the morning all right uh sodium vapor light lighting jimmy for the most part of macro lens there so the funny part about this shot here is I showed the shot of jimmy driving for the brooklyn bridge and that was actually asked by some very well known deep ese no a f c members top directors of photography in the world how did you like the bridge? Well wrong it'll shock at that but that's the way films are made people you can't see the brooklyn bridge with the average camera it's too dark so if you have a scene on the brooklyn bridge you're going to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars with really powerful expensive lights and generators and cabling toe light one of the towers of the broken bridge for your key shot here I wass this thirty three or thirty four year old guy with a camera mounted on the front of my car having a f c members asking me how I live the bridge and when I told him that's natural light they were like what that's not possible because they've all shot big time movies on the brooklyn bridge and as far as letting jimmy's face will show us a little bit it's a little light panel led light that's on my steering wheel in retrospect, I don't recommend you have your main character driving a vehicle which sunglasses and a light staring in their face at night if you look really carefully on certain shots forever you'll see that the passenger side thie seat is all the way back I'm leaning back there looking and saying slow down there's a car in front of you he couldn't see anything all right it was like driving mr magoo in retrospect it was pretty dangerous and stupid and foolish ah but we did do it three o'clock in the morning there was minimal traffic I don't you know these air creative professional actors and stunt people don't do this don't try this at home right? All right so here we go let's go back to, uh reverie uh don't have lights don't go the darkest part of the neighborhood good times square it's like you know the most expensive lighter you could buy by mankind that's where I went time square and then yes the helicopter this's the one shot with him with the glasses that was the purpose of my film I wanted the moment I thought of reverie I said I want one shot I want a shot where you can see the empire state building reflecting the guy's glasses you know just like a photographer go towards an image and say I want that image this whole film when he was built around that one shot of jimmy you know outside the helicopter at sunset or after sunset with the lights reflecting the glasses someone had a question was the mount system look like on that helicopter shot it's called my arms it's me holding the camera were both harnessed and so we can't fall out ah we had one light panel on a model pod that my assistant was holding that also had a safety harness into it and I believe I had for that shot a kenyan labs gyro little casa gyro which is what any aerial photographer will have to stabilize that a little bit but frankly doesn't do much uh for video you need more than that I've learned since but um it was my arms and I was rack focusing the old fashioned way the way is you guys do with cannon lens with my hand and guessing that would say this is where the end point is this is where the start point iss is very old school back then we like I said this was not this preconceived things we had three three months to pre plan it we have like thirty minutes to pre plan okay let's go back to the shoot wait for me about the helicopter people saw that said there's no way this guy do this on his weekend this is this is bull you know he was obviously a big budget what not truth is this is what I do for a living is aerial photography so I just call up the helicopters charter place and up I went so uh you may have missed that shot of the rotating camera the kind of psycho shot uh that is not what will be showing you today complicated dolly move with a head that rotates that's me standing on my feet in lowering myself as I rotate the camera three or four times in a row okay don't get lost in this tough it's cool if you have to execute on demand but it slows you a lot down compared to doing it by hand and the beauteous cameras that you can't do it by him and there you go. Uh, little dutch shot at the end, which is a way to save the cameras was rotated um you know this this thing was life changing for me. Um I was invited to see the president of disney uh and show this to him in private screening room I was invited to industrial light magic and from three to five hundred people on a fifty foot screen to show this invited to the academy of motion picture arts and sciences the guys in the oscar and my level of experience and filmmaking was about uh, forty eight hours okay, but it speaks to what this technology did it's a very destructive force and a very, very fascinating time to be involved in all this. I'm gonna quickly share with you a little behind the scenes footage from reverie so you can see how it was done and that it's not a lie it was just me with my car out at night in new york. Uh so here's luckily we made this little behind the scenes video and, uh I'm gonna tell you was a blast that we came in a great great time so here's a little yellow light that had the back of my car with three suction cups the amount of the front of the car it was the prototypes we put a camera armor rubber thing around it, people couldn't see that it was different. It was much the same shape of five the market five d and, you know had tourists like that shot a picture of the prototype cannon and would have been freaked out and here we are driving a three o'clock in the morning time times square with three suction cups on the hood of my car there's the raw footage out of the camera on any five one two you can't do that with a panavision camera it'll rip the hood off your car through the weight with this camera you can't here is my set up for the aerial it's a mounted on a mono pod and you can see that's mike walking there with me I'm discussing with shots I'm going to do with the pilot and this next shot you have to have a senate flecks or you know a quarter million dollar west cam to pull off here I am doing in amman a pod sticking a camera beneath my leg uh granted have safety and stuff like that here we are tonight uh shooting the brooklyn bridge and available light that's not a smooth as professional video khun b but it was what it wass uh here's our car packed to the brim and this next shot cannon was really not too happy about seeing they're one of three prototypes in the country you know cooked off the side of my car uh but they forgave me overtime uh here's a beauty dish a pro photo seven b head we used the morning lap on it toe like the models I didn't have video lighting so he pressed the button down for thirty seconds we had a mauling left uh here is alex on the street and um evan would press the mauling light on and this is what we would get that's all natural light in the background and this is the still image we got out of that I'll stop here because when people saw this that was ground breaking because again very famous dps and directors said how did you light the downtown dumbo you know area it's so dark it's horrible yellow you know sodium vapor and tungsten lighting you can't even shoot they're so how'd you light it on the budget they didn't like it that's natural light with just one added light source you know I didn't they're tungsten it's tungsten close enough uh didn't have time we weren't trying to make anything special we're having fun and really just kind of messing around over the weekend is what reverie wass it wasn't trying to do anything that's happened since it was really let's play around with the camera it's all auto exposure yeah reverie would have been a disaster had a shot during the day I didn't own nd filters we'll talk about that if you know what their new traditionally filters filters that cut the amount of light coming down everything was an overcast day would have been shot at f eleven and looked like video why did I pick nighttime where you guys think I picked nighttime no permits two reasons no permits less people less cops maurin important what doesn't change at night time light light stays constant don't worry about it all right so there's a there was a little bit of thinking behind this and it was kind of fun, so I'll go back to it um way our editing on final cut pro um that's my server piece that it is that the only the co director you saw andre there there's the mastermind behind us my son noah evan you'll see the clock there so it's like three o'clock in the morning or something it's mike and uh here's a very advanced study camp system I mean, I'm not joking that's what I had someone holding my belt and a little giro on the bomb to add weight to the camera I didn't you didn't have advanced lighting way used our pro photo lights, which are not video lights not meant to be used like this didn't have enough light, so I used a light from the back in the mirror to shine it back on its face from the front handhelds nothing fancy remember I talked about plugging laptop, then there's the photo shops ladder doing the flickering on jimmy's face very advanced support system I'm on a pillow that's what motion picture cruz do they use sandbags and apple boxes one hundred macro not a lens you have easy access to ana already thirty five millimeter camera here's my quote unquote hero shot with the glasses little rack focused on by hand for two eight shot two lights in the background and uh the overhead and moby's you know, one of my favorite artists out there and he was cool enough to let me and any one of you use his music for any non commercial purpose. So you go to moby gratis m o b y g r a s dot com and you can go ahead and use certain one of certain tracks that he's made all here's here's the real mastermind behind this that's my son noah just you realize the spirit in which this was made it was not meant to be this big self promotional anything um but basically, uh I think we're done with part one, but, um speaking into moby, moby realizes the need for artist to use good music because films can't be good if they don't have good music to a certain degree I think it's mostly true uh and he has this site moby gratis that allows independent filmmakers to use his move is music for that purpose? Obviously we had the license it because it went on candidates site um and that's a very difficult thing to do to get permission from someone it's easy to get lawyers to actually write your documents I have written the printed documents one year after every came out okay, but I got all the permissions from moby and his his reps and I know people ask, how do you do that I happen to have my stepfather is a copyright attorney who does music, so he knew people to try and get that fast forward it, um, because you don't want to get sued and don't forget that, just like you don't want photographers ripping off your images or your films don't rip off musicians, work that's how they make a living, too, at the very least contact them, get their permission, and realized that hopefully they'll be willing to allow you to use their music in exchange for a credit, because hopefully a lot of itunes clicks will go their way. But don't rip people's music off in the same way you don't rip off anything. Hopefully, uh, because, uh, we all want access to information. Unfortunately lot of us have come accustomed to think you don't have to pay for it, and I respect the need for information I expect to need to share, but just like we hopefully will sell a few of these downloads to help pay for all the people that are here all the year, all the shipping, uh, artists need to make a living doing this, so we continue doing it. We need to feed ourselves it's, a very important concert, and I want to belabor it that ends part one.