FILMMAKING

An Overview

THE
PROCESS
Idea/
Concept

scriptwriting, shooting,
editing, directing

economic, social, and

political contexts, and using
a variety of technologies and
techniques, involving a
certain number of people,
employing a certain amount
of time

Finished Product/
Film

PHASES
There are five phases of production
common to most professionally
produced motion pictures. These are:
Development
Pre-production
Production
Postproduction
Distribution

DEVELOPMENT
The movie treatment / summary
tell the concept of the story. Then
a script is written and drafted into
a workable blueprint for a film.

PRE-PRODUCTION
Preparations are made for the shoot,
in which cast and crew are hired,
locations are selected, and sets are
built.

PRE-PRODUCTION

Funding

Casting

Location

Storyboarding

Schedule

Set Design

Assembling Crew

Costume Design

PRE-PRODUCTION
Storyboarding:
A storyboard is a series of drawings
intended to represent how the film will
be shot, including how each frame will
be composed and how subject and
camera motion will occur.

PRE-PRODUCTION

PRE-PRODUCTION
Funding: A production budget is drawn up
to plan expenditures for the film. For major
productions, insurance is procured to
protect against accidents.
Assembling Crew :
The producer hires a crew.
Can vary from 5-6 to hundreds in numbers

PRE-PRODUCTION
Casting: The casting director finds actors to fill the parts
in the
script. This normally requires audition.
Costume Design:
Choosing or designing the
clothing/costumes
that the actors wear. The Costume Designer does this job.
Location Scouting:
manages film
locations.

The location manager finds and

Set Design:
The
department, which
makes production sets

art

director

manages

the

art

PRE-PRODUCTION
Properties (Props):
Choosing the tools and objects used in the film.
Scheduling:
Coordinating
all aspects necessary to the
production.
The assistant director (AD) manages the shooting
schedule and logistics of the production, among
other tasks
The production manager manages the production
budget and production schedule

PRODUCTION

In production phase, the video/film is

created and shot

PRODUCTION

Acting

Direction
Lighting

Camera

Sound
Recording

PRODUCTION
Production Departments
Direction

Director (oversees all aspects of the production)

Assistant Director (drives the set)
Second Assistant Director (works with the actors)

Camera

Cinematographer or DP (oversees camera operation)

Camera Operator (operates the camera)
Camera Assistants (loads camera, pulls focus)
Clapper/Loader (loads film and slates scenes)

Lighting

Cinematographer (oversees lighting design)

Gaffer & Electricians (control the lights)
Key Grip & Grips (control the shadows and do special

rigging)

PRODUCTION
Production Departments (continued)
Sound

Sound Mixer (records the sound)

Boom operator (positions the microphone)
Clapper (displays the clap slate for the camera)

Talent

Actors (perform before the camera)

Miscellaneous

Production Coordinator (scheduling)

Make-up Artist (apply make-up to actors)
Production Assistant (various jobs)

CINEMATOGRAPHY

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Frame dimension
Lens
Camera angle
Camera movement
Camera Distance

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Frame Dimension

Theaspect ratioof an image describes

the proportional relationship between its
width and its height
Academy 1: 1.33
Cinemascope 1: 2.35
Widescreen 1: 1.85

CINEMATOGRAPHY

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Lens
Wide Angle Lens

Has the added effect of greatly emphasizing

our perception of depth.
Often used to bring distortion
To cover a large area.
Has a very deep depth of field

CINEMATOGRAPHY

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Lens
Telephoto Lens

Used to shoot distant objects

Shallow depth-of-field
Narrow angle of view
Used for taking tight shot

CINEMATOGRAPHY

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Camera Angles
High Angle
Straight Angle
Low Angle
Dutch Angle

CINEMATOGRAPHY

High Angle Shot

Psycho

Low Angle Shot

Citizen Kane

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Dutch Angle Shot

The Third Man

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Camera Movements
Camera movement is an effective artistic
tool in filmmaking. By its movement alone, a
camera reveals much more than simply the
space through which it moves.
The basic ways cinematographers move

their cameras are (1) Steadicam (2) Dolly (3)

Crane (4) Handheld
There are also a couple of basic movement

techniques (1) tilt (2) pan

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Steadycam Shot from Hugo

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Behind the scene Steadycam Shot from Hugo

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Crane Shot from High Noon

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Panning

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Tilt up & down from The Red Balloon

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Tracking Shot from The Red Balloon

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Camera Distance
1. extreme long (ELS)
2. long (LS)
3. medium long shot (MLS)
4. medium (MS)
5. close-up (CU)
6. extreme close-up (ECU)

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Extreme Long Shot

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Long shot

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Mid Long Shot

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Mid Shot

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Close Up

Extreme Close Up

CINEMATOGRAPHY

LIGHTING
Styles of Lighting
Matches theme, mood, genre

Intensity, direction, and quality of

lighting have a profound effect on the
way an image is perceived.
Affects the way colors are rendered,
both hue and depth

Can focus attention on particular

elements of the composition.

LIGHTING
Three Point Lighting
The standard lighting scheme for classical

narrative cinema.

In order to model an actor's face (or another

object) with a sense of depth, light from three

directions is used,

A backlight picks out the subject from its

background, a bright key light highlights the

object and a fill light from the opposite side
ensures that the key light casts only faint
shadows.

LIGHTING
Three Point Lighting
A backlight picks out the subject from its

background

Bright key light highlights the object

Fill light from the opposite side ensures that

the key light casts only faint shadows.

LIGHTING

LIGHTING

LIGHTING

Lighting affects the appearance of a character,

defining or diminishing facial characteristics

and making faces appear attractive or
unattractive.

LIGHTING
Balanced Lighting

side
lighting
and
shallow
focus
to
create the dramatic
effect

LIGHTING

Two general schools in cinematography have

been
referred
'pictorialism'.

to

as

'naturalism'

and

LIGHTING

Comparison of two shots

from the movie Slumdog
Millionaire brings out the
difference between the
two.

SOUND
Sound Recording
In traditional film production, sound is recorded

separately from the image. This is known as

double system sound recording.
Generally
speaking, there are at least four soundtracks in
any feature length narrative film:
1 the dialog track.
2 the room tone track.
3 the music track.
4 the sound effects track

SOUND
Sound Recording
Room Tone
Room tone is recorded silence. Normally, once all

of the dialog is recorded, the sound mixer asks

for about a minute of quiet to record the sound of
silence in the particular setting.
The reason for recording room tone is that all
recordings have a low level of noise in the
background and, during the editing process it is
sometimes necessary to fill in gaps so that there
is not an abrupt change in the tone of the
background noise.

POST PRODUCTION
The postproduction phase refers to
the period of time after the film is
shot, but before it is released in its
final form.
Here the video/film is assembled by
the video/film editor.

POST PRODUCTION
Broadly includes
Editing
Final Audio Mixing

EDITING
Editing is the arrangement of imagery and

sounds into a sequence that tells the story of

the film.
The raw footage with which the editor works is
called Rush
An editor may arrange based on different
aesthetic styles depending upon the needs of
the story
Video Editing is done in Software like Final Cut
Pro (Mac), Adobe Premiere Pro, Sony Vegas etc.

EDITING

User interface of Adobe Premiere Pro 6

EDITING
Continuity editing
180 degree system
Match on action
Cross-cutting

EDITING
Continuity editing is the most dominant

editing style employed in films.

It incorporates the rule of 180 degree
It is designed to be seamless, meaning,
creating minimum or no confusion in the
minds of the viewers.

EDITING
180 degree system
Line of Action

An imaginary line between the subject and

the item/ person he is interacting with
or
Imaginary straight line along the path the
subject is moving on

EDITING

EDITING
Match Cut
Amatch
cut
is
a
cut
in
film
editingbetween
either
two
different
objects, two different spaces, or two
different compositions in which objects in
the two shots graphically match, often
helping to establish a strong continuity of
action
and
linking
the
two
shots
metaphorically

EDITING

Match Cut used in 2001: A Space Odyssey

by Stanley Kubrick

EDITING
Cross-cutting
Cross-cuttingis an editing technique most
often used in films to establish action
occurring at the same time in two different
locations. In a cross-cut, the camera
willcutaway from one action to another
action, which can suggest the simultaneity
of these two actions but this is not always
the case.

EDITING

Cross-cutting from Inception

EDITING
Few other techniques include
Jump Cut
Montage Editing

EDITING
Overlapping in Editing
Cuts that repeat part or all of an action,
thus expanding its viewing time and plot
duration.

EDITING

An overlapping sequence from Matrix

SOUND
Sound Recording
Sound Effects
For

the most part, sound effects are

obtained separately by a foley artist
who
coordinates
sound
effects
in
synchronization with the onscreen action
through a process known as looping
where a portion of the film is repeatedly
played to perfect the timing of the sound
effects.

SOUND
Music that is scored is done in similar fashion

to foley sound in the sense that film is

playing during the recording session to
enhance timing.
Nuendo, Sound Forge are few examples of
Sound Editing Software.

SOUND

User interface of Nuendo

THANK YOU
Kunal Chakraborty
chakraborty.kunal@outlook.com