19 sep 2012

Borderline


The Inner German border was the frontier between the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1990. Not including the similar but physically separate Berlin Wall, the border was 1,393 kilometres long and ran from the Baltic Sea to Czechoslovakia.


It was formally established on 1 July 1945 as the boundary between the Western and Soviet occupation zones of Germany. On the eastern side, it was made one of the world's most heavily fortified frontiers, defined by a continuous line of high metal fences and walls, barbed wire, alarms, anti-vehicle ditches, watchtowers, automatic booby traps and minefields. It was patrolled by 50,000 armed GDR guards. The border was a physical manifestation of Winston Churchill's metaphorical Iron Curtain that separated the Soviet and Western blocs during the Cold War.

17 sep 2012

Shadow Storytelling


Wayang Kulit in Central Java is probably one of the oldest continuous traditions of storytelling in the world, and certainly among the most highly developed. The ancient Indonesian art of shadow play is a unique combination of ritual, lesson, and entertainment. Lacy shadow images are projected on a taught linen screen with a coconut oil lamp or electric light. The Dalang, or shadow artist, manipulates carved leather figures between the lamp and the screen to bring the shadows to life.

Wayang kulit is widely acknowledged as one of the points of origin for modern film and theatre, certainly in Malaysia and the neighbouring regions.. It is believed that while there is clear technical evolution that led to modern day filmmaking, the art of wayang kulit has contributed immensely to the film appreciation in the region.




4 sep 2012

Turn-Around



The Documentary film of the Netherlands has long been renowned world wide. The most prominent Dutch directors, especially those who started their careers before World War II, came from a documentary background, for instance Joris Ivens and Bert Haanstra. Since the early 1970s, however, documentary production aimed at a theatrical release has declined, perhaps due to a shift towards television

Documentaries still play an important part in Dutch film industry. The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, held annually in November, is considered one of the largest documentary film festivals in the world.



Camargue




A natural history film or wildlife film is a documentary film about animals, plants, or other non-human living creatures, usually concentrating on film taken in their natural habitat. Such programs are most frequently made for television, particularly for public broadcasting channels, but some are also made for the cinema.
Most programs or series focus on a particular species, ecosystem or scientific idea (such as evolution). Although most take a scientific and educational approach, some anthropomorphise their subjects or present animals purely for the viewer's pleasure.


Although almost all have a human presenter, the role varies widely, ranging from explanatory voiceovers to extensive interaction or even confrontation with animals.

2 sep 2012

Interactive Scene Machine



 
The Scene Machine Live (TSML) is/ was an interactive installation that presents the public with an accessible way into the film collection of the EYE Film Institute Netherlands. The ‘machine’ contains over a thousand intriguing Dutch film clips from the EYE collection: in colour and black and white, encompassing fiction and non fiction.


TSML allows users to access unique film clips in a simple and intuitive way. Users can choose from a number of pre-arranged themes or put together their own theme by making a selection from more than 200 key words including “love”, “bicycle”, “music”, “night” and “sorrow”. The TSML’s clever technology makes it possible to play different clips alongside each other and gives rise to all kinds of surprising connections between the images. .



Early Dutch Clip



A clip or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, mostly produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos date back much further, they came into prominence in the 1980s, when MTV based their format around the medium. Prior to the 80s, these works were described by various terms including "illustrated song", "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional clip" or "film clip".



31 aug 2012

Display of the Tropics



The Tropenmuseum (English: Museum of the Tropics) is an anthropological museum One of the largest museums in Amsterdam, the museum accommodates eight permanent exhibitions and an ongoing series of temporary exhibitions, including both modern and traditional visual arts and photographic works. The Tropenmuseum is owned and operated by the Royal Tropical Institute, a foundation that sponsors the study of tropical cultures around the world.
The museum houses 175,000 objects, 155,000 photographs and 10,000 miscellaneous drawings, paintings, and documents. It inherited 15,000 of these from the Ethnographisch Museum Artis. These objects are split up into many collections. The museum houses collections for many geographical areas such as Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia & North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. The photography collection consists mainly of historical photographs of the former Dutch Colonies from 1855–1940. The museum released a large number of photographs under a Creative Commons licence to the Wikimedia Commons.





29 aug 2012

Two Drops of Water



The Darkroom of Damocles (Dutch: De donkere kamer van Damokles) is a war novel by the Dutch writer Willem Frederik Hermans, published in 1958. An immediate success since it was first published, the novel has been printed in numerous editions and is one of the greatest World War II novels. The book has been translated into English twice, in 1962 by Roy Edwards, and again in 2007 by Ina Rilke. It was adapted into the 1963 film Like Two Drops of Water, directed by Fons Rademakers.
It was entered into the 1963 Cannes Film Festival and was selected as the Dutch entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 36th Academy Awards

28 aug 2012

Duchy of Uzes




The history of Uzès:
The first dwellers here established a base around the source of the Eure. The Romans, attracted by the spring's flow, drew upon it to provide fresh water to the rapidly expanding town of Nîmes, and a 50 km-long aqueduct was designed and built during the first century AD… but that is another story!
From the fifth century, Uzès started to grow, and the town was host, until the 19th century, to a powerful bishopric, regrouping up to 200 parishes.

Steeped in Protestant religion, the city took sides with the French Reformation movement and suffered greatly during the Religious Wars, with a great many churches and temples being destroyed. Amongst these was the Cathedral of Saint-Théodorit, which was rebuilt in 1632, retaining its original bell tower. The picturesque Fenestrelle tower, with its round bell tower, dates back to the 12th century and remains one of the city's most iconic symbols.

During the 16th century, the count Antoine de Crussol was bestowed the title of Duke and in 1632, Uzès became the 1st duchy of France. The castle, symbol of Uzès (and inhabited to this day by the de Crussol family, is a harmonious blend of architecture and ornaments from different periods of French history: it features thousand-year old caves, feudal towers (the Tour de Bermonde, the Tour du Roi and the Tour de l'Evêché), ramparts, a Renaissance façade featuring Ionic, Doric and Corinthian elements, an 18th-century façade… The castle’s apartments house fascinating collections of furniture and ornaments. From the top of the Tour Bermonde, you can enjoy superb views over the Uzège.

26 aug 2012

Home: eindhoven



In 1933 Philips Eindhoven had a "CineSonor" department for cinema equipment production.
Philips in those days also was involved in shooting the first Dutch feature film with sound: William of Orange. The four hundredth birthday of the Prince could not be better remembered. Great industrialists yielded money, Philips also equipment and space. Abandoned factory buildings were converted to the Philiwood studios.

It was Philips' first and last cinema film. Why William of Orange after the premiere on January 4, 1934 just a few weeks insisted, is not exactly clear. Was it the competition around the same time? Did the actors from other parts of the Netherlands a better film than the far Eindhoven?





25 aug 2012

Bambouseraie




In the context of motion pictures and television, sound effects refers to an entire hierarchy of sound elements, whose production encompasses many different disciplines, including:
Hard sound effects are common sounds that appear on screen, such as door slams, weapons firing, and cars driving by.




Background sound effects are sounds that do not explicitly synchronize with the picture, but indicate setting to the audience, such as forest sounds, the buzzing of fluorescent lights, and car interiors. The sound of people talking in the background is also considered a "BG," but only if the speaker is unintelligible and the language is unrecognizable. These background noises are also called ambience


 

23 aug 2012

Museum of the tropics Amsterdam

 

To participate in the digital age requires a certain kind of visual thinking. Whether creating a snazzy website layout, capturing artsy pics with Instagram or even choosing the perfect Facebook cover photo, interesting images and videos enhance social engagement .
Social video sharing platforms, have recognized (and propagated) this shift away from plain text. Users can express their personalities and interests in videos and share them with friends and followers.

Some have specifically worked to streamline mobile video sharing and allow you to upload and customize videos that you capture with your smartphone




22 aug 2012

Gourmandise



Film editing is not what you think it is. It is not just "slicing and dicing" digital video but rather film editing is the highest form of storytelling. Film editing is combining visual images, dialog (sound), music and sound effects. It is not just cutting picture and dialog.




21 aug 2012

Orpheus and Eurydice





Orpheus was son of the great Olympian god Apollo. Orpheus was so sad about the loss of his love that he composed music to express the terrible emptiness which pervaded his every breath and movement. He was so desperate and found so little else meaningful, that he decided address Hades. As the overseer of the underworld, Hades heart had to be hard as steel, and so it was. Orpheus' music was so sweet and so moving that it softened the steel hearted heart of Hades himself. Hades gave permission to Orpheus to bring Eurydice back to the surface of the earth to enjoy the light of day. There was only one condition--Orpheus was not to look back as he ascended. He was to trust that Eurydice was immediately behind him. It was a long way back up and just as Orpheus had almost finished that last part of the trek, he looked behind him to make sure Eurydice was still with him. At that very moment, she was snatched back because he did not trust that she was there. When you hear music which mourns lost love, it is Orpheus' spirit who guides the hand of the musicians who play it.



20 aug 2012

Japanese garden


Home video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or rented/hired for home cinema entertainment. The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotape, but has carried over into current optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray Disc and, to a lesser extent, into methods of digital distribution such as Netflix.


The home video business distributes films, telemovies and television series in the form of videos in various formats to the public. These are either bought or rented, then watched privately from the comfort of home by consumers. Most theatrically released films are now released on digital media, both optical (DVD or Blu-ray) and download-based, replacing the largely obsolete VHS (Video Home System) medium. The VCD format remains popular in Asia, though DVDs are gradually gaining popularity.

18 aug 2012

Museum of the Tropics:Dutch Indies



One of the largest museums in Amsterdam, the museum accommodates eight permanent exhibitions and an ongoing series of temporary exhibitions, including both modern and traditional visual arts and photographic works. The Tropenmuseum is owned and operated by the Royal Tropical Institute, a foundation that sponsors the study of tropical cultures around the world

The Dutch East Indies (Dutch: Nederlands-Indië) was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Dutch government in 1800.






During the 19th century, Dutch possessions and hegemony were expanded, reaching their greatest territorial extent in the early 20th century. This colony which later formed modern-day Indonesia was one of the most valuable European colonies under the Dutch Empire's rule,[4] and contributed to Dutch global prominence in spice and cash crop trade in 19th to early 20th century. The colonial social order was based on rigid racial and social structures with a Dutch elite living separate but linked to their native subjects.

15 aug 2012

Film in India

 

Script, direction and montage: Nandini Bedi
Camera: Gargi Trivedi
Sound: Chandrashekhar
Recorded: 2007

This film is on display in the exhibition Round about India in the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam (The Netherlands)

14 aug 2012

Ballon pilote





A video mashup (also written as video mash-up) is the combination of multiple sources of videos which usually have no relation with each other than a derivative work, often lampooning its component sources or another text. Many mashup videos are humorous movie trailer parodies, a later genre of mashups gaining much popularity.

Images in Avignon



Avignon Festival
A famous theatre festival is held annually in Avignon. Founded in 1947, the Avignon Festival comprises traditional theatrical events as well as other art forms such as dance, music, and cinema, making good use of the town's historical monuments. Every summer approximately 100,000 people attend the festival.[citation needed] There are really two festivals that take place: the more formal "Festival In", which presents plays inside the Palace of the Popes and the more bohemian "Festival Off", which is known for its presentation of largely undiscovered plays and street performances.



12 aug 2012

One minute Amsterdam



The One Minutes were launched in 1998 and by now it has developed into a global network with makers from 100 countries and an archive of 10000 video works that are shown (inter) nationally on many podia. Its core activity is the annual competition for the best One Minutes. Additionally The One Minutes realizes television programs, exhibitions, dvd-releases, lectures, workshops, internet tv and websites. The One Minutes foundation manages a wealth of images, facilities, contacts and experiences and would like to share this with third parties.

http://www.theoneminutes.org/



11 aug 2012

Autour d'Anduze


The Cevennes region is rich in high-quality local produce, a history of isolation and poverty having long driven the populations of these mountains and valleys towards the need for self-sufficiency. And these times are not that far in the past ... Thus, out of sheer necessity, many local skills and traditional techniques of production have survived.



9 aug 2012

On the riverside of Amsterdam



We get our ideas from what I’m going to call for a moment our unconscious — the part of our mind that goes on working, for example, when we’re asleep. So what I’m saying is that if you get into the right mood, then your mode of thinking will become much more creative. But if you’re racing around all day, ticking things off a list, looking at your watch, making phone calls and generally just keeping all the balls in the air, you are not going to have any creative ideas.” ~ John Cleese



Poterie du Gard



Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery (plural "potteries"). Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery.




The definition of pottery used by ASTM is "all fired ceramic wares that contain clay when formed, except technical, structural, and refractory products." Some archaeologists use a different understanding by excluding ceramic objects such as figurines which are made by similar processes, materials and the same people but are not vessels.


8 aug 2012

Making of Titanic-film



There have been several proposals and studies for a project to build a replica ship based on the Titanic. A project by South African businessman Sarel Gaus was abandoned in 2006, and a project by Australian businessman Clive Palmer was announced in 2012, known as the Titanic II. In late 2014 it was announced that the project has been abandoned due to low funding.

A Chinese firm named "Seven Star" commenced a project in January 2014 to build a replica of the Titanic for use as part of a water-front theme park. The ship will take on passengers and then, without actually leaving port, it will simulate being struck by an iceberg and sinking. The project has been criticised as being in "poor taste".





4 aug 2012

Streetcar Nostalgia



The term nostalgia describes a sentimental longing for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of νόστος (nóstos), meaning "homecoming", a Homeric word, and ἄλγος (álgos), meaning "pain, ache". It was described as a medical condition, a form of melancholy, in the Early Modern period, and became an important trope in Romanticism.
Nostalgia, in its most common form, was responsible for the old front desk of The Beverly Hills Hotel (from 1942 to 1979) being made into a bar.




In common, less clinical usage, nostalgia sometimes includes a general interest in past eras and their personalities and events, especially the "good old days," such as a sudden image, or remembrance of something from one's childhood.

The scientific literature on nostalgia is quite thin, but there are a few studies that have attempted to pin down the essence of nostalgia, and the reasons that we feel that warm glow when recalling the past. Smell and touch are also strong evokers of nostalgia and memories in general due to the processing of these stimuli first passing through the amygdala, the emotional seat of the brain. These recollections of our past are usually important events, people we care about, and places where we have spent time. Music can also be a strong trigger of nostalgia.



 

3 aug 2012

Colliage du Sud



In colorfilm, light-sensitive chemicals or electronic sensors record color information at the time of exposure. This is usually done by analyzing the spectrum of colors into three channels of information, one dominated by red, another by green and the third by blue, in imitation of the way the normal human eye senses color. The recorded information is then used to reproduce the original colors by mixing together various proportions of red, green and blue light (RGB color, used by video displays, digital projectors and some historical photographic processes), or by using dyes or pigments to remove various proportions of the red, green and blue which are present in white light (CMY color, used for prints on paper and transparencies on film).


31 jul 2012

Mosel Treffpunkt



16:9 (1.77:1) (generally named as "Sixteen-Nine", "Sixteen-by-Nine" and "Sixteen-to-Nine") is the international standard format of HDTV, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television PALplus. Japan's Hi-Vision originally started with a 5:3 ratio but converted when the international standards group introduced a wider ratio of 5⅓ to 3 (=16:9). Many digital video cameras have the capability to record in 16:9, and 16:9 is the only widescreen aspect ratio natively supported by the DVD standard.



30 jul 2012

Traject en Ardeche




Filming- TIPS:

- Check your camera battery on a regular basis



- Check diskspace on your memory card
- Clean your lens with a soft cloth when you're not filming
- Set your camera in manual mode for more control
- Don't talk during filming...so stupid

- Shut down your computer and start filming!


 

28 jul 2012

Once upon a time: Trams



A tram (also known. as a tramcar, streetcar, trolley car) is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns. Trams very occasionally also carry freight. Trams are usually lighter and shorter than conventional trains and rapid transit trains.



Most trams today use electrical power, usually fed by a pantograph; in some cases by a sliding shoe on a third rail or trolley pole. If necessary, they may have several power systems. Certain types of cable car are also known as trams. Another power source is diesel; a few trams use electricity in the streets and diesel in more rural environments. Also steam and petrol (gasoline) have been used. Horse and mule driven trams do still occur.





 

26 jul 2012

Rhone valley



Before railroads and highways were developed, the Rhone was an important inland trade and transportation route, connecting the cities of Arles, Avignon, Valence, Vienne and Lyon to the Mediterranean ports of Fos, Marseille and Sète. Travelling down the Rhone by barge would take three weeks. By motorized vessel, the trip now takes only three days. The Rhône is classified as a class V waterway from the mouth of the Saône river to the sea.
In French, the adjective derived from the river is rhodanien, which is the name of the long, straight Saône and Rhone river valleys, a deep cleft running due south to the Mediterranean and separating the Alps from the Massif Central.

23 jul 2012

Tulips from Amsterdam



The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is the world's largest documentary film festival held annually since 1988 in Amsterdam.

The festival was initially held at the Leidseplein area in the centre of Amsterdam. The festival has since spread to a number of other locations.




The objective of the IDFA is to promote creative documentaries and to present them to as wide an audience as possible. It started as a small festival and has grown to an eleven-day festival, screening more than 200 documentaries and attracting nearly 120,000 visitors.

Apart from its international film program, the variety of genres and the many European and world premieres featured each year, the festival also hosts debates, forums and workshops



Hawai dreams




Islands : Oahu / Maui / Kauai / Big Island
Country : Hawaii (USA)
When : January 2012


Time-lapse photography is a technique whereby the frequency at which film frames are captured (the frame rate) is much lower than that used to view the sequence. When played at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus lapsing. For example, an image of a scene may be captured once every second, then played back at 30 frames per second. The result is an apparent 30-times speed increase. Time-lapse photography can be considered the opposite of high speed photography or slow motion.

Processes that would normally appear subtle to the human eye, e.g. the motion of the sun and stars in the sky, become very pronounced. Time-lapse is the extreme version of the cinematography technique of undercranking, and can be confused with stop motion animation.

dance 

22 jul 2012

Leader




A film leader is a length of film attached to the head or tail of a film to assist in threading a projector or telecine. Leader attached to the beginning of a reel is sometimes known as a head leader, or simply head, and leader attached to the end of a reel known as a tail leader or foot leader, or simply tail or foot.
A universal film leader is a head leader designed for both television and theatrical motion picture exhibition applications. This not only includes the countdown, but technical information about the film, including, but not limited to title, studio, production number, aspect ratio, sound level and mix, reel number and color.
Head leaders are marked with visual and audio information that may be used to ensure that the correct amount of time is allowed for the machine to run up to speed and arrive at the beginning of the program or movie. They generally feature a countdown.

21 jul 2012

Chalons Champions





Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory. A character origin flashback shows key events early in a character's development. In the opposite direction, a flashforward reveals events that will occur in the future. The technique is used to create suspense in a story, or develop a character.
In movies and television, several camera techniques and special effects have evolved to alert the viewer that the action shown is from the past; for example, the edges of the picture may be deliberately blurred, photography may be jarring or choppy, or unusual coloration or sepia tone, or monochrome when most of the story is in full color, may be used.


19 jul 2012

West Bank


January 2012

In 2011, volunteers in B'Tselem's camera project filmed over 500 hours of footage in the West Bank. Here are two minutes we collected from it, to sum up the last year.

Music: Einav Jackson Cohen
Additional editing: Noa Barak

Citizen journalism is the concept of members of the public "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information.
The intent of this participation is to provide independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information that a democracy requires.

Citizen journalism is a specific form of citizen media as well as user generated content.
The idea behind citizen journalism is that people without professional journalism training can use the tools of modern technology and the global distribution of the Internet to create, augment or fact-check media on their own or in collaboration with others. For example, you might write about a city council meeting on your blog or in an online forum. Or you could fact-check a newspaper article from the mainstream media and point out factual errors or bias on your blog. Or you might snap a digital photo of a newsworthy event happening in your town and post it online. Or you might videotape a similar event and post it on a site such as YouTube.



18 jul 2012

the Street



There’s no great mystery to scouting good locations for a film. There’s no template that tells you exactly how to do it, either. Many of the requirements for a location will be in the script. Finding them is down to marshalling your resources. If you know the area where you are looking, you are well on your way, If you don’t, a good starting point is people who do know it well.




10 jul 2012

Vues de Chalons/Saone



The First Photograph
On a summer day in 1827, Joseph Nicephore Niepce made the first photographic image with a camera obscura. Prior to Niepce people just used the camera obscura for viewing or drawing purposes not for making photographs. Joseph Nicephore Niepce's heliographs or sun prints as they were called were the prototype for the modern photograph, by letting light draw the picture.

Niepce placed an engraving onto a metal plate coated in bitumen, and then exposed it to light. The shadowy areas of the engraving blocked light, but the whiter areas permitted light to react with the chemicals on the plate. When Niepce placed the metal plate in a solvent, gradually an image, until then invisible, appeared. However, Niepce's photograph required eight hours of light exposure to create and after appearing would soon fade away.


9 jul 2012

Filmarchives



filmarchives online provides easy and free access to catalogue information of film archives from all over Europe. Via the multi-lingual web portal film works can be searched for by content, filmographic data and physical characteristics. Search results provide information about existence and location of the materials as well as contact details to facilitate the access. The focus of the database is on non-fiction material; i.e. documentary and educational films, newsreels, travelogue, advertising, scientific, industrial, experimental, sports films, as well as animation films.


8 jul 2012

Along the Moselle



Filmmaking is the process of making a film. The nature of the film determines the size and type of crew required during filmmaking. Many Hollywood adventure films employ a cast and crew of thousands and have complicated computer generated imagery (CGI), while a low-budget, independent film may be made with a skeleton crew, often paid very little. Filmmaking takes place all over the world using different technologies and techniques, and is produced in a variety of economic contexts that range from state-sponsored documentary in China to profit-oriented movie making within the American studio system




7 jul 2012

2000 years old



Unlike sound for television dramas, a motion picture normally records only the dialog (the spoken words) during production. All the other sounds are created in post production. This gives greater freedom when editing the dialog. Therefore, the natural sounds of the environment need to be added. This is especially true if the scene was recorded on a sound stage at the motion picture studio where the background sounds are never natural or realistic. The sound of the environment is the ambience and must be recorded in a real location. Even though ambience is very soft in the background, a scene will feel flat without it.
Ambience is also sometimes referred to as "room tone."

 

5 jul 2012

Pictures of Ghent



Both film and digital have their respective advantages and disadvantages. Digital photography provides instant results, and combining this with a notebook computer means the results can be viewed instantly by the photographer, crew and cast. The choice often comes down to personal preference, but is sometimes dictated by the stills photographer's brief. Medium and large format cameras are often used for a higher quality image although 35mm is usually sufficient, and is often used for speed and ease of use. Large format cameras - considered superior in terms of image quality - is a slower medium, and often hard to use on a busy set. Generally the equipment will suit the type of shots required. If the shots are "reportage" style, then 35mm is advantageous. High-quality cast / set shots can be taken on medium/large especially for very large poster/billboard reproductions.



Donnerwetter



Narrative Music
Narrative music is completely different. Narrative music is music which tells a story and acts like one of the actors in the scene. Narrative music can have themes which are very short melodies which are associated with an actor or an action.

Narrative music can only go in gaps between the dialog of the actors because it is too strong to be placed on top of dialog. That is why, if you want to add narrative music, you must go back to the rough edit and add the correct gaps between the dialog of the actors.



How long should the gap be? How long should the narrative music be? You must make the music, and then create the gap to fit the music. The only way that you will know the correct length of the gap is if you work closely with the composer during the editing of the scene... or if you are the composer!!!! This is why the best film editors also are great film composers (or at least understand film score composing). It is really not that hard so try! (It takes a lot of time though. But it will make your edits better.

4 jul 2012

Saint-Jean-du-Gard


In filmmaking, the 180° rule is a basic guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between a character and another character or object within a scene. An imaginary line called the axis connects the characters and by keeping the camera on one side of this axis for every shot in the scene, the first character will always be frame right of the second character, who is then always frame left of the first. If the camera passes over the axis, it is called crossing the line or jumping the line.



3 jul 2012

Arena of Nimes



The Arena of Nîmes is a Roman amphitheater found in the French city of Nîmes. Built around 70 AD, it was remodeled in 1863 to serve as a bullring. The building encloses an elliptical central space 133 m long by 101 m wide. It is ringed by 34 rows of seats supported by a vaulted construction. It has a capacity of 16,300 spectators.



As the Empire fell, the amphitheater was fortified by the Visigoths and surrounded by a wall. During the turbulent years that followed the collapse of Visigoth power in Hispania and Septimania, not to mention the Muslim invasion and subsequent conquest by the French kings in the mid eighth century, the viscounts of Nîmes constructed a fortified palace within the amphitheater. Seven hundred people lived within the amphitheater during the apex of its service as an enclosed community. The buildings remained in the amphitheatre until the eighteenth century, when the decision was made to convert the amphitheatre into its present form.

16 jun 2012

Morbid



An anatomical theatre was usually a room of roughly amphitheatrical shape, in the centre of which would stand the table on which the dissections of human or animal bodies took place. Around this table were several circular, elliptic or octagonal tiers with railings, where students or other observers could stand and get a good view of the dissection almost from above and unencumbered by the spectators in the rows in front.
The first anatomical theatre was built at the University of Padua in 1594 and is still preserved. Other early examples include the Theatrum Anatomicum of Leiden University, built in 1596 and the Anatomical Theatre of the Archiginnasio in Bologna The anatomical theatre completed in 1663 by medical professor and amateur architect Olaus Rudbeck for the University of Uppsala is located in the idiosyncratic cupola which Rudbeck placed on top of the Gustavianum building, at the time the main building of the university.

Common wisdom in filmmaking dictates that if we leave terrifying ideas up to the audience’s imagination, they can fill in the gaps and have an even more thrilling experience than if given all pieces of the puzzle at once. This philosophy dictated Hitchcock’s style, and worked to great effect in films like Spielberg’s Jaws where the antagonist is rarely even seen.


7 jun 2012

Scenic Ghent


Subjective camera: The camera is used in such a way as to suggest the point of view of a particular character.



High- or low-angle shots indicate where she or he is looking from
a panoramic or panning shot suggests she or he is surveying the scene
a tracking shot or a hand-held camera shot signifies the character on motion.


3 jun 2012

Ghent North northwest



In cinematography, a take refers to each filmed "version" of a particular shot or "setup". Takes of each shot are generally numbered starting with "take one" and the number of each successive take is increased (with the director calling for "take two" or "take eighteen") until the filming of the shot is completed.

A one-take occurs when the entire scene is shot satisfactorily the first time, whether by necessity (as with certain expensive special effects) or by happy accident.



Film takes are often designated with the aid of a clapperboard. It is also referred to as the slate. The number of each take is written or attached to the clapboard, which is filmed briefly prior to or at the beginning of the actual take. Only takes which are vetted by the continuity person and/or script supervisor are printed and are sent to the film editor.



1 jun 2012

Fly with me


Film-related podcasts for film-makers.

Creative Cow: Useful creative tech news. In depth interviews.


Filmmaking Central: Podcast from an independent filmmaker, good on the filmmaking process itself.

KCRW's The Business: US-centric high-quality podcast about the movie industry.

KCRW's The Treatment: Interesting discussions with screenwriters.

Creative Screenwriting Magazine.