Film Paper Assignments (Jacobs sections)

Paper #2 – (5 pages) - Worth 40 points – Due November 24^th, 2009

-Write an essay exploring camerawork and editing in one brief (5 to 10-minute) continuous segment from one of the films listed below. Your analysis should consider some of the issues discussed in Barsam’s Looking at Movies chapter 4 (summarized in the “Analyzing Cinematography” sidebar on p. 192) and chapter 6 (summarized in the “Analyzing Editing” sidebar on p. 270). Do not bother to explain trivia or technical facts about the film’s production or special effects. Instead, you should analyze the segment you choose by watching it repeatedly to discover how and why it works on you as a viewer. You should consider how the segment functions both as a self-contained unit and within the film as a whole. It might be instructive to count the number of shots in your sequence and time how long each one is. To help you decide exactly what to write, you will want to ask yourself some questions: Does the camera remain stationary or does it move through the setting (and if so, how and why?), or does it do both at different times? Where is the camera positioned in the scene, how does it frame the actors and props, and how does the choice of lens affect the way they appear? How long is each take? Does the average shot length change at different parts of the scene, or is it substantially different from other sections of the film? What sorts of transitions are used between shots? Why do the shots change at any given point (whether through editing to another shot or moving the camera without cutting) instead of at some other point in time? What do the camerawork and editing contribute to the emotional impact of the scene? To the organization of space? Of time? Of narrative causality? Of character psychology? Of audience identification? Do certain shot compositions seem to recur throughout the film in ways that suggest a symbolic interpretation? (You will obviously not be able to address all of these questions in such a short paper but you should consider which ones might be most relevant to your scene before preparing your analysis). Be sure to relate how the particular scene you analyze fits into the style, structure, and/or purpose of the overall film. BE SURE TO USE SPECIFIC EXAMPLES FROM THE FILM to support any statements you make!!

-You will need to see one of the following films—many are available at local video stores or the Grand Forks Public Library, but others may need to be special-ordered:

CINEMATOGRAPHY & EDITING

SCENE ANALYSIS PAPER 2:

The Birth of a Nation, Broken Blossoms, Victory (1919), Orphans of the Storm, The Cheat (1915), The Golden Chance, The Whispering Chorus, Battleship Potemkin, Lazybones, October, Sunrise, The Unknown, Three’s a Crowd, Hindle Wakes, Cottage on Dartmoor, Siren of the Tropics, The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), Pandora’s Box, Man With The Movie Camera, Redskin, Mystery of the Wax Museum (NOTE: on same DVD as its 1953 remake House of Wax), Doctor X, Footlight Parade, Dames, Flying Down to Rio, Rich and Strange, Number Seventeen, Design for Living, The Sin of Nora Moran, Cleopatra (1934 version), Kiss and Make-Up, Peter Ibbetson, Mad Love (1935), The General Died at Dawn, Young and Innocent, Scarlet Street, The Seventh Victim, Mildred Pierce, The Third Man, The Set-Up, Gilda, His Kind of Woman, The Thing From Another World, Affair in Trinidad, The Wages of Fear, Anchors Aweigh, The Band Wagon, The Seven Year Itch, Funny Face, Auntie Mame, Night of the Hunter, The Fall of the House of Usher,In Cold Blood, Cool Hand Luke, El Mariachi, Kiss or Kill, Natural Born Killers, Days of Heaven, Badlands, The Thin Red Line, Barry Lyndon, All That Jazz, The Ice Man Cometh, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Manhattan, Stardust Memories, Shadows and Fog, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Paper Moon, The Last Picture Show, Oliver Twist (1947 or 1922 versions only), Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1920, 1931, or 1941 versions), The Mummy (1932 version only), The Stranger (1946), Othello (Orson Welles version), I Am Cuba, Contempt, Woodstock, Zardoz, Don’t Look Now, What’s Up Doc, Persona, Dead Ringers, Audition, Dark City, Metropolis (restored Kino Video version only), L’Avventura, The Passenger, Once Upon a Time in the West, A Room With a View, Blade Runner, Schindler’s List, The Man Who Wasn’t There, Sleepy Hollow, Ghost World, Eraserhead, Mulholland Drive, U-Turn, Pleasantville, The Mission, Excalibur, King Arthur (2004 director’s cut), Burnt By the Sun, Dead Man, Novocaine, Napoleon Dynamite, Far From Heaven, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Open Water, Sin City, Poseidon, King Kong (2005 version only),Monster House, Minority Report, The Mummy Returns, We Were Soldiers, Master and Commander, Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith, August Rush, No Country for Old Men, Boundless, Looking for Lillian, Vengeance of the Sorceress, Miss Mystic, Dark Highways, Dangers from Within, Good Night and Good Luck, The Good German, Babel, The Nativity Story, Apocalypto, The Messengers, The Reaping, Pathfinder, Atonement, Ratatouille, Belle Toujours, Heartbeat Detector, Redbelt,, Sweet Land, Volver, Curse of the Golden Flower, Kingdom of Heaven, Enchanted, Juno, Inland Empire, Planet Terror, Kill Bill (either Volume 1 or 2), Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (either 1936 or 2007 version), Dreamgirls, Across the Universe, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, 3:10 to Yuma (either 1957 or 2007 version), V for Vendetta, The Dark Knight, Black Snake Moan,The Devil Wears Prada, Cloverfield, Ironman, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Tropic Thunder, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Wrestler, Taken, Star Trek (2009)

OPTION 2) -- One ten-page (4000 to 5000-word) research paper

(two alternative topics – consult with instructor for approval) :
Recommended only for more advanced and/or ambitious film students, especially English majors, History majors, students who wish there were a film studies major, and those who enjoy tracking down sources and information. People who are both fanatics about correct details and who really love movies will have a decided advantage over average students.

NOTE: To avoid a mid-term deficiency for having a missing paper mid-semester, you must submit a one-page status report of how your research and film-watching is coming along by October 13^th. Be sure to start locating and watching the necessary films and reading the necessary sources immediately (as in “yesterday” and today, if possible).

WARNING: Doing either of the ten-page paper options will require active research, including outside readings (in the library, not only on-line) and film viewings, and will realistically take several weeks to complete. (While the internet can help you get started, believe it or not most books and articles are simply not available to read on the internet in any form, and on-line sources are often incomplete, misleading, or downright wrong!) Some films may not be available locally and will need to be special-ordered. You CAN NOT expect to put off starting this assignment until the week before it’s due! It is required that you consult with your instructor before choosing this option.

Worth 80 points -- Due November 24^th, 2009

RESEARCH PAPER OPTION 2A-Write a 10-page survey of the career of one of the following major directors. You will need to watch at least seven or eight feature-length films made by the director you choose, including at least one or two from his early career, one or two from his middle career, and one or two from his late career. Ten to twelve features evenly distributed throughout his career would be even better, if possible, especially for those who made films for 50-60 years. Directors you may choose from include: D. W. Griffith, Cecil B. DeMille, Erich von Stroheim, Charles Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Frank Capra, John Ford, Howard Hawks, Frank Borzage, Allan Dwan, William Wellman, William Wyler, Orson Welles, Ingmar Bergman, François Truffaut, Abel Gance, Michelangelo Antonioni, Akira Kurosawa, Sergei Eisenstein, Stanley Kubrick, Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, or Ernst Lubitsch. (NOTE: with filmmakers like Chaplin and Griffith who made many short films as well as features, you may watch FOUR short films of 10-20 min. each instead of ONE feature, eight shorts instead of two features, etc. Try not to pick every title at random, but look for as many titles as possible that seem to be representative of the director’s work in each period in his career. That way you will be better able to assess how any random titles you pick fit into that director’s style. Books and articles on the directors are likely to mention key titles that are typical of their work. Several of these directors have had multi-disc DVD sets devoted to various segments of their careers, but these are often limited to brief periods or single studios, so don’t forget to find titles from the beginning, middle, and end of your director’s filmmaking career. You should also be aware that it may be difficult or impossible to find many titles by these filmmakers in Grand Forks video stores. ADDITIONAL NOTE: since some of these directors also wrote or acted in other directors’ films, be sure to discuss only the films they actually directed)

WHAT TO WRITE: This paper should begin with a brief overview of the director (about one page), including discussion of some of the distinguishing trademarks in the director’s work (themes and subject material, recurring motifs, character types, visual style, editing style, levels of meaning, autobiographical content, etc.). Then write about one or two pages of discussion (NOT SYNOPSES) on each of the films you viewed, beginning with the oldest and progressing chronologically to the latest, explaining how each illustrates or departs from the director’s typical approach. Another way of organizing your paper could be to treat the director’s themes and techniques one at a time in the order of importance you feel they belong (and explaining why you rank them that way), giving examples from each of the films you saw before moving on to the next theme or technique. This approach may be more appropriate for directors who write their own scripts, but may be useful for directors who collaborated with one or two screenwriters and/or actors on many of their major films. It might also be worthwhile to explain how the director handles one or more of the specific filmmaking concepts covered in your textbook (using appropriate SPECIFIC EXAMPLES from the films). Your conclusion need only be about a page or so to present your personal evaluation of the director’s work, always using specific examples from the films to illustrate your points. Be sure to include specific examples from each film that support any assertions you make about it. Do NOT write a synopsis of any of the films! Describe instead the scenes that illustrate your points. NOTE: You must include an additional page citing the reference works that you consulted and the editions of the films you watched (identifying the video release companies & video release dates/versions, since different editions may vary in content or quality). Also note the warning below about relying on other sources. Check at least several different encyclopedia entries and if possible one or more of the biographical references they cite. Be aware that on-line references like the IMDB and especially Wikipedia are not always trustworthy sources for specific data, and are merely a useful starting point for basic information. Even comprehensive and fairly well-respected publications like the AFI Catalog and the CineBooks Motion Picture Guide contain obvious plot and cast/credit errors (some of them incredibly major mistakes) for a substantial number of entries, which you should make note of in your paper if you notice them. They also describe films that no longer exist in any form and others that survive only in fragments. (In other words, you’d better BE SURE TO WATCH any films you describe!) Incorrect information on films or directors will reduce your grade, so be sure to check more than one or two sources for any facts you present, and watch any films you describe yourself, carefully rewatching the key scenes you mention, rather than relying on someone else’s possibly inaccurate published description (and cite your sources). See note below about adding an 11^th page bibliography.

RESEARCH PAPER OPTION 2B-Write a 10-page survey of the scholarship on and critical reaction to one of the major films of cinema history listed below. (A few title choices include comparing the remake or revised re-issue.) You must first find and watch the film(s), make a few brief notes on your personal reactions, and then seek out and read at least TWO or more reviews written at the time it was first released PLUS three or more written over the years between that time and the present—the more, the better. (HINT: The Chester Fritz Library has hardbound books containing thousands of film reviews from Variety and The New York Times, a separate collection of all other New York Times articles ever published about films, as well as anthologies of various original and later reviews. The 12-volume CineBooks Motion Picture Guide has a brief and often highly opinionated appraisal of almost every sound feature film released in the United States and many silent films. The multi-volume Magill’s Survey of Cinema has critical commentaries on selected noteworthy films. The American Film Institute Catalog of feature films contains credits, synopses, and other data on nearly every film produced in the United States during selected decades, with some volumes including reference citations to specific issues of various contemporary trade magazines (magazines which may or may not be available on microfilm through interlibrary loan). These book collections are all in the main floor reference section. There are also in-depth studies of certain films in the regular film section books upstairs in the PN shelves with additional reviews, citations, and data. These make reviews much easier to find than tracking down the actual newspaper, magazine, and journal articles on microfilm. A few journals have been put on line by their publishers and are subscribed to by the Chester Fritz Library, and thus accessible through the library computers. Sometimes original-era reviews can be found on line for certain films, most often at websites created by fans and/or authorities on specific eras, stars, directors, or genres (“Google” can be a useful tool for preliminary research). However, ON-LINE SOURCES ARE INADEQUATE for this sort of research and can often take much longer than looking up reviews and extracts from original sources conveniently collected in the reference books mentioned above. Be aware that on-line references, including the IMDB and especially Wikipedia, are not always trustworthy sources for specific data, and are merely a convenient, useful starting point for very basic information. Even comprehensive and fairly well-respected publications like the AFI Catalog and the CineBooks Motion Picture Guide contain obvious plot and cast/credit errors (some of them major) for a substantial number of entries, and even respected historians sometimes confuse film titles, actors, scenes, or versions of a movie in published reference books. Be sure to make note of such mistakes in your paper if you notice them. (Before the age of home video, professional reviews, articles and books were written from memory after the author’s most recent viewings or through researching earlier reviews, and details could not easily be checked for accuracy by either the writer or the reader! You have a definite advantage in being able to go back instantly to whatever part of a movie you are writing about, or reading about, to watch it again as often as you need to, even with audio commentaries or alternate sound tracks, slowing it down, speeding it up, or viewing frame by frame.)

After finding reviews form the film’s original release and comments written some years later, look for later, more recent analyses and commentaries from a variety of sources, including film reference books, biographical books or articles about the director, collections of film criticism, books dealing with the genre the film falls into, etc. (A few directors and even select individual films actually have books devoted to them –for example, The Complete Films of Cecil B. DeMille, Focus on Chaplin, Focus on D. W. Griffith, Focus on The Birth of a Nation, etc.—that conveniently reprint a variety of reviews, quotes, and commentaries, both contemporary and more recent!) After reading several reactions, watch the film again two or three times, re-evaluate it, and start to formulate an understanding of the film’s overall critical reputation. If the DVD has an audio commentary track, be sure to watch it at least once with the commentary and explore any additional supplementary materials the disc includes, especially documentaries that have interviews with the filmmakers. If you choose a silent film that has more than one choice of musical accompaniment (e.g., Pandora’s Box, The General, Nosferatu) watch it at least once with each soundtrack.

Your paper should begin with your own initial reaction to the film, for perhaps the first page. Do NOT write a synopsis of the plot! You may, however, refer to important plot elements in your evaluation of the film. Your next page or two should discuss contemporary reaction to the film when it first came out. The remainder of the paper should recount a substantial number of later opinions about the film over the years, and then a few present-day reactions, comparing and contrasting them with each other and with the film’s initial reception. If appropriate, perhaps also note any circumstances that might have affected certain viewers’ opinions. Your final page may summarize your own feelings about the film and your understanding of it, but should mainly discuss how it may (or may not) have changed or been influenced by multiple viewings and by reading other critical commentary. NOTE: Be sure to include one additional page listing the sources you consulted, including which DVD edition(s) of the film you saw (i.e., the body of your paper should be 10 pages but you will have 11 pages to hand in). This bibliography can follow any formal standard you normally use for other classes (e.g., MLA, Turabian, Chicago Manual of Style, etc.).

Films to choose from include: The Cheat (1915 version, but you may compare the 1931 version if you wish), The Birth of a Nation (be sure to see either the Kino or Image DVD and NOT a public domain “bargain-brand” or the heavily revised 1930 or 1940 “sound” reissues unless you decide to view them specifically to compare with the full-length silent version, which survives only in a 1920s somewhat abridged reissue of the 1915 original version), Intolerance, J’Accuse (1919 version), Broken Blossoms, The Oyster Princess, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu (try to see Kino’s “Ultimate” restoration of the 1922 film, as well as one or more other DVD versions), Battleship Potemkin (compare 2007 restoration of 1925 original with one or more previous reissues, since critical reactions have been based upon differing versions), Greed, The Iron Horse (compare original American cut and slightly modified British cut), The Last Laugh (Der Letzte Mann), The Gold Rush (1925 version and revised 1940 reissue), The Lost World (1925 version – best restored edition is included as bonus with the 1960 remake), The Phantom of the Opera (1925 version and 1930 revised reissue), Ben-Hur (1926 version), The Niebelungen (in two parts: Siegfried and Kriemhild’s Revenge), The General (1927), The Jazz Singer (1927 version), The King of Kings (1927 premiere version and 1929 shortened reissue), Sunrise, City Girl, The Godless Girl, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Redskin, Pandora’s Box, The Broadway Melody (1929), Applause, In Old Arizona, The Blue Angel (Der Blaue Engel – NOTE: the Kino DVD has both the English-language and German-language versions made with the same cast, so be sure to watch both), The Big Trail (compare the 70mm widescreen version with the 35mm standard screen version shot simultaneously, and if possible compare it to the 1923 film The Covered Wagon), All Quiet on the Western Front (1930 version), Hell’s Angels (1930), Dracula (1930 version), M, City Lights, Doctor Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (compare 1931 and 1941 versions, on same DVD, and if possible one or both of the two different 1920 versions as well) The Old Dark House (1932 version), Grand Hotel, Modern Times, Cavalcade, The Sin of Nora Moran, King Kong (1933 version – if desired, you can view also the recreation of the lost “spider pit” sequence done as a bonus feature for the special edition DVD), Design for Living, It Happened One Night, The Black Cat (1934 version), The Bride of Frankenstein, Grand Illusion, Only Angels Have Wings, Stagecoach (1939 version), Meet John Doe, The Grapes of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley, The Maltese Falcon (compare the 1931 and 1941 versions, and if desired also the 1936 version Satan Met a Lady), Double Indemnity, The Big Sleep (1946 released version, compare 1945 pre-release cut if desired), Hail the Conquering Hero, The Ox-Bow Incident, Children of Paradise, The Third Man, D.O.A. (1950 version), Rashomon (compare with American remake The Outrage, if desired), All About Eve, Sunset Boulevard, Quo Vadis?, On the Waterfront, The Ten Commandments (compare 1923 and 1956 versions), Vertigo, The Searchers, Bad Day at Black Rock, The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, The Three Faces of Eve, The 400 Blows, Jules and Jim, Ben-Hur (compare 1926 and 1959 versions), The High and the Mighty, Auntie Mame, Last Year at Marienbad, Contempt (Le Mépris), L’Avventura, Lawrence of Arabia, The Seven Samurai (if desired, compare American remake The Magnificent Seven), Yojimbo (if desired compare with the two remakes: A Fist Full of Dollars and Last Man Standing), Tom Jones, Persona, Dr. Strangelove, 2001: a space odyssey, Midnight Cowboy, Walkabout, The Conformist, The Passenger, Stardust Memories, Interiors, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Brazil (include discussion of the director’s cut and alternate versions released by the studio), Stroszek, Aguirre the Wrath of God, Bagdad Café, Blade Runner (note differences in response to the original 1982 release version and 1992 or 2007 director’s cut), Blue Velvet, Dead Ringers, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (if possible, compare to the 1944 German version “Münchausen”), Do the Right Thing.

OPTION 3) -- Write a screenplay and make a movie!
Recommended for students especially interested in film production and who have both the time and energy to do it!

You will need access to a camcorder and computer with video editing software (already having your own is preferable).

NOTE: This option requires a certain amount of technical know-how, but mainly lots of time, as well as reliable collaborators to serve as cast, crew, and resources for locations and props. (See detailed notes below)

Screenplay worth 40 points - Due October 13^th, 2009

-Write a short screenplay (from five to twenty pages) that incorporates the basic plot elements of exposition, development, crisis, climax, and resolution. USE STANDARD SCREENPLAY FORMATTING (see below). Limit yourself to no more than six main characters (two or three are easier), and settings that you might be able to find around Grand Forks or in your own home town. Include a cover page (500-word maximum) with a 100-word synopsis and a brief narrative analysis “pitching” the movie (200-400 words). A “storyboard” is not necessary, but you may find it useful during the production process. Your synopsis and analysis may be typed in 10 to 12-point Times Roman, Palatino, Garamond, or equivalent font with one-inch page margins, but for the script itself, be sure to use standard screenplay formatting (this must be 12-point Courier type with the conventional indents for scene description, character names, and dialogue). Download the screenplay template on line for a sample with the correct formatting built into a ready-made style menu you can use in Microsoft Word on either a PC or a Mac.

Completed movie worth 40 points - Due December 8^th, 2009

-Produce and direct the movie from your screenplay using digital video equipment to shoot it and a computer to edit it. It should run somewhere between five and thirty minutes when finished. Photography and editing should demonstrate some of the concepts covered in class. A handout is available describing basic “no-budget” production techniques. Turn in the completed movie on a regular DVD (preferred format) or a VCD, a miniDV or Digital 8 tape, an S-VHS or regular VHS tape, or if it is short enough, possibly as full DV-quality (720 pixel by 480 pixel) .avi or .mov file on a CD-ROM (can hold about 2 minutes) or DVD-ROM (can hold about 15-20 minutes). Please do not edit or turn in a web-quality .wmv file or low-resolution .mov file. Student movie projects will be shown in class on the day normally scheduled for final exams. You should also consider entering the annual Forx Film Fest at the Empire Arts Center, the Fargo Film Festival, or submitting your work to be included in one of the Empire’s occasional programs of independent movies or MSU-Moorhead’s weekly cable TV program “Underexposed.” For more details on this project, see below and be sure to talk with your instructor.

MORE on making a movie (see also below)

*IN LIEU OF THESE TERM PAPERS, and after consultation and instructor approval, a student may make a short movie (on video, running approximately 5-15 min.) demonstrating key concepts of narrative filmmaking covered in the class. A finished script of about 5-15 pages in standard screenplay form will be due the same time the first paper would be due, along with a brief narrative analysis of your proposed movie. If you are ambitious enough to write a full-length feature (90-130 pages), you may consider producing a single 5 to 10-minute sequence for your project, or possibly a 3-minute trailer with key moments from various parts of the script. (NOTE, if you use Corel WordPerfect, Wordpad, MS-Works, or some other word processing software instead of Microsoft Word, you may wish to download the .rtf file of the unfinished screenplay exercise on line at this site, or the simpler screenplay sample at this site which may or may not work as a style template with your word processor’s pull-down style menu, and at least will show you the standard format style to follow. Simply delete the existing text and replace it with your own in the appropriate style for easy formatting.) The final project will be due by the week of the last test, turned in on either miniDV or Digital 8 tape, DVD, or as a computer-compatible movie file on a CD or DVD-ROM. You will need access to a camcorder and a personal computer with video editing software. A special handout on “no-budget moviemaking” is available for anyone interested, describing basic considerations and giving some tips and hints to make the process more efficient and your movie more effective. This project will definitely be a great deal more work than the two 5-page papers, and will most likely be more work than a 10-page research paper, but may prove more rewarding and more fun to do for students interested in pursuing a filmmaking career (plus, you’ll wind up with a movie on your resume that you might even want to enter in film festivals, upload to YouTube, or at least send off copies to family and friends).

It is most feasible to make a movie if you already have and are at least somewhat familiar with a digital camcorder (either miniDV or Digital 8) and some sort of NLE computer software (such as Avid Media Composer or Avid Liquid Chrome XE, Adobe Premiere Pro or Premiere Elements, Final Cut Pro or Final Cut Express, Edius, iMovie, Sony Vegas, Pinnacle, Roxio, Windows Movie Maker, etc.). Camcorders that record video to DVD, hard drives, or memory cards as mpeg files require specialized editing software and are not recommended for anything other than simple home movies that are never intended to be edited. (While the initial image may look acceptable, picture quality can decrease substantially during the editing process due to mpeg file decompression and recompression.) HDV and especially AVCHD camcorders can produce impressively sharp original pictures, but also can pose major problems when trying to edit the footage on typical home computers, and even more problems re-encoding it to a standard-resolution final copy that can be played by others. You should know in advance that camcorders using VHS, 8mm, or Hi8 tape require special digital conversion hardware for editing on computer. However, it is still possible to make do with an older analog camcorder if your computer video card has the proper connections and can digitize the analog signal. (You can even use real film if you have lots of money to spend. UND does still have some 16mm film projectors if you shoot on film, but no 8mm or 35mm film equipment.)

Note that editing with a laptop or a low-end computer may require you to use a much lower-resolution image than you actually shot in order to see the action in real time without jerkiness. This will look acceptable only in very small images like those used on the web or ipods. Try to edit at full-quality if at all possible, or your final DVD will be disappointing. Note that when using full DV quality, most computers and editing software (especially low-end software like Windows Moviemaker and Mac’s iMovie) will work best with movies shorter than five minutes and may have difficulties with a movie longer than ten minutes or so. Longer movies can be still done by editing one two- to five-minute sequence at a time, exporting it as a new movie, and assembling all those edited sequences in a new project (including opening and closing credit sequences). This is when you can add your final background music track (if any) for the whole movie. Then export that whole project back to tape and/or as one large full-quality DV file to your hard drive.

IMPORTANT HINTS: You should estimate that it will take approximately an hour to shoot each minute of final running time, plus an additional hour or two to edit each finished minute. For a short movie, this translates into planning a full day or weekend for shooting, and another one for editing, but scheduling difficulties may easily spread that over several days or weeks. The advance planning itself (lining up actors, locations, and props) may be double or triple that time commitment, or even more. In order to complete this type of project within one semester, it’s a good idea to write your screenplay with locations and actors already in mind, and start production early if you wish to use this option. As a producer, your preproduction and production process (arranging for everything to happen) can become extremely time-consuming if actors, props, or locations are difficult to obtain or fall through at the last minute. While not a requirement, your script will be much easier to shoot if you limit your story to between two and six main characters, set it in the present day rather than the past or the future, and use only one to three simple main locations besides any brief establishing or transition shots (e.g., landscapes, cityscapes, building exteriors, cars driving, etc.).

If you do decide to make a movie, the UND English Department does have two Mac computers dedicated to digital video editing with Final Cut Pro and two PCs with Adobe Premiere (all usable with DV or HDV signals but NO analog capture capability). It would be a good idea to bring your own external firewire hard drive if you can’t finish your project in one session, and simply for backup of your files. Priority on these computers is given to students in the movie production classes. Some other university departments may also have computer video editing workstations available. ANOTHER NOTE: If you don’t have a DVD burner, a blank CD-R can hold approximately 2-3 min. of “raw” .avi or Final Cut digital .mov video files (with either separate .wav or .aiff audio files or composite audio), whether this video has already been edited on the computer or simply captured from a camcorder. The same CD-R could hold about 10-15 min. of DVD-quality video that has been encoded to an mpeg-2 file (which will play on a computer and a few DVD players), or close to an hour using a more highly compressed VCD-compliant mpg file (which will play on a number of DVD players). A blank DVD-R that can hold two hours worth of mpeg-2 encoded video will hold only about 20 minutes of DV-quality .avi or .mov files (which take up close to 15 GB per hour). If you have your own computer, it’s a good idea to have a separate 80-100 Gb or larger hard drive dedicated solely to storing your movie files while editing. A terabyte drive (1000 GB) that has both firewire 400 and 800 connection ports (not just USB) will be a good investment if you ever plan to edit more video. BACK UP YOUR FILES OFTEN!! Both PCs and Macs can freeze or shut down your editing software without warning, causing you to lose all the work you’ve done since your last save! SAVE YOUR PROJECT FILE OFTEN and keep an extra updated copy on a USB flash drive after each editing session!! It is strongly recommended that when your final cut is completed you export the entire movie back to DV tape as the least expensive and most reliable backup, before encoding it for DVD. A one-hour miniDV or Digital 8 tape (costing $3 or $4) holds over 12GB worth of full DV-quality audio-video data, along with metadata like timecode, time of day, date, and exposure information. Hard drives can fail, losing all your footage and edited master files, but if you have the original tapes, all you need to do is recapture it from your backed-up project file on a flash drive, and can export a new master. If you have a master DV tape of your final version, all you need to do is play it back into a DVD recorder, or recapture it to author a new DVD.

Try to use software and hardware that will let you edit with full DV quality. If at all possible, avoid using the very highly compressed web-quality .wmv, .mov, .rm, .ram, or .mpg files with lower resolution and/or frame capture rates (even though those may be faster to edit and/or output). A low-powered computer may not be able to display the DV standard image (720x480 pixels at 30 frames per second) with smooth motion or sharp resolution, and certain software may force you to capture it at a lower quality in order to play back and edit. On many computers Windows Movie Maker usually defaults to low-resolution and must be manually set to capture at DV quality. Using an external firewire hard drive can help a lower-powered computer handle large video files. (Note that a hard drive’s USB connection is NOT fast enough for efficient editing!) If you capture and edit at DV quality, Windows Movie Maker can then export your finished movie back to your camcorder at DV quality or save it to disk as a DV-quality .avi file, but older versions do not have DVD encoding capability. The .avi file for a movie of about 10-15 minutes or less can still be copied to one blank DVD. A longer movie will need to be broken up into smaller segments of up to 4 GB per .avi file (unless you have mpeg encoding software or have a standalone DVD recorder that will let you play back your DV tape through a firewire input). If you have an older hard drive or an external drive formatted for FAT32 (which is the only system that can be used interchangeably by both PCs and Macs) then your maximum file size is limited to 2 GB, which is only about 8 or 9 minutes. Note that even with a faster computer, encoding your finished movie to a DVD-quality mpeg file may take five to ten times longer than its total running time. This time is often substantially longer if you are editing HDV and even longer for AVCHD. In this case, it may be easiest to export a native DV, HDV, or AVCHD movie file (whichever format you edited it in) and then copy it to a DVD-ROM (as long as it’s smaller than 4.5 GB). You can also output the finished movie back to digital tape at full quality through the firewire cable to your camcorder, or to analog tape using your computer’s A/V outputs, and make a copy of that to hand in. Note also that for various technical reasons, consumer-model camcorders that record directly on DVDs or memory cards instead of tape are not recommended for video production.

(Still another note: If none of this makes any sense, you should probably consider one of the term paper options! If some of it makes sense, check to see what equipment you already have and ask about the rest!)

Making your own movie can be a highly enjoyable and rewarding experience. With a digital camcorder and a decent computer it is not particularly difficult, but it is extremely time-consuming and can often become mind-numbingly tedious to obtain results that you’ll be proud to show to others. It takes substantial planning, co-operation, and persistence to complete a movie.

MORE on making a movie

BACK to home page