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THEORY
Storytelling Toolkit: Bringing it all together
- Lighting, Talent-Camera Choreography, Framing & Composition, Lens Choice, Camera Movement
The Medium of Film
- Exposure Basics revisited: Aperture, Shutter, Frame Rate
- Film Formats
- Grains & Pixels – technical and aesthetic considerations compared and contrasted
- Understanding Workpaths:
All-Film
Film-In/Digital-Out
Film-In/Digital/Film-Out
Digital In/Film-Out
Doco
- The role of the camera (and camera crew) in a Doco context
- Objectivity/Subjectivity
Location as a character
Relationship of BG to subject
Framing as a character
Do we judge or do we sympathise?
Are we inside or outside the subject’s world?
Compositing
- Examples of well-shot and poorly-shot elements: deconstruct and analyze
- Post-production considerations (entire workpath needs to be on same page)
TV Commercials
- Brief History
- Categories – each is shot slightly differently; different conventions
Humour / Cars / Beverage / Food / Family-Warmth / Kids / Sport / Animals
…plus much much more!
- Creative workpath / who’s who / what’s at stake
- How commercials are shot
Pace
Creative considerations
Ratio
Relative Budget
$/sec. of screen time
- Protocol
Client / Agency / Director / Production Company

ARTISTRY
More exploration of self as a visual artist
Still photography assignments exploring composition and lighting as emotional tools

THE GEAR
Video Camera
- Parts & pieces of the Panasonic 900: thorough working knowledge
- Menu options: Format, Interlace/Progressive, Gamma, Matrix
Film Camera
- Parts & Pieces: functions & uses
- The Movement
- Prime Lenses
- Accessories: geared heads, FIZ controls,

TECHNIQUES
Genre Emulation
- More shot replicating from films
Emotion Pictures
- Mining a script for Emotional Subtext
- Using the tools (Light, Lens, Placement, Movement) to convey Emotional Subtext
Doco
- Camera Techniques
- Lighting Approaches
Compositing
- Camera considerations
- Lighting considerations
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Conventions of Motion Picture Photography - Narrative

- Historical Precedent – the “Rules”
Ways you might break them (which we encourage)
- How to serve the narrative without being locked into “real world” practicalities - i.e. CHEATING
Geography
Light
Action Axis
Eyelines
TV Commercials
- Pack Shot – each is shot slightly differently, each employing their own conventions
Food / Beverage / Beer / Sportwear / Car / …plus much much more!
- Tabletop
- Scene-integrated tableau
- Product in Use
- Aspirational lifestyle stuff
- Think innovation
- Searching for and finding The Moment (a la Cartier-Bresson)
Film Process (pardon the pun)
- Loading
- Camera Reports
- Protocol differences (from Video)
Equipment handling
Set calls
Director’s Finder
Camera crew duties
Camera Log Book
- Technical and creative approach to EXPOSURE
Film’s response
Lighting considerations
- How colours read
Colour Temp
Other colours
- The Lab
Professional Practise & Procedure
- Safety (cables, electricity, shoes, lifting, hazard-spotting, exhaustion, hydration, common sense)
- Housekeeping Habits (gear organization, cable tidiness, keeping an orderly set)
- Communication (calling-back, clarity, proactivity, anticipation, negotiation, silent set-speak )
- Professional Attitudes (punctuality, can-do, follow-through)

OTHER SHOOTING SITUATIONS

Music Video
Stunts
- Pyro
- Guns
- Fight Scenes
2nd Unit
Inserts
Water
- Shooting it
- Working on water
Vehicles
- Car gags
- Insert Cars
- Aerial photography
Testing
- Things to test for and how to do them
Registration
Exposure
Push/Pull
Film Stocks
Filters
Makeup/Wardrobe
Lens Matching
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PROJECT TEACHING
- Y3 Documentaries: the power of visual sequences; visual contextualising (where do your scenes occur?; where do you
place your subjects?; what do you surround them with?); time and resource management on your self-set schedule
- 16mm Adverts: Lighting and shooting product; The Frame IS the message; camera/subject movement & overall pacing –
a totally different time zone; the power of colour (in the scene, the light on the scene, in front of the lens); exploring
styles: accomplished others, your own, working with a director; producing instant alternate realities
- Video Dance: more on style – the power of movement: melding subject movement and camera movement; unconventional
(but tasteful) lighting approaches
- Y3 Short Films: Shooting to serve the narrative; working with a director to portray/convey/create Emotion; identifying
and manifesting Emotional subtext; the power of Subtlety
- Acting Short Film: modelling a professional shoot
- Y2ShortFilm: supporting others; supportive mentoring (cementing their own learning over the past 2-1/2 years by sharing
it with others). This mirrors the more conventional model of the ways motion picture skills have been handed down
through the generations.
- Monologues: Lighting on your feet.

REQUIRED READING
None as of this date (1st Oct 07), but stay tuned, we might change our minds.