Friday, June 24, 2011

Tips for Making Your First Short Film

In the world of film, "time and space" can be manipulated and appear much longer or shorter than what it would be in the real world. Directors are able to manipulate the camera, so as to make the audience believe something is real, when it is not. Also, they are able to make a decade seem like just one day. This is the quality of the shoot.

Here's an important tip to learn when attempting to shoot your first short movie.

DIRECTIONAL CONTINUITY

When a man walks from his house to a neighbor's house, he walks in a straight line in reality. In a film, he can be shot from different angles.

In reality, if you are a bystander looking at a man walking from his house to the neighbor's house from left to right and you cross the street, you will now see him going from right to left.

In a movie, a man going from his house to his neighbor's house will be filmed as going from left to right.

In the next shot, the man is seen going from right to left, it will seem that he is going back to his house instead of continuing on to his neighbour's house. This is because the screen is two-dimensional so the viewer cannot literally "cross the street" and look from the other side without getting disoriented.

This is where the rule of "not crossing the line" comes in.

In making movies, you have to shoot from only one side of the line, to maintain directional continuity

When shooting movies, you should aim to shoot from different angles,and play around with them...

If you saw the film Inception, directed by Christopher Nolan (director of the Batman movies) up for an Oscar this year, you will have noticed how this movie was shot from several different perspectives, not just angles, but the camera was always making the viewer feel he was looking from a different angle...

The Matrix is another fine example of this 'directional continuity', too...

So when shooting movies, you have to ask yourself, where will be the best shot in the frame. Working this out using story boards is a great idea, as you can envisage where exactly the best angle will be to shoot the actors when on location.

NEXT, if you are interested in gaining more insight into the world of film making, then grab a FREE TEASER GUIDE and NEWSLETTER by clicking the link below... http://www.createyourfirstfilm.com/


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