Assignments & Handouts
Final Movie Project
So here we go—ready or not, actually you’re ready: time to pull everything together. Your goal is to create a film adaptation of a favorite story. You want to thoughtfully adapt your film and also do it well from a cinematic point of view. Keep in mind all we’ve tried to absorb about good filmmaking. For this, you may work in teams or alone—though I think teams is the smartest option.
You need to create storyboards, shot lists and informal screenplays. I’ll have these materials available, but you might also make your own.
The expectation is a complete movie, and every group will show at least a scene on Exhibition Day
I’d like the films to have:
Opening Credits—including a based on “Blah blah” by Generic Writer credit
Different types of shots:
e.g., head shot, waist shot, zoom, pan, two-person, close-up, tracking
movement, from above, from below
Transitions
Audio: music (soundtrack?), subjects speaking, narration (voice over?)
End Credits (maybe outtakes?)
The order in which you should work:
Decide whom you’ll work with; pick a story.
Make sure everyone—including Pfouts—has a copy of your story
Brainstorm, generate ideas
Create your storyboard /shot lists and screenplay
Film—take more than you need, shoot scenes from different angles
Import into computer
Order and Edit clips
Add and Extract audio
Add transitions, effects and titles
Fine tune, save into Finished Movies Folder.
Check out The Rubric
Copy Cat Assignment
For this assignment, I want you to try to re-create a short section of a film—hopefully a section of an All about Eve. This will force you to focus on creating a deliberate sequence of shots.
Start by choosing a scene. Once you’ve decided, create a storyboard, shot lists and informal screenplays. I’ll have these materials available, but you might also make your own. The planning process is as important as anything. You need a detailed storyboard with descriptions of each shot.
The order in which you should work:
Pick a group or partner—alone could work too
Decide on a clip to re-create
Watch it again; analyze the shots
Create your storyboard /shot lists
Shoot the footage you need—you may consider doing it out of order
Import into computer
Order and Edit clips
Things to keep in mind:
You should be building your knowledge base
Make shots (like Shot List Draft)
Get better at the software
Develop your editing skills/speed
You may adapt things to keep it in the realm of possibility—i.e. locations actors etc.
Your goal is to create the same shots and effects
Some of my goals and dilemmas
I want you try to reproduce a professional quality sequence.
The assignment forces you to look closely at how the pros do it
Some of the settings from All about Eve are too hard to reproduce.
We have plenty of computers
Enough cameras
Poetry Search
You are going to look for poems by women--that are new to you. You may look online or in the books I have. You should consider the following criteria: newness, adaptability--to video--and overall quality. Your goal is to bring three poems to the group: one from a different country (translations okay), one from a different time period and one "free choice."
Use the links below as starting points. If you find a particular poet you like, see if you can find more of her writing somewhere else. A great example is Emily Dickinson:
Dickinson @ Poets and Poems.com
Some places to start looking for poems
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets_women.html
http://www.poetryfoundation.org
http://wings.buffalo.edu/epc/authors/
http://womenshistory.about.com/library/etext/pindx/blp_aindex.htm
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/thematic_poems/women_poems.html
Literary Magazines--you might find poetry here, but I want you to know about the online literary scene
http://wings.buffalo.edu/epc/mags/
http://www.asu.edu/pipercwcenter/how2journal/
Other ways to find mags: