@@TVperson1 somewhat also another revamp of "police squad" (the short-lived TV series that had the feature-fil series "naked gun" as its spin-off), somewhat like Angie Tribeca. The post-it joke is pretty much the kind of literal meaning joke they do all the time.
False. In a porn movie the woman would be dressed much more scantly and talking seductively, acting like the rom-com version without the physical comedy aspect. The "I need this" line would be delivered like some sort of nymphomaniac femme-fatale suffering from an outburst of extreme craving. And the detective would be of course pretty much okay with it. And then the actual porn starts over the table or behind the desk, or both.
"If you want to be a filmmaker, you've got to make films." I wish I could convince my aspiring filmmaker friends of this. Everyone seems to think, "If you want to be a filmmaker, you need lots of really expensive equipment, a big budget for actors and sets, and your rent to be prepaid for 2 years."
You have to prove yourself first, somehow, either by writing scripts or making your own movies or short films. At the end of the day, making movies is a business and the people who put money into want to mimize risk. You need to somehow show these people you know what you're doing and that requires a portfolio of some kind. Think if it's your money on the line, would you go with the guy who has made a couple movies that worked or the guy who says he wants to be a filmmaker?
As a full-time composer for television and video games, I found this presentation extremely informative and have no doubt it will effect my process in future projects. Thank you all for an excellent video.
thanks a lot b/c we (Ethiopian) do not have this much movie making education. but thanks for RU-vid & you , I get some additional about camera movement. I understand why my country movie makers make a mistake. they are Wright b/c thy have been doing their best. We don't have film school.
One of my actors sent me this. I really enjoyed this. The S blocking adds to the Dynamics of the ambient. The 180 rule? I break often. It can work. The point is... don't stay in a box because of rules Great job. John. Detailed.
I subscribed to this channel because I loved your film-historical videos, so I wasn't expecting this... This is gold, I loved it. At film college I were never able to get into Cinematografy class, and thus never learned about blocking, so I am VERY happy to now have this video to watch and re-watch, to learn more about that aspect of filmmaking. Keep 'em coming, you're awesome John ;)
Loving this video. I'm half way through. Was this movie ever finished ? or was it created solely for a serious of tutorials ? You start watching this, and learning lots of stuff you never realized happened in movies, then you wonder.... can I watch the full length movie ?
This was really well done and quite thought provoking and on top of that entertaining. I hesitated to watch it because of the length, and in the end I wished it had been longer. I really like the idea of showing more than one way of doing something. It's possible to learn a lot more from that than from seeing something done only one way. If you'll forgive a couple of trivial pedantic points: "Upstage" is the part of the stage *away* from the audience, so the bars are actually downstage. Also, while everybody says "2.35:1," the scope standard has been 2.39:1 since SMPTE changed it in 1970. (If you don't believe me, check the pixel counts in scope version of the DCI standard.)
I feel like this video was a better rebuttle to Nerdwriters Hitchcock blocking video than your comments, you do a great job of conveying the details that make up filming a scene, and make me inevitably glad I decided to check you channel out. :) Both of you are fun channels, but you definitely come at more from a film MAKERS persepective, whereas Nerdwriter comes at from a more academic, almost literary, angle. Both great, but yours certainly fill a void. Can't wait to see more!
+David Larney Oh good, I was pretty sure I didn't make it up - but some of my actor friends hadn't heard of it. They understood the concept, just not that term.
+Sebi 552 Agreed - a lot of filmmakers err on this side. But the good news I think a lot of procedurals are moving toward the "walk and talk" - the advantage to that being they're much easier to edit in that you don't have to ;)
Amazing episode! thanks a lot!, I'm not even a film maker, I just do photography for hobby and love movies and this episode brings a LOT to me as a fan of both genres
Excellent work, John. A good piece of education this really. I like the way you present the various scenarios: The description followed by the actual filming. Though I much preferred the ONE SHOT version as it appeared to have more energy. The last two were boring and out-of-place. But, then I am an amateur. More power to you! And, I do appreciate Zeghnal's comment too. PS: By the way, John: What exactly do you do? Pankaj Jaju, Goa, India
well man, I don't think he's gonna answer that haha, but just look at the equipment he is using for a demo video for RU-vid, I think he's doing just fine. You can "eat well" in this business almost guaranteed if you work hard, the real question is how to be creatively happy CONSTANTLY
I heartily agree with John's assessment of the motorised stabiliser. The phrase "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" comes to mind and it looks to me like the designers knew that too. They were just avoiding the patent issues with Steadicam (which, BTW is now out of its first patent, so anyone can make one). I think Steadicam is overused now, but that's a personal opinion. The truth is you don't need a motorised anything - gravity does it all for you and it's free. That's why the weight-based systems work so well and (although there are moving parts, despite what John said) they are passive - so they don't fudge up when the battery runs down, the software fails or a piece of the operator's sammich drops into the motor assembly... Fortunately, we got that out before we had to return it to the hire company.
This is so interesting! You actually lost me with the first edited version since it was quite boring. Nice to see the actual effect on me while you talk about that. Supercool idea to shoot a sitcom version. Great video! Love you guys
+Genuine//Imitations It's debatable. Some say it's worth it for the experience/networking. Others say it's too expensive and that they'd rather spend the money making an actual film. You gotta make the decision yourself.
This is fantastic. This really clearly shows how much impact the blocking has. As an actor turned producer, I really love how you worked with the actors!
Had to come back nd learn again ....not to mention I just love the knowledge that comes from these videos you create. It’s the lessons that keep on blessing and teaching.
Great video, though I always get a little nagged when people refer to the 180 as "a rule" and that "it must not be broken" (though to be fair you didn't state the last quote)....I like to think of it as 'a principle'...in that not breaking it works and helps orientate the audience....it's also just a principle and not a rule because you can break it to demonstrate a mood/emotion/feeling within your characters....case in point, the bathroom scene in 'The Shining'.....among other things Jack learns that Mr Grady is not the caretaker and never was, it is he who is "you've always been here..." this revelation completely throws Jack off kilter psychologically and we visually see this as the camera angle flips and we now have a new perspective literally and figuratively of Jack, just thought I'd lend my opinion....thanks again for this great video!
This was just outstanding so very informative, thank you for sharing your knowledge. Each moment of the video was not wasted and just packed with great info. The video demystified some of the techniques Ive seen in films and TV shows. You made your point, you can not learn by watching, you must do it and learn from others who are more experienced. Thanks once again for making the video!
This might just be your best video yet! Like all interesting conversations, you branched out through a ton of different topics, and overall that was a really interesting contrast between the different blocking and cinematic styles. By the way, I think I liked the 2nd version the best, because of the actor's eyelines.
Fantastic video, very clear and the examples are great. Made me realise that there's a lot more I can do with my blocking and mostly subtext. One critique though is the bit about the 180°: although it's certainly more of a guideline than a rule, I didn't find that the shot in this video was quite jarring. Not a great example of "breaking" the rule IMO. But that's a detail, video was great, cheers for all this info.
haha ok at ~21:06 I laughed as I saw what happened (wont spoil).. Ok that was subversion that we need in our movies.. Rian Johnson needs to watch this.
Just too good! I have no experience or clue, and have nothing to do with film-making, but this opens eyes so we can appreciate the method behind what we see in the theaters and TV!
I used this video to teach writing short fiction for writing styles, especially The rom com and the sitcom version as a visual metaphor, for rich flourish styles of Korean sentences which is loved by average Korean novel readers. Very useful video! Thank you for amazing teaching.
Excellent John. I always really enjoy your videos - I learn so much. BTW, I didn't register that you jumped the line in the last version. I remember thinking, "oops where did the toilet go?" it had been on camera left. I remember thinking it must be a continuity editing issue because it didn't feel like a jump cut. I clearly see what was going on once you explained it.
This is Crazy good!! Well explained.. I learn realy much in here.. Thx for posting!! Question is there a reason you have the lighting cast shadows on you? pls dont be mad. hahaha.. just wondering.. Keep up this great School for filmmakers!! I am gonna start at the beginning.. gave you a follow..!!
I talked a little about lighting in the first segment - basically we just went with the prelit overheads because the purpose of this demo was blocking actors and camera movement. Under the time constraints we really had at most 90 min per style - that's 90 minutes to setup, rehearse and get all the coverage we needed - so I chose to just use go with a default lighting set up and focus mainly on blocking.
+Filmmaker IQ haha its allways Time.. Same here.. Thx for doing all you do! Ive learned more here than in any other channel.. Its all indepth and well explained.. Thanks!!
As a non-filmmaker, I found this fascinating. Will make me more attentative when watching films. sidebar: you keep refering to her as Sergeant. She's a Captain as shown in the script (Darren says "Yes, Captain") and as he addresses her.
4th one was great ☝ ... and very helpful video it was ... drop one video about preapring set for music video and camera movements and all... basics ... thanks
Very instructive. For me the single hardest part of filmmaking is to motivate the actors to make their performances more interesting without having to resort to giving them extraneous props to play with... or moving them around like puppets to go look out the window -- with their backs to the other characters -- which, of course, creates a good opportunity for the camera, but feels like such a cliche. I prefer the Kubrickian method: intense rehearsals, allowing the actors to discover their inner motivations/exterior movements, rather than be constrained by storyboards. Block the camera only *after* blocking the actors.
+Marco Nauokat Really this interaction between script and screen and the collaboration is what interests me the most about filmmaking as well. But tech is fun too :P
Really good video! It opens the eyes of filmmakers to try out more! But I need to know what the music from the "television" type of scene is! Its so nice!! and typical! :) Thanks for the video!
