Video Director David Lopez
New York Film Academy Graduate David Lopez In The News
New video from NYFA Grad David Lopez !! I enjoyed all of David’s work during the peer reviews. He was a great guy to talk with before – during – and after class. Here is a piece for a new restaurant in the Village called La Lucha Tacos and Boutique. This is an authentic Mexican style restaurant serving it up “Street Style”. This is the street vendor style we are all familiar with but here at La Lucha of course everything is consistently super tasty every time. Great job David !!!
NYC Evening Digital Editing Class
I’m starting the 3 month Evening Digital Editing class at the New York Film Academy on January 11, 2010. It runs 3 times a week until April 2, 2010. It’s a hands on class for Final Cut Pro 7… which is the most popular digital video editing software for professinoals. Of course there are other editing tools like Adobe Premier and Sony Vegas but I was told by someone at the NYFA that Final Cut was the only way to go if you wanted to be a professional. I actually own Premier CS3 and I found it a bit challenging to get started with although I’ve been using Photoshop professionally for 15 years.
So I’ll do blog posts on what we are studying and how I am making out. For now I have been using the onling stuff that comes with Final Cut Pro 7 and I bought the high end expensive subscription to Lynda.com for training videos. They are actually excellent vids if you can afford to subscribe to them.
(I have not been paid by any persons or firms for anything I’ve written in this blog post)
Book Review: DV Filmmaking by Ian Aronson
Ian David Aronson was an Associate Professor at Ramapo College in New Jersey – my Alma Mata. As I was looking for books on digital filmmaking I spotted this and I bought it. I’ve read 5 other books and this was my favorite for a number of reasons. The quality of the printing is outstanding. And the material from start to finish is well written and many of the major points I learned about digital filmmaking at the New York Film Academy are explained beautifully in this book. I was surprised we did not have a text book for Evening Digital Video at NYFA… and this became my textbook. I have found in life that if I read 3 to 5 books on a subject, I might know more than the so called “experts”. Usually “the experts” have a PhD and they ultimately reform life to look like their pet theories. Aronson is a straight shooter and he gives real life examples of everything he teaches in the book. Ian Aronson is a genuine expert with lots of experience and no illusions that get in the way of the content. I recommend “DV Filmmaking” to anyone considering taking or teaching a class in digital filmmaking.
Here is a link to the Google Books version of DV filmmaking: from start to finish
By Ian David Aronson
Deciding on a Camera Height and Camera Angle
Should you shoot down on your actor’s face or shoot up on it? Adjusting the height of the tripod can make a dramatic difference in the presentation to the audience. When they are looking up at an actor they get a sense the actor is powerful and in control. Looking down on the actor the audience may see more of the weaker side of the character.
The 180 Degree Rule of Film Making
To maintain continuity, draw a line between 2 actors and keep the camera on one side of that line. Only break the line when there is a very compelling reason to. This is one of the basic principals of filmmaking and it’s easily demonstrated during a football game. If Team A is on the left side of the screen and they are trying to score on the right side of the screen, switching to a shot where Team A is rushing into the end zone on the left side of the screen would confuse viewers. The audience would thing Team A just scored on their own end zone! There is another great writeup on the Mark Kennedy’s Site site.
The Over the Shoulder Shot – OTS
This is a fairly common shot in film making where the camera is placed above the shoulder of an actor or actress to give the movie viewer a look at what the actor sees. It creates a first person viewpoint. OTS is used a lot during interviews to help create a point – counter point exchange. Remember to keep one actor on the left side of the screen and the other actor on the other side of the screen to keep the audience from getting confused.
On Location Photo Gallery from BET.com Filming on 10-04-09
There were 550 still shots taken during the production at BET.com on 10-04-09 and 150 were selected for the first Digital Video Directors Gallery. They are in a VisualLightBox Gallery that runs an automatic slideshow once you click a thumbnail. Any of the NYFA crew or actors can email me at Mal@digitalVideoDirectors.com and I’ll send you originals at 4 MB each. Just send me thje number of the photos. Cheers. Click the photo to go to the GALLERY !!
Using the Monitor Remotely On Location
Some Directors prefer to use a monitor to setup and watch every shot. Imo Rice calls “Action” only when he’s satisfied with the way the scene looks on monitor. The monitor is directly cabled to his camera. He can run the connection directly to a PC, but he choose to use the monitor at this location.
Because of the size of the room and the logistics, Mr. Rice is monitoring from the room adjacent to the room where the filming is taking place. There are advantages and disadvantages to monitoring in the next room. On the negative side, he has to get up and walk into the filming room a lot as he’s making corrections to the scene setup or working with actors or his crew. On the plus side, he can review and discuss what he see’s on monitor with his Director of Photography in a private area where the actors can’t hear what is going on behind the scenes. It’s hard enough for the actors to get into role emotionally for a scene… sometimes it’s better when they can’t hear the Director discussing problems he’s trying to correct.
Shooting On Location at BET in Manhattan 10-04-09
On October 4th, 2009 the NYFA September Evening Digital Video crew worked a 12 hour shoot. Many thanks to the management at the BET.com offices on West 57th in NYC for allowing us to use their location for our continuity films. I have to admit it was a little distracting with tons of autographed eye candy on the walls along with platinum and gold albums everywhere. It must be a panic working there. There were about 550 stills taken during the shoot and that was thinned out to around 150 in this GALLERY. If you want any of the originals (and you’re in them) email me at mal@digitalvideodirectors.com with the picture number and I’ll get them out to you asap.
