Filmmaking
Traditional filmmaking lives on
With the advent of digital video, filmmaking on actual film is becoming a rare art. However, the practice still thrives within a dedicated community of filmmakers, and many instructional institutions and film schools insist that shooting actual film is the best way to learn to make a movie. Because it’s not possible simply to shoot a scene on a whim or drag digital video clips along a timeline in an editing program, it forces the filmmaker to give close consideration to every aspect of the movie-making process. Planning, executing and editing shots must be done with a great deal of careful forethought.
The Basics of Making Movies on Film
First, you should know that making movies on real film is a relatively expensive venture that requires specialized knowledge and training. The best way to learn how to do this is to enroll in a filmmaking workshop or take courses through a film school. You’ll need to know:
- How to load film into a movie camera
- How to light a scene
- How to determine and set the correct shutter speed and aperture settings for lighting conditions
- How to frame a scene
- How to start and stop the camera
Mastering each of these steps will take patience, practice and instruction. While it is possible to teach yourself these skills, renting the necessary equipment can be prohibitively expensive, so the advantage of taking courses at a film school is that your equipment access is included in your tuition and fees. You can also learn more about special techniques used in specific genres, such as documentary filmmaking.
Developing the Negative and Editing the Film
After you’ve shot your scenes, you’ll have to unload your film in a darkroom and send it to a lab for processing. You’ll need to tell the lab what kind of film stock you shot the scenes on so they can develop it properly; once processing is complete, you’ll get back your developed film in a roll known as a “work print.”
You’ll then take the work print into the editing room, where you’ll splice the scenes together using traditional equipment, such as a flatbed editing bay. Editing rooms are equipped with screening projectors, so you can see your work in progress; when you start out, you’ll probably begin by making silent movies so you can learn the basics of shooting and editing on film. As your skills build, you’ll then incorporate sound into your projects by recording dialogue and sound effects on a separate audio track, which will need to be edited separately and lined up to match the picture. With some commitment and hard work, you’ll be able to make movie magic before too long.
