Film Sets: A Feudal System

This past weekend I had the privilege of working as a Production Assistant (PA) on a set for a friend’s senior thesis project. As a freshman who knew almost nothing about what actually happens on a film set, the experience was rather illuminating. As I understand it, there is a definite hierarchy that arrises from the jobs on set. The pyramid of positions works similarly to that of the government established in the middle ages. The film itself is the Kingdom, and the shoot is a battle. The monarchy must be swift, strong, and creative in order to win the war. This is going to be a stretch, so just go with it.

The Feudal System

The Director/The King

Reigning from his throne, the director works all of his loyal subjects towards the vision of a better kingdom. HIS vision of a better kingdom. All subjects are to Answer to him as moves his pawns around the veritable chess board of the set. The endgame is his endgame and we are all at his mercy. The King’s assistants are his young princes, AD 1 and 2. They do the little things the king is too busy to do like slate the scene or get all the knights and peasants to “quiet on set” while rolling. The King himself may be benevolent or tyrannical. Make no mistake, no matter how kindly he may be, the director is always the king, come hell or high water.

The Lords

His Grace, Duke of Photography

The lord of cinematography works closely to the king. He controls a great group of knights and has some say in the visual aspects of the kingdom. He may openly discuss shot setup, lightning, and movement with the King. The good Duke has much honor in the land and is a very distinguished position. As the war begins, you will find the Duke leading the charge along with the director. The duke is an integral part of battle strategy and general organization of each attack. The majority of the knights are under the Duke’s jurisdiction.

His Eminence, Earl of Sound Design

Although much of sound capture is done during shooting, the Sound Designer often has his own separate castle where much sound recording is done post shoot. The Lords position includes automated dialogue replacement, foley, sound mixing, and sometimes even score. Like the King, the Earl does much work during and after shooting due to the lengthy process of sound editing and foley.

His Greatness, Viscount of Production Design

“Everything the light touches is our kingdom” The production designer is a busy bee before and during the shoot. Every single this on a sound stage a PD had to create, or find, or steel, or something. The PD has a great amount of Knights working with props, costumes, makeup, and emergency backdrop snafus. The production designer works closely with the King before the war to go over formations and locations of the battle field. The Viscount has, in my opinion, the most stressful job.

His Loneliness, the Baron of Editing

The Editor is not always seen on set, but he has the whole weight of the kingdom on his back. The entirety of all of the action is on the editors back and there is very little hustle and bustle. However there is a very anxious King more that likely breathing down your back. You may often find the King living with the Baron for weeks at a time as he edits the crap out of all the footage. On a large production there is often more than one. However, this is film school, so really this lord is just a 21 year old in a dark room, surrounded by empty cups of coffee. Sorry to get away from the analogy.

The Knights

The DP’s Knights – Assistant Camera 1, Assistant Camera 2, Camera Operators, The Gaffer, Best Boy, Sparks, Focus Puller, Grips, and Film Loader (This person, nowadays, backs up the digital footage to a hard drive. No one uses film anymore, it’s simply Medieval… get it?)

The Sound Designer’s Knights – Sound Assistant, Sound Recordist, Boom Operator

The Production Designer‘s Knights – Art Direction, Special Effects, Makeup, Costumes, Props

The Editor’s Knight – Dubbing Editor (sometimes)

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The Peasants

Production Assistants – We do the stupid work like fetching the actors from makeup, or stopping people from wandering on set, or getting coffee for the important people. A lot of the time we just stand there.

I hope you enjoyed this strange analogy. If nothing else… I learned how to spell the word hierarchy today.

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You, like Movie’s Too?! #I’mNotAloneAnymore

Before we got our housing assignments this summer, we were informed that we would be placed in halls based on the colleges inside the university that we would be attending. Business students with business students, science with science, etc. So, that meant that I would be living with only a bunch of film kids.

My first response was, “Oh please no!” Because I wanted to broaden my horizons and make friends who are in every major. I also felt that I wouldn’t be unique or different if I lived with a bunch of other human who were just like me.

As has been a recurring pattern in my life, my original assumption was wildly incorrect.

As it turns out, living with other film kids is the best thing ever. I found that even without thinking, outside of my hall, I would naturally gravitate towards film students. The reason for this is so obvious I am mad at myself for not paying attention before.

Similar interests = Something to talk about

When your sitting in group of freshman, crying silently to yourself due to the excruciating awkwardness of trying to make new friends,  wouldn’t it be nice to have a similar enjoyment of camera angles to discuss? Perhaps you would like to converse on varying types of tripods? You watch Burn Notice too!?! Friendship achieved!

So I suggest living with film students. I really do.

In order to prove that this is a commonly held opinion, I played “Hall Troll” and refused to let people by until they gave me a quote about living with film students.

Here are a few of them…

“No matter what, you can talk about something, because you have stuff in common.” Julie – TVBJ (Television/Broadcast Journalism)

“It’s nice living with people with similar interests.” – Adam – Digital Arts

“It’s helpful. Easier to make friends.” Talia – TVBJ

“I like being able to make a random movie quote, and have four people’s heads poke up and look at me.” – Matt – Film Production

“I don’t live here.” Jake – Accounting

“I like it because, if you don’t have a tripod, and you need one, you can just knock on someone’s door and be all like, ‘Hey, do you have a tripod?’ Boom, free tripod… for like a few hours” – Makena – Film Production

“It’s awesome living with people with similar interests… oh everyone already said that… alright, I gonna go take a nap.” Tanner – Film Production

Looking Intentional (Framing the Shot)

With minimal work or brain power, different camera shots add drama and emotion to a sequence. More importantly, they make us look like we know what we are doing. It’s all about the illusion people. If you want to sound really smart, use the word Proxemics. The world will think you’re a genius.

Differences in shot proximity, how close the view/camera is to the subject, is all about establishing significance. How close are you = how significant is the subject. When we are watching a film we become one with what the camera is looking at. As my textbook keeps reminding me, the sacred mantra is “the viewer identifies with the lens”

Lets break down some shots using some stills from one of my favorite films “The Kings Speech”

Wide Shot

Wide shots are often called establishing shots. Because stepping way back allows the audience to establish where they are and what’s going on. So wide shots are often used at the beginning or end of a sequence to give context to the scene. I wonder who lives in this fancy lavish house this winter? Let’s find out.

Full Shot

A full shot is a closer shot in which you can see the entire subject (or subjects) from head to toe. This shot does not put you close enough to the character to see the deep meaning in their facial expression. We are trying to get up in the characters business, the closer we are, the more we are part of their business. So, full shots are often used in motion shots, dolly shots, or pans in order to give the audience the best view of all of the actors movement. It also can make you feel farther from the character. It can be used to establish a detachment from a character by not letting you get too close. So you get to enjoy Lionel and Bertie’s crazy antics as you view the entire picture from head to toe.

Medium Shot

This shot gets you close enough to the subject to feel greater attachment. In these shots the background is less important and the subject is the obvious focus. You can see greater emotion and facial expression in these shots and they often make up the majority of todays blockbuster films. You can get a lot of emotion with quite a bit of background.

Head and Shoulders

A shot with only the head and shoulders. Often only one person. Feel the tension. Feel it.

Close up

The close up is meant to get you so close you can feel the Bernie’s every emotion. Feel the strife in his eyes and acceptance as you get closer to his face than you ever actually could in real life.

Extreme Close Up

Widely used shot to set you attention 100% on one thing. If you need to focus on the struggle of talking. Focus on the mouth. Is that old fashion microphone going to vital to the plot? let’s take a really really close look so you know it’s important.

More than just Minutia

When I was in High School, I was on the girls golf team. In my time on the team I had to weekly work on my wildly flawed golf swing. Keep your head down, aim, have a tight grip but not too tight, keep your back straight, don’t raise your hands past twelve o’clock, actually look at the ball. In that short second of time if takes you to wind up and swing a golf club I had to be thinking supercomputer fast about each of those things or I’d chunk the ball and it would travel a nice three yards to my left. (This accounts for my position on the team as “Comedic Relief”).

In any film, a two second clip has so many little things that go into it. What mood is the lighting trying to portray, how does the angle of the camera set up the power of the character, what does the stance of the character, the poster on the wall, or the shirt the subject is wearing have to do with the protagonist’s relationship with his mother. So many small bits of minute and seemingly useless minutia gets shown in front of our noses, and we don’t think a second thought about how the film’s production staff put excruciatingly delicate care into every single thing you see. Mise-en Scene is a fancy old French phase for

all the things that make up a scene

In direct translation mise-en scene means “placing on stage” which pretty accurate if this was theatre. But it’s film so it has to be a million times more complicated. So, in film terms mise en scene captures the character part of the scene (actors, costumes, sets, and props) as well as the non-story elements (composition, lighting, and sound). So basically mise en scene is just a fancy way of saying “everything you see on screen.” From what we see onscreen (illicit meaning) we can infer what the director is trying to say with out dialogue (implicit meaning).

Take this still from the movie Juno.

Illicit Meaning:
The two subjects (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner) are standing in a small room facing straight on. Garner is looking at something behind us. Bateman is looking at Garner. Garner has paint slathered on a band shirt that says “Alice in Chains”. Bateman is relatively clean. There is a slight bit of childish wallpaper on the back wall along with two painters tape lines giving the shot a symmetric setup. Bateman has his arms crossed while Garner is making a questioning gesture. The lighting is white as is most of the background.

Implicit Meaning:
Garner is very interested in the room decoration. She looks very contemplative and focused on her task. The wallpaper suggests we are in a baby’s room. Bateman is in a stance Dr. Phil would call “defensive” and is looking at his wife not at the wall, implying that he is not really interested, and is only doing what his wife wants. Upon watching the movie we know that Bateman’s character would rather be playing his guitar, and is stuck in his “rock music” past. The band shirt Garner is wearing is now a paint shirt, thus showing that she is moving on, and is ready for a new step in her life. i.e. the baby. Thus showing a slight divide in their relationship.

You may be thinking, “You got all that from a single frame?”
Well yes. Yes I did. This exercise was what we did in class on the first day of film critique. We used this exact same image. It was actually pretty fun too.

So now it’s your turn:

What can you tell me about this frame from the movie Sherlock Holmes?

How to Not Drown: and Other Things I Learned in My First Month at Film School

I have officially been in Film School for One Whole Month! Yippee!!! In celebration of this considerably insignificant milestone, I believe a bit of reflection is in order.

After one month I can say with absolute and complete certainty that… I was not expecting to learn as much as I have in the last four weeks. In August, I was all like, “Okay Film School, how about you put me in a pool of like-minded, similarly aged, consorts of cinema and I’ll try to get everything done by deadline. Capeesh.” Convinced I knew a lot and was excited to learn some more.

Haha… haha… I had no idea what I was thinking.

I am now convinced I know nothing, and am making small yet grievous errors frequently. (I am a perfectionist so every small error is a grievous error.) The hands on set classes are obviously interesting, but the classes behind the desk are the ones I feel like I am currently getting the most out of. Along with the heavy amount of “Book Learning” I have been doing, I have also absorbed some very helpful “set smart” lessons I wish I had been told right off the bat. Considering you’d probably rather hear advice about the actual art of making films, as opposed to an in depth commentary on the difference between plot and story, I figure I’ll start with some guidance I wish I had obtained prior to my first film project.

First thing I learned: So far in my scholastic life/journey, I have managed to get by with a healthy dose of procrastination. Not a ridiculous amount, just a healthy dose. A piece of advice to anyone with half a brain in film school. The SECOND you leave class after receiving a new assignment, you should be coming up with as many working ideas as your mind can dish out. Once you have decided on the idea that sucks the least, then you should move forward into production planning or pre-production. Have a set shooting date, and contact your actors within the first few days. As much fun as filming and editing is the day before an assignment is due, it actually isn’t fun at all. It is a lot closer to what I imagine the experience of drowning would be like. Drowning with the working knowledge that once you finally extricate yourself from this horrible riptide you got yourself in, your project will still be poop in comparison to the rest of your classmates work when “sharing time” comes around.

Now, I don’t want to say that I am speaking from experience already. However, I will say that last wednesday really sucked, and you can draw your own conclusions.

Second thing: Be super open to acting in other people’s projects. Pay special attention to the people in your class who are interesting or attractive or would be really helpful to use later in one of your own films. The old “you act in my film, I’ll act in yours” saying comes heavily into play here. Rarely will people second guess your ulterior motives, because they are too relieved to have someone offer to work in their film for free.

Third thing: Bring your actors a snack. I wasn’t fore-thinking enough to do this, but a set I was acting on had doughnuts. I am considerably sure that was the happiest I have ever been in my life. However I do have a mild “exaggeration” tendency, so you should take that last sentence with a grain of salt.

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