For my reflection blog post, I will be reflecting on what I have learned this past week in my filmography course. Over the past week, I have come to learn more about how films, both long and short, are planned and produced. The first step in many cases, as to better plan out how the scenes in a film will be shot, the director will either use a shot list, which lists the details about a certain shot, or a storyboard, which is like a comic that shows what will happen on screen. The director must also figure out of the movie will be shot in either a studio or an actual real life location, and to figure out where that location is if the latter is chosen. If a real life location is chosen, some of the shot list or storyboards may need to be adjusted to better fit the actual location.
Another thing I learned in class over this past week is the many different types of film equipment that can be used to create different types of shots. Two more prominent examples of this equipment include a camera dolly, which allows the camera to roll on a track as to create a smooth moving shot, a steady camera, which allows a cameraman to hold it steady and not have shakes in the shot. I also learned just how important it is to have good lighting in movie scenes. Without light, scenes will appear dark and the viewer will have trouble trying to determine what is occurring in them. Even lighting in real life filming locations is important, even though they may already have light, as what we see light wise is different from what the camera sees. Because of this, even dark bedroom scenes must have a lot of light just to make the action or character in the scene viewable to the camera and then the audience.
From this information I have learned, I now have a much better understanding about how films are shot and how those shots are planned and executed, which allows me to become a better filmmaker as I incorporate this information into how I plan and produce any future movie projects.
Lukas Sedelmeier’s Film Blog 