On our previous page, ‘How to Choose a Story‘ Malcolm Hall and Emily Jupp talked about structure, how you choose a story, then build it into a video people would want to watch.
Tip # 3 is all about how to decide how your film will look.
And you will be pleased to know that we’re almost ready to start shooting our videos for Kaipatiki Short-Shorts. However, there’s still a bit of work here before we roll the camera.
First, we have to decide how a film will look on screen.
Choose a Look Before You Leap
Do you want your video to be fast-paced and action-packed with short shots and exciting music?
Or, will it be slow and mysterious with soft music and long slow shots of sunsets and butterflies?
Will it be drama with actors speaking lines or will there be a presenter on-screen leading us from one scene to the next and explaining things?
Or there might be no written script at all. Just people telling their own stories and interviews.
This kind of stuff is called the style of the production.
You need to choose the style before you start filming because the style will tell you how each shot should look when you’re setting up the camera.
Do It All in Style
Okay, we’re almost there. There’s just one more step before you start shooting.
Now you’ve chosen a style, you can write a rough script for production. Don’t be scared. We’re talking about a really rough script. Basically, a list of what happens and then what happens after that.
Treat Your Video Well
It’s called a treatment and explains what the film is about, what you expect people to say, how the story develops and how it will look on screen.
A treatment is handy because it’s kind of a rough map for you to shoot. If you follow it, you won’t get lost.
It’s easy to forget to shoot something really important or to film a scene in a way that doesn’t really match the rest of the footage.
What’s really handy is if you draw up a storyboard that shows how each shot fits in with the one before and the one that follows.
You don’t have to be great artists to do a storyboard, stick-man figures will work just fine and now, at last, you’re good to go.
In conclusion:
We know what our story is and we know how it’s going to look on screen, but we know a lot of other important things too.
- We know who’s going to be in it
- We know what they’re going to say
- We know where we are going to shoot it, and we know when.
- We also now have a story, how it starts, how it develops and how it ends.
You might be thinking it all sounds a bit complicated, but mostly it’s plain old common sense.
So good luck with your film. Have heaps of fun and take care out there.
In the next article/video we’re going to look at how you turn your words into images: Talking the Talk