Movement: Pre-Production

Objectives:  (1) Plan a project for logistical efficiency and storytelling impact, and (2) Convey meaning through intentional framing, design, and placement.  Among other criteria, this assignment’s grading privileges storyboarding for motion, accounting for position 1 and position 2 of each movement.   Your storyboards should build on what you've already learned about mise-en-scène, consistent screen direction, the rule of thirds, look space, headroom, and depth articulation.

Submit: the following

A plot outline or script written by your scriptwriter. This assignment's pretty demanding. Thus it specifies neither story nor narrative structure. Successful submissions might be no more intricate than a list of disconnected shot ideas that become the basis for...

Storyboards made by your director.  The Storyboarder app easily designates Position 1 of a shot (which might be numbered as "8A") and Position 2 of the same shot (numbered "8B").  Compose in a project aspect ratio of 16:9.  Distinguish characters from each other using body types and colors.  Please do not continue to Phase Two without the professor's approval of Phase One.

Assessment:  Your group grade will be averaged with other quiz & assignment scores.

Movement: Production

Objective:  Movement of and in front of the camera transforms film into a time-based medium.  Each student in your group should thus demonstrate repeatable competence in a selection of eight basic camera moves.
Assessment:  Your grade will be averaged with other project scores

Each team will submit edited footage (MS or closer) demonstrating:

BOTH of the following camera moves
1 a tilt which follows primary movement
2 a pan which follows primary movement
TWO of the following mount moves
3 a shot which showcases x-axis mount movement (track, truck, slider)
4 a shot which showcases y-axis mount movement (crane, drone)
5 a shot which showcases z-axis mount movement (dolly, push-in, pull-out)
ONE of the following compound moves
6 a shot which combines primary movement with secondary mount movement in the z-axis
7 a shot which combines movement of the camera on its mount with movement of the mount itself
AND
8 a focus pull

No less than a 15:1 shooting ratio is expected, demonstrating multiple performances of talent & camera operators, exposure settings, and focal lengths. Though haphazard, hand-held camera movement may be a stylistic possibility in other situations, the most successful camera operators for this project will execute shots smoothly.

On behalf of your group, group members will upload the following to the project's documentation folder:

Personal Releases (secured by your director);

Location Releases (secured by your producer);

Lighting Plots (prepared by your gaffer);

Footage Log (prepared by your camera operator)

Essay - One page maximum, accounting for any differences between your storyboard and your actual footage.  Prepared by your director.

Binder (D2L).  On behalf of your group, your producer will submit to D2L copies of all documentation (in the precise order of the list above) in a single .pdf binder.

Raw video and audio clips should be backed up, synchronized, and merged before editing in Premiere Pro into an Assembly Edit and a Rough Cut.

For narrative purposes, the eight shots may be presented in any order, but (for ease of grading) each shot must be identified by a number superimposed in the lower right-hand corner of the screen, like so:

The number 3 identifies this footage as a shot which showcases x-axis mount movement.

Student work samples: