Digital Video Secrets. Tony Levelle

At the beginning of each day’s shoot, write down the date and subject of the day’s footage.

      46. Film this page as the first shot of the day.

      47. Shoot ten to fifteen minutes of footage in as many or as few scenes as you like. Don’t worry about story, image quality, tripods, filters, light, white balance or anything else. Focus on getting something done each day, rather than getting it “right.” Remember, “Done is good!”

      48. In your computer, edit the most interesting chunks into a five-minute movie.

      49. Repeat for sixty days.

      CHAPTER 2

      WATCHING FILMS MADE BY OTHERS

       We all have similar problems when it comes to filmmaking

       Secret 8: Watch other films made on DV and HDV

       A list of award-winning DV films

I was a film festival juror

      Shortly after finishing Producing with Passion, a book on documentary filmmaking, I got a call from Cinequest Film Festival. Would I be interested in being a juror at an upcoming Cinequest?

      Three weeks later I found myself in an all expenses paid hotel in San Jose, California. For the next five days, my fellow jurors and I watched films from all over the world. Many of the films were shot on digital video, and all of them were works of passion and love.

      The people who made these films had sacrificed their money, time, and occasionally their health to get through the year or more that it takes to make a feature film.

      If the films I saw taught me anything, they taught me that it is possible to make a serious movie with a digital video camera and get it into a major film festival.

      Of course this doesn’t include the money you might have to raise, the year or so of your life, and the nights when you wake up at 1:30 AM, with your guts in a knot because you have no idea how you are going to get a location. Or where you’ll find a leading man to replace the actor who just went into the hospital, or how you are going to pay next month’s rent.

      Of course, there are other options. Instead of making an independent film for a year, you could spend a year living in the city, paying rent, and working at a job. At the end of such a year, most people would have absolutely nothing to show for the year. At the very least these filmmakers had something to show for their year: a finished film, new skills, and a chance to hang out at film festivals.

Watching 100 films

      After a few days of watching films, I began to realize how important it is that every part of a film must work! Any part that is weak damages the whole film.

      It doesn’t matter where the problem is, whether it’s story, sound, acting, directing, camera work—everything has to work before you have a good film. There are no shortcuts.

      I was struck by the fact that jurors tended to agree on the major elements of a film. If the sound was weak, everyone would notice it. If the story was weak, everyone would notice it. This was true for every film.

      This taught me two things. 1) Every filmmaker faces similar problems. 2) Every independent film can be a lesson to other filmmakers in how to solve these problems.

SECRET 8: WATCH OTHER FILMS MADE ON DV AND HDV

      One of the fastest ways to improve your filmmaking — besides shooting lots of films — is to watch a lot of film.

A list of award-winning DV films

      Choosing films for the following list was difficult. In the last few years, literally thousands of people have made films with digital video cameras. I finally decided to look for films that were made with digital video cameras, and which had either won awards or gotten theatrical release. I also added several that I’d heard other filmmakers mention.

      There are plenty of great films that are not on this list.

A word about theatrical release

      While looking for films to add to this list, I tended to favor those films that had gotten a theatrical release, even though many excellent films never get theatrical release. Increasingly, a theatrical release is little more than advertising for future DVD sales.

      DVDs are a tremendous opportunity for independent filmmakers. Independent films can exist forever on DVD, either through direct sales from the filmmaker’s website or through online rentals from companies like Netflix.

      Nearly all the movies on the list below are available on Netflix.

      This list of films is arranged alphabetically, by film title.

      CHAPTER 3

      COMPOSING POWERFUL, COMPELLING IMAGES

       Composition is the key to achieving powerful images

       Secret 9: Four basc shots

       Secret 10: Five basic camera angles

       Secret 11: Use both objective and subjective views

       Secret 12: Compose on the rule of 3rds

       Secret 13: Perspective

       Secret 14: Diagonal lines

       Secret 15: Triangles

       Secret 16: Layered Images

      When I was in film school I decided to shoot my student film in 16mm film. At midnight. On location. In downtown San Jose. Thus violating at least four rules of sane filmmaking.

      The heart of this complicated, hard to stage, student film was the robbery of a convenience store. I found a convenience store in a working-class neighborhood of San Jose, coordinated the staged “robbery” with the police department, auditioned actors, lined up a crew, and even rented a gun from a company that specialized in supplying weapons to film companies.

      The night we filmed, everything went as planned, except for a fight in the parking lot. (The police broke it up. We kept going.) The shoot was strenuous, and exhilarating.

      I slept late the next day. When I returned to school that afternoon, I met the kindly gray-haired man who taught the lighting course. He smiled and asked me, “Did you get pretty pictures?”

      A few days later, we got the negatives back.

      The images were, indeed, pretty. But they weren’t compelling or powerful. Without realizing it, I’d shot nearly every image from eye level. The overall effect was bland and indifferent.

      All my work, money and time were wasted because I didn’t understand the power of camera placement (where the camera is placed in relation to the scene) and composition (how the image is composed in the viewfinder). I was so involved in the mechanics of staging the scene, and getting everything technically perfect that I overlooked composition.

      I suddenly realized why the kindly film