Hi there, my name is Mark Hedge, better known to you in the Forums as the Happy Ninja. The folks at the TFN Fan Films haven't finished off their website as yet, so I thought that I would lend a hand, and decided to write a tutorial for you people there who maybe novices in film making.

Take it from me, making a film or video is no easy task, and requires a certain amount of patience, practice, skill, and most of the time "a whole lot of luck", but at the same time, its fun, challenging, and the results are most certainly worth it. I can guarantee you now, that even though some people may hate some of the fan films, I can tell you that the film makers are nothing short of "proud" of their creations, and that's one of the things that making a film gives you, pride. No one can take that away from you.

Let me tell you now, there is no "easy" way to make a film. The best way to learn is to go out and shoot. Just do it! It's a lot of fun, and you will surprise yourself.

P.S. I live in England, although I have just spent four months in the United States, but I cant remember prices of equipment over there, so I'm going to use "British Pounds" for all of my quotes. People in the USA should multiply my figures by 1.6, and then maybe take a little off, because we in the UK are constantly ripped off. That's no joke, we even label ourselves as "Rip off Britain!"

Lets start off with the basics shall we?

Cameras: Choices, Choices, And Even More Choices...

Cameras themselves are not cheap. Technology dictates that equipment is getting better all of the time, so you really want to know what kind of stuff to use. If you already have camera equipment, then more power to you - use that! If you don't, then I'd personally go for the new digital cameras. They provide the user with far superior quality pictures and sounds than other cameras such as 8mm or VHS-C, and when it comes to post production, you will find it a lot more easier to work with.

The price of your camera, should you wish to buy new, is somewhere between £500 and £1200. You could go all flashy and buy the professional cameras like the Canon XL-1, but they go for about three grand. Nice, if you could afford it!

Each camera does different things, but for our purposes, we don't need some of the extras, so a cheap (if you could say that) camera would do. Personally, I like the Sony Mini-DV Handicams. They are good quality, and the interface between camera and computer is smooth.

Of course the other alternative is film. Personally I'd stay away from film, unless you are a professional, or Mr Megabucks! Film is very expensive, a big budget Hollywood film usually has a budget of about $20-30 million, and a heck of a lot of that budget goes of cameras, and stock. I think that Joe Monroe's film, Knight Quest had a budget of $10,000. Now I haven't spoken to Joe Monroe about that, but I bet a lot of that went on film and lab costs. I think I read somewhere that he did it on 16mm film, which is quite expensive. I think it is about $30 a roll that lasts about 3-4 minutes, and then its another $30 to get that film processed. If that is the case, then you have about $60 per roll, and for about 2 hours worth of footage, (remember you need coverage, but I'll explain that later) You've done about a grand there, but then again, I never work with it, so I'd say it is even more! The cameras themselves are expensive, and for a 16mm camera, you could be looking at $10,000 brand new. Yes, you read it right.

Lighting Friend And Foe!

Lighting in a film could either a good friend or a major enemy. I stress that you have your subject lit brightly. After all, we must be able to see our people.

There are three kinds of lighting. They are...

Key Lighting: Key being the poignant word. This is your main source of light. If you are shooting outside, then your key light is the Sun of course. The best thing to do is shoot on a bright sunny day, between the hours of 11am and 3pm. These are your MAXIMUM light hours.

Fill Lighting: Key lighting can create shadows. Most of the times, these shadows look hideous, so I recommend that you get rid of them. Fill lighting, lights up those ugly areas where the shadows are.

Back Lighting: As the name suggests, the light source is coming from behind your subject. Backlighting separates your subject from the background, making the whole image look more three-dimensional. One of the more funky things that I discovered while shooting a film a year or two ago, was that if you have your back light shining directly at the camera, it creates a trippy glow around your subject. When I used it, I had a back light with a blue filter over it, shining at the camera from behind my friend Jim, who was dressed up as Jesus Christ. The effect was that he looked like some apparition. Sweet.

Another thing that Back lighting can do, is create silhouettes. Like the scene in Knight Quest where that woman is fighting Vader, or in ESB where the shot where Vader says "The Force is with you young Skywalker. But you are not a Jedi yet." This is done by back lighting with no fill lighting to light up the front.

Enough of the boring stuff, lets shoot!

Lights, Camera, Action?

Okay, it's your first day of production. What do you do? Well, I think I'd actually better take a step or two back, and go into "Pre Production". Make sure you have your script. Have you got all the kinks out of it? Yes? Good, lets go to Storyboards! I highly recommend that you have some basic form of storyboarding going on here. It doesn't have to be Doug Chaing or Ralph McQuarrie quality; stick figures will do perfectly, but have something in front of you. It will help you a lot when it comes to frame composition, direction of the actors, sorting out special effects, and a lot of other things. TRUST ME - DO A STORYBOARD! It will be worth it in the long run.

Then after this is done, you will have to do location scouting. Read your script, then look for suitable locations. Once you have found your site, find out if you need to obtain a permit to shoot on that location - this is HIGHLY recommended. I have been caught out a couple of times. If you need a permit, then I suggest you get one (not sure of the price), but if you find that your budget cannot stretch that far, then find another location to shoot where you wont have problems.

Costumes. Need them? Get them! It isn't Star Wars without a decent costume.

Next thing to come is "Scheduling". Find out when your cast and crew are available. Also make sure that you are able to contact them if something goes wrong, or things need to be changed. Cell phones and/or Pagers are handy. Also make sure that your people can make it too and from the location. Arrange for extra transportation if necessary.

Always have a back up plan! If you go out one day to a location that is outside, and the rain begins to come down thick and fast, make sure that you can pack things up and take them to a location that needs to be filmed inside. Weather is very unpredictable - well, not if you live in England. Expect it to be raining everyday! :-) Be prepared.

Got all that done? Sweet! Let's cover other stuff like how to use them.

This Baby's Got Technique!

Pan: The simplest of techniques. All you have to do is turn the camera left or right.
Example: In Star Wars, when the group of Stormtroopers enter the room where C-3PO and R2-D2 are hiding, the camera pans with the lead trooper.

Tilt: The same as a pan, except going up or down as opposed to left or right.
Example: In Star Wars: SE, where R2-D2 is rolling through Tatooine just after C-3PO has been rescued. We tilt down from the sunset.

Zoom: I think we all know what this is, but if you don't, a zoom is where the camera stays stationary, but we close up on a person/object, making it fill the screen (or partially, if you so wish).
Example: When Qui-Gon tries to melt his way through the door at the beginning of The Phantom Menace.

Dolly: A camera Dolly, my favourite technique, simply is where you "physically" move the camera to, or away from an object.
Example: The duel in TPM, just before Maul does that back flip to jump from one catwalk to another. The camera Dolly's forward on Darth Maul (as shown in Trailer B), then cuts to a camera dolly on Qui-Gon, and then to one on Obi Wan Kenobi (Both shown in Trailer A).

Tracking Shot: A tracking shot is similar to a Dolly, but instead of moving to or from an object, you are moving "with" the object.
Example: In the middle of Return of the Jedi when Darth Vader is talking to Emperor Palpatine, as he gets off his shuttle, the camera tracks with them, running parallel with the two central figures.

Crane Shot: Consider it a vertical tracking shot, if you will. The camera physically moves up or down rather than left or right with the subject.

Aspect Ratios: Size "Is" Important!

Have you ever gone to see a film at the theatre in all its wide glory, only to come home later that night, flip the TV on and find that a movie has basically been cut in half? Don't you feel a little cheated? I sure do! Last night, for example, I caught the end of Star Trek: Generations on BBC 1, in pan and scan (or as I like to refer to it as "Pan and Scam"). I have it on video anyway, so I wasn't worried, but I have it in Widescreen, and believe me, once you see a film in a 16:9 ratio (Widescreen), it is hard to accept it in a measly 4:3 aspect ratio (standard TV).

There are many aspect ratios to choose from, but the four main ones, are like such...

1.33 to 1: Your standard television is at this ratio (which also works out to be 4:3).

1.66 to 1: Slightly wider than your television, the effects are minimal at best.

1.85 to 1: Also known as the Academy Standard. The majority of films are presented in this format. Saving Private Ryan was in this format.

2.35 to 1: Cinemascope. The grand daddy of them. Usually done on classics, or big budget films that want to suck an audience right in! All four Star Wars films were presented in this ratio.

Which one do you want to use? This is entirely YOUR choice. My personal favourite is the 2.35:1 ratio because you get to see the whole of your environment.

How do you use them? This is quite tricky actually. Some Sony camcorders have a function where you can set the image in a 16:9 ratio (close to 1.85:1), but if you don't have this feature on your camera, then you have to be sneaky.

What you can do is get your little view screen (the best thing to do is to get a camera with one of those LCD screens), and put masking tape (duct tape) over the top and bottom of the screen, effectively creating a letterbox screen, and make your compositions that way. When you go into postproduction, do the same thing again with an image over your footage.

Frame Composition: Your Head Is So Big I Can't Fit It On The Screen!

One of the most important parts of film making, is what to put in your shot, and where you want it to be. I'll use a person as my subject.

I think I should go over some terms with you first.

Close Up: Where your subject takes up the majority of the frame. A close up on a person, maybe the face where you have very little (if any) room above the head.

Medium Shot: A Medium shot would be where you would have a shot that incorporates the head (plus a little room at the top), and the upper torso.

Long Shot: A long shot is a shot that is far enough out to show the person in all their glory. Another version is a Extreme Long Shot, where you are even further out. Mostly used to show the environment in which the action is set.

Also, you should think about the frame composition. If you imagine that a screen could be divided into three segments, like the Italian flag. Have your people (if you were in a conversation) in only 2 of your 3 thirds. Leave one of your thirds empty just so you have a little bit of space between the people when you cut from one person to another.

Filmmakers Do It To With The Camera's Rolling!

Okay, you're ready to go. The question is what do you do? Well, you should have rehearsed with your actors, and decided what sort of shots you want to do. The thing to do now is 'physically' go out and do it. I can't tell you what to do at this point because filmmaking is essentially a personal thing. Every filmmaker has his or her own individual style. Some go for a fast paced, hard hitting film, while others go for a slowly unfolding and deeply thoughtful style of filmmaking. My advice to you is to go with your own style. Don't try to emulate another director, because frankly, you wont EVER get it.

Rule one. Do a "White Balance". A white balance is where you tell the camera what is "white". If you don't do this, your colours will come out different to what you'd imagine. Lights are scaled by temperature. Warm colours are reds, and yellows. Colds are blues and greens. If you don't do a W.B. a normal house light will put everything in a yellow wash. Streetlights and fluorescent lights will look greenish/purple.

Rule two. Coverage. Coverage is where you shoot superfluous material. Begin shooting two or three seconds before you say action, and shoot for a couple of seconds after you say cut. Also, do several takes of your scene. Do at least two takes from every angle and shot size (medium, close up, etc...)
What all this does is eliminate any problems when you edit. You will realise to yourself that, that shot wasn't long enough, or it would look better if you went from a medium shot of one person swinging a punch, to a close up of the punch landing on its mark.

Rule three. Catering. A fed crew is a happy crew. Happy crews work better.

I hope you find these notes helpful, and if I have missed anything, please tell me and I will rectify it.

Any comments, questions, job offers, love letters, and hate mail should be sent to the following E-Mail address.

dirkdiggler@onetel.net.uk

Good luck in your projects.

Yours truly,
Mark Hedge.