“There is nothing that inspires you more than a good film”
Every Engineer that has ever happened, seems to share a common curiosity, watching films. Thanks to DC++ that we have terabytes of films available at our disposal. Be it mess, canteen or lectures, we tend to discuss about the latest films that we have watched.
Everyone love films, but what is the actual process that goes into filmmaking?
Before coming to that, I would like to ask you, what actually is a film?
STORY+ACTING+CAMERA+A LITTLE PINCH OF MUSIC= FILM!
Well, that seems to be the mathematical formula for that, but even after all this your film should make a meaning i.e. there should be a moral to your story. Without it, the film would be nothing but a normal video.
Now, coming to the process of Filmmaking. The process includes three main components. i.e
- Pre-Production
- Production
- Post-production
Pre-production: As it is said, everything starts with an idea. A film, being no exception also starts with an Idea. Hopefully, an idea could be anything, from the life of people in prison (The Shawshank Redemption) to three random guys in a college (3 Idiots). You can even make a movie on your way to the class at mornings. You just need to be creative enough to see the story.
Making a story is never enough, you need to write it down in the form of a screenplay. The screenplay/script is a written form of film that contains dialogues, actions, expression and behaviour of different characters. Screenplay is written in a definite format which initially one might find unusual to the typical scripts. Screenplay of many movies are available on the internet. One can easily find them via google. Also, there are various software available for script writing. Most popular ones are CELTX, FINAL DRAFT and MONTAGE etc.
The other parts of pre-production includes documenting the shots, scouting the locations and casting the actors.
Production: This is the second part of Film making. It includes going to the scouted locations and shooting the scenes. There are various things that needs to be taken care of while shooting the film.
Composition: Composition simply means preparing the scene i.e. to make the scene solve its purpose. To do this there are various shots that one can take during the shoot. Those includes long medium, close-up, birds eye etc. There is a specific use for every shot. The details could be found on the internet. There is a thumb rule for the purpose i.e. the closer the camera is to the character, the more viewer has a deep insight for the character.
Acting: Acting is one thing that can do wonders for a film and also might prove bad if not done properly. The director needs to work with the actors properly to get the desired acting.
Cameras: The type of cameras and lenses prove very important for the film. At our level, DSLRs do a nice jobs. Even if you don’t have a DSLR you can shoot by a digital camera or phone. Camera is just a tool for movie making but at the same time it is quite important.
Once you are done with all the shooting, it’s time for Post-production.
Post Production: It is the last step of the process of filmmaking. This requires the sorting of shots, merging them and adding music to them. This could be done with the help of an editing software. The best ones include Adobe Premier Pro, Sony Vegas Pro, Power Director etc.
Except the above, there is a golden rule of filmmaking, “The more you see, the more you learn” Watch as many movies as you can to get a good idea of making films.
Vinayak Vyas.
BTECH III, CIVIL ENGINEERING.