Archives for March, 2008
How to White Balance
An important step in film making that every person should know is the process of white balancing a shot.
What is White Balance you ask? To put it simply, it’s the process of telling the camera what the color white looks like, so the camera will adjust the other colors accordingly. This way you will get a nice shot that isn’t too yellow or too blue… it’s as natural looking as possible.
To white balance you follow these steps:
Study other writers’ screenplays
The internet is a great research tool for any subject, including screenwriting. There are many sites that provide free scripts for the majority of movies. The best way to learn is to read lots of screenplays and study their style. Notice what they have in common with each other and how they are unique. I find this particularly useful when I see a cool and unique scene in a movie and wonder “Hmm… I wonder how this scene was written in the screenplay”.
The following websites provide scripts for free:
http://www.simplyscripts.com/movie.html
http://www.script-o-rama.com/snazzy/table.html
http://www.movie-page.com/movie_scripts.htm
http://www.moviescriptsandscreenplays.com/
Recommended Viewing: Sunset Blvd.
Sunset Boulevard is an American film noir classic directed and co-written by Billy Wilder. It was named after the famous boulevard of the same name that runs through Los Angeles and Beverly Hills.
The film stars William Holden as Joe Gillis, a screenwriter with money problems, and Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, a silent film star who has faded due to increased popularity of films with spoken dialogue. The two cross paths accidentally and form a relationship. An odd and frightening relationship.
Let your actors improv
When shooting something, you have a screenplay written and ready to go. The dialogue is set and all that’s left is for you actors to deliver the lines to the best of their potential. But something happens when good actors get going. They’ll begin to improv if they forget their lines and the wonderful thing is that sometimes those lines are better than what is in the screenplay. Actors play off each other and their environments… when they’re feeling something, they go with it and you as a director should keep the camera rolling and let them do their thing.
Of course you should watch the improv if you are shooting on film — which is expensive. If you’re shooting video then keep recording. Tapes are cheap. Don’t worry about filling up a tape. Simply reload and keep going. Even though you should embrace improv, you should also have the actors deliver their lines as written in the screenplay.
Once you get into the editing room and start logging your shots you will be able to decide if the written or impromptu performance was best. Sometimes you can even mix written and improv takes. The viewer will never be able to tell.
Writer’s block? Take a week off.
There are times when I am writing something and I come to a dead end. I don’t know which direction I should take the story in or what dialogue to use. The problem being that I have been writing consecutively for days without really taking a break to soak it all in.
The downside is you get tunnel vision. I like to take a few days or even a whole week off from that project and do something else… maybe some editing or sound production to keep my creativity juices flowing.
After you return to your script in progress, you’ll often find that you now have an idea where to go next. You’ve read through it with fresh eyes and it’s time now to continue writing. So next time you find yourself trying to write the next scene without success, take a break!
