**Short Film Final Project** - Available Apr 19 - Checkpoints: - Thu, Apr 21 11:10am Greenlight: convince one instructor to be your producer - Fri, Apr 22 4pm Preproduction: your producer approves your script, shot list, or other preproduction - Wed, Apr 27 4pm Animatic: your producer approves a rough edit from preproduction materials and found footage - Fri, Apr 29 4pm Raw footage: your producer approves your footage - Fri, May 6 4pm Rough cut: your producer signs off on a first complete edit - Post-production and editing complete and final film due 11:59pm May 10 on Glow in 720p MP4 format - [Self evaluations](selfevaluation.md.html) due May 12 on paper in class. May include up to one page of text. Work in a self-selected team of three students to create a short film of between 30 seconds and two minutes in length (plus titles and credits). You may negotiate a larger team if you have a clear production plan. The checkpoints are pass/fail...but you essentially _have_ to pass in order to continue. For the first, you must sell one of the instructors on your concept and the practicality of executing the production plan. That instructor will then agree to be your producer for the remainder of the project. Don't structure this as a single pitch. Instead, work with your group and the instructor to set reasonable expectations and a plan to achieve them. You will then meet with your producer regularly during scheduled class time, office hours, and appointments. You must receive approval for each checkpoint by the specified deadline. The goal of these deadlines is not to have you submit something at that time but to create a process that encourages continued contact throughout production. We expect that you'll receive signoff well before the deadlines each week in the natural course of working with your producer. (As of April 13, some teams have already begun pursuing greenlight on their projects!) Educational Goals ===================================================================== - Practice and then demonstrate the technical skills you acquired during the semester. - Iterate on a production, refining your work and learning from peers, mistakes, and serindipity. - Create a physical artifact for your portfolio. - Experience the full production cycle and thrill of creation. > "Pick up a camera. Shoot something. No matter how small, no matter how > cheesy, no matter whether your friends and your sister star in it. Put > your name on it as director. Now you're a director. Everything after > that you're just negotiating your budget and your fee." > --Director [James Cameron](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F62gR1qzj3U) Requirements ===================================================================== - In order to ensure everyone has sufficient support, we expect you to volunteer to act or crew for another project for a 3-hour session (it is ok if nobody takes you up on this, and you don't have to act if you're not comfortable with that) - Preproduction materials: - The script, if there is dialog - Storyboard - Shot list - Schedule for shoots, reserved equipment and spaces, actors, VFX, editing, and screenings - The animatic is an outline of your film as a 540p MP4 constructed from storyboard panels, still frames, and/or existing footage (the usual copyright and plagarism restrictions do not apply, since this will not be public) - Animatic - An actual video that approximates the pace, audio, and shots of your film without actually requiring real footage - Examples: - - - Use this Premiere project as your working draft that continually improves as footage comes in during production - Footage - Dailies plus B-roll coverage - Multiple takes of all of the key shots - About 10x as much footage as your expected running time to provide - Rough cut: - A coarsely edited collection of your footage as a 540p or 360p MP4. Audio can be placeholder from the animatic, and there is no expectation of VFX or post. You can have up to two shots be stills from the storyboard or found footage if you haven't completed production. - Final film: - 30s - 2m (plus titles and credits) film in 720p MP4 format - Must include titles, credits, and copyright information - Must be smaller than 200 MB - For extra credit, include a "behind the scenes" reel showing some elements of your process, also in 720 MP4 format and less than 150 MB. For example, how you created certain tracking shots, the set and takes, VFX breakdowns, etc. - Your film may be stop motion, documentary, a sequence of freeze-frame live-action stills, live action, or puppets - Your film must demonstrate knowledge of topics covered in class through: - Camera footage that you filmed (i.e., it can't be 100% animation, found footage, etc.) - Intentional lighting - Editing in the continuity/IMR style - Audio is optional but highly recommended As we noted on the first day of class, Williams is not a film school. We've studied many aspects of cinematography, but expect insight and appreciation, not mastery, of this discipline. Keep in mind that we don't expect great acting, fancy VFX, complex sets, or the use of high-quality equipment. Choose your film's subject to minimize the impact of limited production resources. As for all assignments this semester, we will primarily evaluate your process, intermediate materials, and technical approach to cinematography. Examples ===================================================================== To calibrate your efforts, below are some films by students from other Williams film production courses. These all demonstrate good technical elements in setting up shots, narrative, and camera work. These courses emphasized VFX using entirely student-written software. Your film should naturally emphasize cinematography instead.       Here are some films by _film school_ and media studies major students. They have more resources and training than you, but this is the highest end of production we'd let you target.