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Practical DV Filmmaking
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Acquisitions Editor:Elinor Actipis
Associate Editor:Becky Golden-Harrell
Assistant Editor:Robin Weston
Marketing Manager:Lucy Lomas-Walker
Cover Design:Fred Rose
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Practical DV Filmmaking
Second edition
Russell Evans
AMSTERDAM • BOSTON • HEIDELBERG • LONDON • NEW YORK • OXFORD
PARIS • SAN DIEGO • SAN FRANCISCO • SINGAPORE • SYDNEY • TOKYO
Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier
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Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier
30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington MA 01803, USA
Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP, UK
First edition 2002
Reprinted 2003, 2004
Second edition 2006
Copyright ©2006, Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
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without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 13: 978-0-240-80738-6
ISBN 10: 0-240-80738-3
06 07 08 09 10 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction to the second edition xi
How to use this book xiii
Chapter 1 Overview 1
1 Think big 1
2 The filmmaking process 2
3 Low-budget filmmaking 6
Chapter 2 Inside video 10
1 What is digital technology? 10
2 How the camcorder works 16
3 Operating the camcorder 24
Project 1 In-camera edit: hand-made movie 29
4 Video safety and good practice 32
5 Video compression 35
Chapter 3 Films and how they work 43
1 Types of film and filmmakers 43
Project 2 In-camera edit 52
2 How films work 55
3 Film language and how to speak it 63
Chapter 4 Pre-production 70
Part 1: Logistics and crew 71
1 Working out a budget 71
2 Collaboration and you 80
Project 3 Scene description 91
Project 4 Collaboration 92
Project 5 Developing stories 94
3 Making a schedule 96
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vi Contents
Part 2: Scriptwriting 100
4 Story and structure 100
Project 6 Core scenes 112
Project 7 Silent movie remake 114
5 Alternative script structure 118
Project 8 New movie structures 123
6 Devising stories for low budgets 124
Project 9 Revealing subtext in your movie 128
Project 10 Symbolism in the movies 130
Part 3: Visuals 132
7 Visualizing your film 132
8 Storyboards and visual tools 136
Chapter 5 Production tools 145
1 A condensed guide to shooting 146
2 Lighting 150
3 Sound recording 161
Project 11 The chase 176
Project 12 Sound environment 179
4 Real world guide to location shooting 180
5 Shooting for compression 188
Project 13 New format movie 192
Chapter 6 Production aesthetics 194
1 Better looking films 194
Project 14 Close-ups 206
2 Continuity 211
Project 15 Urban legends 219
3 Documentary 221
Project 16 My obituary 227
4 Music video and the VJ 229
Project 17 Music video 238
Chapter 7 Post-production tools 242
1 Condensed guide to editing 243
2 Starting to work in digital editing 244
3 Preparing to edit 255
4 Editing with sound 258
5 Understanding timecode 265
6 Working with text 268
Chapter 8 Post-production aesthetics 272
1 Editing aesthetics: editing for genre 272
2 Editing aesthetics: non-narrative 281
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Project 18 Polymedia movie 289
3 Montage editing 290
Project 19 Movie spell 295
Chapter 9 Careers and distribution 297
Part 1: Where am I going? 297
1 What’s a career? 297
2 Careers: essential knowledge 302
3 Essential qualities 306
4 Three stages of a career 311
5 The career map 314
6 Career troubleshooting 322
Part 2: How do I get there? 325
7 Where to get your movies seen 325
8 Guide to distribution 331
9 Strategies for promotion 341
Project 20 Showreel: who am I? 348
10 Film festivals 349
11 Using Internet broadcast sites 356
12 Your rights: protecting your movie on the web 359
Chapter 10 Mapping the industry 362
1 State of the art: mapping the film industry 362
2 State of the art: expansion and convergence 365
3 Trends affecting film 378
Glossary of film and video terms 381
Bibliography 397
Index 399
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Acknowledgements
This book has been less stressful in preparation than it might otherwise have been, thanks to the sup-
port of a number of filmmakers who provided opinions and help and lent stills. Thank you to Amaru
Amasi, Andy Glynne of London Documentary Group, Chris Allen of The Light Surgeons, everyone at
Antenna, the staff of Addictive TV, Colin Spector, Raya, Neo (Jake Knight), Richard Graham, Phil
Grabsky, Sean Martin, Jonnie Oddball, Matt Sheldon, James Sharpe, Liz Crow, Jon Rennie, Nick Ball,
Max Sobol, Annie Watson, David Casals, Carl Tibbets, Gurchetan Singh, Debra Watson, Kevin
Lapper, Mark Innocenti, Paul Cowling, Carlo Ortu, Emily Corcoran, Jon Price and Ed Spencer. Thanks
also to ColonelBlimp, RSA Films and Anonymous Content.
The brilliant people at Focal Press have been supportive and friendly – many thanks are due to Elinor
Actipis, Becky Golden-Harrell, Christine Tridente and Cara Anderson in Boston. In Focal Press at
Oxford, thanks to Jenny Rideout and Christina Donaldson, who helped develop the first edition.
John Edmonds and Nick Wright provided much valuable feedback prior to publication; Lisa Hill
offered advice on careers in the United States; and Michael Rabiger took time out from his own book
(Developing Story Ideas) to help with my questions.
Nearer to home, thanks go to Esme, Zoe and Alfie for doing without Jane stories for a while. Much
praise must go to my wife Wendy Klein, who offered calm solutions and additions to the ideas con-
tained in the book, and helped develop the overall structure.
