Mike Jones Digital Basin
cinematic media rinse cycle

Learning filmmaking backwards

Cinematic production is traditionally a linear progressive process - From script, to storyboard, to shoot, to edit to sound mix to delivery.

Subsequently, more often than not, we teach cinematic production following the same linear progression. At both secondary and tertiary levels we tend to examine in learning each element of production process in much the same order as a traditional production would function; script first, then camera, then post-production editing and sound. But is this really the best or most effective way to teach filmmaking?

The fundamental cornerstone of all engaged and effective learning is context. Communicating and teaching a concept in the abstract, disconnected from other ideas or process, is far more difficult than when the new concept is tangibly connected to other already understood ideas. Simile, metaphor and example are at the heart of good teach by their ability to construct context around a new idea.

It is here that we might see the underlying problem with teaching filmmaking process following in the same order as it is traditionally made; a distinct lack of context.

A screenplay is not a work if literature - its arguably not a writing discipline at all - rather it is a blueprint for production. A screenplay doesn't exist to be read and everything about its form, structure and tenets is designed specifically for facilitating production and visual interpretation. And so by its very nature you cannot effectively write a screenplay or even engage with the screenwriting process without an understanding of the process of shooting and making a movie. The screenplay, as a concept, is fundamentally out of context without that experience.

The shooting of a movie, the acquisition of the principle photography, is at the heart of what traditional filmmaking is - the staging of performance and the composition of shots. But on its own cinematography is just the acquisition of images. A movie doesn't become a movie until those images arranged, edited and sequenced. Without an experience and understanding of editing - what that process requires of the images it arranges - shooting is distinctly out of context. The process of shooting can only be comprehended fully in the knowledge of what is needed of, and what will be done to, the shots themselves.

The understanding of each part of the cinematic production process can only be contextualized by an understanding of the production components and processes that follow. Without that contextual knowledge processes such as script writing are rendered dislocated and abstracted.

In this light there is a strong argument to suggest that for a contextually underpinned learning of cinematic production concepts to take place, the components themselves should be learned in reverse order.

Starting students on a learning continuum about filmmaking that is grounded, empowering and contextualized should begin with editing and post production. Not only does this allow for the cinematic experience to be informed from an holistic and integrated perspective - one starts from the 'whole', the end phase where all components come together - but also builds the learning process on a self motivated model. A student thrown in at the editing phase will quickly and invariably realize the crucial importance of good cinematography and in particular coverage; thus they will become self directed towards and engagement with the camera from a contextualized position. As a student immerses themselves in the art of the camera and the acquisition of images they will quickly and invariably realize the need for a considered and articulate script. Here students will arrive finally at at the screenplay from a position of motivated need and contextual understanding where they understand holistically the broad functions the screenplay serves.

Just because cinema tends to work a prescribed linear segmented process flowing in one direction does not mean that you have to learn filmmaking in that same pre-ordained order.

Posted at 01:00AM Oct 21, 2007 by Mike Jones in media education  |  Comments[1]