HOLLYWOOD CAMERA WORK: DVD MASTER COURSE ON BLOCKING AND STAGING

I’ve never been to film school. Never took a writing class, for that matter, but I’ve managed to do okay in the field. I see a lot of kids spending time in university writing and directing programs and I think it’s probably a good thing. School gives you purpose. It gives you deadlines. It gives you access to equipment you might not normally have. It gives you camaraderie and collaboration. It gives you contacts.

Who knows, the guy you’re sharing a beer with after class may be the next Spielberg … or the next Ed Wood. Who knows?

But film school is expensive. I think NYU runs about 30 grand or so. Not many folks have that kind of cash to throw around, even if it’s an investment in their future. This is why I love DIY moviemaking. You don’t have to wait around for your professor to give you an assignment. You don’t have to listen to his or her subjective version of reality, telling you how things should be done. You’re free to experiment and fail. And to sometimes succeed.

There are, however, certain things you really should know about before you start your first movie. And if you can’t afford 30 grand in tuition, you’ve got to take it upon yourself to study movies, study scripts, read books, and, most importantly, learn by doing. Get that camera out and see what you can and can’t do with it.

And while you’re at it, there’s something every director—DIY or not—should know before he steps foot on the sound stage: how to actually use that camera. No, I don’t mean the various mechanical functions of the thing. That’s between you and your instruction manual. What I’m talking about is where to place your camera and how to move it in a way that gives the shot or scene you’re directing the most dramatic impact.

If you look at the films of Orson Welles or Alfred Hitchcock or Roman Polanski or Martin Scorsese or Steven Spielberg or any of the great directors, you’ll see that every movement of the camera is calculated. Every frame, every tracking shot, every close-up, is designed to draw us deeper into the story and give us its greatest emotional impact.

And the good news is that for a mere fraction of that tuition—about 500 bucks—you can learn exactly how they do it. Technically, at least. Nobody can teach you talent. But even the aforementioned Ed Wood would have improved his game after watching what is, for good reason, being touted as a master course in high end blocking and staging.

Hollywood Camera Work is a remarkable nine-hour, six DVD master course in high-end camera work for the budding director. These DVDs concentrate on blocking and staging, where to put the camera, how to move it—and, most importantly, WHY. What will it say to the audience, for example, if you do a fast dolly into your lead actor’s eyes or shoot a scene from ground level, pointing upward toward your subject? Hollywood Camera Work will tell you.

When I plugged in the first DVD—Stationary Blocking—I have to admit I was a little put off to discover that rather than use actual movie clips or actors, the instructions are staged using 3D models. There’s a kind of otherworldly look to these things that makes you feel a bit uncomfortable at first. But they explain their reasoning for this right off the bat—and it’s a good one. They say that because real actors tend to show emotion with their faces and their body language, it’s better to use expressionless 3D models and let the camera convey the emotion. And that’s an important point.

After about two minutes of watching, I was so caught up in the fabulous instruction that the 3D models didn’t bother me at all. In fact, I began to find one of them rather attractive and ... uh, wait, I’m getting off track.

The course is designed to be watched over and over again. The point is that by the time you’re ready to step onto a set, these blocking and staging maneuvers will be second nature. You won’t have to even THINK about what to do next.

So what does the box-set cover? More than you can possibly imagine. The following is just some of what you’ll learn:

Volume I & II: Shot sizes and types, focal length, framing and perspective, temporal continuity, motivations for character movement, script staging, managing the line and deep staging.

Volume III & IV: Thinking in parallel, thinking in keyframes, panning, tracking, rack frame, boom and crane work.

Volume V & VI: Staging high-end scenes, a notation system for blocking, “custody” cuts and blocking, adjusting for widescreen and scope.

Again, this is only some of what’s covered and, as you can see, it’s a lot. As a result, watching these DVDs is quite an investment in time. And if you try to do it all at once, you’re bound to be a bit overwhelmed.

But the beauty of having it all on DVD is that you don’t have to go to a scheduled class, you don’t have to sit in a classroom or take copious notes (although, for learning purposes, notes couldn’t hurt), and anytime you need a refresher course, it’s right there at your fingertips. I urge you to head on over to the Hollywood Camera Work website to learn more about the DVD set and to watch some of the sample clips.

Film school? We don’t need no stinkin’ film school....!

Review by Robert Gregory Browne