50156 Creative Techniques for Shorts
UTS: Communication: Creative PracticeCredit points: 8 cp
Result Type: Grade, no marks
Requisite(s): 50155 Film and Video Production
Handbook description
Students develop advanced skills in film and video production through the production of a personally authored short film or video work which is taken through all stages of production from script, storyboard and pre-production to shooting and post-production. Through the study of experiments in visual style and sound design, students are encouraged to approach their production work innovatively, giving particular attention to the conceptual issues of space, time, movement and texture. The maximum length of the required production work is three minutes.
Subject objectives/outcomes
On completion of this subject students are expected to be able to:
- demonstrate increased professional skills through hand-on technical experience of film and video
- show development in the ability to combine their technical, critical and creative skills
- have an increased understanding of the history of experimentation in the film and video short form
- demonstrate their capacity to experiment with image construction and the relationship between sound and image
- realise a 'short' taking it through all stages from idea to post production.
Contribution to graduate profile
Students develop their professional skills and creative expertise through the production of a personally authored film or video work which is taken from idea, through pre-production and production to postproduction. Students are able to demonstrate in their work an interdisciplinary background in the humanities and social sciences.
Students acquire a conceptual and practical experience of experimental forms, approaches and styles in film and video at the same time as developing their hands-on skills in these mediums. Students are encouraged to innovate in their production work as they combine their technical, critical and creative skills. Students are prepared as graduates who have both a professional and creative approach to their media production work.
Teaching and learning strategies
Weekly seminars are held throughout semester which involve screenings, discussion and in class exercises. There are some technical workshops out of class. Short out-of-class exercises and a final project focus on the development of creative ideas and technical experimentation with the film and video mediums. Work-in–progress discussions and screenings of these assessment tasks are an important part of the seminar.
Content
This subject covers the following content areas:
- History of experiments in the short film and video form
- Conceptual approaches to the short form
- Properties of image construction: shape, composition, texture, movement, superimposition
- Time manipulation in shooting and editing
- Movement as an element in experimentation: choreography within the frame, camera movement, working with still images to create movement
- Sound design: textuality, emotion, perspective, design for non sync work
- Design: colour, light, filters, graphic aspects, texture, titles
- Script development for the short form
- Metaphor in storytelling
- Filming and refilming: technical possibilities of 16mm film Bolex camera, optical printer and digital filming and post production
- Funding and exhibition of short films.
Assessment
Assessment item 1: Script/Storyboard
The production of an original script/storyboard for the final short project.
| Objective(s): | a, b, d |
| Weighting: | 20% |
| Task: | With relation to the appropriate writing, development and presentation format for the piece they are planning. Students produce a script and or storyboard for the project. Non standard approaches in presentation and format are welcome. |
| Assessment criteria: |
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Assessment item 2: Developmental research
Through individual research students explore the background, influences and wider creative context of their project idea
| Objective(s): | a, b, d, e |
| Weighting: | 20% |
| Task: | Students choose, in consultation with the lecturer, at least one aspect of their project to do developmental research on. This could involve exploring visual or narrative influences on a project idea, technical research into production technique or research into the broader history or context of the subject matter of the project. |
| Assessment criteria: |
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Assessment item 3: A three-minute short
A personally authored short film or video work of three minutes maximum duration.
| Objective(s): | a, b, c, d, e |
| Weighting: | 60% |
| Task: | Students complete a short video work which expresses the conceptual, creative and technical possibilities of an experimental short. The project must be taken through all stages of production from idea to completion meeting deadlines as specified in the subject outline. |
| Assessment criteria: |
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Minimum requirements
Students are expected to read the subject outline to ensure they are familiar with the subject requirements. Since class discussion and participation in activities form an integral part of this subject, you are expected to attend, arrive punctually and actively participate in classes. If you experience difficulties meeting this requirement, please contact your lecturer. Students who have a reason for extended absence (e.g., illness) may be required to complete additional work to ensure they achieve the subject objectives.
Attendance is particularly important in this subject because it is based on a collaborative approach which involves essential workshopping and interchange of ideas. Students who attend fewer than ten classes are advised that their final work will not be assessed and that they are likely to fail the subject.
Required text(s)
Required reading
Video art / Michael Rush. London : Thames & Hudson, 2002.
Katz, Steven Shot by Shot Film Directing: visualising from concept to screen. Michael Wiese productions, 1991
Macdonald, Scott Avant-Garde Film Motion Studies Cambridge University press, 1993
Doug Aitken : A-Z book (fractals). Philadelphia : Fabric Workshop and Museum ; Zurich : Kunsthalle Zürich ; New York : distributed by D.A.P., c2002.
From celluloid to cyberspace : the media arts and the changing arts world / Kevin F. McCarthy, Elizabeth Heneghan Ondaatje. Santa Monica, CA : Rand, 2002
Going forth by day / Bill Viola ; [text by John Hanhardt]. New York : Guggenheim Museum Publications, c2002.
Recommended text(s)
Billups, Scott Digital Moviemaking The Filmmaker's Guide to the 21st century Focal Press, 2001
Dancyger, Ken The technique of film and vide editing Focal, Boston 1993
Dancyger, Ken and Rush, Jeff Alternative Scriptwriting Second Edition, Focal press, Bostonand Melbourne, 1995
Gidal, P Structural Film Anthology, British Film Institute, London, 1978
Pause : 59 minutes of motion graphics / text by Peter Hall and Andrea Codrington ; compiled and designed by Julie Hirschfeld and Stephanie Barth. London : Laurence King, 2000.
Tarkovsky, Andrei Sculpting in Time, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1986
Wheeler, Paul Digital Cinematography, Focal press 2001
