Penguin December 28th, 2007
I saw this Character Development Sheet over at Mystery Man on Film and thought it was really helpful. I’ve reproduced it below or you can download the Word.doc.
————
Character Sheet for NAME
SECTION 1
Backstory:
Character Goals or Wants:
Inner Conflict:
Character Arc:
Character Depth:
Cast Design:
Physical Appearance:
Character’s Voice:
SECTION 2
Kiersey Temperment Sorter (I prefer the 16PF):
Which means:
Characteristics:
How others may see this person:
Areas for growth:
DISC Pattern:
Which means:
Judges others by:
Influences others by:
Under pressure:
SECTION 3
Dimensions of Characterization:
A. Physical
Why?
B. Sociological
Why?
C. Psychological
Why?
D. Spiritual
Why?
E. Philosophical
Why?
F. Neuroses
Why?
G. Freaky Habits
Why?
Character Mood Intensity:
A. Temperament
B. Heartbeat
C. Breathing
D. State of Perspiration
E. Muscular Tension
F. Stomach Condition
G. Sensory Condition
H. Intelligence — Kind
I. Major Frustrations
J. Insecurities
K. Paranoia
Research:
———-
That’s it!
Hope that helps.
Links
Character Development Sheet
- Penguin
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Penguin October 4th, 2007
My Windows XP installation takes up over 6 GB on my primary partition. A good chunk of this is taken up by Windows Update or Hotfix backups. I found this nifty tool to get rid of them. If your system is stable and working, try it out.
Links:
+ Remove Hotfix Backup
+ Direct download
+ Manual process
-Penguin
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Penguin July 31st, 2007
Now, for the fun part! 
Actually shooting your film.
- White balance. The first thing you want to do after you’ve taken the lense cap off and turned on the camera, is to white balance the camera. This is especially important if you’re shooting inside or using ambient light. Some ways to white balance are, to use a gray card, the lid from a Pringles can, or a white balance card. Put any of these objects in front of your camera, and hit the white balance button. Done! If you don’t have a white balance button, see if your camera has presets for different lighting conditions, such as, fluorescent, day, etc.
- Use a slate. Sometimes known as a clapper board, it’s one of those things you see at the beginning of the shot with the shot number and the take on it. When using a slate, make sure that the information is clearly visible on the camera. Also make sure you’ll be able to see the motion of the clapper. This will make editing much easier because you’ll be able to see the shot information without have to actually watch the footage. Make sure the slate is in front the camera before you start shooting.
- Use a shot log. Print the shot log provided below and make sure you have a pen. The key information you want to capture on the shot log is the scene, the shot, and the take. At a minimum, write that down! If you capture if the shot was good or not, even better. If you can capture the times that you start the shot, that would be fantastic! If you storyboarded, use the same shot numbers from that. If you end up shooting stuff that isn’t on the storyboard, just start one after the last shot in the storyboard. On the template, you’ll see a column for “code”. I use this column so I can quickly see which shots were good, and which weren’t. I use an “X” for shots I know I won’t use. And an “O” for shots that were good.
- Rehearse the shot. Before you shoot any actual footage, make sure you walk your actors and crew through the shot first. Hopefully, your actors have their lines memorized. This will also give them a chance to warm up and for you, as the director, to give them direction. Your cameraman will also be able to see where your actors are going to move so they can track them. Or if you have a pan or zoom sequence, they’ll be able to show you what that will look like before committing any of it.
- Call quiet. Give people a heads up that you’re about to start shooting. You don’t want to mess a shot because someone didn’t realize it and started talking in the background.
- Call camera. You do have the slate in front of the camera, right? Good, now call camera. This is the signal for the cameraman to start recording.
- Call action. Give your slate person a chance to run out of the frame. Wait a bit, and let the actors know that they should begin.
Tomorrow, part 2.
Here’s the file: shot-log.pdf
-Penguin
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Penguin July 30th, 2007
Now that you have your cast and crew, it’s time to storyboard. You don’t have to storyboard all at once. With the shooting schedule in hand, you should be able to storyboard before the shoot.
- Go through your script and mark your shots. As the director, you will have a special version of the script. When initially printed, it will look just like everyone else’s. But as the director, you need to know when to cut from coverage to coverage. Based on the dialogue and the action, you’ll be able to determine what parts will be part of which shot. So take a red pen and draw a small horizontal line at the beginning of the shot. Next, draw a small horizontal line at the end of the shot and connect the two lines (at the center) with a straight vertical line. Label the beginning of this line with the type of shot you want. Is it a medium shot? Is it coverage of a specific character? Is it a cutaway to emphasize that something has happened? The idea, is that you can quickly look at the script and see where your shots are going to happen without having to refer back to the dialogue.
- Print out copious amounts of the provided template. Below, you can download a PDF of a storyboard template. On each sheet, you’ll find 8 boxes formatted 16:9. You are going to shoot 16:9 right? Of course.
- Start drawing. Yeah, your drawings are going to suck. You’re a writer! You’re a director, not an artist. That’s fine. Label your drawings if you have to. The point is, you want to be able to convey your ideas to your crew and your actors.
- Draw on the right. Your natural inclination is to draw in every box in order. Resist! Instead, draw in only the boxes on the right. Why? Because if you realize that you need to insert a shot, you’ll be glad to see an empty box to the left. Sure, this may use more paper, but you’ll save a lot of time redrawing every board again. It’s especially bad if you’ve filled all 8 only to realize you missed a crucial shot after frame 7. No good.
- “Walk” through it. Done with the scene? Took almost an hour? Go back and walk through it. Make sure your shots make sense and help tell the story. Can you add or change a shot to increase the dramatic effect? Can you remove a shot to tighten the pacing?
- Write down shot numbers. If you’re using my template, you’ll conveniently find, above each frame, “Scene: Shot:”. Fill in the appropriate information. It may seem tedious, but when you start shooting and slating, you’ll have a good reference to work off of.
Now, you’re ready to shoot!
Here’s the file: storyboard-template.pdf
-Penguin
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Penguin July 6th, 2007
I received my new clapper yesterday!
After opening it, I realized I probably should’ve spent a little more money for the acrylic one. The clapper itself feels a little flimsy and when I open it, it’s like it’s going to break at the hinge. But for what we’re going to be doing, it’ll be sufficient.
What I love about it is the whiteboard aspect. I LOVE whiteboards. Something about them makes me feel so creative and fun!
So, if you have a need for a clapper, spend the extra 20$ and get the acrylic version.
-Penguin
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