The History and Science of Color Temperature
Survey the effect of color temperature and its psychological effects from the incessant heat of Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing” to the icy chill of the Coen Brothers’ “Fargo”. Then we look at the...
View ArticleThe Curious Copyright Case of “It’s A Wonderful Life”
It’s A Wonderful Life has become a holiday tradition bolstered by near constant plays on television as the film fell into the public domain in 1975. But in the 90s, a studio would regain control over...
View ArticleThe Basics of Lighting for Film Noir
Learn the basics of three point lighting and some of the tools for shooting Film Noir so you can start to analyse the look of films shot in this unique style. Then apply your knowledge to making your...
View ArticleThe History of Frame Rate for Film
Explore the history of the frame rate – the engine that gives motion to the motion picture from their earliest versions in silent pictures to the frame rates of broadcast television. The post The...
View ArticleThe Origins of Auteur Theory
Auteur – it’s a favorite term of cinephiles around the world. But what exactly is Auteur Theory? In this Filmmaker IQ course we peel back pages of time and explore the origins of Auteur Theory from the...
View ArticleComposition Techniques for Widescreen Aspect Ratios
Aspect Ratio is one of many choices you make when deciding how to shoot your film. Explore some basic tips on how to visualize your desired ratio and some helpful composition techniques before diving...
View ArticleThe Origins of Acting and “The Method”
Trace the origins of acting technique by following the roots of theater going back all the way to the Ancient Greeks, through the Italian Renaissance and finally to the psychological approaches of the...
View ArticleFive Elements of a Great Chromakey
Explore the 5 crucial elements of capturing a great chromakey for your production from space, screen, lighting, camera and post and try your hand at chromakey with a Reporter on the Street Short film....
View ArticleHow Do We Measure an Audience?
The success of a film or video is often judged on the size of the audience – but how do we measure that audience? – It’s not always as simple as counting tickets. In this course we look at the...
View ArticleHow To Create Bizarre Slit Scan Video
See how After Effects’ Time Displacement can be used to create bizarre and other-worldly slit scan effects and create your own music video using this visually unique technique. The post How To Create...
View ArticleCasablanca
Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), who owns a nightclub in Casablanca, discovers his old flame Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) is in town with her husband, Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid). Laszlo is a famed rebel, and...
View ArticleA Bit of History on Data
Digital media has become the new celluloid – but how much do you know about this medium? Watch this primer on digital data storage and get caught up on the basics of the backbone of every modern...
View ArticleIntroduction to Color In Digital Filmmaking
Color is a natural everyday experience – but how do you use color to advance your film? We’ll start by looking at how filmmakers in the late 90s began exploring creative uses of color. Then we’ll take...
View ArticleDouble Indemnity
In this classic film noir, insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) gets roped into a murderous scheme when he falls for the sensual Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck), who is intent on...
View ArticleThe Science of Camera Sensors
A lot goes on under the hood when you press “REC” – check out the fascinating science behind film and electronic camera sensors. The post The Science of Camera Sensors appeared first on FilmmakerIQ.com.
View ArticleIntroduction to Automated Dialogue Replacement (ADR)
Sometimes it’s just not possible to get clean dialogue on set – that’s when ADR comes into play. In this course we’ll look at the history of ADR or looping and tackle the process of doing ADR on a...
View ArticleDo the Right Thing
On the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone’s hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence. Do the Right Thing is a 1989...
View Article10 Copyright Terms Explained
What’s difference between an idea an the expression of an idea? What’s the difference between borrowing and stealing? What’s covered under Copyright and what’s not? If you want clear answers to those...
View ArticleThe History and Science of Lenses
No camera could be complete without a lens – the glass technology that brings the world into focus. Dive into the history of the lens from it’s early beginning as a fire starting tool to the plethora...
View ArticleIntroduction to Foley and Sound Effects
Very little of what you hear in the movies is real – in this lab we take a look at the art of Foley, how to classify it, the history of the man who started it all and take a demonstrate on our own...
View ArticleGoodFellas
Martin Scorsese’s 1990 masterpiece GoodFellas immortalizes the hilarious, horrifying life of actual gangster Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), from his teen years on the streets of New York to his anonymous...
View ArticleThe True Hollywood Story of The Vasquez Rocks
From Western backdrops to the geological formations on strange alien planets – the Vasquez Rocks have been a tireless extra in countless movies and television shows – here’s the history of the bizarre...
View ArticleThe Properties of Camera Lenses
With a grounding in science and history, we now dive into the properties of camera lenses and explain the features of the modern camera lens for photography and cinematography from, Focal Length,...
View ArticleHow to Prepare a Shooting Script
Your script is the foundation upon which you build everything. It is the basis of what you are doing all of this for. It is the master document referenced for creating the end project and all the...
View ArticleThe Cinematic History of Fake Blood
There are a lot of ways to make the screen bleed – dissect the history of fake blood from its origins in the Theater to modern recipes for making characters bleed on screen – then take your turn and...
View ArticleO Brother Where Art Thou?
O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a 2000 comedy film written, produced, edited and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, and starring George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson and John Goodman, with Holly...
View ArticleThe Sinking History of Quicksand
They were once the bane of adventure movies – an easy way to introduce a bit of drama in a slow sinking natural trap. But today quicksand just seems corny. What is quicksand and how did this once...
View ArticleFocusing on Depth of Field and Lens Equivalents
How much space in front of the lens will be in focus? That question defines Depth of Field – but this simple concept has lead to a staggering amount of confusion in today’s multi-format camera...
View ArticleThe Basics of Breaking down and Scheduling a Script
Locations, actors, set construction, wardrobe, prosthetics and many other things affect the order in which you shoot a project. The amount of work that goes into creating your first schedule will...
View ArticleHow a Director Stages and Blocks a Scene
How a director approaches staging and blocking a scene dramatically affects the story – in this experiment at YouTube Space LA, we take a boilerplate police detective script and shoot it directing five...
View ArticleFargo
Fargo is a 1996 American crime film produced, directed and written by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen. It stars Frances McDormand as a pregnant police chief who investigates a series of homicides and...
View ArticleThe History of the 555 telephone number
Why do all the movie phone numbers start with 555? Because people got tired of receiving phone calls from kids dialing up numbers they saw on the screen. But the story for why 555 goes deeper into how...
View ArticleThe Science of Rendering Photorealistic CGI
How do we get a glorified adding machine to generate a photorealistic image? Find out as we explore the processes developed over 40 years of intensive computer science research which now bring amazing...
View ArticleHow a Film Budget is Built
There are many details and a staggering number of issues one needs to keep in mind when creating a budget. Before this point, you have read the script multiple times, made many notes, broken the script...
View ArticleThe Fundamental Elements of Music
Explore the role of music in film from it’s importance in silent film to the elements and tools that modern composers use to create music for the silver screen. See how minor changes in momentum, depth...
View ArticleJaws
Jaws is a 1975 American horror/thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley’s novel of the same name. The prototypical summer blockbuster, its release is regarded as a...
View ArticleThe History of the Mockbuster
Where there are Blockbusters, there will be imitations trying to cash in on an a popular cultural trend. Explore the history of the mockbuster film, from the roots in studio B-pictures, to sound alike...
View ArticleHow to Make Air-Powered Blood Squibs
Take a brief tour of the history of Blood Squibs before we demonstrate how to build an air-powered blood squib for a gunshot special effect. Then it’s your turn to get bloodied by creating a film which...
View ArticleWho’s Who in the Movie Credits
Have you ever sat through the end credits waiting for the post-credit teaser and wondered what exactly do all those people do? We’ll break down the positions in that sea of credits and explain who’s...
View ArticleLeon: The Professional
Leon: The Professional is a 1994 English-language French thriller film written and directed by Luc Besson. It stars Jean Reno and Gary Oldman, and features the motion picture debut of Natalie Portman....
View ArticleDo Pets Watch TV the Same Way Humans Do?
When you snuggle with Fido to some Netflix does he understand what’s going on? Do television and motion picture have the same impact on our furry friends as they do on us? To answer the question we...
View ArticleThe Science of Deep Focus and the Hyperfocal Distance
Orson Welles is known for deeply choreographing the staging in Citizen Kane – but that blocking would have been lost if it wasn’t in focus. In this Lab we explore the concept of Hyperfocal Distance and...
View ArticleThe History of the Hollywood Musical
The Hollywood Musical began right when films learned to talk. Explore the beginnings in vaudeville to the Golden Era of Studio Musicals followed by the transformation into the modern story driven Book...
View ArticleThe Science and Circuitry of DIY LEDs
It’s the latest tech in efficient lighting – but how do LEDs work? We’ll dive into the science and engineering of LEDs as well as the basic concepts on how to wire up simple DIY LED circuits which you...
View ArticleThe History of Movie Title Sequences
Not only do Title Sequences tell you the name of the film and the stars, they can also set the tone and mood and put you in the right frame of mind to experience the film or TV show to come. Explore...
View ArticleThe Math and Science of Forced Perspective
It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book for making things appear larger or smaller than they really are. In this lab we will break down the actual science and math behind forced perspective and...
View ArticleThe History and Philosophy of Copyright
Let’s dive into the history of Copyright, a legal framework that makes mass market publishing from books to movies possible. We explore perhaps the earliest example of a copyright case in Medieval...
View ArticleThe History of the Hollywood Movie Poster
The Movie Poster has been around since the beginning of the Movies – in this course we will explore the earliest history of poster making and Lithography, the monopoly of Hollywood movie poster...
View ArticleHow to Get Your Short Screened at Festival
You’ve finished your short film and it’s GREAT! But now what? Here is a run down of some basic tips and strategies for entering your film into film festivals designed to save you money and maximize...
View ArticleThe Science of Exposure and Metering
Let’s go deep beyond the exposure triangle and look at the pathway which light travels from the scene to the sensor. In this course we will examine the elements of scene illuminance and luminance,...
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