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As I continue to digitize some old files during this pandemic I came across some old film school notes that were from a cinematography class I took 38 years ago. While some of the notes about film stock and cleaning any hairs (slivers of film) from the film gate are less pertinent today in a digital world, other aspects like visual design are timeless.
My professor, Bruce Block, went on to work as a visual consultant or producer on films including Near Dark, As Good as It Gets, and Something’s Got to Give. He’s also done DVD commentaries (Billy Wilder’s The Apartment) and wrote the book The Visual Story; Creating the Visual Structure of Film, Tv and Digital Media. He’s also an instructor at AFI and a tenured professor at the University of Southern California – School of Cinematic Arts.
I’ve won a few cinematography awards for short films I’ve shot and a Regional Emmy for location lighting on a commercial and there’s no question that Bruce was key in building my foundational understanding of visual design and cinematography.
Here are just a couple of pages of film school notes from his class. (Excuse any typos as this was well before I had a computer with spell check.) I recommend you get the book The Visual Story if this is an area you’d like to better understand.
One of the great things about going to film school is not only learning from knowledgable and experienced professors, but working on a wide variety of projects with other people. Getting the opportunity to wear many hats. I know that directing a 16mm project with a 20 person crew at age 22 gave me a lot of confidence as I went out into the world working on paid projects. (A great bit of advice was giving to me by a professor with a thick New York accent: “What you need to know about directing is everyone on the set thinks they know how to direct better than you.” It helps to have a clear vision and a healthy ego to direct anything.)
Here are some photos I came across from my film school days. The equipment has changed, but the basics have remained the same for 100 years—cast, crew, camera, lights, sound—action. Many fine memories of fun times creating stuff. (I’m the guy in the Jimmy Buffett shirt.)
P.S. One drum I like to beat is don’t go into heavy debt to go to film school. I went to school back when people didn’t walk away with crippling student loans. Plus back in the days when film schools shot primarily film, it was one of the key places to learn the craft because equipment was expensive. Now most cameras and editing software are far cheaper than film school. If you do go to film school, find one where you are cranking out content. It’s fine to dream big, but 3-minute webisodes, dramatic podcasts, short films, video essays, micro docs, and spec commercials can help you get work even before you graduate.
Your blog is among the most valuable resources out there. Thanks, Scott!
Thanks Debbi. After 12 years, sometimes I wonder if I should keep blogging so it’s always nice to get some encouragement. Trying to work on a system that would allow the blog to filter into a podcast that filters into YouTube videos.