Film 101
One of Zoom's aims is to provide you with as much technical and industrial knowledge as possible. And, as the season begins to heat up, we give you a packed issue filled with tidbits and insights.

First off, Bigfoot Entertainment VFX Technical Director Ivan Kintanar introduces Visual Effects in this month's In Focus. He breaks down basic concepts and terms to give us a peek into this growing aspect of filmmaking.




In Tip Stop, accomplished writer/producer Ivette Garcia Davila gives us important pointers on writing dialogue that works for your film. She identifies a few script mistakes, and teaches us how to fix them.




We then head out to Europe for the Berlinale — a highly-lauded film festival that attracts a lot of attention all over the world — as IAFT Program Director for Filmmaking Ed Lejano shares his experience (which includes rubbing elbows with Tilda Swinton and appraising Madonna's directorial debut).



Happy reading and note taking!
 

QUICK QUOTES
Hear it straight from the film icons

"Most people like the magic of having it take a long time and be difficult... but I like to move along, I like to keep the actors feeling like they're going somewhere, I like the feeling of coming home after every day and feeling like you've done something and you've progressed somewhere. And to go in and do one shot after lunch and another one maybe at six o'clock and then go home is not my idea of something to do."

  — Clint Eastwood


IN FOCUS

VFX Essentials
by Ivan Kintanar

Digital Visual Effects and Computer Generated Imagery have become vital tools in filmmaking over the years. It appears as widely used in big budget productions as well as in small features. The wide array of capabilities it provides has allowed directors and artists to realize their creative visions as well as help implement difficult scenes — although it does appear to be misused a lot of times. A basic understanding of these tools would definitely help any director, producer, and filmmaker in his or her career. Here are the essential ones:

VFX DESIGN AND ARTWORK
Art Direction has always been a key element of filmmaking. But oftentimes, it's ignored in visual effects as artists are left to conceptualize computer-generated elements and effects themselves. Always take into consideration that extending art direction and conceptualization into VFX is vital in creating the best results.

PREVIZUALIZATION
As its name implies, "previs" allows directors to see and cut sequences before they are even shot, with the use of 3D application. This allows directors and DPs to work with VFX artists to nail down camera moves, direction and flow for scenes, particularly VFX sequences. Used properly, previs can significantly cut down expenses, time, and give everyone in the production a clear vision of what a scene or sequence would look and feel like.

3D IMAGERY
3D applications like Maya, 3DSMax, and XSI have developed so much over the years that they can create any digital imagery a film or production might need. This can be a photorealistic set extension or digital doubles, to stylized graphic renderings. Processes and workflows within this discipline change on a regular basis as more tools and techniques are developed. In its simplest, 3D involves Modeling (the creation of 3D elements), Texturing/Shading (the addition of surface detail and characteristics on a "flat" 3D object), 3D Animation (adding life to 3D objects), and Rendering (where the computer takes all the information and creates actual image files for use).


COMPOSITING
Compositing packages like Shake, AfterEffects, Digital Fusion, Nuke and such, allow artists to combine and manipulate live action plates, CGI objects and any other elements. One can add 3D objects to live footage, combine different live action plates together, shoot actors on a blue/green screen and put them in a digital setting, make a small set appear larger, and a variety of other capabilities. Oftentimes, shot footage has items that need to be removed, set elements to be added, and images that require enhancements.

A VFX craft that is closely related to compositing is Roto Paint — as footage is seldom perfect where there are rigs, wires and details that need be removed or painted out and even painted in.

MATCHMOVING
This is the process of digitally re-creating the movement and characteristics of the camera in a live footage. This creates a 3D version of the camera and its movement inside a CG application — a requirement that creates a seamless integration between live action, CGI Elements and any other plates. Famous matchmoving softwares include Boujou, RealViz and SynthEyes. Object Tracking, where the movement of a live object such as a car is recorded and recreated, is an extension of matchmoving.

ONSET SUPERVISION AND TECHNICAL DIRECTION
Visual Effects Supervisors and technical directors have become more common personnel to have on set. These people have gained vast experiences with visual effects, CGI, and compositing and who are oftentimes cinematographers and filmmakers themselves. Regardless of the size of the production, it is always advisable to have VFX people onset. They can recommend ways in shooting VFX plates, green screen shots and other elements that would benefit post-production and the project in general.




VFX is a huge and growing industry where there are already many professionals working within it. It can be a solid and indispensable part of any filmmaker's arsenal. Enjoy using it as part of yours.

Ivan Kintanar has worked in the VFX and Post Production Industry for over eight years as a VFX Supervisor, Post Production Supervisor, Creature TD, CGI and VFX TD and Senior Compositor. He has over 30 film and TV VFX credits and has been a key contributor to the development of VFX workflows and pipelines for the companies he has served. These include the areas of creature pipelines, matchmoving, dynamics and simulations, digital painting/sculpting, mentalray rendering, previs, roto-paint, VFX data/film management, color management/color pipelines and onset VFX supervision. Currently, Kintanar is the VFX technical director for Bigfoot Entertainment, supervising projects and pipelines in VFX/CGI Design, 3D Animation and FX, Motion Graphics and Compositing.
TIP STOP
Helpful pointers from film pros

Dialoguing On Dialogue
by Ivette Garcia Davila

"Character and thought are merely obscured by a diction that is over-brilliant." — Aristotle.

When writing films, we often forget the function of dialogue and indulge in garrulous banter thinking it's stylistically brilliant. The truth is that you can't have one without the other. Whether real or imaginary, dialogue is essentially a function of character and beyond being functional, it should also be appealing to our ears.

Dialogue should communicate pertinent information, sometimes back story, to explain a certain plot and/or character's situation. Words written on a page must move the story forward, create tension, reveal character and conflict with other characters, and must reveal emotional stakes. This does not mean that you should have a depressed man say: "I've been so depressed since you left, I won't eat or sleep or stop thinking about killing myself. Do you feel the same way?"

First rule about filmmaking and even writing is "show, don't tell." Show me and don't tell me what is going on in your character's head. Once you get the function right, we can move into shaping words into Aristotelian nuggets of brilliance. Let's give the depressed man a second chance:

A naked man with hollow cheeks and dark circles under his eyes lays on an empty tub, staring at nothingness. A razor blade sits next to him on the ledge of the tub. A door unlocks and a pair of heels stabbing the floor gets louder as they approach. The bathroom door opens. A woman enters. Sits on the toilet across from him.

MAN (without bothering to look at her): "Water's cut off."
The woman opens the faucet. Water pours. Man jerks. It's freezing.
WOMAN: "I just paid the bill."
MAN: "Of course you did."
Woman uncrosses and re-crosses her legs.
MAN: "Deep inside, you're just as fucked up."

Let's examine the scene. The razor blade not only connotes suicide but it adds suspense. Your guy is not even looking at it, but the audience is and they are wondering if he's going to cut himself. This is called dramatic irony, when your audience knows something your character doesn't or when you engage the audience by letting them make assumptions on the story or the character's fate.

This scene showed us everything we need to know — two people going through a break up. The man is not taking it as well as the woman, but the woman does care — she's there, isn't she? She even paid the bill. Somehow she wants to shock him, make him realize something — so she opens the faucet. The man really wants to reach out but instead of asking her if she's having a tough time with the break up he says, "Deep inside, you're just as fucked up," hoping that perhaps she will agree. With this scene you can sense the history and the back-story of their relationship without the need to spell it out.

Sometimes you need to write that on the nose line of dialogue in order to get to the subtext of it. That's okay. That's why rewriting is just as important as writing. Good dialogue should have a consistent rhythm, be concise, convey conflict and intentions, reveal character quirks and differentiate characters. It should sound natural and be rich in subtext. Subtext is the meaning behind the lines. People often don't say what they mean. Especially women.



A writer-producer from San Juan, Puerto Rico, Ivette García Dávila obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Film School Conservatory at Florida State University. She has produced and collaborated creatively in numerous short films including Zeke, winner of a Student Emmy and a Student Academy Award that screened at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, as well as the ASC Heritage award winner 3 a.m. — another successful short that earned her a second Student Emmy, a Kodak Enhancement Grant and a first prize at the Screamfest Film Festival. She also produced Misfortune, a Triggerstreet Film Festival winner that screened during Sundance 2003. Davila has worked in many TV and Film productions such as Weeds, The West Wing, The Hoax, Midnight Meat Train, Freedom Writers, Just Friends and Wild Hogs in both production and development.
PRODUCTION NOTES
Perspectives and POVs in the biz

Berlin Stories: Politics, Pinoy Indies, Music in Film and Madonna Directs!
by Ed Lejano

Every February might as well mark the start of the major film festival circuit when the Berlin International Film Festival takes place, as its top tier counterparts like Cannes, Venice and Toronto follow suit many months later.

Preceded only by Sundance and Rotterdam, the Berlinale gets its share of stars, glamour and great cinema as industry players, celebrities and critics, dreamers and shakers from around the globe troop to the wintry climes of this vibrant German capital to join one of the most popular and prestigious events in the festival map.

This year is certainly no exception as the winning films at the recently concluded 58th Berlinale reflects the vitality that world cinema has to offer in all its non-mainstream variety. Festivals of this caliber get their fair share of A-listers and this year came Penelope Cruz, the Rolling Stones, Ben Kingsley, helmsman Martin Scorsese, Bollywood idol Shahrukh Khan and Madonna, who premiered her first feature as director.

Political Themes
With veteran director Costa Gavras as Berlin jury president, politics seemed to be the running theme for the winning films. Brazil's Elite Squad scored a triumph over early favorite There Will Be Blood (by Paul Thomas Anderson) by winning the Golden Bear for best film.

Set in the Brazilian slums, Jose Padilha's action-packed film about police brutality and drug wars sends a clear message about corruption and violence. The genre film was a big hit in his native country — having been seen by more than a million viewers in pirated DVDs.

The Silver Bear best director award went to Anderson whose violent, hard-hitting critique of unbridled capitalism was a strong contender for this year's Oscar. A more obvious political tinge is seen in Errol Morris' Standard Operating Procedure, a stinging indictment of the American military's abuses of Iraqi POWs. The recipient of the Grand Jury Silver Bear, this film holds the distinct honor of being the first documentary to be included in the Berlin competition.

Pinoy Films Shine
The Philippines was amply represented with six films in the festival's non-competition lineup — all of them indies. Not a bad showing at all, considering the two special prizes bestowed on two of the films: the Teddy Award for The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela (an Iceland-Philippines co-prod) and the Caligari Prize for Tirador by Brillante Mendoza.

The former is given to a popular film with a gay/lesbian context, which was awarded two years ago to Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros. Directed by Olaf de Fleur Johannesson of Iceland and co-produced by Filipino Arlene Cuevas, this year's Teddy winner revolves around the fictionalized, bittersweet adventures of a "ladyboy" from Cebu. Played by Raquela Rios, the film relies on his/her true-to-life experiences and innate homespun wit to come up with an interesting Cinderella tale with a gender twist.

The other Filipino films in Berlin's Panorama, a section typified for its more auteur line-up, are Tribu by Jim Libiran, and Balikbayan Box by Mes de Guzman. The latter is de Guzman's follow-up to his Ang Daan Patungong Kalimugtong, which demonstrates once again that a no-frills DV budget can still be at par for its understated handling and lyrical simplicity.

Tirador and Tribu both tread similar terrain as they delve into the harsh side of the country's realities. The former's depiction of small-time crooks against the backdrop of protest rallies render Mendoza's work a timeliness that resonates with recent political headlines. The Cinemalaya best picture winner from last year, Tribu 's use of real-life Tondo gangsters lend the film a certain rawness, providing it considerable behind-the-scenes appeal.

The recent successes abroad of films like Kubrador and Foster Child have certainly helped pave a wider market for Filipino films in the international art house circuit. European distribution deals are underway for Tirador, Tribu and Raquela.

A new kind of social realism, Philippine style, may be unfolding, based on the critical attention such films have been receiving. While not altogether new, what make these films feel somehow fresh in this post-Brocka era may be its depiction of poverty in a matter-of-fact way.

What gets foregrounded in these recent films are personal stories and poverty as givens, constantly lurking in the background. Postcard pretty images of the country are eschewed for handheld, sometimes underlit DV images in scenarios of marginalized characters seeking a decent place in the tropical sun. The stories may vary but the pattern of cynicism that comes to fore reflect a willful acceptance of a bleak fate.

Music in Film
Music gets a special focus in some of the film fest programs. Shine a Light opened the festival and Scorsese's concert film of the Stones 2006 tour delivers a rollicking punch with its dizzying visuals done by various big-name cinematographers. It took 11 years for the documentary Patti Smith: Dream of Life to be completed by its filmmaker/fan Steven Sebring, working organically with footages on the 70s rock star that he had accumulated through the years.

Live musical performances accompanied the showings of two other Filipino films at the Forum special screenings of The Muzzled Horse of an Engineer in Search of Medical Saddles (by Khavn dela Cruz) and Years When I Was a Child Outside (by John Torres). Both filmmakers performed their own music respectively, lending a unique experience to their experimental works.

Fans of Bollywood helped make the blockbuster Om Shanti Om quite a hit. This dazzling tribute to the Bollywood films of the 70s, is a story of unrequited love that features numerous Indian stars in glamorous cameos.

Directing and the Material Girl
Another festival hot ticket was pop icon/actress/children's book author, Madonna, whose directorial debut Filth and Wisdom was eagerly awaited by fans and critics alike — for different reasons.

Adding another slash to her expanding credentials, she uses her life as raw material in telling a story (that she co-wrote) about three people in pursuit of their dreams. Mildly funny, and not without its charm, it isn't exactly the disaster that critics had been waiting to pounce on, nor the definitive cinematic success that fans had long hoped for.

From its auspicious beginnings 58 years ago when Alfred Hitchcock's now classic Rebecca opened the first festival, then as now, the Berlinale continues to be one of the major highlights in the international film circuit.


The IAFT's Program Director for Filmmaking, Ed Lejano was a festival delegate to the 2008 Berlinale.


FILM-ISMS
 Learning the lingo goes a long way

Face Fault
Normally a property of cartoon physics (specifically Anime), a face fault is an exaggeration of a character's features to add emphasis or relief to a comical situation. Its equivalent in Western cartoons is Wild Takes, which are mainly used by Warner Brothers, MGM and Disney. Some common examples of face faults include:
  • A giant sweat drop over a character's face to indicate a response to an inane question, or nervousness
  • A character has a nose bleed to indicate attraction (which is based on an old Japanese wives tale that a boy would get a nosebleed if he stared at a pretty girl)
  • A character blue or purple blush to indicate fear
  • A character is frozen in ice to indicate that the other character told a joke that is passé, said something stupid or is singing badly
  • A character's fists and/or feet turn into multiple flesh-colored, fast moving balls to indicate irritation, impatience or frustration
  • A character's head enlarges to gigantic proportions to indicate anger (if two characters are arguing, they will alternate between having a "giant" head with a normal one)
  • A large bubble comes out of the nose of a character to indicate sleep, boredom or exhaustion
(Source: http://www.wikipedia.org, http://www.theblackmoon.com/Gloss/agloss.html)
ZIP!
Recent IAFT news

A special two-night film screening was recently held at Mogwai Coffee Shop and Cinemateque in Cubao Expo, Cubao that showcased the works of the IAFT's past and present students. Some of the filmmakers included in the event were International College Peace Film Festival finalists Ian Lim and Jamie Jumaquio, Gawap CCP winner Publio Briones and Cinemanila awardee Michael Manalastas.

IAFT class 4-07 students Peter Mancao and Angelo Agojo were honored at the recent Sinulog Film Festival. Their work, Colors in Motion, won Best In Cinematography and finished fourth overall. Peter directed, edited and sound designed the piece, while Angelo produced and wrote it. Congratulations to both!

Upcoming March workshops at the IAFT include: Producing Basics, Television Scriptwriting, Guerilla Filmmaking, Music Video Production, Fashion Photography, Acting for TV and Film, Dance/Choreography, and Acting in Cebu. For more information and other schedules, click here


The International Academy of Film and Television (IAFT) is Asia's premier film school. With state-of-the-art equipment and facilities in Cebu, the school offers intensive training through its roster of international film professionals. The IAFT has courses that come in varying program modules and offers enrollment on a continuous year-round basis. Make your own mark in the world of Cinema. Enroll now.

For more information, please get in touch with our customer service representatives at +63-32-495-1033, +63-32-493-8889 ext 5259 or 5229 or visit www.filmschool.ph