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Interactive Film School
Reviews and Comments
 Video Systems
January, 1999
Reviewer: Frank MacMahon
Going (Back) to Film School, Interactively
It's easy for video directors to think they know a lot about "filmmaking" and
telling a story. While many of us are technically proficient with all of the
latest video equipment, there needs to be a solid background in camera movement,
story line, pacing, film grammar, script-writing, and pre-production. For some,
the Interactive Film School CD-ROM set could be a humbling experience, bringing
up techniques you may have never thought of before. Going through this
interactive film school could do wonders for your video career.
The program comes on four CD's, and although the Web certainly has a hand in
the phasing out of information CD's, this program certainly is a design showcase
for the CD format, with great graphics, crisp video, cool animation, and smooth
navigation. The concept is a New York City filmmaking school that has closed for
the summer. However, you pass a lethargic security guard, and you, essentially,
then have free rein to the entire four-floor facility. As you roam from room to
room and floor to floor, you discover all kinds of information and tutorials on
producing, writing, directing, and editing. Each room covers different parts of
the total filmmaking course. You can choose to go in order or skip around (the
security guard flips you a floor plan, and you can click on any room to go
directly to it). All the graphics are real (not 3D-generated) so wandering
around and hearing the constant sounds of the NYC streets outside adds a great
sense of realism.
Your course begins with film grammar, the composition of the scene. Different
types of shots, angles, lenses camera movements, positions, coverage, reverse
angle, the triangle principal, framing, and punctuation are covered. Some of
this was old hat for me, but many segments taught me new tricks and most
reinforced what I already knew and should be doing. The rooms are a combination
of all types of multimedia examples, from clickable text pages to animated
exercises to video examples. For example, there is one section in film grammar
on doing match cuts. Here, the program gives you two video clips, and you insert
edit them together with the mouse to experiment with the timing. You can then
reset the edit and re-edit again, until you get the piece just right. The clips
are from the movie Pasta Paolo (which the entire program covers the making of),
and you get to view the film in its entirety at the end of the course in the
screening room, which is on the fourth floor. One nice bonus is that one of the
CD's comes with the complete raw footage and sound effects for the Pasta Paolo
movie in QuickTime format, so you can edit your own version in most any movie
program, such as Adobe Premiere or Avid system.
After film grammar there is a great section on film festivals, with extensive
resources of film and video festivals worldwide. Next is equipment, which covers
all different types of video and film equipment, from cameras to mics to
everything in between. One large section is devoted to scriptwriting, and every
element is given a once over, from treatments to formatting to page layouts.
Additional sections cover pre-production, actors, set design, costumes, make-up,
storyboards, shotlist, scheduling, budgeting, blocking, shooting, editing,
sound, titles, and much more. Along the way, most of the information can be
printable forms, such as survey checklists, script breakdown, location release,
talent contracts, call sheets, and others you should be using.
The program is filled with little touches, and every time you walk down the hall
and enter a room there is a new area of interesting information to explore.
There are many multimedia tutorials, such as compositing exercise where you drag
around a still frame to crop you shot; the film trivia quiz in the film school's
bathroom; the interactive lighting demo where you click lights off and on to
light a scene; and the scriptwriting computer you boot up to access a great
section on proper formatting. There are also many fascinating essays throughout
the school that I found very enlightening. For example "Dense Clarity, Clear
Density," by Walter Murch parallels audio mixing to colors in a light spectrum
and explains how to add different colors of audio to create discrete,
distinctive mixes. I know this will directly affect my next audio mix during an
edit session.
The movie, Pasta Paolo, which is explored and dissected
extensively in the program, is really not that great. Performances are fine but
the eight-minute epic left me wanting more. Of course, it's all a learning
experience, as several points in the course center on the film's shortcomings,
learning from the mistakes. By the way, the "film was actually shot on video
(Beta SP with a Steadicam), so this interactive film school is essentially
centered on a video production.
So the big question , is this CD for you? I consider myself a professional
director and I already knew many of the techniques and theories included. But
what I didn't know was fascinating. I came away with a new appreciation for the
process and I can directly apply all of the information I learned to every
future video production, from a 30-second clip to a full-length piece. It is
also great training material. Slap this in the hands of the next production
assistant you hire. In a week they'll come back much more well informed on this
craft and a better asset for you. In fact, there is a course syllabus and
one-year class out-line included, if you wish to use this program as a teaching
tool.
I highly recommend this CD set, and after constantly buying new equipment and
cutting-edge software, this is the first package I've received in a long time
that will actually make me a better director. |
 Millimeter
October, 1998
Movie Course In a Box
"How To Make Your Movie: An Interactive Film School" just might save someone
thousands of dollars (for Mac/PC, it's only $90). Created by film
director/teacher Rajko Grlic and program designer Tom Erlewine, the three CD-ROM
set (now 4 CD-ROMs) and production booklet (in PDF format on CD-ROM), provides a virtual film school (actually an
atmospheric abandoned mental hospital that seems fitting for such an escapade). The would-be filmmaker travels room by room, performing the exercises that cover
all the basics. The Equipment Room, for example, features an interactive
lighting studio and light metering exercise.
Professional filmmakers and educators from schools such as UCLA and NYU lecture
in one of the five different production rooms. Content, much of it interactive,
comes via the 1,200 pages of on-screen information and over 100 QuickTime
movies. There is even a disk of raw footage to employ for your project. A
spiral-bound booklet contains questions, various blank forms, storyboards, short
checklists, and plenty of exercises to undertake with actors and crew. Created
by Electronic Vision and Ohio University, the project has won raves from pros
such as Walter Murch (3-time Oscarฉ-winning editor). "The best, most complete
and innovative filmmaking guide I have ever seen," says Murch. Order via (800)
766-0068 or www.interactive-film-school.com
 Wired Magazine
Get Ready to
Roll
If you're a movie maverick with a mind of your own, check out How to Make Your
Movie: An Interactive Film School. It's a three-CD-ROM set of indie filmmaking
know-how that shows you just about every- thing you need to know to create a
reel impact.
The guide is set in a virtual film school so packed with film facts that even
the bathroom graffiti explains film's fundamental persis- tence of vision
theory. Try hands-on exercises in the lighting studio and in the editing and
sound-mixing rooms; equipment that's never checked out makes this a film
student's utopia. And did I mention that Walter Murch (The Godfather, Apocalypse
Now) teaches the editing course? In fact, many of nation's best professionals
and educators speak from QuickTime pulpits to help navigate the theories and
techniques behind making and marketing your film. The package also includes a
detailed production notebook, crucial for understanding schedules, budgets, and
script-breakdown. Though the rigorous training takes about three months to
complete, hang tough and you'll receive a glass of champagne, along with a
diploma in the screeningroom - but, mind, only after you've completed every
exercise and opened every file.
A drawback for some may be the school's focus on narrative film; updates for the
equipment-manual library may also be necessary (presently, the sound-equipment
binder excludes mention of the DAT recorder or the new hard disk Nagra). Yet the
valuable information here will undoubtedly serve as a mighty reference for
filmmakers of all levels. With your newfound movie knowledge and the best and
the brightest as your guides, you'll be ready to roll all you need now is
cash.
New York Times Review. Jan. 7, 1999
Filmmaking,
Minus the Camera
You enter a musty-looking building that looks as if it is about to fall down
around you and continue down a dark hallway until you see an aged security guard
snoozing at his desk. Dread and anticipation fill the air as he wakes up and
looks over. Is he going to whip out a rifle and blast you?
Nope. Instead, he invites you to look around the building--a run-down film
school that is closed for the summer--and learn the art of filmmaking. With a clever new multimedia approach to learning how movies are put
together.
The Interactive Film School set, created with a filmmaker's eye, is spread over
four "floors" of the building in 12 "rooms". Different rooms are devoted to
learning about research, screenwriting and pre-production. The equipment room
demonstrates different kinds of lighting, like a key light and fill light. There
is also a virtual light meter that the user can position on different parts of
the screen to test a variety of camera settings. Students at this school also
learn the vocabulary of film, including those movie-credit favorites "gaffer"
and "best boy". Throughout the course, the program shows the progress and
various elements that go into making of a sample student film, "Pasta Paolo".
The story behind the software is almost as interesting as the actual program.
The gritty, rambling building used as the interior of the Film School is
actually an abandoned 19th-century mental institution near Athens, Ohio.
Photographs were taken of the building's rooms and hallways, with the Film
School's materials digitally added to the pictures. Inventive text displays like
sticky notes, typed sheets and hand-scrawled notes pop up on the walls and
doors. There is even a grimy bathroom with a paper towel dispenser that doles
out film-history trivia questions on the towels. In addition 2,000 graphics and
100 Quicktime digital movies were created for program.
The program runs
on Windows 95 and Power Macintosh. The kit has three CD-ROM's and a spiral
-bound production notebook for users to keep track of their course progress. The
notebook serves as a checklist for the course and also provides training
exercises for the student to practice with a video camera. One CD has film clips
and sound files for the student to practice editing together.
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Interactive Film School
Response from Filmmakers and Educators:
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"The best, most
complete and innovative guide I have ever seen, in any format. Endlessly
informative and amusing. I would highly recommend it for students and
professionals alike."
-Walter
Murch,
Editor and Sound Designer,
-3-time
Oscarฎ winner (The English Patient,
-Apocalypse
Now)
"This CD-ROM is
a brilliant way to learn filmmaking because it allows you to practice without
spending a fortune."
-Robert
Nickson,
Independent Producer
-Professor
of Film, NYU Tisch School
-of
Art, New York, USA
"How to Make
Your Movie: An Interactive Film School is a great teaching tool..."
-Gyula
Gazdag,
Director,
-Vice
Chair of Production
-UCLA
Film and Television Dept.,
-Los
Angeles, USA
"It just blew me
away!"
-Larry
Elin,
Assistant Professor,
-Television,
Radio, and Film Dept.,
-Syracuse
University, USA
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"This CD will
drastically transform the shape of film teaching because it takes the
frustration out of film learning."
-Dan
Muggia,
Professor of Film
-Jerusalem
Film School, Israel
"The best
program about filmmaking I have seen so far... A wonderful work, full of
intelligence and professional knowledge. Full of humor and irony..."
-Reinhard
Hauff,
Director and Chair,
-Deutsche
Film Und Fernsehakademie,
-Berlin,
Germany
"If there were
an Oscar for interactive CD-ROM's, this would be nominated for Best Script, Best
Creativity, Best Humor, Best Design. And it would certainly win all four
categories... It is not only an excellent tool, but its entertaining style makes
it the most original of its kind."
-Dr.
Gyorgy Karpati,
Director
-Hungarian
Film School, Budapest, Hungary
"It's the most
'human' CD-ROM I've ever seen."
-Peter
Scarlet,
Artistic Director
-San
Francisco International Film Festival
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Return to the
main Interactive Film School page
http://www.studio1productions.com
What Is Your
Refund Policy On the Master Film School?
Since CD's and DVD's can be copied and then returned
(which we have had some problems with people doing), there
are no refunds on the Master Film School. Defective items will items will be exchanged for
the EXACT same item. There are NO exceptions to this policy.
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