film making

Product Reviews

Hollywood Camera Work is advertised as a master course in high-end blocking and staging. If you've never heard of blocking and staging that may explain why you find your attempts at filmmaking look amateurish next to what you see on the screen at the multiplex. Along with bad sound, lighting, and acting, poor placement of the actors and camera are the biggest mistakes for beginning filmmakers. It's the difference between films that look like bad home movies and films that tell an exciting, emotional story. Per Holmes, the creator of the Hollywood Camera Work DVDs, was a both a successful music producer and music video director. He was puzzled that there wasn't a comprehensive reference on blocking and staging techniques and spent five years creating one of his own. Luckily he decided to share his work and HCW is the result of that effort. The set consists of six DVDs comprising nine hours of instruction. The images are almost entirely of simple 3D models of actors and cameras illustrating the concepts. First with an overview shot of the set to show the staging followed by a view through the camera to see the effect. Excellent narration and titles accompany the images so everything is clearly explained. See the web site for some example lessons. Nine hours sounds like a long time but there's a lot covered in this set and the pace is actually pretty fast so be prepared to pause and review often. The first two DVDs start with the basic fixed camera setups. The next two DVDs get into advanced setups using dollies and cranes. Finally the last two DVDs put it all together and show how to stage complete scenes starting with the script, followed by staging diagrams, then a look at each setup, and finally showing the entire scene as it looks when cut together. Fortunately HCW assumes you know almost nothing about blocking, composition and how cameras work so the lessons are just as useful for a serious beginner as for an experienced filmmaker. My criticisms? There's a lot to cover so be prepared to spend a day or two on each DVD or you may feel overwhelmed. At $399 the set is not cheap (about the cost of one class at a film school). I would like to see a printed manual included with some explanation and copies of the scripts and diagrams, but they can be downloaded from the web site. It would also be nice if the set got more into color and lighting and how they play into composition but that would probably require six more DVDs and those subjects are already well covered in other references. My few quibbles aside Hollywood Camera Work is simply one of the finest learning resources available for the serious filmmaker. It does a superb job of covering one thing very completely. It really is a master class on an important aspect of filmmaking that isn't well covered anywhere else. Highly recommended if you can squeeze it into your budg