The Film School curriculum covers a comprehensive range of topics, including film theory, production techniques, screenwriting, cinematography, editing, and directing. It is designed for aspiring filmmakers, offering both theoretical knowledge and practical experience. The program targets applicants with a strong passion for film and storytelling, aiming to develop their creative and technical skills for a professional career in the film industry.
The curriculum for film production and storyboard completion covers the entire filmmaking process. It begins with concept development, scriptwriting, and pre-production planning. Students learn how to create detailed storyboards that visualize scenes. The program then moves into production techniques, including cinematography, directing, and sound design, followed by post-production, where editing and finalizing the film occur. Emphasis is placed on planning, visual storytelling, and the technical aspects of turning a script into a finished film.
A storyboard is a visual representation of a film or animation, illustrating key scenes in a sequence. It serves as a blueprint for the production, helping filmmakers plan shots, angles, and transitions. The basic principle of storyboarding involves breaking down a script into visual frames, showing how the story unfolds. Each frame represents a shot, with notes on camera movements, timing, and dialogue. Storyboards guide the director and crew, ensuring clear communication and helping maintain the narrative flow during production.
In storyboard and shot list practice, students learn to visually plan and organize a film scene. The storyboard involves drawing key moments, framing shots, and mapping out camera movements, helping to visualize the narrative. A shot list complements this by detailing every shot’s description, camera angle, lens, and duration, ensuring a clear shooting schedule. Both tools help streamline the production process, allowing directors and cinematographers to communicate effectively with the crew and anticipate logistical needs. These exercises develop technical skills and creativity, ensuring cohesive storytelling in the final product.
An Extreme Long Shot (ELS) and Long Shot (LS) are types of camera framing that capture wide views of a scene. The Extreme Long Shot shows a vast environment, emphasizing the surroundings and placing characters in a broader context, often used to establish a location. In contrast, the Long Shot captures the subject from head to toe, providing a detailed view of the character within their environment. Both shots help set the tone and perspective of a scene, with ELS focusing more on landscape and atmosphere, while LS balances the subject and their surroundings.
Shot sizes refer to the framing of a subject in a scene, with each size affecting the viewer’s perspective. A Full Shot (FS) frames the subject from head to toe, showing the entire body within the environment. It provides context while maintaining focus on the character. Comparatively, a Medium Shot (MS) cuts off at the waist or chest, emphasizing interaction or dialogue, and a Close-Up (CU) focuses on the face or a specific detail. A Long Shot (LS) shows the subject from a distance, giving a sense of place, while an Extreme Long Shot (ELS) showcases a vast landscape or setting. Each size serves a unique narrative and emotional purpose.
A Full Figure Shot (Full Body Shot) frames a character from head to toe, capturing their entire body within the scene. This shot is often used to establish a character's presence within their environment or to emphasize their actions in relation to the space around them. A Knee Shot (Knee-Level Shot), on the other hand, frames the character from the knees up, focusing more on the upper body while still showing part of the lower body. The Knee Shot is useful for showing character movement and interaction while providing more emphasis on their expressions or gestures compared to the Full Figure Shot. Both shots help define the character's role and emotional tone in a scene.
A Medium Shot (MS) frames a subject from the waist up, commonly used for dialogue scenes as it captures the character’s expressions and upper body movements. It strikes a balance between showing the character’s details and providing enough background context. A Middle Shot is similar to a Medium Shot but may vary slightly in framing, typically focusing on the subject from the chest or mid-torso upwards. A West Shot is less commonly referred to but generally means a shot that shows a character from the waist up, similar to a Medium Shot, often used in Western film styles to depict action or interaction clearly. These shots focus on characters while offering some surrounding context.
A Bust Shot frames the subject from the chest or shoulders up, focusing on the upper torso and face. It's often used in interviews or to capture a character's emotional expression while still allowing some background context. A Close-Up Shot (CU), on the other hand, zooms in on a subject's face or a specific object, emphasizing minute details like facial expressions, emotions, or symbolic elements. The Close-Up draws the audience’s attention to the subject's internal state or an important object, creating intimacy or heightened tension in the scene. Both shots are essential for focusing the viewer's attention on key emotional or narrative details.
An Extreme Close-Up Shot (ECU) focuses on a very specific detail, such as an eye, hand, or an object, intensifying the emotional or symbolic significance of that detail. It emphasizes minute expressions or objects, creating a sense of intimacy or tension. The Over-the-Shoulder Shot (OTS) captures a character's point of view, framing the shot from behind one character’s shoulder, typically focusing on what they are looking at. This shot is commonly used in dialogue scenes to establish perspective and create a connection between the character and the viewer. Both shots contribute to visual storytelling by highlighting critical narrative elements.
An Insert Shot is a close-up of a specific object or detail within a scene, often used to highlight something important to the plot, like a letter, weapon, or clue. This shot draws the audience's focus to the object, making it significant in the narrative. A Bookstore Shot, often associated with a scene inside a bookstore, captures both the environment and the characters interacting with books or the space, conveying a sense of place. A Point of View (POV) Shot shows what a character sees from their perspective, immersing the audience in their experience and emotional state. Each shot serves a unique role in visual storytelling.
A Fix Shot is a stationary shot where the camera remains in one position, capturing the scene without movement. It’s often used to establish a sense of stillness, focus on a specific detail, or maintain a controlled perspective. This shot can convey stability or allow the viewer to fully absorb the scene.
A Moving Shot, in contrast, involves the camera moving, following the action or subject. It adds dynamism to a scene and can evoke a sense of urgency or fluidity. This includes various types of movement like pans, tilts, or cranes.
A Cutaway Shot is a shot that briefly interrupts the main action to focus on something else, often an object or reaction, before returning to the primary scene. It can provide context, create suspense, or emphasize a detail.
A Tracking Shot involves the camera following the subject, either moving alongside, in front of, or behind them. It’s commonly used to maintain continuity in action scenes or to build a dynamic connection between the subject and their surroundings. Tracking shots can add fluidity and immersive movement, enhancing the storytelling.
A Zoom is a camera technique where the lens is adjusted to magnify or reduce the size of a subject within the frame, without physically moving the camera. Zooming in focuses the viewer’s attention on a specific detail or subject, while zooming out provides a broader context. It’s often used to create emphasis, alter the perspective, or convey a change in the emotional tone of a scene.
An Arc refers to a camera movement where the camera moves in a circular or semi-circular path around a subject, maintaining focus on them. This movement can enhance the dramatic effect by revealing different angles or providing a dynamic visual experience. Arcs are often used in action sequences or to highlight a subject's significance in a scene.
A Tilt is a vertical camera movement, where the camera moves up or down along a fixed axis. Unlike a pan, which moves horizontally, a tilt provides a sense of looking up or down at a subject, which can create feelings of power or vulnerability depending on the direction. Tilts are commonly used to reveal important elements or emphasize scale in a scene.
A Boom is a camera movement where the camera is mounted on a crane or jib and moves vertically or horizontally through the air, often to capture scenes from different heights or angles. It adds dramatic effect and allows for fluid transitions, such as moving from a wide shot to a close-up.
A Pan is a horizontal camera movement, where the camera swivels left or right on a fixed axis. It helps to follow action, reveal a scene, or establish the environment. Panning can create a sense of continuity, guide the viewer's focus, or build tension by gradually revealing more of a scene.
A Follow Shot is a camera technique where the camera moves in sync with the subject, maintaining focus on them as they move through the scene. This shot creates a sense of continuity and immersion, often used in action or chase scenes to keep the viewer engaged with the character's movements.
A Handheld Shot involves the camera being held by the operator, rather than mounted on a tripod or other equipment. This results in a slightly shaky, more dynamic look, often used to convey tension, chaos, or a sense of realism. Handheld shots are effective in creating an immersive, raw atmosphere.
A Dolly Zoom, also known as the "Vertigo Effect," is a camera technique where the camera moves toward or away from a subject while simultaneously zooming in the opposite direction. This creates a dramatic visual effect, distorting the background while keeping the subject’s size constant, often used to convey disorientation or heightened emotional tension.
Camera angles refer to the positioning of the camera in relation to the subject. A low-angle shot looks up at the subject, making them appear powerful or intimidating, while a high-angle shot looks down, often portraying vulnerability or weakness. These angles shape how the audience perceives the characters and scene.
Eye-level angle is a camera position where the shot is taken at the same height as the subject, offering a neutral perspective. It’s the most common angle in filmmaking, as it allows the viewer to connect with the subject on an equal footing, presenting the scene in a straightforward, realistic manner.
A Low-angle shot is taken from below the subject, looking up. This angle can make the subject appear dominant, powerful, or imposing, often used to convey strength or authority. It can also create a sense of grandeur or highlight the subject’s importance in a scene..
A High-angle shot is taken from above the subject, looking down. This angle often makes the subject appear smaller, weaker, or more vulnerable, conveying a sense of powerlessness or insignificance. It’s frequently used to emphasize a character’s vulnerability or to show dominance over the subject.
A Dutch angle, also known as a canted angle, tilts the camera sideways, creating a skewed, off-balance effect. This angle is often used to convey unease, disorientation, or psychological tension. It creates an unsettling atmosphere and can visually signal a character’s confusion or instability within the scene.
A Bird's Eye View (조감도) is an overhead shot taken from directly above the scene, offering a 90-degree perspective. This angle gives a sense of detachment, providing a complete overview of the environment. It’s often used to establish the setting or show a character's insignificance within a vast space.
An Extreme Long Shot (익스트림 롱샷) captures a vast, wide view of a location, often showing a character in the distance within their environment. This shot emphasizes the surroundings, portraying a sense of scale, isolation, or grandeur. It's commonly used for establishing shots to set the tone of a scene.
