Useful advice | Focus Movie Academy https://focusmovieacademy.com/en/ Wed, 17 May 2023 15:14:45 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.4 https://focusmovieacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/LOGO_FMA_favicon-100x100.png Useful advice | Focus Movie Academy https://focusmovieacademy.com/en/ 32 32 How important it is to relate to another actor https://focusmovieacademy.com/en/connecting-with-other-actors-means-listening-and-listening-while-performing-allows-you-to-act-better/ Thu, 11 Jun 2020 08:31:03 +0000 https://focusmovieacademy.com/connecting-with-other-actors-means-listening-and-listening-while-performing-allows-you-to-act-better/ Connecting with other actors means listening and listening while performing allows you to act better. You don’t wait for the moment to say your line, you act together with the other actors, otherwise you don’t tell stories, you tell pieces of individual life and never a complete story. This is not acting.

]]> WHAT IS MEANT BY INVISIBLE EDITING? https://focusmovieacademy.com/en/what-is-meant-by-invisible-editing/ Tue, 14 Apr 2020 18:29:48 +0000 https://focusmovieacademy.com/what-is-meant-by-invisible-editing/ What is editing? Editing is rhythm, it is narration, it is reviewing everything that has been shot and putting it together to create the world. Before editing, the world that was conceived by the writer who wrote the film and that was also coveted by those who shot it during the production phase does not exist.

]]> THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DIRECTOR AND EDITOR https://focusmovieacademy.com/en/the-relationship-between-director-and-editor/ Tue, 14 Apr 2020 18:28:23 +0000 https://focusmovieacademy.com/the-relationship-between-director-and-editor/ A director shouldn’t edit his own works, because somehow the product can be corrupted by how the shooting went and how it should have been. Sometimes these two realities can overlap and other times there are clear differences. If the director starts editing on his own, he often risks having an impure eye with regard to a scene that he has at heart or has cost a lot and must definitely be included in the film.

To be frank and cut the matter with a “machete” you need an editor. The editor takes all the production footage and observes it in order to choose objectively what can work in the narrative.

The type of relationship between a director and an editor is comparable to the meeting between two directors who talk about the transposition of the film shooting and how the final film will be. In the dialogue between editor and director there are often many heated disagreements, but nevertheless it can be defined as one of the most creative moments in film making.

Editing is a moment in the making of a film in which the work can be saved, rewritten ore even ruined forever.

It is clear that if the director does a good job and the production guarantees an optimal performance of the filming, the editing task will be simplified. Only with high quality material can a masterpiece be obtained from the assembly.

]]> WHY START YOUR CAREER AS AN EDITOR? https://focusmovieacademy.com/en/why-start-your-career-as-an-editor/ Tue, 14 Apr 2020 18:25:40 +0000 https://focusmovieacademy.com/why-start-your-career-as-an-editor/ The editor gives the rhythm to the story and puts it in order, they create characters respecting the rhythm with which an audience should respond to the story.

It is essentially narrative work, so those who approach editing must take into account that they work with narration. The job of the editor is to see exactly what the shot was and understand what to do to get the best possible quality from the production. He is the one who chooses between the good shots (Ciak) and the bad shots, creating a narrative assembly line. So it is a profession that can be defined as dramaturgical. As Mirco Garrone said: “It’s like opening the fridge and seeing what’s left inside … well, with that you have to prepare the best possible dish.”

It is a beautiful work of great narrative power.

]]> THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PRODUCER, SCREENWRITER AND DIRECTOR https://focusmovieacademy.com/en/the-relationship-between-producer-screenwriter-and-director/ Tue, 14 Apr 2020 18:19:49 +0000 https://focusmovieacademy.com/the-relationship-between-producer-screenwriter-and-director/ The screenwriter writes a story that is then passed on to a director who somehow translates what is on paper into something that will then be truly palpable when an audience sits down at a cinema. Obviously the screenwriter has an image which he formed whilst sitting at a table, the director also has an image which he tries to translate.

These two images must obviously be compatible but this is where the technical issues lies.

These issues present themselves to the director every time he films a scene, the time it must be filmed in and the dynamics of it.

This is the relationship between the producer screenwriter and director.

]]> HOW A STRUCTURE IN THREE ACTS WORKS https://focusmovieacademy.com/en/how-a-structure-in-three-acts-works/ Tue, 14 Apr 2020 18:18:00 +0000 https://focusmovieacademy.com/how-a-structure-in-three-acts-works/ The division into three acts has some basic passages that are compulsory, almost as if the setup should happen after a few minutes and that there is a turning point between one act and another. These passages help the viewer and the dramaturgy towards the next step. How should the large and complex second act work?

Even there in the centre of the second act, there is a point that writers must know very well, because it changes the psychological coordinates of the characters and also changes the structure of the dramaturgy.

Going forward you get to the end of the second act and there we also have a turning point … why am I not telling you exactly what is in these passages?

For two reasons: First of all because these steps need to be contextualized, they are a structure and you must keep this in mind.

It is like a table, a table has a structure, it must have a support surface and legs that do not make things fall to the ground. This is the sense of structuring the script, so that it can resist and allow the story to stand.

This three-act story is simplified with a beginning, middle and end.

Plots structured in three acts can be found everywhere, they are stories made of men, women, their dreams and their desires.

]]> THE PHASES FOR WRITING A SCREENPLAY https://focusmovieacademy.com/en/the-phases-for-writing-a-screenplay/ Tue, 14 Apr 2020 18:16:36 +0000 https://focusmovieacademy.com/the-phases-for-writing-a-screenplay/ A script begins with an idea, a sudden spark or a slow burning idea that comes from the writer. This spark is transformed into a subject that should be no longer than three or four pages long. Once the subject is finished, there are various schools of thought. Some believe in a general overview of the various sequences in the film while others take a scene by scene approach.

Ultimately we move on to the actual screenplay which is a very clear handbook, a technical language where we detail all camera movements if it is a screenplay reserved for the director and all the movements of the actors

if it is a screenplay for the producer and actors. The screenplay is a precise mapping of what happens on stage.

]]> WHY BECOME A SCREENWRITER? https://focusmovieacademy.com/en/why-become-a-screenwriter/ Tue, 14 Apr 2020 18:14:49 +0000 https://focusmovieacademy.com/why-become-a-screenwriter/ A screenwriter must have a passion for stories, they must love telling stories. Stories are made of men, women, of their experiences and adventures, of their obstacles and how an event can complicate their lives. A screenwriter must have a passion for reading and a strong interest in humanity.

]]> HOW TO APPROACH A DIRECTOR AND ACTOR https://focusmovieacademy.com/en/how-to-approach-a-director-and-actor/ Tue, 14 Apr 2020 18:13:09 +0000 https://focusmovieacademy.com/how-to-approach-a-director-and-actor/ Usually many directors prefer to contact actors for a read through, then they proceed with other sessions, other rehearsals like when working in the theatre before going to the prepared film set.

There are certain elements that an actor must know and will expect the director to explain to them.

One of them is: who is this character? Where is he/she from? What was their life like? What is their biography? Often this is written together with the director

or the actor prepares it independently. The second is: where is the actor going? What is their intention in that scene? What is their intention in the film? These are just general questions but are fundamental in the director/actor relationship. Before every take the director has the task of going to the actor and talking about these issues if requested by the actor.

]]> WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE FRAMING? https://focusmovieacademy.com/en/what-is-the-difference-between-objective-and-subjective-framing/ Tue, 14 Apr 2020 18:11:29 +0000 https://focusmovieacademy.com/what-is-the-difference-between-objective-and-subjective-framing/ In the eyes of the director, the subjective is an invisible gaze in which the actor doesn’t participate.

The actor looks at something and we can identify with his gaze by following him through the camera. On the other hand, when the gaze is glacial, stationary, blocked, it is an objective shot. Obviously the objective can also be charged with a strong authorial and actor hint but it is not the gaze of the character. So the objective is the gaze of an omniscient author that we cannot identify. Instead, the objective is the gaze of the character that we fake through camera movements.

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