Stop Motion Animation

In this day and age where everything entertainment seems to be wrapped in CGI (computer-generated imagery), it is easy for audiences to forget how film special effects found their start — Stop Motion Animation.

Stop Motion, or what was first known as “object manipulation” dating all the way back to 1889, involves photographing an armature, (a pose-able puppet), or inanimate object in order to bring it to life on screen by breaking up the figure’s motion into increments and filming one frame of film at a time. Although this technique is time consuming, stop motion animation is simple and fun for all ages. You are only five simple steps away from creating your own Stop Motion Animation and no expensive equipment is required. All you need is a digital camera, some creativity and a story to tell.

Step 1: Develop an idea

When thinking of creating a stop motion animation, keep it simple. What will the characters/objects be doing? Write out a script with action in a story line and storyboard your ideas. Limit yourself to one or two objects/ characters to move if you are a beginner. Plan well. It is important to have the motions worked out in advance.

Step 2: Create an armature*

An armature forms the skeleton of the characters you can create for your stop motion animation. Armatures were perfected by stop motion animator Willis O’Brien, a pioneer in the special effects industry. He began using models with wire frame skeletons and movable joints. The wire and joints made the figures easy to move. Then O’Brien covered the frame with clay and paint to create lifelike models, his most famous being his iconic King Kong from the 1933 classic film. King Kong was a challenge for O’Brien. He brought the giant gorilla to life on film using eighteen inch high models constructed on metal skeletons with ball-and-socket joints, padded with foam rubber and cotton, and covered with rabbit skins to simulate the beast’s fur.

To create your armature, use light weight wire or strong pipe cleaners. Be sure to twist your armature materials together tightly in order to make your character have a strong frame. Any part you want to move on your character should be easy to bend. Add tin foil to the armature to give it mass and shape. Then, use a thin layer of non-drying modeling clay over the structure to add details and decoration.

* Armatures are optional and used when creating figurines you want to animate. Other good choices include clay, wire, Legos or similar building block figures, small dolls with a lot of flexibility, etc. Even household objects and people are great! Be imaginative in the types of objects and figures that might work for your movie.

Step 3: Create your background/set

If you are using armature models, consider creating a setting for them. Use a shoebox or cut a display board into halves. You can even use a cookie sheet as the floor of the set (consider putting magnets in the clay armature’s feet so it will easily stand). You can even use elements from the outdoors to create your scene. As for lighting, use continuous, direct light from desk lamps. Finally, color and paint the background or use printed pictures. Finish off your set by creating accessories or use small toys.

Step 4: Film your scene

Place your camera in front of the “set” and your characters/objects. Check that the camera can view the entire frame. It is very important to support the camera or place it so that it is sitting steadily and cannot shake as you take the photos. Otherwise, the end result will appear chaotic and lack continuity. Keep in mind that the more photos, the smoother the video results. If you do not have a tripod, good alternatives include balancing on solid books, poster tack on the surface of the set or a piece of solid furniture at the same height. Now, begin the movement sequence. Move the figure/object bit by bit – very small movements each time. Take a picture after every movement and repeat the movement sequence until your action step is completed.

You can even use stop motion without models. Think “Bewitched” and “Wizards of Waverly Place”, where magic happens at the snap of a finger or a twitch of the nose. For example, an elephant appears in the room. The camera filming the scene would be stopped and the actors would “freeze” until the pachyderm was in place, then filming would resume. The result is an elephant that “magically” appears in an instant. Consider how you can use Stop Motion in live action scenes as well.

Step 5: Make your movie

Import your pictures into the desired program, such as Stop Motion Animator, Frame Thief, iStop Motion, Stop Motion Pro, Video Blender, or any video software editor you might have available. Make sure the pictures are at a very small duration so they flow very fast, start at a rate of .5 seconds. Adjust the film speed rate if it needs to move slower or faster. Add audio, titles and credits if you would like: sound effects and music will add to your story.

Movies, TV, and even music videos have all found a place for stop motion thanks to animators like O’Brien, Ray Harryhausen (Jason and the Argonauts ), Nick Park (Wallace and Gromit ), Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, (Robot Chicken) and Tim Burton (The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach). They have brought this unique style of animation to the masses, and now you can do it too. Stop-motion animation is one of the simplest, most fun animation techniques. With creativity and some patience you can create something truly unique.

19 Days and Counting

Only 19 days left to register for the Young Minds Digital Times Student Film Competition. We have fantastic prizes for our winners, including two Grand Prize packages to attend the 2011 South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas. Other first place category winners will take home $200 in cold, hard cash. The teacher with the most student film entries, and the school with the most student film entries in Track One: Young Filmmakers Doing Good, will each win $1000! But you have to register first!!

Registration is open until February 19th. The competition is free to all student filmmakers grades 6-8 and 9-12. Film entries are due March 19th. And check the rest of our blog posts for filmmaking tips and tricks.

Foley Recording: A Misunderstood Art

To really delve into the filmmaking process, educators should consider teaching the basics of film sound effects. Creating your own effects in the classroom can be completely interactive and fun.

In fact, most students are not aware of where these sounds truly come from or who is responsible for creating them: The Foley artists are. They are the sorcerers of sound and the heroes behind what we hear, and if it wasn’t for them, movies would not have any sound effects. The foley artist — one of the most critical, yet underappreciated links of the filmmaking chain — is relatively an unknown artist to today’s movie goers.

And They Said Talking Pictures Would Never Catch On

You probably know the basics:

Foley art was named after the great Universal Studios sound man Jack Foley for his ability to match live sound effects with the action in the picture. In L.A., while working at the studio’s Stage 10 as a props assistant (among other things), Jack Foley got his first experience dabbling in the new medium known as “talkies.”

Showboat was his initial triumph, and it immediately made him an in-demand soundman. By 1967, Foley worked on literally hundreds of films and walking, by his own estimate, 5,000 miles doing sound effects for film footsteps. His name will live through sound history, and deservedly so.

Today’s foley artists still paint with sound. Every sound in today’s big budget films is dubbed. Foley artists even recreate actual movements in an enhanced way. That includes everything an actor touches or effects, and these sounds are known as Specifics.

From face punches to body falls, Specifics take a lot of work and practice. Next time you watch a scene from your favorite film, listen for all the incidental sounds and you will get the picture.

What are we really hearing?

In reality, however, what we think we hear, and what we are actually hearing are two completely different things. Foley artists get creative to make the audio of a film better than reality.

Here are some common sound effects and what you are actually hearing:

• Thunderstorm: Shaking a metal or steel plate.
• Batman’s cape: Shaking a leather jacket and thick fabric
• Hummingbird: Feather hitting a spinning bicycle wheel
• Breaking bones: Snapping celery
• Knife Slice: Cantaloupes and watermelons being cut
• Walking in snow: Stepping on crunchy cereal
• Car crash: Breaking drinking glasses
• Walking up stairs: Tiptoeing on wooden floor
• Horses galloping: Tapping cracked coconut shells in sand
• Echoing in cave: Recording inside tin trash can
• Fire: Crinkling cellophane
• Ice in drink: Pearls in water
• Robots: Whisk and bottle opener

Create your own foley studio

Interested in creating your own foley studio? Sure it is easy to just go find a sound effect that might work in your film, but by creating it yourself, you will get it just right!

You will need many props for your specific tracks. It’s impossible to say what you will need until you see the film, and as time goes by, you will add to your collection (if you have space!).

Garbage day is a great day to collect some of best props from the stuff people throw out: old bicycles, doors, sinks, wood, metal, desks, etc. Flea markets and The Salvation Army Family Thrift Stores also offer a treasure trove of fun and interesting stuff to listen to.

It doesn’t matter what something looks like, but what it sounds like! Collecting props can be an occupational hazard for foley artists, but it is also fun! You will need a track for each specific sound. Some tracks last the whole length of the scene (snow crunch or lapping water) while some effects are very short (a match strike or a punch), so planning the tracks is very important.

You will need to select the appropriate props as they are seen in the film. Each prop is your instrument and you must learn to play to create the sound you need.

Break each action into layers of sound. If an actor is walking, then perform the sound of the match movement as the actor puts one foot in front of the other. There is no reason it has to be done all at once or on the same track because you are trying to get the best sound.

Remember, do not try to match the visual of the prop, but rather the sound. Audio tape sounds just like grass (without the mess and fuss) but it doesn’t look like it. Understanding how things sound and storing these records in your head for future films is the way a Foley artist must think. Play around with objects and combinations to see what neat sounds they make.

To test your foley skills, try replacing the audio on an existing film scene. Take one to two minutes of a favorite scene, preferably an action sequence, and recreate the audio with things you have found. You will be surprised at how everyday objects can give you exactly the sound you want.

With all the Specifics in place and your own homemade effects, you should have a complete sounding track! Every nuance, every subtle action should be covered so well that it sounds like the original, only more animated and larger than life.

And The Winner Is….

The Young Minds Digital Times Student Film Competition is happy to announce the winner of our Early Bird Registration Drawing. Congratulations to our winning 11th grader from Akins New Tech High School in Austin, Texas. She beat out over three hundred early registrants for the $100 Gift Certificate. The $100 Gift Certificate will be awarded with the other Young Minds Digital Times Prizes in May of this year.

Registration for the Young Minds Digital Times Contest is still available to students in grades 6-12. For more information on the contest, and to register, go to www.YoungMindsDigitalTimes.com.  Registration is open until February 19, 2010. All film submissions are due by March 19th, 2010.

Editing: The True Storyteller

Your goal when editing is to keep the story moving and to keep your audience engaged. Once your scenes are shot, your footage is uploaded, and your storyboard is in hand, it is time to make decisions that will bring your ideas to the final cut.

You might have the perfect script, phenomenal actors, and great camera work, but if your editing is not precise and deliberate, your film will miss the mark.

As an educator or an independent filmmaker, editing is probably the most difficult step to learn in the filmmaking process. It is very subjective, and while there are some proven formulas to follow, it all comes down to the footage you are working with and practice, practice, practice.

The following editing tips assume that you have worked from a storyboard and that you have filmed multiple takes of each scene (a good rule for every filmmaker).

Conversations on Film

• Cut tight — The best editing approach is to cut tight scenes without becoming too “cutty.” This may mean taking out unnecessary pauses between actors’ delivery of dialogue lines. Sometimes it means tightening the gaps within dialogue sentences through the use of carefully placed cutaways. It may also mean losing redundant lines of dialogue. Remember, you want to keep the story moving in your film. If something doesn’t help the audience know more about a story or a character, get rid of it.

• No Dragnet edits — The original Dragnet television series used a certain approach to cutting dialogue scenes. Audio and video edits tended to be made as straight cuts between the actors without any overlaps as they delivered their lines. It followed this formula: cut to actor A, deliver the line; cut to actor B, deliver the line; cut back to actor A and so on. Boring!

Our brains seem to react better to edits where the change in picture and sound is not always together. These are called split edits, L-cuts or J-cuts. I suppose this more closely mimics real life, where we first hear someone start to talk and then turn our head to see them. Or one person is talking and we look over to our friend to see their reaction before they respond. Editing in a style where images often precede or follow the dialogue edit feels more natural to our minds and makes the scene flow more smoothly.

Also, I will frequently cut scenes that use a little of each take as I cut back and forth between actors’ dialogue lines. This will create the best composite performance of all the actors in a scene. When you do this, though, you should be prepared to defend what you liked about the choices you’ve made.

Action

• Matching action — Matching actors’ hand positions, use of props, and stage position from one cut to another falls into the technical category of how to make a proper edit, but don’t get caught up in all the technical stuff. Focus on whether that cut drives the emotion of the scene or moves the story along (if the scene does neither of these things, you might just want to cut it all together).

Technical matching to avoid inconsistencies is your least important concern. I’m not saying you should throw it out the window, because a mismatch that is too extreme can be very jarring to the audience. On the other hand, the audience will often ignore many minor continuity differences from one shot to the next if they stay totally engrossed in the story.

• Moving camera shots — Moving the camera around is a staple of action sequences. This might be a camera on a dolly, Steadicam, or just handheld. In an action scene, your editing is designed to create a level of tension.

When I cut these shots together, I prefer to cut on movement so that the camera is in constant motion from one shot to the next. Many directors disagree, preferring instead to start and stop each camera move before making the cut. Both approaches work under the right situations, but my tendency is to cut tighter and not let the audience’s eye rest on the set, a shot or a scene for too long, unless there is a reason to do so.

• Don’t cut back to the exact same angle — If you have a choice of several camera angles, don’t automatically cut back to the same camera angle or take that you just used in the previous shot. This is, of course, unavoidable in a dialogue scene with only two angles and one take of each. But, if the director thought ahead and shot different takes with different angles and framing, try to use a little of all the shots. Mix it up.

It’s All About the Story

Someone said that there are three films: the one that’s scripted, the one that’s been filmed and the one that’s edited. When you are creating your final cut, pay close attention to the story chronology and don’t be afraid to veer from what was written or filmed if it makes sense to do so.

Many editors use their storyboard to create a quick visual representation of the storyline. This helps you make sure that you reveal things to the audience in the most logical order and that nothing is inadvertently edited out of place. Have your storyboard with you while you edit.

Think about film editing like writing music: the film has a rhythm, and the editing needs to flow with it. Pay attention to the pacing of your cuts, and always keep the story moving forward.

The choices you make will decide how the audience will view the story, and ultimately how they will react to it. Review your decisions to create the best scenes and performances and try to stick to your storyboard ideas.

Remember, the closer a scene is to one that feels polished and conveys a clear story, the more accepting an audience will be of your cut. Take your time, and be creative.

Assembling Your Filmmaking Team : The Roles of the Production Team

Did you know there are Oscars for student filmmakers, too. Winners who went on to fame include Robert Zemeckis, Spike Lee, Trey Parker, and John Lasseter. They began by working with others on a production team. They also understood that in order to understand film as an art form, it is important to consider the jobs of the numerous individuals who work together to make the film a reality.

If you are an educator and filming in the classroom, consider teams of no more than 5 students. All the roles listed below can be shared by multiple students, thus making the learning all the more well rounded. Or, if you are making a film on your own, consider how you can combine the following roles throughout the filmmaking process, and think about who can assist you when you need help.

Producer: This person is essentially the group leader. They are responsible for managing the production from start to finish. The producer develops the project from the initial idea, makes sure the script is finalized, arranges the financing, and manages the production team making the film. The producer also coordinates the filmmaking process to ensure that everyone involved in the project is working on schedule and on budget. Without the producer at the helm, films do not get made.

Director: The director is primarily responsible for overseeing the shooting and assembly of a film. While the director might be compared to a novel’s author as a film’s primary visionary, he or she would not be able to make the film without the help of numerous other artists and technicians. In fact, the notion of the director as author is misleading because it assumes the director does everything—just like an author writes an entire book—which is not the case. A director works at the center of film production, but is inextricably linked with dozens of other people to get the job done.

Screenwriter: While the dialogue in a film may seem natural to the viewer, a writer carefully crafts it; however, the screenwriter does far more than provide dialogue for the actors. He or she also shapes the sequence of events in a film to ensure that one scene leads logically to the next, so that the story will unfold logically and in an interesting way. Like the producer, the screenwriter’s role is generally overlooked by the movie-going public, yet is essential to the completion of any film. If there is no script, there is no movie.

Production Designer: Before one inch of film is shot, the production designer is the first artist to translate the script into visual form. He or she creates a series of storyboards that serve as the film’s first draft.

A storyboard is a series of sketches on panels to show the visual progression of the story from one scene to the next. Creating this sketch of the film on storyboards also ensures the visual continuity of the film from start to finish. Storyboards serve as the director’s visual guide throughout the production and will be a template to follow during the editing process.

Art Director: The art director is responsible for the film’s settings: the buildings, landscapes and interiors that provide the physical context for the characters. This person is responsible for acquiring props, decorating sets, and making the setting believable.

Costume Designer: Costumes convey a great deal about the film’s time period and the characters who wear them—their economic status, occupation and attitude toward themselves. Be sure to think about how costuming can show something about the character visually.

Cinematographer: The director of photography, or DP, is responsible for capturing the script on film or video. The DP must pay attention to lighting and the camera’s technical capabilities. When the director wants a shot to achieve certain visual or atmospheric qualities, the DP achieves it through his or her choice of lighting, film stock and careful manipulation of the camera. This craft is referred to as cinematography.

Editor: Shortly after shooting begins, the editor begins to organize the footage, and arranges individual shots into one continuous sequence. Even in a single scene, dozens of different shots have to be chosen and assembled from hundreds of feet of film. The editor’s choices about which shots to use, and the order in which to place them, have a profound effect on the appearance of the final film.

Actors: Responsible for portraying the characters in a film, actors work closely with the director and cinematographer. Considering an actor’s role within this larger context also suggests that his or her job is much more difficult than just appearing on the set and reciting lines.

Music: Music has been an integral part of movies since cinema’s earliest days in the 1890s. A piano or organ player accompanied even the simplest silent films. The silent movie palaces of the 1920s were equipped with elaborate organs and orchestra pits to accommodate large groups of live musicians. Today selecting just the right music for the film will intensify the story for the audience.

When everyone works together, the filmmaking process can be fun and simplified. Using these real production team roles will make the act of creating a film all the more authentic. Assign your roles at the beginning of the project, and above all make sure you stick to the Producer’s schedule. Depending on how long the film is going to be, plan that your project time will be between 2 to 3 weeks long. Reserve your last week for your editing and post-production. For additional, helpful resources, check out the American Film Institute’s Screen Education Series. They further break down the film making process and guide new filmmakers with best practices and ideas.

The Secret’s in the Storyboard

Hitchcock is notorious for having used them. Spielberg has been known to hire armies of artists to create them, and, as filmmakers and educators, you can use them too. In fact, if you don’t, you could be opening yourself up to problems you might not otherwise have. We’re talking, of course, about visualizing your film before you shoot by creating a storyboard.

Film is, after all, a visual medium, and the storyboard is the most often used tool for getting a sense of how an idea will work before filming takes place. Storyboarding involves drawing still, comic book-like images of what you want your final scenes to look like. It is used as a guideline for smooth filming on set, as well as a template for the pre-production editing process.
Why storyboard?

Alfred Hitchcock was well known for storyboarding every shot of his classic films. In fact, he was so meticulous about storyboarding that he considered the procedure to be the most creative phase of the filmmaking process. Shooting the actual film was just a necessary evil. The storyboard not only determined exactly what the film would look like, it even decided what kinds of camera movements and shots were necessary to create the perfect scene.

Who can forget the shower sequence from Psycho, its every shot communicating a new terror? Or the plane chasing Cary Grant in North by Northwest? If Hitchcock had waited to decide how to shoot the scenes of either of these sequences on location, there is little doubt that they would not have ended up as well crafted and memorable. But how can drawing a few storyboards have such an effect on the final outcome of a film? The main reason is time.

If you don’t storyboard, you’ll be spending more time with your camera in hand, forcing your actors to wait on the sidelines and working hard to figure out what to shoot next. Your time is better spent planning on your own and going over your script in detail.

Pretend you are shooting the film on paper and drawing each shot as you go. (For beginning filmmakers, it is helpful to have a list of possible camera shots to assist you. This will help you visualize the difference between close-ups and medium shots, cutaways and cut-in shots, etc. and allow you to choose what will best help “show” rather than tell your story.)

Review your drawings in sequence to make sure every shot will fit together smoothly, and if they do not, it is best to know this beforehand. That way, you can make changes before filming begins, eliminating the stressful need for a re-shooting.

How do I get started?

To give you some practical insight into how the storyboarding process works, here is an exercise. First use a storyboarding template and make additional copies as needed. Next, grab your favorite movie and watch a short scene with your pencil and template in hand.

Choose something short. You may be surprised how many shots (or edits) there are in a short film sequence. For example, the shower sequence from Psycho has 52 shots in a span of only 2 minutes and 8 seconds.

Freeze frame your scene and stop at the first shot of the sequence. Sketch what you see on the screen as a still representation on your storyboard. Continue sketching each new shot (or edit) within the sequence.

If the scene includes a long pan, or moving shot, (for example, a pan of the skyline or a zoom in on an actor’s face), you can indicate motion within your storyboard. Use an arrow to indicate the motion the camera will make. An arrow can eliminate the need for multiple drawings. Under the storyboard box, write careful descriptions to effectively communicate the movement happening within the shot as well.

To test yourself, or if you are a teacher, to test your class, try the American Film Institute Screen Education handbook and Door Scene Exercise. Teams of students must create a storyboard of a simple scene involving a door and a number of camera angles and shots. Then, they must film and edit their finished scene based on the storyboard.

To ensure that the students’ storyboard is complete and easy to follow, they must trade their storyboard with another student team. A second film is made exactly as this “new” storyboard instructs with no other communications from its creators.

Will the films turn out the same? If they do, congratulations, you have created an excellent storyboard, one that can effectively communicate your vision without explanation. If the two films are different, you should go back and try to figure out where your visual communication could have been clearer and more concise.

A storyboard is the primary communication tool for filmmaking. It does not matter if you are creating a work of fiction or a documentary; each benefit from the kind of planning that storyboards provide. The dilemma here is that a storyboard should not leave anything to the imagination: using your imagination could be dangerous as no two people “imagine” the same thing.

Use your original script to create a solid and interpretable visualization of your story. Take the time to plan, or otherwise you will be dealing with reshoots, footage you cannot use, scenes that are difficult to follow and a lot of miscommunication. Follow the great directors who went before you and grab some paper and pencils, because storyboarding is the secret to a successful film.

Characters and Conflict –– The Challenge of Scriptwriting

The wonderful thing about creating short films is that they can be anything –– the only limit beyond the cost of production is that of your own imagination. Therefore, coming up with an idea for your script can be challenging.

How do you choose the right way to tell your tale? The following techniques will help filmmakers and educators alike to create compelling and screen-worthy scripts.

The best short films often focus on ONE moment or event in the life of ONE main character. The moment you choose to write about must have a story at its heart, a conflict that needs resolution, a deadline for action, and/or a choice that a character has to make.

Your goal is to successfully engage your audience, relate to your viewers and create something unique. To begin, there are three basic script idea elements: a world, a character and a problem.

The World

For your audience, it is important to establish an instantly recognizable world. Set your film around a memorable, universal event or ritual: a first date, a wedding, the first day of school, dinner with stuffy relatives, etc.

With a setting of this sort, you can generate the audience’s familiarity with the situation and don’t have to spend much time setting up the story’s exposition. It is unusual for a short film to take place over a long period of time, so consider writing your script, more or less, in “real” time.

A story that spreads over more than a few days is unlikely to work well as a short film. Keep your time line simple.

The Character

Once you have decided which significant event in the life of your main character to focus on, the most important questions to then ask yourself are, “Who is this character?” and “What must they overcome?”

To answer these, start by writing a brief back story for your character. Include information such as where they come from, what they do for fun, what their parents are like, why this event is so pivotal for them, etc.

Not all of this information will go into your script, but it will help you develop a well-rounded and realistic character. A back story will also assist you in deciding what motivates you character will have and establishing the conflict they will face. Classic literary conflicts range from: person vs. person or group, person vs. self, person vs. society, person vs. nature, and person vs. machine.

The Problem

Aristotle defined character as “that which reveals moral purpose, showing what kind of things a man chooses or avoids.” Your main character, or protagonist, is the one who has the conflict, and if there is not a conflict in your script, then you don’t have a film.

Decide what is driving you character’s wants, needs and/or obligations. Then, once you decide what is driving your main character, you need to throw a road block, or foible, in their way.

Create something to make the situation harder for your character to pursue what they want and/or need. This will move your story forward.

With character and conflict in place, now you must consider how to manifest the conflict of your story for your audience. Make sure that you demonstrate your skill as a filmmaker and not just as a storyteller; you need to “show” and not just tell your audience the conflict.

Your audience cannot look inside a character’s head, so they need to see characters DOING things that show the audience what they think and feel.

First decide if the stakes are high enough. Ensuring that there is something at stake in your story means that the audience can understand what the character stands to lose if they don’t solve or overcome their problem.

If the story is hinged around a life or death situation, then the stakes are clear. However, if the conflict is simply that the character’s car breaks down, think about how you can set up your tale so that the audience knows why this really matters.

Is your character late to see the most important game of the century? Is he going to miss the opportunity of a lifetime or lose the girl of his dreams if he can’t get the car started? The audience has to value and recognize the urgency of the conflict to help the story move forward.

Finally, ask yourself, are you telling the story from the best point of view? Consider the story of Cinderella, and imagine if you told the same story from a stepsister’s point of view. The story may have the same plot, but a different perspective. Contemplate the point of view you are telling your story from in order to keep your script interesting to your audience.

Whether you are in the classroom or writing on your own, let your imagination fly and play with your script ideas. Remember to keep your thinking focused and avoid clichés. Write what you know and feel passionately about.

To spark ideas, try watching as many short films as you can. You will get inspiration and a feel for how to “show” a great story in a short amount of time. Scriptwriting is an art form, and creating art is never easy.

Your goal is to create a fresh, original and unexpected vision with a universal and clear situation, a high stakes conflict and a relatable character. It is said that everyone has a story to tell; now it’s time to get scriptwriting!

Filmmaking Tips: Homemade Special Effects

The media and the Internet are abuzz with ideas for a variety of fascinating, project-enhancing effects that will easily bring new life to your films. These effects can be simple and inexpensive; your options are not limited.

You can implement some effects during filming, such as makeup and camera techniques, and create others during the editing process. The links below will take you to further demonstrations and how-to lessons to achieve these effects in your own films.

Makeup for the Screen: Countless tutorials online show you how to apply makeup that will result in a certain effect. Whether you are creating a sci-fi creature, a frozen actor, or a super hero, expensive makeup and prosthetics are not necessary.

For example, you can purchase basic makeup from your local drug store to create Hollywood worthy ghouls and zombies, both of which are favorites at the box office this year. Yellows, greens and browns can darken eye sockets and blend away lips or brows. Taking out color from the skin with even a simple pale foundation gives a quick sickly appearance perfect for the screen.

Camera Tricks: For sweeping camera movements, try using a camera mount. This trick was invented during the filming of the 1981 cult classic film, “The Evil Dead.” Director Sam Raimi wanted to create an effect that would realistically depict “Evil’s” point of view while chasing his actors. Raimi ordered Tim Philo, his cinematographer, to bolt a camera to a two-by-four-inch piece of lumber.

Then, having two strong grips (lighting and rigging technicians) hold the board, the cinematographer ran with the camera pointed forward near ground level to track the actor’s feet, and the final shot literally looked as if Evil was right on the victim’s heels. Duplicated in hundreds of films since, the Shaky Cam technique is a simple trick to achieve a great effect.

Reverse It: Another option for giving those daring scenes a realistic touch is to have your talent perform the actions slowly –– and backwards. When you’re editing, reverse the scene to move “forward” and speed it up as you did with the slow motion effect. The result is something a Jedi Master would be proud of.

For example, you want to use “The Force” to summon an object. Start with the object in your hand and then drop or toss the object away from you. In post-production, reverse the footage and voilà, the magic works. The object will look as though it flies to your hand at will.

Disappearing and Ghostly Characters: Making your actors vanish is a snap. Secure your camera with a tripod or on a table top –– a shaking hand will not make this look realistic. In order to make your actor “disappear,” shoot a scene with the actor, stop the camera, and have the actor move out of the shot before restarting the camera. When you play the scene back, you’ll see terrific results. You can also achieve this effect in post-production by editing the footage.

You can also try the classic “ghost effect” with the same secured camera and a screen shot. This trick layers footage and makes your actors look as if they are transparent.

Resources: These are only a few of the possibilities when it comes to creating your own special effects. You can find resources online, in countless books and also on television. Airing for its second season is Science of the Movies — “where art and science meet at the movies” on the Science Channel.

Host Nar Williams, self proclaimed movie geek, provides an inside view of the unbelievable workings behind the screens of our favorite films. In each episode, Nar gives step-by-step directions on how to use some of these techniques in his own short film creations through interviews with innovative artists.

Another great resource on film how-to’s is the site Indy Mogul, where each week, new tips on inventive, cheap filmmaking techniques and effects are unveiled to the moviemaking public.

Making your own film effects can be fun and doesn’t have to be expensive. If you add these simple suggestions to your repertoire, you’ll be making your own eye-catching, independent films in no time.

If you are still unsure about adding effects to your film, check out the first place winner of the iBeatYou.com Summer Short Film Contest, Tyler, age 13. With his family and friends he created his own version of The Final Destination franchise, complete with simple and low budget special effects to create a big budget feel.

Film effects just take a little creativity and some know-how. Experiment and have fun!

Young Minds Digital Times Reaches Across the Globe

The Young Minds Digital Times Student Film Competition has made overseas news recently. Over ten countries have taken an interest in the contest, and Young Minds Digital Times has been highlighted on Teaching News , a site aimed to share the latest news, links and teaching ideas, in order to support teachers around the world.

Teaching News was created this year by merging two existing teacher blogs: Primary Teacher UK, created by Andrew Ross in 2005, and Teaching Blog, originally created in May 2009. Together they share news, best practices, educational issues, lesson ideas and resources, student competitions, and professional development and helpful links for educators worldwide thanks to Mark Warner, the Teacher News director.

Mark has been running websites (mainly Teaching Ideas but a few others too) since 1998, and  these resources receive visitors worldwide. His sites are extremely popular with thousands of free ideas, resources, and activities for teachers.

We are all very excited for this year’s competition and its growing interests abroad. For more information, check out our www.youngmindsdigitaltimes.com. Register today!