PRACTICAL DV FILMMAKING

Practical DV FilmMaking

• Overview
• Inside video
• Films and how they work
• Pre-production
• Production tools
• Production aesthetics
• Post-production tools
• Post-production aesthetics
• Careers and distribution
• Mapping the industry
• Glossary of film and video terms

Filmmakers of this kind don't call themselves filmmakers at all, preferring terms that hint towards the convergence of video, graphics, animation and text. They are likely to have a sideline in VJ-ing and animation for ads, and like to evangelize their medium in workshops. In recent years they have come in from the cold - no longer submariners in the video world, their skills are wanted in TV and on the web. If you opt for this career expect to be poached by the omnipotent - and deep-pocketed - games industry, where you should ask for a raise on day one.

VJ (video jockey)

This form of video can be easily traced back to its birth - the dance music scene of the 1990s. The light shows quickly gave way to cut-up kung fu movies playing silently on a club wall. Later, cheaper video

Films and how they work 51

projectors and laptops enabled video artists to create a series of images that could be played alongside any music. But it is the ability to react instantly to changes in pace and rhythm that has let the VJ artist really enter the mainstream. With new developments in software, as a DJ plays a song, the VJ mixes spontaneously from a catalogue of prepared clips, using software to enable these clips to be cued and accessed without delay. Typically, more than one screen is used. New hardware has pushed VJs closer to the role of the DJ - the Pioneer DVD mixer allows a hands-on mixing of discs emulating the scratch­ing of DJ-ing that makes it such a physical activity. There is a high turnover of clips; often, images last for only several frames or at most a second, but it is the repetition and mixing of these that VJ-ers use to add structure and give character to a piece rather than the content itself.

My kind of people?

The VJ is probably the most dextrous of all filmmakers but, like the projection artist, is reluctant to use the label filmmaker, preferring VJ or video artist. Films are called 'visuals' and artists often have a stage name or company name that is used as a pseudonym. Technical nerds but fashionable, VJs are amply rewarded at the higher levels of the field. A subtle shift in recent years means that the VJ is becoming more important than the DJ, so it is often refusenik DJs that enter the field. More often, though, these practitioners are coming from an art school background and are fascinated by images, shape, colour and form, seeing what they do as a kind of four-dimensional sculpture.

Projections

Many live music concerts now include large-scale video projections behind the band, utilizing every­thing that the medium can offer, from shaped projection screens to multiple, text-layered, spinning screens. Related to the music video form, these projections show images that relate to the ethos of the band in general, not necessarily for individual songs. Some bands employ projection artists as semi­detached members of the band, developing the visual impact of the band on tour. Many music labels have felt a sharp reduction in sales due to file sharing and have decreased the funding they give to music promos in some countries. Many now see the live tour as the best marketing tool they have, with a captive audience for two hours or more, and seek to fill the screen with images that can tie in with other marketing tools and relate to CD artwork and T-shirts.

My kind of people?

Crucially, these people are artists first and filmmakers last. They may have entered this field through art school, having experimented with Super-8 and light shows. Technically, they have a wide range of skills and prefer to push the envelope wherever possible, experimenting with every aspect of the medium. Leaders in this field will be highly paid and sought after by musicians. As a sideline, they will also be doing video installations for galleries, touring as a VJ and getting involved in whatever no one else has done yet.

The Crunch

• Get to know what area of filmmaking you prefer - maybe it's several areas.

• Feature films are just the tip of the film industry iceberg - other types of filmmaking are just as popular and far more achievable.

• Short productions help you develop more quickly.

• Try anything once - most forms are going to help you in whatever kind of film you prefer making.

• The more mistakes you make, the more you improve. Exercise your right to fail - at least you will do it your way.

• Invent, experiment, imitate, re-invent, do anything.