Production-Now.com Media Production Mentoring

Free online film school designed with beginning filmmakers in mind.

12.31.2006

Assignment 4: The Fat Lady Sings

Purpose: To gain skill in audio manipulation and help you see media as a tool, not a taskmaster.

Basis: Too often student productions drag on because the editor is basing the production on the song. 'The song is five minutes,' they reason, 'so my piece will be five minutes.' May it not be so! If your film is best at 1:30, make it only that long. And, for the love of good filmmaking, do not simply unceremoniously fade the song out at the end.

Directions: Take a song you like and make it exactly 1 minute long. You must include elements from the beginning, middle and end of the song.

Looking Forward: With a few more tools under your belt, it’s time start your next movie.

What to Watch: "Karate Kid Poker Face" [Karate Kid is PG] Here's a major Hollywood picture where they took a 3:35 song and cut it down to :50. Yep, this is a skill that is really put to use in "the real world."

Watch Samples: Please do not upload any copyrighted material to the internet.



2 comments :

Unknown said...

Your comments seemed to have gotten cut short. What are the alternatives to uploading copyrighted songs to youtube?

Luke Holzmann said...

The easiest one is to use the music library provided in the youtube editor itself. You can also search for Royalty Free Music or Creative Commons Music ... there are many sites for that. Or, as I did early on, just don't use music at all. That's the safest and cheapest way of doing things (plus it keeps you focused on telling your story and learning the craft rather than relying on great music, which is an art form all to itself). The last option is to pay for royalty free music... but that can get pricey and can come with its own set of frustrations. Hope that helps!

~Luke