Add Depth to your Film using Visual Subtext

[Music] welcome to film riot today I'm really excited about what we're able to bring to you guys I've been talking about mzd for a really long time they put out some of the best educational material that's out there I've said that a million times before but now we've been able to partner up with them to bring you guys some free looks at their classes so today we have ten minutes of Alex Bono talking about visual subtext which is a really great topic that will totally change how you look at approaching door scenes so I'm going to shut up and get right to it [Music] those of you who are in my last workshop and you remember the last evening lecture remember we talked about this concept of visual structure we talked about how any image can be broken down into its seven core visual components and that by controlling these components you can control the amount of visual conflicts that the scene has and by doing that you can parallel the visual story with the narrative story you can tell your story with pictures and one of those elements is the color scheme you can tell your story through a color scheme for example The Godfather has a very specific color scheme it has an orange and black color scheme this is an infinity of color scheme you could call it a limited color palette as well if you look at the Godfather the whole movie is orange and black and all of the production design and the way they've shot it lots of orange and black shots and not just the color orange but literally there are lots of oranges and the Godfather believe it or not the orange the fruit is used to foreshadow death and the Godfather some of you are thinking okay but hey it was the 70s I mean you know he was doing some wacky thing so let's look at another very similar example from another more recent gangster film it's one it's called The Departed by Martin Scorsese and in this one x marks the spot Scorsese adds a subliminal sometimes not so subliminal X to foreshadow death throughout the film once you know it's there you start seeing it everywhere X's all over the movie is foreshadowing death he's also referencing one of the original gangster movies Scarface that did the exact same thing Scorsese Coppola they're pretty old school I mean would anybody still do this today let's talk about David Fincher in this movie Fight Club in Fight Club David Fincher Believe It or Not has placed a Starbucks coffee cup in every single shot of the movie every shot this is just six of them has a Starbucks company now he admits sometimes it's not always visible sometimes it gets blocked by somebody or gets covered up with another prop but it's there why is he doing that in this case it's not so much a harbinger of death but it's a clever stab at the way that consumerism has completely taken over our lives which is the underlying theme of Fight Club now this this idea of analyzing a film and figuring out what does it really mean it used to be left to the academics extreme cinephiles of the salons of Paris right and then came the internet and along with that all of these Breaking Bad wiki's and reddit threads and lost podcasts we've become an easter-egg culture we want to know what it means we know that when we see a film like this this movie seems to be trying to communicate some kind of deeper thematics and it's doing it through cinematography and it's doing it through hair and makeup it's doing its resound design but more than anything it's doing it through screenwriting so that is part of the first rule of subtext is that the subtext must be organic to the story the whole point of subtext is to serve the text you cannot just have random symbolism in metaphors that are disconnected from the story it means nothing it has to come from the story now the second rule of subtext is that the undefined is much more powerful than the defined this is not about creating a riddle for the audience to solve and then you give them a little thumbs up when they solved it that is not what this is about the mistis is of it not knowing that is what invites the audience to engage in your film you don't tell them the answer you just give them a question you let them try to figure it out and the third rule of subtext is to think laterally this will be a recurring theme lots of what we do in the film business is linear thinking you know a plus B equals C and 100 foot candles at 100 a si equals f28 every single time lateral thinking is the opposite of that as Coppola would say we're going to count from 1 to 10 just not in that order so it's about surprising the audience and not doing the expected thing and combining the undefined with the lateral makes it more universal it opens your story up to more people and the more you define your subtext the more you close the door on people so let's talk about how to add subtext to your film so first of all we need to do a little quick course in semiology 101 the use of signs and symbols to convey a message that's what semiology is and semiology they're basically talking about symbolism and they like to use terms like the signifier the signifier is the catalyst conveying the meaning and the signified that is the meaning conveyed in other words the symbol and the meaning not overcomplicate this that's basically what it is so for example I can show you a picture of a tree you look at that and you know it's a tree that's also a signifier images work both consciously and subconsciously so you say tree but your brain is subconsciously thinking other things maybe it's thinking nature or family tree or the environment and then I can add another image to that and it's going to completely change the way you're thinking about it now maybe you're thinking about Isaac Newton or science or knowledge and now I'll add a third image and it will completely change the meaning of it now I'll add a woman to it and now it's completely different now it's Garden of Eden it's Eve it's sin so what did I intend why did I show you that what's the meaning of it what's the answer this question of artists intention is as old as time it's existed long before film you know why is she smiling what's the answer why is this guy screaming what the hell does this mean what is this you know some artists leave behind hidden clues as to what they might have meant this is one of the most famous paintings of all time the Creation of Adam by Michelangelo and he's left you a very big clue in this painting as to what he might have meant Michelangelo one of the greatest anatomical figure artists of all time he would dissect cadavers to understand how the human body works he would dissect human brains to understand how we might think and within this painting he has a very big clue here it is the human brain a perfect anatomically correct cross-section of the human brain in the place of God what is the subtext of that is he saying that God's divine gift is our intellect or maybe he's saying that man created God that there is no God that we made him up with our brains the two pretty drastically different interpretations of the same thing so what's the answer the bottom line is there is no invalid interpretation artists intention does not matter this is a big lesson to learn you hear this all the time from your filmmaker friends show you their film and doesn't totally work and they say no no let me explain to you what I was trying to do no no and and I was think what does it matter what are you going to do sit behind whisper in the river audience member that's what I meant to do as soon as you release that film what began is your film is now our film it's no longer yours it's no longer for you to say what it means now we get to decide what it means some people think that oh but if I go to a museum and I just copy a piece of art I mean how's that fair I mean aren't I supposed to be a genius aren't I supposed to figure everything out myself I want to unburden you from the pressure of being a genius you don't have to think of everything yourself believe it or not nobody does that there's a saying that good filmmakers borrow and great filmmakers steal if great is Steven Spielberg is where would he be without the work of his heroes like Ford and Truffaut and lean and Capra what about this guy Paul Thomas Anderson the word genius gets thrown around a lot I probably called him a genius a few times but where would he be without his heroes who he steals from every single time out guys like Altman and Scorsese and Kubrick and Demi remember everything is a remix according to Coppola you can't actually steal you can only take what I've done and interpret it in your own way and that is how you find your voice or according to Jim Jarmusch steal from everywhere but steal only what speaks to your soul originality is non-existent authenticity is invaluable so add subtext to your films a film without subtext is meaningless and paper-thin do not worry about how your films are interpreted you cannot control that you simply make a film that is meaningful to you and you hope that your audience will engage in it if it's meaningful to you it will be meaningful to somebody else if you're just throwing images together that don't even mean anything you're just trying to be cool it doesn't even mean anything to you it's not going to mean anything anybody else if you're a budding filmmaker entrepreneur innovator domain.com is a place to go in the next idea hits you when you get a domain name from domain.com you're taking the first steps in creating a vision and identity for your brand or idea and calm and net are the two top premier most recognizable domain name extensions which means those are the ones that are going to help you expand your presence online the best and for a limited time from now until August 31st if you use to keep on code film jumbo you get 35% off your order when you use that coupon code at domain coms check out when you think domain names think domain.com [Music] so again again a huge thank you to em said for letting us offer that to you guys for free of course they're hoping you go through and actually buy the full class which in my opinion is entirely worth it it's like six hours of educational material on cinematography and just approaching your story from a visual aspect and Alex is amazing with all of that in fact they do have a trailer for the class which will show you right now hey my name is Alex Bono I'm a DP we're behind the scenes of a commercial I'm about to shoot now you might have seen my work on Saturday Night Live where I've been shooting the film unit for about 14 seasons but I also shoot short films features music videos documentaries and commercials but you know before I was ever a DP I was a camera assistant and I had a chance to learn from some really amazing cinematographers guys like Conrad hall and Dean Cundy Jack green and John Schwartzman they were so generous with their knowledge and they inspired me to someday try to do the same I'm going to start by going over what I think are the best tools and techniques to get the most cinematic look out of whatever camera you own we're going to take a short film script and we're going to totally break it down we'll create a shot list lighting plan storyboards basically anything that I would do at SNL or any other job then we're going to shoot one of the scenes you'll see exactly how I work from lenses to camera movement to lighting and along the way I'll show you how to apply these same techniques to your work so whether you're a still photographer who's learning to shoot video for the first time or you're a veteran videographer who's just looking for some new techniques I'm just really excited to share with you guys some of the lessons that I learned from my cinematography heroes that I now use in my own work so there you go Alex's classes excellent it's actually the second one that he did with them the first one is just as good so definitely take a look and what's great about em set is they're now offering it as a subscription-based service which means you can either come in at a $300 a year plan or a $400 a year plan and given the fact that each of those classes were about 200 bucks apiece that's a pretty amazing deal and they're always offering new stuff they're working on a bunch of stuff going forward that as a member you'll just have access to the next one I think they said is a C 202 toriel on how to use that camera something like two hours long of diving into the camera and you know this isn't just like an ad or a sponsored thing because I've been talking about mzd for years saying that they're one of the best online and I have personally bought with my own money all of their classes over time and I have loved every single one of them so definitely check that out if you're looking for some great educational material on some photography directing editing audio and so on and right now they tell me if you use the coupon code Road rocks you'll get a free rode videomic with your subscription will supply less or til the end of the month I believe but we do have a link below for the site so definitely check that out and get it if you dig it and we do have some more free content coming from them soon which I'm very excited about so keep a lookout for that and now from what I'm watching recently I watched the five-part series from David Sandberg on directing Annabelle there's not much stuff like this online so definitely go check that out he's always incredibly honest and useful with his information so absolutely worth your time and until next time don't forget to write shoot edit repeat [Music]

Channel: Film Riot

Views: 353,620

Keywords: film riot, triune films, ryan connolly, filmmaking, tutorial, how to, adobe, film school, visual subtext, alex bouno, cinematography, psychology, color grading, techniques, tips, camera, film analysis, directing, movie, cinematic, lighting, adobe premiere, luts, film look, film making, lumetri color, filmmaking tutorial

Id: 6I8MRE47Hv4

Length: 14min 33sec (873 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 19 2017