Successful films are like icebergs - the bulk of what goes into them is out of sight. The pictures that you see on the screen are just the final part of a narrative architecture whose foundations are deep and started well before a director ever says “Action!” This course will delve deep into the various strands of the production necessary for building a good film before principle photography takes place. The writer director Michael Haneke is an Oscar, BAFTA and multiple Cannes winner. He does not consider the filming process to be the real ‘film-making’, because his films are made in his head long before the first camera rolls.
Writing, location scouting, set design, paper editing, casting actors and pitching are all creative steps upon which, both documentary and fiction films for cinema and TV are based. This course approaches these creative elements from both practical and theoretical standpoints. Students get a chance to try out their skills in each department in practice and to look at the way great filmmakers from all around the world rose to the same challenges. The films to be analysed range from art house to blockbusters, and from Hollywood to Hong Kong via London, Rome and Vienna.
Film is, and always has been, a team business, no matter where you come from. This course aims to give participants the chance to try out what different members of the pre-production team do. The result will be a deeper understanding of how the director needs to make different parts of the film team interact, if his or her vision is to be successful.
Whether you are an aspiring writer, designer, producer, editor, actor, director, media theoretician or you just love watching movies, these two weeks will give you a greater appreciation of both your own skills, and the skills of those film legends, whose work you enjoy on the big screen, the Internet or on TV.
What our students say
"Dr Baker did a marvellous job of expanding his students' perceptions of what they can accomplish through divergent questioning, group participation and genuine interest."
