Process of composition...it's hard!

Ok, so the reality that is dawning on me, the one I am sharing with several former students, is that the process of filmmaking if far harder than I ever thought.  Sure, I knew it would be complicated, and that the technical aspect was one that we would have to learn through study, trial, and error.  But honestly, I don’t know how anyone could do this job without having gone to school for it.

I appreciate that I am beginning to see elements of camera technique, editing, and composition in the films, television shows, and commercials that I watch.  The more I view them, the more I’m struck with how difficult it is to get it exactly right.  And especially to do it with apparent ease.  Perhaps, that it the point.  It needs clear and practiced technique.  But composition is all around us.  Even the background screen on my laptop, which changes frequently, practices the rule of thirds. 

In designing a lesson plan for high school students to help them understand the elements of composition, I found that I would need to do it within a directing unit.  Granted, this could be a section of a filmmaking unit, but the principles are the same, nonetheless.  I also found that it was difficult to progress from an elementary understanding to actually demonstrating those principles with a camera in a mere lesson.  Students need a foundation upon which to build.  Additionally, in a school like mine, getting access to video camera is going to prove difficult, though most have phones with at least some video capability, and certainly photographic ability.  That’s why I initially chose to go that route; though I see the necessity of demonstrating an understanding of how to capture the elements of composition with an actual video camera.  It’s something I’m trying to figure out how to balance within my curriculum. 

I truly see the benefit of teaching composition, in all of my classes, film or no.  But I do think I need to create a space for my students to first start observing the type of shots and what they communicate, the use of balance, nose room, angles, pans, tilts, focal length, etc. in their everyday encounters with media.  I think this observation and understanding of how and why things function as they do will help to make things more clear in their minds and their practice. 

A final note, though I teach in a classroom and am quite accustomed to pacing with my lesson plans, I find that I feel so very far behind when it comes to an understanding of the principles involved with filmmaking, and especially with the equipment.  Honestly, I film things with my iPad.  Yesterday in class was the first time I ever touched a real (non-old school home movie style) video camera.  I know that sounds preposterous, but it’s true.  I’m not only out of my comfort zone here, I’m on a different level entirely…which is not a bad thing.  It just takes some adjustment.  It’s a process, like anything else worth learning.