In his previous missive, the Invisible Man talked about Words, Words, Words as Shots, Shots, Shots – how you need to be a part of an event filmmaking culture which espouses an overarching dialogue that digs deeper and more clearly defines the logic, meaning and style of the stories you create. In one of his favorite lines, The Invisible Man opined that in order for event filmmaking to be taken seriously it must first be worthy of semantics.
So, if it was not clear before with his puffery of ten cent words where a nickel would do, the Invisible Man would like to confess that he attended a high powered boarding school in the northeast. Please don’t damn him for his parents’ efforts to provide him with a good education. What he confirmed at this institution were two things. 1. It is possible to get a good education anywhere and 2. It is possible to avoid a good education anywhere.
For the first three and a half years of his high school experience the Invisible Man was fiercely visible in his attempts to avoid classroom learning. However, after having fulfilled the better part of his adolescent “life-long learnings” both good and bad, by the spring of his senior year the IM as younger ran into what he considered an awful and unforeseen road block. All his vices and good advices had been exhausted, he had no excuse but to study literature.
And, so he fell hard upon William Faulkner, the tall tale telling alcoholic from Mississippi who’s gothic confederate postage stamp of land poured universal truths into a young reader’s heretofore empty glass of intellectual curiosity.
As the invisible younger man raised a metaphorical moonshine toast in the name of this tortured Yoknapatawpha author, he was brought down to earth by a devious and adroit English teacher named Henry Ploegstra, whose gay cheer (obvious even to the younger invisible man at that time) brought wisdom with zest to every 7th period of his day.
Henry Ploegstra – he who became so passionate and mischievous about his subject matter that beads of gleeful and bubbly spittle would often form slushy reservoirs in the corners of his mouth. None of his students had the audacity or even the desire to offer a tissue or note this accumulated deformity of drool in his presence. Rather, collectively, they shared and giggled about it outside of class.
Perhaps the most memorable and illuminating classroom experience of his high school career was an exercise that both obliterated and elevated the author, Mr. William Faulkner, among whose claims to fame were winning the Nobel Prize for long and complex stories involving a dying incestuous southern culture and writing a short story with a sentence that was seven pages long.
Mr. Ploegstra presented a simple exercise, one that points directly to the event filmmaker who has patiently waited for a connection to and the purpose of this post. It was this:
“Take the first page of an author whom you admire…craft a narrative of your own using the exact same grammar as that author. ie, where there is an article – adjective – noun – preposition – noun -replace it with your own article – adjective – noun – preposition – noun…
What The Invisible Man learned and appreciated then about grammar and syntax and their effects on style and content was not only transformative to him…It was immeasurable.
It seems to The Invisible Man – especially now as the event filmmaking world enters a phase in which HDDSLRs reign – that you, as an event filmmaker, can move beyond the broad terms of wide shot, medium shot, close up and extra close up to really get at the bones of good grammar and syntax in the visual sentence/structure. And, frankly, his wonder is that you don’t speak more openly and concretely about sequences in more detailed and elaborate fashions.
If you said: “Pan L/R Extreme low angle 24mm @ f8 shutter 100 iso 200 and low angle 200mm f8 shutter 100 iso 200, followed by 135 mm @ f 3.2 shutter 250 iso 200 and so forth – you would have had the IM at f8. As a photographer, the IM has learned so much by looking at EXIFs. The critical information from a photograph that exposes the grammar – the underpinnings of photographic structure – the recipe of how a shot is put together.
How great would it be to have that information in FCP or Premiere for HDDSLRs – so that you could really begin to have concrete dialogues about the analysis of technique? Techniques of rock stars – techniques of those aspiring to become rock stars??
Think of a jazz improvisation workshop in which the discussion of chords – their relationship to one another – often serves as the spine of discussion. Should this not be a greater part of your esprit de corps?
The Invisible Man often hears people say, “Wow, I like the 50mm lens for bridal prep…You’ll want a 70-200 2.8 lens for the reach in that dark church…” But, this is more akin to saying what type of tire preference you have for your racing bicycle on dry or wet roads.
Tires are important – they’ll get you there. But, the IM believes you need to look at lenses as the gears of a project. In order to maximize your efficiency and efficacy and speed, it is knowledge of the gear ratios and how to shift seamlessly. It is ultimately of greater importance to know what these gears/lenses do and how they may sync together.
Perhaps the greatest boon and added benefit of the HDSLR experience is that it has offered you the opportunity to think in an exceedingly concrete and detailed visual way with the lenses you have before you. The Invisible Man encourages you to take advantage of this awareness and discuss with your peers how grammar and syntax inform the structure, style, mood, and theme of any artwork.
If nothing else but for giggles, the invisible man invites you to view at your latest work – take any section – and outline it from a visually grammatical perspective. Or, look at the work of someone whom you consider a master – ascertain their use of lens, distance, aperture and shutter speed.
May it prove to be illuminating and cause your mind to embrace both moonshine and drool and the fond memories of those all too rare high school experiments and experiences that went right.
![IN[FOCUS]](http://www.infocusvideoevent.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/IFTiny.jpg)
