How Do You Convey Meaning Without Words?

Every year Boston University’s Field Production Services (FPS) leases the Chapman-Leonard Super PeeWee IV camera dolly for use in advanced production courses. It’s everyone’s favorite toy. This heavy metal slab on wheels allows the cinematographer to capture graceful tracking shots, to push in on a subject to amp up the intensity, or to mindlessly glide the camera about the set for no reason. Too often student filmmakers opt for that third one, and its much less effective... Read More

The Difference Between Film and Video

I may not have always known it, but I always wanted to be a filmmaker. Ten-year-old me commandeered my dad’s VHS camcorder to shoot my own Brittney Spears music videos (I only liked her for her looks), GI Joe adventure shorts (a la Robot Chicken), and a documentary welcoming newcomers to my secret fort (I’m the only one who ever watched it). Proud as I was of my creations, I would always lament that “they don’t look like the real movies.” And they didn’t. Not even... Read More