Author: Brian Dilg, Chair, Photography Department, New York Film Academy

The last fifteen years have been giddy ones for photographic hardware and software manufacturers. The acceleration of affordable, high equality digital cameras has popularized photography and SLRs far beyond the interests of professionals. Our obsession with technology created rapid growth in sales (at least until the combination of the financial crisis and the overwhelming popularity of camera phones), as each new generation of cameras with even more megapixels has been an easy way to persuade people to throw away their “old” camera and buy a new one, regardless of whether they needed it. Although I still have my grandfather’s fully functional Nikon F2 from nearly 50 years ago, these days we are living in a largely disposal culture.

Does your average amateur need more megapixels to take snapshots of friends and family? Considering the fact that the popularity of actually making prints has declined so precipitously among hobbyists (replaced by the internet), in practice most people don’t need to capture more than three megapixels. That’s the highest resolution of JPEG images you’re likely to find online, even in these days of ultra-dense “retina” displays. The primary reason to use a camera with more resolution than that is to be able to make prints, which require far greater pixel density. In effect, most people are paying for resolution they simply do not need, although higher resolution is usually accompanied by better lenses, sensors, and other aids to better looking images.

So can this technological change continue ad infinitum? Manufacturers have indicated that they have reached the limits of how many pixels can be squeezed onto a 35mm “full frame” digital sensor; studies show diminishing returns when more than 25-35 megapixels are crammed onto a 24x36mm sensor. Undoubtedly, Canon is mulling over how to provide a higher resolution camera than their current 22 megapixel flagship to challenge Nikon’s popular 36 megapixel D800, and pros as well as those who are simply enamored by technology will have fun choosing between them.

While there are far better ways to serve the vast majority of non-professionals using cameras than adding megapixels (a topic I’ll address in a moment), for professionals there are certainly plenty of reasons to improve basic imaging technology. First of all, a physically larger sensor provides significant advantages. Obviously, more megapixels can fit onto a larger CCD or CMOS sensor, but even more importantly, technical issues raised by confronting the density limits of a sensor are eased.

Light (photons) are gathered into buckets called photosites, and the larger those can be, the more photons can be gathered. This becomes especially critical in capturing shadow detail, which is challenged by several factors: 1) the number of photons is at its lowest in the darkest shadows, 2) spurious (ambient) electronic noise (showing up as random bright, saturated pixels) is most obvious the closer we get to black, 3) the human eye is far less responsive and less able to perceive subtle tonality in shadows than in highlights, and 4) when it comes to printing, shadow detail is one of the greatest challenges.

All of that simply means that larger sensors allows for bigger photosites and subsequently better images, especially in the shadows. Bigger photosites also mean being less troubled by the negative effects of a phenomenon called diffraction, which refers to how an image gets softened when light passes through a hole (i.e., an aperture).

Larger sensors also mean less depth of field, which is not appropriate for most photojournalism and street photography, but is one of the uniquely beautiful characteristics that still makes medium and large format film cameras preferable when you want to isolate a subject from the background. Sharpness and resolution can also be a tremendous asset for images with important detail, like landscapes, although it can be too much information in a portrait if you are noticing someone’s pores more than their face as a whole.

Since the proliferation of digital cameras, medium and large format digital sensors have been astronomically expensive. A state of the art 50 megapixel CMOS medium format camera from the industry leaders, Phase One and Hasselblad, will set you back about $30,000-40,000 for the camera body, digital back, and just one lens. That is overdue for change, as witnessed by Pentax’s recent announcement of their 50 megapixel CMOS medium format system that also shoots HD video, the 645Z, for only $8,500. This puts enormous pressure on Phase One and Hasselblad in a way that is good for the consumer, and very likely heralds a return to an updated version of the kind of medium format systems that were used overwhelmingly by professionals prior to the invention of digital cameras.

So what about the more casual photographer, the hobbyists or people who simply want to take snapshots of their lives? What kind of technical innovations are really needed for them? Camera manufacturers face a bit of quandary: your average non-technical camera user would simply like to get their hands on a camera that will make it easy to take great pictures. However, no matter how sophisticated the technology gets – autofocus, face detection, canned situational shooting modes, showy filters, etc. – you cannot put creativity in a can with a “make great picture” button on it. No technology will ever have an iota of understanding of what makes an image great. Just to take one example, exposure, the challenging lighting conditions that lead to frustration (under or over exposure, etc.) in the hands of someone is counting 100% on the camera to do the thinking are exactly the same conditions that can produce fantastic, dramatic images in the hands of someone who has taken control away from the camera’s technology and made a creative interpretation.

In the last analysis, it is precisely the illusion that better technology will lead to better pictures that keeps people buying new cameras – instead of accepting that there are no shortcuts. It simply takes study and practice!

Happy shooting.

Author: Mark Olsen, Chair, Musical Theatre Department, New York Film Academy

In past eras, musical theatre trends were predominantly linked to styles of music and the vision of a few distinctive composers and creators who were writing as a way to reflect their time and to respond to the current pressures of their day. The universal themes of love and loss and the search for redemption or reconciliation were weaved into highly original plots that gave each production its unique sound and visual aesthetic within its newly minted world.

Fans waited with great anticipation to see the movie versions of stage musicals such as Oklahoma!, Brigadoon, Guys and Dolls, South Pacific, and of course, West Side Story. Many of the great musicals of that era did not just spring forth from pure imagination. They were adapted from another source. Guys and Dolls for example was based on Damon Runyon short stories, Oklahoma! is based on the Lynn Riggs play Green Grow the Lilacs and West Side Story is based on Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet.

Book and play adaptations have a long and successful history in the musical theatre genre. Borrowing themes and central plot ideas from these literary sources, the creators of the musicals of that earlier era enjoyed great success at the Broadway box office. In some cases, those adaptations as well as original works would be adapted for film, contributing to those box offices and gradually growing a new genre of entertainment called, the movie musical.

In recent times, however, a new trend has emerged in the musical theatre world and as a result, the earlier trend of stage works becoming movies has essentially reversed. Today it is evident that the Broadway musical genre has increasingly come to rely upon Hollywood and the world of the animated and non-animated cinema as its inspiration and source material. Movies, strangely enough, are now being adapted for the stage.

It is no surprise that Disney has become a leading force in this new trend. Moving successfully from animated feature to the stage, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King launched this trend which has been playing out in a robust fashion ever since. Just a cursory list of recent Broadway musicals reveals not only how many film based musicals have or are now gracing the Broadway stage, but also how much the trend seems to be here to stay for the foreseeable future. Consider the following list:

The Producers, Young Frankenstein, Billy Elliot, Elf, Bridges of Madison County, Rocky, Once, Catch Me If You Can, Grey Gardens, Big Fish, Bullets Over Broadway, The Color Purple, Cinderella, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid. And as I write this, The Coal Miner’s Daughter and Dirty Dancing are in the works in London.

Clearly this is a formula that producers find attractive and in some ways you might ask why it took so long. Movies, we know, can be distributed across a much wider swath of the public and as a result, they can more readily garner the all important title recognition which can, at least initially, give the box office more reliable ticket sales.

As always, regardless the trends and regardless the shifting tastes, for a Broadway show to succeed there must be that elusive combination of magic where the music and the production and the actors and the story all merge to create a synergy of force that lifts audiences and has them dancing or singing as they leave the house. In other words, just because a movie was popular, it doesn’t necessarily spell instant success within the highly competitive Broadway arena. Just ask the producers of the recent flop, Ghosts the Musical.

Author: Mark Olsen, Chair, Musical Theatre Department, New York Film Academy

To sing a song in the musical theatre is to move beyond the simple presentation of the tonal elements and to allow the song to live fully within an active story-based context. That is not to say that there are never moments of simple song presentation in the musical theatre. Some songs in certain musicals, like many numbers in the musical Dreamgirls, for example, are placed and sung as pure presentations of song. However those moments are rare and even in their straight forward presentational style, are often laced with background context. In other words, a song in the musical theatre is not only sung it is acted. Acting is the truthful blend of visual and aural expression within an imaginary context. Therefore, a singer in a musical must also connect to the physical life, the body language, of the song.

There are numerous classes and coaches who specialize in helping singers improve and maintain their vocal performances. Physical expression, however, tends to get much less attention. That is why many musical theatre performers resort to cliche gestures and wooden physical choices in their work. They become so absorbed into their vocal performance that the physical expression becomes flat, uninteresting, or even unsupportive of the imaginary circumstances.

To begin calibrating the physical expression of a song, the performer needs to have a clear understanding of the “world of the play”. The time period and the overall style of the musical will already carry with it a number of physical demands. The physical life of a farcical screwball comedy is much different than the physical life of a nineteenth century operetta. Once the style is determined, other research begins. In most cases, our modern access to the archival footage of past decades and previous productions makes this a fun and relatively easy process.

Viewing excerpts of old footage as well as paintings from certain periods and researching the clothing of a certain era will go a long way toward feeding the imagination. However, the song needs to come to life within the context of the production. Therefore the performer needs to know how the director and artistic team view the world of the play. Each production of Kiss Me Kate, for example, will have its own point of view and could, as one production I witnessed at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, be placed in Little Italy, New York. Under those conditions the character choices and onstage gestural life will be uniquely influenced by that location.

Once the initial research is complete, the performer needs to embark upon some special homework: physical exploration. A good beginning is to simply sing the song while moving freely around the room. Put all expectations and conventional notions of how to move and simply commit to a liberated and unedited exploration of movement. The singing need not be particularly accurate or at full volume and should take a back seat to the more important journey of the body. Keep this exploration going beyond the comfort zone, beyond the known and conventional notions of the song itself. Literally take the song on a ride well beyond the confines of its normal boundaries.

This exploration, if done well, will allow for some unique and highly expressive choices to emerge. An hour of physical exploration that results in even a single gestural discovery is time well spent!

Another technique is to play a recording of the song and to move and dance and physically explore without any attempt to sing the song. Let the lyrics and the sounds of the music move the body in abstract or literal ways, free to move in a spectrum of physicality from high magnitude and high energy to miniature and very low energy. As in the other exploration, much like panning for gold, the process is to make a personal physical connection to the song and emerge from the exploration with a few useful choices, nuggets of gold, that can then be refined and adjusted to meet the needs of the song’s circumstance.

Artistic discovery is often linked to limitation of one kind or another. Try giving yourself a series of “rules” or “limits” as a way of forcing you out of your usual physical choices. Tell yourself that you are not allowed to stand with arms extended and palms upward. When you remove this common choice from your vocabulary you are forced to engage the body in new ways and find more interesting and more expressive physical choices.

In conclusion, to calibrate the physical expression of a song a musical theatre performer can choose the following:

1. Research the time period of the musical
2. Research the particulars of the specific production
3. While singing the song, engage the body in a fully released explorative journey
4. While listening to a recording of the song, engage the body in a fully released explorative journey
5. Sing the song while enacting some particular physical limitation that forces new and personally unusual choices to emerge.

Author: Mark Sawicki, Co-Chair, Animation Department, New York Film Academy Los Angeles

Q. What will I learn in the Animation BFA program?

A. The full program will take you through drawing classes, sculpting classes, an introduction to 2D software like Photoshop, After Effects and Nuke and 3D software like Maya and ZBrush. You will also use editing software like Premier. After the software introductions, you will learn to build animation 3D environments and design characters. You will texture and light environments and compare real world lighting to computer-generated (CG) lighting. You will learn to rig and animate your characters and create short movies. Meanwhile, all of your work will contribute to your portfolio and demo reel so that you will have material to show prospective employers.

Q. Do I have to draw well to get work in animation?

A. It depends on what area of animation you are interested in. If you like character design or environmental design, it would help be able to draw well. Knowledge of anatomy is very desirable for character design. An understanding of perspective and how to use it is important in figure drawing and environmental sketches. But if you have an aptitude for software and are technically minded, you could focus on model building (objects or characters) or rigging the skeletons of the characters. You could also create visuals like particle effects used for sand (The Mummy) or fireworks. There are also effects needed for hair and cloth dynamics. There is more to animation than feature movies, like Toy Story. Animation software is also used for pre-production planning and visual effects in movies, like Gravity and World War Z.

Q. What if I’m not sure I want to commit to the full BFA program? Is there a way to take short courses to see what I like the most?

A. In Los Angeles, we offer a 4-week crash course that teaches you how to create a short animated movie. There is also a 1-year program that is very intensive. You should come away with portfolio additions and demo reel material.

Q. How many different job roles are there in 3D animation?

A. In feature animation, take a look at the end credits for an idea of all the job roles. Just to get you started, here is an initial list:

• Designer – character
• Designer – visual effects
• Designer – layout/storyboards/animatics/pre-visualization
• Matte painting
• Character animation – full figure
• Character animation – facial
• Crowd/herd/flock animation
• Effects animation – natural (fire, water, ice, snow, wind, etc.)
• Effects animation – supernatural (magical powers, destructive effects, space/cosmic effects, etc.)
• Environmental modeler
• Vehicle modeler
• Character modeler
• Texture painting (2D)
• CG lighting/rendering
• Digital compositing
• Technical director – look (surface treatment)
• Technical director – character rigging
• Technical director – character effects (hair, feathers, cloth, fat, muscles, scales, etc.)
• Technical director – visual effects
• Technical director – general
• Technical director – virtual camera setup
• Technical director – pipeline
• Stereoscopic layout/artist

Q. How many different job roles are there in movie effects?

A. It depends on the movie. A movie like Gravity is almost 100% CG except for the actors. Different movies will have varying amounts of effects to live action ratios but even the live action scenes will probably be digitally manipulated. Also, unlike feature animation studios that produce just about everything in-house, though, movie productions tend to sub-contract the work out to specialty studios, so you would need to become familiar with the contract studios, like ILM, Weta Digital, Framestore, and Sony Image Works. Very big budget effects movies can sub-contract to so many specialty studios that coordinating and wrangling shots, elements, and data is a major job unto itself. Also, there may be one pre-visualization company that creates the entire movie using 3D animation tools and this becomes the template for all the other effects houses to follow. Because there is more of a mix between CG elements and live action, compositing tends to play a bigger part in the effects, too. This list is compiled using a movie like Iron Man, which has a variety of visual effects (not to be confused with special effects that include pyro techniques and physical devices):

• Pre-visualization – modeling, rigging, animating, virtual camera, lighting, effects, editing, sound
• Technical director – motion capture
• Animation – motion capture clean up
• Compositing preparation – rotoscoping, painting, motion tracking, match moving, stabilization
• Compositing – green screen
• Texture painting/texture scanning
• Compositing – crowd duplication
• Live action plate coordinator
• Technical director – pipeline
• CG modeling (final) – vehicles, environment
• CG modeling (final) – character
• CG lighting, rendering (final)
• Stereoscopic layout
• Technical director – character rigging
• Technical director – visual effects

Q. How do I get the most out of the Animation BFA program?

A. Give your all to each class, even if you think you are not interested in that software or discipline. You never know which skill set might be your entry into your industry of choice. For example, some students might get their start by creating motion graphics for rock videos, commercials or educational videos. Some people get their start in movies doing green screen composites for effects studios that are sub-contractors to movie studios producing high profile, big budget films. Some people get started creating cinematic effects for mobile devices. Keep an open mind and do your best work because, at the very least, you will be adding great looking images to your portfolio.

New York Film Academy instructor and filmmaker Abraham Heisler provides an in-depth look into creating the visual feel of his short film “The Typist.” In the following video, he emphasizes the significance of storyboarding, pre-visualization software like FrameForge 3D, innovative methods, and other means by which to convey one’s vision to his or her director of photography and crew. This is a helpful how-to that will give you a glimpse into the making of “The Typist” in addition to better understanding the filmmaking process.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=7Cg3qyD3WOE

Transcript

Hi guys, my name is Abraham Heisler. I recently completed a short film called “The Typist” and it’s highly stylized and has a look and feel to it that is pretty unique. So I wanted to share with you some preparations that went into creating that look in hopes that it helps prepare you for your own film productions.

So first off, I’m a pretty big fan of storyboarding. Storyboards help me conceptualize the way scenes will cut together and allow me to develop an overall visual pattern for the film. So for instance, my film is about a guy that is struggling to relate to people in the world around him. And I wanted to portray the protagonist in his own world with shots that are very symmetrical, neat, and organized, but contrast those shots with low and Dutch angle shots whenever he is trying to fit in. This is a visual theme I was able to experiment with while in the storyboarding process.

I use a pre-visualization software called FrameForge 3D. And what’s beautiful about this program is that you can create a 3D world for your characters to exist in and then you can select which camera you want to move around in order to find the best angles to tell your story. Not only does it allow you to experiment and play with ideas ahead of time, but it also creates wonderful, beautiful storyboard images that you can show to your director of photography, art department, and rest of your crew.

For shots that were difficult to achieve in FrameForge 3D, I went to the actual location and snapped photos or downloaded images off the internet and Google Maps in order to get a sense of the setting. There’s a complex scene in the film where the main character enters a hipster café and gets rejected by technophile enthusiasts for typing on his own typewriter. I wanted to play with the sounds of technology—iPads, iPhones, and other Apple products—and juxtapose that with the editing of sounds of the typewriter. In order to get the music and pacing right for the scene, I designed a quick schematic from the photos from the internet in order to give my crew a sense of what I was going for, so check it out.

I hope this has been helpful and you’re able to apply some of these techniques to your own filmmaking. Thanks for watching and if you’re interested in checking out the film or learning more about the pre-production process that went into creating it, please visit our crowdfunding campaign at pozible.com/thetypist. All the best!

Author: Glynis Rigsby, Chair, Acting Department, New York Film Academy

From personal experience, professional casting notices are well thought out and built specifically to streamline the process for those filtering submissions. An easy way to make sure that your submission is immediately dismissed is to ignore instructions in the casting notice, so READ CAREFULLY.

1. FOLLOW DIRECTIONS. In a profession in which taking direction is a necessary skill, it is imperative that you demonstrate this immediately. If there are no instructions for the subject line of your email, it should include the name of the character and your name: Submission for Caroline by Samantha Potter.

2. If the reply address comes with a contact name, make sure you address that person in your email and make absolutely sure that you use both the right gender (Ms. Brandon Marie Miller) and the correct spelling. Again, these small details give potential employers a sense of who you will be in a casting session and on set. Also give a brief(!) description of why you would be a good fit for the project or what makes you eager to join this production team. Make sure you send this from an address that you check often. If you will be away from email, provide another means of contact like a cell phone number. Be sure to include your name and a warm but professional closing such as “Thank you” or “Best regards”.

3. The body of your email should reiterate your name and the role you are submitting for, preferable in the form of a short, polite note:

Please find attached materials submitted for the role of Caroline in THE BEAST STALKS ITS PREY. I have admired the work of Director Tony Souza for many years, particularly in the series WHEN ROME BURNS and believe that my experience as a zoologist would be an asset to the role.

Best regards,
Samantha Potter

4. Attach a headshot and resume to your email. You may ALSO provide a link to additional materials and content, but do not expect casting office staff to go the extra mile to retrieve your materials. The headshot should look like you but if you have a new look that reflects a significant change, you can send a second photograph to show this. You should be fully clothed in both photographs. Headshots should be in .jpg format and viewable in the body of the email. Do not attach pictures larger than 400 X 500 pixels. 300 X 400 is even better. The file name should be simply your full name: first_last.jpg. If you send more than one picture, simply add the number 1 and 2 to the file name. If you have a long and complex first or last name, simplify by replacing your first name with an initial. Long, complex file names can complicate the process and crash browsers. Your name should appear at the bottom of the image and be readable. This will help the casting staff if materials are separated.

5. It is recommended that you submit your resume as a .pdf to preserve formatting. The .pdf can have the same file name as the headshot since the file type is different (jameson_jones. pdf and jameson_jones.jpg). This will also help if the files become separated. Resumes should fit to one page. If you have additional credits, list them as “available upon request”.

6. Your email address should reflect your professional self and not include graphic or unprofessional language or ideas.

7. Refrain from asking questions that are addressed in the original post.

8. DO NOT submit if you are:
– Unavailable for the dates of the project
– SAG/Aftra and the project is non-Union
– So significantly different from the description that your casting would change the nature of the story. For example: a 24-yr old actress submitting for a 68-yr old grandmother. Casting notices are written specifically to filter submissions and ignoring those filters will not endear you to anyone in the casting office.