Lights, Camera, Action! Heard these terms before? These are for aspiring filmmakers.

Considered as an art, producers and directors have well defined what film making is.  Lot of technical aspects are involved. It’s a tiring task to make a film. Certain guidelines on film making may definitely result in good films and movies. Students just entered the media industry or freshers may find this useful. Film making being a part of media, its study becomes essential. This area has a lot of scope and demand. The tricks would be as such:

1. Knowledge on camera handling is a basic and must. It’s a process and therefore obstacles if exist can be worked and should be worked out or else the entire efforts would be a waste. Lot of aspects like story, script, sound, music being involved are a must.
2. Not an easy task needs visualization and imagination. Good Stories and script making cant be made just like that.  If the moviemaker is a movie lover and has seen many movies in the past his imagination can be better.
3. Camera angles and direction which is commonly known can be the most common but crucial aspect in film making. For the entire consequence to happen needs patience and technical aspects as in working with softwares and all is time consuming.
4. It’s not in everybody’s ability and requires acting skills and other. Acting also needs to be decent depending on the character and nature of character. Very apt and interesting characters can be portrayed in a movie. Characters can be dull, aggressive, and enjoyable too. Just needs some thinking for the right kind of characters.
5. Recent movies like Delhi Belly and many other such movies have proved that filmmaking needs experimentation. Coming up with newer ideas every now and then can be a better aspect to cinema and cinema can be connected to some extent to filmmaking.
6. There are many such that are to be kept in mind while making a film. Audience research conducted at the beginning might help.
7. Target audience should also be kept in mind while making films for the right kind of audience. This helps in making the film a success and has positive consequencies.
8. Locations can also be the turning point in the movie. Beautiful locations exist and using them for short films is not a bad idea.
9. Some students now are going for a career in film making and various institutes now offermany courses like FTII, Pue ne and NYSA too. Getting one particular more intricate shot riht with the simultaneity of action in one space and time, with no comprise is a super high.
10. Film making encompasses so many art forms, be it literature, poetry, music, writing, acting, design, space, costumes and so many other aspects that you will actually learn a lot about yourself and in turn grow more rapidly than others.

It’s an enriching process it enriches your life. Future of film making will be a lot more global. There are already some glimpses seen of brilliance with movies like 3 Idiots. The newer guys in the film making industry are developing and are giving off small sparks. Our films are going to get noticed by the world. If filmmakers get together and make films that they believe in, money will follow. From the belief t o have fun, more ideas may arrive and improve the present scenario of film making.

Process of film making should be enjoyed. Film makers should not depend on Box office success and critical acclaim while they should have a personal growth. Having an experience in video making would prove to be better for any film maker.

It can also be called as a team effort and just 1 man contributing it would not work. Its also a collective effort and the vision of all members in the team has to be included or else it wont turn out to be a success and would not be that good. Co-ordination from every member of the team is very much essential or else thumbs down.

It is said that Black goes with any and every colour; but to achieve a level of acceptable balance is rather difficult at times whether you are a painter, designer, or photographer. Black is not a colour but something that increases the depth of the colours around it, sometimes a void that graciously gives its surrounding life. Here are some tips to help you aspiring photographers and artistic visualizers out there.

Low light levels make night photography a challenging yet rewarding subject. After sunset, the everyday world is magically transformed, and city buildings, fireworks, thunderstorms and the northern lights all become popular subjects. But with the variety in elements and perspective, twilight photography takes a whole different dimension which you can sometimes achieve in the absence of your fancy equipment.

Now there is a constant search for finding colour in the darkness, be it in the streetlights at night, or the moonlight shining on branches; these different shades of black give a feeling of the unreal. During such times, your biggest weapons and tools are your eyes, you have to see and alter your perspective to tame even that faintest call of light and life. So if your eye perceives it, your lens receives it.

The results can be very stunning and strange effects are easy to master. With many night photography subjects, total darkness at night isn’t necessarily the best time to actually do ‘night shots’. I think late dusk is usually a great time. This is when there is just a bit of light left in the sky after sunset (or before sunrise for the early rising photographer). The advantage of shooting at this time is less large areas of black in the image, this cuts down on excessive contrast and adds more colour to the image. The residual daylight that is left will also ‘fill in’ the large shaded areas that are not lit by artificial lighting. But this does not mean that all night shots should be taken at dusk. There are certain subjects and night photography techniques that are more successful when practised in total darkness at night.

Now, in the “old days”, there were issues regarding film that made it more difficult to get good night exposures as we could not see the final image. But this is not the case with present day dSLR cameras. However, the problem with dSLRs and using them for night photography is that the higher film speed or ISO you take, the chances the noise your device will make increase. The only way out is the traditional solution – to practise.

An important factor in night photography is how the lighting is portrayed in the scene. When portraying rows of street lighting for example, the direct light source itself is being photographed, therefore the lighting being exposed is very bright. An image of a floodlit building on the other hand is an image exposed by reflected light. This naturally is much weaker and would need a much longer exposure.

With extremely low light levels, moving subjects such as people walking will not register in the image so long as there is very little light shining upon them. Cars are a good example of using this technique. With long shutter speeds and moving cars, the headlights and taillights will register as streaks. The cars themselves will not register on the image.

Some reminders:

• Use the self timer or a cable release.
• Also try not using your flash unless your subject is within 10 meters of your range.
• Learn your camera like the back of your hand to mix and match your shots. And remember to use a camera with a high ISO for night shots (like from 3200 onwards)
• Try using a tripod for added stability since night shots require a bigger aperture and slow shutter speed
• Click more pictures of the same subject from different angles, settings, and perspectives.
• And most importantly, visualise your picture before you click it

Twilight photography may seem decently challenging but the final product is exhilarating to say the least. Happy shooting.