A Guide to the Edinburgh Film FSP Advisor: Professor Mary Flanagan Edinburgh, Scotland Summer 2014 Originally By Alex Stockton 15, revised by Professor Flanagan for the 2014 FSP
Dear FSP-ers, You are about to embark on the journey of a lifetime. You ll see so many movies that you either never want to see one again or you have withdrawal. You ll spend so much money that every one of your friends and their second cousins will get a Scottish keychain, or so little money that when you come back home you ll wish you hadn t been frugal about the haggis and Irn Bru. You ll travel so much that you get to see all of the European Union, several whiskey breweries, and the Scottish Highlands, but you might forget to do something like visit the Edinburgh Castle. And you ll come back home speaking with a Scottish accent! Okay, maybe all of this isn t true, but trust me, it is going to be one of the greatest, most formative and fun experiences that you ll ever have in your life. You ll figure out everything as you go along, but this guide started as a little thing I put together from my experience on the 2012 FSP. You ll have a different schedule and might be living in a different place, but this will give you an idea of what you will experience. It also contains a few things that I wish I knew, tips on how to learn a lot, have a ton of fun, and come back home safely. As Merida says in Brave: If you had a chance to change your fate, would you? By going on this FSP, you have taken the first steps toward all the goals you have ever wanted to achieve. Cheers! Alex Stockton 15 Edinburgh Film FSP 2012 Assistant to the Film & Media Studies Department Dartmouth College
Screen Academy Scotland Classes will be held at Screen Academy Scotland, 2A Merchiston Avenue. The Screen Academy is a famous Scottish film school within Edinburgh Napier University. Lynne Ramsay is a Napier alum, Tilda Swinton has an honorary degree, and Sean Connery, Brian Cox, and Judi Dench are patrons of the Screen Academy. Students from the Screen Academy are from all around the world and many have gone on to win BAFTAs. The Screen Academy has several studios, editing bays equipped with FCP and AVID and optimized for color correction, a sound mixing and foley studio, and a huge equipment room. While your classes will not require you to use all of this, the faculty members at the Screen Academy are very willing to show you anything you are interested in. In your small classes of only Dartmouth students, you will learn the entire professional workflow, from conception of an idea to public screening. And the Screen Academy offers the best facilities, professionals, and equipment to help you do so. Classes FS48 Media Festivals Professor Mary Flanagan, Dartmouth College FS39 Digital Cinematography in 2012, taught by Professor Julian Schwanitz, Screen Academy Scotland (http://www.julianschwanitz.com/dop/home.html) FS36 Music Video Production in 2012, taught by Abby Warrilow and Lewis Gourlay, Cagoule Productions (http://cargocollective.com/cagoule)
Living A. Hermits Croft Address: Hermits Croft B. Warrender Park Crescent Address: 24 Warrender Park Crescent Students will explore two neighborhoods during their stay. Students will stay at Hermits Croft (near by the University of Edinburgh, very close to Edinburgh landmark Arthur s Seat) from June 13-July 4 and then move July 4 to Warrender Park Crescent, closer to the Screen Academy (C on the map) for the remainder of the term. Both are apartment style houses: One Room per Person Four People per Kitchen Two People per Bathroom Free WiFi, Laundry Down the Hall Pics from Warrender Park Crescent neighborhood, offering paid Printing a block away (across from Efe s) Tesco (Groceries) Efe s (Scottish EBA s)
Money: $4000 is approximately 2500 Alex advises: If you want to be conscious of your money but not always worrying about it, that is the amount you should bring. Make a budget and only withdraw that amount from your bank account every week. Beware of internatinoal transaction fees! FS47 Media Festivals Film festivals have recently become what one Toronto festival programmer calls an alternative distribution network. Invented in Europe in the 1930s, film festivals are a worldwide phenomenon encompassing tourism, cultural nationalism, are, and commerce. Increasingly, students are Students will explore case studies of individual film festivals, such as Cannes, Sundance, Telluride, and others, with a special emphasis on the Edinburgh International Film Festival, which we will attend for several weeks of the term. Dist: ART, INT. This will be the greatest film studies class you take at Dartmouth. Every other week, you will have a guest lecturer (critics, academics, filmmakers, festival programmers, the head of EIFF). You will have classes at coffee shops, in movie theaters, in film studios. You will be reading about film festivals from around the world and watching movies that played at them. And you get to choose what to write about. I wrote a paper on the Romanian New Wave and Japanese cinema at EIFF. Another student wrote about Cannes film festival. A third wrote about falling asleep in movie theaters! Films Screened 2012 Trainspotting (Boyle, 1996) The French Connection (Friedkin, 1971) - Filmhouse, Q&A with Friedkin Killer Joe (Friedkin, 2012) - Festival Theater (Opening Night) Leave it on the Track (Pascoe, 2012) - Filmhouse, Q&A with Pascoe Tahrir: Liberation Square (Savana, 2012) - Cineworld Brave (Andrews, 2012) - Festival Theater (Closing Night) The Story of Film (Cousins, 2011) Red Sorghum (Yimou, 1987) Halfaouine: Child of the Terraces (Boughedir, 1990) Sex, Lies, and Videotape (Soderbergh, 1989) The Gleaners and I (Varda, 2000) The Illusionist (Chomet, 2010) Official Rejection (Osborne, 2009) Guest Speakers 2012 Matt Lloyd (director of Glasgow shorts festival) Gerry Peary (Boston Phoenix film critic) - Filmhouse Cafe Film Festivals in the Digital Age Panel - Filmhouse Mark Cousins (former EIFF director) Chris Fujiwara (EIFF director) Diane Henderson (EIFF associate director) Dina Iordanova (chair Film Studies at St. Andrews
Edinburgh International Film Festival As part of your Media Festivals course, you will be attending the EIFF2014 (see: http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk). It is a special year for the film festival as last year was considered a low point in the history of the festival but critics are saying this year s festival is going to place it back on top as the festival of discovery. Navigate your way through the guidebooks, attend the galas and the mixers, meet famous people and walk down the red carpet, wake up early to catch an industry screening, stay up late for a midnight movie, and walk into some movies that you know absolutely nothing about; get ready for the biggest immersion in movies you ve ever had in your life! (see below for a pic of Alex!)
FS 39 Digital Cinematography The goal of this class is to teach students the practice of cinematography in the digital medium. It will offer a hands-on intensive investigation of the aesthetics and techniques of digital imaging, using a variety of different cameras and formats. Working in groups and individually, students will explore controlling the look of a project by selection of aspect ratios, lenses, focus, exposure, filters, lighting, and composition as well as gathering a comprehensive understanding of lighting techniques for film and television. A deep technical understanding of an area of study is often lost at a liberal arts school. This course will bridge that gap. A theoretical assignment will have you analyze a scene in extreme detail. A camera assignment will have you explore different techniques, trying to create emotions with only images. A lighting assignment will show you how the professionals do it by getting you to recreate famous movie shots. And a final assignment will put it all together into one sequence shot. In the class workshops, you will develop a technical understanding of the equipment. And through analyzing clips of beautiful films, the professor (an amazing BAFTA-winning cinematographer) will show you how to make art with all the equipment. Equipment Utilized/Topics Covered The Job of the Cinematographer Members of the Crew Exposure, Focus, Depth of Field, Focal Length HD vs SD, Frame Rate HDV Cameras (Sony V1) Setup, Pan, Tilt, White Balance, Focus Pulling Codecs, Filters, Shot Construction Canon 5D MkII, Sony EX3 Sequence Shots Tracking 3 Point Lighting, Available Light Reconstruction, Creative Lighting Documentary Cinematography Workflow, Color Grading Practicals, Lighting Professional Cinematography (Sony F900, Arri Alexa)
FS36 Music Video Production Students will develop and produce music videos with Edinburgh bands. Working in groups, students will carry out music video scripting, creative story boarding, shot breakdown, practical pre-production, on-location shooting, and post-production of music videos. At the end of the course, there will be a public screening of the music videos, which will subsequently be released by the bands. In this course, students will undergo the regular schedule and work conditions/layout of professional music video production.
Adventures Another great part of being on an FSP is that you get to travel! Take a day trip to Glasgow, go on a tour of the Highlands, see a concert at St. Andrews, or get out of the country to see the London Olympics, English Countryside, or Europe. Let s not forget the amazing city you will be living in: Edinburgh has enough sites to keep you busy. Use your weekends to see the Edinburgh castle, shop on Prince s street, take a walk down to Leith, visit Rosslyn Chapel, hike up King Arthur s seat, listen to music at the Jazz Bar, or see a movie at the Cameo or Filmhouse. Let s not forget one of the greatest parts of being in Edinburgh! Every August, the city turns into a giant party for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The population of the city doubles, streets turn into theater stages, parks turn into bars, and an already lively city becomes a huge celebration of culture and the arts. Catch one of the 2000 plays, see a comedy show, go to the book festival, or go to a concert. Scotland, Great Britain, and Europe are sure to provide you with an adventure.
Good luck FSP 2014 Students! Have a great trip! Don t forget to call your parents! And say hello to Hamish, the hairy Highland coo!