Behind The Short: Composition, Rule of Thirds and Building a Sequence

This is Episode 1 of our new tutorial series, aimed at exploring the complex world of meshing visual art, moving pictures and story telling. We go practical and simply show you how we put together our previous Youtube short which was originally created to compliment this tutorial.

We go over basic cinematic composition, rule of thirds, the importance of matching eyelines between two characters and how to build a short sequence. We show you all main shot types that most directors use when constructing a scene. We then go into a shot by shot breakdown of our latest short film My Bloody Valentine, explaining why we chose to use one shot type versus another based on the emotional tone of the scene - the latter being a crucial part of the story telling process.

Contest (Ends April 1st, 2011):
Win James Cameron's Avatar 3 Disc Special Edition on Blu-Ray! We want you edit your own version of this short film and be as creative as you possibly can with it. We are providing you with a project file containing all the raw footage. Everything is of course properly categorized. This is a Final Cut Pro 7 project file, but if you use any other editing software you can still use the raw files (ProRes 422 files). Please note you will have to insert your own sound effects, background music and special effects. Like we said, be really creative!

Download All Raw Footage Here:
http://bit.ly/HBIncEp1Assets

Send us your submission as a video response, we will choose a winner after April 1st and of course feature the coolest ones on an upcoming video. Remember you need to rate, comment, favorite this video and subscribe to us in order to be eligible!

You can check out the original short here:

My Bloody Valentine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENHLPWQC5EI

Watch some great examples of shorts we've made that make use of all the tips we've given you:

Girl Meets Boy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS4RXovIgW0

When We Were Kids
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05yAWjNmEyY

Check out all our other videos:
http://www.youtube.com/hollywoodbubbleinc

Join us on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/hollywoodbubbleinc

We're on Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/hollywoodbubble

Our other channel:
http://www.youtube.com/thefast60

Thanks for checking us out, please consider subscribing if you haven't already! One new video every week!

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• filmmaking tips
• filmmaking
• tips
• tricks
• DIY
• shot composition
• filmmaking for beginners
• beginners
• rule of thirds
• how to film
• build a sequence
• directing tips
• film school basics
• film shots
• basic film techniques
• camera angles
• film tutorial
• how to make a film
• independent short film
• story telling
• matching eyeline
• cinematography
• visual effects
• tips and tricks
• moviemaking
• final cut pro
• editing video
• hollywood bubble inc

[HollywoodBubbleInc]

Hey guys, today is the last day to submit your contest entries! We will contact the winner by April 2nd, and we'll feature the winning submission on our next Behind the Short. Thanks to everyone who has submitted!

[s1ckArt]

When are the results?:)

[HollywoodBubbleInc]

@s1ckArt We will E-mail the winner tomorrow.

[BlademasterFox365]

I would enter the competition, but I got that Avatar DVD anyway, but I might just do this for the hell of it, not for the prize XD

[HollywoodBubbleInc]

@BlademasterFox365 Somebody else already brought this up. You can still enter, we'll give you another box set of your choice of equal value :) so you should def. still enter the contest....

[tab6812]

thanks for the great information, these are great tips and easy to understand and follow, ty so much, peace

[HollywoodBubbleInc]

@tab6812 thanks for the comment, and thanks for subscribing. make sure you favorite and like our video too :) we're actually finishing up the post production on the next action short titled "Femme Fatality" and we will follow that up with our next tutorial which will focus on sound design. Thanks so much!

[Dav7DB]

3:44 the camera should be on the other side of her.

[ClaysCoolCreations]

Its me!! A Mario!

[bazza13579]

Did anyone notice that this scene has multiple "line-crossings" of the 180 degree rule? The line is drawn from above, between the two actors. The medium and close ups are all on one side of the line, but the establishing shot and the wide gun-firing shots are on the other side of the line.

[Oyotunji]

Great hep guys.

[DestroyerAlexandros]

The guy who gets shot looks like David Arquette.

[anon94707]

that was freakin' awesome AND helpful. Thanks- I subbed!!!

[tkmallik86]

awesome.