Information for Instructors

Ordering Info

If you are considering use of this book as a course textbook you may request a complementary inspection copy from the publsiher.

To place an order of multiple copies of Experimental Filmmaking and the Motion Picture Camera for your workshop or filmmaking organization you may contact orders@taylorandfrancis.com (corporate and professional sales).

Overview

The book is intended to be used during the academic term to introduce basic filmmaking, including the use of the Bolex camera, for an experimental film production course. The order of chapters is designed with this in mind:

Chapters 1-3 covering the basics of the camera (the mechanism, exposure, lenses).

Chapter 4 getting into more complex techniques (double exposure and matte shots).

Chapter 5 preparing students to go out and shoot their projects with the Bolex.

Chapter 6 giving students ideas for things to shoot with a single roll of film.

Chapters 7 and 8 giving students more food for thought as they are completing their projects, as well as looking at "what comes next" after the introductory course has concluded.

Assigned reading for a 15-week semester

Week 1: Students purchase the textbook.

Week 2: Read Chapter 1: The camera.

Week 3: Read Chapter 2: Time and exposure.

Week 4: Read Chapter 3: Lenses.

Week 5: Students do class shoot to apply what they have read: Working with the camera, single frame time-lapse (etc), optical experiments.

Week 6: View class shoot footage. Read Chapter 4: Double exposure and matte shots.

Week 7: Students do class shoot using double exposure and matte shots.

Week 8: View class shoot. Read Chapter 5: The Bolex.

Week 9: Read Chapter 6: Camera-roll film.

Week 10: Students work on their projects.

Week 11: Students work on their projects. Read Chapter 7: Sync sound and experimental cameras.

Week 12: Students work on their projects.

Week 13: Students work on their projects. Read Chapter 8: Diary film and film portrait.

Week 14: Students work on their projects.

Week 15: Screening of student films.

Quiz bonus points: hidden haiku

Haiku have been in the text of this textbook, which may be used as a means of ascertaining if students have been keeping up with the assigned reading. The premise is something akin to the "Easter eggs" hidden in video games, software, movies, and other media.

Here is an example from the Introduction: " just a camera, a light meter, a film roll, that’s all that’s needed." It's more recognizable as a haiku, when written as:

As the semester progresses may ask your students if they have found any of the other hidden haiku in the text for quiz bonus points as a way to encourage students to keep up with the reading.