DIRK’S FILM SCHOOL: PRE-SOLD SOURCES
Cinema has always had a dependence on other media for its content. This is driven by it’s need to find a ready made audience, as much as for creative purposes. […]
Category Archives: Dirk’s Film School
DIRK’S FILM SCHOOL: THE DREAM PALACES
SEMINAR NOTES Film has had a long association with the idea of ‘dreams’. American anthropologist Hortense Powdermaker coined the phrase ‘The Dream Factory’ to describe the film studios. A. Spenser […]
Dirk’s Five: The Art of Noise!
Back to school! Before the Summer Holidays I set an assignment for the students of Dirk’s Film School. It seems a long time ago now, but I asked the collective […]
DIRK’S FILM SCHOOL: SOUND
SEMINAR NOTES Good morning, Mr Edison, glad to see you back. Hope you like the KINETOPHONE. To show you the synchronisation, I will lift my hand to count to ten. […]
DIRK’S FILM SCHOOL: TRACKING SHOT
SEMINAR NOTES Tracking shots typically involve moving the camera on a platform running on tracks, towards a subject or away from it or from side-to-side. R.W. Paul devised panning and […]
DIRK’S FILM SCHOOL: FEATURE FILM (Part Two)
PROF DOM-DIRK RECOMMENDS One hundred years ago this year the feature film came in to it’s own when the Italian’s got there first with the epic “Cabiria”, a year later […]
DIRK’S FILM SCHOOL: FEATURE FILM (Part One)
SEMINAR NOTES The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of a human bladder – Alfred Hitchcock It was the development of the ‘Latham Loop’ that […]
DIRK’S FILM SCHOOL: THE CHASE SEQUENCE
SEMINAR NOTES When G.A.Smith remade the Louis Lumiere’s L’ARROSEUR ARROSÉ (1895) as THE PRACTICAL JOKE (1998) he gave more prominence to the chase of the young boy who douses the […]
DIRK’S FILMSCHOOL: POINT OF VIEW
SEMINAR NOTES Point-of-view shots are similar to the close up as they are a means of representing character subjectivity. Film-makers use Point of View so that the camera as a […]
Dirk’s Film School: The Close-Up
SEMINAR NOTES Arguably film form is composed of two essential building blocks – The Shot and The Cut – when assembled, the combination of the shot and the cut create […]
The Dirk Malcolm Alternative 