Week 1 - Introduction
Class Overview
- Equipment, Tools, Resources
- Journaling
- Class Slack channel
- Syllabus
- Q & A
- Terms
- Generative AI - GPT Plus, RunwayML, Midjourney
- Cinema and Signs Talk - Questions about the Medium
- Smartphone Cinema
- Watch Run Lola Run
- Assignment: One Day in 30 Seconds
Print Journal Practice (10% Participation)
In this course, I am introducing the use of a print journal or notebook. You are encouraged to use AI tools such as ChatGPT or Claude to develop ideas, learn techniques, brainstorm, and role-play story or develop story structure. The print journal is meant to protect a space for human creativity outside the computational environment. This journal is used in class and outside of class for sketching, diagramming, note-taking, outlining, and drafting. It is to record your own experiences, reflections and imagination, helping ensure that AI supports rather than replaces your creative thinking. I will not collect or read these journals, but class discussions and activities will assume that this work has been done. Participation credit (10%) reflects being prepared through consistent journaling.
Notes
Attendance and Late Work
- You must communicate with me, ideally on Slack, to arrange for the completion of late or missed work.
- If you are over 5 minutes late to class more than two times in a row, you will receive an absence. Class will start on time.
Equipment Loans
Contact: Greg Philbrook on Slack
Terms
- "Digital Cinema" and terms: cinema (the writing or recording of movement.), film, video, digital video, etc.
- Pre-production, Production, Post-production
- Frame > Shot > Scene > Sequence > Acts
- Framing: ECU, CU, MCU, MS, MLS, LS, ELS, WS, TS, OTS, POV
- Camera Position: HA, LA, EL, BEV, CA, GND, POV
- Continuity Editing
- Montage Editing
Tools and Resources
- Cameras and Equipment (smartphone, compact cameras, DSLR)
- Vimeo or YouTube Accounts
- Editing Software: Adobe Premiere
- Adobe Premiere:
AI Text Generation Tools (recommended)
- ChatGPT (GPT-5) — conversational AI for writing, brainstorming, learning, and critique
- Claude — large language model well suited for long-form writing, analysis, and reflection
- Gemini — multimodal AI for text, images, research, and creative exploration
AI Image / Video / Audio Generation & Compositing Tools (optional)
- MidJourney — image generation
- RunwayML — video, image generation, and AI background removal
- Flow — generative video workflows
- Sora — text-to-video generation
- Suno — AI music generation
- ElevenLabs — AI voice and speech synthesis
- VideoBGRemover — AI video background removal (no green screen required)
- VEED — one-click AI video background removal
- Canva Video Background Remover (Pro) — AI video background removal + editing tools
- Adobe Express Video Background Remover — AI background removal + creative editing
Premiere Pro AI Tools
- Auto Reframe — automatically reframes video for different aspect ratios while tracking subjects
- Generative Extend — extends video clips by generating new frames at beginning or end
- Text-Based Editing — transcribes video and allows editing by editing the transcript text
- Morph Cut — smooths jump cuts in interviews by interpolating between frames
- Color Match — matches color grade of one clip to another using AI
- Enhance Speech — one-click audio cleanup that removes noise and enhances dialogue clarity
- Generative Extend — extends clips to fill gaps or create holds in timeline
Firefly AI Tools
- Generative Video (Beta) — creates video clips from text prompts or generates special effects
- Generative Audio (Beta) — generates sound effects from text prompts and can transform recorded audio with creative variations
Audition AI Tools
- Enhanced Speech — professional dialogue cleanup removing reverb and background noise
- AI-Powered Noise Reduction — identifies and removes unwanted noise while preserving audio quality
Mobile Apps
- Filmic Pro (Android and iOS) http://www.filmicpro.com/
Cinema & Signs
"Cinema": The art or technique of making motion pictures.
Key Themes: realism/artifice, objectivity/subjectivity, intention/automatism.
Motion Capture
AI Cinema
Discussion Questions:
- What is digital cinema's relation to the real?
- How will the fake make us question the validity of all digital media?
- What solutions might preserve an authentic relationship between the real and cinema?
Watch Run Lola Run
Discussion:
Although Run Lola Run has a discontinuous style – made of many types of cinematic images, including color, black and white, animation, video and still shots – it is held together as a whole by following rules of continuity to keep the viewer oriented in the fragmented spaces and times.
- How does the movie retain narrative momentum despite all the time shifts?
- What narrative forces/desires drives the edits of shot to shot?
- In what ways is time “stretched” or “compressed” and how is the effect achieved?
One Day in 30 seconds (5%):
Assignment (Due in two weeks)
Submit to Canvas and Slack!
Using your smartphone in HORIZONTAL mode, record your experience of one day in short 2 to 5-second shots.
- Try to capture various types of images and sounds, in various shots positions (close-up, medium, long-shot) and in various locations (in your home, with friends, commute, job, errands, campus)
- Take lots of shots throughout the day and be willing to put only 30% these into the final video.
- See if you can make visual, auditory or even metaphorical connections from shot to shot. In other words, consider what your are framing in each shot. A coffee cup on a table? A shot of a sunset or sunrise? Moving quickly down a busy and crowded hall? A close-up of the screen showing a video game?
- With Premiere, edit shots into a 30-second video. Export with Format setting of .H264 and a preset of Youtube or Vimeo at 720p. Upload to YouTube or Vimeo and post to the blog.
This is an assignment to use a variety of framed shots (close-up, medium and long) to create a montage of one day in your life – morning to night – this week. You may use text if you like, but no music or voice over. Use only the sound you capture in the shot. Also, this is to be “first person” shooting, what you see around you, where you are. So no selfies, please. You can show parts of yourself, just no direct shots you of you staring at the camera.
* Please shoot all videos in this class in landscape or horizontal mode (like Youtube), NOT portrait/vertical mode (like Tik Tok)
** In Adobe Premiere, export your videos to .H264 format with a preset at 720p for YouTube or Vimeo. If you don't know what that means, I will go over this in class and you can upload then. But do export your 30 sec video in a format that you can bring to class!