Film Ties: A Web-based Virtual 3D Lab for Teaching the Film Art from Script to Blocking

Abstract

Film production education programs include hands-on training in script writing, planning blocking of performers and cameras on set, camera operation, editing to select the best footage at each beat of the story, and expert critiques to help students improve their work. Unfortunately, this ideal form of active, hands-on learning for film production requires access to specialized equipment, movie sets, and expert film instructors. Complementary film studies education programs teach how to read the visual language of a film to breakdown each shot to understand how and why it works. Both film production and theory education involve a social component in which students collectively screen, critique, and breakdown shots seen in the films. This short paper presents work in progress to develop a Web-based virtual 3D lab, which can be used to simulate the central learning activities found in film production and film studies educational programs. The system can also be used to crowd source annotated corpora of film, which would serve as a resource for film scholars and machine-learning algorithms.