Teaching (and earning) the Cinematography Merit Badge
Once upon a time in December, Devin Linn brought the idea upon me to teach the Cinematography Merit Badge. He said in the process we could make ourselves somewhat of a "promotional movie" to show incoming Cubscouts how cool our Troop is and that they should join. After thinking about what a great idea this would be, I thought, "but do I even have that Merit Badge?"
Well, the answer is no.
But I thought that I might as well teach it as I know a lot about making movies (as most of you readers know, I made a Troop 511 2 Boundary Waters movie, which was a best-selling hit among all ages). You can find the requirements in the Cinematography merit badge book (try typing C-i-n-e-m-a-t-o-g-r-a-p-h-y really fast) or here at the Merit Badge Worksheet website. If you are planning on earning this badge with me, please print off a copy and bring it with you to 7B Ranch (our next campout). Right now I'm going to go over some requirements the best that I can so that you can read and learn a little:
1. EXPLAIN AND DEMONSTRATE THE PROPER ELEMENTS OF A GOOD MOTION-PICTURE:
Visual Storytelling: If a film is viewed visually, then you are going to want to tell it visually. You don't want to stay at one shot of an old person recalling events from the 1920's for 30 minutes and not have any additional footage (unless you want to lose audience members). In our case we would show what we do on a campout instead of just telling about it.
Rhythm: You would get extremely bored with a film that dragged on for 2 hours that had a very slow pace and slow speech, just like you would be annoyed by such a fast paced, loud music, flashy image film. Rhythm is important because you do want to offer some variety in the way that you present your material. In our case, we want to show the important, strong things about our troop and all of the work that gets done, but then we want to show all of the fun things we do in our spare time.
The 180-degree Axis rule: (check back with me later on that one)
Framing and Composition of Camera Shots: I think that this requirement basically means that you should make you camera shots reasonable and make them so that they add to the film instead of take away from it. Since we won't be using multiple cameras, we won't need to worry about getting another camera in the shot. That would be something to avoid (come to think of it, if anyone else has a good-quality camera handy we COULD use multiple cameras). Also, you would usually want the shot to be on the person that is talking - not the ground - not the sky - or a tree deep in the timber. You could show a shot of another person if the current dialogue is discussing that individual.
Lens Selection: This doesn't really apply us with non-$10,000 cameras, but lenses change the quality, depth, and color of your video. You can put on a higher magnification lense for higher magnification (duh) and there are night lenses that you can put on (pretty much black lenses) that make the video appear that it has been shot at night. For our video, we can choose on the camera if we want widescreen or fullscreen, and other little effects, too.
Most other parts of this badge involve actually doing something (which we will do on our campout). This last part describes the people involved in a movie/film shoot.
4. Give a brief explanation of the following jobs that are related to film or video production:
Director: A director (as the name implies) pretty much runs the show. She tells (directs) the actors how to act and what they need to be doing (but in much more detail). A director also oversees what is going on budget, film, and progress wise. We can appoint someone in our troop to be this director.
Producer: A producer is kind of the mother of filmmaking. This person finds the script, a director, and makes sure that all of the financial affairs are in order. We probably won't need a producer for our group but it is optional.
Cinematographer: A cinematographer is the chief of filming. He/she oversees what is going on filmwise, makes sure that the storyboard is in order, makes sure the cameras are set properly, etc. We should appoint someone for this position in our troop.
Key Grip: A key grip is a persion who is in charge of arranging cameras and opperating camera dollies and cranes. This appoinment is optional.
Gaffer: A gaffer is in charge of electrical matters of production. He sets all of the lights up and positions them where they are needed. Since we won't be using additional lights, we don't need to have a gaffer.
Best Boy: A best boy is second in command to a Key Grip or a Gaffer. He assists in the same routines and carries out jobs.
Assistant Camera Operator: Just like it sounds, this person helps with operating the camera - moves cords, clears paths, other little jobs that are handy to have done when filming.
That is about all for now. If you want some more help on job descriptions, visit this site for more info.