Videography for the Designer

This course will focus on the visual language composed of a sequence of moving images on a timeline, and consider the meanings and messages implied thereof. Students will take on during the course the process of creating a moving images sequence, i.e. a movie, learning how to translate an idea, whether storylike or a visual concept, into the visual language that may best convey the meaning and messages they visualized. This process, of an incipient idea which gets transformed eventually into a sequence of images on a timeline, consists of various staged which will be covered during the course, starting from the planning stage, script, references, storyboard and the shooting day itself, through to off line editing and the different options at the post production final stage. The course's basic concept is looking at the single frame as a unit consisting of all the visual components we employ in order to achieve the look and feel we are after. The camera and post-production options, will enable the students to develop a wide visual perspective, in which designing the frame gives a visual basis of a definite language, on which we can construct multiple layers to enrich our contents. In this course, students will learn to use the tools of the trade in photography, videography and lighting, to enable them to achieve full control over the design and creation of the image they envisage. Development of technical skills is intended to give the students better control over the technology, instead of the technology controlling them. But technology is by no means at the core of the course. Instead, the highlight of this course is about the place where we, as image creators, design the frame to make it best express visually the message that we want to communicate. This course is ultimately intended to develop the student's a visual thinking and perception and give him or her quick ability to transform an idea into a visual sequence of substance and meaning. We will develop a skillful "eye" with a capacity to diagnose and analyze the frame and identify its constructing elements, including the filmic language, the look and feel, and the materials with which the frame interacts with the world.