This week I attended a masterclass with DSLR-video guru Philip Bloom in Oslo. Bloom has quickly become the go-to-guy when it comes to Canon’s excellent HD-DSLRs with 1080p video. The buzz is mainly over the 5DmkII and the 7D models – with the 5D already being used in big professional productions.

Bloom took a very concrete and practical approach to the subject. He took us through the DSLR workflow, and presented solutions to the various problems you could bump into – like rolling shutter and moire. The masterclass was held in an excellent movie theatre complete with a 4k projector, so Bloom spiced his lecture with several videoclips. We saw a couple of minutes of the much dicussed season finale of House, that was shot on three 5DmkII cameras, as well as a handful of Philips own short films, also available on his website.

How did these cameras perform on the big screen?

Amazingly well!

Undoubtedly the next generation of Canon HDSLRs will see further progress in video capabilities. In many ways we’re witnessing a video revolution here – and not surprisingly some grumpy naysayers are unhappy with the changes. How somebody can manage to be unhappy with small and relatively affordable cameras with excellent video capabilities, I really can’t explain. Of course the DSLRs aren’t perfect and still have issues with audio, codecs, bad HDMI-out, and so on. But it’s just plain stupid to focus on the small problems when the opportunities are so amazing.

Here’s an interview that NRKbeta did with Philip Bloom in Oslo this week:

NRKbeta interview and article on Philip Bloom (in Norwegian).

The Wire was a real gamechanger for the TV show genre. The show´s creator David Simon chose narrative structures and strategies that owe more to classic novelists like Charles Dickens and Honoré de Balzac than any TV show or film ever seen. After five excellent seasons from the gritty streets of Baltimore, Simon wrote and produced the mini series Generation Kill, using the same unique approach to storytelling. His latest effort is set in New Orleans, three months after Hurricane Katrina, and is titled Treme.

The two most important attributes for a film critic are knowledge and passion. Pål Bang-Hansen is possibly the greatest film critic Norway ever fostered, and a perfect example of both. Now he has passed away.

The previous screenplay we wrote, Nidarholm, didn´t demand much research. It´s a horror/suspense story taking place in the present, and the setting was our home city. So apart from a few guided tours at Munkholmen, and reading up on autopsy procedures and the excorcism ritual, it was mostly about writing the scenes and getting the script done.

This time around, research is much more important. We´re writing a historical saga based on actual events and people  that lived a thousand years ago. I started out reading some introductory books on the subject, and quickly realized that I had to get structured and organized in my research. Here are some tips and thoughts on doing research for a screenplay.

1. Schedule it
The first thing you need to do is to actually commit to a research period. Just randomly reading some wikipedia articles for five minutes does not constitute serious research. As with all other writing processes I strongly recommend that you set up a deadline and make a plan, complete with goals. What do you need to achieve with your research? Write it all down, or else it doesn´t really exist.

2. Have a system
Every writing project should have a separate folder on your computer. Make a subfolder called Research, and if the subject is huge, make further subfolders to stay organized. Collect everything relevant in this folder: text documents, images from flickr or other sites, music, sounds, maps and so on. Paper is not obsolete yet, so keep a ring binder for hardcopies. Take notes and keep them tidy.

3. Keep track of the sources
Make sure that you note the sources of your information. That way you avoid being confused by your own notes later on. “Really? Where the hell did I find that weird claim? Damn it, I gotta start keeping track of my sources!” Also, gather all your sources alphabetically in a bibliography. You´ll regret it if you don´t.

4. Wikipedia is ok
Wikipedia is a great starting point, but is often useless as a primary source. Use the wikis to gather names and titles for further reading and research.

5. Ask the experts
See if you can find an expert in the field you´re researching in your area. Ask politely if you can meet up with them and ask them some questions, and chances are they´ll be very helpful. Be prepared with a list of good questions. Take notes, or tape your conversation, if that´s okay with your expert.

6. Search the web
A lot of good info can be found online, but in many ways this is more difficult than trawling books and interviewing experts. Firstly a good deal of what you find online is rubbish, so it´s harder to separate the wheat from the chaff. And secondly, how do you gather and organize the sites and articles you find? I recommend using two pieces of free software that are great for online research. The first is called Read It Later, and lets you quickly store links and articles so you can read them later. The other is called Zotero, and functions as an all-in-one research tool that can be used as a plugin for Firefox.

7. Use the library
I often look for a book that can be a starting point for my research. Then I just find out which shelf it´s on and trust that Dewey´s decimal system can find some further reading for me on the same shelf.

8. Know when it´s enough already
Your research is a tool to make your screenplay as good as it can be. The actual writing of the scenes, dialogue and characters is what really matters, and good research is just preparation for that.

I have spent much of the week desperately trying to plot a heroic journey across the North Atlantic, based on widely differing source materials. Memo to self: draw before you write.

And it is certainly better to deal with logistical challenges (who does what where and when?) early in the process, than saving them for the final draft, as me and Pål learned on our previous script Nidarholm.

Our local cinema centers are finally going completely digital. The work to convert every single one of the theaters in Trondheim starts in March, and about half of them will be fitted for 3D projection as well.

I’m thrilled! Let’s keep the cinema clubs for celluloid, nostalgia and the old indie vibe. Let’s leap into the digital age with our commercial cinemas. With Avatar pointing to the ideal future of cinema technology, the digital projection (2D and 3D) is what people will be happy to pay for.

I saw The Road the other day. The film itself left much to be desired, and the celluloid print was a joke. Patchy and uneven colours, a less than satisfying sound reproduction (although that might be down to the terrible score…), in a theater perfectly capable of flawless digital projections.

A decade ago people ridiculed George Lucas for filming Star Wars on digital cameras. I liked his reply: When people ask me if the time is right for this, I say we should have been doing it 20 years ago.

Amen. Let’s go!

You have all seen Raiders of the Lost Ark. There’s a sequence where Indiana Jones has lowered himself into the Map Room in the desert, and he has placed the staff of Ra in the right position. He’s waiting for the sun to align itself with the medallion at the staff’s head and show him the location of the Well of Souls, resting place of the Ark of the Covenant. Harrison Ford’s face displays intense excitement and emotion as the sunbeam edges closer to the mark, and finally ignites the secret location. How did Steven Spielberg direct Ford in the scene? By music.

Spielberg often used a boom blaster to direct scenes in this movie. In the case of the Map Room he had selected a piece of classical music that composer John Williams would later mimic in his original score. The piece articulated the emotional experience Spielberg wanted the character and the audience to have at that point, so he simply told Ford to react to the music and not think about it.

Other directors are known to use music on set. Peter Weir certainly comes to mind. It can help the performances, and lessen the need for rationalizing characters and action. But it can also be a useful tool in writing. Personally, I rarely write without music. The challenge is to find background music that fits the story, the characters, and maybe in particular the emotional experience you hope to create for the reader/viewer.

When Pål and I worked on the latest draft of Nidarholm (Norwegian pdf available in the downloads section), I found help in Elliot Goldenthal’s score for Alien3. On our current project I am still trying to figure out what might spur me on, although I often return to John Williams and Vangelis.

The quest continues.

Challenges are always fun. And writing under pressure can really feed your creativity. So how about trying to write a 100-page screenplay in one month?

This is the challenge extended by the people behind Script Frenzy. There are no prizes or awards other than feeling good, and getting a lot of writing done. The fun of it is in registering on the site, keeping track of your page count and participating on the Script Frenzy forums.

The whole idea is of course just having fun. The odds of any of the participants coming up with the script for the next Oscar-winner or Spielberg´s next blockbuster are slim to none. But that doesn´t matter. Writing lots of material in a short burst is a great way to kick up your productivity – you´ll learn and grow as a writer.

The challenge starts April 1st, and all the details plus a nice library of writer´s resources can be found on the Script Frenzy site. Am I participating? Sadly, no. I´ll be polishing my short documentary opening on April 15th. But I´m seriously considering going into a writing frenzy on my own come May or June.

And if you don´t have a story to write, no worries, just check out Script Frenzy´s own Plot Machine. My randomly generated plot came out like this:

After waiting in line for a Wii

the cast of Riverdance

tries to break into pro Sumo wrestling