An interview with the author of the best-selling filmmaking book, Master Shots.
Jim Jarmusch was quoted as saying, “Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery – celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to.”
Christopher Kenworthy was listening. Chris has fueled our inspiration with his first three books called “Master Shots”. Volume 1 gave us “100 Advanced Camera Techniques”. Volume 2 gave us “100 Ways to Creatively Shoot Dialogue Scenes”. Volume 3 entitled, “The Directors Vision”, gave us 100 ways to stylize our movie.
These books act as a compilation of master shots that you can re-create on a small indie film budget. They are illustrated with either stills from a film that highlight the use of the shot or with 3D graphic diagrams showing the blocking of the shot.
Included are the technical details on how each shot is set up, the focal length of lenses used, and the emotion that the shot should imprint upon the audience.
Now, Chris has added three new e-books that have been brought to life by adding the use of video. They each employ the simple but fantastically effective ability to integrate both notes and highlights, fusing together the best elements of traditional books with video to reenforcing each concept.
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Master Shots Action
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Master Shots Suspense
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Master Shots Story
This intelligent filmmaker’s bible leads you through the setup of each shot. As filmmakers, we’ve all seen shots that we love and want to re-create in our own films. We want to create our own masterpieceby putting our own spin on these shots.. With these books, Chris has given us the ammunition to be able to do just that.??
I spoke to Chris and we chatted about a variety of topics.
Al:?Your first books were such a success. When did you get the idea to expand them to this new e-book format?
Chris:?It began as soon as the original Master Shots came out.?I had people writing to me saying, Can you do video clips illustrating these? And initially my reaction was to say no because that’s not the best way to learn. The best way to learn is to visualize these things yourselves. But I found over the years that people just need a little nudge to see concepts in action. I never wanted to do a DVD you send out with the books-it’s just too complicated and it seems very old-fashioned now.E-books that contain the video seemed like the way to go. We spent two years thinking about what form of e-book would work. So that’s how we came up with it, just a lot of talking backwards and forwards and accumulating material over two years.
Al:?It is a fantastic concept! I’ve used your books in some of my classes that I’ve taught to illustrate the shot technique. The students love them because it gives them a great way to understand what’s happening. They felt more secure picking up a camera and shooting after that.
Chris:?Yes and there really is no substitute for getting out there with your own camera. Even if you’ve got the most basic camera in the world, and you’re just walking through each shot and seeing how it works.
But there is this lovely thing about being able to read, “Click here,” and you can see the video in action illustrating a concept and you say, “Ah, ok.” Once you’ve seen a few of them it makes it much easier to decode the rest. So, if you’ve read the e-books then go to the print books now the 300 shots make a lot more sense than they would have before. It was also really a good way for me to test it out (the concept). I spent five years making the three Master Shots books and I thought, all right, I really get to see whether the shots work the way I said they’d work.
I shot 75 of them and I did learn along the way.I managed to put some of what I learned in the voice-overs that go with the video, to expand upon what’s in the print books.
Al:?Did you start out as a Filmmaker or Writer??Which came first to you?
Chris:?I was a writer from way back. Back in 1989 I became a full-time writer and I did that right through until 2000. I still write, but in 2000 I started making films.?When I was writing my last novel, which was called “Quality of Light,” I was obsessed with light all the way through it. I kept thinking as I was writing, imagine how this would be shot and where the camera would go. I thought,if I’m that obsessed by how it would be filmed maybe I should be filming things.
Around that time, equipment was just becoming that much cheaper and more usable and available. You could finish a film with your desktop. Couple of years before that, you could not do it very easily. So I thought, well, now I’m trying and then that was that.
Al:?Now I’ve heard that you and I have something else in common. You like small crews and as I’d like to call it, you like to be “chief cook and bottle washer” all at the same time?
Chris:?Yes. Sometimes it is because there’s no option. Budget sometimes is so tight that you end up carrying the camera and doing everything else. I have said on my last project, I’m not carrying a dolly onto set ever again! It is not my job. (laughs)
And then I have had it where it was full crew-you know, where I don’t have to do anything. I’ve had the luxury of a driver taking me to set. I only had that once. But even then I did like to choose the lens, instead of the cinematographer selecting it. I have a lot of input on the camera settings, in the lighting, and so yes I am very hands on. Well, “interfering” might be the word.
Al: Now I’m intrigued. I mean I’m based out of Bangkok, you’re based out in Perth. I’ve been to Perth a couple of times and it’s a beautiful area. Very, very peaceful, very quiet but kind of not where you would think of, for someone who is doing what you’re doing. If you’re planning to visit, you can’t forget to get a 4×4 rental in Perth to complete the experience and explore the country. What is it about Perth that draws you to it?
Chris:?Well on the positive side I do love the light here. It is so glaringly intense that you have to put up scrims and work very hard not to have everyone squinting, but at the right time of day, there is this incredibly clear light. It is like, imagine Hollywood on a day when the smoke is blowing away? It’s closer to that. I love the landscape, too. We have this flat area down to the ocean and then the small hills. But the truth is I’m only here because I can’t leave my kids here. I have to stay here and I can’t go anywhere else. And so I have to carve out an existence in a place where there is very, very small film industry. I mean it’s virtually non-existent but I do spend a lot of my time doing real commercial work. I geta a music video here and there and I do a lot of teaching. And just occasionally I get credit projects that make it worthwhile but when my kids grow up, if have energy left, I’ll go somewhere I can find more work within this industry.
Al:?I love the Asia Pacific region because there’s such a uniqueness about it in so many areas. So we’ve done some fantastic shooting in Mongolia and have been lucky enough to be able to travel around quite a bit.
Chris:?Yeah! That’s a great thing! Well one of the problems in Perth, I think, is it’s the most remote Western city in the world. We’re a long way from anything. On the other hand we’re not far from Singapore and there is a great film industry there so, it has not happened yet but I’ve often come close to just popping over there and shoot something. Hopefully I will work within that realm.
Al:?Okay so let’s go back to the “Master Shots” series. You started these, quite a while ago with the books. What was your original inspiration for it?
Chris:?Well I’d been reading a book about setting up shots, called “Setting up Your Shots,” which was published by Michael Wiese Productions.It was a good book! I liked it. But it was still a step back. It was very theoretical, and it wasn’t very clear what, as a filmmaker, you actually had to do, practically speaking. So I decided I would decode some of what I read in this book and watch more films with the sound off and see if I could work out what the cameras were doing. And what I found out was a vocabulary for film that has been around since cameras started moving. I’d been thinking about writing a book for a while, and here was the vocabulary I could share. And I picked out my favorite shots and just built and built from there. The idea is to build a site for people to look at a film, remember this moment of the film, and see that this is why that moment worked.
Al:?Whom do you see as the main users of your books? Is it professionals? Is it students?
Chris:?It’s funny because when I wrote it I was mentioning it could just be film schools and I think a lot of the buyers are film schools. But we have also found out that it’s been bought by a few well-known directors who asked not be named. They take the book onto set with them. A couple said to me, “Really don’t tell anyone but I have the book,” “I gotta check it out every time I need it,” so that’s a beautiful thing to hear. I’ve also seen certain shots from “Master Shots” on a couple of TV shows.
But the bulk of the buyers I think are people such as myself who probably didn’t go to film school and say, Okay, how do I get the shots working better? They say, I have shot a film and put all my heart and soul into it and it looks like rubbish. So what do I do to make it better because I am not that experienced? At times like this, it makes me regret my decision of not going to a film school. I wish we had the option of signing up for an online film school as I may have made a different decision altogether. But we didn’t, so I had to try my best to make sure that everything I did was done to the best of my ability. The first time you get out there you set everything on medium lens, extend, making distance from everything, your moves are arbitrary. Butthen when you realize that putting just a little bit of thought into it-which lens you choose, where you put the camera and how you move it, what height is that-you can drastically improve the way you tell a story just by a little careful positioning. I think that is a beautiful thing.
Al:?Absolutely! So tell me, have you actually used your own books since you’ve created them in your film making?
MORE about Chris’ future plans for Master Shots, his thoughts about 3D and finally, discover if he is going to pursue film making or writing! And more screenshots,too!