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Digital Filmmaking

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Now there is no reason to prevent anybody from making a film. The technology exists, the equipment is much cheaper than it was, the post-production facilities are on a laptop computer, the entire equipment to make a film can go in a couple of cases and be carried as hand luggage on a plane. ―Mike Figgis

In this indispensable guide, Academy Award nominee Mike Figgis offers the reader a step-by-step tutorial in how to use digital filmmaking technology so as to get the very best from it. He outlines the equipment and its uses, and provides an authoritative guide to the shooting process―from working with actors to lighting, framing, and camera movement. He dispenses further wisdom on the editing process and the use of sound and music, all while establishing a sound aesthetic basis for the digital format.

Offering everything that you could wish to know on the subject, this is a handbook that will become an essential backpocket eference for the digital film enthusiast―whether your goal is to make no-budget movies or simply to put your video camera to more use than just holidays and weddings.

176 pages, Paperback

First published April 17, 2007

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About the author

Mike Figgis

25 books9 followers
With his roots in experimental theater and music, it is perhaps surprising that Kenyan-born writer-director Mike Figgis started out as such a conventional filmmaker, but his dissatisfaction with the Hollywood studio system eventually led to his true calling as one of the most innovative auteurs working in contemporary cinema. After studying music in London, he became a member of Gas Board, an English rhythm-and-blues band (which also featured a pre-fame Bryan Ferry), and later went on tour for nearly a decade with an experimental theater group The People Show first as a musician, then also as an actor. Undaunted by his unsuccessful application to London's National Film School, Figgis began writing and directing his own stage productions, visually striking works like "Redheugh", "Slow Fade" and "Animals of the City", which combined music with filmed segments and live performance. He developed "Slow Fade" into a one-hour piece ("The House") for Britain's Channel 4, capturing the attention of producer David Puttnam, for whom he wrote a treatment that would become his feature writing-directing debut, "Stormy Monday" (1988)". Although Puttnam would pass on the project, Figgis did finally get backing for his tale set in the seamy world of Newcastle jazz clubs. The atmospheric homage to Hollywood film noir featured a score by the director, who also persuaded B.B. King to record the title track, a career first for the great bluesman. His impressive American debut, "Internal Affairs" (1990), was a striking portrait of police corruption featuring powerhouse performances by a creepy silver-haired Richard Gere and a seething Andy Garcia. The studio demanded control over the music and chose two composers to help execute Figgis' vision, even though he had already done a temporary track to accompany the film. His follow up, "Liebestraum" (1991), made precious little sense--something about a 40-year-old sex scandal, corruption, and family madness--but had style to spare, and with Brit backing, he was able to write his own score, a more or less "wall-to-wall" affair, often almost inaudible but always a presence. Figgis then tangled with the studio and producers who insisted that "Mr. Jones" (1993), a change-of-pace romance with Gere as a manic depressive charmer who gets involved with his psychiatrist (Lena Olin), be more upbeat. "I thought it was a ludicrous idea," he told The New York Times (November 1, 1995). "Manic-depression isn't something to dismiss lightly." Once again a hired gun on the well-mounted, though stodgy remake of "The Browning Version" (1994), Figgis was at the creative center of his next project, "Leaving Las Vegas" (1995), and acquired foreign financing to protect the integrity of his noirish character study of an alcoholic, suicidal screenwriter (Nicolas Cage in an Oscar-winning turn) and his relationship with an abused prostitute (Elisabeth Shue). The actors and director took virtually no money, and Figgis began his love affair with the cheaper, grittier, "more impressionistic" Super 16 film (later blown up to 35 mm) normally used in documentaries, perfectly capturing the seamy trappings of the powerful love story. He also composed the score, and Sting, who had starred in "Stormy Monday", volunteered to sing on the soundtrack. When the movie opened, he had no expectations for commercial success, but "Leaving Las Vegas" became a critical darling, earning him the best reviews of his career as well as two Oscar nominations for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. After serving as executive producer of Annette Haywood-Carter's "Foxfire" (1996), Figgis then produced his own "One Night Stand" (1997), which he extensively rewrote from a Joe Eszterhas script (so much so that Eszterhas took no credit). Despite a too pat ending, it continued to show him as a filmmaker firmly in control, expertly matching his moody score to his complex take on relationships and reassessing life choices. His next film, "The Loss of Sexual Inn

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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
Profile Image for Toby.
861 reviews371 followers
September 16, 2012



Digital Filmmaking by Mike Figgis

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Reads like an anti-Michael Bay manifesto

Blurb: In this indispensible guide, leading film-maker Mike Figgis offers the reader a step-by-step tutorial in how to use digital film-making technology so as to get the very best from it. He outlines the equipment and its uses, and provides an authoritative guide to the shooting process - from working with actors to lighting, framing, and camera movement. He further dispenses wisdom on the editing process and the use of sound and music, all the while establishing a sound aesthetic basis for the digital format.


This is a handbook that will become an essential back-pocket reference for the digital-film enthusiast - whether your goal is to make no-budget movies, or simply to put your video camera to more use than just holidays and weddings.

Thoughts: Mike Figgis is the creative genius behind such movies as the Oscar winning Leaving Las Vegas and the important film experiment Timecode, he's been an artist, a musician and an actor; he's a man who's witnessed all aspects of film making and been there at the birth of the digital age. Currently he's a professor of film studies at the European Graduate School in Switzerland. This book was destined to be a fascinating read for any aspiring film maker and it didn't disappoint.

I reached the bottom of page one, at which point I read the following and knew I was going to have some fun with this book:

“I made my first film on 16mm. Then I began using 35mm. Then I began working in Hollywood. And I began to really understand how films were made by professionals. I have to say I wasn't very impressed.”

When so many of my peers in film school were talking about making zombie or gangster films and flying off to Hollywood I wanted to make my own Mike Figgis type movie - feasible too because we were poor students with free access to equipment - but at the time there was no interest in low budget digital filmmaking, we were tought the traditional way is the only way. Where was mumblecore when I was at film school?! As Mike Figgis points out, traditional methods no longer need apply when using digital stock instead of film.

This is an inspiring read, I had to keep putting it down to flex my straining creative muscles in some way because everything he discusses works as encouragement. His attitude towards creating cinema is incredibly refreshing and more appropriate than ever. Five years after this was written technology has evolved exponentially and really, truly, there should be nothing stopping anyone who wants to make a film from making a film.

Some of my major issues, the ones blocking me from getting out there and doing rather than talking about it, are addressed by Figgis to such an extent that I may never question the tools at hand again. No longer will I feel like iMovie is an inferior product and not worth my time, no longer am I blaming my lack of expensive high definition camera for my fear of failure. If Mike Figgis says that a home camera manufactured in 2006 is of good enough quality then it's damned well good enough for me. There's an anecdote that features a surreptitious conversation with Terry Gilliam that is both amusing and pertinent, in which they discuss the quality of iMovie and the embarrasment they feel at admitting it where they might be overheard by more affected film types.

It's not just his enthusiasm for the digital tools at hand that appeals to me it is his approach towards the basics of cinema as well.

“The function of camera movement is to assist the storytelling. That's all it is. It cannot be there just to demonstrate itself.”

I've lost count of the number of times I've turned a film off because the director thinks that constantly moving his camera is achieving something more than making the audience feel seasick so for me that one statement marks Mike Figgis down as somebody who should be leading a new generation of film makers.

Further viewing suggestions:



Timecode (2000) Dir. Mike Figgis
Cold Weather (2011) Dir. Aaron Katz
Leaving Las Vegas (1995) Dir. Mike Figgis
Kill List (2011) Dir. Ben Wheatley

Additional reading:



Rebel Without A Crew
Hitchcock/Truffaut
Down and Dirty Pictures

Originally posted at blahblahblahgay
94 reviews
March 28, 2023
Wow.
I am absolutely terrified of the film industry. It often feels old, unreliable, exclusive and boring- and this book did not exactly disprove that theory.
However, it gave me the incentive to make the film industry suit me and not the other way round. It gave me the desire to slow down and take my time, to be detailed, to be thoughtful. Our current media climate is obsessed with pumping out piece after piece after piece, without taking the time to think. Is this minuscule, tiny detail really what I want? Have I taken the time to look at all my options? Have I poured over each shot in detail, obsessed over my shooting locations, cleansed my hearing palate after hearing the same song for my soundtrack over and over again.
As close minded as the industry can be, it is changing. I have to look to that change to feel hope. I have to continue to believe in the decentralisation of the arts. That's all we can do, right?
While he is everything the old ways of cinema promote, and the actual writing is shit, he reminded me of my own voice and told me to stop festering in my own self doubt.
Pretty good book.
Profile Image for Luke.
253 reviews
March 24, 2009
I picked this book up to learn about making films on digital video. I knew very little about the topic and didn't know how much I would get from this book. Happily, I learned quite a bit from this slim (less than 200 pgs) book and also learned what else I needed to learn!

This is not a nuts-and-bolts guide to making a digital film. It won't explain precisely how to edit films in Final Cut Pro or how to make sure that your aperture is set to precisely the right level. But it will help you gain confidence in your abilities and give you some very useful advice from a director who definitely knows what he's doing.

Mike Figgis directed "Leaving Las Vegas", "Timecode", and other films. He was one of the early directors to embrace the freedoms of DV while most directors were scoffing at it's limitations. In this book, he doesn't assume that you know a lot about filmmaking, but I imagine that a seasoned director would still find quite a bit to learn in this book.

He gives practical, simple advice ("You can light a scene with the light from a cell phone if you need to") to advice on complicated and delicate situations (How to make sure that you retain creative control of your project). I would recommend this book to Mike Figgis fans and to the amateur/journeyman filmmaker who would like to learn more about his craft. Thank you for taking the time to read my review!
Profile Image for Bakunin.
307 reviews277 followers
December 29, 2014
Filmmaker Mike Figgis describes how his own development as a filmmaker and gives some advice to young directors. I initially thought that this book was meant to be a direct introduction to the art of filmmaking, and was therefore disappointed in the beginning.
Despite this however I learned quite a bit from Figgis and will heed his advice when making my own short films.
Profile Image for Mike.
Author 8 books45 followers
April 24, 2022
I don't remember much about this book now but back at the time I wrote down an interesting quote from it:
I'll make an analogy with music. If you go to a concert and hear a really great violinist playing a Stradivarius, you'll be witness to a magnificent sound and a great performance. Now that violinist could take a twenty-dollar Chinese violin made for schoolchildren, tune it and play it, and I guarantee a lot of people couldn't tell the difference from the Stradivarius - because of the musician.
Similarly, a great drummer can pick up a wooden packing case and make it sound like an amazing set of drums. A photographer - let's say a Cartier Bresson - could pick up a Kodak Brownie and without a doubt take great photographs.
The point is that it doesn't really matter what the equipment is. It really matters who the artist is, and what their attitude is. So a serious filmmaker will pick up an Arriflex, 16mm or 35mm, or a Panasonic video camera, and you will see immediately that there is a serious intention in the way they're holding the camera and the way they're recording the image. It will not be ambiguous. It will not be negotiable. It will not be in doubt. They will state their relationship to the camera, like the musician and the violin, the drummer and the packing case. The way that you pick up a camera and the way that you address the camera is fundamental."
Profile Image for Robert.
115 reviews7 followers
November 19, 2019
Thought this 2007 book would be hopelessly out of date, but it's a fun little read.
Profile Image for Fuzzy Gerdes.
220 reviews
January 16, 2008
I've been intrigued by Mike Figgis since we saw Time Code during the rehearsals for A Day in the Life -- it's a flawed movie, but an incredibly interesting idea. And Leaving Las Vegas was gut-wrenchingly good, so I knew he had chops. So I was looking forward to reading Digital Filmmaking. And indeed there's some practical advice here and some broad opinions about the future of film and the possibilities of cheap filmmaking. But most importantly, it had me itching to get my hands on my camera and get filming.
Profile Image for Eleftheria.
3 reviews5 followers
December 14, 2012
This book is an introduction to filmmaking for non experienced,amateurs or wanna be film makers. Any one who has had some or even little experience in film making will not find this interesting or handy whatsoever.

Nevertheless, is a good reminder of those things one tends to forget while filming -(could work perfectly as a reminder list)-and of the (i)massive and cheap tools digital era offers.
Profile Image for Laura Cavendish.
11 reviews2 followers
March 16, 2008
An extremely inspiring book for anyone who is interested in making films because they have something to say, not because they want big bucks. Has great reinforcement for people whom can't afford to run a large production, lets you know that you can still succeed.
Profile Image for Caitlin.
50 reviews9 followers
October 8, 2009
Picking up lots of useful advice from this, but Mike Figgis is a self-centred cocky mofo and it just screams off the page. It's a bit of work to push that out of the way and keep the pages turning despite the high self-congratulation/useful tips ratio.
Profile Image for PJ.
345 reviews2 followers
January 16, 2008
I learnt that there is more than one cover for this book, and that the Fig Rig is cool. But really, what I think I need to do is watch "Leaving Las Vegas".
11 reviews1 follower
Want to read
February 5, 2010
My friend Rob gave this to me for xmas. That was very kind of him.
1 review2 followers
June 20, 2013
Good insight from Director although a little bit black or white opinionated.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews

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