Online Classes

Directing for Unscripted — Ten Classes

Learn each position in the office, in the field and in post. It’s a team, and you have to know who is behind you so you can ask for help, and who gets your footage so you can deliver a quality product. Producers, camera, audio, story producers, editors, line producers, showrunners and executives.

Prepping For Production: Casting, picking a look, knowing your network, directors notes, video maps, wardrobe and crews.

Camera coverage for both documentary and the different genres of reality TV — family, competition, docu-follow, and workplace. What shots do you need to tell your story and make your editors happy? Good coverage means your scenes get used.

Directing single-camera, double-camera and multiple camera. How to communicate with your crews and switch from one type of coverage to the other. Directing true documentary vs. soft-scripted, vs. guided reality, vs. competition.

Mastering the interview for sit-down, double interviews, green screen and OTF (on-the-fly).

What is B-roll anyway? From drones to sticks to handheld. How to shoot b-roll so your beauty shots get used.

Knowing your cast and what role each one plays in the group. How to get the most out of each of them using interviews and prompts.

The Power of the Camera: how to use the camera and audio to nudge your cast to the next plot point and to conflict resolution.

How to Get More Story with Less Footage: Problems you’ll encounter and tricks of the trade. How to work with other directors and producers.

One private session: I can give you direct feedback on your questions.

AVID Editing for Unscripted — Ten Classes

Know the positions, know your assets, know your responsibilities: We study how AVID projects are set up for most unscripted shows. We go over every position in the post department, and how you serve each other, the cut schedule and the notes process, how you work with other editors and how you to work within the project itself.

The Stringout: Editors and Story Producers must go through hours of footage to pick out the best material for a scene. What goes into a stringout? How do you group clip audio and picture, and how do you whittle it down to the best few minutes? You’ll learn how.

Avoid Creative Decisions for as long as possible: Most editing is clerical housekeeping. By focusing on knowing the coverage and isolating audio tracks, you actually end up knowing the material better. When it comes time to cut, your subconscious has already made the decisions.

Getting to the First Cut: A good scene advances the plot, reveals character, and entertains. Scenes are either a seduction, a fight, or a negotiation. Usually a scene usually is about one thing, two at most. People speak in loops and deliver caveats. We want to cut it down so their words sound like well-written dialogue. We use footage in class and cut our first scene.

Working the audio, working the picture, working the reaction shot: The audio often carries the story. The picture keeps us engaged. The reaction shot tells you how to feel. We explore pacing and how to make a story land.

Working with Substandard Material: Editors always complain about what the field delivers. Your job is actually to make it work, no matter what they give you. You learn the workarounds to fix and hide problems.

Working with Music: How do you use existing cues from a music library to score a scene? We go over stems and how you can use them to score a scene and entire movie. I show you how to pick music that reinforces what’s happening in scene, and also how you can pick music to undercut what’s happening. We score a scene using a music library.

Are you a Builder or a Finisher? Special FX or Story Expert? Editors often fall into these camps, but you must be comfortable in both. We do a “style pass” on an act of TV and choose effects to give the show a “look.”

Doing Notes and Finishing the Show: Executives often ask you to add more material, but cut for time. They ask you to add interviews and then take them out. We go through a notes session and deliver a finished show to time.

One private session: I can give you direct feedback on your questions and hook you up with a professional editor to follow for a day.

Producing and Post Producing — Twelve Classes

PRODUCTION: Start with the Budget: We take an actual budget from an existing show and go through every line item and decide how we want to use that money. We then build a schedule for production.

Hiring Crews: Line Producers, Shooters, audio engineers, production assistants, vendors, coordinating producers, supervising producers. Building your production vans. Working with the networks and the EIC at the company to stay on track.

Choosing your gear, choosing your look: Is this a travel show? Documentary? You work with the DP to design the look of the show. Will you need a lot of beauty shots with drones? We decide what kind of show we are doing and pick the creative approach that works best. Choose one new thing.

Creating the factory: Field notes, hot sheets, google docs, equipment, van prep, call sheets, arranging crews. Production’s job is to shoot quality material that then goes to post. We create a system that makes that happen.

Locations, Insurance, Releases, Travel: How you secure locations, get releases, waivers, and insurance for both property as well as liability. How you get your casfor both documentary and for the different genres of reality TV — family, competition, docu-follow, and workplace. What shots do you need to tell your story and make your editors happy? Good coverage means your scenes get used.

POST PRODUCTION: Start with the Budget: We take an actual budget and go through every line item. We then build a schedule for post-production.

Hiring a Post Team: Coordinating producers, supervising producers, story producers, assistant editors, editors, mixers, graphic designers, composers, music libraries, music supervisors, clearance supervisors.

Choosing your look: What’s the style of this show? We use what was shot in the field and pick a look, decide on the editorial approach and the music. You worked with the DP to pick the look in the field; here you work with the lead editor to choose the look, feel, and pace in the bay.

Creating the factory: How to use field notes and hot sheets to feed the story department to build out episode structures. How story producers then build stringouts and work with the editors. How editors stay on schedule, and deliver cuts for producers to note and then recut. How to make sure every cut gets done on time, and how to anticipate the “bubble” of extra work that slows your machine down. How to deliver an episode a week for weeks on end. How to anticipate when you need your music, your graphics, your clearances, and your network delivery specs.

Finishing the show: Cutting to time, locking, online, color correction, and final audio mixing. Then we deal with clearances, delivering to network according to spec, keeping your books in order so the show can be replicated next week and next season, so that you’re ready for any request, whether it’s clerical, creative or legal.

Working with The Cast, Celebrities, the company, the Network: Your job is to keep everyone happy. How to do it.

One private session: I can give you direct feedback on your questions.

Pick and choose a class, or take all twelve.