Camera Support and Movement
Taught by Steve Milligan
The Arts of the Moving Image Filmcraft Workshop Series
The Arts of the Moving Image Filmcraft Workshop Series is six workshops designed to give students the opportunity to develop hard skills in practical areas of filmmaking. It includes topics in cinematography, editing, post-production, and sound. It is aimed at filmmakers looking to advance their practice, as well as those interested in a first look at the techniques and technology of film.
Sessions are held each Friday from 3pm to 5:30pm, and are repeated Saturday from 11am to 1:30pm. The Spring 2020 series runs from January 24th through February 29th.
The workshops are open to the Duke community, with no sign-up or registration required.
Camera Support and Movement
Camera movement is easy to recognize and appreciate, but fiendishly difficult to execute. Aside from issues of accuracy and stability, movement complicates focus, lighting, sound, and editing. Almost every aspect of filmmaking is more difficult if the camera moves.
Camera movement is also one of the most expressive and personal characteristics of a filmmaker’s style–and for the reasons above one of the most neglected. This workshop directs students toward the tools and techniques necessary to express the full vocabulary of cinematic movement in their own work.
The following elements will be covered in this workshop:
- Dollies, jibs, gimbals, and ad hoc rigs
- Hand-held technique
- The secret life of tripods
- Focus and lighting strategies for the moving camera
About the Instructor
Steve Milligan is a professional cinematographer. Over the last fifteen years he has worked in long and short form documentary, narrative features, commercials, music videos, and projection design. He has been a lecturing fellow in the Duke Arts of the Moving Image program since 2015, and advisor to the Duke student-run production company, Freewater Productions since 2006.
About the Location
This workshop meets in the new Arts of the Moving Image Studio located in Room 232 in the Rubenstein Arts Center.