Universitat Internacional de Catalunya
Film Direction
Teaching staff
In class or appointment via email.
Introduction
In this course, students will learn to turn an idea into concrete directing decisions and to test, by shooting their own short film, what emotion each of those decisions produces in the viewer.
Pre-course requirements
No prerequisites.
Objectives
The main aim of this course is to put students in the director's chair, so that they understand what the job involves and learn how to do it. Directing means deciding, and every session therefore returns to the same three questions: what am I telling, how am I telling it, and what emotion do I want the audience to feel.
To that end, we will watch excerpts from films in order to discover and analyse the different resources of mise-en-scène and why the way they are used matters.
Alongside this, students will carry out shooting exercises in class and, above all, will develop their own short film in groups — writing, preparing, shooting, editing and screening it over the course of the term. This project will allow them to test what they have learned, work as a team and take responsibility for the different tasks involved in a shoot.
Competences/Learning outcomes of the degree programme
- 01 - The ability to adapt to varying circumstances
- 02 - The ability to understand, accept criticism and correct errors
- 03 - The ability to administer and manage human and technical resources
- 04 - The ability to work in a team and autonomously
- 05 - The ability to organise time and workspace
- 06 - The ability to develop academic rigour, responsibility, ethics and professionalism
- 07 - The ability to apply the deontology and respect for the audiovisual sector
- 08 - The ability of critical analysis, synthesis, concretion and abstraction
- 10 - The ability to confront difficulties and resolve problems
- 11 - The ability to generate debate and reflection
- 12 - The ability to meet deadlines, develop the ability to be punctual and respect for human, technical and material resources
- 13 - The ability to create spoken and written communication
- 14 - Knowledge and mastery of rhetoric and oratory to communicate own ideas
- 16 - The ability to manage, analysis and reflect on content
- 24 - The ability to plan and organize both short term and long term projects
- 25 - The ability to maximize creative development
- 26 - The ability to develop a sense of taste and perfection in the aesthetics and finalization of projects
- 27 - The ability to adapt to distinct audio visual publics and markets.
- 32 - The ability to confront audiovisual and film projects in all phases (pre-production, shooting, post-production, distribution)
- 33 - The ability to create and direct.
- 34 - The ability to know and respect the different roles of the artistic and technical teams
- 35 - The ability to contextualize and critically analyze the products of the audiovisual industry
- 36 - The ability to create, direct and manage audiovisual companies
- 40 - The ability to defend and respect authorship and intellectual property
- 41 - The ability to know how the distinct elemental agencies of the audio visual sector function
- 42 - The ability to distinguish, analyze and dominate the distinct genres and formats of television, film and radio
- 43 - the ability to create scripts for film, television and radio according to the demands of the genre
- 44 - The ability to adapt to new audiovisual formats
- 45 - The ability to know and dominate the techniques of audiovisual narrative.
- 46 - The ability to dominate resources used for image (Photographs, lighting...) and sound.
- 48 - Knowledge and mastery of the techniques of filming, directing, producing and editing
- 49 - The ability to write fluent texts, step outlines or scripts
- 50 - The ability to adapt, understand and apply the expressive possibilities of new technologies and future changes
- 51 - Knowledge and mastery of the functioning of Corporate and Institutional Communication.
- 52 - The ability to apply audiovisual knowledge and techniques for commercial purposes in any form
- 53 - Lingustic ability in Catalan, Spanish and English
- 54 - The ability to skillfully manage the literature, terminology and linguistic structures of the English language related to the field of communication.
Learning outcomes of the subject
Students will be able to:
- Analyse a scene and identify which directing decisions produce the emotion the viewer feels.
- Use camera movement, the axis and shot size as narrative tools, and justify each decision based on what they want to tell.
- Choose the appropriate lenses and sustain a coherent tone throughout a piece, recognising the rules of the genre they are working in.
- Read a screenplay from the director's perspective: identify structural problems and assess the shooting feasibility of each scene.
- Design the blocking of a scene, using space and character movement to determine what the viewer discovers and when.
- Craft the opening of a story and the introduction of its characters.
- Prepare a shoot: script breakdown, locations, casting, production design and costume, shot planning and shooting schedule.
- Direct and edit a short film as a team, taking on a specific role within the group, and critically assess whether the finished piece conveys the intended emotion.
Syllabus
Film directing
What directing is.
The director's role within the crew.
The three questions that run through the whole course: what am I telling, how am I telling it, and what emotion do I want the audience to feel.
Narrative concepts: the camera as a tool
Camera movement and its narrative value.
The axis and the eyeline match.
The narrative consequences of crossing the line.
When the camera tells the story and when it merely records it.
Shot size
Shot size as a narrative tool.
Distance from the character.
The emotion produced by each shot size, and how changing it builds the audience's point of view.
Lenses, tone and genre
Wide, standard and telephoto lenses.
The use of the zoom.
How formal decisions determine emotion.
What tone is and what committing to it implies.
Genre and its rules.
The screenplay
Structure, scene, sequence and conflict.
Reading and analysing screenplays.
Identifying structural problems.
The feasibility of a story: what can and cannot be shot.
Criteria for rewriting.
From idea to shoot: the directing process
Script reading and breakdown.Locations.
Casting and directing actors.
Production design, costume and effects.
Shot planning and the shooting schedule.
Shooting as problem-solving.
The pitch deck and the visual approach
What a pitch deck must contain.
How to present a film.
How to explain a visual approach.
Working with references.
Blocking: space as a narrative tool
What blocking is.
Character movement within the space.
The relationships between characters and space.
Five ways of using space to tell a story, through Kurosawa, Berlanga, Polanski, Coppola and Spielberg.
Opening the story and introducing a character
The opening shot of a film as a statement of intent.
How a story is opened.
Strategies for introducing a character.
Editing as a review of the story
Screening the footage.
The first cut.
Does what we wanted to tell actually work? Does it convey the intended emotion?
Identifying problems and finding solutions in the edit.
Teaching and learning activities
In person
| TRAINING ACTIVITY | ECTS CREDITS |
| Coaching. Monitoring how students learn the content of the subject, either individually or in groups. In the coaching sessions, mistakes will be corrected, queries answered, and exercises and activities to achieve the established objectives will be suggested. | 0.8 |
| Focused Praxis. Handing in occasional exercises to learn theory through practice. | 0.4 |
| Practical workshop. A highly practical working activity, where students can acquire skills that are practical or also theoretical (intellectual skills, logical skills, critical skills, intellectual learning skills, study skills, quoting skills, etc). | 0,6 |
| Lectures. In lectures, lecturers/professors not only transmit content or knowledge, but also, and above all else, attitudes, motivation, skills and values, etc. They also ensure that participants can express their opinions and arguments to the other students. | 1.4 |
| Meeting Point. Meetings will be organised with notable people from the professional and scientific fields or the international field, and students. These sessions will take the form of conferences, work sessions, discussions, or interviews, etc. | 0,4 |
| Mentoring programme. Ensuring a review of and in-depth look at competences and knowledge, as well as the development of habits involving social commitment and responsibility, with the strongest students providing guidance for students from lower years, particularly if they have any type of disability (physical, etc). | 0,4 |
Evaluation systems and criteria
In person
The evaluation is continuous through the monitoring of the work in the classroom and the presentation of individual and collective exercises.
A participative attitude in class is essential to pass the course.
Class attendance is compulsory as well as the delivery of all the exercises proposed during the course on the dates indicated, which will be announced in advance in class.
The final grade will be the balance between the marks of the individual exercises, the collective ones and the attitude and punctuality of the student. When evaluating the exercises, creativity, content and formal commitment will be specially taken into account.
Project dossier: 40%
Analysis work and collective and individual practical exercises: 40%
Attitude, attendance and punctuality: 20%
Students attending the second exam session and onwards will be required to submit a project agreed upon with the professor, based on the continuous assessment carried out throughout the current academic year.
Bibliography and resources
Katz, S. D. (2017). Plano a plano: De la idea a la pantalla (Ed. 25.º aniversario). Plot Ediciones.
McKee, R. (2002). El guion: Sustancia, estructura, estilo y principios de la escritura de guiones. Alba Editorial.
Lumet, S. (1996). Así se hacen las películas. Ediciones Rialp.
Truffaut, F. (1974). El cine según Hitchcock. Alianza Editorial.
Murch, W. (2019). En el momento del parpadeo. ECAM, DAMA y Caimán Cuadernos de Cine.
- Adobe. (2024). Adobe Premiere Pro. Adobe Inc.
- Apple Inc. (2024). Final Cut Pro. Apple Inc.
- Blackmagic Design. (2024). DaVinci Resolve. Blackmagic Design.
- ByteDance Ltd. (2024). CapCut. ByteDance.