For Capstone, I had two site visits. One was at Kaufman Astoria Studios and the other was at a museum about film. It was really interesting to see everything. I found these sight visits by getting my interview who was an executive producer of movies and who had an office right in front of Kaufman Astoria Studios and looking with Mrs.Cooper (my teacher) and finding the museum. Here are some photos of the visit at the museum:

 

Museum:

Studio:

Some things I saw were:

• The second biggest stage in New York
• The set where the whole forty nine seasons were shot of Sesame Street – and the real snuffleupagus (a character from Sesame Street) and Big Bird’s nest
• Lots of signs and examples of jobs in a movie and other things too like signs that explained some peoples’ jobs

 

I really think these were really good site visits and that I hope to have that much fun again!

What are the types of “special effects” that movie makers use and does it help “sell” the movie?

Special effects are used in movies most of the time. Some Effects are  fires, explosions, stunts, mechanical effects, digital effects, props, rain, snow and wind. So, what do you think would happen if some of these effects were put in a movie and an audience watched the movie? Would they want to pay money for it? Of course! According to Richard Baratta, an executive movie producer said when effects come together to create a stunning scene, audiences love it and this leads to more money being paid to the film industry.

 

What are the different behind the scenes jobs and what are their roles?

There are job departments in movie making, which is what you see in the photo. This is basically what you start with for movie making. Can you believe that there are more jobs inside of these departments?

These are the departments of the film industry. For example, the producer, makes up the story – he basically starts the movie -. The sound effects technician makes the sound effects and decides what sound effects to put in a movie. All of these jobs and departments come together to form one big movie.

 

How do people work together to do their jobs as behind the scenes people?

According to Richard Baratta, when everyone does their job well and works collaboratively, it all starts to fall into place. Sure, at the beginning it might be a bit new for some people who are doing the jobs but once it all starts happening, everything is “like a circus”. Everyone has their job done and everything is as planned. Then it starts to make ONE BIG MOVIE!

 

How does casting impact the success of a movie?

It all comes to the actors. If the actor comes in and he or she has just had a big problem or something other than that, it will definitely change part of the movie because the actor doesn’t really set that mood in the movie as well as when they had no problem. It’s hard work!

 

What are the decisions that go into choosing costumes sets and actors?

Have you ever watched one of the “Star Wars” movies? Think about the mood in that story for a second. Now, think about the costumes. What type of costume would you make for the characters if you were a costume designer? What do all the characters have in common? Let’s see… They don’t live on Earth, they live on a dangerous planet… Aha! A costume that looks like the character is from a foreign planet!

This is one example of costume choice. It has to match the mood of the story, or else it won’t go. Here’s an example of a badly matched costume and set:

 

• A bright and cheery girl

• In a dark and moody place

With sets it’s the same thing. If you choose a candy themed set and you choose a vegetable themed costume, it’s probably not going to be a good movie. That brings us to actors. What happens when actors audition for a movie is that you have the person who is watching each one of them and then you have the actor himself. I just want to get one thing straight. Only ONE person gets picked. Out of something like a few thousand people or more. Now, how intense is that going to be? Pretty intense given that there is not a lot in terms of chance that you will get the part. So, there are the actors who get picked for callbacks and then they choose the ONE AND ONLY ACTOR THAT GETS THE PART…

 

Answering My Main Inquiry – How do all the behind the scenes roles contribute to the success of a movie?

It all comes to answering my main inquiry question that I made when I had not a lot of information. Now, I have all the information I could have, thanks to everyone who helped me. So first of all, every role in a movie is a big help to the movie’s success. For example, if you don’t have the person who drives the actors to where they’re supposed to go, the actors won’t get there, and how are you going to make a movie with no actors? This is how even the smallest jobs contribute to the movie.

This leads to the fact that everyone has to work together to make a good movie. How does this happen? Everyone has to do their job and everyone has to have a good attitude about it. They also have to do their job well and that leads to them getting hired more. This contributes to the movie’s success because all the jobs come together to make one big movie. It’s a really big group project.

How does a movie sell? So much stuff to say. Some major things that help the movie sell are:

 

• Special effects – the thrill of special effects excites the audience more and they are willing to pay more money
• The theme/mood/story of the movie – because people love the lessons movies teach and they love the original story. For example, Harry Potter was really famous and when the movies came out, it was a BIG HIT because people already knew the story and the movies were basically the story but on a screen

This is how audiences get obsessed with some movies and those movies get fame and success by the reviews on them.

Also, people need to choose the right actors. This needs to be done well because for example, if you have someone who is the opposite of what their character is, you won’t have as good of a movie as you would if you had an actor who has more of the character’s personality. This effects the movie a lot. It’s also how the actors know what type of character they play every time they audition for a movie – a goofball, a cheery person, a grumpy side-kick, a confident person.

There are also people like the gaffer, the cinematographers, the sound person and all the other people who are in charge of the technical things. If a movie was made without them, they basically wouldn’t have a movie. The gaffer is in charge of the lights, the cinematographer sets up the shots so the cameras can take in everything and the sound person makes sure that everything that is said, you can hear clearly and without these and all the other jobs, you would have to do everything yourself. Imagine you doing the lights camera and all the other things to do – which is A LOT of other things to do. Would you want to do that? I don’t think so.

I also just want to say that there is a difference between making your own little movie at home and making some big movie with all the jobs and everything. In the making of your own movie, you don’t need all the different jobs and everything, you just need yourself and some friends or family to help you out. In a big movie, you need all the jobs, and you need good people for the jobs.

Another thing to include is set and costumes. As I said earlier, people want to think about what the movie’s theme and mood is going to be. Imagine a movie with a grumpy old man that sits all day in a chair ranting about life’s problems and the actor’s costume is a colorful, bright, cheery suit. What is going to happen if this is shown to an audience? They probably aren’t going to think it makes sense.

 

I hope this has let you know about the making of a movie and what all the good movies’ behind the scenes people do to make the movie a good one.