Questions for Katrina Albright

Many club members sent in questions after our last meeting, and so I have posted them all here. New questions will be added to the top as they come in.

Joseph M

do u have any advice for me i am an starting actor and i have worked in several shows like Red Band Society, Devious Maids and Sleepy Hollow and my parents have worked on the walking dead and my brother and sister and i was just wondering if u had any ad vice for me :)

Hi Joseph, it sounds like you're already getting a lot of great experience! I would recommend trying to research some casting agents, and cutting together a reel of your work, and just going on lots of auditions. If you're really serious about acting I would also recommend researching colleges with good acting programs. A lot of state schools (read: less expensive!!) have really good programs.

Hello!

So my question was: Do you have any editing tips for a beginning film maker? 

Thanks!

Kaitlyn R

Hi Kaitlyn, 

Editing can be hard to learn but if you really pay attention to getting good coverage when you shoot (getting a wide shot, then reverse angles of both characters speaking, etc) then you can make things a lot easier for yourself in post. Try to look for "invisible" cuts, like when people are moving their bodies, or blinking. I would recommend reading the book "In the Blink of an Eye" by Walter Murch. It's the best book I've ever read about editing. 

At what age did Katrina Albright decide to start filming different things?

Daja K

Hi Daja, 

I started videotaping stuff with a cheap camcorder and my little brother and our dogs in the woods when I was about 11. But I didn't know I really wanted to go to film school until I realized how much I love writing in high school.  

Hey this is Jayden O, I have my questions here

1)      How many times does a director needs an headshot

2)       Do you take any actors like 18 and below because I'm a actor.

3)       there is like a cut scene during a show or a movie. When you have an object In your hand and when it transition to somewhere else and it transitons back to you and the object is gone. How do you train yourself to not to do that 

4)      I'm making books and I wonder were can I go them as an movie

Hi Jayden, 

I'm not quite sure what you mean about the headshot, but a director really only needs one headshot. They might not even need that! Sometimes they just see the right thing in an audition, or even just in somebody they already know or see on the street. I like working with actors of all ages. It's really just about finding an actor who can really embody the character they're playing.

To answer your question about jump cuts, there are a couple of things you can do. First, it's very important to think about the editing while you're still shooting the film. Make a storyboard, and plan where you will get shots, and their reverse angles (so you can cover both people in a conversation, etc.) Then it's also important to have somebody on set (you, or a friend) paying attention to continuity, which means where things are in the shot and where they were in the last shot. So if somebody is drinking a glass of water, and it's full in one shot, and you get another shot from the same angle, that's supposed to take place at the same time, you have to refill the glass so it looks the same as the first shot. I would also recommend you read Walter Murch's book "In the Blink of An Eye" about editing. It's an amazing resource. 

I think if you want to turn your books into movies, the best place to start is with the script! Distill your story into individual, visual scenes and then shoot that movie!

Sierra M

Katrina Albright

Is it better for the audience to make a true story or a make believe story in a move of short film?

Hey Sierra, 

I love documentaries (non-fiction movies following real events as they happen) and narrative movies (movies where you write a script and use actors). I also love narrative movies made about real events! I think they're all wonderful, and the most important thing is that it's a story that you love and really want to tell.  

Hello,
I do have a question for Katrina Albright. I wanted to know is when film making, does she have a specific genre that she uses most while directing(Sci-fi, Action, etc.) or does she use all sorts of genres?

Thank you!
-Cathryn B

Hi Cathryn, 

Great question. When I was first starting out, I mostly wrote dark comedies, sometimes with an absurdist or magical twist. Then for a long time I just wrote straight realist drama. Now I'm working on a sci-fi series, but that's heavily rooted in realist drama, and it's kind of funny! I like to work in all sorts of genres, and to mix them together into my work. 

Amanda F

What made her want to become a filmmaker? Also, How does she choose the topics for her films? 

Amanda F

Actually, My most important question is: What's the difference between writing a story<Book> and a script?

Hi Amanda, 

I always knew I loved telling stories. I was always the kid who would make up crazy stories to get attention. Then I discovered you could do that with writing, and even better (for me) you could get other people to help act out the stories, and you could use photography to help tell those stories on an even deeper, subconscious level. That's what I love about movies and that's how I realized I wanted to make them. It was around high school, especially when I started to direct plays, that I realized how much I wanted to make them. 

There are a couple of big differences between a script and a book. The most obvious one is the format. With a book you can write down what's happening pretty much any way you want to, but a script has a very specific format, because the actors need to be able to read it easily and act it out. Check out Celtx for a great free software that will help you figure out screenwriting format. But there are some other differences too. In a script, everything you write down needs to be either something a characters says, or something we can *actually see with our eyes.* You can't write smells or feelings or thoughts into a script (unless the thoughts are in voiceover, as a special effect). In script writing, we say "Show, don't tell," which means if it's not something I can show, as a director, it's not helpful in a script. So scripts tend to have a very simple, action-heavy way of talking. LIke: She picks up the box. She looks inside. She puts the box down and crosses to the window." Because we have to be able re-enact and film everything on the page.