Foundations of Digital Filmmaking

This unit introduces students to the historical, creative, and technical foundations of film and digital video production, including digitization history, camera and lighting fundamentals, pre-production planning, directing roles, and basic sound recording and synchronization. Students will develop concept-to-plan artifacts and technical workflows that prepare them for hands-on production and advanced post-production work in subsequent units.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze the historical development of 16mm/35mm film and the digitization of motion picture technology and assess how these shifts influence contemporary production workflows and aesthetic choices.
• Apply video fundamentals—resolution, frame rate, color, focal length, aperture, and depth of field—and lighting principles (including three-point lighting and color temperature) to create a camera and lighting plan for a short scene that meets defined creative and technical specifications.
• Demonstrate pre-production proficiency by developing a concept, an organized three-act treatment, a script breakdown, a production schedule, and a preliminary budget for a short-film project.
• Evaluate production and post-production roles, responsibilities, and workflows (including double-system sound and sync) and produce an integrated production plan that specifies crew assignments, sound recording strategy, sync workflow, and post stages.