Learn to be a master filmmaker with Wikiversity

Today was the first day, after using Wikipedia for ages I actually took the time to look at what the front page has to offer. I found separate part of Wikipedia named the Wikiversity. It contains many courses, lessons and whatnot on a load of subjects. From applied sciences to practical art, you will find a lot of things to read and do.

A particular one I found was the WikiU Film School Course. At first I though this would be a 30 minute read with explanations of the storyboard, camera angles and so on. I love film making so I delved in. There are 12 lessons, and after 30 minutes of glancing over (not even reading), I was still in the middle of lesson one.

These lessons also require you to do, not just to read, so in reality I would still be happily working on page one. Essentially the course takes you through one scene from pre-production to rolling out the film on your very own PC. Detailed is a huge understatement, but despite this, it doesn't loose the fun factor. You will be doing activities, learning insider stuff all the way.

Lessons currently available:

• Formatting the script
• Creating the thumbnail story board
• Creating the 3D storyboards
• Learning about camera lenses
• Record the dialog for the animatic
• Intro to narrative filmmaking
• Draw the movie poster for Star Wars
• Understanding dailies
• Create a matte painting
• Understanding editing
• Understanding L-cuts
• Create the animatic

You will be writing the script initially, creating the storyboards, learning about editing, creating the final animatic and much more. I quickly looked at the camera lenses part, since it always intrigued me that they use so many different ones. There were great explanations and some pics showing the same subject with 10+ different lenses. I have only begun this course and it's so amazing, if you enjoy films and film making take a look.

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