Once in a while we see a product that stands out in the crowd, a real star performer, and Hollywood Camera Work's The Master Course In High-End Blocking And Staging is no exception.

Directors, Cinematographers, Script Supervisors, 3D Animators and Game Designers to mention just a few professions would all benefit from this course.

Personally as an Animator I was amazed at the amount of instruction that was relevant and how much it will help on current projects and those in the future, but looking at the list of companies who have already invested in this course. Dreamworks Animation, Walt Disney Feature Animation, Pixar, DNA Productions, Blue Sky Studios, UbiSoft, Rock Star Games, Electronic Arts, EA Games, it should not have come as any surprise.

This course was created by Grammy winner and director Per Holmes. In the late 90s Per decided to quit his music career and devote himself fully to narrative directing, and made a number of short films to practice his narrative storytelling technique. It was at this point he felt the need for a complete language of camera work, and not finding one anywhere, set out to create one.

Per spent the next 5 years obsessing about blocking, training for thousands of hours. At first he kept directing short films, but realizing that what he was really after was great camera work, he began blocking in 3D, which made it possible to work many times faster without the hassle of production.

The goal in the beginning was to create a video for himself containing every technique, which he could watch again and again to "burn them in", so he would remember to use them on the set. But what began emerging was a sort of "grand unified theory" of blocking that was not just about knowing a bunch of techniques, but knowing what every shot and every move means in order to tell the most effective stories.

He felt that this could become a great learning tool for anyone who wants to direct at a high level, and began turning it into a course. A year later and after almost 4,000 hours of 3D animation and editing the comprehensive course was complete.

Instead of using real live actors, which could have over personalised the course and also prove to be a distraction from the main lessons, Per's opted to use 3D animation with expressionless 3D characters. This has proved to be a master stroke and really gets the mind focused on the camera movement and techniques used; Those of you using the software application Poser from E-Frontier will recognise some of these base characters.

Having previously read plenty of books on the subject of camera techniques and cinematography, often I would find the book was providing only theories or discussing the history of movies, rather than providing the instruction I was looking for. Two books which are worth reading though are both by Steven D Katz: Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen and Film and Directing: Cinematic Motion, Second Edition but they can on occasions seem over complicated in their explanation and this is where Hollywood Camera Work and its multi-media approach really works, combined with straight forward narration and 3D animation you can learn so quickly, but also fully understand what you have learnt, which is too often ignored within these types of courses.

There are nine hours of training in total, spread over six DVD's. A word of warning here, do not get set up in a comfortable chair in front of the TV, popcorn at the side, ready to make an Olympic effort in trying to cram the whole course in one sitting. I found personally about 30 minutes of watching and then rewinding and going back over chapters, taking notes and sketching loads of possible Camera set ups the best way of working through.

I have made a point of not listing the contents for of each of the three course sections, Stationary Blocking, The Moving Camera and Staging-High Scenes, or going into detail about each one because this would not inform you of the key things you could learn from owning this course, also it would be a very long list indeed.

If you are a 3D Animator or Games Developer this course provides excellent knowledge in camera positioning and movement but also explains the whole scene and the emotional impact the camera can play. Should you be viewing from above or below the actor? What about if there are three people? Are there different camera positions for sad or happy scenes? The perspective of the scene looks flat, how can I add depth with just the camera? These questions are all answered but more often than not you will be thinking "wow, that is clever, and I can't wait to try that out." And unlike most Film Directors you will be able to move into that virtual 3D world and produce a camera rig that simulates some of the lessons learnt straight away in Max, Maya, Poser, C4D or any 3D animation software you may be using.

As long as I can remember I have always studied films and more recently listened to the Directors commentaries on Movie DVD's as I watch almost frame by frame. Although I appreciated what was happening and could visualise the camera movement the question of why exactly are they doing that or taking that particular shot remained a mystery.

There is a great example in this course where the actor is required to move from one control panel to another by pushing himself across the room while still seated on an office chair. This would of course be fun to model and animate but seeing the whole motion might not work visually and would also detract from a scene energised with drama. Instead the lesson explained the scene, moving from one camera position to the next primarily looking at control panels and head shots only and yet the feeling of movement when the actor moved remained. Now for me as an animator this was a revelation because I had not realised how much impact could be achieved by thinking about my camera placement and movement in a slightly different way and the dramatic effect it would have on the mood of a scene. I also realised that I was currently not using all my 3D work to the best effect as I was not taking shots (renders) that could have been so easily used in post production. I mentioned before about learning and understanding what you have learnt, this was my eureka moment as the impact of what I had learnt and the effect it would have on my work in the future hit me.

Just like good storyboarding. Good camera blocking and staging will save you hours of wasted time. If you understand your camera positioning through a 3D animation project you will not only model what is seen in shot, but understand the level of detail that is needed for each scene, dramatically reducing poly count, render times and effort. We of course all know that, don't we?

Once you have purchased the course there is an additional benefit of direct access to a dedicated forum at Hollywood Camera Work, where Per's and colleagues within the Film, TV, Games and CG Industries discuss camera techniques further, so help is always just a click away.

The knowledge that can be gained in this course will enable you to easily put into action the lessons learnt and take your projects to the next level. I cannot praise this product highly enough and believe it to be a real investment, the initial purchase price may put off some individuals so we are really pleased to announce that as a special offer to our members here at PlanIt 3D we can confirm a 30% discount.

If you wish to buy the course at www.hollywoodcamerawork.us, on the 3rd checkout page there is a field called School Acc# where you should enter PLANIT3D. This will automatically deduct $120 on the following page.

Copyright 2007, PlanIt 3D