Movie maven Greg Blank, East Rockaway native, analyzes cinema

The language of filmmaking is the mother tongue of Greg Blank, an East Rockaway native and Lynbrook High School alum, as the filmmaker and cinema lecturer brought his professional knowledge to Hewlett-Woodmere Public Library on July 26.

Returning to the Five Towns spot at 1125 Broadway in Hewlett was a full circle moment for Blank, as he had shot an art gallery segment there for the “Push Pause Long Island,” a Verizon Fios show, which he produced early in his career.

The Friday adult program, titled “A Film Buff’s Guide to Cinema Language,” covered techniques and clips from classic films.

Blank structured the lecture to cover the major elements of film language, including screenwriting, producing, cinematography and music/audio design.

Screenwriting includes building a storyline, characters, settings and dialogue for a film, Blank said.

“They have to make it compelling in order to get that film produced,” he said. “So, you want to have a good screenplay, so you can pitch it to a studio or to a producer and say, this is going to make a great movie.”

The producer’s role, Blank said, is to coordinate all aspects of the film’s production.

“They basically hire all of the other ‘artistic departments,’ the art director, the cinematographer, the director,” he said.

Next, Blank covered cinematography, which includes techniques in camera placement and lens choice.

“It's playing with light and shadow and color and movement, and then juxtaposing it in the editing process,” Blank said.

The last major element Blank he included in his presentation was music and audio design.

“Music has the ability to shape, and in some cases, alter or even subvert what the filmmaker is communicate,” Blank said.

Throughout the presentation, Blank showed and analyzed scenes from “Airplane!,” “The Deer Hunter,” “Good Will Hunting,” “Goodfellas” and “Sophie’s Choice,” in the library’s Gold Hall to show how these elements interact on the big screen.

Jah Barnes, a program attendee, is a writer and signed up so to could get inspiration.

“I think a lot of these fields are related, like, film, music, writing,” Barnes said. “They all kind of go hand in hand. I’m trying to get, like creative tips.”

Hewlett-Woodmere Public Library hosts a variety of programs, for adults, children and teens including book clubs, cooking classes, crafts, sport activities and workshops.

Library Director Michelle Young said they enjoy hosting programs such as the Friday film lecture, because HWPL is designated Nassau County art music library. They offer a wide variety of concerts, movie showings, music material and art along with lectures on these topics.

“We like to show all the different facets of creative work and how it's done,” Young said. “We have a really interesting, a really great built in audience, they're just art and music aficionados and we have a huge interest in film here too.”

For more information on Hewlett-Woodmere Public Library programs, visit HWPL.org.