(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
Steven Soderbergh’s State Of Cinema Talk
A few months ago I was on this Jet Blue flight from New York to Burbank. And I like Jet Blue, not just because of the prices. They have this terminal at JFK that I think is really nice. I think it might be the nicest terminal in the country although if you want to see some good airports you’ve got to go to a major city in another part of the world like Europe or Asia. They’re amazing airports. They’re incredible and quiet. You’re not being assaulted by all this music. I don’t know when it was decided we all need a soundtrack everywhere we go. I was just in the bathroom upstairs and there was a soundtrack accompanying me at the urinal, I don’t understand. So I’m getting comfortable in my seat. I spent the extra $60 to »
Kindred Spirits
The cinema is the great compensatory art, the one that natural-born artists who lack any particular technical skill, craft, or knowledge gravitate toward, because it’s the one where the equipment itself supplies most of the needed technique. The artists need only bring their being—because being is the cinema’s very stuff and subject. That’s why it’s wrong to call movies a visual medium; it’s a shorthand that I’ve indulged in, too, but there’s actually no such thing as a beautiful image. If a director happens to be endowed with a visual gift (such as Stanley Kubrick, who started as a photographer), so much the better, but what makes an image beautiful is that it’s infused with a beautiful soul. That’s why there’s no formula for recognizing or identifying a beautiful image; it’s not definable as a geometric or formal quality, but »
Reiner Riedler’s shots of original filmrolls from The Deutsche Kinemathek
Get it while it lasts, folks. The movies of the future will be all digital, all the time.
These are gorgeous. The Godfather reel in particular is just gorgeous.
The Career of Paul Thomas Anderson in Five Shots
Absolutely engrossing, educational, and reaffirming my previous statement that Paul Thomas Anderson is the most important living filmmaker of our times.
Watch, watch again, and let us learn.
Another delightful example of PT Anderson at his best.
(Source: https://player.vimeo.com/)
SteadiShots.org will blow your mind
I don’t think this shot could have been accomplished except for the huge and enthusiastic crew we had in China. It took a very large crew to pull it off. A conventional crane could not get over the wall – we had to use a motorized hoist system that ran on overhead tracks that first lifted me up and then tracked along on top of the wall above Uma, crossing the wall at a slight angle until reaching the bathroom set and then lowered me down as Uma entered a stall to change into her “killing” costume. A custom chair was suspended from the winch that I could sit down for the flight over the wall operated by key grip Herb Ault who managed to get me up over and down with only a few minor collisions with the set. I then »
What was ever real?
Directors Martin Scorsese and James Cameron have different ideas about the use of CGI in film:
“My big concern is that the image, ultimately, with CGI, I don’t know if our younger generation is believing anything anymore on screen. It’s not real.” – Martin Scorsese
“When was it ever real? There was kind of a wall there and nothing over there. There are 30 people standing around. There’s a guy with a boom mic, there’s another guy up on a ladder with his ass crack hanging out. There’s fake rain. Your ‘street, night exterior New York’ was a ‘day, interior Burbank’. What was ever real?” – James Cameron
Things that are real in that list:
- kind of a wall: it’s still made of real material.
- 30 People Standing Around.
- Guy with a boom mic.
- Ladder.
- Guy with his ass crack »
A well done detailed walk through of the finer points of shooting a dialogue scene.
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
“My film is not a movie. My film is not about Vietnam. It is Vietnam. It’s what it was really like. It was crazy. And the way we made it was very much like the Americans were in Vietnam. We were in the jungle. There were too many of us. We had access to too much money, too much equipment, and, little by little, we went insane.”
– Francis Ford Coppola at the Cannes Film Festival, 1979
On paper the sentence “It is Vietnam” is utterly ridiculous, and is a common reference among some film friends of mine. But when you see it in context with his delivery I remember why I immediately admired him in my teenage years. Coppola’s ego was huge, but he was honest enough to express exactly how he felt. Which, is all you »
“No? Nobody? None… the word would be?”
Samuel takes a potentially awkward question and flips it on Hamilton, producing a moment that sheds light on what’s going on in our culture better than I could ever explain.
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
No More 3D Movies
I’ve sat through a handful of 3D movies over the past few years, and now today again I tried to give the medium another chance and chose to watch The Hobbit in 3D*. But I can safely say I am done with 3D movies.
I can’t think of a single moment in all of the 3D films I’ve seen where I’ve felt somehow more connected then I would if the image was 2D. The difference between a movie in color and black and white is huge, as well as the size of the frame really effects the way a story feels. But 3D is only a distraction.
I’ve fought being the cranky old guy who doesn’t like change from the beginning. My instinct has always been that this is entirely a gimmick. I can’t do it anymore though, 3D it’s time to get off »
A clear explanation of the difference the Blackmagic Cinema Camera is going to make by making the jump to 12-bit depth.
Which becomes quite clear with math:
The bit-depth simply refers to the different combinations of ones and zeros that is possible (with color images having three channels of bit-depth). The more bits and values possible, the better the final quality will be.
8-bit — 256 different values
10-bit — 1024 different values
12-bit — 4096 different values
(Source: https://player.vimeo.com/)
FIGHT!: Dissenting Opinion: The Dark Knight Rises
FIGHT!: Dissenting Opinion: The Dark Knight Rises
This movie is not up to the standard of the series, it is disappointing, and I STILL ENJOYED IT. That’s the sad thing. I sat through all the glaring plot holes and inconsistencies and rug puller ending, and I enjoyed it. There is too much good stuff happening, and too much good visuals, and too much fun times that it’s just an unrelenting machine. It’s like a Ford F-350 strapped with fireworks and blasting AC/DC. While you’re watching it launch over the Grand Canyon, who gives a shit if it has really rough transmission and the engine misfires every so often. But, you aren’t going to choose to ride in it once the fireworks end and you just want to cruise around town.
A random goofy little project that was filmed back in January in an afternoon, finally finished and online. Truly a sideshow of a sideshow.
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
“ what was best for the film was to scan our neg, which was in very worn condition. With this Crisp knowingly opened a Pandora’s Box, but for the betterment of the film. He’s been working with those elements tirelessly for two years, and went far beyond what any studio executive would normally have done. My hat is off.”
– Robert Harris, who made the restoration print from which this negative was struck.
Mr. Crisp you are a gentleman and a scholar, thank you for your efforts.
A good IRE for a properly exposed face is 60-70 IRE on the WAVEFORM. If you raise the MIDS too much, you will introduce the beast of digital noise, so use judicially!
Good advice here about the basics of color correction. The emphasis on premiere is further evidence that it’s the suite to learn, and final cut pro is a dead man walking.
Spielberg on Kubrick (1999)
This is the uncut version of an interview with Steven Spielberg about Stanley Kubrick. It originally aired on British television, excerpts from it were used on the Eyes Wide Shut DVD.
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
What’s Wrong With *The Hunger Games* Is What No One Noticed
What’s Wrong With *The Hunger Games* Is What No One Noticed
The Hunger Games has this same feminist problem. Other than the initial volunteering to replace her younger sister, Katniss never makes any decisions of her own, never acts with consequence— but her life is constructed to appear that she makes important decisions. She has free will, of course, like any five year old with terrible parents, but at every turn is prevented from acting on the world. She is protected by men— enemies and allies alike; directed by others, blessed with lucky accidents and when things get impossible there are packages from the sky. In philosophical terms, she is continuously robbed of agency. She is deus ex machinaed all the way to the end.
That’s why The Hunger Games is such a diabolical head fake. Forget about it being »