Here are a couple of great YouTube videos that I came across. There are some valuable lessons here from some of the world’s greatest cinematographers.
Part 1 of the Lighting Segment from “Cinematographer Style” Directed by Jon Fauer.
The industry’s best talk about proper lighting and equipment know-hows. Films are much more than a good story or good laughs, its technique and supremely efficient execution is what makes our eyes wander the screen and our minds when we think about a great film.
Part 2 of the Lighting Segment from “Cinematographer Style” Directed by Jon Fauer.
The industry’s most talented and visionary cinematographers explain the importance of proper lighting and the techniques required for appropriate illumination.
Cinematographers in interview:
Vittorio Storaro: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005886/
William A. Fraker: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005710/
Fred Murphy: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002320/
Bill Butler: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0124832/
Gordon Willis: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0932336/
Bill Dill: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0226778/
Remi Adefarasin: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001899/
Daniel Pearl: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0669050/
Denis Lenoir: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0003631/
Richard Kline: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0459660/
Russel Carpenter: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005665/
Vilmos Zsigmond: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005936/
Stephen Goldblatt: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0003552/
Robert Primes: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0697543/
John Toll: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001799/
I’m as much of a camera nut as the next filmmaker, and I am ecstatic about the giant leaps that camera technology has been making of late. Like so many others, I’m on the Amazon.com waiting list for two Canon 7D bodies, and they just can’t get here fast enough. But I have been noticing a trend in the independent film community lately. It seems that the most important thing to filmmakers theses days is the latest, greatest camera. Even worse, we speculate and obsess over the latest camera features and specs. The accessibility of high quality tools and the democratization of production is enabling filmmakers to do what was only a dream just a few years ago.
What is that dream for most filmmakers? Telling stories. Story is the reason that I got into this business. What is storytelling? Story is a combination of entertaining, informing and most importantly, manipulating and evoking an emotional response from an audience. Storytelling (the filmmaker’s dream) is not depth of field, sensor size, cameras, editing software, faster computers, microphones, codecs, camera stabilizers, or anything else. These are just the tools that we use to create our art . Surely, Salvador Dali didn’t sit around with other painters for days on end and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the latest canvas and brushes. Photographers are even bigger gear heads than filmmakers(debatable, but bear with me), but their discussions always come back to the photo. I have never seen a comment thread on Flickr that focuses exclusively on the camera that a photo was shot with. The critique usually runs much deeper than that. So, why is it that filmmakers endlessly discuss, debate, and lust after these items that are nothing more than our paint brushes and canvas? The tools are important, we use them to guide our audience, but what we make with these tools is infinitely more important than the tools themselves. What defines you as a director, editor, writer, cinematographer? Is it your camera, NLE, writing software? No. It’s your story.
There is a fantastic short film on Vimeo called “Perya” that’s getting a lot of attention the past few days. But I think it is getting the wrong kind of attention. This film has been blogged about over and over, and the only thing that anyone cares about is the Canon 7D that it was shot with! Yes, the images are stunning, but there is a substantial story there as well. It is a really great short documentary. Not because of the shallow depth of field or the 24P frame rate, but because of the story.
After viewing Perya the second time with a technical eye, I scrolled down the page to leave a comment. As I read the long list of comments I found myself having another emotional response. I was shocked that not a single comment on that page complimented the filmmakers on the story or the subject matter. Why isn’t anyone talking about that?
A recent post on ProLost, Stu Maschwitz coined the term Bokake for the all too common, slick, yet devoid of story, camera tests like Reverie. Perya is unfairly being treated like Bokake, but it is so much more. Perya is not a good film because it was lensed with a Canon 7D. Look a little bid deeper. Are filmmakers blinded by technology? If so, I think we need to make a conscious effort to try and focus on story, structure, character, tension, drama, lighting, action, dialog, location, pacing, performance, composition, and all of the other important things that make a good film.
If your dream has alway been to own a 7D or a Scarlet, more power to you. If your dream is to make a movie, you should start paying attention to the things that are hidden by the technology blinders that I think we have all been wearing lately.
Why would anyone wake up at 5:00 AM on a Saturday? To see a building implode via dynamite demolition of course. I have never witnessed a building imploding in person before, so I just had to check it out. And since I was going to see this, of course I brought along my camera to gather what could be some valuable DV Rebel footage for future use. Here’s what I came back with from my HVX200 shooting at 60 FPS. I added a little ramp and color graded with Magic Bullet Looks.
My latest endeavor as a Director of Photography was a music video for R&B artist L’ren C’s track “Ain’t Nobody Gotta Know”. The video was directed by David Bermejo, and post-production services were by Imaginary Digital. L’ren C is holding a special event tonight in Orlando, FL at Vintage. She will be performing live, then premiering the video. If you are able to make it, I’ll see you there. If not, here’s the video.
I have never directed a film before so when my assistant editor Adam asked me to direct an entry to the National Film Challenge, I agreed. Who in their right mind would turn down a fun, sleep deprived weekend of filmmaking? Not me, that’s for sure. And fun it was. We had a weekend of DV Rebel style filmmaking with a one day shoot that took place at a small carnival, and a day of intense post-production.
The weekend started with a brainstorming session with most of the crew present, then our writer, J.M. Moeller, went off and wrote the script that Afair is based on. Then we shot for a full day at the carnival, arriving before it opened to shoot some or our scenes, and staying until after dark to take advantage of the visually rich backdrop of the colors and lights available to us. Speaking of light… This film was shot entirely with available light and a bounce board. This caused us some problems with shadows and noise, but with a bit of attention in After Effects, I was able to remedy some of the issues. It’s not perfect, but I’m satisfied.
Director of Photography, Ryan Krause, shot Afair on my HVX-200/Brevis35 camera rig. Editor, Adam Lee, composer/sound designer, Justin Sisley and myself did all of the post in Adobe CS3. While this final version of the film is not exactly what was completed over that weekend, it is pretty close. After our entry was submitted to the contest, I went to work fine tuning the edit, color grade and titles while, Justin worked on refining the music and sound.
You can view Afair in HD at the official Afair website, or on Vimeo. Or watch in low resolution below. I recommend the HD version. While you’re at the Afair website, you can download an iTunes version of the film, an Afair logo wallpaper for your computer or the script. There is also a flickr photo set, and an Afair Facebook Page, so please become a fan.
I am interested to hear your thoughts on Afair, so leave a comment below or comment on Vimeo. Thanks and enjoy!
