Top directors and cinematographers debunk the myth that filmmaking has to be difficult

[Andrew Reid]

[media]http://vimeo.com/15543342[/media]

[b]"There's no video village on our films" - Wally Pfister (Dark Knight Rises)[/b]

Should you ever miss someone, turn those feelings into a movie. Why does that have to be complicated? This is what I was doing when I shot the above piece on the good old GH1 a while back. For me filmmaking isn't any more difficult than feeling. It is just another language.

http://www.eoshd.com/content/8906/top-directors-and-cinematographers-debunk-the-myth-that-filmmaking-has-to-be-difficult

[Dr. John R. Brinkley]

They used to say the hardest thing to do on the set was to decide where to put the camera. That issue will never go away. A lot of the other details are negotiable.

[moebius22]

Don't bother with Cameron. His obsession with technology and big budgets, at the expense of story is going to bury him with an [i]Intolerance[/i] like failure.

[Andrew Reid]

I actually really enjoyed Cameron's view. The technology is still exciting. But it doesn't have to be complicated. Let Cameron continue to develop 3D, it is in its infancy at the moment and the technology just isn't there yet.

[peederj]

This is all neurotic navel gazing. I have no interest in how you did it. Everyone will do it in their own way. Some complications are superfluous, some are of the absolute essence. I can't decide that for you. I can only decide if I like what you did.

[Jaime Valles]

Thank you for this article (and lovely short film). All you really need is a camera, a lens, a recording medium, and a dream.

[tehgeek]

[quote name='Jaime Valles' timestamp='1346988778' post='17491']
Thank you for this article (and lovely short film). All you really need is a camera, a lens, a recording medium, and a dream.
[/quote]

If you want to make the next Clerks, El Mariachi or Primer then yes, if you want to make the next Transformers not so much.

Film making can be easy and film making can be very complex.

[eliasd]

Yes making a film must be an easy process, but you have to realize what a film is (for me thats more difficult than understand the "latitude" of dslrs). Having a scenario that moving people minds to another level is the key, not having the newest camera.

[lightpainter]

IMAGINATION of your SOUL?

the easy of the mind that moves in the film..your soul...your own, that floats you in a river of now, then and
past...is a miracle.. you can ease it in any point of view and sight, and in first every way is right and simple..
but then,something happens..
music.. for my project i tried differend ways and music styles... one was is classic. one is with monolithic and
frugal instrumentation with only 3 base notes on a reanimated old moog..this then brings me to scriptpainting
where i bring my scene to a picture - and it s crasy and a slow process- sometimes i write the whole background story
of one character..in the sadness of no happy ending of the film- that thern brings the shine-and then i knew more
about the stage and how i will design every detail-setz the light-and so on..
Technical , i am happy that the 2 gh-2 i use are in this step, and later "there" just there and fit in a cinematic neutrality in.
But i do not mention about because if you go line to much to perfect it to 100%, you kill it, how to explain..
when you play a line on your guitar and it falls with choirevoices in a upcoming dramatic sense of it, a bit but just a bit
"false" a bit drive can make it. it is like this.
And it is also a litte timless picture compositing, that you set it right, for your suppose of the scene and story and that you
make the audience, think you are the people, in differnd, and you get them in a conjunctive moode,..
How is it, when you are lost 100000000000000000000000 millon miles away in space, is it same, if you are lost, because
your father dies, is it same because you are now one glimpse of last lightshine away of calm peace, for a end of my sf-film-project
i had the idea, taht the hero knwos that hw will die, wath would you do, when 20.000 dark transformed humankloned zombas run
on your hill, and only 3 are left, and you have only 5 buiilts, my maincharacter sits down ( in demolated house) and begins to play
sebastin bach .." oh komme grooser Herr" you see all in slomo, when the zombies brake in, and the hero smiles, he strkes the stanway
piano.. weh do hear nothing, only the singel childish played notes,
and he knows, no its right, he has found his fredom..
clic..the 100 megatonn reactor..... white.... end titel... music goes up in full orchestral holybness of hell...

okay.
and this is only one of 10001 ways i just will do this.

"....alfred...alfred.... come in....dinner is ready..."

out

[jgharding]

Lovely piece!

Every time I get tempted to buy some new bit of kit I ask if it will make my work better, or if in fact I just need to make more work. Truth is it's very easy to hide behind technology, and say "I can't shoot til I've got X piece of kit", when really it's just part of a tool box. painters spending a lot of time discussing brushes and paints and canvases would be smart to spend more time painting, though such discussion is very useful.

Usually I don't buy the afforementioned thing, I go and make a piece with what I have, find I'll always have a lot to learn, then go and watch my favorite films and realise what matters most is the story you tell, and they could have been shot on what I have.

I suppose my favorite film isn't Transformers though ;)

[Xiong]

For me its about mood and themes, I like using music as a canvas, or an inception of an idea that is to spawn from the music. Letting music play and piecing a loose storyboard in my head depending on the mood of a track on my mp3, trying to connect the theme and plot into an understandable narrative or "path." My teacher always mentioned that it doesn't always have to start from a beginning, it can spawn from the ending, the middle, even as simple as a conversation at a dinning table. The point was to start a spark somewhere and then to try and fuel that spark into a flame to structure your story.

[Xiong]

Guys! John just broke the news! Black Magic with m43 mount! [url="http://johnbrawley.wordpress.com/2012/09/07/blackmagic-change-it-up-with-a-passive-m43-mount/"]http://johnbrawley.wordpress.com/2012/09/07/blackmagic-change-it-up-with-a-passive-m43-mount/[/url]

[Axel]

As a bloody amateur filmmaker, I consume [i]a lot[/i] of films and [i]a lot[/i] of music. I am a lousy photographer, my framing skills are non-existent. I am a passionate editor, I sample bits and pieces, combine them in a new, personal way that makes me aware of how and why I relate to others. In my view, 'filmmaking' can be defined very strictly as publishing an audiovisual statement as a product or work of art. For me it is a way of thinking, feeling and enhancing the flow of inputs and outputs, a way of perceiving life, even if never anything of it is published. Opinions come and go, I don't care. What counts for me are emotions and how I can set them free. And meanings. We are like the prisoners in Plato's cave analogy. There is a way to the light, and art struggles to find it.

[Xiong]

[quote name='Axel' timestamp='1347009653' post='17511']
As a bloody amateur filmmaker, I consume [i]a lot[/i] of films and [i]a lot[/i] of music. I am a lousy photographer, my framing skills are non-existent. I am a passionate editor, I sample bits and pieces, combine them in a new, personal way that makes me aware of how and why I relate to others. In my view, 'filmmaking' can be defined very strictly as publishing an audiovisual statement as a product or work of art. For me it is a way of thinking, feeling and enhancing the flow of inputs and outputs, a way of perceiving life, even if never anything of it is published. Opinions come and go, I don't care. What counts for me are emotions and how I can set them free. And meanings. We are like the prisoners in Plato's cave analogy. There is a way to the light, and art struggles to find it.
[/quote]

That's great, don't doubt your skills as an editor. Vincent Laforet admits that his short "Riverie" was terrible until an editor had recut his original version. My writing is terrible because I'm just not patient enough haha. Everyone has their faults but with a little practice its possible.

[Germy1979]

This was a good article... It's just fun to talk about filmmaking. These guys talk about the medium though, because they really don't have issues getting work i'm pretty sure. They've already put their thumbprint in the industry and we admire these guys for their work. Somewhere between Titanic and Avatar, I'd say Cameron is less concerned for the story so much as he is raising the bar for entertainment in general, so now he's all about breaking the barriers of immersion. Whereas, Nolan has Wally Pfister running around like a doc dp. Run and gun gets such a bad wrap like it's unprofessional. No. It's spontaneous, and challenging.

What i kind of got from this article though, is RAW acquisition is at the doorstep for $3000. How many people will buy a BMC? Now, how many films will come out of it, vs. cat videos on Youtube? If you don't watch it, it can get too philosophical and hinder your productivity... It's happened to me. The technology won't be the problem soon enough, and the lack of production will run parallel the excuses. Like fast food and cancer since the 70's.

On the other hand, there's gonna be some badass cat videos...

My day with Mittens.

Gear:

Blackmagic Cinema Camera
Lens: Arri/Zeiss 25, 35, 50, 85, 100mm cine kit.
Iscorama Anamorphic adapter.
Sachtler pod
Raw

shot in my kitchen
Graded in Resolve.

[SloppyPuller]

Hello from Italy, I'm a newbie in this forum so please be patient ;-)
Just watched the last Batman movie, and sorry for mr. Pfister but it seemed to me that more than 50% of the interior shots were out of focus and with a terrible background bokeh... I thought "Maybe there was a problem with the italian copy screened at my cinema, but eventually I checked the exterior shots and they were mostly "in focus". It's incredible that such a high budget movie got a cinematography so sloppy :-(
And it's not my stinky opinion only, in few instances online I found similar rants :
" A handful of intimate moments failed horrifically in the focus department. Specifically, Batman’s entire face is out of focus when Catwoman traps him with Bane (“You made a big mistake.”) and Bane’s face is entirely out of focus when he sits over a broken Bruce in the prison. There are other moments like this in the film, but those two stood out. I want to give Pfister and his focus puller the benefit of the doubt, because IMAX cameras have ridiculously shallow depth of field. Of course, they weren’t all IMAX shots. And this brings me to my biggest issue with the film." [url="http://themoviemash.com/2012/07/mikes-review-the-dark-knight-rises-full-spoilers/"]http://themoviemash....-full-spoilers/[/url]
‎"As for the cinematography, Nolan left his focus puller at home, with half the film out of focus. The dark vision is almost too dark and blue. Where events should be sharp the image is soft..." [url="http://www.radiantattack.com/movie-review/batman-the-dark-knight-rises-movie-review/"]http://www.radiantat...s-movie-review/[/url]

Have a great evening buddies,

Roberto

[Marko Slavnic]

a

[thekgb]

[quote name='EOSHD' timestamp='1346987897' post='17489']
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]The technology is still exciting. But it doesn't have to be complicated.[/font][/color]
[/quote]

Isn't he the same guy who spent 500 million-ish making a 3D cartoon recently?

Cameron lives in his ego, not the real world.

[thekgb]

[quote name='Axel' timestamp='1347009653' post='17511']
As a bloody amateur filmmaker, I consume [i]a lot[/i] of films and [i]a lot[/i] of music. I am a lousy photographer, my framing skills are non-existent. I am a passionate editor, I sample bits and pieces, combine them in a new, personal way that makes me aware of how and why I relate to others. In my view, 'filmmaking' can be defined very strictly as publishing an audiovisual statement as a product or work of art. For me it is a way of thinking, feeling and enhancing the flow of inputs and outputs, a way of perceiving life, even if never anything of it is published. Opinions come and go, I don't care. What counts for me are emotions and how I can set them free. And meanings. We are like the prisoners in Plato's cave analogy. There is a way to the light, and art struggles to find it.
[/quote]

Yes, it's about the game, not the toys.

[lightpainter]

I D E A !

i think now about 2 years for an IDEA FOR something i call

P A R A L L E L F I L M V E R S E [ P F V]
-you can call it like you want
- we build up a global direct to the audience Film-Industrie
-it is modern and in my focus a past of now and bit more next ( question: what comes after the internet? the first i ask)(not?)
-we follow the rality of now i-pad / and so on-homecomputers-home-tv-cinema and small cinematic sollutions-(korea)
-we also build a lasso worldwide in the now older but may be drowning existing smaler village-cinemas ( cinema paradiso)
-we think in openair-film-festivalls
-we put togher and in a artifical and human way the talents in one big sphere ( i do not like any form of technical ore some
other rasim because of - nO it is anOGO-- we put wisdom and clerance in one line)
-maybe a hireing-sys mixed with wikipedialike knowledge
-we build up or own film-marketing-sys and GO ANOTHER WAY ( i do not like it if i want to see a film- when 70% of film is
spoken--- a film / a book / music falls in BOX and looses his virgin artifical way to be,SURPRISE i want.. ev. direction can
be possible...
-it is the bachroots to film and the forwar to overmorning
-it speaks the only language we have EMOTIONAL STORY
-we have the gear and think the fire out is global
-maybe some do not want this

but think about 1000 ANTS who dream, work togheter and make it...
it is power.

- so why don`t we do it?

out