Waiting 2B Scene

Tag: Resources

  • Interview: The Directors (The Hollywood Reporter)

    Continuing with my new series of resource links – from video essays, to cinematographer interviews, how-to tips and the like – today I want to do another throwback. This time, I want to take you back three years to an extraordinary round-table style interview with a few of Hollywood’s great directors: Quentin Tarantino, David Russell, Ben Affleck, Ang Lee, Tom Hooper, and Gus Van Sant. Be warned though, it is an hour-long! With that being said, if you are something of a cinephile like me, then let me assure you that it is an hour well spent. Especially when we get insights such as this gem from Tom Hooper:

    “There’s a very curious and complex relationship between time pressure and instinct in that we all hate the time pressure… It’s the hidden narrative of most films. The audience when they’re watching it don’t realise that most of the decisions have been made in relation to time pressure, and that you’re fighting this battle with a ghost that the audience never see. And yet, it’s the time pressure that means that the only thing you can do is work on instinct…”

    Anyway, in terms of film stock – these are a group of better people than me, and they are waiting to spend the next hour with you! So quit wasting time with me, jump on in, and enjoy the rarefied air that these Hollywood directing alumni have on offer!

  • News: Blackmagic Design Show Off at NAB (13-mins)

    Continuing with my new series of resource links – from video essays, to cinematographer interviews, how-to tips and the like – I needed to get this additional post out today as it was too good not to share immediately. Anyone involved – and/or interested – in video production will have already heard the news out of NAB (come one, why wouldn’t you keep abreast of the NAB happenings?) that once again Blackmagic Design has shifted the world of camera production with the announcement of their new 4.6K and 15-stop URSA Mini which is due for release later this year.

    If, like me, you are kind of itching to get a look under the hood of this new toy – then you will be pleased to check out this interview with the BMD Director of Sales Simon Westland as he takes us through some of the new camera’s functionality. Enjoy!

  • Video Montage: Everything is a Remix (Wilson)

    Continuing with my new series of resource links – from video essays, to cinematographer interviews, how-to tips and the like – today I want to take a jump back in time – to do a remix, if you will. If you aren’t concerned with the violence and blood-letting that has become something of a trademark for Tarantino’s work, then join me in revisiting an excellent video montage by editor Rob Wilson that explores Tarantino’s 2003-2004 masterpieces, Kill Bill 1 & 2.

    Over the years, my own anecdotal evidence has highlighted an interesting recurrence. There are most often two fields of thought when it comes to Quentin Tarantino: people either love him, or hate him. It seems that the rarest of the Tarantino consumers is someone like myself however – and that is one who is neither a lover, nor a hater. In my own case, I have enjoyed his work overall – though, I can’t just chow down on some Tarantino… I must be in the right frame of mind to choose to watch his work. The exception to that rule is Kill Bill. I unexpectedly fell in love with it!

    I had a recurring sense of déjà vu throughout the whole piece: “I’m sure I’ve seen (something like) this before!” But why? Like the montage below, watching the Making of Kill Bill revealed a lot. Tarantino went to extraordinary lengths to echo genre cinema. It is quite fair to say that almost every element of the film was used to both tell Tarantino’s story, and simultaneously pay direct homage to various forms of genre cinema (such as martial arts, spaghetti westerns, anime). And that is why I loved it. I have not seen anything come of Hollywood that quite matches Tarantino’s attention to so many cinephilic details as this. That is why I am happy to revisit this classic Tarantino film today – and I hope you enjoy the trip down memory lane too.

  • Article: “Ten Things To Remember Your First Day on a Film Shoot”

    Continuing with my new series of resource links – from video essays, to cinematographer interviews, how-to tips and the like – today I want to share with you a fun,though potentially career-saving, list of things to make sure we do on the first day of a shoot so that, “No matter how low you are on the food chain… [you] make sure your first day isn’t your last day.”

    It’s a great piece put together by media maestro (producer, author, and presenter) Phil Cooke: and I am sure we can all learn something from this once again – even if it from reading the comments section!

    Ten Things To Remember Your First Day on a Film Shoot.

  • News: Exciting Adobe Premiere Pro CC Update

    Continuing with my new series of resource links – from video essays, to cinematographer interviews, how-to tips and the like – today I want to share with you a news update that was released yesterday by the Adobe team regarding the latest updates to Premiere Pro. As a CC user myself, I have no doubt that I will find the additional functionality of great use – but for the sake of brevity, I will share just one of the updates that have been made – and that is the inclusion of a Lumetri Color workspace! If you want to see a larger view of what Adobe has in store, then check out the official release for details.

  • Video Essay: The History of Frame Rates

    Continuing with my new series of resource links – from video essays, to cinematographer interviews, how-to tips and the like – today I want to share with you a video essay brought to us by the team at FilmMakerIQ – a great piece that unpacks the history of that most essential element of film and television: the frame rate.

    Be prepared though: at just over 15-minutes in length, this one will take a commitment which you may not usually afford online media content: however, if you are willing to stick it out, then you will find that it is quite informative, and presented in a way that makes it well worth watching. Enjoy!

    https://vimeo.com/118533139

  • Short Film: “Hiding Place” – Phillip Bloom

    Continuing with my new series of resource links – from video essays, to cinematographer interviews, how-to tips and the like – today I want to share with you a short film that was quite secretly recorded by DP, director, film-maker, and all-round cinematographer – Philip Bloom.

    This video grabbed my attention as Bloom was able to create quite a beautiful short piece on the London Eye by using the comparatively discreet BMD Pocket Cinema Camera. He says of the endeavour, “The London Eye is ridiculously strict about what you use camera wise in the capsules. Multiple lenses, tripods, video camera are a big fat no…”

    So why did that strike me as being note-worthy? Well, it reminded me of correspondence that I had with an Australian ABC News camera operator a few years back while I was media manager and producer at NSCC. He wrote, “Practice, practice, practice! The main difference between professionals and amateurs in this field is no longer good or bad equipment, but the skill level of the team… [We] were never satisfied with our level of skill. We were always looking for continual improvement. And this simple principal applies to every area of video production: editing, camera, sound, lighting, scripting, presenting…”

    For me, this clip reinforced that point. Even though Bloom was only able to use a BMDPCC (compared to his standard film-making fare), the final result is still stunning. His skill-set was able to take some humble equipment, and massage a create a wonderful video. As such – my hope is that it encourages you as mush as it has encouraged me. Let us keep going, let us keep practising, and let us keep getting better – regardless of the equipment we can get our hands on!

  • Video Montage: Psycho Close Ups

    Continuing with my new series of resource links – from video essays, to cinematographer interviews, how-to tips and the like – today I want to share with you a video montage that was compiled by a Canadian film enthusiast who goes by the pseudonym Roman Holiday.

    In this piece, we’re taken exclusively into Alfred Hitchcock’s use of the close-up in his classic film, Psycho. I love it! Close-up action gives us more details, and can take us into the mind of a character, perhaps more than any other shot! In real life we only let people that we really trust get THAT close to our face (mothers, children and lovers, usually), and we will also only get that close to an object if we’re intent on finding out more information about it.

    A well orchestrated close up shot can easily become quite a powerful visual effect in itself. Of course – Hitchcock was the consummate master of visual story-telling: so I hope you enjoy this montage of his work as much as I did.

  • Video Essay: “How to Do Visual Comedy” – Zhou

    Continuing my new series of resource links – to video essays, cinematographer interviews, how-to tips and the like – today I want to share with you another video essay: this time it is a clip created by a great cinephile by the name of Tony Zhou. He has a great cache of stuff – and I will definitely be sharing a bunch of his material over the coming months.

    In this particular example from 2014, Zhou walks us through the comedy styling of Edgar Wright. And as noted in a previous blog post, “… [this is] a fun and informative video essay, which not only celebrates the work of director Edgar Wright, but explores how he uses cinematography to take advantage of as many comedic opportunities to as possible.”

  • Video Essay: On Scorsese

    I love media – and I love discovering the work of others who share this passion for film and television too! And seeing as I haven’t had a consistent stream of blog posts for a long while – I have had an idea: with this post I shall begin of a series of resources links: predominantly these will be links to video essays, cinematographer interviews, how-to tips and the like. Clips and information that I have personally found fascinating as something of a cinephile.

    To begin then, it was very exciting to stumble on this short video essay by Milad Tangshir that explores some of the visual dynamics that have been reused by film maestro Martin Scorsese in his student film, ‘It’s not Just You, Murray!‘ and his blockbuster ‘The Wolf of Wall Street‘ some 50-years later. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.