Waiting 2B Scene

Tag: video essay

  • Video Essay: Directed By Christopher Nolan (Malko)

    As I wrote recently, I have been reading William Goldman’s book, “Which Lie Did I Tell: More Adventures In The Screen Trade”… a consequence of the reading has been to dull the sheen of the apparent super-powers that directors like Christopher Nolan have always seemed to possess. With that being said – great directors are very much a Ring Master at the Cinema Circus. We all know that there is no show without the talent (everyone from the screen writers, the cinematographers, the sound designers, the actors, and everyone else in between). Likewise, the Cinema Circus must have a Ring Master that can pull it all together and offer the audience as seamless a production as possible.

    Thus today I would like to share a video essay put together by a young Ukrainian videographer, Nikita Malko. Even though it falls into that trap of glorifying Nolan alone amongst his talented crew – it is still a fun little montage.

    https://vimeo.com/134932028

  • Video Essay: How to Be Tom Cruise (Schneider & Britnell)

    Today’s post is a link to a fun little video montage made by Burger Fiction that explores some of the tips and tricks that have gone into the making of US Government operative Ethan Hunt. It is very well done, and you’ll enjoy it I’m sure.

    https://vimeo.com/134655198

  • Video Essay: Mad Max: Center Framed (Nedomansky)

    Continuing my series of resource links, today I want to return to one of my favourite videography bloggers – Vashi Nedomansky. He recently posted a fantastic little piece that demonstrates the importance of framing and composition.

    We often have it drummed into our heads that our framing and composition will look best when it follows simple rules such as the rule of thirds (or perhaps the slightly more complex golden ratio/phi ratio. Don’t know the difference: check this out). And while you can’t exactly argue with the visual efficacy of either of these rules, it’s always nice to be reminded that there are still other alternatives.

    Ergo, we come to Vashi’s latest clip. In it, we explore how sequences in the newest edition to the action-packed Mad Max franchise actually work by utilising a centre-framed focus. Though technically it is still working within a rule of thirds/phi ratio framework – it has been a marked deviation from the normal sense of framing for modern action films (which have utilised more of a chaos cinema approach). While, “This is by no means a new technique… by shooting the entire film in this way, [editor] Margaret Sixel could amplify and accelerate scenes, cut as fast as possible with the confident knowledge that the visual information would be understood.” It is a short piece, so I hope you enjoy it.

  • Video Essay: That’s Just Too Much Johnson Welles!

    Continuing my series of resource links, today I want to share a short video essay that interestingly brings to light the more humble beginnings of Orson Welles.

    74-years after crafting a picture that tells a simple, subtle story that works brilliantly in capturing our attention from the first frame onwards, Orson Welles still inspires. And for many cinephiles, the greatness of Citizen Kane is inextricably linked to the fact that the masterpiece was Welles’ debut work. Even so, whether it was his first or thirteenth film – there ought to be no disagreement that it stands as one of the most arresting films ever produced.

    Having said that, Welles did in fact have pre-Kane films.  The relatively recent 2014 surfacing of his 1938 work Too Much Johnson is an excellent case in point. Though somewhat rudimentary – we can see elements of the master technician practising his craft at least 3-years before Kane’s release. The work also does a lot to dispel the occasional assertion that Welles was a cinematic naif unschooled in the basic grammar of film. Oh, there is so much that may be discussed about this… but rather than bore you with my own verbage, let me rather introduce you to this little video essay by Kevin B. Lee on the whole matter.

    https://vimeo.com/103837463

    Note:  allow me to add this – I find it absolutely fascinating that the surviving film elements of Too Much Johnson somehow ended up in an Italian warehouse before being acquired by the USA’s National Film Preservation Foundation! It is almost as fascinating as the man himself!

  • Video Essay: Rear Window (Michael McLennan)

    Continuing my series of resource links, today I want to share a short clip that was pieced together by one of my friends, Michael McLennan. Michael also happens to be a long-time cinephile who has worked as producer, director of photography, editor, sound designer, music editor, and has also taught across a variety of film disciplines at the Sydney Film School. Recently picked up by the Indiewire team, today’s clip is a simple video essay that demonstrates Hitchcock’s amazing capacity for structural story-telling. In this instance, we find the story engaging with the audience through a carefully constructed repetition of symmetry.

    I personally find that such examples really ought to reinforce the idea that while amateurs point and shoot and think something along the lines of, “I hope this will look good!” – professionals plan and plan and plan, thinking more along the lines of, “How do I want this to look?” If we want to up our game and get our work seen – then we can all continue to learn tricks from the masters of cinema like this. I hope you enjoy.

  • Video Essay: How to Do Action Comedy – Zhou

    Continuing my series of resource links, today I want to swing back around to one of my favourite video essayists at the minute – yep, it is time to come back to some work by cinephile Tony Zhou. He has a great cache of stuff – and this is the second instalment of his work that I will be sharing (the first being How to Do Visual Comedy). In this fun video essay of How to Do Action Comedy – originally released at the end of 2014 – Zhou once again masterfully walks us through the visual story-telling of global action-phenom, Jackie Chan. You will definitely find it to be, “… a refreshing break from the shaky cam gimmicks of popular directors like Brett Ratner, J.J. Abrams or Michael Bay.” I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

  • Video Essay: On Archive Remakes?

    Continuing with this series of resource links – from video essays, to cinematographer interviews, how-to tips and the like – today I want to circle back around to an idea that I have often ruminated upon: that of the cinema remake. There are the obvious remakes, of course. Same name, same (or similar enough) plot-line… just large chunks of the same same same. Gone in 60 Seconds, The Planet of the Apes, Annie, The Absent Minded Professor… you get my point.

    But what I continue to love discovering is the myriad of videos that highlight those less distinguishable remakes (such as the essay I shared a little few weeks ago about Scorsese: while not a direct remake, there are enough similarities in the visual elements – and the story itself – to notice that the same director had made the piece, albeit with 50-years separating them). And so on Monday I happily stumbled upon a fun little piece that does a side-by-side comparison between archive films and the Paramount/Spielberg phenomena – Raiders of the Lost Ark! Yep, you read that correctly: this side-by-side comparison by a Vimeo user named Stoo clearly indicates that Raiders seems to have borrowed from quite a few old film ideas and visuals as well. But seriously – why just read about it: you have to see this for yourself!

  • Video Essay: Fade to White (Swinney)

    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 look at a short video essay by Baltimore-based editor, filmmaker, and fellow cinephile Jacob T. Swinney. For a wide range of cinematic reasons, the “fade from black” and the “fade to black” are ubiquitous in film and television. As such, the less frequent use of a “fade from white” or a “fade to white” makes for quite the visual impact upon a viewer. Where black offers transition and/or closure (and additionally these effects are subtly controlled by the amount of time taken to complete the fade) – Swinney has postulated in the description of today’s video essay that “the much less common fade to white seems to create a sense of ambiguity.”

    The fascinating thing for me is that doing a Google search of the term “film fade to white” predominantly returns various bloggers sharing this very clip. Prior to its release last week, it seems that about as many people were talking about this film-makers tool as those who happened to use it. So it is excellent to see such extra interest being generated for a simple – albeit quite evocative – effect! Without further ado then, may I add to the conversation by sharing the same video that many others have already shared. 🙂

  • Video Essay: Hitchcock’s Cuts in ROPE

    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 look at a short video essay. In it, this clip succinctly explores just one of the myriad of cinematic techniques that were employed by the film maestro of thrill and suspense – the “eloquent, suspenseful, quirky, and eminently entertaining”1 Alfred Hitchcock.

    In this, Hitchcock’s first colour film (and first use of James Stewart) – audiences the world over became somewhat convinced that the 1948 thriller was a single-take wonder. Now don’t get me wrong: these have been done since this film. But in Rope we find Hitchcock employing an especially creative use of framing to create and maintain an illusion of continuity (as in practice, reels only had either 10 minutes or 20 minutes to film on). By 2015 standards it may seem passé, but I would strongly suggest that any of the techniques employed by a technical master of cinema such as Hitchcock is worth considering in any age. Ergo, I hope you enjoy this video essay by Vashi Nedomansky.

  • 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