Viewing 1 - 6 out of 6 Blogs.

Please check out my latest film: Jean's Postmodern Masterpiece at the link below. Click on the "watch now" icon. It was completed as part of a private reading in the fall of my sophomore year at Oberlin College.

http://twocutfilms.com/jeans-postmodern-masterpiece/

Thanks!

So I have been shooting another film. We were supposed to finish shooting yesterday evening. It was in a house, and we had exactly from 6pm to 8pm to shoot the scene, then we had to get out. It was depressing, because it became apparent to me as I was shooting that there was no possible way the scene could be shot well in the time alotted. Thankfully, I stuck to my principles and shot it at my normal pace, and it looks decent, but I didn't finish the scene at all, and had to beg the owner to let us shoot there again. Not good.

Worse than not scouting the location, I thought I had a clear mental image of where I was shooting, only to arrive on a different set than I had in my head. This was extremely bad, because instantly about half of my shotlist was instantly obsolete. And much of the blocking I had figured out was also useless. (oh yeah, I'm the director/cinematographer/everything except actors, composer, and editor)

It would have been a really good cinematography test to give as an exam to a class. Where you tell your student what equipment they have, but don't tell them how the location is laid out, and give them an hour to shoot something that is impossible to shoot in that time. Then, gauge how much they get done, and how good it looks. My lighting was sloppy at best. I ended up going for a gregg toland look (its in b & w), and kind of succeeded in a way... The light sources make very little sense, but it looks good. The average viewer may not care. Its a pretty stylized film, in which I tried to deal with camera movement in a conservative noir/studio way, but image control in a french new wave kind of style. It has been an incredibly taxing experience. My actors are great. I had a producer, who quit half way through without telling me, and I had to pick up the slack. And shoot incredibly quickly. We went from having like, a 4k budget, to nothing. And I was determined to shoot the film. We went from shooting HD/HDV to my AG-DVC30 camera. In a way, this was good, in that I know it so well, that I was really able to get the most out of my images. But in another way it was a horribly disappointing experience. I still have to reshoot this scene, at least continue shooting. And the premeire is next saturday. The rest of the film is edited (this is the last scene). But this is incredibly stressful.

At the same time I'm shooting another film... DPing mostly. Again, really stylized stuff. In color. Storaro would be proud, except for the not shooting univisium part... And except for not using his custom gels... But yeah, its much less pressure than this other one I'm directing.

This is a short film that was shot in my first semester of college 2006. It was shot on an AG-DVC30.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxWxskQ70Sk

I apologize in advance for the compression...

So, we get on set. Its an extremely emotionally intense scene. A bedroom scene, with some nudity. It was a closed set, essential personell. So it was just the director, myself (cinematography), and the sound girl. And the two actors. We go through it. It was a seven page scene (very dialogue heavy), and we are there until 3am. Yes, 3am. The director really pushes for the performance he wants. We were recording sound through a mixer onto camera. We finsih the scene, everyone relieved, and inspired by its success. Then I get a call the next morning from the director: No sound. So apparently there were no levels, and we got no sound at all. So now we have to reschedule this scene. Also, the actors smoked about 20 cigarettes a piece... Which wasn't very comfortable either by the end. So the director doesn't mention this to the actors the next day. We have a scene that evening. He still hasn't told them. We're all on set. Then he tells them... on set... They are not happy campers obviously. Then they have to be in love again... What a disaster. The shoot went okay after everyone just got over it. Of course sound was triple checked this point... The real point being that bad things happen on set that are unpredictable, and you just have to move forward I guess. Still, disheartening to say the least. Especially for the actors.

It has been one of the busiest times for me filmmaking-wise, ever.

One of the senior projects I'm working on has commenced principal photogrpahy. The director likes to operate in a very documentary-esque way, which gets great performances from actors, but requires a different kind of camerawork. I have to constantly be focused on what is happening, and oftentimes just follow the action where ever it may be. I'm hesitant to give out details of the story in an online fashion. I will say that he didn't want to work directly from a script, preferring to work in a more improvised style. Basically, he gave me the locations, and a general idea of what he expects to cover, and we go in and shoot it. He also had a very detailed/visual synopsis that he wanted to follow and that we talked over. It is fairly comedic, but he wants it to feel like a film noir, and treat the material very seriously visually. This is difficult! But I love the challenge, and it is a refreshing way of working, where constantly we get very beautiful and unexpected moments that couldn't happen with a regimented script. We are shooting on a DVX100, with a variety of lowel lighting kits, which I'm pleased to say are getting the job done very well. I like to work at lower light levels generally, and these lights are much easier to transport than many others. They are ideal for the project. The only one I still have issues using is the tota light. It is just almost impossible to control... We've actually been shooting for about a week now, and should be finishing up next week. We already completed the most difficult locations, which was a classroom that we had to reserve on the weekend with about 20 extras. It was difficult on so many levels. We had 20 bored extras waiting for something exciting to happen while we set up. It was the worst possible room. The flourescents were not extremely flattering, and on two walls (it was a corner), there were huge windows that we had to completely cover. I in turn brought what I consider a set essential: reflector kit. It came in extremely handy on this particular set where I had so little control over the light. It was quite frustrating as cinematographer to not have the control I wanted over the lighting, but it was the only time and place we could shoot this scene, and the director was adament. So I warned him in advance and we moved ahead. On the whole he seemed pleased with the footage. We were in that room for literally eight hours filming about half of the movie. I must say I really have come to like the DVX, its a great camera. I don't think like the idea of shooting on film just to "shoot on film". I think that more than ever I'm remembering why we shoot on anything at all, and that is to tells stories. And I think in the end its about which format tells your story best, not which format costs the most, or is the most complicated, or even which is the most beautiful aesthetically.

More on this later...

I've been asked to DP two senior projects at my college, and I'm really excited. It's going to be a lot of work, but I'm really looking forward to it.