A Damn Good Shot

Dedicated to the art of cinematography. You can read my other blog here. Send suggestions to ADamnGoodShot@gmail.com

Tue Dec 22
Goodbye, Bob Willoughby

Talking Pictures has a great entry on the passing of famed set photographer Bob Willoughby.

Tue Dec 15
skeetonmischa: A few weeks back, it was announced that Paul Thomas Anderson was hard at work on his next project, The Master, a film about an intellectual (potentially Philip Seymour Hoffman) who creates his own faith based organization in the 1950s. Obviously, great news for us, those who love and appreciate great movies, but then I start to think about one specific aspect. I started to run Anderson’s filmography through my head and I started to notice some interesting things. Nearly all of Anderson depicts Southern California during a specific decade/era. Go with me for a minute: 1997’s Boogie Nights showcases the Valley from the late 1970s through the mid 1980s. 1999’s Magnolia and 2002’s Punch Drunk Love is about present day/late 90s life in Southern California 2007’s There Will Be Blood broadly covers Southern California from 1902 to 1927 Let’s roughly estimate The Master will come out in late 2010 or winter 2011 and that will take place potentially in the 50s. Which leaves out the 30s, 40s,  60s and well, anything beyond 2010. Now, the question I’m asking or at least wondering out loudly, will PT Anderson do a film set in Southern California covering every decade since the 1900s?

skeetonmischa:

A few weeks back, it was announced that Paul Thomas Anderson was hard at work on his next project, The Master, a film about an intellectual (potentially Philip Seymour Hoffman) who creates his own faith based organization in the 1950s. Obviously, great news for us, those who love and appreciate great movies, but then I start to think about one specific aspect. I started to run Anderson’s filmography through my head and I started to notice some interesting things.

Nearly all of Anderson depicts Southern California during a specific decade/era. Go with me for a minute:

  • 1997’s Boogie Nights showcases the Valley from the late 1970s through the mid 1980s.
  • 1999’s Magnolia and 2002’s Punch Drunk Love is about present day/late 90s life in Southern California
  • 2007’s There Will Be Blood broadly covers Southern California from 1902 to 1927
  • Let’s roughly estimate The Master will come out in late 2010 or winter 2011 and that will take place potentially in the 50s.

Which leaves out the 30s, 40s,  60s and well, anything beyond 2010. Now, the question I’m asking or at least wondering out loudly, will PT Anderson do a film set in Southern California covering every decade since the 1900s?

Mon Dec 7

(via bonerparty & atencio)

Alie & Georgia Present: The Bloody Bacon & Cheese

Joins hosts Alie Ward and Georgia Hardstark as they take you on a comfort food-fueled journey of alcoholic delight and make their newest libation creation: The Bloody Bacon & Cheese. Combining the best parts of tomato soup with grilled cheese & bacon, the BBC is sure to fill you with warmth and good cheer, the perfect antidote to holiday headaches.

Created, hosted, & written by Alie Ward & Georgia Hardstark
Directed, shot, & edited by Peter Atencio
Produced by Alie, Georgia, and Peter

Shameless self-promotion of the day (I wouldn’t show it to you if I wasn’t a little proud of it).

Wed Dec 2
Weapons - Original Opening Shot

This starts out slow, but damn what a shot. No pun intended.

atencio:

My current favorite up & coming director to watch out for is Adam Bhala Lough. At just 30 years of age, he’s probably best known for the Lil’ Wayne doc The Carter, but he also directed the excellent and overlooked Weapons and Bomb The System. Weapons in particular has had a very troubled road from creation to distribution, as he discusses in this excellent (and for a filmmaker, totally gut-wrenching) interview. Here now, not seen since being cut after the film’s Sundance 2007 screening, is the original unedited opening shot from the film. Please watch it the whole way through, it’s a shocking and much more effective opening for what, despite heavy re-cutting on the part of the distributor, remains an excellent film. (thanks, Hunter)

Tue Dec 1
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) Dir: Wes Anderson / DP: Tristan Oliver In the months preceding the opening of the film, controversy arose concerning the little time that director Wes Anderson actually spent on set, choosing to direct the animation via e-mail from his flat in Paris. In an October 2009 Los Angeles Times article, cinematographer Tristan Oliver was quoted as saying, “I think he’s a little O.C.D. Contact with people disturbs him. This way, he can spend an entire day locked inside an empty room with a computer. He’s a bit like the Wizard of Oz. Behind the curtain.” Informed of Oliver’s discontent, Anderson said, “I would say that kind of crosses the line for what’s appropriate for the director of photography to say behind the director’s back while he’s working on the movie. So I don’t even want to respond to it.” On the Wes Anderson fan website The Rushmore Academy, Oliver criticized the article’s tone, stating that it made him out to be a villain: “Yes, working with Wes can be frustrating but that is true of any director and I’ve worked with a hundred who were more irritating and less motivated than Wes. So let’s just lay the ghost of this particular myth and oh, it would be nice if the death threats stopped too. Thanks.”

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Dir: Wes Anderson / DP: Tristan Oliver

In the months preceding the opening of the film, controversy arose concerning the little time that director Wes Anderson actually spent on set, choosing to direct the animation via e-mail from his flat in Paris. In an October 2009 Los Angeles Times article, cinematographer Tristan Oliver was quoted as saying, “I think he’s a little O.C.D. Contact with people disturbs him. This way, he can spend an entire day locked inside an empty room with a computer. He’s a bit like the Wizard of Oz. Behind the curtain.” Informed of Oliver’s discontent, Anderson said, “I would say that kind of crosses the line for what’s appropriate for the director of photography to say behind the director’s back while he’s working on the movie. So I don’t even want to respond to it.” On the Wes Anderson fan website The Rushmore Academy, Oliver criticized the article’s tone, stating that it made him out to be a villain: “Yes, working with Wes can be frustrating but that is true of any director and I’ve worked with a hundred who were more irritating and less motivated than Wes. So let’s just lay the ghost of this particular myth and oh, it would be nice if the death threats stopped too. Thanks.”

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) Dir: Wes Anderson / DP: Tristan Oliver Personal Comment: You may loathe the antiseptic cleanliness and order of Mr. Anderson’s shot choices, but you can’t deny that he has a knack for images of gorgeous symmetry.

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Dir: Wes Anderson / DP: Tristan Oliver

Personal Comment: You may loathe the antiseptic cleanliness and order of Mr. Anderson’s shot choices, but you can’t deny that he has a knack for images of gorgeous symmetry.

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) Dir: Wes Anderson / DP: Tristan Oliver

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Dir: Wes Anderson / DP: Tristan Oliver

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) Dir: Wes Anderson / DP: Tristan Oliver Wes Anderson chose to have the actors record their dialogue outside of a studio and on location to increase the naturalness: “We went out in a forest, went in an attic, went in a stable… we went underground for some things. There was a great spontaneity in the recordings because of that.”

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Dir: Wes Anderson / DP: Tristan Oliver

Wes Anderson chose to have the actors record their dialogue outside of a studio and on location to increase the naturalness: “We went out in a forest, went in an attic, went in a stable… we went underground for some things. There was a great spontaneity in the recordings because of that.”

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) Dir: Wes Anderson / DP: Tristan Oliver Trivia: Shot digitally using a Nikon D3, which offers a significantly higher resolution than even that of full High Definition. It was also shot at a frame rate of 12 frames per second, rather than the more fluid 24, so that viewers would notice the medium of stop-motion itself.

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Dir: Wes Anderson / DP: Tristan Oliver

Trivia: Shot digitally using a Nikon D3, which offers a significantly higher resolution than even that of full High Definition. It was also shot at a frame rate of 12 frames per second, rather than the more fluid 24, so that viewers would notice the medium of stop-motion itself.

Mon Nov 30
The 10 Best Long Tracking Shots Ever Filmed

This is a great list of excellent long shots.