A Damn Good Shot

What animated film has the best cinematography?

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:23:00 -0500

Are you a fan of the earthy tones and lens flares of Wall E? Or do you go ape for Miyazaki’s bright colors and sweeping vistas? Do you miss the technicolor glow and “big camera” look of older Disney films, or do you pine for the doc rotoscoping of Waltz With Bashir? Go ahead and tell me what you think the most beautiful animated film is. There’s no wrong answer, but your choice may be included in an upcoming feature I’m working on that examines the relationship between film cinematography and animation.

DP Claudio Miranda's site

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:15:00 -0500

DP Claudio Miranda's site:

Cluadio Miranda’s (Benjamin Button, Tron) website. The whole site is worth checking out and exploring. (via legrand)

District 9 - 2009 Dir: Neill Blomkamp / DP: Trent Opaloch Today...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:02:00 -0500

District 9 - 2009

Dir: Neill Blomkamp / DP: Trent Opaloch

Today is District 9 day here at ADGS (because I got an awards screener in the mail). Enjoy.

District 9 - 2009 Dir: Neill Blomkamp / DP: Trent Opaloch

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:57:00 -0500

District 9 - 2009

Dir: Neill Blomkamp / DP: Trent Opaloch

FX Guide has an exhaustive look at the visual fx work on...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:48:00 -0500

FX Guide has an exhaustive look at the visual fx work on District 9, including these great before and after stills from several vfx shots in the film. It also gives insight into director Neill Blomkamp’s style for running a set, which I admire.

“He also didn’t want to have a typical video village on set with the sound guy and script supervisor,” continued Muzyers. “They had to be remotely located so he could shoot 360 degrees without having to ask the crew to get out of the way. For a film of that nature and size, the shooting schedule was actually quite short because of the budget constraints on the movie. So he went fast and hard and the pace was relentless.”

It’s amazing how animators were able to put so much emotion and believability into the shots, with so little information at hand from the reference frames.

On set, actor Jason Cope donned a 50% grey suit with markers and worked as a stand-in for the aliens. “Neill was fairly specific about wanting to have someone on set who the actors could interact with,” noted Kaufman. “It helped the other actors, particularly Sharlto Copley in the emotional scenes with Christopher Johnson, but of course it meant we had to paint it out later and restore pieces of the background.”

“The grey suit also gave us a good lighting reference,” observed Muzyers. “It wasn’t as neat as the grey ball you often see, but it gave a fairly good reference as to where light was coming from and how the shadows played on his body.”

Muzyers supervised the shooting of clean plates where possible, although again this proved difficult with the very active camera movement. “Luckily, Neill’s background in visual effects meant that he knew importance of capturing HDRI data. I can never take enough HDRI, so I kind of keep going until they usher me off the set!”

The article is basically a textbook of how to shoot a heavily improvisational film with visual effects in mind in the modern age of CG animation. Go read it.

Shooting 4K for 'District 9'

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:37:18 -0500

Shooting 4K for 'District 9':

DP Trent Opaloch talks about the challenges of using the RED ONE and Sony EX-1 cameras in the harsh South African climate while making District 9.

“It was a hard, hostile environment,” Opaloch continues. “It was extremely dry, so there was airborne dust everywhere, almost like talcum powder, and it was very windy. After less than a week of shooting, my 1st AC called me over and said he needed to show me something. When I went to where he had the RED camera, he blew out about half a cup of dust from inside. He turned it over and more dust came out. It was like an ashtray. And I thought, ‘My God! We’ve got seven more weeks of this!’”

They also talk about the post workflow, and then there’s a particularly interesting section on the challenge of creating the right balance between the heavily documentary-influenced EX-1 footage in the movie and the more polished, ‘cinematic’ RED footage.

The style of this section is designed to look freeform—more like a documentary—and Opaloch went with the Sony EX1 for these scenes. “We wanted these sections to be handheld and look like a journalistic camera being operated by a semiprofessional videographer trying to capture everything that’s going on,” the cinematographer explains. “We wanted it to feel journalistic and somewhat like surveillance footage at times. A different mix of footage you might see if you watched a news story on CNN.

The two styles evolved during production. “At first,” he notes, “the idea was to have a lot of contrast between the two types of footage. Pete had said, ‘Go bonkers with the journalistic footage. Let the highlights blow out, let the camera find focus and have the iris adjust.’ But then an interesting thing happened as we’d run a scene with the RED on a dolly and it felt like a completely different film. How would you ever piece these things together? And so we met in the middle. We went a little less extreme with the EX1 shots and a little less [clean] with the RED portions.

Go read the full article, there’s a lot more great information.

District 9 - 2009 Dir: Neill Blomkamp / DP: Trent Opaloch Wikus...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:13:50 -0500

District 9 - 2009

Dir: Neill Blomkamp / DP: Trent Opaloch

Wikus snatches a rocket from mid-air in a jaw-dropping shot.

District 9 - 2009 Dir: Neill Blomkamp / DP: Trent Opaloch Was...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:00:14 -0500

District 9 - 2009

Dir: Neill Blomkamp / DP: Trent Opaloch

Was District 9 the first movie to use (non-POV) gun mounted cameras?

newsweek:filmosophy: Bottle Rocket (Short) The original 13...

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:10:08 -0500

newsweek:filmosophy:

Bottle Rocket (Short)

The original 13 minute version of Wes Anderson’s Bottle Rocket, which was shown at Sundance way back when. This is the one that introduced the world to The Brothers Wilson (or, Owen and Luke at least), the one that James L. Brooks famously saw, and quickly agreed to produce as a feature-length film:

“When I first saw the thirteen-minute video I was dazzled—the language and rhythms of the piece made it clear Wes and Owen were genuine voices. The possession of a real voice is always a marvel, an almost religious thing. When you have one, it not only means you see things from a slightly different perspective than the billions of other ants on the hill, but that you also necessarily possess such equally rare qualities as integrity and humility. It’s part of the package of being a real voice, ’cause when your voice is real, you can’t screw around. The voice must be served; all other exit doors, marked “expediency” or “solid career move,” are sealed over, and the only way out of your inner torment is genuine self-expression.”

So this is, quite literally, where it all began for Wes Anderson.

caseydonahue: Cinematographer Style (Part 2) This is a...

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:06:41 -0500

caseydonahue:

Cinematographer Style (Part 2)

This is a documentary which is essentially 100 cinematographers talking about cinematography. Here they talk about how they started in the business which is exactly what I need to be watching as I am rapidly approaching graduation.

skeetonmischa: Jeff Cronenweth is going to be David Fincher’s DP on The Social Network. Cronenweth...

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:36:51 -0400

skeetonmischa:

Jeff Cronenweth is going to be David Fincher’s DP on The Social Network. Cronenweth shot Fight Club and more recently Fincher’s iPhone commercial. I like this. I still remain indifferent to the film, but will see it opening weekend and buy the DVD.

Miami Vice (2006) Dir: Michael Mann / DP: Dion Beebe

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 20:04:55 -0400

Miami Vice (2006)

Dir: Michael Mann / DP: Dion Beebe

Miami Vice (2006) Dir: Michael Mann / DP: Dion Beebe

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 19:04:53 -0400

Miami Vice (2006)

Dir: Michael Mann / DP: Dion Beebe

Chat Transcript with DP Dion Beebe

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:02:23 -0400

Chat Transcript with DP Dion Beebe:

Conducted while he was filming Miami Vice.

Miami Vice (2006) Dir: Michael Mann / DP: Dion Beebe Trivia:...

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:00:08 -0400

Miami Vice (2006)

Dir: Michael Mann / DP: Dion Beebe

Trivia: This shot is from the alternate opening sequence, which was cut from the theatrical release of the movie.

Sorry for the long absence, but work has pulled me away from...

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 01:54:00 -0400

Sorry for the long absence, but work has pulled me away from this blog. I’ll be posting regularly again here starting tomorrow, but in the meantime, here’s some shameless self-promotion in the form of a few screen grabs from my upcoming feature film The Rig. I’ll post a new trailer soon.

Photo

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:46:56 -0400

Star Trek (2009) Dir: J.J. Abrams / DP: Daniel Mindel

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:46:53 -0400

Star Trek (2009)

Dir: J.J. Abrams / DP: Daniel Mindel

Where No DP Has Gone Before

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:30:58 -0400

Where No DP Has Gone Before:

Great article from ICG about the shooting of Star Trek. Excerpt:

No sweat for Kauai-based Dan Mindel, cinematographer on the new Star Trek feature, who not only tackled the assignment with relish, but insisted on upping the ante. “The first thing I did was try to convince everyone we should shoot in anamorphic,” Mindel laughs. “There’s a big surge of people who feel it’s an antiquated workflow, and yet, technically, it’s still the highest method of image gathering we’ve got that works in a corporate-friendly way. Studios and younger producers and some directors have really forgotten these facts.”

Dig the remote follow focus controllers. “A lot of DPs will set...

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:22:52 -0400

Dig the remote follow focus controllers.

“A lot of DPs will set up a shot, choose the lens, etc., with the director and then you, as the operator, are told to merely execute the shot. That feels mostly like a wheel turner,” Anderson notes. “Dan’s the opposite. He provides input, but you have freedom and creative choice. It’s so rewarding. With Dan, you’re not just panning, tilting and invoicing. That’s so valuable.”