So you wonder why your home movies and YouTube masterpieces don't quite have the same production value as say, SNL's Lazy Sunday. Well the people that made that get paid to do it, so I would hope it looks good. But there's some tricks you can do to liven up your...
Cameras
The Film-Look
Despite the popularity of DV, filmmakers seem to always be after that elusive film-look. Though HD and Digital Video keep rapidly advancing, film has set the bar high. While the realistic look of DV is more appropriate for some mediums (documentaries, mockumentaries,...
Children of Men
I know Children of Men is slightly old news, but Emmanuel Lubezki won the ASC award for best cinematography so that makes it current. I'm not surprised but am extremely glad he won. If you haven't seen Children of Men then you (and apparently the Academy) are missing...
Film Books
These are a few of the books we're required/recommended to get. Hopefully I'll be able to go into more detail about each one in the future. We were recommended to buy this book last year for Filmmaking I, and now both Filmmaking III and Advanced Cinematography are...
Camera Tests
For the past couple of weeks we've been having camera tests for our F3s in our Cinematography Lab. Camera tests give us a chance to try out different film stocks and techniques so we can get an idea of how we want to shoot our F3. The idea is this is the chance to...
Digital Scores Another Point
Charles' F3, the one that I redeemed myself on, went pretty well last Sunday and Monday. The house we shot at was amazing, all ten cast members arrived on time and were great, and even Goodwood went off without a hitch. Of course a show can't be perfect, which is why...
Digital – 2 Film – 0
New show. I'm now First Assistant Camera (1AC). Above in the photo is Matt, my second. The first day is done and we have one roll to download, Matt's first full on downloading experience. Of course I've told him all about my previous experience, and tried to give...
A Busy January
January is going to be a busy month for me. As I said before, three films are down, four to go. These four are all ATL jobs, and are every Friday-Saturday for the next four weeks when school starts up again on the 7th. Week 1 - Director of Photography This is a sci-fi...
Morning of DP-ing Nerves
It's 4 AM and I'm about to shoot a movie in two hours, but I can't seem to go back to sleep. So I'll write! It seems that Director of Photography is the most nerve wracking position. It's a blend of using your technical knowledge to create artistic images, while...