Authors — Michael Murie
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DP Sherry McCracken on Cinematography vs Photography, Pre-Visualization and the Growing Ease of Equipment for Female Crew Members
In part two of this interview, DP of American Gothic Sherry McCracken discusses moving from photography to cinematography, what she’d do differently, and how lighter cameras make it possible for more women to work as cinematographers. You can read the first part of the interview here. Filmmaker: How did you find it going from photography to cinematography? McCracken: There are as many similar things as there are different things. I felt right at home with lens choice, ISO, aperture choice, sensor size, memory card speeds, etc. I was used to framing shots and lighting them for the best dynamic range and composition. But […]
by Michael Murie on Apr 18, 2017 -
DP Sherry McCracken on Shooting the Low-Budget Independent Feature, American Gothic
Sherry McCracken, DP for the upcoming independent feature American Gothic, came to cinematography later in life. She grew up taking photographs, operated her own portrait business and worked in local television, but then she turned to IT because she felt she could make a better living. She remained an active still photographer and was asked by a friend to shoot location stills for a movie project. After working on that, and a second picture, she gained experience in film and ended up being asked to DP a project. In this interview she talks about how she made the switch to […]
by Michael Murie on Apr 17, 2017 -
Blackmagic Announces Color Control Panels and URSA Mini Pro
Blackmagic announced some exciting new products last week; two control panels specifically designed for color correction work, a Linux version of DaVinci Resolve, and a new version of their Mini URSA camera, the Mini URSA Pro. Color Control Panels When Blackmagic acquired DaVinci Resolve, they took it in a new direction; they separated it from the expensive external control panel it had previously required, created Macintosh and Windows versions, released free versions, and greatly expanded the editing functionality of the application. In short, they seemed to be turning it away from a color editing powerhouse into an all-in-one production tool. […]
by Michael Murie on Mar 7, 2017 -
Witness Project: DP Ben Gaskell on Shooting with Lomo Anamorphic Lenses
Ben Gaskell is a freelance cinematographer and DP for Witness Project, a series of short documentaries about oppression. For a recent episode on Anastasia Lin, Miss World Canada 2015, Gaskell shot on the Blackmagic URSA Mini 4.6K using old Lomo anamorphic lenses. Filmmaker: How did you get involved with this project? Gaskell: The director was an editor on a documentary that I worked on and he knew that I had a knack for bringing an artistic flare to the documentary genre. We chatted about the series and ended up finding a common language, and he was really interested in the […]
by Michael Murie on Feb 15, 2017 -
Using Interviews and Animation to Bring the Sniper Documentary Tower to Life
The documentary Tower recounts the day in 1966 that a sniper on the University of Texas Tower killed 14 people and wounded dozens more. The film includes archival footage, interviews with those who were present and animated recreations of the event. In this interview, director/producer Keith Maitland and DP Sarah Wilson talk about the making of the film which receives its broadcast premiere on PBS on Tuesday, February 14th. Filmmaker: How did you become filmmakers? Maitland: I started off in narrative filmmaking, working on other people’s movies, and right around the time I met Sarah — we’ve been together 13 years […]
by Michael Murie on Feb 13, 2017 -
Panasonic GH5 Raises the Bar with 6K and Much More
Panasonic’s GH4 has been a hit with documentary and low-budget indie filmmakers thanks to its small size, internal 4K recording and low cost. But it’s now over two and a half years old, and in today’s world that can be a lifetime for a camera. Fortunately, Panasonic has a replacement coming that looks like it could be as popular as the GH4, not only because it improves on the original capabilities but because it also marks a first step to 6K capture. Panasonic first teased the GH5 in September, but at CES they announced the feature list, along with planned […]
by Michael Murie on Jan 10, 2017 -
GoPro’s Drone and New Cameras
GoPro has announced the newest versions of their action cameras; the Hero5 Black and the Hero5 Session, as well as their own drone, called Karma. Hero5 Black The new Hero5 cameras have the same basic form and shape as the previous Hero4 models — and will fit existing mounts — but amongst other things they add waterproofing (good to 33 feet), so you don’t have to use them inside a plastic shell if you’re worried that they are going to get wet. The Hero5 Black has the same resolution and frame rate of the Hero4, but adds a touchscreen on the back, […]
by Michael Murie on Sep 23, 2016 -
Canon Surprises With Two Camera Announcements
Canon has announced two new cameras, one expected, the other a bit of a surprise: the Canon 5D Mark IV and the Canon C700 Cinema Camera. Ever since the amazing success of the Canon 5D Mark II, the announcement of new cameras from Canon has tended to provoke a fairly standard response from bloggers and social media; in their still cameras, the video functions are always considered hobbled in some way, and their video cameras are always too expensive and don’t have the features found in some of the latest cameras. And then Canon sells a boatload of the cameras, […]
by Michael Murie on Sep 8, 2016 -
DP Eve M. Cohen Discusses Virtual Reality and Crowdfunding
In part I of this interview, cinematographer Eve M. Cohen talked about working on the independent feature Be Somebody. In the second part of the interview, she talks about her experience with shooting for virtual reality projects, as well as Seed and Spark, a crowd funding and community site for filmmakers. Filmmaker: You’ve started working in virtual reality. Can you tell us about that? Cohen: Virtual reality is really exciting and I think that it’s important to differentiate virtual reality filmmaking from 2D or linear filmmaking. Virtual reality is a completely new medium and it takes place completely surrounding you, […]
by Michael Murie on Aug 26, 2016 -
86 Pages in 12 Days: DP Eve M. Cohen on Shooting Be Somebody
Eve M. Cohen studied art as a painter and a photographer in undergrad, and received a Master’s in cinematography from UCLA. Beginning work in narrative film and documentary, she has most recently been diving into virtual reality, and filming interviews for an unscripted series on TV. “I don’t focus on one kind of filmmaking,” she says. “I really like a variety.” In this first part of the interview, she talks about shooting the narrative feature film Be Somebody that was shot in December, and released in July. In the second part of the interview she talks about shooting for virtual […]
by Michael Murie on Aug 24, 2016
