Cinematography
Filmmaking - Cinematography
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Five Questions for Twenty Feet from Stardom Cinematographer Nicola Marsh
Nicola Marsh was one of two cinematographers for Twenty Feet from Stardom, this year’s Oscar winner for Best Documentary. She’s worked with director Morgan Neville on a number of projects, including Troubadours and The Night James Brown Saved Boston as well as other directors including Cameron Crowe on Pearl Jam Twenty and The Union. Marsh, who has just finished shooting a reality show in the Caribbean, spoke to us about shooting Twenty Feet from Stardom, the different cameras used on the project and the hidden strengths of older lenses. Filmmaker: For Twenty Feet from Stardom you were shooting with […]
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Five Things Not To Do When Shooting a No-Budget Film By Yourself (And Why I Did Them Anyway)
D.P. Sean Porter’s credits include Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter, Eden and, opening on Friday at the IFC Center, Eliza Hittman’s It Felt Like Love. Here he contributes a guest blog post on the latter film, listing the five rules he made for himself that he wound up breaking when shooting this highly recommended micro-budget picture. 1. Use other movies as references in preproduction. When I sat down to prep It Felt Like Love with Eliza Hittman the first thing we did was talk about movies. It makes sense — it’s the most direct way discuss tone, lighting, framing and style. […]
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Supercut Shows the Evolution of the Movie Camera, from Hand-Cranked to Google Glass
For the Society of Camera Operators 2014 Lifetime Achievement Awards Bob Joyce edited this supercut showing, in just under four minutes, the evolution of the movie camera, from the box-y instruments used by the Lumiere Brothers through massive 70mm rigs to, more recently, tiny handheld and wearable devices. Indeed, what’s fascinating here are the alternations of large and small. For much of cinema’s lifetime, there was a push-pull going on, with larger units enabling better picture quality and resolution while, simultaneously, smaller cameras were developed enabling greater mobility. But, as the piece shows, with technological developments these two trendlines may […]
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Andrea Arnold’s D.P. Robbie Ryan on Why He Still Shoots Shorts and Getting The Shot Off Set
Best known as Andrea Arnold’s right-hand man, Robbie Ryan has a surprisingly large number of short film credits for a cinematographer of his standing. While the majority of d.p.s graduate to the feature format and stay put, Ryan has shot a whopping 14 shorts since his breakthrough lensing on Fish Tank. Beyond a steadier flow of income, short films afford Ryan a sort of trial period with directors. Speaking in an in-depth interview with Barry Ackroyd (d.p. of Captain Phillips, The Hurt Locker) at the 28:25 minute mark, Ryan puts it plainly: “I think the reason I do short films […]
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Panasonic Commits to 4K, Announces the VariCam 35
For the past couple of years, Panasonic has taken a backseat to Sony and Canon in the cinematography and indie movie world. While Sony and Canon raced to produce new large-sensor cameras in different configurations and prices, Panasonic was content to stick with the low-end AG-AF100, which was released at the end of 2010 and has seen few updates. They have also had some success in ultra low-budget production with the GH2 and GH3, which produce good quality video but are primarily stills cameras. This year Panasonic seems intent on making its move. Or, as a product manager said at […]
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The Diamond Brothers Dissect the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K
Award-winning producer/directors Josh and Jason Diamond, aka The Diamond Brothers, reviewed the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K yesterday at an event hosted by Adorama Rental Company in downtown Manhattan. The co-directors of 2012 documentary Bring on the Mountain and executive producers of features including Light and the Sufferer, starring Paul Dano, and Exploding Girl, starring Zoe Kazan, talked about some of the pros and cons of using the Production Camera 4K, which is available now for preorder for the reduced price of $2,995. Josh and Jason, who recently completed a 13-part series for FILA and a launch spot for Sony’s PS4, […]
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Visitors’ Godfrey Reggio on 4K, Black and White Cinematography, Long Cuts and Philip Glass
For our Winter issue, experimental documentarian Godfrey Reggio, along with his producer Jon Kane and d.p. Trish Govani, explored the significance of selected stills from his latest film Visitors. A revealing exercise for any filmmaker, Reggio’s excerpts carry far more weight than they would for most: the eight shots account for more than 10% of the film. Comprised of only 74, 4K black and white shots, the Philip Glass-scored Visitors is a meditation on the act of spectatorship, as the viewer unflinchingly gazes at 70+ second takes of faces, swamplands, disembodied hands and the moon. In the above video for The Creators Project, Reggio extols […]
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How Camera Movement Shapes A Narrative
Ryan Connolly of Film Riot is a rather perky fellow, but he’s also got some good insight into how camera techniques affect a film’s narrative. Connolly begins with a simple scene of two actors walking across a yard, examining how a dolly versus a tripod versus a handheld shot conveys tonality to the audience. A tripod pan, for instance, may insinuate that the actors are being watched. Connolly covers a number of mechanisms — including the implications of a jib — in the above video, which serves as a helpful reminder that the camera should always being doing more than […]
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Further Thoughts on Panasonic 4K GH4 – Updated
Tetraphobia is the east Asian practice of avoiding the number 4 because it sounds like the word for death. But to ignore 4K would be certain death for any manufacturer serious about digital motion imaging. It was only a matter of time before Panasonic dropped the other shoe. Overcoming their fear of 4, Panasonic on February 6 announced the GH4, their first 4K/Ultra HD camera and portent of Panasonic 4K cameras to come. Formally known as LUMIX DMC-GH4, it arrived mere weeks after CES in Las Vegas, where Panasonic unveiled a prototype 4K “GH Next.” Of course 4 can also […]
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Show-Focus: The Future of Pulling Focus
Guillaume Couche, a Masters student at the Royal College of Art in London with a background in mechanical engineering, has created a prototype for what he calls “Show-Focus.” Designed to facilitate the duties of the on-set focus-puller, Show-Focus renders a physical representation of the invisible plane of focus so that the precise focal point can be deduced, and captured, at any time. The model is compromised of two components, communicable through a wireless connection: the camera module and the controller. The camera module, which is attached to the body of the shooting camera, provides a real-time 3D map of what […]
