Cameras
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Shooting with a RED EPIC in Indonesia: Interview with David Kruta
Cinematographer David Kruta spent a week in Indonesia this February shooting footage for the SurfAid charity to use in their promotional and educational campaigns. He took with him a RED EPIC, and says that the goal was to “bring a cinematic approach” to something that would be more often shot in a documentary style. Filmmaker: How did the project come about? Kruta: The director, Michael Lawrence, is a good friend of mine and I’ve done five or six projects with him. He said he had a shoot in Indonesia, and that he was going there to revisit the places he photographed after […]
by Michael Murie on May 24, 2013 -
The Druid City: Interview with Kristyn Ulanday and Max Esposito
Kristyn Ulanday and Max Esposito graduated from the journalism department of Boston University in 2010. They both work commercially as freelance photographers and filmmakers, but in 2011 they also began a collaborative project called Full Frame America to tell the stories they wanted to tell. The first result of that collaboration is a 24-minute documentary, The Druid City, that focuses on the town of Tuscaloosa, Alabama and how the residents have coped after the town was hit by an EF4 tornado in April 2011. Filmmaker: How did you come to make this movie? Esposito: We both felt like we […]
by Michael Murie on Apr 29, 2013 -
Festival Cinematography Notes – At Berlin, Back to Black
Back in February, I had the privilege of giving two workshops, “Intro to Large-sensor Digital Cinema Cameras” and “Large-sensor Digital Cinema Cameras in Detail” at the 11th edition of the Berlinale Talent Campus. For those not acquainted with this Berlin Film Festival initiative: the Talent Campus each year invites 300 directors, producers, editors, and cinematographers – “talented emerging filmmakers in the first years of their career” – each with a film or two under their belts. Most seem to be in their late 20s. This year over 4,400 applied from 137 countries. Clearly a hot ticket. The 300 lucky ones […]
by David Leitner on Mar 27, 2013 -
Oscar-Nominated Cinematographers Discuss Filmmaking
The problem with the Oscars is that you spend three hours watching the show and at the end you haven’t learned anything from the winners about how they did what they did. In celebration of the event, and with congratulations to the winners, here’s some interviews with the nominees for Best Cinematography. One of the interesting themes you’ll note in these articles is that the switch from film to digital remains a hot topic: Anna Karenina | Seamus McGarvey “Anna Karenina was filmed with anamorphic lenses, which require slightly more light, and some of the lighting used is older in style, […]
by Michael Murie on Feb 25, 2013 -
Festival Cinematography Notes – At Sundance, Alexa Rising
The day Sundance began, Daily Variety’s lead article kicked off with: “In this brave new indie world of VOD, shifting release windows, RED cameras [italics mine] and social media marketing…” I was struck by how little any of this has to do with indie filmmaking alone. As a token of digital revolution, RED cameras are so five years ago. It’s hard to storm the ramparts when last year’s #5 and #7 box office hits were shot with RED Epics (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Amazing Spider-Man). In fact, not only were last year’s #1 and #4 hits filmed with […]
by David Leitner on Feb 5, 2013 -
Shooting the Short BART: an Interview with the Director and DP
When L.A.-based director Rich Landes was offered the chance to shoot a short narrative piece for Canon he jumped at the chance. Landes has extensive experience as a commercial director, but this was a chance to direct a narrative based on his own idea, and with few restrictions from the “client.” But first he had to come up with an idea and treatment in two days. Then he had to fly to New York and cast, find locations, and hire a DP in four days, and then shoot the whole thing over the course of two days. None of this […]
by Michael Murie on Jan 15, 2013 -
Behind The Scenes on BART: a Narrative Short Shot with the Canon C100
Recently we published an interview about the making of the short film Pulse, which was financed by Canon and shot on their new C100. Canon subsequently contacted us about a second short, BART, which was also shot on the C100. While Pulse is a documentary piece, BART is a four-minute short that is entirely an exercise in narrative story telling. Canon was specifically looking for a film that had little language and had a lot of visuals to it. BART will premiere next week at a special screening and workshop at the Sundance Film Festival, but today Canon is releasing […]
by Michael Murie on Jan 14, 2013 -
4K is Coming, Ready or Not
When 3D TVs were the rage, I was convinced it was just a cynical push by the electronics manufacturers to sell TVs and nothing else. To me, 3D was a fad that would be used for a few things, but was unlikely to become mainstream. I’d seen the future before; I saw Jaws 3D when it was first released. So when the manufacturers started talking up 4K cameras, with promises of 4K TV sets, I was convinced that this too was a push to sell new TV sets that wouldn’t amount to much. Sure filmmakers with a big budget will […]
by Michael Murie on Nov 28, 2012 -
Sony’s New HXC-D70 HD/SD Studio Camera
Studio cameras aren’t something I usually spend much time looking at, but I just sat in on a demo of Sony’s new HXC-D70 HD/SD System Camera, which has some interesting features. The HXC-D70 only started shipping three weeks ago, and Sony considers it their budget 2/3” sensor studio camera; it sells for about $20,000. While it might have many potential audiences, it’s plain that Sony intended this for studios and corporate environments who are currently shooting SD but plan to move to HD. This camera works happily in either mode, will work with older CCU-D50 camera control units, and it […]
by Michael Murie on Nov 18, 2011 -
Unboxing and Shooting with the Canon 60D
Geek.com posted these two videos from J.J. Kim at Orange Wedding Films containing info on the new Canon 60D. The 60D sits between the Rebel T2i and the Canon 7D in their product line, and it has a flip-out LCD screen, which is obviously an attractive feature for anyone interested in shooting handheld video. The first is an unboxing video and comparison with the Canon 7D. Canon 60D quick review video from Orange Wedding Films on Vimeo. The second is test footage comparing the 60D to the 7D. Canon EOS 60D vs 7D short sample footage from Orange Wedding Films […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 2, 2010
