Craft Truck
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Cinematographer Gordon Willis Explains the Elegance of Simplicity
The simpler the better, or so says Gordon Willis, celebrated cinematographer of The Godfather, Manhattan and Annie Hall. Willis echoes Steve Jobs in his belief that simple outshines complex and stresses sticking only with the necessary in making choices. As he sees it, one natural window light can do much more than six artificial ones, and the bare bones of an idea often do the heavy lifting in communicating the story to an audience. The full Craft Truck interview with Willis can be viewed here.
by Nadia Ismail on Jan 7, 2014 -
D.P. Sam Levy on How Blocking Determines Lighting
Blocking is everything to Sam Levy, most recently the cinematographer of Noah Baumbach’s black-and-white feature Frances Ha. Levy talks about his approach to lighting – one that foregrounds blocking above all else. First comes the blocking of the actors in a scene, including their movements and pacing. Next comes the camera blocking which, according to Levy, works best if it’s responding to the setup of the actors. And finally, the lighting emerges as a natural consequence of these two things. As Levy says, “you block, you light, you shoot.” All of Levy’s interview with Craft Truck can be found here.
by Nadia Ismail on Dec 19, 2013 -
D.P. Sal Totino on Finding the Edge, and Falling Off
In the latest video in our Craft Truck series, Sal Totino, who was the cinematographer on features like Frost/Nixon, Cinderella Man and The Da Vinci Code, advocates knowing the rules but only in order to break them. Using an apt metaphor of cooking, he says that one could follow a recipe step-by-step or break away and “put a little bit of your soul into it.” Nothing is guaranteed, as Totino cautions, especially not when straying from convention, but you have to know where the edge is — and sometimes fall off — to learn your limits. Watch the full interview here.
by Nadia Ismail on Dec 12, 2013 -
Cinematographer Reed Morano on Climbing the Ladder
Waitressing, temping and working as a grip and electric intern were some of the odd jobs Reed Morano had on the way to becoming a d.p. In this latest Craft Truck video, Morano makes the case that grip and electric is “not putting the light up, it’s what you do with it once you get the light up.” You can watch the full Craft Truck interview here.
by Nadia Ismail on Oct 25, 2013 -
Gordon Willis: “I Never Got Fired”
Gordon Willis, the legendary cinematographer who shot The Godfather and Annie Hall, reveals in this clip from Craft Truck‘s cinematographer series how to be a valuable crew member and the norm of the relationship between the director and d.p. Watch the full interview here.
by Terisa Thurman on Oct 16, 2013 -
Back to the Future D.P. Dean Cundey on SFX Then and Now
In the latest of our clips from Craft Truck‘s excellent interviews with cinematographers, Dean Cundey talks about the difference between how a particular scene in Back to the Future was shot in the mid-1980s and how it would be done now, neatly encapsulating the advances in film technology in the past three decades You can watch the full interview with Cundey here.
by Nick Dawson on Sep 27, 2013 -
Gordon Willis on the Faux Pas of “Dump Truck Directing”
We’re back to legendary cinematographer Gordon Willis in a Craft Truck interview as he cautions against “dump truck directing” — a term he coined to describe the bad habit of directors who aren’t discerning when shooting and overwhelm editors with footage. Willis’ sage advise comes in handy for the digital filmmaker whose temptation to fix everything in post can overshadow the simplicity of doing it right the first time. You can watch the rest of the interview here.
by Nadia Ismail on Sep 12, 2013 -
Cinematographer Reed Morano on Learning by Doing
In the newest installment of our Craft Truck video series, cinematographer Reed Morano offers the career advice of figuring it out as you go, even if that means bluffing a bit on set. In the rest of the interview, Morano, the d.p. of the crime drama Frozen River, discusses how creativity is the answer to limitation, particularly when she learned that she only had one day to shoot on ice in Frozen River. You can watch all of Morano’s charming interview here.
by Nadia Ismail on Sep 6, 2013 -
Gordon Willis on Lighting Marlon Brando in The Godfather
Gordon Willis is one of the truly great cinematographers of the second half of the 20th century, the man responsible for shooting everything from Woody Allen’s Manhattan and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather to such lesser-known (but also brilliantly lensed) movies such as Hal Ashby’s The Landlord and Alan Arkin’s Little Murders. In the second of our ongoing series of exclusive Craft Truck videos, Willis talks about the approach he took to lighting Marlon Brando in the iconic opening scene of The Godfather.
by Nick Dawson on Aug 8, 2013 -
Cinematographer Andrij Parekh on Lighting Ryan Gosling
Starting this week, every Thursday the Filmmaker website will be hosting exclusive videos courtesy of Craft Truck, a new website which hosts “conversations with the world’s best cinematographers, editors, technology companies and more from the world of film and television.” To kick off this series, acclaimed d.p. Andrij Parekh talks about his approach to lighting and how this impacts on the performances of actors, such as Ryan Gosling, who he shot in Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden’s Half Nelson and Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines.
by Nick Dawson on Aug 1, 2013
