Janusz Kaminski

[Roberto Hernandez]

I am a huge fan of Kaminski's work. I wanted to start a topic where we could talk mainly just on his work and use of light. He has an amazing style and lighting technique and even though he has not been around as long as Gordon Willis, Conrad Hall, and others I find his work very interesting and beautiful. Some of my favorite films of his are A.I. and Saving Private Ryan. I am trying to get a copy of his Directorial Debut in Lost Souls, especially because I heard there is a great commentary track. So anyone that has anything to say about his work, I would appreciate hearing your views and comments.

 

Roberto Hernandez

[Jayson Crothers]

He recently came and spoke with some of us at AFI - wildly open and honest man; very articulate and forthcoming. He shared all his camera tests from "Amistad" with us - very interesting to watch them and listen to him speak about the progression and how he arrived at certain looks and why he made certain decisions.

[Roberto Hernandez]

Wow that must have been GREAT! I just watched Lost Souls and the movie is very good especially the lighting. The comentary was very insightful. Janusz likes painting with overexposure sometimes and it looks great.

 

Roberto Hernandez

[painfulcrash]

janusz kaminski ..

man is a legend in my heart. it wouldnt be a lie, if i admit that i'm obsessed with his work.

 

Jason ; the only reason I live at the moment is to go to AFI. I assume you are in the program.(whaw :blink: ) Can you please send me the demo that you have sent to AFI.. so i have an idea of what is expected.

 

a year left to finish my undergrad .. please let me see your work. i'll pay the postage and etc ..

 

 

-aydin (crash) ozer

[painfulcrash]

The Terminal ; Mr.Kaminski proves to me once more that he mastered an un-masterable art form : cinematography.

 

my eyeballs are tingling for his upcomming movies..

 

-crash

[Kevin Zanit]

Just saw The Terminal.

 

I am a huge Kaminski fan, and from the trailer was a little concerned about the look.

 

After seeing the film, I can say it was one of the best looking movies I have seen in some time.

 

Extremely artful, as usual. One of my favorite scenes was at the fountain. Just a real ballsy, beautiful scene.

 

 

Kevin Zanit

[painfulcrash]

Does anyone have any info about "Jumbo Girl" (short movie)

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0339235/

[Kevin Zanit]

Yes.

 

It was a low budget indie film directed by someone who worked as Kaminski's assistant when he was directing Lost Souls.

 

It was gaffed by Keith Dunkerley, who was Kaminski's intern for a while.

 

A friend of mine who was on the set for a day or two said they had a pretty nice package, and that it looked good.

 

 

Kevin Zanit

[painfulcrash]

there is probably no way of watching it ?

[Wendell_Greene]

Is it still the case where you have to be invited back for your second year at AFI? I know of several people who didn't make the cut after their first year and who transferred to other schools to finish their Masters, starting shooting as cinematographer on low budget projects or as camera assistants or electricians, or quit the business altogether.

 

I ask this because a little known fact that has become a buried footnote in the annals of revisionist history was something I remember reading in an article some time ago. It mentioned that Kaminski, who was a fellow at AFI wasn't invited back for his second year in the cinematography program. Yet, rather than giving up entirely he continued to work as a gaffer on various projects for other fellows at AFI before moving on to work for Roger Corman.

 

Just shows how far determination and resolve coupled with talent and hard work can take you.

[Rob_Kraetsch]

AFI no longer gives most of it's students the boot. Now you actually have to fail to not be asked back for second year. The rumor I heard is that they were threatened with loss of accredidation if they continued such practices (Kicking out 2/3rds of their students for no particularly good reason at some points).

 

-Rob Kraetsch <---- Hoping not to fail

[Greg Gross]

I love Mr. Kaminski's work. I suppose I am mostly moved by his work and the work of

Mr. John Seale. Being an old professional photographer (B&W Ansel Adams follower) I am really moved by Mr. Kaminski's work on the production of Schindler's List. Its a good

film for observing painting with light. I have watched Private Ryan many times and have

never been less enchanted with the lighting. The cinematography is awesome in this film. The lighting in this film moves me deeply and I have taken notes on what I have

observed in the lighting of the film. Please excuse my lack of hollywood terminology.

I write scripts for my own short feature films and then direct, photograph,light and some

times act. I have used the observations I have made In Mr. Kaminski's films to try to

learn to develop the look I want before I start to film.

[Jayson Crothers]

98% of folks are invited back to AFI; only about 4 or 5 weren't asked back this year. Sometimes the reasons for this are obvious, sometimes it's a mystery. At any rate Rob, I wouldn't worry about it at all (though, at the year end review, everyone does anyways, myself incuded!).

 

As for Kaminski, I recall him saying he chose not to come back so he could go and work for Corman.

[Suds Saria]

Hey all,

As long as we are on the AFI thing. I was looking into going to AFI for grad school but Im poor and an international student doing my undergrad in film in the US. Does AFI offer any financial aid to people like me?

Thanks.

[painfulcrash]

besides poorness ..

its pretty impossible to get into .

but i do want to be an AFI student too.

 

going back to the topic ..

i just wanted to tell you guys how a janusz nerd i am:

i got saving private ryan dvd with his signature on it.

dvd came without the dvd in it.. i called them up and

asked what happened to the dvd.. rep. said " oh , mr.

kaminski must have taken it. we'll send you the dvd"

they never did. but its okay.. couz i have his signature.

 

the ASC store is pretty shitty tough.

Before C.Hall's death i've ordered American Beauty with his

signature.. And soon after he , unfortunatelly passed away. They

never sent me the dvd. They even charged my c.card ..

i called them up .. they just gave my money back ..

bastards .

[dcurran]

Does anyone have any info about "Jumbo Girl"  (short movie)

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0339235/

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I just stumbled onto this site en route to something else and figured I'd respond to the question about "Jumbo Girl." It's a 30-minute short that I directed and that Janusz shot. Another poster here mentions that I was JK's assistant on Lost Souls - while that's true, I also went to film school with Janusz and have known him for over twenty years now. He and I did some student films and a no-budget feature back in film school and the opportunity arose to shoot for 8-days and knock out a short. Keith Dunkerely, incidentally, was an intern for Janusz and was not only our gaffer but also shot a day of pick-ups. Eric Leach, the key grip, also went to the same school as JK and I (Columbia College in Chicago) and interned for Mauro Fiore on "Lost Souls."

 

"Jumbo Girl" recently screened in Los Angeles at the L.A. Shorts Fest.

 

Best of luck to all here.

[Vincent Gallo]

Its a pity he does most of his work with Speilberg. I generally dont like him but Saving Private Ryan was superb.

[Guest fstop]

I also have never seen the appeal of Janusz Kaminski- he's just a very lucky DP who got to work with Spielberg. He certainly hasn't created anything and it baffles me everytime he gets such OTT praise. Notice how everything from Jerry Maguire and Little Giants to American Quilt could have been lit for TV? Kaminski is certainly competent but he's no better than say Newton Tom Sigel or even Don Burgess- certainly nobody as daring, innovative or consistently, indepdently imaginative as Harris Savides, Ericson Core, Eduardo Serra, Billy Dickson, Kimball, Bill Pope, John Lindley, etc IMO.

 

I like the photography of Minority Report, but the bleached visual look was uber-cliche and all the cool shots were devised by Spielly himself (true of all the Kaminski/Spielly movies). Same rings true for the frank Cappa aping/removal of the UV filters and protective lens coating on Saving Private Ryan.

 

Many will disagree here but I felt that when the masterful likes of Cundey, Davidau, Slocombe, Zsigmond and Salamon shot Spielly's films, those guys kept his movies always looking ABOVE the mundane and contemporary.

[Jonathan Spear]

""Many will disagree here but I felt that when the masterful likes of Cundey, Davidau, Slocombe, Zsigmond and Salamon shot Spielly's films, those guys kept his movies always looking ABOVE the mundane and contemporary.""

 

...or was it 'Spielly's' vision and storytelling skills that turned Cundey, Davidau, Slocombe, Zsigmond and Salamon's mundane and contemporary cinematography into quality films?

 

It takes 2 to tango.

 

Stefan Czapsky/Tim Burton.

 

Now there's a winning combination.

 

(Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns and Ed Wood)

[Guest fstop]

Well, like I said, I find Kaminski's Spielly efforts to look really ordinary and competent at best, with any great stuff clearly coming directly from Spielly (framing, lenses, visual tricks). The Cundey/Davidau/Slocmobe/Salamon/Zsigmond stuff however I find to be consistently EXCEPTIONAL AND they manage to do amazing work elsewhere. Something tells me the equation aint the same...

 

I feel the same for Zemeckis and Cundey when Burgess came on board- in Zemeckis' case the digital effects took over leading up to the traincrash they call Polar Express. Just look at Castaway- strip off the blue/greenscreens, digital plane crashes, sunsets, CG this/that and the other and everything: all that's left is a load of really flat looking captured images; just contrast this to 1984 where it was Zemeckis, Cundey, a weeny budget and everythign in-camera in the middle of a real jungle on Romancing the Stone. Yet Cundey managed to get images to rival the same years multimillion dollar Temple of Doom. NO comparison!

 

Ed Wood is FANTASTIC and one of the best b/w movies in recent memory (and Burton's best film), but I couldn't stand the photogrpahy of Batman Returns, it couldn't live up to Roger Pratt's work on the orignal and instead went all post-modern expressionist on us, not to mention every set in the movie looks UNintentionally phoney when it wanted to be INTENTIONALLY stylised. Most of the blame goes on Burton though and the decision to move production to LA. Edward Scissorhands I found equally annoying- Sonnenfeld and Roizman did it so much better a year later on Adams Family. Then again, I don't rate Burton as a director, I MUCH prefered Czapsky's excellent work on Devito's Mathilda.

[J. Lamar King IMPOSTOR]

Sorry fstop, I have to completely disagree with you about Kaminsky on Spielbergo films. While I wouldn't put him above other top flight guys like Daviau and Willis, he is certainly in their ranks. His work on "Schindlers List" and "Saving Private Ryan" is way above ordinary and more than competent. The battle scenes in "Saving Private Ryan" are arguably the best ever done and don't forget about the whole sequence in the government offices and that beautifully lit and photographed Ryan farm and house. "Schindlers List" is at least as good as any B&W photography ever done. Just my opinion of course but there you have it.

 

And like Vincent, I wish he would work more with other directors on interesting stuff.

Edited December 7, 2004 by J. Lamar King

[Vincent Gallo]

Sorry fstop, I have to completely disagree with you about Kaminsky on Spielbergo films.  While I wouldn't put him above other top flight guys like Daviau and Willis, he is certainly in their ranks.  His work on "Schindlers List" and "Saving Private Ryan" is way above ordinary and more than competent.  The battle scenes in "Saving Private Ryan" are arguably the best ever done and don't forget about the whole sequence in the government offices and that beautifully lit and photographed Ryan farm and house.  "Schindlers List" is at least as good as any B&W photography ever done.  Just my opinion of course but there you have it.

 

And like Vincent, I wish he would work more with other directors on interesting stuff.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Scindlers List and Saving Private Ryan are the only Speilberg films i've liked. They were well done and the subject matter was decent. The rest of his films are dull. I like directors like Godard, Trauffaut, Fellini, and Antonioni so Speilbeg films have no interest for me. Kam,inski is a great cinematographer though.

[Max Jacoby]

Okay Vincent, let's talk about 'Brown Bunny' now.

[John Pytlak RIP]

Okay Vincent, let's talk about 'Brown Bunny' now.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Ouch! ;)

[J. Lamar King IMPOSTOR]

Scindlers List and Saving Private Ryan are the only Speilberg films i've liked. They were well done and the subject matter was decent. The rest of his films are dull. I like directors like Godard, Trauffaut, Fellini, and Antonioni so Speilbeg films have no interest for me. Kam,inski is a great cinematographer though.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yeah, I'm with you on Godard, Truffaut, fellini and Antonioni. Some of the best directors ever. And Yeah, let's talk about 'Brown Bunny' plus and minus the 30 or so minutes that made Ebert hate or love it.

Edited December 7, 2004 by J. Lamar King