Marcel Zyskind´s work with Michael Winterbottom

[Dror Dayan]

Hallo Everyone,

 

for my end-of-the-year paper at my film school I´m writing about the DV/HDV-shot movies of Michael Winterbottom with Marcel Zyskind as DoP. I´m mostly interested in the "smaller" shoots (in regards of team and lighting) such as "In This World", "Nine Songs", "Genova" or "Road to Guantanemo", but also "a Mighty Heart" and maybe "a Cock and Bull Story". I hope to catch "The Killer inside me" on the Berlinale next week so I can see the other side of the coin with 35mm Cinemascope, but the subject of the paper is the work process on the set and in the pre-production when working with a small and light video camera on original locations with a small team. What does it mean in terms of coverage, in terms of lighting set-ups? what does it allow the director and actors, which is harder with bigger shoots, what are the disadvantages? I know one of Zyskind´s habits is to allways have the camera ready, and sometimes shoot in a documentary fashion even between the takes, when the actors aren´t acting. (they talk about it in the making of of "a mighty heart").

 

I don´t want to write about it just in a way of "we take a DV Camera and go from pakistan to london", but also analyse the different asthetics that are possible, because "Genova" for example looks different than "in this world". I want to explore different approaches, not just the handheld semi-documentary look. In "Genova" there are also beautiful steady-cam shots through the small streets, and also more use of a tripod.

 

Anyway, as an avid reader of those forums I would really appreciate your thoughts and maybe some links and hints for information, mostly about the way Winterbottom and Zyskind prep the films and how they work on set together. I´m thankful for whatever you got!

 

all the best,

 

Dror

[James Brown]

Anyway, as an avid reader of those forums I would really appreciate your thoughts and maybe some links and hints for information, mostly about the way Winterbottom and Zyskind prep the films and how they work on set together. I´m thankful for whatever you got!

Marcel is a member on this board and if you contacted him he might find some time to reply. He also has a website http://marcelzyskind.com/

 

Regards, James

[Bob Morton]

Good luck to your project plans. You actually have great ideas for your school project. I remember my writings when I was in college.

 

 

 

 

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Bob Morton

Creating documentary about meaning of numbers.