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Seven Days in Utopia


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I've been collecting frames from "Seven Days in Utopia" and reducing them down for my website, soon to be updated, these are a few examples (below). This was a very small feature financed by some businessmen in Texas... and it was the last thing I shot on film, three years ago now. Who knows, it may have been the last time I get to shoot 35mm, though I hope not. 3-perf 35mm using Panavision lenses.

 

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I updated my website today with images from "Seven Days in Utopia", "Smash", and "Big Sur" (because my site was three years out of date) -- the home page has a frame from "Big Sur" instead of a sunset from "Astronaut Farmer" so if you see the old home page still, you need to clear your cache.

 

Next job is to cut a new reel, that one is more like seven years out of date... which is one reason why I put still frames on my site as a stop-gap measure.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Glad I'm in good company in keeping my reel more than a year out of date (soon to change, once a few more non corporate projects get out of post).

 

Can I ask what was used for the keylight in the first frame (the CU of Robert Duvall)?

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Glad I'm in good company in keeping my reel more than a year out of date (soon to change, once a few more non corporate projects get out of post).

 

Can I ask what was used for the keylight in the first frame (the CU of Robert Duvall)?

My reel is my next challenge... It's maybe seven years out of date! I've been too busy working to worry about it until now.

 

The wide shot of the guy and girl with the string lights also had Duvall standing on her mark before she enters, and the two were cross lit by rigging tweenies I think in tree branches. The close-ups were lit by putting a 1K or 2K through a 6x6 frame of full grid probably, or maybe double diffused (4x4 216 and then 6x6 or 8x8 light grid) probably with 1/4 CTO on everything.

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Well most of my work comes now from some personal connection through past work -- one of the producers usually -- so the reel is less critical but still someone will want to take a look at it, usually the director, maybe another producer. My current reel is mostly my work with the Polish Brothers, which is my best work generally, so it still works as a reel but at some point it looks odd not to have recent work on it.

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Wanted to reply to this properly but havn't really had a chance to as I've decided to put a lot more focus on ME and my life!

 

(Yes it's all about ME right now!) ;)

 

Anyway firstly I wanted to say how much I LOVE stills 3 and 5 especially. They seem to really sum up for me why film is so incredible. You could of course easily capture both of these shots on a digital camera and I'm sure they would look quite okay on say the Alexa, but here they look GREAT! (as opposed to "That's nice!" ) :)

 

Secondly if you want to shoot more film David, I think you should take a look at your bio:

 

In 2000, he photographed Jackpot, the first 24P HD feature to be released theatrically in North America. He has worked with a number of digital cinema cameras since then, including the Red Epic and ARRI Alexa.

 

It seems to really have an emphasis on digital video as opposed to film. Perhaps because when you wrote it you wanted to get across that you were experienced in working with digital video too, but now your bio doesn't mention film AT ALL!

 

Until you posted in this thread, I had actually got the impression you had largely lost interest in film. I think for a lot of people, that after working in digital video for a long time, they kind of forget what film was like.

 

If you want to work with film again, maybe you should mention some film technology in your bio too, like 3perf, or anamorphic, or 2 perf or something.

 

Anyway, just trying to be helpful.

 

[Right back to focusing on ME and looking out for myself!!!] ;)

 

love

 

Freya

Edited by Freya Black
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Well, since my feature credits start in 1992, I think it's sort of a given that I've shot film, and I don't think I'm not getting film work because of a perceived lack of experience or interest in film... my experience just matches everyone else's in the industry (except for the top feature DP's) in regards to the amount of film versus digital they have been shooting lately. Also, the Images section of my site lists the technical specs for those selected projects. I think if I were much younger, of course it would be assumed that I had digital experience and I'd be trying to promote my film experience more clearly... but I don't think people think I'm a beginner starting out now, most people know I started in the pre-digital days, so it probably behooves me to emphasize that I'm keeping up with the latest technology in terms of finding work.

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Freya,

I don't think David Mullen, ASC has anything prove as far as his capabilities on film or digital goes. As he mentioned, just by looking at his credits, one could easily figure out that he has an extensive experience with both formats. Aside from all that, I think Mr. Mullen is really down-to-earth person, who, despite his achievements, takes time to answer some really non-sense questions. From my personal experience, I emailed him a few times awhile ago, asking him some technical questions, and he responded thoroughly to all of those. I guess, I appreciate people like him, who are really achieved in their careers, and pass on their hard-earned experiences to less experienced people.

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Well, since my feature credits start in 1992, I think it's sort of a given that I've shot film, and I don't think I'm not getting film work because of a perceived lack of experience or interest in film... my experience just matches everyone else's in the industry (except for the top feature DP's) in regards to the amount of film versus digital they have been shooting lately. Also, the Images section of my site lists the technical specs for those selected projects. I think if I were much younger, of course it would be assumed that I had digital experience and I'd be trying to promote my film experience more clearly... but I don't think people think I'm a beginner starting out now, most people know I started in the pre-digital days, so it probably behooves me to emphasize that I'm keeping up with the latest technology in terms of finding work.

 

I just think we have reached a point where a lot of people, at least at the more indie level, tend to assume that people would be shooting on digital anyway and your bio kind of makes it sounds somewhat like that is your preference now and the film was just the older stuff you did. I could have a funny view on things tho because here in the UK film is now REALLY unusual.

 

I certainly can understand what you mean about it behooving you to emphasize the latest technology tho! :)

 

Freya

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Freya,

I don't think David Mullen, ASC has anything prove as far as his capabilities on film or digital goes. As he mentioned, just by looking at his credits, one could easily figure out that he has an extensive experience with both formats. Aside from all that, I think Mr. Mullen is really down-to-earth person, who, despite his achievements, takes time to answer some really non-sense questions. From my personal experience, I emailed him a few times awhile ago, asking him some technical questions, and he responded thoroughly to all of those. I guess, I appreciate people like him, who are really achieved in their careers, and pass on their hard-earned experiences to less experienced people.

 

er, yeah! Can't argue with any of that! :)

 

Think you may have misunderstood something I said?

 

Freya

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I should also admit that I wrote the first version of the bio almost a decade ago when it actually meant something to be working with the latest digital cameras, now it's really just a historical note that I shot the first 24P HD feature to get a theatrical release in the U.S., beating "Session 9" by two weeks. At some point I'll probably reword my bio again to reduce the mentions to digital cameras.

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