Alex Wuijts

There has been some controversy around some newly released photographs of Fidel Castro, showing him in a healthy condition, notably the one i attached. To me it seems the lettering of the newspaper looks far too black. You would also expect to see some shadows of his hands on the newspaper from the flash. They could have used multiple flashes, but wouldn't Castros shadow been thrown on the background then? I think this is all just highly exciting. Has anyone any opinions on this?

I think he wants examples of cinematography of an outstanding quality in movies, videos or other audiovisual expressions that have obvious christian connotations. Greatly motivated cinematography wouldn't necessarily be outstanding or distinct, or maybe i'm just adding to the confusion of tongues now.

'truth' is also a scientific term, what else would scientists be after? One little truth after another, sometimes a few steps back, and then on again. Whether there's some greater truth to be found in the end doesn't really matter. Truth is what we -as in scientific consensus/media/the people- consider fact until then. And while we know that there may come a day when Newton's third law of physics somehow isn't right anymore, we just accept it as part of the best explanation of the world around us. And ofcourse the Bible can contain true statements. It's no doubt full of it. But it's impossible to falsify any of the more important statements in that book, like 'God created Man in his own image'. You can be completely convinced of the truth of this statement, but you can never change your opinion on this without destroying the whole basis of your religious thought. A scientific statement should be falsifiable at all times, and in every healthy scientific process they are. Ofcourse there's a lot of unhealthy science out there, a lot of bias and such, and the falsification of Newtons third law of physics will probably make all of us have sleepless nights and panic attacks, but a newer, improved law will be divised, and most importantly: our believe in science will be stronger than ever.

I was watching tv with my girlfriend yesterday and we suddenly noticed a really good looking, dark brownish film with Harrison Ford. We both instinctively related to the images and the directness of its style. Sure enough when i looked it up it was Presumed Innocent shot by Willis. I guess a reaction like this, regardless of whether you're familiar with the technique of shooting film, is typical when watching the work of all great cinematographers.

i think you are certainly right about the audience, although i feel the more daring aspect is to have a director, or filmmaking instance or whatever, really playing with his characters like that. It's like the authors evil revenge, after being declared legally dead in filmtheory. But Cache doesn't push this theory, fortunately. It's really hermetic and consistent, but never intellectual. This is a matter of taste ofcourse, and i wasn't too familiar with his other films, except Funny Games, when i saw it.

This was my favorite movie of 2005. Very intelligent and subversive storytelling. The choice of HD to complement the story to me was very understandable, but at the time i didn't think they were pushing the videolook. I immediately noticed it was video, but i felt they were trying to keep the highlights from blowing out in most shots. It makes perfect sense that they did however, i just don't have a trained enough eye. How about that last shot? At times i'm still getting into heated discussions with friends. Not to get off-topic, but i personally feel the camera is literally crossing the border or 'fourth wall'. This time it's not the actors addressing the audience, but the camera haunting the characters, and in this sense it's some kind of ingenious variation on the 'technology gone rampant on people' genre. The only guilty person in Cache is the sadistic director of the film, who makes his characters run around like chickens without heads.

just seen it and it left the whole audience in awe. I liked the raw, burned out look and thought it portrayed the events in a sincere way. Was there some kind of bleach bypass involved or some other development effect, causing this kind of overexposed, blown highlights?

i found the pfd on a french forum very similar to this one, camera-forum.fr. You've got mail!

Type in "gerald hirschfeld light meters" in google.com. The first hit will be a pdf file. Don't press the main google link, but instead go for the html version. This opens the article in a slightly weird fashion.

you should never take of the lens of an HMI lamp because of danger of UV radiation burns and retinal burns.

the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan is also very effective in showing the deafening effect of the artillery and guns, although in this film it also evokes a more existential feeling of displacement and absurdity. My favourite piece of 'subjective' camera- and soundwork.

i believe that would be 12,7 micron, if by 1/2000 you mean inches.

hey seth, www.imdb.com has information about locations and budget on most films, just look at the menu on the left side of each movie page. They don't mention specific filmstock often though, maybe never.

forgive me if i'm wrong, but isn't it considered very rude there to tell an older person what to do?

i believe the soundtrack of a movie has a huge impact on how you interpret the images, not in the least because sound/melody/rythm seems to bypass our reason and almost subconsiously impacts our emotional state. Sound is so direct that you don't even notice it while watching a movie, unless it's suddenly turned off or out of synch. Because of this the use of sound is closely tied to the concept of suspension of disbelief and the realist effect of mainstream film. This is especially strange with the music, because it obviously participates in the illusion of film, but it's not naturalistic in any sense at all. At least i've never heard a saxophone squeeking while kissing my girlfriend.

right, so you guys didn't forget le mepris, i just didn't know the english title. sorry :)

don't forget Le Mepris, with Brigitte Bardot, Michel Piccoli and Fritz Lang playing himself. It's a nice mix of straightforward narrative and reflexive cinema. The opening shot is particularly interesting, with the actors moving towards the camera while they are being filmed from the side with a camera that's on the same track as the camera which represents our viewpoint. Slowly the camera in front of us becomes the main object, instead of the actors, and in the end the camera pans to the left and 'looks' straight at us, signifying the intimate bond between camera and spectator.

great! thanks for the response. I would never have guessed they'd been using lipstick cameras.

There is a shot in the Smashing Pumpkins video 1979 of which i've always wondered how they did it. I've asked it a couple of times, but never got a straight answer, so here it goes again. The shot where you see a roll of toiletpaper fly up a tree, but the camera stays in front of the roll, and it seems to spin around freely. My guess is they attached the toiletpaper to a crane and removed the rig later on, but what the heck do i know. Anyone here that can solve this ongoing mystery for me? Thank you in advance.

I would have someone assist me, so I could have wide shots and closeups of the important people at the same time. I wouldn't try to make too artistic, because this is about documenting a special event, you can't make it any better other than showing as much as possible of the the right moments. To make it a little more attractive i would put some fast cut impressions in between the regular scenes with music to it. You could also interview some students and ask them silly questions and edit those in between the more serious moments.

if f-stop is a ratio of focal length and diameter, than there is no reason the result couldn't be less than 1. A 50mm lens with a 55mm diameter will have 0.9 as the largest opening, theoretically speaking.

what's also important about the beaulieu 4008 is that you need to recell the batteries. The best thing you can do when you buy a super8 camera is to send it right off for service, because you never know what has happened to it. You want a camera you can trust so service is worth the money. With this service you can also ask for a replacement of the internal 85 filter (they get faded and dirty after so many years) and recell the batteries. You can also have the 85 filter removed, if you only want to use screw-on filters, but then the lens will need to be re-collimated. As far as super8 goes, the beaulieu will probably cost you the most money, but in return you get a camera with a lot of great features and a real pro character.

that was one scary episode! I think the comment by Mike Williamson is interesting, because that's (static camera) exactly what Haneke did in Cache as a reality effect which worked VERY well.

Some that haven't been mentioned: the shark in Jaws Rocky Rambo Terry Malloy (Brando) in On the Waterfront Colonel Walter E. Kurtz in you know what Adenoid Hynkel (Chaplin) in The Great Dictator Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre) in Fritz Lang's M Cesare (Conrad Veidt) in Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari The possessed Regan (Linda Blair) in the Exorcist Popeye (Gene Hackman) in The French Connection The Dude in the Big Lebowski that's also eleven :P

if you want control, but don't want to pay too much, than maybe the Beaulieu 4008ZMII is a good option. It features a very nice 6-66mm Schneider-Kreuznach zoomlens with an aperture ring, manual asa setting, manual speed control from 2-70fps and a 1/87s shutter speed. This shutter speed is because it doesn't use a blade shutter like the 180 degree kind you find in most professional film cameras, but a guillotine shutter. The higher shutter speed and the sharp lens make for really crisp super8 images. The drawback of the 4008 is that it's design is cumbersome and not very practical. Other super8 cameras that everybody seems to like are the Nikon R10 and the Canon 814XL-S and 1014 XL-S Check out their features and other cameras at http://super8wiki.com/index.php/Category:Manufacturers Oh yeah, the Beaulieu cameras take c-mount lenses. As far as pro's packages i'm not sure, but if you want expensive, you could go for the Beaulieu 6008 and 9008 pro series. But in that case maybe you're better off buying a 16mm camera.