smirkbyfire

A beret or a kevlar helmet, depending on the shoot, but those are obviously not my choice

Having read the first book of the series the day before seeing the film, I had an absolute blast watching the movie. I'll agree that Mos Def wouldn't have been my choice for Ford Prefect.

Not really a behind the scenes Doc for a particular movie, but still worth a look, is Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. It deals less with cinematography and more with the ideas, aspirations, relationships, and struggles of filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppola, Dennis Hopper, Stanley Kubrick, George Lucas, Steven Speilberg, Peter Bogdonavich, etc... It has tons of cool interviews with these and friends of these film makers and actors that were somewhat revolutionary for their time.

I agree that the CGI was pretty seamless in the new THX. Was the scene with the robot arm grabbing the plutonium rod added? Or was that part of the original? Lucas should have included the original film with this DVD set, as per what Kevin Smith did when he released Clerks on DVD (including both the theatrical version, and an extended "Director's Cut"). I'm a big fan of well done CGI, especially in movies like Sky Captain and the World of Tommorrow and Sin City. If it adds to the overall tone of the scene, I'm all for it.

There's a scene in George Lucas' THX 1138 with Robert Duvall where three characters are wandering through a vast white room. They then come across a dark spot in the middle of it. My question is how they would light something like that. It almost seems like you would need a "negative light" for that effect which is something that exists in 3D animation, but not real life (at least I think). Also, does anyone know if the new "Director's Cut" version has added 3D effects and compositing like Lucas did with the old Star Wars films for re-release? If not, than I have no idea how some of the shots in that film where realized using 1970's technology.

Just checked this out. Story line isn't that great, but the actors work is comendable given what they had to work with. Will remain in my mind for being so far the coolest looking movie shot on HD (besides Phantom Menace, but that's really because of the SFX). Suburban Nightmare has a ton of interesting uses for the split diopter (almost overused), which is why I say it looks like brian depalma composition. Fans of Troma and other B horror flicks might like this as well.

Anyone interested in aerial cinematography should most definitely buy this DVD. I got it from Amazon. The story and acting are pretty much laughable, but amazingly, I still found this movie altogether engaging and entertaining. Of course, the fact that I had just watched The Aviator might have influenced that, but I also bought The Outlaw with Jane Russell, and was bored to tears by that, so maybe The Aviator wasn't such a factor after all. For a movie released in 1930, the special effects are amazing. I was just as excited and in just as much suspense watching this movie as when I was watching Sky Captain and the World of Tommorrow, so it goes to show that technology doesn't take the place of creativity. It's obvious that the crew of this film was very devoted to telling a visually intense story, and I believe they pulled it off. I was also intrigued by the tinted (pinkish) duel scene, and the color dance/ball scene. It seemed to contrast the rest of the movie in a positive way, as far as affecting the story goes. Well, watch this fun movie and tell me what you think. p.s. I thought it interesting that a movie like The Outlaw had a much more well known and talented cinematographer (Greg Toland) but was still extremely boring and hard to watch, demonstrating that pretty pictures and good composition can't make up for weak and slow stories and poor acting. (but i guess awesome dogfight scenes can)

I'm in the Army and train using night vision goggles a lot. In my opinion, if you're just going for a "night vision look", your easiest bet would be to shoot it in the daytime and use heavy filters (neutral density and heavy green) to give it that dark look and use a fast film to add grain. Just keep the sun out of the shot. You could even leave the sky in, because in most situations the sky looks well lit through night vision goggles, especially if a city is in the distant horizon, it glows like a fire is in the distance.

What's a good recipe for fake blood? Also, if you were shooting a daytime exterior on uncorrected tungsten to get a cool look, and you still wanted the blood to be bright red as if it were shot corrected, what color would the blood need to be? More red than normal? I'm not sure about this one.

galapogos islands. or alaska

I'm going all out, balls to the wall, and saying this movie kicked ass! Every aspect of it appealed to me. I'm a huge fan of scarlet, topher, and dennis, and thought they were excellently cast. Plus, I'm around the age of Topher's charachter and am going through a divorce, and I thought the film almost perfectly captured the subtlties of such an emotionally charged event. Movies like this and Garden State and Napolean Dynamite which all seem to share common threads, have a welcome place in my collection.

Yes. I orded that movie on DVD and saw it. It reminded me of what The Sixth Sense would look like had it been directed by Hideo Nakata. Where did you hear about the remake?

Are there any books that introduce the basic concepts of processing and timing color film? What roles are involved? How many people are involved with say processing a film on the scale of Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys? What is a negative cutter? What is conforming the negative? These are the questions I'd like to read about and find the answers to. How much now does the process differ from the three strip technicolor method? Well, thanks for any responses. David Harris SPC U.S. Army

I think I might have posted this question here before, but it's still on my mind. I heard a radio story on npr about people in developing countries using LED's (big versions of the lights in watches, calculators, clocks, etc.) to light their homes. They use signifigantly less electricity. My thought was is there a way LED's could be used for cinematography? I am envisioning a large board LED with four or five seprate color temperatures (made up of tiny LED's next to each other in a grid pattern, white, then red, then blue, then green over and over again). This way, you could simply choose the Kelvin degree you wanted, and the corresponding pattern of lights would activate. It could even be controlled by some hand set device that also acts as a dimmer. If anyone has any thoughts about this, or has used something like this, speak up. I don't really know if LED's would be bright enough to match current lighting techniques, but they might be useful for some special effect, or simulating a wierd future world atmosphere. Well. Thanks for any replies.

correct me if I'm wrong, but film is exposed bottom to top. Otherwise how would you get that blooming effect from the bottom when the shutter is out of sync (i.e. Saving Private Ryan.)