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A.J. Green

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Everything posted by A.J. Green

  1. Thanks Tenolian for citing the Chicago skyline shot from the Dark Knight I'd like to add the scene where Batman interrogates the Joker, when he smashes him about the cell - only film can make that image - even when we watch it through a digital means. The debate of Digital V Film is really the challenge of digital to prove it's aesthetic value as an equal, and I agree with Benson that Digital as a format will prove and stand alone, probably with it's own means of viewing: but, it's going to the cinema - and watching a film 35mm film that is innate. The fact that almost anybody can take a snap shot with an SLR camera, providing they expose it correctly is unifying. I was in Pall Mall in London a week ago and I saw an old dude tourist probably in his 80s framing up a shot with his SLR. Time, precision and calculation. There is only one word for it - photographer. Were as there are plenty other folks snapping away with 5/10/20mp digital cameras, the word is consumer. The expansion of digital to the 'film' world is not the development of craft, it's the development of a 'prosumer' class that believes opportunity and success can be bought. This is wrong because 'prosumer' will disappear as fast as the boom that created it. What will last is the - photographer.
  2. Benson, Are you saying that Robert Rodriguez HDCAM on Desparado looks better than the Techniscope of Tonino Delli Colli in say, The Good the Bad and the Ugly?. Rodriguez can hardly hype his film by saying it didn't look that good and if he was so keen on digital why did he go shoot Grindhouse on Fujifilm?
  3. Karl, you shot any 35? Or you work in a lab?
  4. If you want to paint... Composition of burnt umber is Fe2O3 + MnO2 Christopher Walken claimed burnt umber as his favorite colour on the April 5th, 2008's episode of SNL. The average human has one breast and one testicle. ~Des McHale
  5. Karl, Digital projection only reduces print costs because a HDD cost less than the film print - currently virtual prints cost more than 35mm prints because they need a very very very expensive projector to show them on which is fine if you live in a highly urbanized 'cluster' of cinemas as the plan is to send the movie down a pipe or by satellite. If you don't live in an area that can afford this type of hi-tech, which is the fly-over states and most of everywhere else in the world you'll need delivery. Say about half of all screens worldwide will be able to afford the outlay, it's $200K a pop per screen, that's $4bn for the kit before you even make the print. US annual gross box office is around $7 to $9. Given the rather poor state of the world economy I think it's fair to say: finding a financier to come up with an extra $4,000,000,000 might nudge the argument in favor of good old 35mm for the next few years. Furthermore how many digitally shot films have you seen projected digitally? I was in the 20th Century FOX European HQ private screening room a couple of weeks ago watching an excerpt from a friends film on one of the Pioneer projectors - it didn't look good pal. Also, the post making the correlation between film and painting suggests that filmmaking is an art, in particular that cinematography is an art - painting with light, and the manufacturing process of film is part of this art. Certainly you mix some stuff in you're basement and call it paint but what you make with that paint can be garbage or it can be a masterpeice.
  6. That is good news - I have genuine optimism that the new government will demand transparency for investors and I hope this will lead to less convergence. It's ok to have a theatrical cinema and home entertainment cinema, if fact probably more socially cohesive. I think I read somewhere that Barack and Michelle's first date was to see Spike Lee's 'She's Gotta Have It' - a black and white indie flick! It was on at some mutiplex cinemas here in Scotland. It would be wrong to miss out on these films.
  7. Berlinale has got some new top-of-the-line digital projection for 2009, they used this cost as the reason for the accreditation price hike! On the topic of projection I want to add the indie producer's point of view. It's been discussed in this post the standardized workflow 35mm offers and also the fact video equipment manufactures have a vested interest in constantly 'improving' the technology. One scary addition to this. 35mm presents a democracy in workflow as it's the 'standard' expected for theatrical release. Digital prints require licensing from the projection manufacturing who inevitably is the most powerful player - this breaks up this standardization as each player attempts to out compete with better and more expensive technology and cinemas become merely property to advertise whatever needs advertised as the profit made from any movie is in DVD sales and alike. i.e. theatrical is the gravy. Studios are financed by hedge funds, hedge funds have a bad year - cinemas are prime real estate in cities most often. Goodbye cinema. All that will be left is Quantum of Solace playing on 99% of screens. It's called 'flight to safety'. Digital may offer a 'cheap' way of producing some high quality images but the cost of actually screening the film, the cost of the license, will prohibit almost all from making an honest living from their skills. Ironically it is the increased revenue created by digital sales that will give a disproportionate control over who can release what. A digital print cost around £5000 good old 35 is around £500. So, studios can clearly profit by licensing projection - it will kill the independent voice - and as a filmmaker, to me, that's akin to killing free speech.
  8. Thanks Fran and everyone else, Tom waits like a flashed roll of Reala 500D and Billy Joel more HDV and Billy Idol that's like shooting the movie on a cell phone. Joking aside, I take the point being made here - the content picks the format. What I'm asking is this: When you've gone for 35mm what are the characteristics that have informed this descision, Tom Waits has a gruff and ruff and tumble style to him - often found proping up the bar so maybe I'd go for the Fuji Reala if I'm shooting mixed light, and shoot S16 to res-down - maybe not? so I was looking for some of these descisons relating to film in general over video not which is better. Any thoughts? cheers, Andy
  9. Simon, this is what I'm talking about and I love your passion as I feel we're only at the start of using film. I've shared you're post with my director (note: I'm a Producer not a DP - I only shoot film) This is what my director has to say, For me, film has soul. Digital has maths. Silver halide crystals suspended in gelatine, seem to capture light like the neurons capture memory. Not merely reality, but reality through the prism of emotion, through the assymetrical matrix of organic matter. In the image created by light shining through celluloid, the mind seems to recognize the character of its own dreams. Video offers not dreams, but a poor-man's approximation of reality. It is the fact that it has no appreciable, or at least desirable, innate aesthetic that is the real hammer blow for me. People do not choose video for that "gorgeous digital look". In fact, huge time and effort in postproduction is put into making it look like something it is not. And the look is that of film, the very medium the proponents of digital rail against. This fact makes it very plain that the choice of digital over film is one made on perceived economic and practical grounds, rather than aesthetic or artistic ones. And in the creation of art, should practicality take precedence over quality? Furthermore, this "economy" frequently proves to be false, as what is being shunned is a century of expertise in the format that is still the overwhelming choice for the world's top filmmakers, and for the motion picture industry. "Practical" benefits also frequently prove illusory as unforseen technical constraints hamper both photography and postproduction. The increased slavery to monitors wrenches the image out of the control of the cinematographer, whose viewfinder actually gives the best sense of what the image will mean to an audience in a dark theatre, cut off from other extraneous visual distractions. Video also breeds indecision. Why decide when you can shoot a scene from every angle? If you don't need to decide, you don't need to think. Moreover, all you have done is postpone th inevitable, and landed your editor with a morass of "options" all which the quality of one idea, brilliantly executed. Film breeds conviction. Everything about its means of production encourages the filmmakers to rigourously interrogate why they are doing what they are doing, and to commit to one course of action.
  10. A.J. Green

    Future of 35mm

    This is a pretty broad question but I'm looking for broad range of experience. What can 35mm do that video can't? I'm asking this as I've got a pitch for some finance and I have to justify shooting film over video formats. More specific than film 'just looks better' or better latitude or control of DOF - I'm looking for connection with the technical to story and to atmosphere, like frame rate change mid shot to focus an emotion - that sort of thing. Any good stories and ideas would be much appreciated, this is my first post -thought I should wait until I had a question worth asking! Thanks in advance. Andy
  11. hello, I'm looking for a lighting 'bible' that gives detailed diagramatical illustrations of sets found in 16/35mm movies. Currently I'm teaching myself with a Beaulieu 6008, a Kowa 16h and variety of prime lenses. I've just bought 3X800w tungsten lamps and can only light 3-point. Please advise! Andy Green
  12. A.J. Green

    hello 6008s

    Hello fellow Super8 people. I've just recived a very nice Beaulieu 6008s, purchased on ebay and have a few basic questions that would be covered in the manual if - if I had one! The aperture ring re - adjusts itself, powered by the servo attached, when I choose the desired stop number. (The camera is on the manual control setting). Why and how does this happen? I'm I damaging the servo? Does anybody have Beaulieu 6008s manual or know where I could get one? Cheers for any feeback, Andy
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