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Greg Traw

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Everything posted by Greg Traw

  1. 'The harder they come the harder they fall...' Hollywood (and human nature in general) seems to thrive on this kind of attitude. When someone makes someone else loads of cash any kind of behavior -- no matter how insolent -- is accepted, even encouraged; as a result, this makes the individual believe it's their God-given right to act and parade around like a schmuck. Then the cash stops flowing -- usually abruptly -- and the passive-aggressive hoards have their feeding frenzy. (i.e. Personal assistants snub phones and laugh with each other from across a sea of office cubicles.) I'm just wonder who's going to be cackling when Bale stops pumping the box office numbers? B)
  2. No one has mentioned Godard's film "A Woman is a Woman" yet? P.T. Anderson rips off the lens flare and red/blue color palette (minus the introduction of green and gold) almost shamelessly but in a much more OCD way.
  3. That's what I was planning on doing...
  4. I was just wondering if anyone has taken the time and money to test every film stock, during every condition (tungsten, daylight, night, interior, exterior, etc.) and at every f-stop. I was thinking about doing this myself but before I spend all the time and money I was just wondering if anyone else has? If the results are posted online could someone steer me in the right direction... Thanks in advance...
  5. Thanks for the advice... My ZOOMII is about to move into the 21st century; well, maybe the late 20th century with double AA's. Does anyone know how to make a battery pack with a lithium ion?... :D
  6. I was just wondering if anyone on here had the blueprints to make a 4008 battery pack with AA batteries?
  7. The painting or the easel? The painting or the easel?
  8. The subjectivity of film and video as art will only make substantial gains in the right direction when the medium ceases to be about greed, popularity and commerce. Jazz was replaced by rock music. Literature was replaced by cinema and television. Oral story telling was replaced by prose. Only then will the true cream rise to the top. Also, in matters of art, why do the "film" guys constantly talk about "image quality, control and resolution" as a defense for film? If anything, that goes against their argument because art is just as much -- if not more -- about abstraction than it is about simply recreating reality. Besides, for video to ever be taken seriously as art the consumer/tech. rat race (that a lot of you endorse and contribute to I might add) has to end. R&D would have to plateau; then, and only then, would images begin to look backwards for their inherit aesthetic qualities rather than the anticipation of the next annual trade show.
  9. I may be in the minority here, but a small smile comes to my face as I watch the stock market plummet with each passing day... :D Call me a sadist, but I like watching people losing money. I've played poker semi-professionally and professionally for nearly 10 years, so I know what it's like to watch rent, bills, etc. magically disappear before my very eyes. Mind you, I don't wish true pain on anyone, but monetary pain is always good for the soul and builds character. It's also nice to know someone else is feeling the "pain" I feel every day when I sit down at a poker table or open up my online account. Let's be honest, the middle-class is going to be hurt the most by all of this: They have the most to lose. The poor have always been struggling, so it's just business as usual for them. And the rich -- UNFORTUNATELY -- are going to stay rich. But what's it matter, right? What have the middle-class contributed to humanity at large? Ranch dressing? Minivans? Tract housing? Astro-turf? The popularity of superhero movies? Perhaps, all this collective greed is finally catching up with us? On a romantic and idealistic level, maybe it will create a new existential revolution in our country as individuals won't be able to rely on their liquid assets and material possessions for self-worth anymore. A rise in the arts that we haven't seen since the sixties may be coming? Remember "The Third Man?" Cuckoo Clocks -- Tick, tock, tick, tock!!! P.S. To compare this time period to the Depression is RIDICULOUS!!! This kind of thinking is what got us where we are right now!!! Looking at the numbers and NOT at the social, economic and HUMAN connotations behind the numbers. I think we all can agree the world is vastly more complex and can't be put into any simple formula or theorem.
  10. Does anyone know a lab that prints 8mm. negative?
  11. I wonder how much of this poll is based off of the films seen in Hall's body of work and not the quality of cinematography?
  12. But here's the real question: Is the old aspect ratio just as useless as the Dodo bird was? Or is it still part of a viable "ecosystem?" Everyone get out their biology textbooks... :( I know most of you were probably fair to middling in that subject.
  13. Just wondering what some of the opinions are on this as televisions go digital broadcast in '09. Kind of sad... a lot of great films were made in these aspect ratios. We're losing a whole different palette to consumerism -- What next b/w??? :(
  14. I have an idea... Buy an HD or DV camcorder put the "old film" filter over the video and say you're shooting film. :(
  15. Good communication skills are key to life no matter what you're doing. Period. If you have none you're going to lead a pretty frustrating, lonely life. Even on a deserted island, you still have to get along with that volleyball with a painted face... ;)
  16. (No specific order) Conrad Hall Roger Deakins Sven Nykvist Gordon Willis Greg Toland Honorable Mentions Frederick Elmes Robert Richardson Vittorio Storaro Chris Doyle Ossie Morris
  17. Let's not fool ourselves... Hollywood execs are not businessmen and to think they're in the industry to simply make money you're dead wrong. Orson Welles and Francis Ford Coppola have both expressed -- more like complained -- that the film industry is not a legitimate business. And that it's really a contest of power and egos amongst a select group of people "hiding behind the curtain."
  18. I've been beginning to question this as the great filmmakers from the 1960's and 1970's could never exert the amount of funding, power and control over their films in today's industry. Would they even be allowed to make films? -- And I stress the word "allowed." :(
  19. The beautiful b-roll footage of 'My Architect' was shot on film; the interviews were mostly shot on video. At some points, Kahn is seen filming with a Bolex photographing his father's buildings. Nothing is better than film. :)
  20. "Does one admire the easel Van Gogh painted on more than the painting?" -- Jean-Luc Godard Some do these days... This whole argument begins and ends in a basic misunderstanding despite how much it's muddled up with technical talk and so forth. Simply put, video will never be film and film will never be video because of their inherent STRUCTURES -- despite their latitudes and resolutions capabilities. That being said, one should not try to imitate the other. The real golden age of video will only begin when it users -- both consumers and professionals -- use each medium for the own distinct aesthetic purposes. Their are some instances when video captures a mood or atmosphere better than film or vice versa... I've often wondered why the painters never had this problem? Did a bunch of artists using watercolor sit around and try to compete and compare with those using oil paints? Or did everyone just accept the differences of each medium and go from there? Ansel Adams, at a young age, tried to imitate the impressionist painters by experimenting with focus and f-stop but then realized -- at some FRUSTRATED moment -- that photography was it's own medium with it's own beauties. And he went places that painters could never ever ever go... :D
  21. Just wondering... I plan on trying some hand cranking on my Bolex Rex-4. Does anyone know some general tips for f-stops? Also, with the 1:1 shaft: Is it even possible?
  22. One criticism of the 'working your way up from the bottom' philosophy is people who excel in managerial positions often get stuck in technical work and aren't able to rise above it because it isn't where their aptitudes are... A criticism of that philosophy is often I've worked for directors/producers (mostly first time) who have neither the managerial skills or the technical skills. Once again validating the statement others have made: If you have the cash; you can have the "dream." Unfortunately, others suffer because of it... But, then again a good day rate, catering and lodging will keep my mouth shut for months on end. I think we all know a director can be the most helpful, inspiring person on a production or the most useless... I think Nikki fits into the latter category. Good for us she doesn't have the cash. :D ...And I think you can blame a bored, frustrated individual's need for drama in their life as to the posts and threads she's originated here. I actually feel guilty for taking part in them.... maybe I'm bored too? :unsure:
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