Daniel Moore

First project is PSA, btw...

Looking for Producer to make things happen. While budgeting is great, the real attributes we need are someone who can think critically, with smarts, incredible resourcefulness, good in business, intelligence, someone VERY familiar with protocol and knows where/how to get what we need- a hardcore left-brain person with dignity :) Must be based in Los Angeles. Please send resumes/links to awakenedone3@gmail.com Thanks!

There are so many magazines on film and cinematography, but they obviously don't discuss the same subjects. I just bought a copy of American Cinematographer and I am wondering if anyone recommends it, or if anyone could recommend another magazine....? If you could also give me some summaries of what each magazine discusses that would be great.

Let me know what you think. I believe I'm ready to direct commercials....do you all think I'm ready? Here are the website and Youtube links in case one works better than the other: Just copy and paste this one: www.fluideyefilms.com/july_09_DANNY-Cbas-web.mov

Anyone know where I can find scripts so I can compare them to the finished film?

Anyone know how I can obtain copies of scripts so that I can compare them to the final movie footage? They don't have to be physical, they can be PDFs or whatever. I was able to download Munich by doing a Google search, but I was hoping someone might know of a more official/reliable source that has ALL scripts. For example, the scripts for The Terminal and for Catch Me if you Can looked like someone had lazily typed them up without script format just for the internet. I want more official stuff. Anyone?

This is kind of an odd balance of needs. The crew is very small, and what we would need is a smooth operator/wheeler and dealer. I don't care too much about budgeting. If you can find good deals, then great. We don't need a whole crew to be assembled, I just have a few unique dilemmas that I think only a smart producer would know how to solve. Pretty much, what I need is to shoot on a street(found the location already), and I'm shooting a scene with a tow truck. For this, it's complicated because the driver would probably have to be a stunt driver, or perhaps the fact that I wouldn't know how to get a tow truck in the first place, and if I could then the driver would have to act......its complicated eh?. So that's pretty much the only reason I would need a producer. This production is probono unless we get a bigger budget soon, and hopefully if the collaboration is good we cna work together more in the future. Its tough though because so many people want money. I could buy people meals. Suggestions, opinions, applicants?

Yep. Any filming of the real Vatican had to have been for pre-production reference. The Vatican wouldn't let the crew film there in Italy, so the crew actually re-created the Vatican to scale in an enormous empty sports arena parking lot in Inglewood, CA. A lot of it was built, and then later on they took large parts away and replaced the empty spaces with fifty foot high green screen walls for the digital post effects. It looked amazing.

Yeah, Amundson did do Tranformers, but he must have also done The Island, Transformers 2, and a bunch of commercials, because the lighting/esthetic of all the footage I've seen has that DP's touch, as opposed to Bad Boys II which to my memory didn't have any particular stylism that stood out to me.

First, Micheal Bay's DP has a very unique aesthetic, to the point where I know its a Bay film within seconds of watching the footage. I think the guy's name is Mitchel someone. I love his esthetic. What does he do that makes his work, well, his work. What might he do that other DPs don't do? Next, I look at Kaminsky's work, like The Terminal, Munich, and Catch me if You Can, and he's using the same lighting arrangements for all of them it looks like. How would you describe that? What does he do differently than other DPs? I noticed he uses a lot of Key and Fill, and there doesn't seem to be too much depth in the shots. Third, Roger Deakins- his work just looks "golden" and warm to me. Maybe he uses a lot of gold bounces? How would you describe his techniques? Thanks. Note- whenever I think about ways to articulate cinematography, mostly the basics and my own jargon come to mind, for example, "heavenly" would be aperature is opened a lot so you get that high key blasting white light, but I know there's also a lot of technical stuff involved that I don't know, and I also don't know how much technical info is necessary to articulate a visual style.

What is DI? I think I am correct in saying it means "Digital" something....but if someone could really elaborate on it, like explain what it is, when it's needed(or if it's preference rather than necessity), and give me some movie names that have DI so that I can have some reference, I would appreciate it. I have actually been told that the movie A Very Long Engagement had a ton of DI, so I should watch that again, but any other examples would be great. Thanks.

Wow great responses from everyone. That makes complete sense about directing the eye. I remember the conference table scene where Daniel Craig apologizes, and as the other men leave the room as the camera moves closer to him, his face and also his shirt are very white, almost "glowing"....and it definitely directed my eyes. It actually reminded me of how a "black light" works. I also agree, lighting doesn't have to be "natural", but, when I thought about how the exterior lighting in the locations seemed to me to be very undirected soft light, and then I see an interior shot where the character's seem to have unexpected highlights, that to me seems contradictory to the exterior visuals. Interesting point about "suspension of disbelief" too. I guess I can say, from a technique based perspective, I can appreciate Road to Perdition more now. Thanks for the responses.

I was watching Road to Perdition, and the lighting seemed unrealistic to me. There were several scenes, mostly where the scenes had dim rooms, and the characters had soft but bright light projected onto their faces. It seemed almost as if ambient light was the key light, and not only that but that it didn't seem to be motivated by anything.... There was also a scene where it was raining outside a window, and there was that interesting effect where you see the shadows of the rain projected into the room from the light behind it....although, has anyone actually seen rain do that in reality? I'm not sure I have, although it seems possible. I'm wondering if it's a style of direction/lighting that is used to be cinematic regardless of it's realism. Anyone seen this movie lately or remember it?

I never saw The Thin Red Line, but I will look into that. It's interesting that you referred to news footage as looking grainy(and shot on 16mm). When I imagine news footage, I think of modern clear high resolution video tape that's aired on television with the camera being held steady(as with live reports). I would not have imagined "grainy" and "news" in the same sentence. I do find your examples of the two catagories emulating each other amusing hahahah. I do agree too, based on what you said, both catagories are probably going to look bad.

Hmmm, well, what makes you say "bad"? When I looked at the lighting, I felt like I was actually at the airport(which was probably the intention). When you say "polished", I'm assuming you mean "Hollywood" looking. When I think "polished", I think of a scene that is perceivably lit to please the audience rather than show mood or less common style. I thought the beginning of United 93 was somewhat polished, like all those nice moody orange tones(the close up on the guy's hands holding the book, and the other hotel room shots). In the airport shots I noticed a lot of direct key lighting(I'm guessing completely natural) creating white areas on the film(which doesn't really seem like it fits "polished" to me, but the lighting definitely looked powerful to me)