zack mctee

I'm so happy with the direction this thread has taken. The conversation is so much bigger than the original post.

Observe 'he' also as 'she' where appropriate.

 

It's a selfish want, and if they get what they want it only inflates their ego further. Also, answer why a director never wants to pull focus, apply make-up or hold the boom mic.

well played sir :) and a valid point.

Personally, I don't like the moniker 'film-maker'. I've said many times on this forum that film should be an elitist profession, and to be part of that group you have to work hard to get there.

I fully agree with working hard, learning everything there is to know and learning how to do it well. There is nothing worse than someone graduating from film school, buying a video capable DSLR, and running around town calling themselves a DP/Cinematographer. I was shooting some B-cam stuff in full daylight last week, and the "DP" was operating A cam, I heard a strange clicking while he was setting up his shot and when he wasn't looking I checked his settings. He was controlling exposure with shutter speed, shooting at 1/2000....I sighed and continued shooting my stuff with perfect exposure at the proper 180 degree shutter.

In my mind for every great indie shot on a RED, 5D or EX3 there are a hundred other pieces of crap that exist because of people who are bad writers, directors, actors etc. who don't know the craft. Our ambition should be to become the best through study, hard work and experience.

Again, you're points are totally valid and make sense, but I'll add that for a lot of people, making pieces of crap is how they are studying/putting in work/getting experience. There has always been tons of crap out there, but when Richard Linklater was hanging out in Austin shooting experimental films and FULLY LEARNING everything he could about using the camera, editing, composition, etc. He didn't have a vimeo account to load his crap up to and show the world. The crap now has a platform, and there inlies the problem.

I believe part of that is through collaboration, and having faith in the abilities of other, often greater, artists.

This is the best thing you've said and like I said in the other message, some people are just poor collaborators. What I didn't say but am taking away from this conversation, is that yes people like Soderbergh do produce results and they are extremely talented in their own right, but they could benefit tremendously by learning to collaborate with other artists

Would someone care to back me up?

He shoots the footage of his 7D, played on a monitor with an Arri that runs at two frames per second?

Sorry, but I don´t get it. Can you explain that?

 

Thanks, Frank

I'm guessing he meant to say 24fps

I know a DP in Ecuador that built his own HD to film rig. He has been running tests with 7D footage and is pleased.

Interesting. I'd love to hear more info about this setup

I can't speak for Soderbergh, but to call Rodriguez an outright ego-director is ridiculous. If you watch his behind the scenes on anything he does, he has a lot of people working with him and shows respect for them too. He may even edit his films, but he's not the only one editing, just as he's not the only one shooting either. I personally see it as him taking the directing role one step further and managing that particular aspect of the production whilst being involved in the practical side too, I can't see how there's anything wrong with that when he probably has such a vast experience with making films. Who knows how many short films he made before El Mariachi to get to where he is now.

 

I even remember him trying to give complete credit to Frank Miller for the direction in Sin City, and if any of us heard of The Spirit, I'm pretty sure it's easy to draw conclusions to where the talent was in that partnership.

I think where the lines get blurred is that there isn't a union or credit for "filmmaker." These people we're talking about are not Directors, they're not Editors, they're not Cinematographers, they're not DoPs, they're FILMMAKERS. These are people that are passionate about the art of filmmaking and to keep them from being involved in different aspects of the craft would be to exclude them from what makes their clocks tick. There are people who are egotistical nightmares and haven't learned the art of collaboration but that doesn't make them any less of a filmmaker, it just means that they're not good at collaborating. At the end of the day these people get films made and have critical aclaim and the small majority of people that have problems with their style will never stand in the way of them getting poop done. Just like having a cinematographer walk off their set won't stop them from picking up the camera and shooting the film themselves.

Here's to a "filmmaker" credit.

I've been studying underneath Eric Steelberg (DP on Juno and Up in the Air) for the last year, and David Mullen ASC has expressed his interest if schedule/production permits, but I'm wondering if there are any other ASC cinematographers here that might be interested, here's some of my work (a lot of which I'm still waiting for from post, that I've shot this year [bigger stuff]: www.drewmaw.com

 

I have my BA in communications, and the mentorship is a part of my MFA studies out of SF's Academy of Art University Cinematography program, which I'm doing online out of Los Angeles, which is why the mentorship is so crucial for applying the theory that I'm learning in class.

 

Thanks!

 

Drew Maw

drewmaw@gmail.com

(530) 262-7096

Really awesome stuff man, I'm brand new to this forum and for me to get on here and it keeps me inspired that one of the first posts I read is from someone so motivated. Killing it.

I really enjoy the look of this show and have been curious as well