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joshua gallegos

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Everything posted by joshua gallegos

  1. Another thing I forgot to mention is that I have a few slow motion shots, one of them is of a cigarette slowly burning in someone's hand and another one is when the woman comes into the room, they eye each other, and I wanted from his point of view to see her in slow motion and register her reaction to seeing him. So at 60 frames per second for smoother motion (which will be done in post), the shutter speed of the camera should be changed 1/120 (72), or should I leave it at 1/48? If I change the shutter speed from 1/48 at 60fps to 1/120, will that remove the smooth motion effect required for slow motion in post?
  2. I thought of the art design as you mentioned, and that's primarily why I'm filming in b&w, since it's a very simple roadside motel, I noticed in b&w films you don't really pay attention to the set as much, but the attention is focused more on the actors. With color, as in Vertigo, our eyes veer away, not that it's a bad thing, but color requires more attention to the set design and wardrobe. I thought of blocking daylight from the window and let the room go dark and light with tungsten sources and warm up the image in camera to maintain continuity. Either way I'm turning it black and white in post. I figure I should rate the camera at 500 ISO and shoot at f/3.6 - f/4 to darken the shadows and not film too shallow since it's a full frame sensor. I'll have the light to compensate. Now that you mention it, how do you frame a close up in the cinemascope format??? I've never seen it done, it's impossible! But you're right, I feel my biggest mistake on my first short was over thinking things, filmmaking is really an "in the moment" process, like climbing a mountain, things have to be taken a step at a time, if I have the whole thing in mind it overloads your mind with too much information, so this time I'll take my time and take steps as opposed to thinking of the whole, but knowing how one shot relates to the whole once it's assembled. I'll post a rough cut once I finish shooting. Thanks for the help!
  3. I was speaking more in technical (hands on) terms. For instance panning at the right moment with the actor, etc. I suppose balancing was the wrong word to use. I wanted to experiment with Hitchcock's form, but I wanted to make it look like an Orson Welles film, his low angle stretched frame. This clip from 'The Wrong Man' will show you what I'm going for http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/422041/Wrong-Man-The-Movie-Clip-I-Don-t-Dare-Look.htmlthe subjective/pov frame, it really captures the fear, I wanted to capture emotions. I love Hitchcock's form because he moves the camera in the right moment, the tension he creates, your mind is right in the moment, and you feel what these women are feeling, The concern was maintaining synchronicity with the actor's movements. Since I only have one day to film 8 pages, I feel so much pressure to not f it up. 7 of these pages are mainly dialogue, so it's very doable, it's all on me to get it right, really. For the crop marks I'm using painter's tape and covering the screen. I will shoot test footage on monday to know exactly where the crop marks should be when I matte the image in post. It's the first time I will do some real lighting, so I'm excited and terrified t the same time. I do not want to fail like the first time.
  4. I'll finally be filming Tuesday with a full frame DSLR, the Canon 6d with one lens. It's the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II, the reason I chose such a short focal length lens is that I'm filming with only a Rode mic attachment, so I need to have the camera closer to the actor to get good audio. Also, since I want the image to be in 2.39 aspect ratio, I needed a wide angle lens that stretched the image, I believe Orson Welles used wide angle lenses in Citizen Kane, which created a type of distortion as the camera moved. The first short I shot everything was shot in medium/ medium close-up with a 50mm lens, this time I wanted to see more within the frame, create more space within the frame and allow more movement with pans and tilts, and minimize cutting away, unless it's necessary. I won't have a moving camera, since I don't have a permit to film I can't have a dolly track, etc, but I will be using dissolves to create the illusion as if the camera is moving closer and closer to the subject in the opening shot. I wanted the camera to be a participant, as there are many point of view and subjective angles, so I feel I should center frame certain shots, where the character is speaking directly into the camera and then cut to an over the shoulder as the other subject listens, then dissolve closer into a low angle close-up. The subject, which is a woman should feel trapped and guilt-ridden from an incident that happened in the past that left a woman dead in a drunk driving crash, so the entire short is a confrontation of that episode, which is all talk. My main concern was not balancing the shots properly, I know what I want, but operating the camera is something I have no experience in doing, and since there is very little margin for error, I feel I might compromise the performances by making mistakes. Do any of you who have framed in Cinemascope have any advice on what is considered bad practice and things I should avoid? The frame will be steady on a tripod for the most part, but the opening shot will have to be hand held, so I figured I should frame my subject to the left as she moves along, looking for the room number. Any advice will help. Thank you.
  5. Incredible work! And you look like a filmmaking wizard with the beard.
  6. You're really going back to the time the language of cinema wasn't fully discovered by filming everything in master shots, it's just not cinematic. I would recommend turning your feature into a short film and then go on Indie Go Go or some crowd funding website and raise some money for a feature length version after you've made the short film version. Nobody will be able to work in such frantic conditions, I remember listening to Darren Aronofsky's commentary for the film 'Pi', and they were making so many mistakes on set, because they were running out of money and had no time to finish. Shooting 10 pages a day sounds terrifying! Good luck.
  7. I wanted to do a forest scene where the cult is congregating and meditating- I would introduce each member by doing a 360 with an over the shoulder rig. There would be a small fire in the middle and fluorescent lanterns next to them, don't know how well that would translate in black and white, but I might just show that part in color. I'm really excited to film again- it's been so long. Even though I don't have a budget I feel it's worthwhile to just get together with some actors and create something. I'd have to see how daylight scenes would translate in b&w conversion, DSLRs are very sensitive to harsh sunlight, which there is plenty of in Texas. I will definitely need an ND .6 to prevent that from happening or simply rate the camera at 200 ISO for all exteriors. I'm excited to finally be able to move the camera more, I'll have a wheel chair dolly and over the shoulder shots, and long pan shots- I really feel I can create much better movement as opposed from what I did last time, which is liberating. I've learned I need to use wider lenses to open up the frame a bit more, at least a 14mm prime. Like this shot from Umberto D. after Maria stands up. The way De Sica choreographed space and time was so brilliant, it's mesmerizing, we're just watching a woman get up from bed and you can't take your eyes off the screen
  8. This is 'neutral' picture style footage converted to b&w https://vimeo.com/119170569 I remember David answered all these questions, but I can't seem to look at old posts for some reason..
  9. Thanks everyone for the feedback. Bill, I'm playing around with the footage from my first terrible short film, I shot on the neutral setting, but all my footage are primarily night scenes. One particular day scene, the sky was completely blown out, so the highlights in b&w conversion were appalling. Pretty sure I will need an ND filter so that it doesn't look so ugly. I worked with a Canon t4i which has a CMOS sensor, the Canon 7D mark ii has a similar sensor only it's 21.0 megapixels as opposed to 18. Even though I'm filming day scenes, I didn't want the highlights to be too harsh, but even in films like Nebraska which was shot with the Alexa, the sky is somewhat "blown out", so perhaps that's unavoidable unless I film in overcast conditions.
  10. Well, all classic films used tungsten and carbon arc lamps and produced amazing results, but since DSLR isn't film, does that mean I should film in color 'neutral' setting and then make it b&w in post? This is the only setting that allows more dynamic range. Really love full frame photography for The Wrong Man
  11. I had a question about lighting for b&w cinematography, I know I asked this question before, but I couldn't find my past posts. Is it better to photograph a subject with tungsten or HMI lighting? I will be using one lighting unit for the entire four day production, I have worked with a Kino Flo before, but I was thinking of renting a Joker bug 800w unit, because of its versatility and the rest will be lit with practicals. All the scenes are daylight scenes, and will use what I have to work with- which isn't much. I'm concentrating more on sequencing shots, composition- and creating movement within frame. I will be filming on the Canon 7D Mark ii and with a Wide angle Canon lenses. Canon 14mm f 2.8 L and Canon EF 24mm-70mm f/2.8L I was inspired by Coppola's 'The Conversation' and Gene Hackman's loneliness, so I'm using wider shots, it's also a bit of a detective story- not in the conventional sense. Here's the script I wrote, keep in mind I wrote with a budget in mind (which is miniscule), so I wanted to capture the tone in the script. https://www.scribd.com/doc/254970625/Introspectre-Final-Shooting-Script I will be shooting and editing, since I feel I can learn more by doing everything myself. Any suggestions would be great. I want to keep it extremely simple as if I was filming a documentary, the way Roger Deakins would do it as a beginner- only I'll never be that good.
  12. Angela won an Oscar for her performance and it was her debut, George Cukor is one of those guys so many people have forgotten, one of my all time favorite film directors. No one could do that just as good, I don't see many films do such great shots anymore. I wanted to use this technique to simply push in and out of people's faces, I feel it's the best way of getting a closeup instead of cutting to one.
  13. I'll be filming in March and I feel a surge of excitement with this new project, which is now entitled 'Introspectre'. I've been watching a lot of interviews on youtube and have been learning a lot from Gordon Willis and Conrad Hall. There was something that Gordon Willis said about making color films, and the difficulty of dealing with color, which is so true! It requires very watchful set design to create the right look, such as Hitchcock films like Vertigo, North By Northwest- which were done to perfection. Since I'm funding my own project with student loans (not smart but what the **(obscenity removed)**), I was thinking of making it a black and white, since most of my inspiration is drawn from classic cinema like 'A Place in The Sun', 'The Snake Pit', characters who dwell within their own selves, I felt it would be the right look and tone for my short which takes place in a mental hospital. I'm designing some shots, and I wanted to adapt this type of movement, which I think is a dolly shot with no tracks on the floor? The way the camera rides in and out for continuous takes with minimal cutting. As stupid as it sounds, I never quite understood how this was achieved. I haven't done anything since I made my dreaded first short film, so I have to take out my old notes to remember lots of things!
  14. I saw Boyhood on blu ray, and I couldn't tell if it was shot on film- or at least the latter part of the movie.
  15. My mistake, it is Jose Ferrer. The fill in her eyes was definitely there as the effect takes place. It's done so meticulously, the way the darkness creeps upon her face. It's the perfect shot.
  16. Designing some shots for my upcoming short film and I came upon a wonderful film by Otto Preminger entitled 'Whirlpool'. About 50 seconds into the clip you will see a wonderful lighting effect that shows how Gene Tierney becomes completely spellbound by Richard Conte. I wanted to use this as the final shot for the short film. Of course it's not going to be done in b&w, and I'm using the 2.35 cinemascope frame. The sequence of shots in this clip are so alluring, it's great because you're not really paying attention to the words, but the faces. Of course Richard Conte and Gene Tierney, you can't find this kind of talent anymore. I'm lighting most of the scenes with Joker bugs, I think for the eye effect I can use a super wide lens to beam on the eye light. I still feel it's super difficult to get it as good as the legendary Arthur C. Miller! But one can only try.
  17. Thank you, David. Took some time to get over my first endeavor, but I feel confident I can make a film 10x better than the first. I wrote a lot of daylight scenes, so I'm afraid I'll need to use HMI units, I prefer to use joker bugs for their versatility- looking forward to unleash this burning desire within me!
  18. Beautiful shots, but I feel a cinematographer should set the mood and not concentrate on glamour shots- glamour shots are normally used in perfume commercials and the likes, it would be very distracting for a film to be shot in such a way. For instance this little sequence in 'Vera Cruz' directed by Robert Aldrich isn't the most glamorous of scenes, but the cutting is perfect, the sequence of shots shows how misplaced Burt Lancaster is among these people. Robert Aldrich had great sense of where to put the camera and where the cuts should be. It's the little things that makes a good film. The composition, creating movement within the scene is more important, it's what I would want to master before anything else.
  19. I'm pretty excited to begin working on my second film. It's a short film based on a feature length script I wrote entitled 'The Jesus of Kingaroy' which made the Blacklist website top list. Logline- A tormented young woman suffering from psychological trauma falls for a charismatic leader of a cult who believes they met in a past life. Vertigo has been a huge influence, especially Kim Novak's obsession with the painting of Carlotta Valdes. I'm planning on using Georges de la Tour's painting of the Penitent Magdalen as the source of her obsession. Also Anatole Litvak's 'The Snake Pit' is truly my biggest source of inspiration, as I'm pretty obsessed with psychology and Olivia de Havilland's performance. For the short film version I wanted to give the flashbacks a noir look, I always felt memories should be muddled as we don't remember them in sequential order. We tend to remember the important parts, and the visual arena of a memory should be dim, like a noir film. This is perhaps a great example of that look (from Mildred Pierce). I wanted to make a greater use of wide shots, pan , and dolly shots- I wanted the cutting to be more lyrical as the short deals with the mystery that surrounds the people in this cult. Of course this is all talk and imagination, I'm not a good technician with the camera or lighting scenes, but I'll find a way to make a film I can be proud of and share. I plan on filming with the Canon 7D Mark ii as it is the most affordable option, using the 2.35 wide frame. I'm afraid I must ask several technical questions in the near future!
  20. One of the major issues with my very first short film was that I wanted to know every specific technical detail, and when I finally ended up shooting it, I felt like I had no brain at all. Don't overthink! Just concentrate on the story you want to tell, if you don't do that, the story will get away from you. Work closely with your actors, once you know the scene you will know where to put the camera. I'm currently developing my second short film, and I learned A LOT by my mistakes. Mistakes that I will never repeat again. Make sure you have a script supervisor who can help with continuity, the more people who specialize in their own thing (sound, make-up, art decorator, etc) the better. Don't try to do everything yourself unless you really have to. Other than that, have fun and take your time to perfect your vision. I will not wish you "good luck", luck is for losers. You get what you put into it, that is a universal truth.
  21. Contact the film commission from your city or state, they will usually list some locations on Reel Scout http://www.reel-scout.com/ They will have contact info so you can speak with property owners, etc. Afterwards, they will send a release form for you to sign.
  22. I'm a huge fan of the Hunger Games movies, they're exceptionally well made, and the acting is some of the best you will ever see in a big Hollywood production such as this. I believe the past films were shot on film, and the new Mockingjay pt. 1 was filmed on the Alexa XT. After I finished watching it, I really couldn't tell if it was film or digital, the color temperature of the scenes evoked a great emotional sense, such as the sequences in the bunker and nursery room. It really brings the question as to how much film lenses, in this case Primo lenses (as it is posted on IMDB) will give a movie a film look. I still think that film being superior to digital is complete BS! How can anyone even tell? Exceptional work on this film, I liked it better than Interstellar, mainly because of the great acting by Jennifer Lawrence, and watching Phil Hoffman go off on Katniss was great.
  23. Shooting on film that will be projected digitally, trivializes the whole purpose of shooting on film in the first place. It's great that Tarantino wants to shoot on 70mm, but the fact is mainstream theaters are not equipped with screens big enough to project the film the way it was intended to be seen. I haven't been to a movie theater in such a long time. There's just nothing worth seeing anymore. I kind of feel it's the beginning of the end.
  24. The Arri workshop videos have always intrigued me, I think they're worth looking into. Here's one with Tom Stern and Reed Morano.
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