John W. King

Hello all, I have recently bought an Angenieux 12-120mm type 10x12 B lens for the Blackmagic Pocket Camera. Upon buying this lens, I believed it to be a C mount; to my surprise, it is not. Could someone help me identify what type of mount this lens has exactly? Thanks, John W. King

Hello all, Here's a question that I would like to know the answer to: I'm preparing to shoot a short film, which will be entered into various film festivals, and there is a scene in the movie in which the protagonist is watching an old Western film (haven't decided on which one yet, but most likely The Wild Bunch (1969)). The movie will mostly be shown in the background, though for a few seconds I plan on shifting focus to show some of the violence from the clip. Now, my question is, would there be any copyright/legal issues with this? I plan on giving full credit to the studios in the final credits. Thanks, John W. King

First of all, thank you all for so many replies within one day! But to answer some questions, I'm looking for something in-between run-n-gun and heavy duty. I don't want to shoot weddings and home videos so much as I want to make short films with a camera. I have a good cameraman that can handle heavy equipment, so weight isn't a matter, neither is windup or in-sync sound. I've done a ton of research in one day, and I'm considering between a Bolex H16 and a Krasnogorsk K-3. I love the quality of both, especially in B&W film (I'm moving toward making dark films, such as film noir, etc, so I want a low-light feel).

Hello all, As a little kid, I used to always shoot and develop my own movies on Super-8mm cameras. In the past few years, however, I've moved toward the digital age using Panasonics and DSLRs. I want to go back to using film, however I want to get higher quality than Super 8 - is 16mm a good choice for a young filmmaker? And if so, what cameras are best? My price range is anywhere below $1000 (or a little above). Thanks!

For the film we did earlier in the summer, our schedule was so compact that by the time we got to filming, we could only rehearse that very day (the packed schedule being my fault, another mistake I've learned from). And what I meant by improvisers was that they did change dialogue a little, but also they didn't really take my direction, which at some parts: it actually worked (example: I told one actor to pick up his wine glass midway through when he said his line in order to show his nervousness for meeting a character that had just entered the scene. He ended up not picking up the glass at all, which made me a little angry, but I stayed calm and did a retake of him taking the glass; the next day when I come to edit, I see he was moving his hands in a very shaky manner, what I notice some people do when they are nervous, and decided to go with it) . However, when it comes to doing dialogue scenes (in which we film from several angles), I give the actors a lot of direction, in order to maintain continuity. My film actor takes it perfectly, but the theatre actors are (naturally) more expressive with their hands, face, and body that I get a great performance out of them, but in the film room - things aren't too pretty. And these are above-average high school theatre actors, and my actors are either my age or a year younger, but knowing these guys, I highly doubt it's a power issue. Nevertheless, I think my greatest fault was not having rehearsals and table talks with them before the shoot. And I have tried doing some improvisation with my film actor; only a few weeks ago, we did an action film, and I wrote zero dialogue on the script - I had him improvise the fight scenes (it was a shootout picture), and what dialogue he spoke. It turned out to be a pretty good film, but I think he's geared more for strict direction.. Anyways, thank you for your advice, I've got a film I'm planning to shoot in October with both theatre and film actors, and will definitely use these techniques in my direction.

I apologize, I wrote this at night after a long day of scriptwriting, and I meant to use a word quite the opposite of "visual". But I know the story (and film itself) could have been 1000x better had I worked longer than a few days on it (we had only a week to complete it for a class competition). But no doubt with what you're saying, and I've got long ways to go before I can truly master manipulating the audience as other directors such as Kubrick have (by the way, those are the only two films I have yet to see by him). But thank you for your advice, I truly appreciate it!

Hello, folks! I'm a young director (mid-teens), and the selection of actors in my town are mostly well-trained theatre actors. Earlier this summer, I made a film with two of these actors + a young film actor, and I noticed some difference in the two groups. The theatre guys were a lot more patient than film actor, but never really took direction; they were great improvisers (which is okay, but it left my film actor in a very awkward position as he was more for taking serious direction). Now I have read on directors such as Elia Kazan, who have worked in both theatre and film successfully, but I am still open to advice from you guys: what are some ways a director could work with a stage actor to create a great performance? By the way, the films I make are mostly dramas/crime films, which I like to call "Southerns" (I take a lot of inspiration from films such as No Country for Old Men, and Badlands). I recently volunteered at my local theatre department as a technician/stage manager for the fall, but nevertheless, I would like to hear what you guys think. Sincerely,

It's a very basic story, I didn't want to explain it visually as it would have taken down the intensity, given that it would only be a six-minute picture. I also didn't see the need for elaboration as it was told from the mind of the main character, and his confusion as to why this man killed another (and in common sense, you would imagine the latter was someone close to him, because why else would he go after the shooter?). My style of storytelling is one that makes the audience thinks; I don't prefer films that you can sit back, sleep through, and awake at the end knowing every detail. A Lake - a large mass of water that doesn't necessarily move in a given direction, unless stirred by some kind of interference. I use this as a metaphor for the main character's mind - we begin the picture with his stir, he sees his friend/brother/whatever killed, and with a sign that reads "The Lake". Then - we have the direction - he goes to the lake, and hunts down the man responsible for the stir. Once the man is eliminated, we return back to normal (although this is a very simple way to look at it, it's more for thinking rather than explaining). When I was writing the script for this film, I watched several videos about marine animals (mostly saltwater fish such as sharks and squids) in their environments, and how they interacted with each other. To structure the fight scene for this film, I based it on these videos where these animals would fight each other, especially one between a great white and an octopus. There was a camera crew capturing the whole event, and perhaps they didn't realize it at the time, but I noticed how they were filming it truly added to the suspense of the video. They filmed almost entirely on the shark as he was moving around tirelessly, getting his ass beat, and I barely caught a glimpse of the octopus, until it finally engulfed the shark. Obviously, I didn't structure the events of the scene the exact same as this, but it sparked an idea in me. Also, I modeled my protagonist after a great white shark - when it smells blood/food, it goes after it with no hesitation. It tries taking big bites out of its food, and when in "combat" with another animal, it likes to move around a lot and take chances. Additionally, this film is more of an introduction to a longer film I plan making in the winter where the story will be more elaborated on, contain more characters, and actually have dialogue! (though it will not the same story as this film above).

Hello, there! I'm a 16 year old director, and have just gotten into cinematography. I'm beginning to develop a style of moving the camera during intense scenes, and framing wide shots by focusing mostly on the background. Please take a look at my latest short film, "The Lake", where I use these principles to heighten the suspense and tell the story. John W. King