Jon O'Brien

Laziness is endemic in the arts lately. In the fields I work in I see a lot of lazy colleagues. They are often toxic and unpleasant, too. They will try to enforce a status quo of mediocrity. In two words: bugger 'em. Keep working hard and put them to shame. They deserve it.

Yes there's a few cringe worthy bits in the film. But excellent all round. I love that line where Shane tells the old grizzled boss of the baddies "Yeah ... you've lived too long." Another weakness of the movie other than the silly kid at the end is when the hot headed farmer gets hit by a slug from Jack Palance's revolver. He slides through the mud quite a few feet which just looks ridiculous. But a great film.

There's some really nice shots in this film. Check it out, for the cinematography alone. And then just get carried along by the story! We can make films like this again. All we need to do is believe that we can do it.

We watched this last night, on a DVD I got at an op shop (an op shop is what they call them here in Australia. It's a second hand shop). What a great little film, Eastwood's directorial debut (Malpaso Productions). I'd seen it before, on late night tv, back in my teens, but had largely forgotten it. Made very much in-camera (and in the editing room). Low budget but a classic. On the BTS footage on the DVD you can see several pics of Eastwood himself filming with an Arriflex IIC camera with the underneath pistol grip motor, and a modern cinema lens on the front, for MOS shots. Or at least looking through the viewfinder but it does look like he's filming the shot in one pic. He's doing all sorts of cool shots, on his back on the floor, and that kind of thing. Handmade cinema I call it. Completely shot on film, no video village, no video tap, no cgi, no extensive post work. Films back then, if they were made by an artist filmmaker, have a humanity to them. They get under the skin of their characters. It's so real. One of the actresses on the BTS video said that Eastwood wanted a 'European production' feel to the movie. He achieved it. To me, this style of filmmaking is the perfect answer to AI. Go in the opposite direction.

I'd be interested in a workshop in Melbourne Dom, if you do them. Though I've never tinkered on a Bolex.

Yeah, nah, not interested in video villages, and idiot directors. Video village brings to mind village idiot. Admins running the show. No thanks.

I would refuse to have anything to do with a production like that. They could stick their DP job where it fits.

Wonderful, wonderful cinematography in Psycho. Love it! I especially love those scenes when she's driving in the car, and of course many other memorable bits. Love that Bates Motel sign as it comes into view past the windscreen wipers and the rain. Fantastic movie that blows anything in the last 10 years at the cinema totally out of the water.

It's the same with things like camera style, or what you do with the camera beyond pressing 'run' or 'record'. Camera operators want to be 'original.' So they put in suave moves. Steadicam, crane, things on long automated arms swirling around. It's boring! In food it's like too much cornstarch or whatever condiment added. Do less! Look at old movies.

I don't think originality or lack of it is the problem. The best stories told are as old as the hills, literally. It's the little variations on well-told stories that make those stories continually entertaining for new generations down through the ages. Star Wars: a nobody farmboy who everyone in his local town thinks is a total dropkick turns out to be the son of the region's major political and military leader. Off he goes on his adventures and ends up contronting his dad in an epic battle. That is such a simple and obvious story. It's how we tell stories that's the critical thing. The stories themselves aren't original. That's the reality that shocks and depresses young people who want to forge new and exciting careers based on being original, but they're chasing something that can't be. The more timeless the story, the more it's been told before. Young filmmakers keep saying to each other "only the story is important." That's rubbish. It's how you tell the story. Each story becomes different because of the characters involved. That's the humanity of filmmaking. My view is just make what you want to make. Don't try to be original. If you do that in art you won't fail to make something original, or that has your own personal stamp on it, because it's sincere ... it's a part of you. You didn't try to make something to please someone else or to prove a point. Conversely, in my opinion, many people really try to be original and fail. Just do what you like and something original will result, if you are good at what you do.

I still think cinema will bounce back, and that film will play an increasingly important part in that resurgence. I don't think the future belongs to digital. It belongs to both film and digital.

Very true. Look, I'm just convinced I'm right about what I go on about. But if you're right, and I'm wrong, I think the film industry is basically finished. Sure it might dribble on for a bit, the way musicals in regional towns do, but not anything like it once was. The big glitzy, digitally-shot extravaganzas, do they make a lot of money? Maybe some of them do. I'd actually love to know what makes the more money in big-budget movies, film or digital, in the last 5 years. I certainly don't blame anyone for shooting digitally. I do it myself, but I'm of the opinion as you know that for narrative that film is more entertaining to sit and look at, at least for the minority sitting in the theatre that are actually discerning and have an artistic soul.

I actually applaud your attitude about the look of digital. If people love it, and if audiences love it, then great. I bloody hate the look, and literally couldn't stand the look of The Hobbit movies, shot on a RED. I go through life hoping to meet (in real life) others who adore the film look. Because, man, where I am, it feels like film died a long and drawn out death a long, long, long, long time ago. It's all video here, up here in Qld, from festival, to screen organisation, to local friends who do filmmaking for a hobby on the weekends. I am the last man of film where I am. It's not about money. They honestly are in love with video and have eyes and ears for nothing else.

Exactly so. I agree.

If that's the situation with Mr Deakins, well, my respect for him has really gone up. If you like video, own your video look and vibe. Revel in it. Embrace it. Be artistically honest. Stop trying to kid yourself you shoot on film. Because, baby, if you've got a video camera, what you do is video. Suck it up princesses. If you shoot with a video camera, you make videos. You are a videographer. If you use an Alexa 35 or a Venice or a BM 12K or 17K, doesn't matter what, you are a videomaker. Your footage is video. That's exactly what Bladerunner 2049 looks and feels like. A video. Be happy about it! Film shooters are happy with what they do, so take a leaf out of their book. We would never, ever, attempt to make our film footage look like video footage.