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Jon O'Brien

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Everything posted by Jon O'Brien

  1. Jon O'Brien
    Well, I watched it, the Carey Mulligan version, 2015. Absolutely love it. I'm guessing many of the extremely low-light scenes were shot on a digital camera. Beautiful cinematography - I didn't find the handheld detracted from the story or made me conscious of the camera. Very encouraging to know excellent films are still being made. It differed a lot from the book but that's fine - novels and movies are two different things entirely and a movie can never slavishly follow a novel and not become boring and over-detailed. The actors were all fantastic. I was really impressed especially with Carey Mulligan's acting. The actors who played the three lead male roles were perfectly cast. Stellar effort. Warning, spoiler alert. I thought the final scene, the real pay-off moment after all the tension, was brilliant, how Oak says nothing but just moves in and grabs her. Very different to the book but worked perfectly.
  2. Jon O'Brien
    Thank you for that Brian. I will spend some time looking into this. Thanks Tyler. Great to know this in advance.
  3. Jon O'Brien
    The last time I tried to figure out how to work the free version of Davinci Resolve, in re-grading an already-graded (by the lab, which I paid extra for) 16mm reel, I spent many, many hours trying to figure it out, and didn't manage to figure out hardly a thing. It could be my problem was that the computer was too slow, or maybe the footage had already been graded and there's not much you can do with it once its done.
  4. Jon O'Brien
    Yes, would definitely miss the sun over here, if I moved to England. Aussies are addicted to sun I think. We soak it up like sponges.
  5. Jon O'Brien
    I wish we could make pictures like this, here, in Australia. As in, shot on film. It would do so much for the industry here in my opinion. I know there are plenty of people who disagree.
  6. Jon O'Brien
    One of English literature's great works, about a fascinating time, the 19th Century, and set in a rural location. I've read the book many times and seen the 1967 and 1998 film versions, both of which are great. We were given the book to read in school and I was very fond of the story from the beginning. Of the movies, in some ways I prefer the 1998 film, which I think might have been made for tv. There's something about this story, and the time and place it is set, and the way it's described/presented, that is quietly magical. However, inevitably, some people find it boring. I remember a woman complaining that Hardy's writing about wind sighing through trees and grassy hills, and so on, as being so incredibly dull to read. I couldn't believe how strongly my opinion differed to hers. I will watch this newer version. It's an excellent subject for a movie, and especially for film.
  7. Jon O'Brien
    Yes, if you mean the Ektachrome, I'd think that would still be necessary. But I don't know.
  8. Jon O'Brien
    What about the classic shot in the 1973 film The Poseidon Adventure. Everything gets flipped upside down, and someone hangs on as long as they can and then steals the show by spectacularly crashing through a huge, glass, complex, skylight/chandelier thing. Another option: a new take on the famous shot of Darth Vader turning momentarily away as he flips a switch, during which Luke Skywalker makes his sudden debut as a gravity-defying Jedi. It could be a woman in Luke's place, flying right through the ceiling. In her vertical ascent she sees Gene Wilder in his magical flying machine from the chocolate factory, and he tips his hat to her with his cane and she smiles.
  9. Jon O'Brien
    If you send Super 8 negative to Nanolab, does the scanning price include colour grading? I'm guessing it must, as grading doesn't seem to be mentioned on the site, and it's always necessary. I've sent 16mm 50D to Neglab and got it scanned by Memorylab. I'm thinking in future I will shoot on Ektachrome and just get that scanned, though will probably cost more, but at least I have the option to project the film. I would really like to do some 35mm shooting too at some stage, as I have a camera. I think I need to get Bruce in Victoria to change the lens mount though as it appears to be a Panavision lens mount!
  10. Jon O'Brien
    What is the best way to learn how to do this complete digital workflow? What is the ideal set up? Is there a book, or series of books that can guide you in this? I'm interested in shooting on Super 16 and editing, colouring and distributing digitally. The film side of it I'm fine with to get started. The computer side for me is the main mystery.
  11. Jon O'Brien
    Just for sake of completeness I would like to mention Bartlett Audio, Weaverville NC. I don't know if these are useful for filmmaking but I have one of these lavalier mics and it is really great for music performance. Very high quality sound for a great price.
  12. Jon O'Brien
    I'm so looking forward to Ektachrome coming back, mainly in my case for 16mm. I shot a wedding last weekend on Super 8, two rolls of 50D, on a Canon 1014 xl-s. First time I'd used this camera since about 1982. It still worked!! (well as far as I know). When I pulled out the second reel there was some lint in the corner of the film gate even though I carefully checked and cleaned gate and compartment before filming started. We will wait and see what the results come out like. There was no opportunity to do a test before the wedding, so results were accepted as being a risk. Word seems to be getting around that I'm back behind a camera, after a few decades away - I have been asked to help film a conference later this year.
  13. Jon O'Brien
    One idea comes to my mind to describe the typical 35mm prints in days of yore: 'warm and earthy', over the more 'clinical' precision of today's cinema imagery.
  14. Jon O'Brien
    Yes I remember typical 35mm cinemascope and 1.85:1 spherical projection back in the 70s when I was about 10 or thereabouts. Some of the prints were a bit fuzzy and not all that sharp, and that wasn't from being focused poorly. I must have had a bit of a critical eye for such things, as I did notice it (I think the friends I went to the movies with as a kid would have been more interested in less technical aspects, like the Minties, Jaffas and so on - sweets we used to get at the flicks). But I still loved it all. From a young age I watched the slow and unstoppable growth of video on tv. Even on the old tvs of those days the difference between film and video was huge. BBC productions used to do all interiors with video, and anything shot outside was on film. Then it was all video. For some reason I was drawn to film. Today I will go out of my way to watch a film shot on film, even if projected digitally. Most recent all-digital production I really enjoyed was Darkest Hour. Would have enjoyed it more if shot on film. You can see a difference. I can anyway. On the whole, though, 35mm projection at the local cinema was just great. Nice and sharp. Sharp enough for telling the story well. Digital can look too sharp, grainless and clinical to my eye.
  15. Jon O'Brien
    Flicker was ever so slightly noticeable at 18 fps but all the projectors could run at that speed, even sound projectors. I started out as a filmmaker at 18 fps but soon went to 24 when I got my first sound camera. The improvement in sound quality on the magnetic stripe was fairly noticeable.
  16. Jon O'Brien
    I wrote an essay on the golden mean and the Fibonacci sequence at uni. I've still got it somewhere. I think a lot of artists do use it without thinking, and a few are methodical about - for instance the composer Bartok used it in proportion of the number of bars within sections. A cinematographer can sort of create dramatic tension by pushing the limits of it. Freddie Young for instance in Lawrence of Arabia (yes I do mention him a lot - he's my favourite) frames a shot of a Bedouin on a camel in the far right of frame. All else is bare sand and light. The camel is too far to the right for the golden mean, but I think it was framed like that as it emphasizes the rider watching intently, looking to left of screen, as he is waiting for his friend Lawrence to appear. That tension with usual proportion can create dramatic effect.
  17. Jon O'Brien
    I agree. This is really good news. It has to be said.
  18. Jon O'Brien
    You could shoot on real film too. Go on, just do it. If you build it they will come ... if it's good enough.
  19. Jon O'Brien
    As I've said on another thread here, I once used to attend film nights at an amateur movie club in Brisbane, and whenever on came a new film shot on Kodachrome 16mm I was just thrilled beyond compare with the vibrant, sharp image of the projected 16mm. The colours and image quality were something I never forget. I think sometimes that's something we've lost or somewhat forgotten about in the world of the moving image. We've lost track of the sheer magical effect of projected film in a darkened room. Before you even got to any content or meaning of whatever the movie was about, the sheer technical process of projected film was in itself magic. That only added to the whole package. I'm really excited by the return (soon, I hope) of Ektachrome, another great film, pretty much right up there with Kodachrome. My challenge is going to be figuring out how to modify a projector to S-16.
  20. Jon O'Brien
    I'm wondering how the new Ektachrome will look scanned, compared with, say, 50D. Either way, I will have to get a 16mm projector up and running.
  21. Jon O'Brien
    Here is what David Lean and Freddie Young used for Ryan's Daughter. Don't know if this is of any help but if nothing else it's interesting. Lean used Panaflex 65mm cameras all year round on the beach when shooting the film in Ireland. As you can see the camera is unprotected by even a sheet of plastic, at least when they took the publicity stills. For the storm sequence they put the camera inside a big barrel like container, probably designed for the production. It even had a maritime spinning centrifugal disk at the front to throw off the sea spray. Hope this helps. https://cinephiliabeyond.org/ryans-daughter-the-proof-of-david-leans-versatility/
  22. Jon O'Brien
    "What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done ..."
  23. Jon O'Brien
    But there are exceptions. I can't think of any examples in cinematography but in other creative areas there are some high achievers who couldn't abide the work of other famous artists in their field. Still, in the learning stages it helps to check out the acknowledged masters. Depends on the talent and the opportunity.
  24. Jon O'Brien
    It's a cold winter here in Queensland. A two jumpers and a coat winter.
  25. Jon O'Brien
    Okay, not cinematography, but advice from my professor at uni in the arts industry: rule 1, never ever be late. rule 2, you are always replaceable. And someone else said "there will always be someone better and worse than you for the job." So maintain very high standards in basic reliability, never have tickets on yourself, and you should get noticed (and remembered). Directing is extremely high stress at times so if you can make life easier for the director that should help your 'luck'.
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