Adam Frisch FSF

Congratulations to my dear old friend and fellow FSF member Linus Sandgren FSF on his Oscar win! I wish I could say I'd seen his movie, but I have small children at home and sadly have very little time to go to movies these days. I used to assist Linus a little as a 2nd back in the days, and we came up at the same time and worked with a lot of the same people. This Oscar couldn't have gone to a nicer or more talented guy! Congrats!

Phil's point is a very good one. I consider myself a nice guy with good people skills. I think the people I've worked with would attest to that. But many times during my career I've felt I should fight more for certain things, make more of a fuss and force things through. Be more demanding, and less compromising. If I'd done that, it might have improved my work some. But here's what I realized: If you're a hot DP (I'm obviously not talking about myself;), you are highly in demand and can choose to do the best jobs, you probably got there because you didn't compromise much. That's what built your reel. That and your taste. However, if you continue to not compromise and be demanding, the minute you're not the hottest kid on the block anymore, you'll get dropped like a stone. Seen it a million times with hotshot DP's I know that belonged in that category. There's always a new hot DP around the corner they want to use and if your unpleasant, uncompromising and known as a budget breaker, they'll stick it to you the minute you're not cool anymore. So although in the short run being a demanding, no-compromise DP can give you initial benefits, it's not a recipe for longevity. The trick is to fight just enough fights to safeguard the quality of some of the work (not every job is work fighting for, not all the work can be made good) and then be a pleasant human being that people enjoy being around.

But what's the deliverable for a 4K home TV? There's no consumer format that supports it as far as I know and streaming it over the net is going to compress it so much it'll look no better than 2K. What exactly are we going to watch on these tellys?

Glad you rented it. It's one of my favorites and the place I discovered Jeffrey L. Kimball ASC's cinematography. Stellar work here from him. He also did excellent work on Jacob's Ladder later on. I really miss the whole 'Brit revolution* cinematography from the 80's and 90's - slick, long lens, smoky interiors, low levels, silhouettes and not afraid to mix colors. It is the mother of the blockbuster style 'teal and orange' later adopted by Michael Bay etc, but was much more grungy and dark and not as in your face. I would consider The Duelists the originator, but anything coming from the Scott brothers, like The Hunger, Black Rain etc embodied this style. Alan Parker, Hugh Hudson, Adrian Lyne - all their films shared similar aesthetics. Funnily enough, I was at the ASC awards a few weeks ago and as I was waiting to get in, Michael Seresin BSC stood right next to me and I just had to tell him how much his work had inspired. Angel Heart being one of the most beautiful films from this era.

Jennifer 8 is fantastic. Good choice. I need to add Showgirls to my list. Really isn't a bad movie at all, but just came at the wrong time.

French Connection 2 - always loved it, but nobody else did. Alien 3 - very flawed, but it has a rawness that I like. Prometheus - I loved it and could see the underlying themes he was going for. Revenge - one of late Tony Scott's least successful movies, but I always thought it was one of his best. Gorgeous long lens cinematography. Burn Before Reading - generally panned, but after re-watching it I think it's one of their funniest movies ever.

Very under-appreciated DP, in my view. Grey Fox looks amazing, The Mean Season another really good looking film (and a good thriller). I've always had a sweet spot for The Package - a great cat and mouse thriller, well done and it has some very naturalistic and nice cinematography in it. As cheesy as it might be, Under Siege is a really good looking film, too. RIP Frank Tidy.

Trailer for a film Khondji shot with director James Gray. Looks gorgeous. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsWX7-no6MI

Used to own an old Konvas and Lomo Anamorphic set. All sold now. I regret selling the Lomo anamorphics. Bought an Aaton 35III this summer on a fire sale. Shot a little short with it, but it's just for fun, not really to use professionally. Professionally, I rent. Stuff moves so quick these days I could never make the money back on a camera. Besides, two main problems with owning cameras: 1. You don't want to be the DP they get just because you throw in your gear. You want them to hire you for your talent. 2. I want the camera that's right for the production. Not always trying to shoe-horn my camera onto it. That said, I did see a complete Arricam ST package the other day for not much money. Would be fun to have, just to have. I feel like the faster digital moves, it's nice to have something that will still be able to do great images in 10 years time. What digital camera can you say that about?

I see a blue streak, so it's possible they used the "fake-blue-streak-anamorphic"-filter that Hawk makes. It has little strands of blue wire in it. Or it could be something on the chip, or a net, or a polarizer.

Starts really good, almost like a mystery or thriller (Hearts of Darkness come to mind), then kind of fizzles halfway through and drags on way too long. Good actor like Adam Driver completely underused and just disappears for long stretches until finally gone. But there is some nice work from Prieto in it, although I'm not sure it's either's best work. Before the film was a new trailer to Gore Verbinski's The Cure For Wellness. Completely different, of course, but that's a damn good looking trailer. I really am impressed with Bojan Bazelli ASC. He's just one of those DP's who go pretty much unnoticed from year to year, never gets big nominations, never gets talked about much, but just turns in stellar work consistently. I wish sometimes this industry would award or celebrate some of this talent out there rather than alternate the admiration between the usual 3-5 suspects.

Thank you. Katee is great and very professional. That film's schedule was insanely tight and I told both our very talented lead ladies (Katee Sackoff and Lucy Boynton) on the wrap party, that without them we would have never made it. They were always on point, always delivering, always hitting marks and listening to technical direction whilst still able to do very complex emotional scenes. Exhausting work for both of them, emoting and screaming, running, being cold, covered in blood etc. They have my full respect. Also, Katee is a very confident actress physically, and never once did she ask me to light her in a flattering way or take it easy on her - always what was right for character or mood. I felt bad for her sometimes, because I really let it go pretty harsh at times. So thank you again to them.

If you shoot windows at night, there are a few tricks to use. If you see out of a window at an angle, put a white board there and put some light on it. That will look like a blown out exterior. Also, a common mistake is to have light come in directly through window, maybe a 10K (or in your case a 2K) but then not have any ambience from the top spilling on the window frame and sill. So normally, I put a shelf of bboard/Poly over the window on the exterior, and light that as well. Then that replicates the ambiance in the sky that would be there had it been daylight. If you don't have that, it will always look like night.

Thanks for kind words. I was supposed to attend grade, but then it got delayed and delayed, and finally I get a call about a week before it happens, to be in Wales, which was too late - I was already booked on another job by then. The initial grade was appalling. I did my best to grade stills from all scenes and add very specific comments on what to do, but alas, unless you're there, it's impossible. When I saw it on the big screen finally, it had improved over initial grade considerably, but.... I know how much better it could have been. Live and learn. It has been one of the many reasons I've decided to learn Resolve, actually. I'm convinced that just like stills guys, DP's will have to become graders in the future and take full responsibility for the image from soup to nuts. We can not any longer leave it to fall so badly between the cracks as it has been in the low budget and commercial world. It's especially bad here in the US on commercials, where the ad agency grades the product, me and the director are not welcome to the sessions in most cases. It's totally nuts that someone who might be a copywriter, or worse, a cost controller or an account manager, who might have never even been in a grading suite, have control over your images. It's as if you go in for a heart transplant and the gardener performs it!

Was a low budget horror film I shot last summer in the UK. It's finally getting it's release via IFC Films here in the US. It was a very hard shoot for all involved, mainly due to budget. It's been a hard process for myself, as there are so many things we had planned to do that we never had time to do and that would have elevated the storytelling, but it is what it is. The biggest frustration for me was not being able to grade the movie at all. And for co-production and grant reasons, had to be graded at a less than optimal place and with less optimal gear and talent. I will never let that happen again. Anyway, I don't want to replicate everything here, so take a look at my Instagram feed on your computer (you don't have to be registered). I have some anecdotes and behind the scenes and thoughts on my lighting and compositions etc on some stills from the film: https://www.instagram.com/adamfrischfsf/ Here's the trailer:

I use Take 2 Films a lot when I shoot in UK, but they're more geared towards Red's and Arris. But check and see if they have an FS7.

I was employed by my business manager. You can not be self employed and sponsor yourself technically, although some have gotten away with it.

Multiple O-1's here until I got my permanent residency. They've become a little tougher with the O-1's, but it's still a viable way for most artists. First time around a lot of paperwork and interviews at embassy etc, second and third time around less so. Normally they're valid for 3 years, but 2 years and even 1 year ones have become a little more common. Expect to pay about $5K in lawyers fee's to set it up initially and a little less to renew. A new requirement is that they want to see future US projects lined up, which needs a little 'creative' presentation and someone who can provide that for you. I just had a bunch of commercial prod co's I worked with a lot create a few projects that I was up for on paper. Doesn't mean they have to end up materializing or you have to do them. They just want to get a sense that you're in demand and won't cost the US taxpayer any money.

The Arricam is mechanically based on the Moviecam - that's how good they are.

I would not send them for fog testing. When you send for fog testing, they will either pass or not pass very narrow definitions. And if it doest pass, they normally just throw it away. And just because it won't pass, doesn't mean you can't shoot on it. I've shot many, many times on film that not only was expired, but that the lab condemned. Trick is to overexpose. Thankfully film can take a lot of over-exposure and still be fine. I would start with at least 1 stop overexposure for any expired film. Then the general rule is add 1 stop for each decade of expiration. Obviously, you will reach a point where the stock might be too old, where the radiation all around has has built up the fog levels too much. Here's a good article from a stills magazine on subject: http://www.popphoto.com/guide-to-shooting-expired-film

Yes, they're specially made. In the US the person that does it is a called a Food Stylist, in the UK they're often called a Home Economist. They do the same job. I've shoot my fair share of food and it's a very serious and skilled position what these people do. They various tricks to make things look moist, fluffy, light, dripping, frosted etc.

Bruno Aveillan has his own complete niche - when you need high end fashion or perfume ad's all about visuals, he's in a class by himself. He's done all the highest end luxury brands and done it for decades. As for water on the lens - the first time I noticed/read about it was when I saw Fred Murphy ASC's The Mothman Prophecies. Very nicely shot film with quite a bit of that in it.

The agency has a budget. They will ask directors to pitch on the idea (normally at least 3 directors pitch, but many times more) and the production company that represents director submit a budget to go with it. Then if it's down to a few treatments they like, they chose based on quality of of submission and budget. Sometimes the best idea happens to be the the most expensive one, or even over their budget. Sometimes it's the opposite. And sometimes the best idea is actually the cheapest. It depends. But in short - they have a budget, but there's some slight movement up or down if client and agency likes something that happens to cost more.

Here's a beautiful ad shot by my friend Jo Willems ASC for Apple. I contacted him to see what it was shot on, thinking it was probably a big chip 6K Red Dragon and the old SuperSpeeds, as it had that shallow yet organic look (it looked too sharp for Master Primes). To my surprise he told me it was shot on the Alexa 65 and with Panavisions old 65mm prime series! He said they shot pretty much wide open and went as high as 2500ASA at times, with no apparent grain. In any case, it looks amazing - great shots, great lighting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8rsyOtELgA

It is very interesting to read how much has changed since I started this thread. D21's? :blink: But I don't agree that 16mm has much of a future in professional broadcast. Today with 4K, it just can't really provide broadcast resolution or standards. It will of course survive in the same way as Super 8 has, used for it's look to enhance a creative look, maybe as a flashback sequence etc, but as part of mainstream, no. Sorry, I wish I could be more positive about the format, but I don't think it has a great future.