Jonathan Spear Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 Hey Ladies and Gents, Which film, tv show, etc inspired you to choose your line of work (or hobby)? Or was it something else entirely? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie Wengenroth Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 I'd say 3 things that happened within a matter of a few years: 1. My dad bought me a Bolex. 2. I saw "Citizen Kane" and many other films where I found myself thinking, "I have to do that someday." 3. I decided that I would make a sh***y 2d animator after all, and that making films was more fun. More time running around on a set, less time sitting at a light table staring at my paper. There's probably more to it than that. I'd always been somewhat interested in filmmaking, like when I got my first video camera (a hi-8 camcorder! Ha ha, those were the days!) and when I would always do videos for school projects instead of a presentation. But I'd say those 3 events sort of clinched it for me. Oddly enough, I'm actually majoring in sound design. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member John Sprung Posted December 2, 2004 Premium Member Share Posted December 2, 2004 Which film, tv show, etc inspired you to choose your line of work (or hobby)? Or was it something else entirely? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> For me it was "The Third Man". Saw it on TV, I was maybe 15 at the time -- so was the movie, BTW. -- J.S. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Daniel J. Ashley-Smith Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 Mine was Star Wars. I saw the behind the scenes of it and I tried replicating the footage with my old B&W camera and star wars toys. (Didn't work so well) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riku Naskali Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 Nothing I saw. I just somehow ended up making a short film, and of course it sucked big time. So I made a better one, and another, and another... :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Mielke Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 I'm rather new to the pursuit of cinematography, and I haven't made a film, but I am irrevocably committed to motion picture media and cinematography. My story is newer than some, and practically happening in real time. Factors that contributed to my passion: 20 years of watching films still photography (that mystical relationship with a viewfinder begins...) the films of Andrei Tarkovsky, as proof that masterful art in cinema is indeed actually possible a year of shooting events with DV cameras the films that have inspired me most: Stalker, by Andrei Tarkovsky Mirror, by Andrei Tarkovsky Sans Soleil, by Chris Marker Persona, by Ingmar Bergman Koyaanisqatsi, by Godfrey Regio Heart of Glass, by Werner Herzog The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting, by Raul Ruiz Russian Ark, by Aleksandr Sokurov The Color of Pomegranates, by Sergei Paradjanov Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lonedog Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 The Outer Limits TV series and anything with monsters in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidSloan Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 I'm rather new to the pursuit of cinematography, and I haven't made a film, but I am irrevocably committed to motion picture media and cinematography. My story is newer than some, and practically happening in real time. Factors that contributed to my passion: 20 years of watching films still photography (that mystical relationship with a viewfinder begins...) the films of Andrei Tarkovsky, as proof that masterful art in cinema is indeed actually possible a year of shooting events with DV cameras the films that have inspired me most: Stalker, by Andrei Tarkovsky Mirror, by Andrei Tarkovsky Sans Soleil, by Chris Marker Persona, by Ingmar Bergman Koyaanisqatsi, by Godfrey Regio Heart of Glass, by Werner Herzog The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting, by Raul Ruiz Russian Ark, by Aleksandr Sokurov The Color of Pomegranates, by Sergei Paradjanov <{POST_SNAPBACK}> My list is almost the same as yours. I would probably just add Cassavetes and Angelopolous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dpforum1968 Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 Once again I see none of you know what you're talking about. Any thing with Pauly Shore in it was my inspiration. Don't forget the Police Academy movies, GENIUS!!! DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member David Mullen ASC Posted December 3, 2004 Premium Member Share Posted December 3, 2004 For me, it all started with "Star Trek" re-runs and old Japanese monster movies on TV when I was a kid. "Star Trek" lead me to read Arthur C. Clarke and other science fiction. Combine this with the fact that my parents had the original soundtrack album of "2001" with all of these great photos in the inside fold. I used to stare at photos from that movie for hours. Then it finally premiered on NBC in 1976, I believe, I sat in front of the TV set glued for the whole three hours. Then in 1977, "Star Wars" and "Close Encounters" came out, although it was really "Close Encounters" that got me excited about filmmaking. I was also painting space art and building spaceship models so I loved "Star Wars" but I didn't notice the filmmaking techniques like dolly moves and cutting as I did in "Close Encounters." I was fifteen when it came out. Then I moved to Virginia, found a friend who was an even better science-fiction artist and model-builder than I ever was. We made some sci-fi Super-8 films and talked about going into special effects. Around this time, while in the gift shop of the Smithsonian's Air & Space Museum, I found the book "The Making of Kubrick's 2001" by Jerome Agel, with nearly 100 pages of b&w photos of the production. My last year of high school, Kurosawa's "Kagemusha" was released theaterically and this was the first "art house" movie I ever saw and it blew me away. In college, I went to every screening of a Kurosawa film, as well as all of Kubrick's stuff. Also got hooked on "Lawrence of Arabia" around this time. Then saw "Citizen Kane" and was really hooked on b&w movies. So "Star Trek", Spielberg, Lucas, Kurosawa, Kubrick, Lean, Welles that were my biggest influences then. Oh, I almost forgot: I also loved Disney cartoons, especially the early classics like "Snow White" and "Bambi". Spent many hours looking at still in the book "Disney Animation: Illusion of Life." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J. Lamar King IMPOSTOR Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 (edited) Too many good ones to name. I have to thank my Mom really because she would always take us to shows in the 70's early 80's that people in this 'neck of the woods' didn't normaly see. Like "Fiddler on the Roof" "Jesus Christ Superstar" "The Three Musketeers" "Chariots of Fire." She would take us probably because she couldn't afford a baby sitter and I probably annoyed other theatre goers but she says I usually sat 'transfixed' the whole time. I can remember seeing "Infra-man" (sp?) at the local drive-in and couldn't believe what I was seeing! To a kid that poop is great! I really remember "Black Beauty" and "Being There" I love most everything Caleb Deschanel does. Rerun musicals too, like "The Music Man" and "The Sound of Music" completely blew me away. Though maybe not a Cinematography masterpiece, shots like those of the ladies hats during "Pick a little, Peck a Little, Cheap, cheap, cheap.." are shots that cut to the seam of what's happening in the story. Artistic composition and visual economy at its finest. War films were good too, I usually saw them on TV. "Big Red One" "The Longest Day" "Raid on Entebbe" and the TV series "Combat!" is still almost the best thing ever produced for TV. I have to also throw in the 70's Sid and Marty Kroft stuff, "H. R. Puffinstuff" has a certain genius. Then of course when I was older I saw a Kurwosawa movie and couldn't pick my jaw up off the floor for weeks. "The Seven Samurai" "Yojimbo" "Sanjuro" "Dreams" all good. Then I remember "3 O'clock High" by Phil Joanou. That movie I think was one where I really discovered how a film is made. I just loved the way they kept ticking that clock off until 3:00. Then of course he made "Rattle and Hum" the U2 film and I nearly wet myself in the theatre. Brinkmann and Cronenweth. U2's music videos have always been an influence along with Declan Quinn. That's only a small part of the story, I left out "ET" "Jaws" and a bunch of others. I think seeing "Schindler's List" "Amistad" and "Saving Private Ryan" is what made me realize I never ever want to do anything else. Those three movies for me breathed a fresh life into modern cinema that I haven't felt since "Star Wars" probably. I can't believe Spielberg even made all three of those films. Probably the Pinnacle of his career. Oh yeah, I have to add one of the weirdest TV shows ever made "I Led Three Lives." Edited December 3, 2004 by J. Lamar King Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Spear Posted December 3, 2004 Author Share Posted December 3, 2004 "Oh, I almost forgot: I also loved Disney cartoons, especially the early classics like "Snow White" and "Bambi". Spent many hours looking at still in the book "Disney Animation: Illusion of Life."" I'd have to say that my biggest influences are definately those old-school Disney movies (pretty much every film before the Lion King), a trip to Universal Studios when I was 7, ANYTHING Pixar comes up with, the 5th Element and last but not least, every Tim Burton film ever made...especially The Nightmare Before Christmas (and the making of/behind the scene DvD featurette). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Allen Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 I think anytime there was an extra featurette bundled with the movie that always got me excited. I never thought about filmmaking while watching the movie, but the "behind the scenes" stuff that they showed afterward intruigued me to no end. I think maybe I'm an engineer at heart, I really like the process of making a movie, not so much the finished product- that could be because my movies suck. Oh well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kehrer Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 Kurosawa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member David Mullen ASC Posted December 3, 2004 Premium Member Share Posted December 3, 2004 I also forgot to add seeing "Superman: The Movie" in 1978. Combine that with "Close Encounters" and I fell in love with lens flares and halation around bright areas from diffusion filters. If "Close Encounters" sparked my interest in how movies were directed in terms of the camera movement, "Superman" made me realize that a DP was involved in this, because the beginning of the movie was dedicated to "Geoffrey Unsworth, O.B.E." I vaguely knew that this meant he was given the Order of the British Empire, post-humously I guess, and this really impressed me as a teenager, that a cinematographer could get that much respect (by dying unfortunately.) Then I read that he was much loved and respected by his colleagues, which also impressed me. And I still run into that: the DVD's of "Superman" and "Tess" both mention him in the behind-the-scenes docs, and in both cases, the leading actress was probably to most moved by his death. They really appreciated how he made them look too... Unsworth and Alcott, both involved in "2001", the other big influence, cemented an early and continuing interest in British cinematographers. Then I saw "Lawrence of Arabia", "Chariots of Fire", "Fiddler on the Roof", "Three Musketeers", etc. in my early college years and I was hooked on those DP's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Keith Mottram Posted December 3, 2004 Premium Member Share Posted December 3, 2004 different dudes for different moods, but recently my biggest influence is 'curb your enthusiasm'! Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest no-bones Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 Hey Ladies and Gents, Which film, tv show, etc inspired you to choose your line of work (or hobby)? Or was it something else entirely? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire and Far Away, So Close. PBS' A Brilliant Madness (I think that's the title) about the mathematician John Nash. Max Reinhardt's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Eisenstein. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member John Sprung Posted December 3, 2004 Premium Member Share Posted December 3, 2004 he was given the Order of the British Empire, post-humously I guess, <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Actually, he was give the OBE in 1976, and died in 1978. I think it's always better to give people honors while they're still around to enjoy it. -- J.S. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff striker Posted December 5, 2004 Share Posted December 5, 2004 repulsion by polanski weekend by godard and seconds by frankenheimer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Greg Gross Posted December 5, 2004 Premium Member Share Posted December 5, 2004 "TOUCH OF EVIL" -Orson Welles Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Rich Steel Posted December 5, 2004 Premium Member Share Posted December 5, 2004 Star Wars....nuff said (I was 7 years old at the time) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Spear Posted December 5, 2004 Author Share Posted December 5, 2004 When I was about 9, I remember walking out of the theater after seeing "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1" and -believing- I could kick anybody's arse with my 'turtle power'. <_< Cool movie though. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Rodriguez Posted December 5, 2004 Share Posted December 5, 2004 (edited) I was lucky because my dad was a combat cinematographer in WWII and never stopped shooting so he took us to all the cool movies in the fifties and sixties. He could talk about the cinematography after the shows on the drive back from the drive-in theaters. The rest of the family was crashed in the station wagon. I knew I could always get a great conversation out of dad by asking how a shot was done. So beginning from earliest memory. The ones that come to mind that just blew me away are: To Kill a Mockingbird The Hustler Hud Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Giant Ben Hur Cleopatra Dr. Zhivago Lawrence of Arabia 2001: A Space Odessy The Hired Hand The Conformist Cool Hand Luke Chinatown Edited December 5, 2004 by Leon Rodriguez Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Maeda Posted December 5, 2004 Share Posted December 5, 2004 paris texas david good call on the early disney. some of those images are permanently burned into my mind's eye, as i'm sure they are with many on this board. jk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg bobier Posted December 5, 2004 Share Posted December 5, 2004 after 10 years in the corporate graphics/,marketing world (gah) I got back to movies- we did a couple of shorts in the last year- more planned this year I worked as an usher as a teen- so the movies I grew with all where inspiring But I find now going through the all the mjovies we watch these days there is something inspiring in everything i watch more so because weve in idea as to how these things are done :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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