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Director Of Photography Commentary


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wow! I was just thinkin about this the other day. The only dvd's I have that involve things like this are

 

 

Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind

 

it has small snippets of Ellen Kuras insights and how she had to make most of gondry's ideas in camera which is pretty cool, just by usin a practical

 

 

fight club which has been mentioned and Visions of Light

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Adam Kimmel in "Capote".

 

Among other things, he talks about how some of the most interesting static outdoor, nature shots (fast-forming dark clouds, barren trees, fields of wheat in the wind etc.) he recorded by himself during pre-production/location scouting near Winnipeg (he brought camera along with four rolls of film). He said he was at the right place in the right time, but run out of film quickly. The director liked some of those shots (as visual "mood setters") he decided to use them in the final cut. The problem was some of the shots were only 10 seconds long (and some of them they needed longer) so they would make another print from the original and than they would loop it :)

 

So simple, so useful.

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Chung Chung-Hoon on Oldboy

 

Absolutely fantastic cinematographic breakdown of the film. Explains in detail the use of special processes throughout the film, and why they used them or didn't for specific scenes (i.e. bleach bypass, pulling, etc.). He also explains in detail how each choice he made was in service of the story. Good explanations of lense choice, support choice, working with the lighting designer, and working closely with the art department.

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"Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" has a duo track with Newton Thomas Sigel and George Clooney - it rapidly becomes clear how vital (and conducive to better work) a solid relationship and collaboration is to a DP doing his or her best work.

 

Also very insightful into how they pull off some of the insane shots in that film.

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The other Dune, the TV series, there is a 3 disc box set and on the second disc is a little video that is the making of thing. There is some guy called Vitaro Storato or something like that and he chats a bit about stuff. (the discs are some ordinary aspect ratio before you ask) In a way everyone just waffles on and doesn't tell you anything that intresting but somehow it's also really facinating as you get to see the soundstge in the czech republic where it was filmed and it's all slightly odd as it's filmed in front of a translite cyc or whatever you cal them. It's a strange sort of mixture of low budget and high budget and well I can't really explain but I found it all sort of facinating because it's really different in that way. One minute theres these amazing sets and costumes and cgi, the next people are standing in front of this translite thing from a cheap sitcom. It made me watch the whole thing.

 

I found it sort of inspirational but I can't explain why.

 

You may hate it tho as I have weird tastes.

 

love

 

Freya

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I've just joined up here...I'm a film student in Ireland and I have chosen Conrad Hall for my dissertation. This topic has been priceless...so thanks ;) I'm off to print out a list of dvds to buy. Shame its too late to be sent off to Santa. :rolleyes:

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  • 1 year later...

Medium Cool, In the Heat of the Night, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf - Haskell Wexler

 

The Devil's Backbone - Guillermo Navarro

 

In the Mouth of Madness - Gary Kibbe

 

Red Shoes - Kim Tae-Kyung

 

A Tale of Two Sisters - Mo-gae Lee

 

Sunrise - John Bailey

 

Millers Crossing - Barry Sonnenfeld interview

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Man on Fire ...Paul Cameron analyze every min of the footage.

 

which dvd is this on? i own the Collector's Edition and the Blu Ray and neither have a Paul Cameron commentary. Has a good Tony Scott one...

 

thanks

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Guest Andrew J. Whittaker

The recent Bright Lights, Big City Special Edition DVD has an interesting commentary by Gordon Willis.

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Film(s) and Cinematographer Commentary

 

 

R.F.A.D, Abandon, The Speed of Life - Matthew Libatique

 

Roger Dodger - Joaquin Baca-Asay

 

Empire, Green Dragon, The Man From Elysian Fields -Kramer Morgenthau

 

Black Narcissus - Jack Cardiff

 

Fargo (Special Edition) - Roger Deakins

 

Do The Right Thing (Criterion) - Ernest Dickerson

 

Donnie Darko - Steven Poster

 

Field Of Dreams (Anniversary Edition) - John Lindley

 

Malcolm X - Ernest Dickerson - this was just released. Ernest should have been nominated for ASC and Academy for his work on this film.

 

Goodfellas - Michael Ballhaus

 

Personal Velocity - Ellen Kuras

 

George Washington - Tim Orr

 

End of the Affair - Roger Pratt

 

K-19/The Widowmaker - Jeff Cronenweth

 

Sunrise -F.W. Murnau -commentary by John Bailey

 

LOTR, FOTR, ROTK -Andrew Lesnie, Alex Funke ( i think this trilogy has the most commentaries of all time)

 

From Hell - Peter Deming

 

Rashomon (Criterion) comes with a special DVD documentary "The World of Kazuo Miyagawa"

 

Band of Outsiders (Criterion) - Raoul Coutard

 

Legends of The Fall (Special Edition) - John Toll

 

The Dreamers - Neal L. Fredericks

 

Monsoon Wedding -Declan Quinn

 

Mad Max (Special Edition) -David Eggsby

 

Se7en (Special Edition) - Darius Khondji

 

Fight Club - Jeff Cronenweth

 

Panic Room (Special Edition) - Conrad W. Hall

 

Alien 3 (from Quadrilogy set extra CD ) -Alex Thomson, worth it to see Fincher in action directiing as well as schooling a Fox executive

 

X-Men 2 - Newton Thomas Sigel

 

Dark City- Darius Wolski

 

Blade - Theo Van Sande

 

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind - Newton Thomas Sigel

 

Glengarry Glen Ross - Juan Ruiz Anchia

 

Walkabout - Nicolas Roeg

 

American Beauty - Conrad Hall with Sam Mendes.

 

In the Mouth of Madness - Gary Kibbe

 

Moulin Rouge - Don McAlpine

 

Romeo and Juliet - Don Mc Alpine

 

Insomnia - Wally Pfister

 

Purple Rain (20th Anniversary DVD)- Don Thorin

 

Monster's Ball - Roberto Schaefer

 

Oceans 11 - Steven Soderbergh

 

The Cooler - Jim Whitaker

 

Hedwig and the Angry Inch - Frank G. DeMarco

 

Fabulous Baker Boys - Michael Ballhaus

 

Light Keeps Me Company - DVD about Sven Nykvist, has comments from Vittorio Storaro interview

 

 

ok. i've watched most of these movies and i've compiled a list of the films with a description of the commentary. the number doesn't represent the importance of the commentary it merely describes the stlye in which it was recorded. Coincidentally, I do enjoy the 5's and 4's the most. here's the scale/legend:

 

5. DP only on the commentary track.

5b. DP discussion on Pre-Production and Production. No movie commentary track.

5c. disk includes a documentary on the DP. no commentary track during film.

4. DP and Director on commentary track.

4a. DP & Director discuss storyboards, no commentary track during film.

4b. DP & Director discussion on Pre-Production, Production. No commentary track.

3. DP with either the Director, Writer, Set Designer, etc.

2. DP with other crew/talent members not recorded together. tracks recorded individually.

1. DP hardly speaks, ie: Behind the Scenes, Anatomy of a Scene, Featurette. no commentary track during film.

 

 

Rodger Dodger = 4

Empire = 4

Black Narcissus = 5c

Fargo = 5

Do the Right Thing = 2

Donnie Darko = 5b

Filed of Dreams = 4

Malcolm X = 2

George Washington = 4

From Hell = 2

Rashomon = 5c

Legends of the Fall = 3

Se7en = 2

X-MEN 2 = 4

Glengarry Glenross = 5

American Beauty = 4a

Monster's Ball = 1

The Cooler = 4

Hedwig and the Angry Inch = 4

Last Life in the Universe = 5

Requiem for a Dream = 5

The Score = 4

Capote = 4

 

 

i hope this helps you from getting discouraged if your intent is on watching a commentary track with just the DP. like i eluded to earlier, the 1's and 2's weren't very enjoyable. i still have more films to watch so stay tuned for the results...

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Man on Fire ...Paul Cameron analyze every min of the footage.

 

What version has Paul's commentary? i have a Region 1 dvd and there isn't any commentary by Paul. I see that there's a "2-Disk Collector's Edition" Region 1 and a "Collector's Edition Steelbook" versions. maybe its one of these two?

 

 

-Mike

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Haha.

 

Visions of Light is great. I just ordered Cinematographer Style (which Im interested in seeing). Does anyone have any comments on it?

 

 

Not to whine.... but it would have been nice in C.S had they included some film clips or some examples of the DP's working on set . But good stuff.

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Hi,

 

If any of you guys know abot DVD's with commentary tracks made by cinematographers, camera operators, gaffers or anybody else in that department, it would be great if you could share the names of those films. It's not very common to get hold of films with a DP's commentary. Or maybe I'm wrong.

 

Fred

 

 

The dvd, Big city, bright lights, has the one and only Gordon Willis doing a commentary. Enjoy....

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