After far too much delay and procrastination, I have finally gotten around to updating my cinematography reel which I had neglected for over two years, and really, I’ve shot a lot of good stuff since then. So this week I finally buckled down and just put something… anything together to better showcase my improved skills and hopefully get me some more better work in the near future.
And so here it is, now on Vimeo and available in HD!
-Bryan
Despite all kinds of claims to the contrary, shooting in 24p with a 35mm lens adapter with prime lenses will not make your digital video images look like film.
The best way to get “film look” is to shoot on film. Of course, this is somethign that I (and many others) have been saying for a while now but last night I got quite a rude re-awakening on this.
Last night, “Returning“, a short film I produced and shot screened at the L.A. Shorts Festival. It was shot on a Panasonic DVX100 (provided by my friend Brian) with a Red Rock M2 35mm lens adapter and a set of Nikon prime lenses. Not exactly current state of the art equipment, I know, but it was what we could get.
At this particular festival, the allowed submission formats are 35mm film print and standard definition video on DigiBeta tape. “Returning” had the unfortunate honor of being the first film in its program to be projected in standard definition video after the first film was shot on 35mm and projected from a film print.
Yikes. The transition from film to standard definition video made my eyes hurt. But it was so much more than that. The depth and richness of color… the contrast… there’s so much more to the look of film than just the resolution, latitude and depth of field, and last night was quite a vivid reminder of that for me for sure.
-Bryan
A while ago I was asked by a friend to work as a camera assistant on a short he had written and was producing. I don’t usually do AC work, and actually, I hadn’t done any real focus pulling since film school, but I’m always up for a film making challenge and they really needed somebody and I was told they were shooting on the RED camera, so I was in.
Over the last few years I’ve heard a lot of hype surrounding the RED camera and so last week I finally got the chance to work with one of these things and what better opportunity could there be to get my hands on one and see what it could do than to work with one as a 1st AC for a few days?
What you’re looking at over there is for me a very historic ticket stub! Today was the first time I saw my name in the credits of a movie that I had worked on, playing on a regular day, in a regular theater, to a regular audience. Not a one-time festival date full of people who worked on the film. Not some made-for-publicity theatrical premiere for a direct-to-DVD release, but just a plain old regular movie in its second week of play! And I have to say that it feels pretty good. I finally feel like I have worked on a “real” movie.
I wasn’t even sure that I would be credited at all as I had only worked on it for a few days on what I was told were re-shoots, but when I got to the credits roll at the end, I found myself credited as grip under the “Additional Photography” section.
The movie itself, I am actually proud to say, was pretty mediocre. And actually it was a lot better than I was expecting. At any rate, having been paid to work on even a mediocre movie playing in theaters in multiple cities is an achievement that 10 years ago would have seemed like an impossible fantasy to my college-aged self.
At long last a film I worked on has been released to the general public! Thus far all of the feature films I have worked on, if they have been completed at all, have only screened in front of festival audiences. But just a few minutes ago I stumbled upon the information that Just Add Water was released on DVD two weeks ago. I worked as a grip for a couple of days on it during the last couple days of reshoots two years ago to the day. That’s how long it sometimes takes to go from shooting on the set to my Netflix queue.
I don’t even know at this juncture if my name is even in the credits but I can’t wait to see the final product even if it was only deemed worthy of a direct to DVD release, haha. I was actually still in film school when I got this gig… so it seemed especially big time to me… hotel and even some gas money paid for, a huge grip truck with everything so no need to jury rig things when you always have the right tool for the job. But man it sure was hot out in the desert in June!
Anyways, it’s good to finally see that something I worked on is actually in a place were some people might actually see it!
-Bryan
UPDATE: I did indeed make it into the credits. Click for a bigger version:
I have included this screen shot to save you from watching the whole movie if you just wanted to see my name in there. Watching it was not exactly the most enjoyable experience of my life, haha.