Hey everyone, here's my reel.
https://vimeo.com/93340558
Artist Statement: I don't aim for anything more than making films that people enjoy. Whether it be because of aesthetic appeal, if it's funny or tells an engrossing story, if it makes a person think; whatever the viewer gets from it, I just want to make something that can be watched and enjoyed. If the viewer is entertained and if I feel they are because of what I did then I have succeeded my mission as a film artist.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Lighting
Properly motivated and executed lighting of a scene makes a world of difference in terms of emotional, narrative and artistic content. Lighting has a heavy influence on the emotional content of a scene, almost or as much of an impact as sound has on film. Lighting can be suggestive, static, dynamic, or solely utilitarian, but the cinematographer always views lighting as one of her most important assets when designing the look and feel of a shot. Here are some examples of motivated lighting that I wanted to share.
That is a still from Dumb and Dumber. The two characters are in a fancy ballroom surrounded by the wealthy and social elite of Aspen. I think the lighting here really helps reflect the place they are in and the feeling of such a well to do gathering. The light here is golden, or slightly orange, which I think helps suggest the notion of wealth and status. The golden yellow/orange color also helps the brass and silver in the room shine with a bright golden light, also a possible allusion to the money and swankiness that a gala event like that would have. Aside from the suggestive aspect of golden light, the tone of the light also helps the colors of the duos ridiculous suits pop and seem even more garish and tacky, further illustrating just how amazingly stupid Lloyd and Harry are.
This next shot taken from the same film is set in a hotel bar at 10 in the morning. I think the lighting here really helps the viewer feel like they are in that hotel bar. The lighting is bright enough to see everything inside clearly yet soft enough to not be glaring, like morning light is. Also, there are expensive ceiling fixtures lit in the background which not only adds some interesting fill light and shadows but also nicely frames up the top of Lloyd's head, placing him in the center of the frame.
That is a still from Dumb and Dumber. The two characters are in a fancy ballroom surrounded by the wealthy and social elite of Aspen. I think the lighting here really helps reflect the place they are in and the feeling of such a well to do gathering. The light here is golden, or slightly orange, which I think helps suggest the notion of wealth and status. The golden yellow/orange color also helps the brass and silver in the room shine with a bright golden light, also a possible allusion to the money and swankiness that a gala event like that would have. Aside from the suggestive aspect of golden light, the tone of the light also helps the colors of the duos ridiculous suits pop and seem even more garish and tacky, further illustrating just how amazingly stupid Lloyd and Harry are.
This next shot taken from the same film is set in a hotel bar at 10 in the morning. I think the lighting here really helps the viewer feel like they are in that hotel bar. The lighting is bright enough to see everything inside clearly yet soft enough to not be glaring, like morning light is. Also, there are expensive ceiling fixtures lit in the background which not only adds some interesting fill light and shadows but also nicely frames up the top of Lloyd's head, placing him in the center of the frame.
Here is one more shot from the same film, this time set in a road side diner during early-mid afternoon. The interior lighting really feels like the kind of road side diners you would see in real life; cheap, low hanging light fixtures and a string of red party lights. I think one of the important lights to take notice of here is the window to the right of the frame. There is a lot of light coming in through there, suggesting the bright sun outside, however, it does not shine in a beam like sunlight usually does through windows. I think having the light like that helps keep focus on the characters while still appearing to be a realistic natural light, even though it probably isn't.
Monday, March 17, 2014
DSLR cameras
DSLR cameras are awesome for so many reasons. They can capture beautiful still images as well as video. Of course the most typical entry level DSLR will be most suited for still photography, it can capture great video provided it isn't moved around too quickly or jarringly due to the latent jello effect the cameras are known for. Even so, I have found in my own experience that any jello effect produced wasn't too pronounced as some reviews might have you believe. My favorite attribute of the DSLR is their stunning ability to show great color values in most any light, natural or not, when properly setup. A great bonus to the cameras credit is the relatively low price for an excellent, versatile camera that can be used for any photography work.
Monday, March 3, 2014
What I learned from the Documentary assignment
What I learned from producing my doc assignment.
1. Be prepared - I can't stress this enough. Be prepared when you're on location, especially if you are far away from any resources you may need. Double check everything you plan on using before you leave the equipment room to make sure it works, bring extra batteries, plan to spend more time in the field than you think.
2. Experiment with every possibility to tweak your images when recording outside. - I filmed everything for my doc project in the Buhl woods and surrounding swamp. I have filmed outside before but I wasn't prepared for the light to change as much as it did that day. It started off overcast, would clear up, then more clouds would roll over where we were shooting. I think if I film outside anymore I am going to get multiple shots at different exposure levels as well as white balances, just to really have coverage I can use in case one turns out faded or dull when looking at it on a monitor. I guess this goes back to being prepared, you should do everything you can to ensure you get the coverage you want while you still are able to work.
3. Good crew members are worth their weight in gold. - I worked with Connor on my doc project and he was an excellent DP/camera operator and I could not have done it without his assistance. I have had to do some projects with really shitty team members and lazy people who seem to not even care about what they're working on and it's a nightmare. Working with an exceptionally disciplined and talented person like Connor really cemented the value of good teamwork in my mind. He never complained once during the six plus hours we spent in the Buhl wilderness on a cold and wet day, even when we were hopping fences and climbing up a very narrow 30 ft ladder to a hunting stand carrying all that equipment, thanks go out to him for helping me and putting up with all that adventure. I think I could extend this lesson to say that if you are working with a crew you can do yourself and your team a great service by performing your role and duties as well as you can while keeping the teams goal in mind. A good crew makes a colossal difference when producing a film project and I encourage all of you to do the best you can to work as an effective team member and functioning part of a larger unit.
The documentary project was a fun and enlightening experience. It was great being able to walk out in the world with a camera and film whatever I pleased, having that kind of freedom was awesome and really made me take a genuine interest in what I was doing which of course meant I was deeply engrossed in playing the role of the cinematographer/director, which was great. I hope everyone else had as much fun as I did and learned a lot from this.
Oh look, it's September by Earth, Wind & Fire. How about that?
1. Be prepared - I can't stress this enough. Be prepared when you're on location, especially if you are far away from any resources you may need. Double check everything you plan on using before you leave the equipment room to make sure it works, bring extra batteries, plan to spend more time in the field than you think.
2. Experiment with every possibility to tweak your images when recording outside. - I filmed everything for my doc project in the Buhl woods and surrounding swamp. I have filmed outside before but I wasn't prepared for the light to change as much as it did that day. It started off overcast, would clear up, then more clouds would roll over where we were shooting. I think if I film outside anymore I am going to get multiple shots at different exposure levels as well as white balances, just to really have coverage I can use in case one turns out faded or dull when looking at it on a monitor. I guess this goes back to being prepared, you should do everything you can to ensure you get the coverage you want while you still are able to work.
3. Good crew members are worth their weight in gold. - I worked with Connor on my doc project and he was an excellent DP/camera operator and I could not have done it without his assistance. I have had to do some projects with really shitty team members and lazy people who seem to not even care about what they're working on and it's a nightmare. Working with an exceptionally disciplined and talented person like Connor really cemented the value of good teamwork in my mind. He never complained once during the six plus hours we spent in the Buhl wilderness on a cold and wet day, even when we were hopping fences and climbing up a very narrow 30 ft ladder to a hunting stand carrying all that equipment, thanks go out to him for helping me and putting up with all that adventure. I think I could extend this lesson to say that if you are working with a crew you can do yourself and your team a great service by performing your role and duties as well as you can while keeping the teams goal in mind. A good crew makes a colossal difference when producing a film project and I encourage all of you to do the best you can to work as an effective team member and functioning part of a larger unit.
The documentary project was a fun and enlightening experience. It was great being able to walk out in the world with a camera and film whatever I pleased, having that kind of freedom was awesome and really made me take a genuine interest in what I was doing which of course meant I was deeply engrossed in playing the role of the cinematographer/director, which was great. I hope everyone else had as much fun as I did and learned a lot from this.
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Effective-Motivated Camera Movement.
So almost any director would tell you that everything on screen should serve a purpose, be it a narrative driven purpose, an emotionally driven purpose, or something else that conveys the message the director wants to transmit to the audience. That makes sense. Oh, look, a set of examples of effective and motivated camera movement just below this block of text! How long has that been there?
1. Speed Racer.
Speed Racer is awesome, but you already knew that I'm sure. This movie, like the cartoon, is pretty awesome. So it makes sense that the camera work would be awesome, right? Of course. In this scene the camera jumps from close ups of Speed as he jams on the pedal like he's never coming back to reaction shots of his family, flashbacks, and of course the powerful Mach 5 in action. The close ups do a great job of seeing the emotional content of this scene. Speed wants to win, you can see it. The close ups also serve to show his reason for wanting victory, he is driven to succeed in all things, that's just the character. I love that this fact comes out so well in this scene, I don't think it would be as emotional without the close ups. Also, watching the action from an overhead view is awesome and reminds the audience that they aren't just watching Speed psychoanalyze himself with memories of his dead brother, nope, this shit is happening in the middle of the biggest and fastest race that mankind has ever seen. In short, I think this scene is made by the emotions presented in it which are in turn made by the jumping from close ups to overhead action shots of the Mach 5 zipping around the track. Go Speed Racer!
2. Segata Sanshiro.
Ah, Segata Sanshiro. I miss him. In his final commercial it appears that he is killed in space by a missile, I, however, am not entirely convinced that he is dead as I don't believe any man made weapon could hurt him. He's probably deep in some hidden mountains in Japan, training, training for the day that we will need him again to kick our asses and get us back inside to play video games. But I digress. I love the camera movement in this commercial. The close up of the laughing villain is a classic way to show the audience that the character onscreen is up to no good. Oh, and a close up of a big red button is always nice too. You can't be ok with your situation after seeing a close up of a big red button, you know that the button is no good from what your mother told you about big red buttons, and mother knows best. Seriously, what better way to show that a button is nefarious than to have an extreme close up of it being pushed right after a close up of a laughing creepy dude? That's good camera movement, take note. After the missile is launched the CEO dude in the office building sees it and I think the camera movement here really shines as it perfectly conveys his fear. That close up with the camera being pulled backwards makes a really jarring image which of course helps convey the total shock the character feels when seeing a giant missile fly towards his face. I would like to write an entire essay about this commercial and its effective camera movement but I won't, because denying yourself is a way to grow as a person and not at all because I just realized this is a very long paragraph. So to make things short; medium shot of everyone in the boardroom crying = showing the audience the mutual feelings of sadness they are all feeling over the loss of their beloved hero and protector, Segata Sanshiro clutching the bomb in outer space with Earth in view = conveying the message that Segata cares for all the world and that is why he sacrificed himself to save us, close up of Segata Sanshiro as he chants his name before exploding = letting the audience see the deep conviction and moral strength of the character, which is the core of the character, extreme long shot of Tokyo skyline with a superimposed image of Segata Sanshiro smiling happily over us = again reinforcing the notion that he loves us and that he died to protect us, giving us an emotional connection to the character and his actions. Sayonara, Segata Sanshiro.
3. The Cure - Friday I'm In Love.
What a great song, what a great band, what a great music video. This is one of the lighter and more bubblegum tunes from The Cure and I think the camera movements in this video compliment the sound quite nicely. We begin with a shot of the band running on stage, preparing to begin the shoot. I think this is a great way to set the tone of the video, it's fun and not to be taken too seriously. Then we get plenty of goof shots of the band all together, which is of course to remind us that this is a band and not a solo act, which would be the unfortunate result if they fixed the camera on Robert. There is a nasty trend in music videos now of holding the camera on the singer, which gives mixed messages to the audience. If you held on just the singer you would think you're watching a solo act, right? Anyways, after the band begins to play we get a few shots of stagehands running around, moving props, holding costumes, that sort of thing. I think that is to reinforce the emotional theme of the video which is pretty lighthearted and fun. Compare it to this other video from the same band.
1. Speed Racer.
Speed Racer is awesome, but you already knew that I'm sure. This movie, like the cartoon, is pretty awesome. So it makes sense that the camera work would be awesome, right? Of course. In this scene the camera jumps from close ups of Speed as he jams on the pedal like he's never coming back to reaction shots of his family, flashbacks, and of course the powerful Mach 5 in action. The close ups do a great job of seeing the emotional content of this scene. Speed wants to win, you can see it. The close ups also serve to show his reason for wanting victory, he is driven to succeed in all things, that's just the character. I love that this fact comes out so well in this scene, I don't think it would be as emotional without the close ups. Also, watching the action from an overhead view is awesome and reminds the audience that they aren't just watching Speed psychoanalyze himself with memories of his dead brother, nope, this shit is happening in the middle of the biggest and fastest race that mankind has ever seen. In short, I think this scene is made by the emotions presented in it which are in turn made by the jumping from close ups to overhead action shots of the Mach 5 zipping around the track. Go Speed Racer!
2. Segata Sanshiro.
Ah, Segata Sanshiro. I miss him. In his final commercial it appears that he is killed in space by a missile, I, however, am not entirely convinced that he is dead as I don't believe any man made weapon could hurt him. He's probably deep in some hidden mountains in Japan, training, training for the day that we will need him again to kick our asses and get us back inside to play video games. But I digress. I love the camera movement in this commercial. The close up of the laughing villain is a classic way to show the audience that the character onscreen is up to no good. Oh, and a close up of a big red button is always nice too. You can't be ok with your situation after seeing a close up of a big red button, you know that the button is no good from what your mother told you about big red buttons, and mother knows best. Seriously, what better way to show that a button is nefarious than to have an extreme close up of it being pushed right after a close up of a laughing creepy dude? That's good camera movement, take note. After the missile is launched the CEO dude in the office building sees it and I think the camera movement here really shines as it perfectly conveys his fear. That close up with the camera being pulled backwards makes a really jarring image which of course helps convey the total shock the character feels when seeing a giant missile fly towards his face. I would like to write an entire essay about this commercial and its effective camera movement but I won't, because denying yourself is a way to grow as a person and not at all because I just realized this is a very long paragraph. So to make things short; medium shot of everyone in the boardroom crying = showing the audience the mutual feelings of sadness they are all feeling over the loss of their beloved hero and protector, Segata Sanshiro clutching the bomb in outer space with Earth in view = conveying the message that Segata cares for all the world and that is why he sacrificed himself to save us, close up of Segata Sanshiro as he chants his name before exploding = letting the audience see the deep conviction and moral strength of the character, which is the core of the character, extreme long shot of Tokyo skyline with a superimposed image of Segata Sanshiro smiling happily over us = again reinforcing the notion that he loves us and that he died to protect us, giving us an emotional connection to the character and his actions. Sayonara, Segata Sanshiro.
3. The Cure - Friday I'm In Love.
What a great song, what a great band, what a great music video. This is one of the lighter and more bubblegum tunes from The Cure and I think the camera movements in this video compliment the sound quite nicely. We begin with a shot of the band running on stage, preparing to begin the shoot. I think this is a great way to set the tone of the video, it's fun and not to be taken too seriously. Then we get plenty of goof shots of the band all together, which is of course to remind us that this is a band and not a solo act, which would be the unfortunate result if they fixed the camera on Robert. There is a nasty trend in music videos now of holding the camera on the singer, which gives mixed messages to the audience. If you held on just the singer you would think you're watching a solo act, right? Anyways, after the band begins to play we get a few shots of stagehands running around, moving props, holding costumes, that sort of thing. I think that is to reinforce the emotional theme of the video which is pretty lighthearted and fun. Compare it to this other video from the same band.
This song has a much different emotional story than the previous one I listed and I think the video for this compliments that feeling quite nicely. We get a lot of shots of solitary band members playing their instruments in the dark, dissolves to the other members, and of course close ups of poor Robert singing in a single dim ray of light. What else is there to say about this? The images alone would probably convey the feeling that the director is going for here but when coupled with the song it is an awesome statement made with film. You should watch it. Hey, you know what? You should watch all of the music videos from The Cure. Not just because the band is great and their songs are amazing, but also because they had a lot of really cool videos that I think you could learn from, honestly! Look at this other one and all of the spooky stuff going on, it really blends well with the song to convey an emotional message. Look at those close up shots of the cobwebs, that really sets the tone straight out of the gate, huh? I need to get away from this keyboard now, so you just go ahead and watch the video and come up with your own conclusions regarding camera movement and emotional conveyance. Feel free to leave a comment, I am interested in what you all would think of this video, there is a lot to take from it, especially in terms of using camera movements with purpose and how effectively doing so can yield a wonderful product.
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