Category Archives: cinema

cinema, viajes

the jungle

jungles. bbc 2006. part of the series planet earth.
perhaps one of the best documentaries i have ever seen.
*seamless time lapse of fungi and plants growing.
*bird of paradise with fluorescent blue plumage bouncing and courting a female.
*monkeys!
*cordyceps emerging from the sad carcasses of insects as the camera circles them.
*gangs of human-like, badass chimps roaming their turfs in the congo.

executive producer: alastair fothergill
cinematography: doug allen
aerial dp: Michael Kelem

technical aspects:
http://www.creativeplanetnetwork.com/news/news-articles/hd-discoveries-location-planet-earth/418325

workflow, use of hd and time lapse

production:
2,000 days of shooting,
70+ camera operators
$25 million
5 years
(source USA TODAY)

cameras:
Panasonic’s AJ-HDC27 VariCam
Sony HDW-750 HDCAM cameras
35mm and super16mm also used (ARRI SR2 Super 16 cameras up to 150fps).
Photron camera for super slow motion (up to 400fps) (used since 1970s).
More on use of photron camera in the article.

aerial photography:
Cineflex-HD gyro-stabilize with Sony HDC-F950 CineAlta camera and Canon HJ40 40x zoom lens

post production:
use of Autodesk Lustre and Smoke
Sledgehammer HD!O NAS storage

planet earth website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mywy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_Earth_(TV_series)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordyceps
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Allan

cinema

the great war

BBC documentary of WWI

The Great War(1964)
Part 1:

Strong intro.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_War_(documentary)

Big Bertha and the invasion of Belgium:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bertha_(howitzer)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_invasion_of_Belgium

Paris Gun and the siege of Paris:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Gun

cinema

the inherit babadook

Inherit vice. Confusing but entertaining. Watch again for technique, acting, use of narration, dialogue. groovy.

The babadook. not scary. Except for the mom’s expression at the end of the film and the boy acting possessed in the car. The movie felt like the shining meets jumanji meets the main character in a clockwork orange as a boy. the monster reminded me of Slash.
Nice art direction on that children’s book.

books, location scouting, memoria, viajes

red brick, narrow lanes

Tuesday.
Ran 30 minutes on upper Banyeo around Baejan-ro. Near the market I found red brick apartments lining narrow back streets and alleys. They resembled Victorian era working class housing in East London. Similar, perhaps, to Jack the Ripper’s old stomping grounds.
Started listening to the audiobook of The Man In The High Castle on youtube.

visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brick_Lane
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitechapel

via wikipedia/public domain

books, cinema, viajes

white spider

eiger nordwand/ north face of the eiger. bernese alps. switzerland.


via wikipedia

eiger. they say its name comes from the word ogre.
the north face wasn’t climbed until 1938. it was first climbed by Heinrich Harrer. the deadly history of the nordwand chronicled in the great book, The White Spider (1959).
one of its stories dramatized in Nordwand (2008):

-beautiful images, colors, textures.
-see when they drop a dead climber inside a sleeping bag and it disappears in the mist.

the north face used to be a deadly climb in the summer because of the avalanches formed at the white spider snow field. now ueli steck climbs it in the winter. in less than 3 hrs. thanks partly to advances in ice climbing equipment and the stability of the ice and the snow in the cold. plus there are very little changes in the weather during a 3 hour period. the unreliable weather, cold temperatures and changes in condition were main concerns for early climbers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ueli_Steck
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Harrer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Spider
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toni_Kurz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Hinterstoisser

cinema

beginners

mike mills filmmaker/graphics designer.

http://mikemillsmikemills.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Mills_(director)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beginners

he made the autobiographical film beginners (2010)
one of my favorite parts of the movie:
——-
STILL BLACK AND WHITE AND COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE SUN, THE

STARS, YOSEMITE, GEORGE W. BUSH FLASH BY:

OLIVER (V.O.)
This is 2003. This is what the sun
looks like, and the stars, nature.
This is the President.

NOW PHOTOS OF THE SUN, STARS, NATURE, ETC. FROM 1955 FLASH

BY:

OLIVER V.O.
And this is the sun in 1955, and
the stars, and nature, and cars,
and phones, and movies, and the
President. These are what pets
looked like. These are fireworks.
This was smoking.

PHOTOGRAPHS, CROPPED IN ON FACES FROM 1955, VERY FAST

SEQUENCE OF PEOPLE KISSING:

OLIVER (V.O.) (CONT’D)
This is what it looked like when
people kissed…

FAST SEQUENCE OF FACES FORM 1955 LAUGHING:

OLIVER (V.O.) (CONT’D)
…When they were happy…

SEQUENCE OF FACES CRYING:

(CONTINUED)

10/29/07 4.

CONTINUED:

OLIVER (V.O.) (CONT’D)
…When they were sad.

FAST SEQUENCE OF MARRIAGE PHOTOS FROM 1955:

OLIVER (V.O.) (CONT’D)
My parents got married in 1955.
————————

liked the small things of this film. the simple graphics. the way the main characters meet and the girl can’t talk. the way we can read the dog’s thoughts. they way christopher plummer played his character. the main character’s mom.

mike mills’ wife is miranda july, also a filmmaker of sorts. i didn’t particularly enjoy her film “the future”

both in beginners (2010) and in the future (2011), we’re privy to the thoughts of domestic animals.

cinema, memoria

american sniper

Watched American Sniper but had to leave before seeing the end.
I wanted it to be good.
-The dialogue between husband and wife felt unrealistic and unmotivated at times.
-Throughout the movie I knew what was going to happen before it did which to me is the sign of cliches.
-Some wound shots were obviously CGI-ed. Like the boy with the grenade that gets sniped. I was surprised to find out the director was Clint Eastwood and the story based on a real sniper… and that it received Oscar nominations.
-I thought the evil sniper looked like a pirate.
-Bradley Cooper was great.
-I liked one scene in particular: It’s night and Bradley Cooper is perched on his sniper nest. The city is moon lit blue and there’s a small palm tree on fire. It seems odd because the green palm leaves looked noncombustible… the sight reminded me of Moses’ dream. In the scene we also see women in black hijabs trotting in the dark. Eerie.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Kyle