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shAi
05-28-2004, 04:51 AM
http://www.shailevy.com/miscmat/amores.jpg

only 2 days ago i watched the Mexican "Amores Perros" on TV (aka "Love's A Bitch"), which was the film that brought DoP Rodrigo Prieto the acknowledgment that lead to the following Frida, 8 Mile, 25th Hour, 21 grams; all great pieces of cinematography. the upcoming Oliver Stone's "Alexander" was also shot by him.

this film, as well as 21 grams, was directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and i warmly recommend people from this board to check it out.

Prieto is a DoP of the crossover film-to-digital generation. he's one of the firsts to take full advantage of digital timing. digital timing replaces the traditional lab color grading, as we're heading to the digital era of cinematography. it becomes more and more common these days and recognized as an essential link within the craft of cinematography..
although it still costs alone like low budget film (~ $ 500,000), it's not so far away from what we simply call "color correction" ;) *

quite obvious that "Amores Perros" was the prototype style of the great looking "8 Mile". "Amores" has even more raw and crispy look than "8Mile", but one of the interesting things to see, is Prieto's style of hand-held operating, which i assume was self made in "Amores..", but most likely wasn't too in "8 Mile", (as i know that there it was a multi camera, with different operators involved). * *

"Amores Perros" was shot on 35 (Kodak Vision 800T) but looks as if it tried to imitate DV look.. :) as strange as it sounds. the burn outs come on a sharp knee and reminded me of our beloved dvx.. ;)
i was looking over the net for some materials regarding the cinematography of this film, but couldn't find them mentioning digital timing on this case, nevertheless, on TV / DVD it looks quite "processed", so i can only guess that the video version was digitally manipulated.

Q&A with Prieto:
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/forum/onFilm/prietoQA.shtml

Prieto about 8Mile:
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/newsletters/inCamera/jan2003/8mileP.shtml
* * *

J.R. Hudson
05-28-2004, 01:21 PM
This is a film on my list that I havent seen but I have come to admire the work of Alejandro González Iñárritu and obviously the DP Rodrigo Prieto (collaborating with Iñárritu on 21 Grams as well).

Not related to the DP check out BMW Films Episode "The Hire: Powder Keg". *They used Arri 16 mm and I love the look (Very similar to 21 Grams).

Jay_Blanchard
05-28-2004, 02:01 PM
Thanks Shai, this one has also been on my list of films to see that I haven't gotten around to yet.

The whole "film trying to look like video" thing has been getting a lot of undeserved criticism. I think it's pretty brilliant--it takes the modern aesthetic of video & matches it with the resolution and flexiblility of film.

shAi
05-29-2004, 10:02 PM
Not related to the DP check out BMW Films Episode "The Hire: Powder Keg". *They used Arri 16 mm and I love the look (Very similar to 21 Grams).


what is this BMW film ... ?!

Zoomforce
05-29-2004, 10:10 PM
goto www.bmwfilms.com and check them out.. probally the highest budget shorts you will ever watch.

Dan_Lahav
05-30-2004, 01:17 AM
haha my girlfriends parents got me the BMWfilms DVD for Xmas. They're pretty cool and entertaining. I still have to see Amores Perros, i've heard nothing but good things about that flick.

J.R. Hudson
05-30-2004, 01:22 AM
Shai

Check em out! I have the DVD as well as they are fun (yet highly budgeted) short films centered around the DRIVER. Fun stuff and done by up and coming and established directors. My favorite is the one I mentioned above.

Jive
05-30-2004, 01:36 AM
Of all the BMW films, I think powder keg had the most powerful look and feel to it. *You really felt the grittyness of the piece.

shAi
05-30-2004, 06:58 AM
...downloading

J.R. Hudson
05-30-2004, 01:52 PM
Powder keg is the one with Don Cheadle and Ray Liotta? Yes, that one is also one of the better ones in the series and the payoff is nice.

Jive
05-31-2004, 09:51 AM
I think you're thinking about "Ticker" from the second season (the season featuring the oh so lovely Z4 ;D).

Powder Keg is the one where the driver has to get a war photographer (played by Stellan Skarsgard) over the border. It features the BMW X5. The piece has the grittiest feeling out of all the bmw films IMHO.

BTW, watched Amores Perros last night. Nice look to it and interesting story told using methods similar to those used in Snatch, Momento, etc. Nothing spectacular IMHO, tho. I guess I was expecting too much.

ecoloco
06-09-2004, 03:39 PM
I've had the honor to work with Rodrigo in the past and he's one of the most down to earth nicest people to hang out with, and a true professional. Too bad that the project we worked together on was a nightmare, where the clients became the creative team. We managed to get through. Regarding Amores Perros, just a little trivia:
The crash scene was shot with 9 cameras simultaneously.
The only thing I would have to say about that movie is that the sequence with the little dog dragged a little bit too long in my opinion. Other than that, an excellent film.

Ecoloco

Rich Lee
06-18-2004, 12:10 AM
i agree ecoloco, Rodrigo is a very cool dude, i worked with him for a bit on Alexander, very enthusiastic, very talented, a pleasure to work with.

the trailer for Alexander looks pretty good, visualy anyway, not a huge fan of colin ferral.

I think my favorite part of amores perros was dealing with the kids and the dog fights, amazing imagery, and interesting story, kinda fell off for me a bit towards the end, started to feel a little long. but i dug it.

J.R. Hudson
06-18-2004, 12:56 AM
I totally dig Collin Farrel; just an ass in a good non hollywood way. Alexander looks really good. I dig Stone.

Rich Lee
06-18-2004, 01:20 AM
yeah, he might turn out to be good in the movie. all i know is seeing his beady little eyes in the trailer made me cringe. i dig stone movies. he wrote the script for alexander, there is a part in te script that made me almost cry, some brutal stuff man.

ah, something more relating to amores, rodrigo the dp also shot the documentry that stone did on fidel castro. using pd150's i believe. not sure if the dvx was around then. would have been 2 years ago maybe, not sure.

J.R. Hudson
06-18-2004, 01:22 AM
Interesting; Ill check out the Doc.

Collin reminds me of a young Mel Gibson (Onscreen; not off)

Tlalconetl
12-30-2004, 11:33 PM
Amores Perros is pure cinema. Simply great. I agree that the look of the film is amazing. Inarritu shot with Kodak 500Vision film and 800vision film but used mostly 800Vision. On the DVD commentary he states that he chose the 800vision because of its graininess. He wanted that dirty, grainy, harsh look for the first story. I believe that for the other two stories he used a combination. The story about the executive running off with the super model was mostly 500Vision stock.

alveraz
12-31-2004, 12:11 PM
This is one of my personal top ten films, and the writer, Guillermo Arriaga is one of my hero's, a definate top 5 in the screenwriting arena, imho.

Good thread.