The movie got made, and it got the director and writer hired to do Jurassic Park 4. I fail to see the problem here.
Future of the RED Camera? – Food for Thought from our Founder
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The movie got made, and it got the director and writer hired to do Jurassic Park 4. I fail to see the problem here.
starcentral
Veteran
I think the look of Safety Not Guaranteed is fantastic, and as always the story is 100 times more important.
On the other hand Spike Lee shot this film (also on the Sony F3) and it looks like tird in comparison:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LksGNgOgLsY
On the other hand Spike Lee shot this film (also on the Sony F3) and it looks like tird in comparison:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LksGNgOgLsY
I wouldn't judge quality too critically on the basis of on-line trailers - but after seeing that trailer I'm inclined to watch the film. OK, maybe that's mainly because the story etc looks interesting (at least to me), but I couldn't see anything in the technical quality (allowing for online compression) to make me think it was "cheap and depressing"?
By "the look" did they really mean the technical quality, or aspects of the scenery, storyline etc?
Robert Ruffo
Well-known member
The writer but not the DP - DP, writer, director, you guys seem to think they are the same person. They are not, and each effort is judged individually. Writer's hiring on J Park 4 may have nothing to do with this film, and it certainly ahd nothing to do with this film's truly awful, distractingly ugly cinematography.
Robert Ruffo
Well-known member
If the story is all that is important why are you wasting your time on a tech forum? What don;t you buy yourself a VHS camera and be done with it? Film is a VISUAL medium. Come to think of it, you might be better served working in radio or as a novelist. BTW - The F3 and the Ex3 are different cameras - so it's not "also".
So let's be clear here, are you saying they should have spent their $750,000 differently to put more emphasis on the visuals and less on the story and characters? That would have made a better and more successful film?
dustylense
Veteran
I'm kinda lost here? People are bashing Spike Lee who has been nominated for 2 Academy Awards? All because he chose to shoot a movie on the F3 and cared more about the content than the visual? Good luck in your careers and rising to the level Spike Lee has. You're really gonna need it with that outlook and attitude. Meanwhile while you watch the Academy Awards next year from your beanbag while criticizing everything you see and haven't done....I'm sure Spike would laugh at your critique sitting courtside at every Knicks game....
Matt Gottshalk
Resident Preditor
Exactly.
We haven't had a budget revolution because producers don't understand the digital revolution. They're budgeting and shooting these digital shoots exactly the same way they would a film shoot, minus the cost of the film itself. Since you're right that labor, not the cost of film, is where the money goes and how digital shoots ought to be different, that strategy obviously doesn't work.
You're now shooting at ISO1600 instead of ISO200 (or less). You don't need six trucks worth of lighting gear. The camera now weighs 7lbs instead of 50. You don't need a crew to move it around. You pull a memory card out of the camera, slide another one in, and walk the first over to a computer. You don't need, for that, the 73 guys it took to keep film magazines constantly reloaded. Etc.
The other day on Freret Street in New Orleans I saw 6+ grip trucks lined up outside a shoot that was taking place in a rowhouse so small three light stands wouldn't have fit inside. I don't know what those guys were doing, but in the digital era I'm sure they didn't need to be doing it.
starcentral
Veteran
I'm simply defending the fact that someone said SNG didn't look great, my opinion is that it actually looks better then something you would have expected from Spike Lee.
Sorry you had a hard time to understand the context of my post.
Ian-T
Veteran
If this were Facebook I would have clicked the "like" button. +1
Robert Ruffo
Well-known member
Good cinematography doesn't have to cost a whole lot - and the script was written before the budget was even created/found, and before the DP was even hired.
Robert Ruffo
Well-known member
Many more commercially successful filmmakers than Spike Lee, who's latest films were a barely noticed flop, care about the whole package, visuals and story, not nailing just one while throwing out the other - as, by the way, he did when he was making films more people bothered to see. Lots of people have courtside tickets, there are dozens of them. Big whoop.
Robert Ruffo
Well-known member
Cinema de Verite shot with almost no lights is not "the new way". It's older than dirt - and audiences have always hated that look and stayed home in droves. Lighting has nothing to do with ISO - it's about shaping a scene and its light texture.
Ian-T
Veteran
I think I get what you are trying to say here. Not to be picky, when you say “…it actually looks better then something you would have expected from Spike Lee” it comes off more like an all-encompassing statement which would certainly be untrue. If you said that it looks better than the F3 shot “Red Hook Summer” (which I’m sure is what you meant) then there would have been a lot confusion because (at least to me) that is a true statement. The F3 has seen much better imagesa esthetically. But, as we all know, the story is what counts in the end (which i know is not what you were touching upon).
There. All better?
Watched Safety Not Guaranteed trailer with the sound turned off. Can't comment on the story, only on the visuals.
Yeah, they look pretty bad IMO. Though it's less about the camera used and more about the artistic choices. Weird framing at times, overuse of the blooming diffusion type of look, way too shallow of a DOF at times. I'm also sick to death of the obnoxious handheld look...where the camera is purposefully shakier than it needs to be. I can do handheld but it's much more subtle than this. Maybe it serves the story somehow? Otherwise I'm not a fan.
These are all subjective thoughts though, as others in the thread seem to like these visual choices. I think it'd look equally as junky shot on 65mm film with this style.
Yeah, they look pretty bad IMO. Though it's less about the camera used and more about the artistic choices. Weird framing at times, overuse of the blooming diffusion type of look, way too shallow of a DOF at times. I'm also sick to death of the obnoxious handheld look...where the camera is purposefully shakier than it needs to be. I can do handheld but it's much more subtle than this. Maybe it serves the story somehow? Otherwise I'm not a fan.
These are all subjective thoughts though, as others in the thread seem to like these visual choices. I think it'd look equally as junky shot on 65mm film with this style.
Not commenting on the image of Safety[...]
But, the movie was pretty low budget, and a lot of the time we're forced into handheld to gain twenty to thirty minutes a day (not actually calculated, just throwing out a guesstimate of how long it takes to move a camera, balance a head, raise or lower sticks, move the camera back a foot or two, lower it an inch or two, tilt up, move to the right, okay lets go, hey can we scoot up a foot?).
I'd try to do an easyRig on every shoot, but even that's not always practical.
But, the movie was pretty low budget, and a lot of the time we're forced into handheld to gain twenty to thirty minutes a day (not actually calculated, just throwing out a guesstimate of how long it takes to move a camera, balance a head, raise or lower sticks, move the camera back a foot or two, lower it an inch or two, tilt up, move to the right, okay lets go, hey can we scoot up a foot?).
I'd try to do an easyRig on every shoot, but even that's not always practical.
I can understand handheld..but I really have a hard time buying that a lot of what's used as handheld has to be *that* shakey. It really looks like they're actively trying to make it shakier than they have to, which is a strange choice as far as I'm concerned.