Primer

What an AMAZING movie! I'd like to make 2 points about it:

1) It took Shane almost 2 years to edit it since he shot super16mm and could only get 1 take for most of the shots. OUCH! He said he didn't want to shoot digital, but that was in '02, just before the DVX came out. It should inspire us all and make us realize how lucky we are to be able to get such filmlike images so easily.

2) I think every no-budget wannabe filmmaker sgould watch this movie before anything else. He spent almost the entire 7K budget on film stock and processing, so it's essentially a zero budget movie. Who needs money when you have the ability to tell a story!

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!
 
What an AMAZING movie! I'd like to make 2 points about it:

1) It took Shane almost 2 years to edit it since he shot super16mm and could only get 1 take for most of the shots. OUCH! He said he didn't want to shoot digital, but that was in '02, just before the DVX came out. It should inspire us all and make us realize how lucky we are to be able to get such filmlike images so easily.

Good movie, but I really doubt the DVX would have satisfied/ replaced the reasons for choosing 16mm. Sure DVX has 24p but it lacked resolution, dof qualities, aspect ratio (other then 4:3) and other key elements when compared to super16.

I thought it was a good movie for an indi sci fi film.
 
Primer's story is pretty cool take on time travel and considering the fact that it was done by basically 1 guy and only $7000 (shot on film too I might add) I'd say its a pretty big accomplishment. There's even takes where you can see Shane mouth the word "cut" because they needed every possible frame.

Primer is an indie I love to show people because it contains so many elements that so many other filmmakers lack, unique story, great use of production value, great lighting, great editing, and for the most part the acting works well, and overall it doesn't really feel like a extreme low budget flick, let alone a guys first movie.

Props to Primer and Shane Carruth!
 
Good movie, but I really doubt the DVX would have satisfied/ replaced the reasons for choosing 16mm. Sure DVX has 24p but it lacked resolution, dof qualities, aspect ratio (other then 4:3) and other key elements when compared to super16.

I thought it was a good movie for an indi sci fi film.

I'd disagree with that, Ryan. Have you seen LAND OF PLENTY? Shot on the DVX (PAL version, so more resolution than the NTSC version), it looks as good as anything I've seen on 16mm.
 
I'd disagree with that, Ryan. Have you seen LAND OF PLENTY? Shot on the DVX (PAL version, so more resolution than the NTSC version), it looks as good as anything I've seen on 16mm.

Land of plenty definitly does not look as good as Primer. A talented DP can make just about any format look good, but there's no question in my mind that 16mm is the superior format. Also remember that stocks have continued to get better over the years, particularly recently with the immense competition from DV. 16mm stocks are really impressive.

That said, I (along with 5000 others) bought a RED ONE so screw dv AND 16mm :D
 
After all of the hype on this forum, I gave Primer a watch (not too long ago) and I have to say, I was not impressed. Don't get me wrong, I think what Shane Carruth did for his (non-)budget was really great: shooting on film, cool production design (props!) and decent acting. What bothered me was that the story wasn't engrossing enough to distract me from the (not-so-great IMO) editing and framing. And I'm a physics major so it wasn't the dialogue that kept me from getting involved. Maybe it's because I saw the flick after watching The Station Agent. Now that was an interesting little movie.
 
After all of the hype on this forum, I gave Primer a watch (not too long ago) and I have to say, I was not impressed. Don't get me wrong, I think what Shane Carruth did for his (non-)budget was really great: shooting on film, cool production design (props!) and decent acting. What bothered me was that the story wasn't engrossing enough to distract me from the (not-so-great IMO) editing and framing. And I'm a physics major so it wasn't the dialogue that kept me from getting involved. Maybe it's because I saw the flick after watching The Station Agent. Now that was an interesting little movie.

to each his own. still one of my favorites
 
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