Artist Statement:
i definitely don't want to be a cinematographer. that's not to say i didn't enjoy this class or get a lot out of it, that's just so not me. cinematography is so detail-oriented and precise with the equipment and... that's not really how my brain works. projects where i was able to be the director were significantly more rewarding to me, because that's where i prefer to focus. i could never touch a camera again and be perfectly fine with it. i'm a writer/director for sure. and it's because of this that i so strongly prefer narrative to documentary. i want control over the situation. i want to control the story being told, and with documentary there's such a lack of control involved. you try to reflect the reality we live in, where i just wanna make my own reality and show that off to people. and then within narrative, horror/comedy is my personal favorite genre to work in. it's a strange mix, but i find whenever i try to focus on one, the other finds a way to sneak in. i think i just have a dark sense of humor that really comes out in my writing. with my filming, i generally prefer longer takes that can focus on the performance. a lot of my writing is pretty dialogue-heavy and so i like to be able to see both characters throughout the conversation. it's a trade-off to be sure, but that allows the actors to play off of one another in ways that would be limited by focusing solely on one at a time. i guess i just like things broad. i like world-building. i'm creating a reality and i want everyone to be able to take all of it in, more than i want them to focus on the details. and that's why i'm decidedly not a cinematography. i'll worry about the big picture and let someone else focus on the details.
Allen's Super Awesome Cinematography Reel!
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Film Scene Assignment: "Se7en: Scene 23"
1. Close up on Somerset, speaking
2. Close up on Mills, speaking
3. Wide shot showing the three of them sitting together——-
4. Medium shot w/ Somerset and Captain
5. Medium shot of Captain
6. Medium shot w/ Somerset and Captain
7. Medium shot of Mills and Captain
8. Close up of Somerset
9. Wide shot showing all three—-
10. Close up of Captain
11. Close up of Somerset
12. Medium shot of Somerset and Captain
13. Close up of Somerset
14. Close up of Mills
15. Medium shot of Somerset and Captain
16. Medium shot of Mills and Captain
17. Wide shot of all three, Mills exits—-
18. Medium shot of Somerset and Captain, Somerset exits
Visual References
Monday, February 22, 2016
se7en - "what's in the box!?"
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| the scene i choose for my analysis is from the very end of the film "se7en", directed by david fincher. (major spoilers ahead for anyone who hasn't seen it before) the scene in question is moments after john doe has told detective mills that... (here's that spoiler we talked about) |
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| ...the box that was just delivered to the random desert they're in contained the severed head of his wife, tracy. mills is, understandably, a little upset about this. the shot above provides such a great silhouette of mills in this dramatic moment |
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| john doe goes on to inform mills that his wife was also pregnant at the time. john doe's callous composure is particularly unnerving as he's framed dead center of the screen staring almost directly into the camera. |
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| detective somerset, having remained relatively cool-headed throughout the film, now has his one moment of anger slip out as he slaps john doe in the face. |
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| there's a great little switch of viewpoints right at the moment of impact. |
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| it's after the slap that things get particularly tense. john doe's plan here is to motivate mills into killing him, thus completing his seven deadly sins killing spree. once again, worth noting how dark mills appears in contrast to his bright background. |
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| the anguish on mills as he has to find out not only did he lose his wife, but he also lost his unborn child he was previously unaware of. for once in the course of the movie, he doesn't have anything to say. |
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| john doe taunts mills; "he didn't know" |
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| at this moment you can see the panic in somerset. like mills, there's such a stark contrast with their lighting and the light behind them. almost as if the darkness on their faces is coming directly from john doe. |
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| mills wants so desperately to be told it isn't true. |
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| for whatever reason, when i try to add a caption or center the picture of mills above this one, it screws up all of my other ones, so i'm going to mention both here: "give me the gun, david" mills has his moment when he doesn't lie to somerset, essentially confirming john doe's story. mills, at this point, has lost all hope. |
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| "david, if you kill him..." |
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| "...he will win." and he knows it, too. it's only in his last moments that we see john doe's farming shift away from the creepy centering to a more traditional look, but with the majority of his face now covered in darkness. |
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| mills is doing all he can not to pull the trigger. |
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| one of the most important shots of the film, also the shortest. most people probably don't even realize it's there it's so short. i've seen this movie three or four times and i've been aware there was a moment where i thought i saw tracy in this scene, but could never actually describe what i saw it was so quick. this is essentially how it works for mills. he has a flash of seeing his wife's face, and that's what seals the deal for him. |
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| the contentment of knowing he has won. |
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| by pulling out at the moment of the shot, it makes it feel a little less personal. in this shot, it looks less like the result of two minutes of intense buildup and more like an execution. |
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| longer than the shot of tracy, but still a very quick cut here. |
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| anddddd back to the execution where you can still see a cloud of john doe's blood as it exits his head. |
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| oh, and a police chopper is watching the whole thing. they freak out. |
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| with john doe clearly dead, mills continues to shoot him multiple times, alleviating his wrath. |
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| this final shot is mills and somerset walking in opposite directions, as seen by the police chopper. another instance of seeing the situation through a less up close and personal viewpoint. mills and somerset understand what happened, but to others, mills killing john doe will never be justified. |
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
motivated camera movement
1) "it follows" (film)
https://youtu.be/rfxzFCDGzj8
"it follows" is a film with that uses quite a bit of camera movement. many if not most scenes in the film begin with a slow pan. this does a great job to really help establish the tense atmosphere in the film. watching it, each scene you're searching for anything walking towards the characters or anything out of place.
2) "bad motherfucker" by biting elbows (music video)
https://youtu.be/Rgox84KE7iY
so, technically not a film/tv show/commercial, but while thinking of interesting camera movements, this music video came to mind because it's basically a first-person action film. so, some pretty atypical camera movement going on here. there are moments in films/shows where the camera is representative of a person's point of view, but usually not for very long. here the camera movement doesn't suggest what you look at, it does the job of looking at it for you. this creates a sense of excitement you don't usually get. because with this video you are the one right in the middle of all the action. p.s. if anyone watched this video and wished it was two hours longer, the director has a full-length film coming out soon in the same style, "hardcore henry".
3) "hannibal" (tv show)
https://youtu.be/5r_t03SGtDw
"hannibal" is without a doubt the most beautifully shot tv show i've ever seen. the creator, bryan fuller, told every director who worked on the show that they weren't making television, they were making "pretentious art film from the 80s" and it truly doesn't look like television. i tried to find the best youtube video i could that wouldn't spoil anything for anyone who hasn't seen this show. (if you haven't seen it, i obviously highly recommend it) within this clip, there's a lot of movement, but the main one that sticks out for me is the shot from 2:05 - 2:20. here we see will imagining himself as the killer, playing the *ahem* instrument. as the camera tilts upward, our focus shifts from the instrument being played to the seemingly empty seats being played for and finally to the sole spectator within the seats. this tilt serves as a visual representation of the shift in will's mind as he realizes the killer's focus was not on the creation of the instrument, but rather in obtaining the approval of his own sole spectator. it's depth like this that really makes me love "hannibal".
https://youtu.be/rfxzFCDGzj8
"it follows" is a film with that uses quite a bit of camera movement. many if not most scenes in the film begin with a slow pan. this does a great job to really help establish the tense atmosphere in the film. watching it, each scene you're searching for anything walking towards the characters or anything out of place.
2) "bad motherfucker" by biting elbows (music video)
https://youtu.be/Rgox84KE7iY
so, technically not a film/tv show/commercial, but while thinking of interesting camera movements, this music video came to mind because it's basically a first-person action film. so, some pretty atypical camera movement going on here. there are moments in films/shows where the camera is representative of a person's point of view, but usually not for very long. here the camera movement doesn't suggest what you look at, it does the job of looking at it for you. this creates a sense of excitement you don't usually get. because with this video you are the one right in the middle of all the action. p.s. if anyone watched this video and wished it was two hours longer, the director has a full-length film coming out soon in the same style, "hardcore henry".
3) "hannibal" (tv show)
https://youtu.be/5r_t03SGtDw
"hannibal" is without a doubt the most beautifully shot tv show i've ever seen. the creator, bryan fuller, told every director who worked on the show that they weren't making television, they were making "pretentious art film from the 80s" and it truly doesn't look like television. i tried to find the best youtube video i could that wouldn't spoil anything for anyone who hasn't seen this show. (if you haven't seen it, i obviously highly recommend it) within this clip, there's a lot of movement, but the main one that sticks out for me is the shot from 2:05 - 2:20. here we see will imagining himself as the killer, playing the *ahem* instrument. as the camera tilts upward, our focus shifts from the instrument being played to the seemingly empty seats being played for and finally to the sole spectator within the seats. this tilt serves as a visual representation of the shift in will's mind as he realizes the killer's focus was not on the creation of the instrument, but rather in obtaining the approval of his own sole spectator. it's depth like this that really makes me love "hannibal".
Monday, February 15, 2016
Thursday, February 4, 2016
gear head blogs
1) no film school
"charlie kaufman's sundance cinema cafe"
i was immediately very excited to see charlie kaufman's name in a headline on this site. i'm a big fan of his and have really been itching to see his new film, "anomalisa". this video is kinda long (just under an hour) so there were sections i kinda skimmed over but overall a pretty interesting discussion exploring every step of this film's process, from the animators' relationship to the characters to the amount of realism these characters should achieve.
charlie kaufman's sundance cinema cafe
2) indie tips
"shutter speed and shutter angle explained"
since we were just talking about shutter speed the other day, i checked out this post to compliment our lecture. it was interesting to see actual comparative examples of various shutter speeds and shutter angles and seeing the different possible uses for either.
shutter speed and shutter angle explained
"charlie kaufman's sundance cinema cafe"
i was immediately very excited to see charlie kaufman's name in a headline on this site. i'm a big fan of his and have really been itching to see his new film, "anomalisa". this video is kinda long (just under an hour) so there were sections i kinda skimmed over but overall a pretty interesting discussion exploring every step of this film's process, from the animators' relationship to the characters to the amount of realism these characters should achieve.
charlie kaufman's sundance cinema cafe
2) indie tips
"shutter speed and shutter angle explained"
since we were just talking about shutter speed the other day, i checked out this post to compliment our lecture. it was interesting to see actual comparative examples of various shutter speeds and shutter angles and seeing the different possible uses for either.
shutter speed and shutter angle explained
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
10 Favorite(ish) Things To Watch
1/ "hannibal" (tv series - 3 seasons)
when i first heard of the show "hannibal", i wanted it to fail for two reasons. for one thing, it sounded like such a dumb concept to me, "an fbi agent and his buddy, hannibal lector solve crimes together! woo!" the other reason was that the creator of "hannibal" had created another show i loved that was cancelled after two seasons ("pushing daisies") and i had read that he was interested in doing a third but was too busy with "hannibal". then, i actually watched it. wow.
https://youtu.be/pDTzn8y-5kM
2/ "community" (tv series - 6 seasons)
on the other end of the spectrum lies "community", which has been my favorite tv comedy for years. "community" is one that i have proudly watched since it first premiered in 2009.
"community" is about a group of friends who attend a community college. kind of. what's great about "community" is how free it feels. it doesn't let itself be constrained by a description. this is a show that did a stop-motion episode, a puppet episode, and a g.i. joe animation episode. "community" spends much of its time referencing earlier works and even itself.
https://youtu.be/DjQkluKxJGc
3/ "kick-ass" (film - action/comedy)
i love super-stylized in your face violence. that's half the fun of "kick-ass". the other half is that it's absolutely hilarious.
the story follows a teenager who one day decides he wants to be a superhero. from there he meets a father/daughter team of actual superheroes and things really spiral out of his control. the film is shot very much in the style of a comic-book with most shots looking like they're busting straight out of a comic panel.
https://youtu.be/fUdx2siotUo
4/ "fight club" (film - thriller)
every david finches film is gold.
a nameless narrator meets a man with whom he goes down a path of destruction. as with "hannibal" above, part of the charm here is the mental instability of our protagonist and we, as the audience, are treated to his delusions.
https://youtu.be/SUXWAEX2jlg
5/ "the perks of being a wallflower" (film - drama)
this is my favorite drama film. teen angst for the win. when it first came out on dvd, i watched it every friday night for probably about two months. when i graduated high school, i used the final lines from this film as my senior quote. i repeat: teen angst for the win.
a lonely freshman befriends to upperclassmen and comes into his own as a person while dealing with his own personal demons and insecurities. the film takes place in the 90s and feels itself like a memory.
https://youtu.be/n5rh7O4IDc0
6/ "the naked gun" (film series - comedy)
the often overlooked film trilogy from the creative team behind "airplane!", these movies always crack me up.
an inept police detective bumbles his way through more puns and sight gags than you'd think could possibly be crammed into the timespan. pretty much every item/person in every shot in these films is a joke. rewatching them over and over, i still notice new things in the background of each shot.
https://youtu.be/nTh9qpzhunE
7/ "adventure time" (tv series - 7 seasons and counting)
"adventure time" is controlled chaos. the episodes themselves are bright and fast-paced, but together they reveal such a deep and elaborate mythology for the world of oo. it's fantastic.
a boy, a magical dog, and others have adventures in the post-apocalyptic land of oo. as the show progresses, the emphasis becomes less about finn and jake (the boy and magical dog, respectively) and the show explores the other characters who inhabit this world. as i mentioned earlier, there is an elaborate mythology that is slowly revealed as the show goes on.
https://youtu.be/113yv-Kdy7I
8/ "the breakfast club" (film - drama)
i love the 80s and it doesn't get any more 80s than "the breakfast club". this was actually the first r-rated movie i was allowed to watch as a child. now, however many years later here i am with a poster for it hanging over my bed right now.
five very different teenagers bond over saturday detention. the action of the film relies mostly on the dialogue between these characters to the point where at times it almost feels like a play.
https://youtu.be/IN64ta25VBA
9/ "wristcutter: a love story" (film - drama)
this is a weird little film i stumbled across a few years ago and fell in love with. obviously, it was the title that caught my eye.
a man searches for his ex-girlfriend in a world populated only by those who have killed themselves. the world of this film is just like our world, only a little worse. to help emphasize this, there is a faded look to the entire film.
https://youtu.be/eBSn9UWJz2o
10/ "heathers" (film - dark comedy)
i actually only saw this one for the first time not that long ago but i'm pretty confident this is going to be one i watch over and over for quite some time. i mean come on, it's "mean girls" with a murder spree.
in "heathers", two teenagers begin killing the cool kids of high school. the acting is perfectly over-the-top and the dialogue is fantastic. "dear diary, my teen angst bullshit has a body count..."
https://youtu.be/CTmpKgocyYg
when i first heard of the show "hannibal", i wanted it to fail for two reasons. for one thing, it sounded like such a dumb concept to me, "an fbi agent and his buddy, hannibal lector solve crimes together! woo!" the other reason was that the creator of "hannibal" had created another show i loved that was cancelled after two seasons ("pushing daisies") and i had read that he was interested in doing a third but was too busy with "hannibal". then, i actually watched it. wow.
the show follows everyone's favorite cannibal as he begins treating an fbi criminal profiler, will graham. will graham. will has a unique empathy disorder which allows him to put himself in the mind of killers. this show is psychological horror at its very best as hannibal lector manipulates those around him and will graham becomes more and more intwined with the murders hannibal commits. the visuals of this show are astounding and meticulously beautiful. the gradual decay of will graham's sanity is seen through his imagination becoming more and more clear to us as viewers. the creator, bryan fuller, told every director that worked on "hannibal" not to treat it like they were filming a tv show, but like they were filming an art film, and it shows.
2/ "community" (tv series - 6 seasons)
on the other end of the spectrum lies "community", which has been my favorite tv comedy for years. "community" is one that i have proudly watched since it first premiered in 2009.
"community" is about a group of friends who attend a community college. kind of. what's great about "community" is how free it feels. it doesn't let itself be constrained by a description. this is a show that did a stop-motion episode, a puppet episode, and a g.i. joe animation episode. "community" spends much of its time referencing earlier works and even itself.
https://youtu.be/DjQkluKxJGc
3/ "kick-ass" (film - action/comedy)
i love super-stylized in your face violence. that's half the fun of "kick-ass". the other half is that it's absolutely hilarious.
the story follows a teenager who one day decides he wants to be a superhero. from there he meets a father/daughter team of actual superheroes and things really spiral out of his control. the film is shot very much in the style of a comic-book with most shots looking like they're busting straight out of a comic panel.
https://youtu.be/fUdx2siotUo
4/ "fight club" (film - thriller)
every david finches film is gold.
a nameless narrator meets a man with whom he goes down a path of destruction. as with "hannibal" above, part of the charm here is the mental instability of our protagonist and we, as the audience, are treated to his delusions.
https://youtu.be/SUXWAEX2jlg
5/ "the perks of being a wallflower" (film - drama)
this is my favorite drama film. teen angst for the win. when it first came out on dvd, i watched it every friday night for probably about two months. when i graduated high school, i used the final lines from this film as my senior quote. i repeat: teen angst for the win.
a lonely freshman befriends to upperclassmen and comes into his own as a person while dealing with his own personal demons and insecurities. the film takes place in the 90s and feels itself like a memory.
https://youtu.be/n5rh7O4IDc0
6/ "the naked gun" (film series - comedy)
the often overlooked film trilogy from the creative team behind "airplane!", these movies always crack me up.
an inept police detective bumbles his way through more puns and sight gags than you'd think could possibly be crammed into the timespan. pretty much every item/person in every shot in these films is a joke. rewatching them over and over, i still notice new things in the background of each shot.
https://youtu.be/nTh9qpzhunE
7/ "adventure time" (tv series - 7 seasons and counting)
"adventure time" is controlled chaos. the episodes themselves are bright and fast-paced, but together they reveal such a deep and elaborate mythology for the world of oo. it's fantastic.
a boy, a magical dog, and others have adventures in the post-apocalyptic land of oo. as the show progresses, the emphasis becomes less about finn and jake (the boy and magical dog, respectively) and the show explores the other characters who inhabit this world. as i mentioned earlier, there is an elaborate mythology that is slowly revealed as the show goes on.
https://youtu.be/113yv-Kdy7I
8/ "the breakfast club" (film - drama)
i love the 80s and it doesn't get any more 80s than "the breakfast club". this was actually the first r-rated movie i was allowed to watch as a child. now, however many years later here i am with a poster for it hanging over my bed right now.
five very different teenagers bond over saturday detention. the action of the film relies mostly on the dialogue between these characters to the point where at times it almost feels like a play.
https://youtu.be/IN64ta25VBA
9/ "wristcutter: a love story" (film - drama)
this is a weird little film i stumbled across a few years ago and fell in love with. obviously, it was the title that caught my eye.
a man searches for his ex-girlfriend in a world populated only by those who have killed themselves. the world of this film is just like our world, only a little worse. to help emphasize this, there is a faded look to the entire film.
https://youtu.be/eBSn9UWJz2o
10/ "heathers" (film - dark comedy)
i actually only saw this one for the first time not that long ago but i'm pretty confident this is going to be one i watch over and over for quite some time. i mean come on, it's "mean girls" with a murder spree.
in "heathers", two teenagers begin killing the cool kids of high school. the acting is perfectly over-the-top and the dialogue is fantastic. "dear diary, my teen angst bullshit has a body count..."
https://youtu.be/CTmpKgocyYg
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