KABOOM another truth bomb is dropped. A harsh dose of much need reality as we all prepare to unwrap that shiny new video capable DSLR under the tree. Blogger Mike Jones warns…
The ‘film look’ is a Crock, Shallow depth-of-field is Banal and Rack focus is Lazy. Would all you indie filmmakers please Get Over It..!
You see maybe I’m jaded but I came to still photography via an overlapping career as a TV news photojournalist and a commercial television producer. During my time behind the moving lens I was able to see trends come and go. Anyone remember when shaky NYPD Blues cam and MTV’s rack zoom became all the rage? I think I shot for a whole year without a tripod randomly spinning the zoom lever on my $35,000 betacam. But back to Mike and the point he is trying to make, approach shooting video as if you are solving a problem rather than just abusing a technique and your end product will be better off for it. All too often I see fusion attempts ruined by the overuse of lens trickery. Remember there is such a thing as too much!
Once you’re done with that article you can find more of Mike Jones here.
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3 Comments at "The Film Look is a Crock"
I was trying to figure out what movies Mike Jones has made that we might have seen. Anyone know?
I KNEW it! There isn’t anything new out there! It’s all been done before but we just haven’t seen it.
This blog post pretty much describes how “know-nothing-know-it-alls” can appear to be rock-stars in a marketplace when in fact they are simply employing one or two simple techniques and couldn’t handle a real shoot.
Sadly, almost no one in the buying public can tell the difference.
Thanks so much Mark for the post, link and thoughtful comments.
I confess I was starting to despair of late over that post I wrote. It seemed every man and his dog was coming at me in the Comments as if by criticizing ultra shallow DoF I had slagged off their mother!
I was starting to think my readers had wholly missed the point, parody and central ideas behind the post. (I would have thought the first line “allow me to be deliberately provocative” might have set some context but apparently not…)
Yet today i read your thoughts here and others and it at last seems some filmmakers and photographers got the point of my article; indeed perhaps even saw the humour in it.
T Adam Martin over at Texas Photo Forum summarized my article with 3 distilled take-away ideas:
“* Study the way we see and perceive: aesthetics
* Make sure the techniques you use contribute to your story telling
* “Great [images] are made when [photographers] find innovative, fresh and exciting aesthetics to solve creative problems”
Perhaps if I had been as succinct as Adam I may not have upset so many people?
As for David Drufke’s question above about what movies I’ve made? You wont find an impressive IMDb entry on me but I come from 15 years in production and post – tv, news, film, documentary, live events, radio. Now, I largely work as university lecturer, academic researcher and write books about filmmaking and media. So, no long-winded list of high-class credits – just a humble working media maker and teacher.
Thanks again for the link and for being one of the few who seemed read my post and ‘get it’
Cheers
Mike
http://www.mikejones.net.au
http://www.digitalbasin.net
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