January 26th, 2012
The Most Influential Filmmaker You’ve Never Heard Of:  I still refer to Lenny Lipton’s 1972 book Independent Filmmaking as a resource for low-cost celluloid (not digital) production.  A recent interview by Don Diego Ramirez showed me that Lenny has done more in his life than just write a few books on 8mm and 16mm production.  I was amazed by the breadth of his work.  Creativity that truly knows no bounds. Some highlights: He pioneered early documentary filmmaking - with films such as Revelation of the Foundation. He pioneered 3D cinema.  Note the photo above.  The man is holding two Super 8 cameras: this is, in essence, how 3D films are shot today.  Lenny even wrote an article in that magazine about shooting 3D Super 8 films in the 1970s. Authored the seminal book Foundations of the Stereoscopic Cinema (1982).   His 3D work was used by NASA in the Mars Rover. James Cameron acknowledged Lenny’s work in the making of Avatar. He wrote Puff, the Magic Dragon with Peter Yarrow, later made popular by Yarrow’s group Peter, Paul and Mary. He also kept company with Tim Leary and Ken Kesey, novelist of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and lived with Salvador Dali. Don’t just be a filmmaker.  Be an artist.  Read more about this fascinating filmmaker here. ~ü

The Most Influential Filmmaker You’ve Never Heard Of: 

I still refer to Lenny Lipton’s 1972 book Independent Filmmaking as a resource for low-cost celluloid (not digital) production.  A recent interview by Don Diego Ramirez showed me that Lenny has done more in his life than just write a few books on 8mm and 16mm production.  I was amazed by the breadth of his work.  Creativity that truly knows no bounds. Some highlights:

  • He pioneered early documentary filmmaking - with films such as Revelation of the Foundation.
  • He pioneered 3D cinema.  Note the photo above.  The man is holding two Super 8 cameras: this is, in essence, how 3D films are shot today.  Lenny even wrote an article in that magazine about shooting 3D Super 8 films in the 1970s.
  • Authored the seminal book Foundations of the Stereoscopic Cinema (1982).  
  • His 3D work was used by NASA in the Mars Rover.
  • James Cameron acknowledged Lenny’s work in the making of Avatar.
  • He wrote Puff, the Magic Dragon with Peter Yarrow, later made popular by Yarrow’s group Peter, Paul and Mary.
  • He also kept company with Tim Leary and Ken Kesey, novelist of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and lived with Salvador Dali.

Don’t just be a filmmaker.  Be an artist.  Read more about this fascinating filmmaker here.

~ü

75 notes·
artist 3D filmmaker Super 8
January 18th, 2012
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Here’s my first film test for a Super 8 project that I’m shooting this winter.  It’s rough; I just needed to make sure that the camera we’re using (a Beaulieu 5008) doesn’t have any surprising quirks before we really get started.

When you love working in film as much as I do, it’s difficult to describe what makes it so special.  There are a few technical reasons that still remain, but there is also a timelessness to the image and an elegance to the process.  

The film above is two seconds long, on a loop.  I scanned in 48 frames on my flatbed scanner, cut them out in Photoshop and then stitched them together in Final Cut Pro.  The process didn’t take too long and I get to see what the exposure actually looks like.

The Super 8 frame is tiny.  I scanned this in on my flatbed scanner at 2400 dpi (72 dpi is considered good enough for screen images) but the information contained therein is massive.  When I do an actual scan,  I’ll be blowing up a 4.01mm x 5.79mm (0.156” x 0.228”) frame to high definition and the image will look crisp, beautiful and timeless.  

The technology still astonishes me and physically working with it is absolutely gratifying.  In the next few weeks, the format will be a consideration as I plan out how I want to capture what I’m capturing.  That’s the beauty of film - it encourages you to reflect on how you’re actually going about shooting something.  That, in turn, encourages a type of risk taking that is based on your experience and wisdom.

~ü

39 notes·
film process Super 8 kodak
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@dschmudde

Techniques for directing film. More than the script, bigger than the screen - the tangible and mystical characteristics of truly great filmmaking.