Christopher Nolan on Directing The Joker
In the Cut: The Dark Knight
Jim Emerson breaks down the tunnel chase sequence in The Dark Knight and his problems with it.
See also: Mike Springer’s article and the blog post’s comments.
Jurassic Park: Scale & Framing
Cinematography isn’t about the beauty of an image or the dynamic nature of a shot. It really boils down to two things. What does the shot say? And how does it make you feel?
See also: The Ever-Changing Aspect Ratios of the Jurassic Park Franchise
Also, these two lectures by Mike Hill:
A Rainy Night Walk Through NYC
Stanley Kubrick & Non-Submersible Units
From Diary of a Screenwrite:
Stanley Kubrick insisted that a feature film can be constructed from six to eight ‘non-submersible units’. A non-submersible unit is a fundamental story sequence where all the non-essential elements have been stripped away. These units would be so robust and compelling that they would, by themselves, be able to keep the viewer interested. They would contain only what is necessary for the storyline. And when joined together they would form a greater narrative.
(…)
The way Kubrick reduced 2001: A Space Odyssey to its most important elements was indicative of his emerging method of telling stories. Over the years, Kubrick had adapted many books into films. By the time he came to conceive of 2001: A Space Odyssey he realised that all he needed – as he later told science-fiction writer Brian Aldiss – are six or eight ‘non-submersible units’: basic story points that cannot be reduced any further. When the story points are linked together they form a narrative that will contain a balanced mix of all the themes, images and characters.
Syd Field on “Avatar”
In a three-part interview, Syd Field, author of Screenplay, talks about what made James Cameron’s Avatar work.
Karel Segers: When Avatar broke out so massively and the whole planet went to see it, still people were in denial about the craft of that screenplay. What didn’t they see?
Syd Field: They wanted some type of screenplay that was totally new and just so foreign to their normal state of consciousness like Inception. What people don’t see about James Cameron is that he does not create screenplays, he creates a cinematic experience, going to the movies is a cinematic experience.
I talk about that in my book Going To The Movies: what is the nature of going to the movies? I mean what do we do when we sit down in a darkened theatre, and the curtains part and the screen becomes alive and we are all united in this community of emotion? At that moment we are all united and the film grabs us in the first 10 minutes. So I teach people that if you don’t have them in the first 10 pages, I’m outta there, there’s no reason I need to read more.
Also:
My students have been extraordinarily successful. Jim Cameron told me that he never knew that he could write until he read Screenplay. He said that showed him he could do it. Out of that comes Titanic, The Terminator and so on.
James Cameron: “There’s nothing we use now that I used when I started.”
From the Little White Lies interview with James Cameron:
Is there any reliable old technology that you use to make films now?
Interesting. There’s nothing we use now that I used when I started. Nothing. There’s photochemistry, which to me is obsolete. Mechanical movement is the same. As gorgeous as the Panaflex camera was – and it was a beautiful machine – it’s obsolete. Digital camera technology is so advanced now that I wouldn’t ever dream of going back to one of those old cameras. Large-scale physical miniatures, too, they’re gone. The last time I worked with miniatures was on Titanic. I still have the 42-foot long Titanic model, but it’s like a Model-T Ford. No, maybe something higher, like a Duesenberg or something.
The point is, we wouldn’t do it that way any more. We don’t work that way. We can’t. There’s too much flexibility with CG models. And they don’t degrade. I’m always repairing that damn Titanic. It’s always getting bumped into, railing getting snapped off, dust getting on the deck. We just do physical models, we don’t do matte paintings on glass, we don’t do photochemistry any more. And I think movies look better than they’ve ever looked. I know Chris Nolan disagrees, and he thinks that shooting on 65mm IMAX film is great, but you could achieve the same result digitally if you chose to.
The Groundbreaking Animation of “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”
I recently saw Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in cinemas, in 3D.
If you have any appreciation for animation, I urge you to see this movie while it’s still in cinemas. The artistry of it blew me away.
I am so so happy that it won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film, because it absolutely deserves it! The animation and artistry of this film is incredible.
Just to give you an idea, I’m someone who usually has little interest in superhero movies and knows almost nothing about the Spiderman universe. This movie was funny, endearing, and totally took me along for the ride.
The animation in this film is inventive and groundbreaking. It’s a mix of 3D and 2D animation techniques, designed to look hand-crafted and give the movie a very unique “comic book” look. It’s like nothing I’ve seen before.
In fact, it took the animators one year just to get 10 seconds of footage they were happy with, before they progressed with the rest of the movie.
If you have no prior interest in Spiderman (like me), but you enjoy good storytelling, beautiful animation, and you have an eye for art and details, please check out this movie. It will exceed your expectations.
(Try to see it in 3D if you can, because the “comic book look” of the movie is designed with multiple layers, and it’s really worth seeing it.)
100 different versions of Avatar
To cover every possible screen and audio option out there, James Cameron produced over 100 different versions of Avatar for distribution to theaters.