When we are young we believe that we will live forever. We have no idea what that means and the responsibilities that comes along with being alive. How we live does not prepare us for what it is to live a long time
Emmanuelle Riva
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Amour is an exceptional film. It is brave, poignant, honest in that it brings to the surface many of the fears we wish to ignore. It is not a sad movie and at times it’s very funny. The humor is about things that we think about but never say, about our silly concerns that in the end don’t matter. We should all (adults) recognized some part of ourselves in this film.
The film is not fantasy. There is this invitation to the audience, almost from the very beginning of the film to engage in a honest conversation about what we are about to see and what we are about to see is ourselves, in time.
Michael Haneke, Writer and Director
In Europe, actors are allowed to grow old and to become the lead characters in wonderful films about non heroic figures faced with issues that we all relate to. In the U.S., actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone both in their late 60’s portray fantasy figures with guns, muscle and snappy one liners. “America is afraid of getting old”. On the other hand Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva who’s stardom and careers go back to the 1950’s have gotten older like the rest us and their portraits of Anne and Georges are both fragile and heroic.
I saw a recent tweet from a fellow DP. It went something along the lines of “Filming in NYC. That’s a lot of brick”. I understood the frustration. Beyond the miles of concrete and cliched shots, how do you tell a New York story that’s uniquely your own? Without “Men in Black 3” money? You have to think differently.
Why are we discussing NYC?
I am a native New Yorker. I went to New York University for my MFA. I live primarily in New York. The majority of my features were shot in New York. That’s a lot of New York centric. I know first hand what it is like to be released onto the streets with a camera, well meaning PA with bounce card and a director dreaming of “Citizen Kane” or “Remains of the Day.”
And I suspect more no-budget projects are shot in NYC, per year, than anywhere else. This article will help you whether you’re shooting a feature film, short, web-series, music video or promo. If you’re shooting a Nike commercial? Call me.
As mentioned in my first post, “5 Things Cinematographers Look for…” I love when my director approaches with a clear idea for their vision. The next step in the creative process is to take that visual idea and mold it, twist it and spin it until it’s the best representation of your (the director’s) voice and best aesthetic to support the narrative. For example, say your reference material is “The Devil’s Rejects” (I love love Rob Zombie). You decide to shoot your film in the same hectic, visual style but in black and white.
Once presented with your creative brilliance, the producer will take note of your needs and counter offer. Your genius helicopter shot will be reduced to a 7 foot jib. You’re given the resources to shoot film but you’ll only be able to rent two prime lenses.
Keep breathing! Your film will be great. Do this:
1. Get out of your own head and into a different director’s – Your view of New York and what it has to offer is a perception. It’s not the only reality. During pre-production, watch other low budget films shot in NYC. Definitely watch ones not in your genre. Any resistance you have to watching a film because you dislike the cast, dislike the message, dislike the dance numbers, dislike the violence is stifling your inspiration. I am amazed by how much I learn from films I thought I would dislike.
Off the top of my head, here are some low budget films shot in NYC. I’ve also included films with a healthier budget yet an innovative shooting style that increased their production value: (in no particular order) Half Nelson, Pi, Little Odessa, Living in Oblivion, She’s Gotta Have It, Tiny Furniture, Laws of Gravity, Just Another Girl on the IRT, Midnight Cowboy, Taxi Driver, Barefoot in the Park, Chop Shop. Naked City, Party Girl, Smithereens, In America, Kids, Fresh, Rope, Pickup on South Street, Shaft, Brother from Another Planet, Desperately Seeking Susan, HBO Subway Stories, Straight Out of Brooklyn, Requiem for a Dream, Day Night Day Night, Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, The Visitor, The Imperialist Are Alive.
2. Declutter your New York experience – This city can be visually overwhelming. I think when filmmakers attempt to capture everything they see, it ends up looking like an “I Love NY” PSA. It’s through the repetition of specific colors, architecture, lights and exclusion of the extraneous that creates a visual style.
My director, Kevin Baggott for “Flora’s Garment Bursting Into Bloom”, was in love with Christmas lights. Not only did the story take place during the holidays but it represented something more to him. The story of a man falling in love with a transgender woman was at times tense and brutal, but the Christmas lights brought some levity. I remember taking walks, throughout Manhattan, in the hunt for streets and shop windows with the most lights strung. We remained focused on holiday lights in non-touristy areas. The lights were also used for various reasons in the interior locations.
You can create a lot of texture in your film by focusing on color (I always think of that red wall in Spike’s “Do The Right Thing” ) or costume design (Mobolaji Dawodu, the Costume Designer on “Restless City,” blew me away)
Does your film take place in DUMBO? You’ll obviously have shots of the bridge. Find other bridges in NYC to shoot. Use it as a metaphor. Bridges connect people. Bridges are a way out. A way to invade. Yes, I can overthink things but these considerations will strengthen your film.
3. Make Your Restriction The Aesthetic – This is my credo. Low budget means plenty of restrictions and relying on favors from friends and family. If you can only afford two lenses? Shoot the entire project on one lens and use the other for a pivotal scene.
Every DP remembers their first feature. Mine was “The Dregs of Society” by Rich WIlliams. We shot on Super 16mm, in 12 days, with over 20 different locations, in three different boroughs and over 15 actors. We worked 12 hour days (or less) and always broke for a respectable lunch. I credit my director with not only being creative, but being a creative problem solver and having a very efficient 1st AD living in his head.
For my part, I knew our time was limited and found inspiration in Mary Ellen Mark photographs. The photos I gravitated to tended to be wide shots of a person with a lot of personal effects in the frame. I felt I knew that person intimately. For Dregs of Society, most of our coverage was static wide shots. We relied on props and production design to underscore our eccentric characters and their dialogue. When time permitted, we went in for close ups etc and some very fun handheld.
4. Expand on Your Locations – One Twitter account I love to follow is @nyscout. He is a New York based film Location Scout. I was excited to see him featured on CBS Sunday Morning. Even though I am a native NYer, I have not heard of half of the places he mentions. If you are shooting no-budget, your interiors will probably be your own residence or office, or that of a personal friend. However, your exterior shots can be visually dynamic and different from other films. There are a lot of bricks, but also a lot of community gardens, boat houses, cemeteries and music stores.
One of my favorite films is “Medium Cool” by Haskell Wexler. Many scenes were filmed during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. So you understand why I was thrilled to film “A Ticket For Hope“ during the 2009 Presidential Inauguration in Washington, DC.
You can also chose a location with a special event and incorporate that into your film for major production value. It doesn’t have to be a huge event with tight security. It can be the Mermaid Parade or Ninth Avenue Food Festival.
5. Browse Photo Books – Low budget filmmakers can learn so much from photographers, especially “street photogs”. I highly revere the photographs in “The Americans” by Robert Frank. When I first learned about him in school, the emphasis was that he captured the “true” (whatever that is) essense of America because he was not from here. He observed what we could not. That concept of not being able to see what is in front of you fascinated me. A dear friend and talented photographer, Joanne Dugan, teaches a course at International Center of Photography called “On Seeing What’s Right in Front of You”. She and I often have the discussion on how to film NYC with fresh eyes. I find her approach very liberating.
There are several extraordinary photographers who have focused on New York. A recent find that might be useful is“New York in Color” by Bob Shamis. This is a collection of different photographers. You can start your search here and see who inspires you.
Feel free to mention below any links to films, photographers, tricks and tips etc that have been beneficial to you in filming NYC.
Picky, Picky, Picky is how I describe much of the conversation surrounding the 2012 release of Les Misérables. The noise is that the movie is not the (Musical) play and that of the director’s choice to shoot and record the actors singing live on camera, (no lip syncing) making some viewers uncomfortable. Too bad.
There have been over ten theatrical or movie interpretations of Les Miserables and not one of them was the original story. Critics and some viewers wasted their time in not seeing this movie production as something new vs. comparing it to what they had already seen and knew. It’s OK not to like this film, but dislike it because it’s a movie you don’t like and not because it is not the play.
Les Miserables 2012 is an original piece of art, a spectacular movie, beautifully staged, acted and in most cases well sung. If your thought is that the Broadway musical is the only experience you want to remember or have then don’t see this film. It is different and special in its own way.
Quentin Tarantino, the over hyper creative genius, and his new film Django Unchained flirts with mastery. The film is maybe 15 min too long but its close enough(more about the 15 min later). If you’ve seen a ton of movies in your life, you will find a reference to just about every one of them in Django Unchained, that’s what Tarantino does, except in this one “The Guys with the White Hats” loses out. Directors like Sergio Leone, Alfred Hitchcock, George Stevens, Tim Burton and many more have contributed unknowingly to this creative effort and again this is no knock on Tarantino’s creative talents, it is his creative talent in using themes we are all familiar with and in some cases turning them upside down that makes us laugh and maybe even think.
The film makes no pretense that the story of Django is based on anything remotely true and yet still is able to paint an ugly picture about this country’s past. The movie is often hilarious, heart breaking (for some of us) and outrageous. Tarantino has created an African America Super Hero who rides a horse that mimics Trigger and thus slaps down the fable of “Guys with White Hats” being the good guys. There is room here for a sequel(s), the son of Django Part 2.
The movie is gory, so if you find vampires, Bruce Willis, Jason Bourne or Bambi disturbing you should avoid Django and not see it. The dialogue at times is that of two 9 year old inner city kids acting out scenes from a movie, with a child’s emphasis on vulgarity. As promised, the wasted 15 min: Cutting the number of times the N-word is used in half to about 70 would make the film shorter giving Tarantino his masterpiece. Spoiler alert, no other movie that I’ve ever seen has approached the subject of Black Slavers (Blacks who enslaved other Blacks) and while its not gone into in great depth it has not been swept under the rug either and I am not sure how open Black America is to this fact. In addition Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson) is an important and complex character in the film, similar to, but a more repulsive, Colonel Nicholson (Bridge on the River Kwai) who are both blinded to their own culpability.
Django Unchained is enormously entertaining and not a source for cultural or political debate and yet people will feel a need to see it as some referendum about current, past or future events. What can be debated is that Tarantino got to do a film that no African American director would be allowed to do, and that should be debated (and not with me). Django is a movie, just like Les Miserables, Jack Reacher, Lincoln and Silver Linings Playbook are all just movies. Django just happens to be really good.
I am his Mistress Keira Knightley as Anna Karenina
Exceptional films are those films where everyone involved takes a chance. Joe Wright‘s Anna Karenina is breath-taking, luxurious, magical and pushes to the edge every element of movie making. The staging, cinematography, costumes, lighting, and acting etc. every inch of this film is sumptuous and in particular it is the choreography (Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui) that captured my imagination and made the unreal real for me.
See the movie, it is really much bigger then the trailer.
Everytime I see The Deer Hunter I notice how beautiful the film is, as well as how intentionally or unintentionally the film captures the evolution of that time. The backdrop to this love story is writer director Michael Cimino portrait of young men with the bawdy habits of their fathers with regard to women, drinking and their belief in the idealism of “Greatest Generation” until actually experiencing the horrific and often meaningless game of war.
When Micheal’s (Robert DeNiro) returns home from Vietnam in a taxi driven by a black man signals the beginning of the change for me. One legacy of the Vietnam “police” action was that soldiers came home by themselves, alone without a victory celebration or “thank you for your service”. Some of these men were shunned and giving little opportunity to regain the jobs they lost by going to war.
Another message in “The Deer Hunter” is my understanding of the “One Shot” and that to take more than one shot is greedy and eventually destructive.
When first reading about World War I, and that it was sometimes referred to as “The War to End All Wars” I wondered why this promise was never kept. What is it about us that we are so entranced by destruction. We know what war does and the impact it has on our lives. We seem to lack the courage to say no to war.
Today’s soldiers return and we clap and say thanks for keeping us safe (unintentionally but insincere in a way), before ordering that five dollar cup of coffee sweetness we feel we are entitled to each morning. No one wants to work in a steel mill today and only those with extreme idealism want to go to war (which is different in my mind to wanting to serve your country).
History and Evolution teaches us an important lesson. The past was never as glorious as others have made it out to be and if it were ever that good, we still are not able to go backwards. We really only have one shot, and that’s always going forward.
Picky, Picky, Picky is how I describe much of the conversation surrounding the 2012 release of 
