When Saturday Night Live film unit cinematographer Alex Buono decided to share his knowledge of the industry – in a big way – with a 31-city educational tour he calls The Art of Visual Storytelling, the first pieces of equipment he chose for his travel package were OConnor heads.
In early 2010, Anna Foerster was one of the first cinematographers to shoot a feature film using a prototype Arri Alexa camera and Codex Recorders. That film, Anonymous, blended court intrigue, scandalous romance and the timeless lust for power, all set in the visually rich period of Shakespeare’s England. Foerster won the German Film Award for best cinematographer for her work on Anonymous. Now Foerster has reteamed with Roland Emmerich on White House Down, a contemporary action thriller about an attack on the U.S. president and the cop who defends him. Foerster and Emmerich chose to work with the Alexa and Codex once again. “It’s a fully developed, fantastic way of working,” says Foerster.
For the first in a series of quirky national spots for the Cartoon Network/Adult Swim, cinematographer Gavin Fisher decided to use the Blackmagic camera, Canon lenses, and his trusty Sachtler Ace M for support.
When Florida-based director/cinematographer, John Deeb isn’t shooting spots for high-profile clients such as Hard Rock Hotels or Disney, he likes to expand the limits of his creativity with music videos like a recent one for indie rocker Matt Pond. To shoot Love to Get Used, a song off Pond’s new album, The Lives Inside the Lines in Your Hand, Deeb got to experiment with different techniques not always viable on commercial productions.
JMR Electronics recently designed and built a high performance server and storage system for the production of the world’s first high-frame-rate 3D movie. UFOTOG, a 10-minute short that tells the story of a man’s attempt to photograph alien spacecraft, is the work of director, visual effects pioneer and filmmaking visionary Douglas Trumbull.
LA-based rental house Radiant Images announced the Radiant Novo Challenge filmmaking competition at the Palm Springs International ShortFest this week. The Radiant Novo Challenge will provide select filmmakers with the opportunity to create a short film using the new Novo digital cinema camera.
The Canon Project Imaginat10n Film Contest is officially open to aspiring filmmakers through July 23.
Cinematographer Trevor Forrest recently shot the genre-bending Grabbers, which opens in the United States July 19. Grabbers is a throwback to classic sci-fi monster movies with a comedic twist.
