Black Wrap
Incandescent film lights can get hot. So hot in fact that I have heard stories about filmmakers throwing a frying pan on top of one to fry up an egg. And I believe that. Because film lights, they get hot. While we sometimes use our lights to replace kitchen appliances, we sometimes use kitchen tools to work with our lights. I’m talking about one of the most useful film tools... Read More
Trainspotting
Although a great location can’t make a great movie on its own, it definitely helps. Locations are full of what BU film professor Mary Jane Doherty calls “compositional gifts” – the little nuances of a space that can be arranged in the frame in a pleasing, interesting, or dynamic way. Great shooting locations therefore lend themselves to some creative cinematography... Read More
Standing In
Night shoots. They’re the most fun, often the most challenging, and always the most tiring of film shoots. Last Tuesday night, all three proved true. From 10pm to 6am, a truckload of BU filmmakers (myself included) headed out to the suburbs to shoot a car crash scene for COM Graduate student Padrick Ritch’s MFA thesis film “Limbus.” We had a whole street... Read More
LED Lights & Changing Technology
In my post on the difference between film and video, I discussed the differences between film, the tried and true medium of the past 100 years, and digital video, the squeaky-clean, super-cheap choice of the twenty-first century. There is something uncomfortable about being part of the generation of filmmakers that will undo the technological traditions of generations past.... Read More
Light Meter Woes
You can’t make a movie without light. Further, it’s very difficult to make a movie without a light meter. This is especially true when shooting photographic film. Unlike digital cameras, film cameras don’t show exactly what an image will look like when captured – they only show composition. A light meter – specifically an incident light meter – then becomes necessary... Read More
A Weekend at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research
I recently had the opportunity to attend the National Conference on Undergraduate Research at Ithaca College. I would count this experience among the most valuable over my past four years at BU, one that I’ll probably remember throughout my life. The National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR for short) allows undergraduates the setting for presenting original research... Read More
How Do You Convey Meaning Without Words?
Every year Boston University’s Field Production Services (FPS) leases the Chapman-Leonard Super PeeWee IV camera dolly for use in advanced production courses. It’s everyone’s favorite toy. This heavy metal slab on wheels allows the cinematographer to capture graceful tracking shots, to push in on a subject to amp up the intensity, or to mindlessly glide the camera about the... Read More
Form Or Content?
It’s happened to us all (or it will, especially if you’re a COM student): a professor will give staunch guidelines but then encourage asserting creative license. For me it’s become a regular happening in one of my classes this semester and it’s frustrating. I want an A on my assignments but I also want my work to reflect the creative edge I can bring to things.... Read More
The Difference Between Film and Video
I may not have always known it, but I always wanted to be a filmmaker. Ten-year-old me commandeered my dad’s VHS camcorder to shoot my own Brittney Spears music videos (I only liked her for her looks), GI Joe adventure shorts (a la Robot Chicken), and a documentary welcoming newcomers to my secret fort (I’m the only one who ever watched it). Proud as I was of my creations, I... Read More
Manipulation 101
Advertising. It’s the type of major people either hate or go into. I chose to go into it and even I wonder what I’m thinking at times. In essence, advertising is the art of manipulation. All day you ask questions: What will make people want this? How are they going to go from the desire to buy to the actual purchase? If you’re selling an idea or image, how do you... Read More
