The importance of composition…making my mini documentary “An Amish Man” includes downloadable 4K version and native F55 raw file… Philipbloom

• Written by  Philip Bloom
• Posted in:  Lighting, New filmMy favourite type of story to tell in a documentary, be it micro, mini, short or feature, is a subject I know nothing about. When I make them, I love to be on a journey of discovery, like the viewer too. It can also often help you tell a better story as you don’t make assumptions and skip stuff, which is easy to do when you are telling a story about something you know inside and out.

I love people documentaries, just about all my documentary work that is available on my site under the films/ documentary section are personal docs, and almost all about people. People are fascinating and having amazing stories. They give us a glimpse into worlds we often know nothing about.

This is something I got from working in news for 17 years, meeting so many people with such amazing stories, and as much as I adore fiction, there are so many real stories to tell! Even if  you are dead set on fiction, take a look at the documentary genre. You can learn a hell of a lot from making them, both as a filmmaker and as a person. It’s a whole different way of working, a lot of spontaneity, and it helps you think fast and work fast.

The types of documentaries I like to make don’t have an agenda; I just present the story and leave you to make up your mind whether you like them, empathise, don’t understand etc etc…I have no problem with docs with agendas, as long as they are presented as that – they are just a different sub genre of documentary. I made a documentary about a man who loved to fire guns, I have no interest in guns and would go as far as saying I really don’t like them…but he told his story and gave us a glimpse into the mind of a man who loved his guns, not for self defense but for fun. I made no judgements, I just told his story, yet I still got attacked online for being pro guns because I made a film where I let someone explain why he loves them. Just because you don’t agree doesn’t mean you can’t listen! Utterly ridiculous. I want to make films about things and people I don’t get. Explain to me, I am not after conversion, I just want to understand!

These Static Frames from Oscar Contender 'Ida' Show Why Composition is King.

The subtle, well-composed frames of Ida prove that composition is amongst the most powerful visual storytelling tools at our disposal.

In recent years, the Oscar category for Best Cinematography has been dominated largely by flashy VFX-heavy films. Many of these films are also heavy on camera movement and incredibly complex lighting schemes. This year, somewhat surprisingly if I'm being honest, the Academy's cinematography nominations trended back towards traditionally shot films like The Grand Budapest Hotel and Mr. Turner (plus another nomination for Roger Deakins).

10 Tips for Producing a Comprehensive Video Campaign

By Preston Kanak of Cinescapes Collective

When starting a business, there are many things one needs to consider. Out of all of these decisions is the need to have a clear action plan for when the work starts to come in. With this in mind, we recently wrapped production on a project with Tourism Saskatoon and wanted to break down the process as a case study. For this project, our goal was to create a serialized storytelling campaign by structuring and connecting content through similar themes and storylines but do so through unique production styles. To help shed light on our process, I have put together a list of ten tips for producing a comprehensive video campaign.

Cannes & Maker Studios Execs Judge ScreenCraft's Short Screenplay Contest

This is ScreenCraft's first year running the competition, and they obviously wanted its inauguration to be special by compiling a jury of executives from the Cannes Film Festival, Vimeo, Maker Studios (Disney), and the Slamdance Film Festival.

4 Life Lessons for Filmmakers from Werner Herzog

Werner Herzog has dedicated his life not only to creating uncompromising films, but uncompromising filmmakers as well.

In a career that spans over half a century, the Munich-born director has made it his duty to help guide filmmakers as they navigate the wilderness of their creativity, from eating a shoe for a young Errol Morris to teaching students how to hack film at his Rogue Film School seminars.

Why i Left Art for Film-making

 

Ivi Topp

Artist — It is interesting how a word can lose value even roared by inflation after-tasting mouths.
Intro
Beginnings are always exiting — a certain dose of naivety mixed with projections and ideas of how the future will translate to present.
Today i don’t know what the word Artist means anymore. I used to think i would like to become one. What at the time seemed an exiting world full of collaborative people sharing their ideas— making works that can change the vision of how you perceive the world by also having fun doing so, was slowly and painfully replaced by a depressing vision of jealous people fighting with their own ideological excrement's to be on top of each other. Even if this description can very well fit every professional working environment, i will try to focus on the artistic career.

Trying to ditch my DSLR, what next?

I have a Nikon D800 and am trying to switch to something even more "filmy".
I've had my eyes on the Blackmagic line of products for sometime now and wanted to see what you guys thought of this:
I posted on Craigslist to trade my camera with some accessories for a Blackmagic Package.
Here's one offer I got:

2015 Academy Award Nominations

Best Original Song

• "Everything is Awesome" Music and Lyric by Shawn Patterson — The Lego Movie
• "Glory" Music and Lyric by John Stephens and Lonnie Lynn — Selma
• "Grateful" Music and Lyric by Diane Warren — Beyond the Lights
• "I'm Not Gonna Miss You" Music and Lyric by Glen Campbell and Julian Raymond — Glen Campbell...I'll Be Me
• "Lost Stars" Music and Lyric by Gregg Alexander and Danielle Brisebois — Begin Again

Visual Effects

• Captain America: The Winter Soldier — Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Bryan Grill and Dan Sudick
• Dawn of the Planet of the Apes — Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Daniel Barrett and Erik Winquist
• Guardians of the Galaxy — Stephane Ceretti, Nicolas Aithadi, Jonathan Fawkner and Paul Corbould
• Interstellar — Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter and Scott Fisher
• X-Men: Days of Future Past — Richard Stammers, Lou Pecora, Tim Crosbie and Cameron Waldbauer

Short Documentary

• Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1 — Ellen Goosenberg Kent and Dana Perry
• Joanna — Aneta Kopacz
• Our Curse —Tomasz Śliwiński and Maciej Ślesicki
• The Reaper (La Parka) — Gabriel Serra Arguello
• White Earth — J. Christian Jensen

Feature Documentary

• Citizen Four — Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy and Dirk Wilutzky
• Finding Vivian Maier — John Maloof and Charlie Siskel
• Last Days in Vietnam — Rory Kennedy and Keven McAlester
• The Salt of the Earth — Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado and David Rosier
• Virunga — Orlando von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara

Film Editing

• American Sniper — Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach
• Boyhood — Sandra Adair
• The Grand Budapest Hotel — Barney Pilling
• The Imitation Game — William Goldenberg
• Whiplash — Tom Cross

Sound Editing

• American Sniper — Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman
• Birdman — Martin Hernández and Aaron Glascock
• The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies — Brent Burge and Jason Canovas
• Interstellar — Richard King
• Unbroken — Becky Sullivan and Andrew DeCristofaro

Sound Mixing

• American Sniper — John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Walt Martin
• Birdman — Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño and Thomas Varga
• Interstellar — Gary A. Rizzo, Gregg Landaker and Mark Weingarten
• Unbroken — Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño and David Lee
• Whiplash — Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins and Thomas Curley

Production Design

• The Grand Budapest Hotel — Adam Stockhausen (Production Design); Anna Pinnock (Set Decoration)
• The Imitation Game — Maria Djurkovic (Production Design); Tatiana Macdonald (Set Decoration)
• Interstellar — Nathan Crowley (Production Design); Gary Fettis (Set Decoration)
• Into the Woods — Dennis Gassner (Production Design); Anna Pinnock (Set Decoration)
• Mr. Turner — Suzie Davies (Production Design); Charlotte Watts (Set Decoration)

Live Action Short Film

• Aya — Oded Binnun and Mihal Brezis
• Boogaloo and Graham — Michael Lennox and Ronan Blaney
• Butter Lamp (La Lampe au Beurre de Yak) — Hu Wei and Julien Féret
• Parvaneh — Talkhon Hamzavi and Stefan Eichenberger
• The Phone Call — Mat Kirkby and James Lucas

Animated Short Film

• The Bigger Picture —Daisy Jacobs and Christopher Hees
• The Dam Keeper — Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi
• Feast — Patrick and Kristina Reed
• Me and My Moulton — Torill Kove
• A Single Life — Joris Oprins

Animated Feature Film

• Big Hero 6 —Don Hall, Chris Williams and Roy Conli
• The Boxtrolls — Anthony Stacchi, Graham Annable and Travis Knight
• How to Train Your Dragon 2 — Dean DeBlois and Bonnie Arnold
• Song of the Sea — Tomm Moore and Paul Young
• The Tale of the Princess Kaguya — Isao Takahata and Yoshiaki Nishimura

Actor in a Supporting Role

• Robert Duval — The Judge
• Ethan Hawke — Boyhood
• Edward Norton - Birdman
• Mark Ruffalo - Foxcatcher
• J.K. Simmons - Whiplash

Actress in a Supporting Role

• Patricia Arquette — Boyhood
• Laura Dern — Wild
• Keira Knightley — The Imitation Game
• Emma Stone — Birdman
• Meryl Streep — Into the Woods

Makeup & Hairstyling

• Bill Corso & Dennis Liddiard — Foxcatcher
• Frances Hannon & Mark Coulier — The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou & David White — Guardians of the Galaxy

Costume Design

• Milena Canonero — The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Mark Bridges — Inherent Vice
• Colleen Atwood — Into the Woods
• Anna B. Sheppard and Jane Clive — Maleficent
• Jacqueline Durran — Mr. Turner

Cinematography

• Emmanuel Lubezki — Birdman
• Robert Yeoman - The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Lukasz Zal & Ryszard Lenczewski — Ida
• Dick Pope — Mr Turner
• Roger Deakins — Unbroken

Adapted Screenplay

• Jason Hall — American Sniper
• Graham Moore — The Imitation Game
• Paul Thomas Anderson — Inherent Vice
• Anthony McCarten — The Theory of Everything
• Damien Chazelle — Whiplash

Original Screenplay

• Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. & Armando Bo — Birdman
• Richard Linklater — Boyhood
• E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman — Foxcatcher
• Wes Anderson and Hugo Guinness — The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Dan Gilroy — Nightcrawler

Original Score

• Alexandre Desplat — The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Alexandre Desplat — The Imitation Game
• Hans Zimmer — Interstellar
• Gary Yershon — Mr. Turner
• Jóhann Jóhannsson — Theory of Everything

Foreign Language Film

• Ida — Poland; Directed by Pawel Pawlikowski
• Leviathan — Russia; Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev
• Tangerines — Estonia; Directed by Zaza Urushadze
• Timbuktu — Mauritania; Directed by Abderrahmane Sissako
• Wild Tales —Argentina; Directed by Damián Szifron

Directing

• Alejandro G. Iñárritu — Birdman
• Richard Linklater — Boyhood
• Bennett Miller — Foxcatcher
• Wes Anderson — The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Morten Tyldum — The Imitation Game

Actress in a Leading Role

• Marion Cotillard — Two Days, One Night
• Felicity Jones — The Theory of Everything
• Julianne Moore — Still Alice
• Rosamund Pike — Gone Girl
• Reese Witherspoon — Wild

Actor in a Leading Role

• Steve Carell — Foxcatcher
• Bradley Cooper — American Sniper
• Benedict Cumberbatch — The Imitation Game
• Michael Keaton — Birdman
• Eddie Redmayne — The Theory of Everything

Best Picture

• American Sniper —Clint Eastwood, Robert Lorenz, Andrew Lazar, Bradley Cooper and Peter Morgan
• Birdman — Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher and James W. Skotchdopole
• Boyhood —  Richard and Cathleen Sutherland
• The Grand Budapest Hotel — Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales and Jeremy Dawson
• The Imitation Game — Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky and Teddy Schwarzman
• Selma — Christian Colson, Oprah Winfrey, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner
• The Theory of Everything — Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce and Anthony McCarten
• Whiplash — Jason Blum, Helen Estabrook and David Lancaster