Inspiration

Watching as many films as possible over the years is something most people do, but having developed great passion for more than just passively watching a film has kept me motivated to where I am now. At the cinema I always stay behind to see who the cinematographer was, who the editor was and I’m often browsing IMDb to see what the technical specs of film, that cameras were used and what film was used.
I don’t think I’ve seen many films shot on Fuji film, most seem to be Kodak, maybe a preference for the teal and orange grading in Hollywood. I also saw Panavision a lot of times and looked into them a little to find their prime lenses are more expensive to rent for a day than a 50mm prime for a 550D outright, crazy. 

 

















I think I probably annoy some people when I’m watching a film, especially my girlfriend; most of the time as well as enjoying a film, I’m constantly thinking how things are shot, track, jib, green screen, set extensions in AE and things like that. I really need to get my own camera soon, my list of films I want to make and things to try out is getting larger by the week. 

Yeah I’m a sucker for a visually great movie, take Avatar, The Dark Knight or Transformers, boasting some amazingly crisp images and with some vivid styles, colour grading and picturesque locations, they're a pleasure to watch even if the plots are often mainstream.

Part of me wishes I had the money for a Blu-Ray player drive for my PC because buying DVD’s today makes me feel a little cheated knowing someone is enjoying a better quality picture. Shooting my cinematography was aslways going to be shot HD, I can't see me wanting to go back to SD.
As well as enjoying some visually great films, there are also some great films that take you on a journey of perspective, seeing things from another angle thus asking questions of you, mainly left unanswered as in many of David Fincher’s films. 

David, a director I have widely followed since I stumbled upon him a few years ago reading an article on the internet. This was where I found that I had seen many of his widely known films, Fight Club (1999), Panic Room (2002), The Game (1997), Zodiac (2007) and Alien 3 (1992). This was strange for me because I hadn’t known when watching them, they from the same director, I guess it proves he has his own style and is somewhat an autuer. Having liked all of his films, I decided to venture into his other films such as Se7en (1995) and more recently The curious case of Benjamin Button (2008) about which i had mixed feelings. I absolutely loved Se7en though, its so stylised its verging on art.

However I still think the titles of the days of the week a bit patronising, I know it is important to the atmosphere of the ending that it is emphasized that Pitt was new to the city cop life and he was only here for the 7 days but Fincher’s work usually attracts an above average (maybe now with the exception of “The Social Network” I am still to see) we can work out the transitions between day and night.  

Ever since I’ve followed David’s his work, looked into his background and where he started out with, I’ve become accustomed to expecting most films I watch to have a similar style and be created with such depth as his. He started out shooting music videos and making adverts before his big break on his first feature length film which, Alien 3 (1992), which seemed, maybe unfairly, a little standard but it was probably was controlled more by the producers, conforming the film to the franchise as you would expect. This point is obvious listening to the audio to the trailer below “3 times the suspense” etc. However there were some glimpses in the trailer of Fincher today for example motivated lighting, contrast imagery and shallow depth of field along a wall, all below.

Coming soon, Analysis of "Se7en"