hard to get a film a certain way; it shouldn’t be fiddled with. Director’s commentaries just open a door to changing people’s take on the number one thing—the film. I do believe in telling stories surrounding a film, but to comment as it’s rolling is a sacrilege.
Instead, I think you should try to see the whole film through, and try to see it in a quiet place, on as big a screen as you can with as good a sound system as you can. Then you can go into that world and have that experience.
THE DEATH OF FILM
I’m through with film as a medium. For me, film is dead. If you look at what people all over the world are taking still pictures with now, you begin to see what’s going to happen.
I’m shooting in digital video and I love it. I have a Web site and I started doing small experiments for the site with these small cameras, at first thinking they were just like little toys, and they were not very good. But then I started realizing that they’re very , very good—for me, at least.
You have forty-minute takes, automatic focus. They’re lightweight. And you can see what you’ve shot right away. With film you have to go into the lab and you don’t see what you’ve shot until the next day, but with DV, as soon as you’re done, you can put it into the computer and go right to work. And there are so many tools. A thousand tools were born this morning, and there’ll be ten thousand new tools tomorrow. It happened first in sound. Now everybody’s got ProTools, and you can manipulate these sounds, just fine-tune them unbelievably fast.The same thing’s happening with the image. It gives you so much control.
I started thinking and experimenting. I did some tests from DV to film, because you still have to transfer to film to show in the theater. And although it does not look exactly like it was shot on film, it looks way better than I would have thought.
Once you start working in that world of DV with small, lightweight equipment and automatic focus, working with film seems so cumbersome.These 35mm film cameras are starting to look like dinosaurs to me. They’re huge; they weigh tons. And you’ve got to move them around. There are so many things that have to be done, and it’s all so slow. It kills a lot of possibilities. With DV everything is lighter; you’re more mobile. It’s far more fluid. You can think on your feet and catch things.
And for actors, to get down into a character in the middle of a scene and then suddenly have to stop while we reload the film cameras after ten minutes—often, this breaks the thing. But now you’re rolling along; you’ve got forty minutes down in there. And you can start talking to the actors, and instead of stopping it you can move in and push it. You can even rehearse while you’re shooting, although I start goofing up the soundtrack, because they’ve got to chop out all my words. But many times I am talking to the actors while we are shooting and we are able to get in deeper and deeper.
DV FOR YOUNG FILMMAKERS
My advice is to use the opportunity DV brings to do what you truly believe in. Keep your own voice. Don’t do anything for the sole purpose of impressing any studio or some money people. That always seems to backfire, in my experience. It’s great to go to film school, and you can get a lot of intellectual knowledge there, but learn by doing. And now that costs have fallen, you can really go and do it on your own. Then there are lots of film festivals that you can enter and see if you can catch some distribution or financial help later on.
DV QUALITY
The DV camera I currently use is a Sony PD-150, which is a lower quality than HD. And I love this lower quality. I love the small cameras.
The quality reminds me of the films of the 1930s. In the early days, the emulsion wasn’t so good, so there was less information on the screen. The Sony PD result is a bit like that; it’s nowhere near high-def. And sometimes,
Instead, I think you should try to see the whole film through, and try to see it in a quiet place, on as big a screen as you can with as good a sound system as you can. Then you can go into that world and have that experience.
THE DEATH OF FILM
I’m through with film as a medium. For me, film is dead. If you look at what people all over the world are taking still pictures with now, you begin to see what’s going to happen.
I’m shooting in digital video and I love it. I have a Web site and I started doing small experiments for the site with these small cameras, at first thinking they were just like little toys, and they were not very good. But then I started realizing that they’re very , very good—for me, at least.
You have forty-minute takes, automatic focus. They’re lightweight. And you can see what you’ve shot right away. With film you have to go into the lab and you don’t see what you’ve shot until the next day, but with DV, as soon as you’re done, you can put it into the computer and go right to work. And there are so many tools. A thousand tools were born this morning, and there’ll be ten thousand new tools tomorrow. It happened first in sound. Now everybody’s got ProTools, and you can manipulate these sounds, just fine-tune them unbelievably fast.The same thing’s happening with the image. It gives you so much control.
I started thinking and experimenting. I did some tests from DV to film, because you still have to transfer to film to show in the theater. And although it does not look exactly like it was shot on film, it looks way better than I would have thought.
Once you start working in that world of DV with small, lightweight equipment and automatic focus, working with film seems so cumbersome.These 35mm film cameras are starting to look like dinosaurs to me. They’re huge; they weigh tons. And you’ve got to move them around. There are so many things that have to be done, and it’s all so slow. It kills a lot of possibilities. With DV everything is lighter; you’re more mobile. It’s far more fluid. You can think on your feet and catch things.
And for actors, to get down into a character in the middle of a scene and then suddenly have to stop while we reload the film cameras after ten minutes—often, this breaks the thing. But now you’re rolling along; you’ve got forty minutes down in there. And you can start talking to the actors, and instead of stopping it you can move in and push it. You can even rehearse while you’re shooting, although I start goofing up the soundtrack, because they’ve got to chop out all my words. But many times I am talking to the actors while we are shooting and we are able to get in deeper and deeper.
DV FOR YOUNG FILMMAKERS
My advice is to use the opportunity DV brings to do what you truly believe in. Keep your own voice. Don’t do anything for the sole purpose of impressing any studio or some money people. That always seems to backfire, in my experience. It’s great to go to film school, and you can get a lot of intellectual knowledge there, but learn by doing. And now that costs have fallen, you can really go and do it on your own. Then there are lots of film festivals that you can enter and see if you can catch some distribution or financial help later on.
DV QUALITY
The DV camera I currently use is a Sony PD-150, which is a lower quality than HD. And I love this lower quality. I love the small cameras.
The quality reminds me of the films of the 1930s. In the early days, the emulsion wasn’t so good, so there was less information on the screen. The Sony PD result is a bit like that; it’s nowhere near high-def. And sometimes,
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