Monday, January 25, 2010

My Goals

In terms of filmmaking, I have a number of goals. First and foremost I’d like to eventually get to the point where I’m working on a television show or even a movie set and obviously my main goal is to continue to love what I’m doing and not get stuck on some set performing remedial tasks and doing the same mundane chores over and over. As long as I do what I love, I couldn’t care less what the pay is or anything like that, and with filmmaking being my greatest passion, I’ll be happy in almost any atmosphere where I’m creating film.
Before I decided to take this class, I heard from many of my friends how helpful this class is and how much hands-on experience you receive. As soon as I heard that, I had made up my mind that I’d be signing up for this class this Spring.
The thing that was missing from my 201 class was obviously the hands-on experience. Sure, we made a few movies and filmed some stuff, but I dare anyone to tell me they felt like they could confidently enter the filmmaking industry with the knowledge they obtained in that class.
That’s why I’m so excited about this class. With all this interaction, whether it be through these blogs or getting into the studios and learning the ins and outs of the camera, I feel reassured that this will be the class that helps give me that little push I need to gain the confidence I need to where I feel like I can enter the filmmaking industry and, for the most part, know what I’m doing.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010




While working on this blog, I started off by searching some of my favorite movies and checking out the cinematographer in those. One DP that kept popping up was John Mathieson.

Mathieson was DP of Gladiator, along with Matchstick Men and a few other great movies.

To me, Gladiator is one of the most beautifully shot films to date. Regardless of whether you like the movie or not, it’s hard to disagree that each scene can be considered epic. Looking through a few screen captures of the movie, it became harder and harder to pick just one that was more monumental than the other. I ended up tossing a coin, but alas, any screen shot would have been worthy of my first true blog post.




Another cinematographer that I thoroughly enjoy is Éric Gautier. He was the DP behind the greatest movie of all time (a fact), Into the Wild. This is the definition of a masterfully shot film. To me, each shot is presented as realistically as possible. That’s to say that it emits this sense of watching a documentary, which is certainly one of the main intentions in making this movie, considering it’s based on a true story.



Scouring the internet for another picture that made me stop and examine it for at least a few minutes was this one. The simplicity of it is pleasing to me, as I don’t prefer to have a lot going on in pictures. This one also focuses on the extremeness of the color of the guitar. The blue just pops out at you and begs you to stare at it, which I have no problem with.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Top 10 TV Shows

1. Dexter
2. Friday Night Lights
3. In Treatment
4. The Office
5. Rescue Me
6. Lost
7. Modern Family
8. True Blood
9. The League