Author Archives: Tom
Kubrick’s Favorite Films
BFI.org.uk, with the help of Kubrick’s right hand man Jan Harlan, has put together a list of Kubrick’s favorite films, especially from his early career and later career. It’s a well researched and fascinating read! By the way, Kubrick evidently hated “The Wizard of Oz”. Kubrick’s Favorite Films
Advice from Ridley Scott
Ridley Scott comments on breaking in to the film business, filmmaking, and his path in the biz. via Fstoppers
“The Art of Steadicam” from Refocused Media
Refocused Media has put together an homage video to the 50 “best” shots made possible since the Steadicam was invented by Garrett Brown in the early 1970’s, based on the database compiled at SteadiShots.org. It’s a fun video, and makes you realize how much more is possible with the invention of the Steadicam. The Art of Steadicam from Refocused Media […]
The Cure, Tim Pope, and Lego
Director Tim Pope did a lot of music videos for The Cure, “around 37” in fact. I always was intrigued by his work: it’s lushness and tonality, as well as their fantastical imaginative ways of telling a story (the swinging camera for Inbetween Days! The herk-jerky sped up/slow down of Neil Young’s “Wonderin’”!) They were pretty much the perfect creative […]
An Oral History of “Pulp Fiction”
From Vanity Fair “Gladstein remembers Jackson’s audition: “In comes Sam with a burger in his hand and a drink in the other hand and stinking like fast food. Me and Quentin and Lawrence were sitting on the couch, and he walked in and just started sipping that shake and biting that burger and looking at all of us. I was […]
“2001”-HAL 9000 was Built Using a Nikkor 8mm f/8 Lens
This made me kind of happy in a geeky way this morning. The full scale mockup of HAL 9000 from “2001: A Space Odyssey” was built using a Nikon Nikkor 8mm f/8 fisheye lens as it’s glowing red “eye”. The article from petapixel.com goes on to say that interestingly enough, The 8mm lens wasn’t used to shoot HAL’s POV shots. […]
Kickstarter Project For a Documentary About Mad Magazine
“When We Went Mad” I’m really interested in seeing this documentary. I grew up reading Mad in the heady days of the 1970’s, not always understanding exactly what I was reading, but learning quickly!
The Making of “The Blues Brothers”
Here’s a nice Vanity Fair article about one of our favorite movies, “The Blues Brothers”. A $17.5 million production going over budget by $10 million, and expected to flop. Instead it makes $115 million. Soul Men: The Making of The Blues Brothers
Rare color footage of Boris Karloff in “Frankenstein”!
http://dangerousminds.net/comments/boris_karloff_color_footage_of_frankensteins_monster
Prop building on location
You never know what kind of props you’ll have to build on location. Yesterday we built a deer stand: Here’s what we’re building.Tom and grip Chandler Ferriss figure out how it all goes together. Philip and Chandler strap it to the tree! How’s the view from up there, Phil?