Blasts From The Past 1

Tonight after work I got drunk and watched some old films I had either directed or shot during my college years. I realized that I was really interested in bright colors and weird compositions when I was 23. In the fall of 1998 I was, for some reason, asked to be the director of photography on quite a few student films. I remember being particularly interested in strong primary colors and I took a liking to the Kodak Vision 7246 16mm filmstock. It seemed to fit whatever style I was aiming for. Unfortunately I think my inexperience and experimental attitude worked against a lot of the films I was shooting. I didn't approach the material and adapt to what they were trying to say, but instead went my own way with the cinematography. I liked negative space and faint shadows. By contrast, with the films I directed I made sure I had an experienced Director of Photography lensing it. I wanted someone who could tell me if my experimental ideas would look like shit or not before I rolled any film. basically, when it's MY money, I'm a cheap bastard, but if someone else is footing the bill I'll try anything. It was fun to look back at some of the things I was toying with eight to ten years ago.

Here's a short B&W film I shot for my friend Reed in '98 called The Hit. We shot this one night after closing at the PJ's Coffee House on Camp Street in the CBD. I don't remember why we decided to cover the windows in newspaper. (Oh, and please check out some of Reed's other work)

Geeky aside: I remember having a discussion with an older grad student about an idea I had of of shooting an outdoor scene in daylight with tungsten balanced film and lighting the principle actors with tweenie lights, so that the actors were color balanced and the background was an off-color blue. Several weeks later the guy came into the bar where I was working to ask my permission to steal my idea for a film he was shooting that weekend. He was someone I respected and looked up to, so it made me feel somewhat validated.