Tramps Like Us

Early this morning Austin sneaked in a tweet

One of the finest scenes in cinema history. - AUS10


Agreed it is one of the finest scenes in movie history. (With a great history behind it)

But is there more to this tweet than a cinephile show and tell moment?

Props to one of the best actor/directors in the history of film?
Passing the political commentary of Chaplin along to those who might not ever see it otherwise?

Looking at some classic films for inspiration?

Giving a wink and a nod to the CA, where Chaplin went on location up and down the state, and was a frequent visitor to North Cali?

(Film buffs, check out this great great site of location stills then and now for Chaplin movies and this video/lecture about Chaplin's locations for some of his most iconic films)

Or is he just a fan of The Little Tramp?

Taylor Made

For Source Code, Jake got a chance to experience being a producer is a non formal way. With EoW, it looks like he is getting to experience being cinematographer and director.

When Jake first mentioned Watch he said it was a new challenge and something he's never done before. Don't think it was the story as much as it was the process of making the movie.

Shot in a documentary style, the actors have the opportunity to play a role in the movie that most never get a chance, they become the camera, it is from their POV as the action is happening.Radiant Images is working with Watch to help create a movie perspective that hasn't been seen before with SI Nano camera that the guys wear, as well as the SI-2K sensor cameras. They've put together wearable Cinedecks as well other Cinedeck sets and have created custom rigs for the cruisers and have created other equipment just for Watch.
Jake's so interested in the process, he joined the film crew and went to Radiant for test shoots with the cameras and the rigs.Jake and Mike have been wearing SI-Nano camera, that were created in house. The small digital cameras are light enough to wear for action and able to shoot in a 2K uncompressed RAW format. Radiant says they are great for 3D shooting .

With such a small budget it doesn't seem like there's the budget for 3D, but you wonder if there could be one or two 3D effects during some of the fire fight scenes to give the experience of what it's like being in the middle of it.It's not all work for Jake, while shooting in South Central has been talking to the neighbors and posing for pictures when work is over. Watch is using a lot of the residents as extras in the film too. Check out more of the camera testing at Radiant Images.

Pictures: IHJ, Radiant Images

Movie Masterclass

Austin tweeted this last night as he was filming late night scenes for OTH.

Just watched Rashomon for the second time. Kurosawa is the master. Toshiro Mifune is my hero!! - AUS10

Kurosawa is the master indeed and one of the greatest directors in the history of film, his work has not only influenced some of the greatest directors, but influenced filmmaking in general.

If you are a fan of Star Wars - thank Kurosawa. It was Kurosawa's movie 'The Hidden Fortress' that inspired the young George Lucas create a galaxy far, far away.


Kurosawa most famous film is Seven Samurai. The story of a besieged group of villagers who hire seven strongmen to protect them from a bunch of bad guys. Does it sound familiar? It might remind you of the movie The Magnificent Seven which Hollywood took Kurosawa's story and created it as a Western. Or maybe you saw A Bug's Life. This time, the peasants were ants, the thugs, grasshoppers, and the protectors, a bunch of traveling circus bugs.

Or how about Clint Eastwood in A Fist Full of Dollars? That would be Kurosawa 1961 masterpiece 'Yojimbo'. And the master introduced something that is taken for granted now; he creating a new cinematic character type - the antihero. The story is about a nameless samurai pitting the two warring clans of a small town against each other. It was so profound to Italian director Sergio Leone. His movie, A Fistful of Dollars, was at times almost a shot-for-shot steal as Clint Eastwood's nameless gunslinger went through the same misadventures as Kurosawa's nameless samurai.

Kurosawa has influenced everyone from Spielberg to Coppola.

No doubt the Austin was watching it for the story, but he also may have been looking at some of the innovative cinematography as well.


It was in Rashomon it was the first time that a hand held camera was used. It is often given credit for the first time a camera was pointed directly at the sun. In the shots of the actors, Kurosawa wanted to use natural light, but it was too weak. They solved the problem by using a full mirror to reflect the natural light back at the actors. The result is to make the strong sunlight look as though it has traveled through the branches, hitting the actors. After rain would not show up on screen made from pure water, the rain tank tinted with black ink so the water would show up on camera.

The cinematographer, Kazuo Miyagawa, contributed an enormous amount of ideas to Rashomon,in addition to using mirrors to create natural light. For example, in one sequence, he chose to use a series of single close-ups of the bandit, then the wife, and then the husband, which then repeats to emphasize the triangular relationship between them.



Austin once again shows what a cinephile he is, and maybe some day we will see how Rashomon and other movies have influence him from behind the camera.

Happy Austin Friday.

Just a couple more pictures from last nights premiere of LaOD. Check out the rest of the premiere and the after party pictures at IHJ.

Back to School

It's back to school time and this time it's Film School for OMG'ers. This is something actors, or a director's son or cinephile could discuss.

Is this the camera that is going to make analog film absolute?

Some think so. This is the Red One ultra high resolution digital camera.

Capable of processing five times more information than any other HD camera and matched with a 35mm PL lens mount, this new technology is considered by many to be the closest thing to shooting on film since, well, shooting on film. If all of Red‘s promises prove true and the around $17,500 price tag (without lens) for the camera, 90% less than the cost of a Panaflex camera, results in a supply that keeps up with the demand, the Red One could become a favorite of independent filmmakers. "It delivers all the dazzle of analog, but it's easier to use and cheaper—by orders of magnitude—than a film camera. In other words, Jim Jannard's, the founder of Oakley, creation threatens to make 35-mm movie film obsolete."

Just as there is a debate about film vs. digital camera for photography, so is the debate for movies. With television production going to High Definition as well, it seems like the digital format is giving movie making a run for its money. But all are not convinced. "It isn‘t that HD is sharper than film, it‘s just that it looks synthetic. Film adds texture, depth and roundness to the image that HD just can‘t do. My first reaction to hearing about Red was that it would look four times more synthetic. Which is alright, if that is the look the director wants.”

What does this technology do to the actors, does it help them or does it make them even more obsessed with their looks when you have technology to bring this type of definition to a huge screen?

But the Red One is getting fans, and not just independent movie makers. "The Red One is being used on at least 40 features. Steven Soderbergh, the Oscar-winning director, borrowed two prototypes to shoot his Che Guevara biopics, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, and later purchased three for his film The Informant. Peter Jackson, the Lord of the Rings himself, bought four. Director Doug Liman used a Red on Jumper."

Will Liman shoot the Untitled Moon Project on Red?

Can you imagine Jake blue eyes, the ultra bright of the moon surface and space in this format?
Take a look at how you might be seeing Jake in the near future.


skate - shot on red - 120 fps from opus magnum prod. on Vimeo.

“Working with the Red camera brings back the intuitiveness, the fun, the magic of working with film,”

Class dismissed.

And some more Red footage.
Red One Digital Tests Check out the underwater test.

Wired Magazine: The Red One