Re: Once...Again
- From: Ken Cashion <kcashion@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2008 09:30:11 -0600
On Thu, 14 Feb 2008 08:56:23 -0500, "Frank Wiewandt"
<fwphotoDUH@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hey Ken,
Saw it again last night and I was more critical than the first time.
The music was better than I remembered.
Saw it 2 nights ago for the first time. I really liked it.
I bought my copy. I rarely find anything I want to rent and I just
end up wasting a lot of time eliminating crap. "Don't want to see
that." "That looks bloody." "That looks dumb." etc.
If I think I will like it, I buy it. If I like it, it goes in my
video library. If I don't, I give it away. I have thrown away two
movies because they were so bad, I didn't want anyone to see them
because they might "infect" them. <g>
And I have received a movie in the mail and a week later get another
one just like it. I must have forgotten it was on order and I placed
another one.
I have some movies that I have on VHS, DVD, and laser. Some VHS were
converted by me to DVD and then later I bought a commercial version
DVD. Of movies I have this way are, "Other People's Money,"
"Groundhog Day," and "Broadway Melody of 1940."
It might take 2 hours to set up for a 5-second scene...even in a low
budget film such as this. (He wanted to shoot it for less than
$100,000.) The long scene I mentioned earlier was 195 seconds and
like the rest of the movie, well done. This was a steady-cam shot. I
still do not think they used a dolly.
I guess I missed your earlier post on the production of this film. That
said, I'm a big fan of this style. In general, it highlights what's going on
in front of the camera instead of all the technical wizardry of modern
film-making. In this case, the interaction among the actors & the music were
alowed to take center stage.
What scene are you talking about?
The long shot was when she was in the little shop at night and had
just put batteries in the portable CD player. The camera followed her
out of the store, her turning to her left, walking a long block,
making another left turn, walking another long block, making another
left turn...I was wondering if she had taken the long way back to her
flat. Another turn and she would have been one block from where she
started. <g>
However, I was wrong about not using a boom. The closing scene is
from a boom set in the middle of a street. It most likely was from a
"cherry picker" since that would have been tall enough and steady
enough. Also, they would have been cheap to rent and quick to set
up...and fast to get gone from being a distraction on a public right
of way.
Could have been a jib boom intead of a "cherry picker". I've worked on
several productions with large jib booms that would be capable of that shot.
Not quite a drive up / drive away proposition but possibly cheaper. I'll
check out the credits a bit closer if I rent Once once again.
I considered that but the guy was saying that they didn't want to rent
a lot of things and a cherry picker would have been a lot more
available than a jib boom...I think. He hardly had a studio's backing
with their logistics. Also, he was winging a lot of shots...he said
so. A street decision to have an airborne camera would have the
quickest solution.
He was just about forced into that shot because she was not on the
ground floor, and her thoughts and attention left the piano and
traveled out the window to where the guy was winging his way to "she
who lies." <g>
That scene went no where, by the way. It was just a short
establishing shot, then long, slow zoom back, while panning to nothing
of any importance. That nothingness in itself can make a statement.
Worked for me but I like "slice of life" kinda films.
When a camera is "air-borne" and panning and zooming, and if zooming,
it had better be panning, then I expect the viewer's attention to be
directed "from" something "to" something Having nothing worth
seeing at the end is a way of saying, "We have nothing else to tell or
show. That's it folks. Go home."
What was the worst thing they could have panned to?
A commercial jet flying over.
That would have ruined the movie for me.
Again, a very good movie for $100,000 and only a story board...no
scripts and no page of memorized lines.
Didn't know that. Cool!
That was one of the reason it worked. People do say dumb things and
make noises in conversation. A "cool" can mean a lot. Or just a
thumbs up.
Ken, Movie Freak.
.
Frank Wiewandt
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