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Guest Lecturer: Kirsten Johnson

Last week I had the pleasure of having documentary filmmaker, Kirsten Johnson ( The Above , Cameraperson ,) lecture my film class. During her conversation with us she physically moved around a lot.  It taught me that as filmmakers, we will physically be moving/doing whatever it takes to shoot our films.  It reminded me of when I was shooting my own short film in which I tried to fit in the crawl space behind the toilet for a specific POV shot.  It’s as if the camera gives us permission to do so.  Putting a camera near the toilet is weird but it was necessary for the shot. The creative process itself moves by being ever-changing.  We can't stay stagnant on a specific way of storytelling, much as we can't stay stuck on original plans -- things/ideas may happen/change and we need to become inspired by them.  In my short film, I deviated from the storyboards a lot during the editing process because of new ideas of telling the story. Johnson also ...

Short film: THIRST

THIRST from Brian Tinio on Vimeo .

Screening and Discussion: Mike Wallace Is Here

I recently partook in the screening and discussion of Mike Wallace Is Here at Hunter college directed by Avi Belken.  There was much to learn from this event! Belken wanted this documentary to be a product of a genesis story -- how did 60 Mintues and its acclaim and reputation start? After asking himself that question and doing some research he immediately realized he had to do something of a case study on Mike Wallace who proved to be an iconic figure in the history of 60 Minutes.  Upon learning of this realization of his, I myself unexpectedly realized that his documentary was nothing short of his own investigative journaling of his subject, Mike Wallace. I've learned that when choosing a subject for your film, there may be off shoots that are as interesting or even more interesting than the intended subject and that gives it all the more reason to change the trajectory/subject of your film -- in some instances the film will come to you, as opposed to your choosing the ...

Analysis of a scene -- No Country for Old Men: Do you see me?

This scene starts with a close up shot of a door knob and the key hole getting blown off, with appropriate sound effect, cutting to  a panning shot, left to right, of the villain Chigurh, close to the floor following his feet and the captive bolt pistol he used to blow off the key hole.  The panning shot ends with a long shot of the back of Chigurh walking down a hallway. There is a cut on action of him walking toward the door at the end of the hallway with the next shot coming from inside the room and his walking in after opening the door. The next quick couple of shots are shot/reverse shoots and over the shoulder shots (of Chigurh) as he moves closer to two men sitting at a desk.  During these shot/reverse shots, one of the men at the desk rushes to get a gun from a draw, but Chigurh is ahead of a game, already shooting him with the captive bolt pistol. We then cut to a MCU of Chigurh as he is looking downward at the man he just shot while we hear the sound effect...

Master Class with Samuel Maoz

During Samuel Maoz's (Lebanon, Foxtrot) master class at the Roxy Cinema Tribeca, Maoz spoke about his decision to film Lebanon and the way he decided to film it, and his background as it pertains to the film, giving a few filmmaking tips along the way. He wanted to shoot Lebanon because he wanted to share his experience of the war he partook in, in Lebanon, with everyone.  However he wasn't able to shoot it directly after his involvement in the war due to his PTSD.  It was only after years of distancing himself from his war experiences that he was able to touch this subject again, and when he did, it was therapeutic. I've learned that it's natural that filmmakers may want to film something that draws from their past experiences, especially if it has had a deep enough impact on them that they want to share it with others.  But as Maoz pointed out, in order to do such a thing, you have to look at that experience from both an objective and personal point of view, n...

An Audio Portrait of Lance

Soundwalk

WHAT I HEAR The loudest sounds I hear just a few blocks away from Hunter college is the traffic.  For instance, the rattling of a truck as it passes over small potholes and the high pitched squeaks it makes as it suddenly breaks for a red light.  There is a faint honk off in the distant from a car coming behind me, but not as faint from behind is the rolling of the skinny rubber wheels of a bicycle on pavement.  This bike has a conjunction of sounds: the peddling sounds like a slight, rhythmic, buzzing noise and the switching of gears, which the biker does, make a muted clanking noise.  When it reaches me just behind me, I hear a sound signal, which is the ringing of the bike’s bell, similar to the bell used by the receptionist at hotels. I notice different kinds of shoes and different gaits produce different sounds.  One that stood out was a man’s Timberlands boots scraping the cement floor — the rubber from the heel of the boots scratching, the pa...