Project Nim (2011). Director James Marsh. Cinematographer Michael Simmonds.
All the interviews are shot in a studio with layered neutral backdrops. In the wide shots you see the paper rolls hit the floor. The text graphics bring to life the breakthrough described by Laura Ann Petitto, a student while she trained Nim Chimpsky and now a neuroscientist and psychology professor.
“Herb started seeing the signs grow on that little graph, every day, every other day, every three days. Laura taught him another sign. Laura taught him another sign. And I just went hell for leather.”
They Were There (2011). By Errol Morris, no cinematographer credit. IBM shelled out for an industrial by the best in the biz to mark its 100 year anniversary, complete with a Philip Glass score. It’s a little too on-point with messaging to make for an interesting film, but it includes this particular frame and facial expression, so in my mind it’s a film worth watching.
Barry Franz recounts IBM’s presentation to the committee that created the UPC code. “The door opened and if I recall right three people came in. One was a very unique IBM individual. He didn’t look to me like the kind of IBM people I’d been associated with. If I recall right, his suit may have been brown.” Apparently this brown suit could sell widgets, because IBM got the contract and now there are UPC codes everywhere on our planet. It’s even become one more clichéd option when customers choose a tattoo, a UPC code as an act of rebellious irony. Or maybe they’re just sci-fi fans.
Thanks to John Shand for suggesting this film. It’s a good one to illustrate Morris’s signature style. May we all deliver such artistry to our corporate clients.
![Waste Land (2010). Director Lucy Walker. Director of Photography Dudu Miranda. The color palette and lighting and wardrobe all help turn this into a glamour shot, that just happens to be set at the world’s largest landfill. To match the image, Magna explains her dignity in working as a catadore, or trash picker.
“We would get on the bus and people would go like this. [sniffs] It got to the point where I’d say: excuse me ma’am, but do I stink? Do you smell something bad? It’s because I was working over there in the dump. It’s better than turning tricks in Copacabana. I find it to be more interesting and more honest. It’s more dignified.”](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m17g2gkZ2M1qkp845o1_1280.jpg)
Waste Land (2010). Director Lucy Walker. Director of Photography Dudu Miranda. The color palette and lighting and wardrobe all help turn this into a glamour shot, that just happens to be set at the world’s largest landfill. To match the image, Magna explains her dignity in working as a catadore, or trash picker.
“We would get on the bus and people would go like this. [sniffs] It got to the point where I’d say: excuse me ma’am, but do I stink? Do you smell something bad? It’s because I was working over there in the dump. It’s better than turning tricks in Copacabana. I find it to be more interesting and more honest. It’s more dignified.”
Inside Deep Throat (2005). Directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato. Cinematography by David Kempner and Teodoro Maniaci.
This is one of several interviews with Gerard Damiano, director of that most legendary porno. It all just gels in this frame, replete with bowling shirt, leopard print bedspread, high-waisted pants, and a rear reflection reminiscent of ceiling mirrors. Here Damiano waxes nostalgic. “All of a sudden there was a new word. It was called ‘film-maker’. You became an independent filmmaker. We were actually doing it, and we couldn’t believe it. We couldn’t believe it. And thank God there was such a thing as sex.”
L’Amour Fou (2010). This precision crafted film profiles Yves Saint-Laurent through the lens of his partner Pierre Bergé. Directed by Pierre Thoretton. Cinematography by Léo Hinstin. And it’s brilliantly edited, so I’ll also credit Dominique Auvray.
Pierre Bergé explains his reason for selling the treasure trove he assembled over a lifetime with YSL. “I don’t believe in anything. You could say that’s a reason to believe in things, in these inanimate objects. Could they have a soul? I don’t believe in the soul, neither in my own, nor in that of these objects. And so I’m going to oversee the destiny of this collection.”
Prime (2012), one in a series of short films about place by Ben Wu and David Usui of Lost & Found Films.
I asked Ben for the story behind this perfectly composed interview. Canon 5D. 24-70mm lens. Aperture a 4/5.6 split. 1x1 lite panels with extra CTO to match the yellow/tobacco tint of the place.
Here’s Ben on the importance of depth of field in this shot: “This is where the 5d/shallow depth of field shines. It has reached a point where even I get sick of the ‘look’, but for talking head invws, it really helps, and in this case, had we shot this with our EX1 or other cam, it wouldn’t have worked. The people in the background would have been in focus, drawing your attention to them, and not to Artie. But with the 5d, we could throw the background out just enough so got the sense of the customers, but just a sense, and the focus, literally and figuratively, is placed wholly on Artie.”
And here’s Artie’s story: “I started here August of 1952. I was about 19, 20 years old. Originally this place was open 24 hours, so we would get musicians from the jazz strip on 52nd Street, Rita Hayworth and Sammy Davis Jr. Every day we was mobbed, every day.”
American Juggalo (2011). Directed by Sean Dunne. Cinematography by Hillary Spera. This Parking Lot style short is a series of portraits and impromptu interviews with Insane Clown Posse fans celebrating their very special subculture. The interview is built on laughter, and the highlights and hair light add grace.
Here is a Juggalette who calls herself Maniac. The interviewer asks what Maniac’s about. “Being happy. Doing fucking shit that she loves to do. Being crazy. Meeting family. Being happy. Yeah most people think I’m on drugs cuz I’m always happy.”
“Are you on drugs?”
“No I’m not. I’m high on life. My voice is gone because I be screaming so much. So much fun times here and family love.”
Deep Water (2006). Directed by Louise Osmond and Jerry Rothwell. Cinematography by Nina Kellgren.
A well-made film and a great yarn. Here is Ted Hynds, assistant to the publicist who helped push sailor Donald Crowhurst beyond his limits in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race in 1968.
“It was pretty embarrassing. We’d been promoting Crowhurst as the dark horse of the sea. We initially thought this was a man who’d made trans-Atlantic voyages. He wasn’t. He’d mess about in boats, but he was almost a weekend sailor. But everyone loved the idea of this Boys’ Own hero. We wanted him to succeed.”
Josh Vogel. 2011. This is a short portrait film for The Scout magazine, directed by Brennan Stasiewicz and shot by Ed David. David has shot a series of these portrait pieces for The Scout and The Selby, all of them beautiful. This piece about a Kingston, NY wood sculptor is the most meditative of the bunch.
“I’ve been working with wood all my life. Probably since I was about five I remember messing around with two by fours and things like that, you know, building stuff.”
Waiting for ‘Superman’ (2010). Directed by Davis Guggenheim and shot by Erich Roland and Bob Richman.
The kids’ perspectives and intimate context makes this film work. Here is Anthony, a schoolboy in Washington, with the contents of his backpack spread out on his bed. He tries to solve a simple math problem. “You had four cookies and you ate two, and then you gotta cross-multiply that…two, four…You ate fi-, you ate fifty percent of your cookie.”
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