Looks and Technique, Where Have You Gone?

[hapychkn]

I'm been browsing the site a bit now... watching stuff that people have posted and giving feedback, etc.

Something's been bothering me about the majority of what I've seen, though.

Many of the finished projects I see look the same. They all have a very digital/ DV feel to them and there seems to be a very heavy reliance on digital effects. And lots of medium shots.

It seems to me that a majority of those interested in making films are pulling from very recent examples of cinema as inspiration. I don't see people holding shots very long, or letting blocking and light speak to the viewer as to the feel of the scene. I don't see much consideration being put into color or the texture of the image to speak to emotion.

My personal worry is that we're well on the way to ending up with a crop of directors and DPs who are bat-s**t over special effects, but don't really know how to visually communicate an idea without them. It almost feels like we're getting into the realm where the onus of a film is put on post, and very little thought it put into the actual filming.

I'm not meaning to insult anyone. Lord knows that I've done my fare share of films where we do a ton of post to get the right look and feel... but I also try and do things practically as well. It depends on the film and the message behind it (for me at least).

I'm afraid that the great work of directors such as Kubric, Ozu, Kurosawa, Hitchcock, Ford, and the like, will go away.

Thoughts? Questions? Hate?

 

[ngoforth]

Everything goes in cycles. The great thing about all those old films is that they'll still be around for the next cycle of filmmakers who are bored with whatever it was that was cool before. Unless, of course, the general ADD just gets worse.

 

[GuerrillaAngel]

Its nothing new. Most films are/were crap. Its just back then, many filmmakers couldn't afford to make them in the first place!

 

[chilipie]

Everything goes in cycles. The great thing about all those old films is that they'll still be around for the next cycle of filmmakers who are bored with whatever it was that was cool before. Unless, of course, the general ADD just gets worse.

+1

Go back twenty years and I'm sure you could find filmmakers lamenting exactly the same thing. The past always seems like a golden age of cinema; we don't tend to remember all the crap films that were produced then, just the classics.

 

[knightly]

In the 70's when all the "film school" kids started puking out their "ART" the establishment scoffed at them -- until the public started buying tickets. But those were also not their first films... the road to those masterpieces were paved with standard fare stuff to learn the craft.

"Reel Talent" is a short film compendium EVERYONE HERE NEEDS TO WATCH!

 

[dlevanchuk]

That's a good obersvation, OP!

I ll contribue my thoughts to it..
Majority of begining filmmakers is the crowd in their early to mid 20 (like myself), since this is the age when they beging making decent money, and can afford some basic gear.Out of that mid 20 aged crowd, big majority of starting filmmakers grew up watching movies with all sort of special effects. Now we re trying to reproduce these movies, but since we don't have a good understanding why we like the movie, we asume its because of spxeffects, and since lots of us just learn to make stuff - our movies (or bad edits with crappy after effects, learned from video copilot) turns out crappy.