Butch aka Travis

For my film I used the University’s Sony DVCAM DSR-450WS.


This taken from here

We made the decision based purely on the fact that its a brand new camera with nice clean unused and unworn heads. We also wanted to have a go on a 16 : 9 native camera. We did this despite Matt Blackwood’s recommendation that it is by no means a better camera than the Panasonic DVC Pro.

I tend to agree, however Damien had his heart set on the Sony and I supported the decision, so we went for it.

The result was that we had some very nice images. We had some shots that I sometimes think are Handicamish quality, and on the other hand we have some proper Filmic quality, which I was very impressed with.

I wasn’t impressed with the very short Depth of Field we sometimes had with the Sony, if we had any budget whatsoever, I would have hired a wide angle lens.

Despite this, Matt brought up some past DOP’s of who he is a fan of. If I were asked I would have named three very accomplished cinematographers.

John Mathieson
Gordon Willis
Mauro Fiore

These three between them have shot some fantastic films, and all have a distinct style.

is a favourite of Ridley Scott. His two of my favourite films are Hannibal and Matchstick Men. The scenes of Hannibal where they are in Florence are incredibly poetic. Very long angles, he manages to pick up every whisp of smoke and every drop of water from the fountains. The sunlight bounces straight off and straight through the objects. Matchstick Men is a film which inspired my short Old Man Time, not for the story, but for the look of the film. It uses greys and blues in all sorts of rages and creates a dream like quality. Its beautiful.

Gordon Willis is another Cinematographer who has created his own unique style. His most famous work and one which employs his trade mark use of shadows is The Godfather. Another great film is Annie Hall, on which he also DOP’s, although I aint seen Annie Hall for years, I remember it as a great film to watch (among other things)

Mauro Fiore is lesser known, and a big budget blockbuster DOP. I do like his work, in some films, but I would like to see him work with a lower budget, however his work on the 2000 remake of Get Carter was very well done. He employs the use of Depth of Field and Rack and Focus very successfully.

Lastly, I thought I would make a list of camera’s I used (in chronological order, starting with what I used first)

8mm Cinecam
Panasonic VHS-C
Sony Hi - 8
Sony DVCAM
Sony Mini DV
Panasonic DVCPRO
Arriflex (I think) 16mm
Sony DVCAM (DSR 450ws)
NEXT….
Arriflex HD

B.