Philip Bloom on CNET Australia

DSLR wielding cinematographer Philip Bloom sits down with CNET and discusses what it's like to be a pioneering filmmaker using the new DSLRs with HD video.

From Chemistry to Cinema: The Man Behind the Camera (and the Chemistry) of the French New Wave

In 1960, the movie world was turned upside-down and left (sorry in advance about this upcoming pun) breathless with Jean-Luc Godard's youthful and breezy Breathless.  The film's lack of polish with its man-on-the-run/love story narrative set it apart from the classic Hollywood and Italian Neorealism films that influenced it.  While the film may be remembered for its pretty faces of Jean-Paul Belmondo and the infinitely gorgeous Jean Seberg, improvisational acting and abundance of jump cuts, I can tell you the reason I love this movie.  It's the man behind the handheld camera.  His name is Raoul Coutard.

"I never dreamed of working on a movie.  I always wanted to be a chemist."

Nowadays, it's hard to imagine a cinematographer having the career he or she has without attending school.  Go through 4 years of school, then attend grad school and hopefully work your way up to eventually attaining ASC (American Society of Cinematographers) cred.  But back in in 1960 when Coutard was handling the camera for Godard, the man had very little feature film experience having only worked on 3 films prior to Breathless.  In fact, Coutard's first DP (director of photography) job on The Devil's Pass came about without even having held a motion picture film camera.

Coutard in the opening credits of Godard's Contempt.

Prior to his work as a DP, Coutard attended school to be a chemist, of all things.  But, "due to financial reasons," Coutard was forced to drop out and was eventually transferred to photography school.  But how serendipitous!  A background in chemistry eventually leading to photography, a craft which sort of requires a knowledge of chemistry.  For 11 years, Coutard took war photos in 'Nam for publications like Look, the same magazine in which Stanley Kubrick worked on staff.

The innovative use of a wheelchair as a dolly on the set of Breathless.

From shooting war, reportage photographs to shooting Godard's first feature film, the transition once again feels like fate.  Godard had hand-picked his DP for Breathless, a young, student DP Michel Latouche with whom he had worked on prior shorts.  French union regulations kept Latouche from shooting with Godard.  While Godard still wanted Latouche, producer Georges de Beauregard imposed upon Godard a cameraman who had worked on a film he had produced, The Devil's Pass.  Of course, that man was Raoul Coutard.  Godard said to Coutard, "We will shoot this film as if we are reporting a story."  Another serendipitous turn of events as shooting quickly and handheld as a photojournalist was Coutard's strong suit anyway.  The rest is cinema history.

Coutard and Costa-Gavras on the set of Z.

I take away two things from this incredible story.  One is that Coutard changed the face of La Nouvelle Vague (the French New Wave).  Without him, I don't see these films being as popular or even catching on.  As Jean-Pierre Melville said, "Breathless could easily have been a flop."  Certainly, it could have been.  But I think Coutard's camaerwork, handheld and breezy, aided in the editing process when Godard would shorten entire clips, jump cutting to particular dialogue.  Coutard's further work with Godard and even François Truffaut brought the sometimes haphazard and always youthful French New Wave to life.  That is something I look up to.

Two, and probably the most important to me, is that events build up to an eventual break through.  As the entire story of Coutard and the Coutard quote I used as a caption under the first photo illustrates, the man never thought he would shoot a still photo or motion picture sequence in his life.  It was by happenstance or pure fate that Coutard ended up as the champion of cinematography he is today.  Each step along the way in his life set him up to reach that point.  As a young, aspiring cinematographer trying to work his way to that eventual point where my work epitomizes the look of an entire movement of film, that's pretty damn exciting!  I can see Coutard's career becoming my own.

Raoul Coutard is my favorite cinematographer.  Whether it be the loose camerawork of black and white pictures like Breathless or Jules and Jim or the wonderfully vibrant CinemaScope color films like A Woman is a Woman or Pierrot le Fou, Coutard has captured this young, aspiring cinematographer's imagination and desire to shoot movies and has made him believe that it is possible.

Paint the Town (of Digital Cinema) RED

I'm fortunate to be a wannabe cinematographer at this day and age.  It used to be I would have had no choice but to go to film school, work on crews for several years and then eventually hope I've picked up enough know-how to eventually work as a DP.  Now, with cheap, digital equipment, the means to "process" it (compression) and learn helpful tools through the internet, being a filmmaker is relatively easy.  I can start on these DSLRs, analogous to 16mm, and eventually work my way up to the RED, analogous to say 35 or 70mm.

Meet the RED One.

The RED Digital Cinema Camera Company released their first digital cinema camera in 2007 with the RED One.  Since its release, the RED One has been used to shoot many features.  One of which might be my favorite movie of all-time, Che, and is certainly shot and directed by my favorite modern day American director, Steven Soderbergh.  Soderbergh has said of the camera, "this is the camera I've been waiting for my whole career: jaw-dropping imagery recorded on board a camera light enough to hold with one hand . . .  RED is going to change everything."  Pretty bold words.  Contrast that with the words of Werner Herzog, who shot My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done with the RED One, "an immature camera created by computer people who do not have a sensibility or understanding for the value of high-precision mechanics."  He spoke of the camera's reboot times.  Take away what you will from each director's experience.  I'm personally jazzed about using this technology... eventually.

Meet the RED Epic.

The latest camera added to the RED arsenal is the Epic.  The processing power and resolution has been ramped up for it.  Soderbergh has already shot Haywire and is shooting Contagion with this camera.  We'll have to wait until late 2011 for these films to blow us away though.  But, while I've never used these cameras before, I can look at tech specs and I can look at results.  Some of my favorite films of recent years have been shot with the RED technology.  Che, as already mentioned, Soderbergh's The Informant!, Lars Von Trier's affecting psychodrama Antichrist and The Social Network were all shot with the RED One.

What I'm most excited about with these cameras is the processing power.  Being able to render and process 4K (or in the case of the Epic, 5K) resolution in real-time all in a small and portable 5 lbs. box...  It's pretty remarkable.  The RED cameras shoot RAW, meaning most of the information captured by the censor is perserved.  With more information, the better the resolution and the more ability to play around with the footage in post.  

What makes it a step above from the DSLRs right now is basically processing power and compression.  The Canon 5D Mark II may have a sensor that dwarfs RED and even Super 35, but the processing chips inside of it must compress the files down to a smaller codec.  But, as you can see in this video, the two aren't that different from each other.

Each camera provides its own separate and unique look for this piece.  And that's sort of the idea I'm beginning to take away from all of this talk of comparing RED with these DSLRs.  Maybe digital cinematography, as it stands right now, is best when it utilizes all of these different technologies.  In the first minute or so of the piece, the RED shots are used as to enhance the mood of this character.  It's 4K resolution teamed up with slowed down 60fps frame rate portrays an uneasiness in the character.  The 5D footage is more objective.  Shot at normal 24p, it serves as giving a good idea of the actual speed this character is traveling at.  While the RED footage is more emotional, the Canon footage is more physical and sets the piece in reality.  The Panasonic GH1 is great at naturally high contrast, colorful and sharp images.  For the first minute, the GH1 serves kind of like our male character's perspective.  As he watches the woman, maybe it's sort of like a Martin Scorsese-Jake LaMotta-Raging Bull type thing.  He sees her in this different light than anyone else.  I don't know what you can necessarily take away from this piece.  There's not much of a concrete story.  The title contains the words, "Footage Comparison," and that's basically all it is.  But seeing these cameras' footage cut together like that is exciting.  Like I've mentioned before, with digital, know the equipment and know it well.  Know what it is good at, its strengths, and utilize them to your advantage.  I'm sure one day, after I Filmed Your Death, I'll have enough of a budget to shoot on the RED, but I don't think I will shoot solely on the RED.  These different cameras do different things well.  Utilizing those strengths in a visually stylistic way, that's the key!

For a class...

So, for one of my classes, Bodies and Technologies, I am required to post a series of blog posts about a technology.  The first post is a brief historical overview of that technology.  The second is on others' use of the technology.  The final is on how I have interacted with the technology.  I chose cameras, naturally.  I'm addressing the change to digital and how it's simultaneously democratizing and commercializing the industry, but the technology is still culturally determinant.  Check it out!

Take a Picture, It'll Last Longer: A Brief History of the Still Camera.

Daily Helmsman's Terror from a typewriter

Murder, He Wrote.

Check out Terror from a typewriter, an article in the U of M newspaper The Daily Helmsman about my good friend and partner Sam Bahre!

Shooting for the Future

In order to set myself up for success in 2012, I'm looking to finally buy my own camera.  That decision is easy and a quite obvious one, really.  The real question is, "Which camera do I buy?"

Director Jean-Luc Godard, DP Raoul Coutard and actress Jean Seberg on the set of Breathless.

There's a lot of factors to consider when making this kind of purchase.  It's not just a matter of buying the best on the market.  It's a matter of looking at various features, comparing those features against other brands and deciding which features suit you best.  It's a matter of living in the present as well as being forward thinking, knowing that, eventually, this camera could become "obsolete" in comparison to newer technology.

 

McDowell and Kubrick on the set of A Clockwork Orange.

Right now, Digital Single-Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras that support an HD movie mode are all the rage to young cinematographers, and why not?  The ability to create fantastic depth of field with interchangeable lenses, expose well in low light and be carried around easily are certainly selling points.  They're cheap too, which is nice for a poor guy like myself.  So, buying a DSLR with an HD movie mode is the way I am leaning, but another question arises.  Which make and model do I purchase?

The Canon 5D Mark II.  A DSLR with HD movie mode.

The same brands photographers have trusted for years (Canon and Nikon) are leading the way in the digital cinematography race with famed electronics company Panasonic sneaking in and making it a three-way shootout.  Just like the battle between Mac, PC and, yes, Linux, you're going to have your fanboys and die hard supporters of each brand.  The key is to separate yourself from all these biases and just look at the facts, or better yet, footage!



Above is the trailer for Zacuto's  The Great Camera Shootout 2010.  It's a three part series comparing top-of-the-line DSLRs against each other as well as film.  The cameras are pushed to their limits in tests of exposure latitude, sensitivity and dynamic range, among others.  Looking at the DSLR footage in comparison to film is remarkable, but looking at the DSLR footage in comparison to each other aids in determining the right make and model.

There's a lot of factors to consider.  Sensor size.  Variety of frame rates.  Resolution.  ISO.  There are so many it is mind-numbing, really.  For me, wanting to just get in some practice before 2012, the biggest factor is price.  If I had all the money in the world, I'd own a RED One with a variety of lenses.  But I don't have $25,000+ lying around my house or in a Swiss bank account.  The beauty of cinematography for me is working with what you've got.  Know the limitations (or perimeters, to not look at it so pessimistically) of your equipment and shoot accordingly.  A cinematographer's job is to make what's in front of the lens look good.  Know your equipment and you'll be able to capture images like these, shot entirely on a Canon 7D and 5D Mark II.



So, back to the question!  Which camera to buy?  Recently, I've been hooked on the Canon 7D.  Unfortunately, it's pricey.  Much more so than the Canon 60D, which I am now leaning towards.  Maybe the 60D is the way to go, to eventually springboard into 2012 when the budget can afford a 7D.  With lenses being as expensive as they are, I need to go cheaper on the camera.  Being less than $1,000, the 60D is a good starting point.  It has the same sensor size as the 7D (22.3 x 14.9mm), same recording codec compression, almost the same everything.  The only difference on paper being the 7D's ISO range of 100-12800 vs. the 60D's 100-6400.  If I ever need to go beyond 6400 ISO, I'll be stunned.  It seems like the price is right for me and the 60D.  With all the hype surrounding the 5D Mark II, 7D and the Panasonic AF100, it's easy to get distracted. Their images are mesmerizing.  I need to look at more test footage for the 60D.  Compare it with footage from the 7D.  After that, I'll be closer to making my decision.

Bio

The name's Andrew Gafford and I'm an aspiring cinematographer.  

Me on the set of Under These Hills.

I started becoming interested in filmmaking when I was around ten years old.  A year earlier, my family got an 8mm video camera for Christmas, mainly for family events and home movies.  After a while, the black hunk of plastic would find a home in a closet somewhere.  It wasn't until a cold, rainy day that my brother and I re-found that black hunk of plastic and actually started using it.

Me and that "black hunk of plastic."

My brother Daniel and I started making stop-motion animations with my collection of stuffed animals and Legos.  This very small scale and rudimentary form of filmmaking made the experience fun.  Plus, being like all younger brothers, I looked up to my older brother and anything he was interested in, I was too.  It was fun, but it was also a bonding experience.  Filmmaking was introduced to be as fun and it's stayed that way ever since.  In 8th grade English, the teacher split us into groups for a group assignment in which we read a story and did a report on it.  Now, the report didn't necessarily have to be the standard essay recapping the summary, basic themes and other literary devices.  The teacher allowed more creativity than that.  Some students did plays.  Some drew pictures.  Me?  I got my group together and we made a short film.

WARNING:  THIS SHORT FILM IS BAD.

Now, I'm part of a fairly poor family that can't afford to buy me a tripod or a way to edit.  Everything I shot had to be done in camera.  Everything was shot in sequence and in only one take.  Eventually, seeing that my movies weren't coming out the way I wanted, I became discouraged.  The interest in filmmaking was put on hiatus for a while.  At least, until high school...

After middle school I went to Bartlett High School.  The biggest perk for me about high school was the ability to pick classes, sort of, if it fit in your schedule.  I took a look through the high school course catalog and stumbled across a plethora of film courses.  For my freshman year, I signed up for Intro to Film, a course that spent a semester shooting video and a semester watching and analyzing movies.  It was the class I had been waiting for!  Unfortunately, as I alluded to earlier with "if it fit in your schedule," Intro to Film didn't fit into my schedule for freshman year of high school.  Once again, I was discouraged.  

I eventually got in though, sophomore year.  Now, normally, there were two teachers for this course.  One was the head of the Senior Video and in charge of the shooting portion of the class (Coach Kaiser) and the other showed the films (Coach Steinbrecker).  Unfortunately for me, that school year they brought in a third teacher for the course.  One teacher to teach the entire course, separate from the experienced and respected Kaiser and Steinbrecker.  I was placed in the Mr. Cody's class, the newcomer to Bartlett High School and teaching in general.  With a lack of control over the class, students abused their ability to use the campus to shoot short films and he eventually banned us from shooting.  It was an unfair move, especially for someone who wanted to work with some equipment for once!  I did see some good flicks that year though.  I saw Citizen Kane, Casablanca and The Big Sleep for the first time, so at least there's that!

I passed the class (with an A, I think) and junior year I applied for Video Production and Post-Production.  It was the step up from Intro to Film in which we used post-production software like Avid for editing and After Effects for computer generated graphics.  I was always interested in computers and learning how to actually edit the footage I shot would be a valuable asset.  Unfortunately, again, VPPP was left off my class schedule and replaced with Media Concepts with Mr. Eddie Cody, again!  Once again, with a lack of control over the class, we were banned from shooting.  The class became yet another waste of my time.  With senior year approaching, there seemed like no point in applying for Senior Video.  I felt left behind.

That Christmas, though, I asked for a digital camera and, fortunately, I actually got one!  I had a job my junior year and had some money saved up to purchase an editing suite.  It wasn't much, but it was something!  With the new camera, I started experimenting.

I got to college and really felt behind.  Sure, the music video above shows some creativity, but the camera I was using couldn't even manually focus.  I wasn't gaining experience in knowing how to seriously shoot and edit.  Fortunately, my mom worked with a woman who was married to a man who worked at the Center for Multimedia Arts in the FedEx Institute of Technology, Eric Wilson.  Eric produced, directed, shot and edited videos for corporate clients and I tagged along to help as well as do a few of my own.  Through Eric, I got my hands on Final Cut Studio and was actually able to shoot on HD!



Also, Eric loaned me his old Panasonic DVX-100 to use for my own personal creative projects.



I liked making these creative pieces.  I knew going into my relationship Eric that feature films is what I wanted to specialize in.  Eventually, the two of us parted ways.  I was certainly richer for the experience.    But where one door closes, another door opens.  I met a young writer/director and U of M student Sam Bahre from Bolton, Connecticut.  The two of us became fast friends, filled with the same passion for crafting quality motion pictures.  The summer of 2010, I went to his hometown to be DP on his newest feature project Under These Hills.  It's still in the works as scenes need to be edited and reshot.  The two of us enjoy working together and have struck up a relationship similar to writer/director Kevin Smith and producer Scott Mosier, although Smith and Dave Klein might be a better comparison seeing as Klein's actually a cinematographer.

While Under These Hills is certainly a great script and was well shot with the equipment we had, Sam and I don't look for this film to be our breakthrough piece.  Our sights are set towards Fall 2012 when the two of us will be out of college.  Sam's rewriting a script for a film he never finished in high school and I'll be cinematographer again.  It's called I Filmed Your Death.  Basically, this blog is an account of my journey towards that goal of making that film.

I'm still an inexperienced photographer/cinematographer, but my ambition is high and I'm ready to learn. On the way to Fall 2012, I'll be picking up all the knowledge I possibly can about digital photography/cinematography and account for it in this blog.  You can follow along as it happens and I'll be able to look back on this one day.  Hopefully, I Filmed Your Death will be a success and I'll be looking back on myself, proud of all the knowledge I had attained in such a short amount of time.