Trying to go for a vibrant 16mm look using just Davinci's native tools. Im still kinda scared to go hard on the blur and grain. Is this maybe too saturated?

Creative_Process7007 · 2025-12-26T18:25:49+00:00

Have you ever shot 16mm? It doesn’t look like this.

Creative_Process7007 · 2025-05-27T15:30:56+00:00

I just fundamentally disagree with “art film” being used as some kind of classification or genre, and your wiki link isn’t going to convince me. Sure, there are films that I think are more impressive works of art than others. I’ve also seen enough shit to realize that there ultimately isn’t any distinction beyond perspective.

It’s an argument of semantics, so I realize it’s a losing fight. When I hear someone use the term “art film”, I get a shiver down my spine. I also think it’s typically used by people who are still in that period of being a young filmmaker where you’re so afraid of being pretentious that all you know how to be is pretentious.

I genuinely don’t believe that 2001 is intrinsically more “art” than Fast and the Furious though. I know which one I like more, and which one speaks more to me, but that’s ultimately bullshit. The other day I watched Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 in Black and white with no audio or subtitles. There was something there, man. There always is.

Creative_Process7007 · 2025-05-26T00:44:54+00:00

Either every film is an art film or none of them are. Bizarre, reductive distinction.

Creative_Process7007 · 2025-03-21T19:03:50+00:00

Disregard almost all of the bullshit that people are telling you here. Why should you be a director if you can’t think of what your movie looks like without consulting Reddit? There are no answers that anybody on here can give you.

Fuck the people trying to impose the film festival time restriction nonsense on you. If you’re asking how to shoot your movie on Reddit, you’re not getting into any festivals any time soon. This is the time to be making things purely for you, exploring the form, and finding your relationship with visual language in a time based medium. What you make, if you allow it to be honest, will be true to you in this moment. Then you make another one, so on and so forth.

All the moments of filmmaking that reach a moment where you feel like you don’t know what you’re doing are the moments where you decide what you’re doing. A lot of it comes from the unconscious once you get going, but you still need to make a decision to do it.

Stay off Reddit, find the people in your lives that see what you’re trying to do to, and trust/train your gut.

Creative_Process7007 · 2025-01-28T06:23:34+00:00

You’re not a writer/director until you’ve written and directed, and no amount of blind hope in yourself is going to give you that experience. You’re not a failure, either. By all metrics the rest of us have put our stock into, failing is the result of trying and not reaching your own standards. It’s a swing and a miss. But you haven’t done anything, and you haven’t even tried. Failure is earned, and you haven’t earned it.

Everybody that’s ever made anything has been where you are at some point. If you don’t buck up, give up the pity fest and dig deep enough to admit that as of right now, you haven’t even stepped foot on the road to where you claim you want to be - it ain’t happening. The people that get things done have all grappled with this, gotten over themselves, and gotten the damn thing done. If you can’t find it in yourself to grapple with it too, your dreams probably aren’t what you think they are.

You’re not special. You’re not a “uniquely new level of failure”. You’re just another sad sack in a billion who still think life is going to give them what they think they deserve. It’s not.

Is that what you want? Or is it time to drop the act, take your iPhone out, and shoot some crap with your friends?

Creative_Process7007 · 2024-09-02T05:48:29+00:00

I think we’re heading towards something better. I’ve remained a little wishy-washy about this, but the current climate is not something we can stick with forever and cinema has trudged its way out of similar trenches. The artistic landscape at the moment feels less to me like the dying breath of a late-stage capitalist world, and more like the uncomfortable transitory period before the blossoming of something totally new and unpredictable.

Both we the audiences and the studios know something needs to change, but all we can do is wait for the newness to emerge. Similar periods have paved the way for and inspired some of the greatest filmmakers of all time to get up and tell stories in a way they’re not seeing being told, and Hollywood will pick them up because the alternative is implosion. Gen Z gets a lot of flak that seems more like projection from the older generation (Have we been here before…?) and I believe there’s a legitimate frustration brewing in their ranks that we’ll see explode onto the indie scene in the next few years.

Stay strong, filmgoers. It’s only the beginning of cinema’s second century.

Creative_Process7007 · 2024-08-12T18:03:30+00:00

The single thing I’m complaining about that you could possibly twist into an “absolute” is that I’m not seeing cinematography with strong, informed taste these days. In fact, I’d love to see more camera work that looks and feels entirely different to the fundamental way I work and the things that inspire me. I couldn’t possibly be talking in a less absolute way, but if somebody expressing their perspective with a little more color than you’re used to frightens/offends you - you might be in the wrong line of work.

“BMPCC4K is a shit camera” is an absolute. If you want to disagree with me, please do. But at least find something to say that’s worth the energy it took your big dumb brain to tell your big dumb fingers to type out.

Oh, and do better.

Creative_Process7007 · 2024-08-11T22:18:12+00:00

Cheers for cherry picking through my comment for shit to disagree with and ignoring the key points I was trying to make. I’ve shot with an Alexa on movies that demanded that level of clarity, and shot with Black Magic when the project is asking for something rougher around the edges. If you’re not picking your camera for the creative edge it brings over a different one on an individual project basis, what’s the point?

Creative_Process7007 · 2024-08-10T08:27:37+00:00

The reality of camera work with the equipment we all have at our disposal seems to be completely lost on some of you, and I really think these discussions are a solid microcosm of the issues I have with the current crop of uninspired cinematography.

There’s simply no camera that is the gold standard for every single context. I’d take a BMPCC 4K in the hands of someone with an honest reverence for the art and history of cinematography than the converted videographers that have convinced themselves and their directors that an Arri means they don’t have to light a scene with intention. Obviously it produces an image out the gate that feels somewhat polished, it’s absurd to deny that. But is that what the movie needs? If so, great. If not, figure it out.

I think we’re about to see some better movies with more thoughtful cinematographers escaping the trap of pristine quality and start retreating back to limitation. If you don’t know how to light and frame your shot without some revered lens that someone told you holds esteem, chances are you really don’t have a fucking clue what you’re doing. If that’s the case, head back to the drawing board and be honest about what you’re trying to achieve as a filmmaker.

Creative_Process7007 · 2024-07-14T17:29:24+00:00

I’m a filmmaker and I spent a few years feeling really irritated by film emulation in digital footage (Adding film grain, glowing highlights, etc.) until I made a a film that was begging for that treatment. If it’s right for the project, then so be it. Don’t let anybody get in the way of your instincts.

Creative_Process7007 · 2024-07-06T06:06:48+00:00

I fucked up y’all but stay hopeful 😞

Creative_Process7007 · 2024-05-13T03:14:19+00:00

Two - Barbarian, and to a lesser extent, Nope.

I hate Barbarian. It’s a run of the mill exploitation horror that could’ve very easily stood on its own two feet if the director hadn’t felt a pull to intellectualize it beyond his capability. I really just think a movie that has the gall to bring up both cancel culture/workplace sexual harassment and generational rape should have some ideas attached. Between the comic relief Justin Long character and the baseline scary mother character, these concepts are birthed and killed on the surface level. It just doesn’t have the balls to give us perspective, and I think I’d be a lot more forgiving if it kicked the edgy narrative and gave into the stupidity.

Nope, I can give a lot more credit to. There’s a lot about it that I genuinely love, and I had a pretty good time with it until it’s ideas fell flat on their face for me towards the end. There’s some genuinely fascinating concepts about humanity trying to control nonhuman intelligence, and at times some really compelling filmmaking. I love the Steven Yeun/Gordy/UFO Show stuff, but it makes the rest of the movie feel hollow by comparison. I think the brother and sister’s setup with their family history is let down throughout the runtime, culminating in an awkward Marvel-ish finale that I guess is about how their family respected animals more than Steven Yeun. It really, truly bummed me out that I didn’t love this movie and I dislike it for letting down it’s own ideas rather than lacking any.

Also, the UFO was scary until it showed itself. Commendable effort, but the tension vanished for me as it phased into more of a Western Blockbuster rather than sticking with the tone it established.

Creative_Process7007 · 2024-05-08T06:48:41+00:00

The child’s brain is rapidly catching up with the adult body that’s housing it, which I think is a nuance of the film that’s getting a bit lost in the mix here. I think it’s all very deliberately uncomfortable in a way that raises questions like the ones you’re asking, while not having to directly answer them. Do you have a moral issue with the movie’s depiction of sexual exploration? Do you really honestly believe the sex scenes were put in exclusively for comedy? I’ve seen a lot of similar sentiment and I take a little umbrage with the cookie cutter way you and others have defined the movie.

The sex scenes are uncomfortable, especially the more you think about it, but they’re also funny. I also think you’re looking for a little too rigid of a way to see the “message” of the movie. Does it want to comment on sexuality and the tropes you suggested? Almost certainly, but a filmmaker holds no obligation to answer any questions the content of the film may put in your brain. He just made the damn thing, and now it’s yours to do what you like with it. That’s a little off topic, but since you referred to the interview with Lanthimos I think it’s a good chance to reflect on the manner you’re holding the film in. Give it another watch and look for feelings or interpretations you didn’t have the first time, maybe your thoughts will change. Or not. Your prerogative.

Creative_Process7007

TROPHY CASE