« S. Korea to cut local film quotas; work stopped for a day | Main | What the Blip?!: down the Rabbit Hole »
February 09, 2006
26,000 frames per film: shooting Munich
In the Digital Journalist, fotog Karen Ballard debriefs on being Munich's unit photographer: "In 2001, when I began my freelance career, [I wanted to] work as a photographer on a movie... Four years later... a friend in Los Angeles told me that Spielberg was looking specifically for a photojournalist to work as a unit photographer on his upcoming film... Although he did not remember our session in D.C., he liked my photos and offered me what would become one of the most demanding and exhilarating assignments of my life. I was blown away... "I want you to just shoot how you shoot" as a journalist. Those were key words from this master filmmaker. Yet at the same time, after being on the set for only a few hours, I quickly realized that to shoot stills for a motion picture, I would have to recalibrate how to apply one of the principal photojournalist's professional standards: If the picture isn't good enough, move closer. On a movie set this is equally true, but with one large caveat—just don't dare get in the way of anybody or anything, particularly the film camera... Working on a movie set requires even more finesse and physical dexterity. On set, even slightly brushing the chief camera operator can cause a whole scene to be ruined. Getting in the way of the Director of Photography, Janusz Kaminski, was not a part I had any intention of playing. I don't think he and I even spoke for the first the two weeks... By the end of the first month I had already shot over 10,000 frames... Not long after this a photo tech from Universal Studios came to visit to clear up some FTP issues and I inquired if that seemed like a lot of imagery. He said, "nah, you're about right on target."... most motion picture unit photographers average about 500-700 photos a day. When it was all over, I had taken more than 26,000 frames." [Photo by Karen Ballard/Universal.]
Posted by pride at February 9, 2006 07:36 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.mcnblogs.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/811
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)