Million Dollar Baby

[Charles Papert]

Finally got around to seeing this fine film. Many kudos to Steve Campanelli for lots of great work as usual. And how nice was it to hear Steve and AC Bill Coe given a shout-out by Clint at the Oscars?

 

One shot blew me away because of its sheer audacity, I'm assuming it was a Tom Stern call: about 10 minutes into the film, Steve does a crane step-off outside the gym and walks inside. The transition from exterior to interior is achieved with what looks like a good 5-stop iris pull, with none of the usual tricks to hide it; it's just a straight driving shot that opens up like a camcorder on auto iris. And wouldn't you know it, it works fine--it just takes a lot of balls to pull something like that off, I think.

[Stephen Murphy]

Yeah great movie full of really subtle steadicam work. I also think their collaboration on Mystic river was equally impressive.

[Rudy Katkic]

And to think he started out his career as just another humble Canadian looking to make a name for himself.

 

Cheers

[Peter Abraham]

Yeah, I caught that shout-out at the Oscars as well. Made me very proud of the fellows- clearly Mr. Campanelli has found a creative home with Malpaso. More power to him.

 

I just saw the film today, as a matter of fact. That iris pull is beyond gutsy and yet it works and doesn't disturb the feeling. Hell of a piece of work, the whole film. Elegant focus pulling as well, with what appears sometimes to have been bitchin' iris marks.

 

Peter Abraham

New York