Stephen Press Posted January 29, 2006 Report Share Posted January 29, 2006 You can?t judge a film on its back story. In 2000 I worked on an 80 minuet one continuous roll movie called R.O.A.D. it still hasn?t seen the light of day and I think/hope it never will. To be honest while I?m very proud of what the camera department achieved, our technical successes against the odds, the directing, story and acting sucked to put it kindly. I only came onboard the project as a good friend had called me, I didn?t know that he had been referred by another guy and knew very little about the film. In fact the one thing the producers behind the film had was the ability to get good talent onboard, not that they made use of it once they got it. If I sound bitter it?s because 6 years on I still haven?t come to terms with the monumental waste of time and talent. Anyway over the 80min I nailed most of my moves, adapted to some miner actors forgetting their only @#$% line in the movie, worked around the lead actor/writer improvising new scenes on the fly, the art department forgetting to unlock a door we were supposed to walk through, the director tripping on a cable and causing a power out just before we arrived in a new location? there is too much and I am just getting angry thinking back about it. So if you judge a film by its back story R.O.A.D was a masterpiece, by any other criteria it was crap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Marc Abernathy Posted January 29, 2006 Premium Members Report Share Posted January 29, 2006 cameragod, sounds like your story would make for a great DVD commentary! i still have not seen russian ark.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Press Posted January 30, 2006 Report Share Posted January 30, 2006 (edited) I had no idea till I started writing about it just how angry I still was. Maybe I need to get some therapy? :blink: The thing with the DVD commentaries is no matter how much intention you have to tell it like it was, somehow you end up saying how wonderful it all went. Things that made your life a living hell become an ?interesting challenge? and the props guy who kept leaving his coffee mug with his name on it in shot on the set ruining the best take ever, becomes ?a bit of a character? instead of a useless SOB. I guess part of it is you don?t record the commentary till months after the shoot and you forget the bad stuff. Plus you don?t want to hurt the film by saying bad things and you have to think of your next job? Ummm reading that back it sounds like I do a lot of film work but I don?t want to mislead anyone so I should say I actually have only shot two digital features, but lots of short films. Lately we seem to be expected to do commentaries for the short films. One 4 min short I shot shipped with a 30min making of? I really don?t know what to make of this trend. To be honest I feel like I give them enough of my time without having to ?act? on the commentary as well. Should we be charging extra for it? Edited January 30, 2006 by cameragod Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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