hobbies

Moviemaking is something that has always fascinated me, but it always seemed too nebulous for me to pursue due to cost, lack of any technical knowledge, etc and for a long time I had a stronger interest in making music. As I find that interest waning and interest in the possibility of making a movie growing, I was really inspired by David Lynch's inland empire, in that he shot the entire thing on a Sony PD-150, which can be acquired off E-Bay for around $1000.

After I actually watched it, I don't know that anyone else would have gotten away with it. I think if David Lynch shot his next movie on standard vhs, people would pack in just to see what the hell he did on vhs. In low-light shots, you can hardly tell the difference, but outside of that, it becomes pretty clear it was shot on something slightly above a consumer grade dv camera (outdoor in daylight for example). There's a lot of jerky camera movements in certain scenes that are tell-tale as well.

Not to let that dissuade me, I began looking into better digital movie cameras, the Canon XL2 really caught my eye. I began researching "filmlooked" dv production. It became clear that the only way to really achieve any sort of "film look" was to actually shoot on film. There was also a sort of intangible enigma with the prospect of actually shooting a production on film. It costs more to shoot on film and the production process is much more cumbersome just about every step of the way, but it seems like a more fulfilling challenge. I started pricing cameras. It would appear that for anything I can actually shoot sync-sound with I'm looking at $5000 if I want to buy something (16mm) or $100 per day if I want to rent. At any rate, I'm going to look into film classes after the holidays.

Numerous people know that I've made quite a few songs (electronic stuff), and very few people seem interested in them. It doesn't matter, I'm not bothered, I'm just saying nobody gives a shit. That's life. It's funny however, that when you mention making movies , people get really excited by it. I've mentioned to a couple friends and acquaintances that I plan to make this happen somehow and it was like their eyes lit up. They started asking questions with a lot of interest: do you have a story? What's it about? How are you going to produce/shoot/finance/etc it?

Whatever happens, this should be fun.