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Overcoming Creative Block: Lessons Learned through “The Debt” (Article/Retrospective)

Posted by on Apr 22, 2016 in Articles, Behind-the-Scenes, Featured, Interviews, MicroFilmmaking, Retrospectives | 1 comment

Filmmaking is a storytelling process. But what do you do when you can’t find the right story to tell? Sometimes it’s just a matter of getting out there and letting the story come to you. As a filmmaker, there’s nothing more frustrating than feeling like you don’t have a story to tell. When I was a kid, this wasn't a problem. Back then, I made movies for the pure joy of it. I wasn't thinking ahead to the third act. The stories just happened, one moment after another.

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DIY Interview Lighting: Tricks Learned Behind the Scenes of Ren (Article/Tutorial)

Posted by on Apr 1, 2016 in Articles, Behind-the-Scenes, Featured, Lighting Tutorials, Lighting/Gaffing, Tutorials | 0 comments

Shooting interviews is a great way for a cinematographer to learn to light. I figured out loads about how human faces react to light of different kinds from years of experimenting on the talking heads in corporate videos. And because those interviews were often long and dull, there was plenty of opportunity to evaluate my lighting as I relaxed behind my locked-off camera.

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Horror Revealed Through Blackmagic: Intelligent Creatures Uses Fusion Studio For ‘The Witch’ (Industry Press Release)

Posted by on Mar 31, 2016 in Behind-the-Scenes, Featured, Industry, News, Press Releases | 0 comments

Blackmagic Design announced today that Intelligent Creatures used Fusion Studio on the highly acclaimed horror film “The Witch.” Led by Compositing Supervisor Eric Doiron and VFX Supervisor Geoff Scott, the Toronto-based post house used Fusion Studio as its main software for all of the film’s VFX. In addition, Intelligent Creatures used DaVinci Resolve Studio to pull VFX plates and do selective color grading during its VFX sequences.

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Light in Hard Time: Illuminating a Medieval Prison Cell (Article/Tutorial)

Posted by on Mar 25, 2016 in Articles, Behind-the-Scenes, Featured, Lighting Tutorials, Lighting/Gaffing, Tutorials | 0 comments

It was a classic prison cell scene, one of those shaft-of-light-through-the-barred-window jobbies. Amanda Stekly and her team did a great job of creating a two-walled set with moss, wet stone and even real snails. Outside the window was a platform to sell the illusion that the cell was below ground level.

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Taking More of Ren’s Secrets: 5 Tips for Successful Pick-ups (Article/Tutorial)

Posted by on Mar 22, 2016 in Articles, Behind-the-Scenes, Featured, Lighting/Gaffing, Retrospectives, Tips | 0 comments

Recently I’ve been involved in pick-ups shoots for a couple of projects I lensed last year: action-comedy feature The Gong Fu Connection and fantasy series Ren. Both pick-up shoots were strange experiences, featuring some very familiar aspects of the original shoot – locations, sets, costumes – but noticeably lacking others – certain actors, crew members and so on. The Ren pick-ups in particular were like re-living principal photography in microcosm, with stressful crowd shoots followed by more relaxed, smaller scenes and finally night shots with flaming arrows again!

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