Coincidentally, I watched Contact for the first time yesterday.

Some of the most legendary cinematography/lighting set-ups of all time are in Barry Lyndon, particularly the candle-lit scenes. Kubrick and DP John Alcott famously used an f.0.7 Carl Zeiss NASA lens (originally supposed to be used for satellite photography). The low depth of field is gorgeous...

There was the best part of a year in pre-production planning to get these effects. Even today, period films need artificial lighting to boost the candle light. But Lyndon used ONLY candles with a wide-open shutter.

It went on to sweep every single cinematography award that year, and would easily contest the Best Cinematography of the Century awards.

Also, I thought the lighting in Meet Joe Black (e.g. library scene, one of many) was like a perfume commercial... all golden.

Well, my clips from the OP are all timecodes to the full movie on youtube, which I presume is not uploaded by the movie company. In other cases it will probably just be short clips on youtube.

I don't know. Most movies on youtube that are still there are in lower quality, generally 480p. The fact that they often have been up for months or years seem to indicate there is no panic to bring them down from the studio side.

To me, linking to movies existing on Youtube is a good way to "show off" good aspects of the movie, and the low quality will probably not make anyone download it from youtube as their "storage" copy atleast. The point is to highlight good filmmaking, and not using visual examples, when available, sort of defeats the purpose.

To be also a constructive post, here is another example from me, one of the best chase sequences I've ever seen, hands down.

The movie is "Death Machine", lowbudget 1995 sci-fi action, by Blade director Stephen Norrington. Brad Dourif plays a mad scientist who has built something, well, god damn terrifying.

The lighting, camerawork and audio work so well in this sequence. If this doesn't induce a bit of panic in you then you are made of stone.

http://youtu.be/nNRwoRiHxDU?t=33m21s

European DPs make the best cinematographers. Don't know why. They always have been.

Few people have heard of it, but check out Mr Nobody (2009)... exquisite camera work, using every technique in the book. You could teach a cinematography class from this film...

Other favourites:  Matthew Libatique's last man storyline in The Fountain, Darius Khondji's work for Fincher's Seven, and the unforgettable opening to Woody Allen's Manhattan, regrettably much deteriorated..

Cinematography can be many things - we've been concentrating on the 'photography' aspects. But then there's fancy camerawork in showy 'oners'...

For example, Atonement:

The mother of all 'oners' belongs to Tilman Büttner (German cameraman) for his superhuman feat of endurance on 23rd December 2001 for Russian Ark...  87 minutes one-take, no tricks, hitting every mark and almost collapsing at the end to due to weight of the steadycam rig.

By contrast, Silent House, starring Elizabeth Olsen, appeared to be one-take, except it wasn't.

Other famous one-takes include the opening to Touch of Evil, Hitchcock's Rope, the entrance into the nightclub in Goodfellas, three extraordinary sequences in Children of Men, and the insane overhead tracking shot in I am Cuba (1964)...

Sometimes the old films display the greatest DP virtuosity because they had to do it for real, without motion-control, wire-removal, hidden cuts, CG doctoring, grading, blending, etc.

Last edited by avatar (2013-02-04 15:04:21)

Hmm, an awesome camerawork thread and NO ONE has posted the 3:30 minute long ONE'ER from I AM CUBA?  Don't worry, I'll save you.

ENTIRELY hand held and hand cranked.

I'm probably the biggest fan of Jared Leto there is. I even fanboy'ed out and cut a Mohawk on myself when he had one.

Yeah.

So, I've seen Mr Nobody. Twice. Loved it even more the second time around.

But in terms of cinematography: The Matrix.

Praise be to Zarban. Oh and,

Ok, I'll admit that is is not the best by any means but it is still impressive. It's from the Protector and it's a near 4 minute one-er of a fight scene. Not that impressive you may say, but 'ah' I respond 'it takes place on more than one floor of a building'. I'm not explaining it well, just watch. This is the full film but dubbed in Italian and it starts at 40:20. Parts of the fight choreography could be better but I still like the overall scene -

...

That is Sam Neill.

I'm rarely impressed with these as well, except in Rope (which is essentially a filmed play) or a scene which is deliberately building tension by not cutting away, or is a chase scene (like in Children of Men). I was a bit bored by both of the Cuban examples posted. The problem I have with the long steadycam shots is that after a while I become aware that we've not cut away, thus I become aware of the camera. Atonement is a great example, it's a long expansive shot with huge scope and complexity, with all sorts of subjects and backgrounds in the frame over its duration; however, since I'm wondering in amazement 'they've still not cut yet' and am waiting for it, I'm not really into the story at that point. Sometimes, the more technical and outstanding feats of camerawork just give the game away.

The best cinematography, I'd argue, is that which doesn't draw attention to itself but still successfully evokes all the emotions and feelings you'd want with that story.

On another note, I cannot wait until this teal grading shit goes away. [Old Man Voice]It's ruining my movies![/Old Man Voice]

Then there's David Fincher urine-yellow (just about everything he does), James Cameron blue (as in Aliens) and Michael Mann even-bluer (as in Heat).

Last edited by avatar (2013-02-05 14:58:56)