ABOUT FACE, AFI Cycle 1, Cinematography by Justin Kane

Puppy love can be a dangerous thing.

Checking in from AFI land to give a special update on my newest cinematography venture. I completed my first AFI Cycle film, titled ABOUT FACE, directed by Daniel Kragh-Jacobsen.

The New World, 2005

A single still image can tell an entire narrative for the thousands that follow.

It’s officially been a month at AFI, and so much has been covered already. This week we will finally call action on our Bootcamp shoots and I think it’s safe to say that all fellows are ready to crush it. So what have we done in the meantime? Lots of administrative orientations, course introductions, and bonding within our disciplines. It’s amazing how close I feel with my fellow cinematographers already. So many different walks of life, yet with a very similar point of interest. One big happy family!

And now back to the post:

One particular exercise that I really enjoy is titled, “Story Within a Frame”. It is what it is: We have a cutline, drawn from a fishbowl, telling an event or emotion in first person. From there we must design and shoot a still that tells as much of that story as possible. We have 3 sessions in the exercise. The first is pairing with our directors, the second with the production designers, and finally one with the screenwriters. So far we have completed the first two. It’s a teamwork exercise. Getting to know one another in the creative zone is the best way to form successful communication and collaborative vision in our cycle films down the road. And it has been great. For me the first round proved to be the most challenging. I won’t go into detail, but my director and I didn’t dig deep enough into our story, and the audience was left questioning it’s point. For the second session I went too literal, and the floodgates opened with great constructive criticism from the group. I’m quite confident that I’ve learned the over/under of the assignment (I’m somewhat rusty with school assignments like this…it’s been a few!) and I know that the third session coming up will be better. I’ll find a nice middle-ground to engage meaning behind my frame.

So…This assignment has inspired me to dig up a few still frames from some great films that do justice to fulfilling a story within a frame. It’s really amazing how much meaning can be packed in to de-mystify (or mystify) these images in context to the films they are taken from. Yet at the same time, they can tell so much on their own, apart from the film. Think about the things you see in the frame. What are they doing? Where are they going? What emotions do we get from it? Is it familiar? What ideologies can we automatically identify? Time to define these moments.

Children of Men, 2006

The Thin Red Line, 1998

Never Let Me Go, 2010

Schindler's List, 1993

La Haine, 1995

The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, 2007

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, 2008

The Road to Perdition, 2002

2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968

Black Narcissus, 1947

Badlands, 1973

There Will Be Blood, 2007

Solaris, 2002

The Godfather, 1972

The Assassination of Jesse James by The Coward Robert Ford, 2007

Untouched land is a beautiful thing to capture.

I’ve always been in love with images of crisp trees, canopies, forest landings, fog, dirt roads, snow-capped pines, and the unknown wilderness. It’s only a matter of time before I splice this side of nature into my cinematography. There has always been a clear motif of nature in my work, yet I would like to expand my depth of nature and include more vast landscapes like these into my work. Which reminds me, I think I’m going to stop by REI and get some outdoors goodies. Please click on the photos to check out the source pages for each artist’s work. They’re brilliant.

I haven’t had as much Vimeo time as I should lately, but after a few moments of catching up, I stumbled upon MGdM | Marc Gómez del Moral‘s “Bombay” video for El Guincho, and It’s quite impressive. No, not the massive amount of tatas in it, but the homage it pays (whether they knew to or not) to surrealist filmmakers like Luis Buñuel, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and Jean-Luc Godard circa 1960′s-70′s. The video exploits a theme of high-class people experimenting with lower-class sexuality and strange fantasies involving repressed violence. It’s so odd that it just becomes a chaotic mess of socio-political angst among youth in a revolutionary environment. Or at least that’s how I used to write about it in film school.  Either way, it presents a different type of disturbance for the mind to play with. The 16mm and washed color grading is also very fun  and I love it when old things find their way into new avenues.

Watch this video, then take a look at some of the classics from the aforementioned gentlemen:

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie – Luis Buñuel, 1972

The Holy Mountain – Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1973

Week End – Jean-Luc Godard, 1967

A new tab has been added up top on the blog. Last month I quickly established a website for my work as a cinematographer. In choosing the domain, I was sad to find that my name, or any logical rendition of my name was taken already…So I chose to go with a pun. Please check out my work at Justography. I will be updating content as new projects emerge.

Another update in context to this post is that I am in the final stage of admissions at the American Film Institute for the MFA in Cinematography Fellowship. Just had my interview this past week and now I get to wait for weeks upon days upon hours upon minutes upon seconds upon…Ok I’m obviously excited and nervous.

Wish me luck and enjoy the site!

Here’s the new trailer for the film I’ve been shooting with Director, Andrew Van Baal, and Writer, Patrick Strange. It stars Tom Brosseau and we will be gearing up for a sometime 2011 release after we finish shooting this Spring. Can’t wait!

I’m starting to get pretty busy in the music video genre! My frequent collaborating director, Andrew Van Baal, has this wonderful Little Richard cover band (perfectly titled, Big Dick) and he approached me to DP this awesome video back in December. It was a blast, and we shot it quick and dirty for your pleasure.

Whew! It’s been a hot minute since my last post.

Please take a moment to check out my newest cinematographic work. During the summer, I went out to Cape Cod, MA with my lady and her family. Beyond being one of the greatest trips I’ve ever had, we shot this lovely little movie. A SUMMER HOME is about recognition. Our protagonist, Pru Pope, has spent some years away from home, living in the city as a somewhat successful, yet creatively drained sculptor. She decides to visit home to celebrate her mother’s birthday after not having been back for some time. Pru’s sister, Jane, lives her life taking care of their mother, who is suffering from early onset Alzheimer’s. When Pru arrives, she rediscovers her home, her youth, and the family that she has left behind.

As the cinematographer for this project, I wanted to utilize nature as the key ingredient to complement the writers’ use of recognition. Here we have tropes of losing memory, losing inspiration, and losing overall self-identity. There is a very strong bridge between our lives and the nature that we live in. The Pope house is a real place on Cape Cod, and I wanted it to play as a natural element to the story as well. So, I decided to keep things simple, handheld, and naturally lit. This is definitely where the 7D came in handy. Those dark interiors and evening shots are as natural looking on screen as they were in the moment.

This is how it all started. I wanted to shoot a new short for my application to the American Film Institute. I’m applying for a fellowship in the Cinematography MFA program and I always have trouble in the writing department. My lovely lady, Faye, passed the word on to her mother and brother, who are writers, and they thought up the idea over a few days of brainstorming, and filled me in as we were boarding the plane from Los Angeles to Boston. We shot the film in 6 days and split our time evenly between shooting and enjoying the vacation. Faye’s brother, Liam directed and everyone else helped in making things go easy.  Faye played Jane Pope, and her sister, Ceara, played Pru. Their mother, Jo-Ann, played Mrs. Pope. I shot it on a 7D with little shoulder rig and some fixed primes. Almost everything went very well, except the sound…I’m a camera guy, and I’ll never say that sound is something I’m qualified for. But, I had to make things work for dialogue so I brought a shotgun mic and some recording equipment. Well…my main sound setup ended up failing last minute when we began shooting, so I had to track sound in camera and on my iPhone (yes, you read that right). So yes, it doesn’t sound like it should, but Brian Peyton over at Lime Studios in Santa Monica did wonders mixing it in post. Before, I was convinced I would need to dub every line, but after Brian worked his magic, we had enough to let it slide and move on.

The short was primarily edited by my close collaborator and friend, Aaron Reiter. Aaron and I went to film school together and he has a great eye for composition and narrative movement within scenes. After Aaron completed a great pass, I went in and tightened things up for color timing and mixing sound. Coloring was an adventure all in its own for this piece. I shot in a neutral flat setting, and I liked how raw and natural it appeared. So color correction was carefully designed to keep things minimal, and make the right elements shine a little brighter. I wanted that nature to be powerful, but not too intense. After all was locked and well, I approached my good friend Jennifer Talesfore to help with the titles. Jenn is an extremely talented graphic designer, and her simple, yet refined choice of titles really helped tailor the ends of the short.

So there we have it. I hope that everyone enjoys it, and if there are any technical or story-related questions, feel free to ask.

Here are my most recent works as a cinematographer. Enjoy.

I had a nice vacation in Cape Cod, MA a few weeks ago (photos soon).

I also shot a short film out there as supplemental material for my application to AFI’s Cinematography Fellowship. That’s right, it’s time to head back to the books and become a Master.

The film is titled, “A Summer Home”. Faye stars in it along with her sister, Ceara, and her mother, Jo-Ann. I, of course was cinematographer, and Faye’s brother, Liam wrote and directed with Jo-Ann. Editor, Aaron Reiter and I will be entering the cutting room in a very short while to finish it up. We’re really excited about this, and we hope you are too!

I won’t really give anything away, as this trailer is certainly a tease, but think about the word recognition and how such a theme can mean so many different things for a family (and quite the family this is).

Oh yes, and the music is “How Low” by José González.

This video is out of control!

NYSUFilms did a number for the band Glez.

I found myself frying away while watching this amazing dive into unbelievable pixel resolutions and flawless editing.

Me likey.

Starring Carla Gugino and directed by Greg Williams, Tell-Tale is a erotic film noir thriller short.

First several shots in this film were made on the Epic Camera (prototype) back in January 2010.

I haven’t gotten much exposure with the new Red Camera builds, but this is prime example of how the Epic will be a winner with that heavenly low-light sharpness. Aside from the technical end, Carla Gugino and Adam Arkin are really great in this little piece, and I must say that Greg Williams can shift seamlessly in between the super-cinematic and minimalism…just the way I aspire to capture such goodness.

Enjoy “Tell-Tale”.

I’ve been craving to get out of this place for a long time, and I think I’ve just found where I want to go.

Not quite the most realistic choice, though. Why not back to the bay? Why not Portland? Or, NYC?

Well, because that’s all just too easy. I want to go where people have pride for where they are. Iceland has a population of around 320,000 proud people and lately, they’ve been stepping up the invite list for people to come check it out. The economy in Iceland has seen better times (haven’t we all), so tourism is a great import for them.

Let’s think about why Iceland is one of the most gorgeous countries on earth

-Pretty, happy people with rad sweaters year round

-The colors of green against black volcanic rock, snow, and über-blue water is unreal

-The outdoor light for photography is unreal

-The language is tricky, yet nifty

-The music is somber, yet gorgeous

-John Lennon’s got a memorial in Reykjavik

-80% of Iceland’s energy is renewable from geothermal and hydro power sources on the island

-Freedom of religion by constitution

-A fisherman’s dreamboat

-Not as cold as you’d think for being so close to the Arctic Circle

-Oh, and a giant, active, spewing volcano that caused some travel drama, but honestly look how beautiful it looks (see below)

I love Iceland. I haven’t even been there yet, but I know I love it.

She’s a hot mess of a little rock full of happy people, great art, film, music, lore, horsies, and rivers.

Someone send me there with tons of lenses and a jacket…stat.

Filed under: cinema, Good Stuff, Nature, travel Tagged: beautiful, earth, energy, film, iceland, nature, outdoor, people, photography, reykjavik, travel, world ]]> http://peaceinvisible.com/2010/06/03/inspired-by-iceland/feed/ 0 peaceinvisible http://peaceinvisible.com/2010/05/25/crooked-cowboy-bed-bugs/ http://peaceinvisible.com/2010/05/25/crooked-cowboy-bed-bugs/#comments Tue, 25 May 2010 18:04:51 +0000 peaceinvisible http://peaceinvisible.com/?p=999 ]]>

I think it’s almost time for this man to give us a physical piece of his noise to play at home.

I love seeing Crooked Cowboy live, but I need some at home too.

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