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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

New art of cinematography website: cinevenger.com

Cool idea! I think as long as you keep things direct and shot driven, it will be a useful learning tool. Some of my film school education ventured a little too far into the abstract...

I'd love to see a scene from The Shining, Hero, Blade Runner, Moon, The Insider, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, or Lord of the Rings! I think the cinematography in each of those added something to the story beyond just letting it happen...
 
Hey Benjamin, thanks for the cinevenger site, very good points and very informative.
Man, that's great work on your site.
Thanks again
 
Really cool site [FONT=Tahoma, Calibri, Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]Benjamin. I'd like to see some bad examples constructively dissected as well if you're interested in that. I've learned a lot more from poorly made movies than perfect ones. [/FONT]
 
Nathaniel Sticco said:
Cool idea! I think as long as you keep things direct and shot driven, it will be a useful learning tool. Some of my film school education ventured a little too far into the abstract...

I'd love to see a scene from The Shining, Hero, Blade Runner, Moon, The Insider, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, or Lord of the Rings! I think the cinematography in each of those added something to the story beyond just letting it happen...
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Blade Runner and The Insider have been near the top of my potentials list anyway, so I may take your suggestion and pick a scene from one of those. As much as I love all of Stanley Kubrick's work, I have been consciously trying to avoid writing about it, as there are entire volumes on the subject. I'm not sure there's anything new to discover that hasn't been thoroughly dissected already.
 
Cool Cool
 
Pete Lutz said:
Really cool site [FONT=Tahoma, Calibri, Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]Benjamin. I'd like to see some bad examples constructively dissected as well if you're interested in that. I've learned a lot more from poorly made movies than perfect ones. [/FONT]
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I gave that some thought, and although I agree that there is a lot to be learned from poorly made movies, what I am really interested in is discovering the gems in something that is really well put together. The secondary issue is that as a cinematographer, I don't want to publicly criticize another cinematographers work.
 
i usually just lurk on these boards but i wanted to chime in and say that i am really enjoying this site. after reading the matrix analysis i would be interested in seeing some analysis of other big sci-fi trilogies. alien, terminator, lord of the rings, etc.
 
Great site! Really enjoyed reading through your thoughts.

Would you consider adding a shot list (in a table) and an overhead diagram in your reviews? That could be really helpful.
 
John Atwell said:
i usually just lurk on these boards but i wanted to chime in and say that i am really enjoying this site. after reading the matrix analysis i would be interested in seeing some analysis of other big sci-fi trilogies. alien, terminator, lord of the rings, etc.
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Thanks. I'm actually in the middle of writing about the Terminator movies right now, which will probably get posted over several weeks next month.
 
bkantor said:
Hi guys, you may be interested in a new website I started that deconstructs scenes shot-by-shot: cinevenger.com

So far, I've looked at some scenes in The Matrix, Thor, and Logan's Run. Any suggestions about other films that would benefit from a deconstruction would be appreciated.
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Even so this is a REAL NAME forum, I still most welcome you here in our community, but please do get a Real name, it makes me fill better when I'm communicating to some one by name... ;)

I have visited your site, and I must say that you did a great job on your analysis of this films.

HOWEVER, what did grab my attention was more the last page which was at one time the first and introductory page of your site I imagine.

While I don't agree with all that you discuss and write about on the way this films were shot, I DO AGREE 100% ABOUT THIS:


"There is an unfortunate trend today in popular discourse on the internet related to cinematography: an undue amount of attention is placed on the technology of filmmaking, while almost none is placed on storytelling. I can find thousands of forum and blog posts related to such banal debates as “Red vs. Alexa,” or “AF100 vs. F3,” or “CF lenses vs ZF,” yet I can’t find a single post titled “why the visuals of Hugo resonate with me emotionally.” Look at any well-shot scene in a film, and there is a dense amount of meaning and emotion being created by the placement of the camera, the collection of angles which evolves over the course of the scene, the direction of light, the foreground, the background, the movement of lack of movement of the camera, what we see and don’t see, lightness and darkness, and all of these millions of variables which the filmmakers control… sometimes consciously, and sometimes by the unconscious photography of the story by channeling emotion from the page or from the magnitude of the performance that is happening in front of the lens. This is what matters. Not the frequency of line sampling in the latest CMOS chip. That’s not to say that we shouldn’t talk about technology, but it seems that the frequency of discourse is completely out of proportion. What little is written in popular discourse about visual storytelling is often full of generalities and lacks precise language that ties meaning and emotion to very specific decisions made by the filmmakers and rendered on screen."
 
Zach Gray said:
Great site! Really enjoyed reading through your thoughts.

Would you consider adding a shot list (in a table) and an overhead diagram in your reviews? That could be really helpful.
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Adding the angles to a table with descriptions is a good idea.

The issue with an overhead diagram is that it would make too many assumptions about unknowns in how the scene was photographed. As cinematographers, we spend a great deal of time cheating angles, cheating backgrounds, and cheating the geography of things in general. I would say that in many cases, there is not a strong relationship between the original geography of a space and how it ends up being photographed. In fact, in many cases, the photography leaves certain aspects of geography deliberately vague. So, I don't think (in most cases) that we have the ability to reverse-engineer an accurate overhead diagram based purely on the final picture.


KETCH ROSSi said:
Even so this is a REAL NAME forum, I still most welcome you here in our community, but please do get a Real name, it makes me fill better when I'm communicating to some one by name... ;)

I have visited your site, and I must say that you did a great job on your analysis of this films.

HOWEVER, what did grab my attention was more the last page which was at one time the first and introductory page of your site I imagine.

While I don't agree with all that you discuss and write about on the way this films were shot, I DO AGREE 100% ABOUT THIS...
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Thanks, I petitioned to have my username adjusted.

I'm glad that other people feel the same way about our current state of gear over-saturation.
 
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Benjamin your site is awesome! I'll be back often.

The one thing I would suggest is to put the images in with the post rather than using footnotes. I'm a really visual person and like to see what I'm reading about as I read it instead of scrolling up and down to get the picture.

Seriously brilliant idea for a site though, I hope you keep with it.
 
bkantor said:
Thanks, I petitioned to have my username adjusted.

I'm glad that other people feel the same way about our current state of gear over-saturation.
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Well,

let me be very clear that is no secret that I, my self am a highly technological kind of guy, and always strive to have the very best very latest technologies to use at my disposal on anything and everything that I do in life, Cinematography no exception of course...

However...

I am not one of those that will discuss about it in way too much nonsense, I want it because I believe that the right tool is half the job, after that, I'm about PASSIONATELY telling my stories, not over discussing terms of which do no one any good, all I care is if the IMage produced by my camera is the absolute best I can get, same on the lenses, that is all, after that I'm all about the Stories... ;)
 
Jake Bastian said:
Benjamin your site is awesome! I'll be back often.

The one thing I would suggest is to put the images in with the post rather than using footnotes. I'm a really visual person and like to see what I'm reading about as I read it instead of scrolling up and down to get the picture.

Seriously brilliant idea for a site though, I hope you keep with it.
Click to expand...

The shot reference letters are clickable for a pop-up of the shot, but I'm not sure if it works with mobile devices or RSS readers. Regardless, good idea.
 
Nice man. Will tweet it up to add some lookers for you.

Like to see some break downs and your take on some of Chrisopher Doyle's work like In the Mood for Love or 2046. Maybe some Vittorio Storaro work like The Conformist
 
ive been reading the sunshine posts... these are great, really effected how i read the movie. curious what you think of danny boyles other stuff.. any plans on analyzing slumdog or 127 hours?
 
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