As technology closes the gap
between the production values
of big-budget feature films and
small-budget independent movies,
the vital ingredients still required for
good moviemaking are trial-and-error experience,
some talent and a good story to tell.
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Digital cinematography tools are helping innovators break new ground.
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The Tuesday NAB Show Super Session
“Digital Rebels: The New Generation of
Filmmakers & Storytellers,” moderated by
Adobe Senior Vice President John Loiacono,
featured a trio of today’s digital superstars,
including Tyler Nelson, who helped
edit multiple Academy Award-winner “The
Social Network.”
Tyler, who is currently editing “The Girl
with the Dragon Tattoo,” first became interested
in the creative potential of digital filmmaking
because “I always wanted to make
sense of chaos. When I realized just how
easy it was to [work with] digital [media]
and to create something out of something
else, I knew it was for me.”
Director, writer and cinematographer
Gareth Edwards, who will direct the 2012
“Godzilla” remake for Warner Brothers,
said his own penchant for filmmaking had
some very early roots: “I first wanted to be
a Jedi Warrior, and then, when I found out
that movies [like ‘Star Wars’] were all just
a bunch of ‘lies,’ I wanted to start making
them myself.” Among Edwards’ writing and
directing credits is the indie film
“Monsters.”
The third panelist, Jacob
Rosenberg, has added his own
digital knowledge to such films
as the mega-blockbuster “Avatar,”
as well as the indie movie
“August Evening.”
Rosenberg, like Edwards,
also vividly recalls childhood
film experiences having a direct
impact on his future life’s work
— watching such fare as “The
Muppet Movie” and other films
that he found highly imaginative
and creative for their time.
Edwards, perhaps earning the Super Session’s
“rebel” label, was asked what advice
he’d give future digital filmmakers: “If I had
my life to live over again, I probably would
not have gone to film school. ... The thing to
do is to just pick up a camera and start shooting
and see what happens.”
Rosenberg at least partly agrees. Film
school, he said, is “a double-edged sword.”
Rosenberg noted that filmmakers’ careers
can take several different paths after film
school, putting those who find early success,
for better or for worse, on a much different
trajectory than the others.
“You might make a film in
your bedroom for practically
nothing, but it’s still going
to cost someone $30 million
to [distribute and market] it,”
Edwards said.
Thus, while the cost of
shooting and editing has decreased
in recent years, that
doesn’t solve the problems
of marketing and distribution
— especially if movie theaters
are part of the equation,
although far more venues are
available now, he said.
“There’re a lot of gray areas right now as
far as distribution,” Edwards said. Still, he
warned, amid all the possibilities available
to aspiring filmmakers, “If you don’t get the
story itself right, you sort of miss what it’s
all about.”