Cinematographer

Hungry For Monsters [VHS]
$79.95

CineBags CB-10 Cinematographer Bag - Black /Gray with Orange Webbing
$169.95

Underwater Cinematographer
$13.98
After being introduced to Broken Social Scene circa 'Bee Hives', I steadily turned into more and more of an indie/ post rock/ electronica junkie. That aside, I may be a bit biased.

But for the love of God, whats in the water in Canada? I have yet to find an Arts and Crafts band that I dislike. The Most Serene Republic is no exception. This band excels at both unique new sounds and a diverse repotoire. Listeners of Death Cab, The American Analog Set, or even some Arcade Fire will love the lyrical complexity and harmonies. At the same time, the use of simple building patterns and shout choruses sound like some pseudo Sigur Ros/ Modest Mouse approach. I must be honest, after reading the lyrics, I was a bit skeptical of what this group would sound like. After all, who knew that such a powerful song could come from a board game analogy? Regardless, this album is simply an incredible piece of work, and I would highly recommend it to anyone with tastes such as these. Soon enough, you'll find yourself driving down the highway late at night singin "III think, we all know the words!"....

Cinematographer Style
$26.95
First, the good: The interviews are beautifully shot. There is a huge array of cinematographers that are interviewed.

Unfortunately, that's all this film has going for it. As another reviewer mentioned, there is far, far, FAR too much material here, and the editing style is infuriating. We never stay longer than about 10 seconds with each person, and each person is never identified except in an excruciating 3-minute montage of all of them saying their names. It probably sounded like a good idea on paper, but it sets the tone for how witless this film is constructed. The editing strings similar words and phrases together without any context, jumping from person to person with such a dizzying pace that all meaning is lost. For example, through a string of 5- 6 second soundbites (yes, 5-6 seconds, no longer) we're informed that 15 or 20 of these unidentified individuals got into cinematography for reasons that share some similar words or phrases, but that's it, and we're off to the next batch of 15 or 20 unidentified individuals who like cinematography for other reasons that share some similar words or phrases. Literally, the film feels as if it were edited by a computer that searched through the transcripts of these interviews and pieced together sentences that shared ideas or words. There is no cohesion, no narrative arc, no story. And who are these people? What have they shot? I'm not given any reason to care that this person's grandmother told him to be a cinematographer. Only someone with a lot of experience (and perhaps someone who has seen Visions of Light) would know that this is Gordon Willis, and that he shot The Godfather, or that this is William Fraker, and shot Rosemary's baby. We are never told any of this.

In another example, obviously all 110 of the cinematographers were asked "what's the most important thing about cinematography?" Nearly all 110 of them answered "it's the story." Following this computer-like construction, the editor decided the best way to handle this was to string 30 or 40 of these answers in a row. "It's the script." "The script." "Gotta start with the script." "I like to start with the scipt." "The scipt is the most important thing." After a few minutes of this I'm ready to throw a brick at the TV.

The conversation rarely strays from the generic, and few have anything but the most boilerplate things to offer, and besides no one is given more than 10 seconds at a time to say anything. I know these people have wonderful stories and interesting histories, but you certainly wouldn't know it from watching this film. All you are given is a non-stop collection of words. Literally, no pauses.

And finally, inexcusably, inexplicably, maddeningly, there are no examples from any film. How this came to pass I am unable to fathom. What is the point? Unnamed individuals talking in rapid fire soundbites about things we can't see.

Sorry for the rant. I just popped this again to try to watch it and had to express my frustration.

This film mystifies me. Go see Visions of Light --- a wonderful, amazing, moving film with some of these same folks. There's really no way to compare the two. I've tried to show this film to my cinematography classes, but you can see the eyes glazing over from the first few minutes. And these are cinematography students.