Film

making and watching

MAKING: When I was young, my father had a Super-8 movie camera he used to record all of our family events. When I was old enough, he let me borrow it.

My friends and I would make all kinds of movies.  We made a monster movie with a giant lizard taking over a city, a space movie with a giant space station and we also made time lapse art films. None of these films were very good, but it taught us a lot about making films and about paying attention to the little details.

Eventually I moved on to video cameras and more elaborate films.

Now that I have access to HD equipment and all manner of digital effects, I find myself being drawn back to an old super 8 film camera I have sitting around.  I feel that with video it is almost too easy to edit and re-record and fix things in post production.  I think shooting on film forces me to work more on my story telling.

WATCHING: Some of my fondest memories from my childhood involve going to see movies. When we were little my parents would take us to the drive-in to see the latest Disney cartoons. We would pack snacks and eventually go to sleep in the back of the VW van.

I remember seeing Bladerunner with my father in the theater as well as Alien, Stripes, Tron and Ghostbusters.

When I was a little older my friends and I would ride our bikes over to the local theater and spend entire summer days seeing movies.

To this day one of my favorite pastimes is watching movies at home.  Although I tend to prefer movies that develop the characters more than the ones with tons of explosions.