Anyone inspired to photograph after watching a movie

[dmr]

Hitchcock with his black and white all-wide-angle style really makes me think.

Maybe I come a few years too late, but I always remember Hitchcock films as color, such as "Birds", "Rope", "Rear Window", and "Marnie", where the use of the fade to total red gave me the absolute creepies ("Colors, stop the colors") for some reason I could never figure out!

 

[qaiade]

Pecker and I Love N.Y. inspired me not only to shoot, but to shoot black and white.

 

[Justin Low]

Any the films by Pedro Almodovar and Wong Kar-Wai w/ cinematographer Christopher Doyle. I really appreciate the art direction of both directors.

Another movie of recent is "Closer". Julia Roberts did not inspire me. But the camera she holds did 😀

Yes, nice Leica and Hasselblads. 🙂

Didn't really get the story though.

 

[kiev4a]

"Blow Up", but that was a long time ago.

"Blow up" was a classic. Probably got a lot of young guys interested in photography because they thought they would get to roll around on the floor with their models.🙂

 

[Krasnaya_Zvezda]

"The Unbearable Lightness of Being", because of the artistry of the film, the aspiring photographer character 'Tereza', and for the (ahem) unforgettable scene where Lena Olin and Juliette Binoche take turns photographing each other nude.

Hey, I'm not 'shamed!

 

[Krasnaya_Zvezda]

"Blow up" was a classic. Probably got a lot of young guys interested in photography because they thought they would get to roll around on the floor with their models.🙂

Just watched that recently for the first time. The style is certainly the '60s, all the way through. Even if you knew nothing about the movie, you could watch it for 10 minutes and you would instantly think 1966. Some parts made me really laugh, but if I had seen it when it came out, I'm sure I would have thought it really cool.

Also, recently saw 'Pecker', because of all the talk about it here. Funny, quirky movie, but Edward Furlong couldn't act in T2, and he doesn't look like he's learned anything since... and just a nitpick, the one time they showed a shot thru the viewfinder of the Canonet, it didn't look right, just a cross, and no RF patch.

 

[einolu]

I have only been taking pictures for about a year but now I think about movies in a completely different way. One that comes to mind right away is "Songs from the Second Floor", amazing! Also I watched "The Life Aquatic" and thought it was interesting how the whole movie was shot in wide angle with distortion and all.

One that I saw in theaters recently that surprised me was the new Star Wars, its soo graphic. It makes me think that George Lucas would be better off making silent movies instead of giving his characters such a horrible script. Most of the time the script just seems bad because Lucas already says everything through his pictures and the words just seem repetative.

 

[Leicanthrope]

With regard to Closer, I found some details relating to Julia Roberts' photography a little odd, if not necessarily incorrect.

Firstly, when we see her view of Jude Law through the Hasselblad's waist-level viewfinder, surely it should be inverted. (I say this as someone who has never used a Hasselblad, or any other medium format camera for that matter, with any kind of viewfinder, so am quite prepared to be shot down in flames).

Secondly, when she switched to the Leica, I was surprised by how loud the shutter sounded. (Believe it or not, I say this as someone who, while clearly aspiring to , has never used a Leica, but was under the impression that the quiet shutter was one of its legendary strengths. I am, however, prepared to be corrected).

Finally - and I think I am at least on firm ground here - in her exhibition we saw the picture she took of Natalie Portman with the Leica, and it was in the same square format as the Hasselblad shots. While clearly feasible, this does raise the question of why, if you want to display your pictures in square format, you would use a 35mm camera.

 

[Marc Jutras]

Here's a weird one: watched Sin City yesterday.

The look of it reminded me why I love mono so much.

Not weird at all! That one was the direct inspiration for one of my latest shoots (see my gallery or site for the "Davy" shots).

 

[Roger Hicks]

Yeah, well, I started in advertising photograohy in London in the early-to-mid 70s; we were all brought up on Blow Up, models as well as photographers. You mean anyone had a problem rolling around with the models on the purple paper?

Happy days.

Cheers,

Roger (www,rogerandfrances.com)

 

[sockeyed]

Akira Kurosawa and Jim Jarmusch for gorgeous compositions and use of black and white. I've been watching the Criterion Editions of works by both directors later. Amazing.

And Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) for sheer creativity. I just rented his series of music videos and short films released under the "Directors' Series" and my jaw was on the floor the whole time. I highly recommend it for anyone looking for pure visual brilliance. Michel is on another plain altogether.

 

[DanK]

Amelie, such great color and wonderful story. Perspectives were great too. Finding Forrester. Granted its about writing, but the creative feeling it instills in me to want to go and create happens every time I watch it. The soundtrack is great too. And mostly all of Orsen Wells films, The Third Man in particular, with its terrific lighting and perspectives.

 

[BJ Bignell]

I often feel motivated to imitate a style, look, or shot after seeing a movie. This motivation usually succumbs to laziness and/or ennui long before I even make it to the camera bag. Is that bad?

 

[Nachkebia]

Allways! I got inspired by antonioni recently 🙂

 

[Nachkebia]

I am Cuba by Mihail Kalatozov, camera by Sergei Urusevksy (?)

Mihail Kolotozishvili is his name and he was georgian, in fact his grand son is my friend 🙂 on of the greatest directors off all time, and Ya cuba is one of the best movies of all time, great photography too.

 

[BrianShaw]

I just saw 'Cinderella Man'... I know, I'm on the late-freight but with kids and family committments I haven't had much time for movies. All of the press photographers were using Speed Graphics and flash bulbs. I have little interest in using flash bulbs but it does make me want ot take the Super Graphic out again. Perhaps I'll use a roll film back for convenience, though.

 

[vodid]

I recently saw Good Night & Good Luck, a movie about the early broadcast Journalist, Edward R. Murrow, and it was an inspiration. Shot completely in black and white, with heavy use of short depth of field and selective focus. Set in the early 1950's, I loved the style, and Murrow was a heavy smoker, and that adds to the visual interest of many of the sequences. It's a beautiful film, and while I was viewing it I kept thinking to myself...I've gotta mention this on Rangefinder Forum, they'd love this. Of course, I got busy with other projects and never got around to it, so I'm glad this topic was started.

 

[Ash]

Most black and white films... and Amelie

 

[JimG]

Almost every postwar BW Italian movie I have ever seen. Kurasawa's films to. Sometimes the American Film Noir B movies of the 50's surprise and inspire me as well. Jim

 

[telenous]

Sven Nykvist's B&W cinematography for Bergman's films is sublime. I have no idea how to emulate it but I very much wish to. Hitchcock's terrific visual strengths were highlighted by the use of colour in his 'mature period'. It is virtually impossible to mistake a Hitchcock mise en scene for something else, such was his visual command of the medium. I am particularly in awe of his choice of angles and I would very much like one day to take one photo with that kind of compositional strength. But the films that influence me the most are the noir movies of the 40's and the 50's. I love the expressionistic chiaroscuro evidenced in most movies of that period and I think a rangefinder camera is tailormade for the task.