jwanerman
Member
I recently saw the new movie " 42 ", in which all cameras appeared to be of the correct vintage. This is unlike Steven Spielberg's TV series " The Pacific, " in which a top rangefinder 4x5 Crown Graphic Special was used in a 1945 scene. The only problem was that this camera was not produced until 1955! Any comments?
unixrevolution
Well-known
I've never concretely noticed the wrong camera for a period in a movie, but i have seen a lot of period cameras used totally incorrectly.
tunalegs
Pretended Artist
In The Last Emperor, an Exakta IIb (a 1960s model) is used in a pre-war scene. There are probably far more instances of period correct cameras than incorrect though.
sparrow6224
Well-known
Movies get so many things wrong, which a writer never would (or would not be allowed to); for instance, I would estimate that of all the occasions I have seen in film, in which a character, supposedly Catholic, has had to bless himself/herself, 3/4 of the actors have done it incorrectly. You'd think someone Catholic on the set would point it out but apparently not.
A great story on period camera etc comes from Roman Polanski's masterpiece Chinatown; early in the picture Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is trailing and photographing a key figure named Mulwray to see if he's having an affair. The camera is a Leica III which is correct for the period; in one scene he's up on a roof with a viso-flex and presumably a 200mm lens and Polanski shows you what Nicholson is photographing with a shot right onto the face or front element of the lens, the reflected image sort of. Only, as Polanski himself has pointed out, the image should be upside down, and he put it right side up so the audience would have an easier tiime. However, he said, given the opportunity to do it now he'd much prefer to have it appear correctly, upside down. (And reversed? This always confuses me....)
See the film. You won't regret it. And watch for the leica.
A great story on period camera etc comes from Roman Polanski's masterpiece Chinatown; early in the picture Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is trailing and photographing a key figure named Mulwray to see if he's having an affair. The camera is a Leica III which is correct for the period; in one scene he's up on a roof with a viso-flex and presumably a 200mm lens and Polanski shows you what Nicholson is photographing with a shot right onto the face or front element of the lens, the reflected image sort of. Only, as Polanski himself has pointed out, the image should be upside down, and he put it right side up so the audience would have an easier tiime. However, he said, given the opportunity to do it now he'd much prefer to have it appear correctly, upside down. (And reversed? This always confuses me....)
See the film. You won't regret it. And watch for the leica.
Peter_Jones
Well-known
I saw a film (can't remember the title) where Chris Rea was playing a photographer - the film wasn't very good, but he looked very comfortable with the cameras he was using (IIRC a Hasselblad and some 80s 35mm SLR) and handled them like he could actually use them.