23 June 2013

Hitchcock Assembled


Alfred Hitchcock maintained that cutting, in film editing terms, was something of a misnomer.  In fact, he said that rather than being cut from many different pieces a finished film was in fact assembled.  There is no better example of this than the infamous shower scene in Psycho where Janet Leigh is attacked by a mystery (at that point in the film) assailant.  There were over seventy different pieces of film used in that short sequence, both to heighten the terror of the audience and to box clever with the censors of the day.

This homage to both Hitchcock and Psycho was assembled by Brian Carroll who – appropriately enough – is an editor. He brings together scenes from the movie, excerpts of interviews with the director and Janet Leigh, and combines it with and some pretty nifty editing of the Anthony Hopkins movie Hitchcock to assemble a wonderful impression of how perhaps the greatest pioneer of cinematic suspense got away with it.

5 November 2010

Timescapes: Rapture


Tom Lowe is one talented guy.  The Astronomy Photographer of the Year has been shooting his debut film ocer the summer which is to be calles Timescapes. The video above contains some moments from the film and it looks absolutely astounding. 

Envisaged as a modern portrait of the American Southwest it was shot using Canon and Red MX cameras.  If the above is anything to go by we are in for an amazing treat when the film is released.

The skill and patience it must have taken to create these shots (particularly the time lapse) is immense.  Lowe has a unique vision and very much the artist's eye.  He takes the every day - and potentially mundane -and injects magic in to it.  He has the ability to re-awaken and re-ignite our love affair for this world and a mans imagination to actually capture it.

Epic. Breathtaking. Awe inspiring. Astonishing. Incredible. Beautiful.