Film Noir Macros

This past Monday the theme in the Macro Mondays group in Flickr was "film noir." I've been watching a lot of film noir in the past year, so I was excited for the theme. Just earlier this week I watched a film noir classic In a Lonely Place with Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame. I thought it was a very good, but tense film. I'm biased though as I'm a big Bogart fan due to many of his film noir efforts like Dark Passage, High Sierra, The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, etc. and I've always liked Gloria Grahame. She played Violet in It's a Wonderful Life, but I liked her best in the film noir classic The Big Heat. I'm not a huge Glenn Ford fan, but The Big Heat is a great film and Gloria gives a solid performance.

Although I was familiar with the style, I wasn't sure how to do that in a macro. The film noir look is also a very different style of photography than I'm used to shooting so it was a challenge to get the right gritty, dark mood. I was happy with the outcome and the first shot made Flickr's Explore.

For my first shot I wanted to capture a murder scene and decided to use a bloody knife at the main subject. I used a piece of tapestry left over from this project as my background. I used concentrated cherry juice as my blood and used a stick to spatter some "blood" on the cloth. It took quite a bit to get a gruesome murder scene look. I also put some on the knife blade and on the handle where the bloody glove would have been holding it. To make the blood stand out in black & white, I used a green filter to enhance the red color (or darken it in b&w). I used a snoot on the flash to localize the light and did some post-processing to even enhance the vignette effect. Here is the result.



For my second shot, I tried to create a photo of items on Sam Spade's desk under light shining through the window from a streetlight or the moon. I wanted to create a shadow effect from the window pane or writing on the window. I was stymied until I discussed it with Dianne and she quickly suggested printing what I wanted on a transparency and then hold that above and shine a light through to create a shadow. She's full of great ideas! So what would Sam have on his desk? Probably a revolver, some cigarettes (which I had to buy), and matches. I used a flashlight with a tight beam to light the scene through the transparency of a skylight window pane. This is borderline macro -- maybe an up close still life. Again I did a little post-processing to enhance the vignette. Here is the result.

Cinematic Geography of L.A.

A group of folks in Los Angeles, led by Blair Erikson, have photographed various locations around L. A. that have appeared in past films. As best they could they tried to get the same angle today as was used in a film. The web site has still photos of locations to let you guess what movie they appeared in.

The group also prepared a YouTube video that strings together many locations. It shows the location on a map, the current view, and then a transition to the scene in the film. Very well done.



Saw this effort on CNN. It's a nice bit of work, but in the grand scheme of things it must have been a slow news day.

AFI's Top 100 Films

Last week the American Film Institute released their revised list of the top 100 films of all time. We caught part of the show, but missed the end. I went to their website to look at the list. Here are their top 10 and my two cents.
1. Citizen Kane -- very good movie, but probably not my own #1
2. The Godfather -- I've only seen bits and pieces
3. Casablanca -- own the DVD. Several Bogart pics in the top 100 including the Maltese Falcon and the African Queen (also have on DVD).
4. Raging Bull -- surprised this is so high
5. Singin' in the Rain -- I really don't care for musicals. Who breaks out into spontaneous singing and dancing during the day?
6. Gone With the Wind -- never seen the whole movie, just scenes.
7. Lawrence of Arabia -- own the DVD. Great cinematography!
8. Schindler's List -- powerful
9. Vertigo -- very good Hitchcock movie. He had several in the top 100 including Psycho, Rear Window, and North by Northwest. I'd swap Rear Window and Vertigo in the ranking.
10. The Wizard of Oz -- there's no place like home!

Go to their website to see the rest of the list. They also have a good flash piece that lets you review the list in groups of ten and get some basic information on films you choose. Click here to check it out. What do you think of the list?

M&M's Dark Chocolate Game

I liked the Addams Family TV show. I remember that series from my younger days. I especially liked Uncle Fester, played by Jackie Coogan. He was always doing something crazy.

Lately the M&M folks have been advertising their dark chocolate M&Ms with a black & white commercial with M&M caricatures of the Addams family. I laugh every time it comes on. The Uncle Fester M&M is the best. If you haven't seen the commercial, you can see it here on the M&M site.

While there, I also clicked on the game link they have -- find 50 dark movies in a picture. Look through the picture for clues to dark movie titles. When you click on a clue, a text box pops up and you enter the movie title. If correct, the box goes green and the clue turns black & white. It's kinda fun to try.

I had to enlist Dianne's help to fill in most of the answers. In about an hour we found 46 of the 50 titles. The only bad thing is we didn't see a spot to find the answers for the clues we couldn't identify. So, if you know the answer to any of the following, please leave a comment with the answer. From left to right, we were stumped on:
- the grim reaper in the fenced in circle
- the woman carrying two kids
- the woman next to the water barrel (thought this should be lady in the water, but no)
- the man in the lower right with the odd head

Google Mobile SMS

Dianne pointed out a Google Labs product a couple weeks ago called Google SMS. It lets you make a Google search via a text message from your cell phone. It is really slick. If you go to the Google SMS page there is a sample interface where you can try it. They also have a list of sample searches. It's a handy tool when you're out and about and not near a computer.

Today we were out and about and wanted to see the movie Grindhouse, but didn't know the show times. While sipping our smoothies, I just sent a text message containing "Grindhouse" and our zip code and about 10 seconds later the movie times at neighboring theaters popped up as text messages. That is really handy. The only watch out is that searches like that may be long and so the results are split into several messages. If your plan doesn't have a lot of text messages, just be aware one query could produce several messages and be judicious about your searching.

We did see Grindhouse today. It's a long double feature, but we both enjoyed it a lot! Brace yourself for a lot of gore. Dianne was jumping out of her seat and grabbing me during some scenes. I liked the first segment a bit better, but they were both good. Definitely a 'buy' when the DVD comes out.

Movie Musings - Part 1

Between our Netflix service and the movies shown on the Turner Classic Movies channel, I’ve been watching some old films I’ve never seen or catching up on those I haven’t seen for many years. We’ve been watching a lot of old black and white films – Dianne groans when I start a DVD and the color “goes out” on the TV. Nevertheless, even the silent movie comedy classics are good for a laugh. Here are few I highly recommend.

The Gold Rush with Charlie Chaplin has to rank up there as one of his best. Chaplin’s tramp character goes to the Klondike to search for gold. We saw a re-mastered version that had a narration done by Chaplin and music composed by Chaplin. It was very well done and eliminated the need to read (see this earlier post).

The General is a Civil War era picture that puts Buster Keaton in the role of a locomotive engineer trying to thwart some Union spies. It’s a classic action and romance movie. Another Buster Keaton flick, a short called One Week, is also very good. He plays a newlywed that receives a do-it-yourself house building kit as a wedding gift from his uncle. A lot happens while building that house in the first week of marriage!

Finally, I also recommend the Harold Lloyd full length film called The Kid Brother. Lloyd plays the youngest of 3 sons of the town sheriff. He’s sheltered as the youngest son, but steps up when his dad needs help. It is also a romantic comedy with lots of action. The short film by Lloyd called Number Please is also good. It features Lloyd as one of two suitors of a woman which eventually became his actual wife. Lloyd’s efforts to lose a purse to avoid being accused of purse snatching are hilarious.

There are two common elements that make these silent films stand out for me. First, I’m amazed at the stunts and sight gags in these films. Long before computer generated imagery and sophisticated camera tricks were available, these folks captured some amazing scenes on film. The visual effects they created add levity but also enhance the story. It’s a lot of creative effort to come up with these ideas, scout appropriate locations in some cases, and plan the camera angles and timing to produce the desired effect. Second, the full length films not only allow time to show stunts and sight gags but also let the characters develop and give time to showcase the acting talent of the stars. Body language and facial expressions are key to convey emotion and make the connection with the audience. The action and romance aspects in these films demanded a wide range of acting ability. Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd handle it very well in these films.

Greatest Screenplays

Thanks to Michael at the Neverending Rainbow blog (see the link in my what I’m reading list in the right column), I found the Writers Guild of America website and their list of the 101 greatest screenplays as judged by WGA members. There are a lot of great movies on the list – some that we have on DVD and many we love to watch again and again. For me, a good story is an important foundation for a good movie (although Dianne might disagree with that given some of the “garbage” I like to watch).

I’m a big John Huston fan and was glad to see The African Queen, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and The Maltese Falcon all made the list. Being a Bogart fan, it was good to see Casablanca on the list as well.

We just recently saw Lawrence of Arabia. Not only is the story good, the cinematography is beautiful. I learned that almost all the travel scenes in that film show things moving left to right to emphasize the journey aspect of his life. Another David Lean directed movie, the Bridge on the River Kwai, also made the list.

Some great Hitchcock movies made the list: Psycho, Rear Window, and North by Northwest. Those are probably my favorites.

Other notables I saw were The Best Years of Our Lives, Patton, Dr. Strangelove, Cool Hand Luke, The Grapes of Wrath, The Wild Bunch, and Groundhog Day.

There are even a few of Dianne’s favorites including The Sixth Sense and Silence of the Lambs. Check out the complete list.