Megan Masur: We're All Alright, Short Term 12

December 23, 2020

Episode #29 - Meet Megan Masur, a Brooklyn-based Director of Photography and Steadicam operator. She’s an incredible utility person with a ton of technical experience having worked in animation, as a DIT, and as a camera assistant while building towards her career as a cinematographer. Fourwind Films has had the pleasure of hiring Megan for a number of projects, including as a Camera Op for Prologue.

Megan chose a short film she shot called We’re All Alright, which she fell in love with as soon as she finished reading the script. She talks about the film’s central themes of depression and female friendship, what it was like working with a majority female team, and the challenges of filming on a fire escape.

For the feature film, Megan stuck to the theme of mental health with Short Term 12, about young staff members working at a foster care facility. It’s an independent film that continues to find fans years after its release (2013) and is also known for its phenomenal ensemble of now critically acclaimed actors including Lakeith Stanfield, Brie Larson, Kaitlyn Dever, John Gallagher Jr., and Rami Malek.

Megan’s advocacy for films and open discussion about mental health is evident in her curation for this podcast. We appreciate her coming on for this episode during a time where so many people can benefit from viewing and discussing these kinds of stories. Follow Megan’s work on Instagram, and by watching Prologue at the IndieBOOM festival from Dec. 21 - Jan. 3, 2021.

Megan Masur at the fully-masked, limited capacity, Feature & a short podcast recording. If voices sound a tad muffled, now you know why!

Credits for podcast:

Production Company - Fourwind Films

Appointed Contributor - Megan Masur

Host - Justin Joseph Hall

Sound Mixer & Additional Music - Brian Trahan

The theme song of Season 4 is Loopster by Kevin MacLeod.

Andi Obarski: Overslept, Thelma

June 28, 2019

Episode #13 - As the appointed contributor, Cinematographer Andi Obarski brings a great mixture of lightheartedness and practical insight to us not only on this podcast, but also on set. She is a hard worker and a team player more knowledgeable than most.

Our screening took place at New Revolution Arts where for the first film, Andi presented the short film “Overslept” which is part of an internet series called “Countdown”, created by Nathan Breton and Joseph Killeen. The unifying element between each short in Countdown is a character dealing with a serious time constraint. Andi describes the series as “scrappy, Brooklyn indie filmmaking at its finest.” She chose this 4 ½ minute short because there is no dialogue which created a welcome challenge for her as the film's cinematographer. The audience talks with Andi about the type of lighting used, bystanders who didn’t know they were on a film set, Andi’s feelings about what ended up on the cutting room floor, and more.

For the second film of the event, Andi presented the feature Thelma (2017), an LGBTQ supernatural thriller directed by Joachim Trier. Andi chose the film for its stunning cinematography, and also because “it’s kinda gay. I like that. I like gay things.” We do too, Andi. We do too.

During the film, we served red wine, orange juice and tea.

RSVP or inquire at info@fourwindfilms.com about hosting Feature & a short or attending one of our podcast viewing parties.

Episode hosted by Justin Joseph Hall.

Credits:

Host - Justin Joseph Hall

Production Company & Location - Fourwind Films

Transcript:

00;00;03;00 - 00;00;34;00

Justin Joseph Hall:

Hi, welcome to Feature & a short, a podcast made by filmmakers for filmmakers. This is Justin Joseph Hall, owner of Fourwind Films. By the way, if you want to be at the live event, please sign up for our email or write us on social media and we will add you to the list. Currently, we are just showing in New York, Brooklyn mainly, and in Los Angeles but you have to RSVP ahead of time. This week, we have Andi Obarski,

00;00;34;00 - 00;00;36;00

Andi Obarski:

I'm Andi. I have no connection to film whatsoever.

00;00;36;00

Audience:

(laughter)

00;00;38;00

Andi Obarski:

I’m a DP.

00;00;39;00 - 00;01;13;00

Justin Joseph Hall (as narrator):

Uh, who I used to work with at a rental shop, at Hello World. Andi is, like, an amazing human being, always in a good mood and is there to answer questions and do whatever is needed to make whatever you're making better. She's well-rounded in, in lighting and grip and she's been working as a cinematographer for the last couple of years.

So for this month's screening, Andi brought Overslept, a short film which is actually part of an internet series called Countdown, which uses a countdown device as it’s through line connection between the different pieces.

00;01;13;00 - 00;01;42;00

Andi Obarski:

So this is about four-and-a-half, five-minute short film that was shot in a day (laughs). Um, actually it's Sam's apartment, another friend of ours. But yeah, it's scrappy, Brooklyn indie filmmaking at its finest. So they're mostly character-driven uh short films and they all have their own individual styles. Most of them are comedies, actually. This is probably the outlier. This is like the most serious one of them. I like shooting comedy, but this is a little bit more dramatic than what we usually go with.

00;01;42;00 - 00;01;53;00

Justin Joseph Hall (as narrator):

If you'd like to see more on the series, just probably google “Countdown, Overslept.” That's how I usually find it. After Overslept was finished, we asked Andi a few questions.

00;01;53;00 - 00;01;54;00

Audience:

What made you choose this one?

00;01;55;00 - 00;02;06;00

Andi Obarski:

Um, I think it's the most interesting to me as a cinematographer because it's the most visual, there's no dialogue in it. Like, it's all told through frames and cuts and actions which I really like.

00;02;06;00 - 00;02;10;00

Audience:

How many of the artificial lights did you guys use? It seems to be really natural.

00;02;10;00 - 00;02;23;00

Andi Obarski:

It is. Yeah. We used um in the opening scene, we put a HMI outside. I think I might have had, like, two Astros or something, but other than that it was mostly, like, just picking the time of day.

00;02;22;00 - 00;02;24;00

Audience:

Nice, nice job.

00;02;24;00 - 00;02;27;00

Andi Obarski:

Thank you. I try to not do so much if I don't have to.

00;02;27;00 - 00;02;30;00

Justin Joseph Hall:

Did you bounce around a lot later, is it mostly?

00;02;31;00 - 00;03;06;00

Andi Obarski:

Honestly. Um, yeah, we have, I mean there was like one gaffer grip person, I had one GE person and then one AC. So it was mostly like, honestly the, the most challenging was making morning lights, in that really white bedroom where everything bounced around. I, there was no way I could put a lights out, the unit outside of the window, which is what my ideal situation would have been. So in this, like, I guess the bedroom was about the size of this room, but it was a lot to fit, you know, a queen-sized bed and, like, basically a book light that we'd made to mimic morning light.

00;03;07;00

Audience:

How many days did you…?

00;03;09;00

Andi Obarski:

We shot this in one day.

00;03;10;00

Audience:

Uh, huh.

00;03;10;00 - 00;03;13;00

Andi Obarski:

Yeah, it was a very long day (laughs).

00;03;13;00 - 00;03;14;00

Audience:

How many hours?

00;03;14;00 - 00;03;20;00

Andi Obarski:

Oh, yeah. He, he was really good and he kept it under 12, including lunch. And then we had beer around the fire.

00;03;20;00

Audience:

(laughter)

00;03;20;00

Andi Obarski:

(laughs)

00;03;21;00

Andi Obarski:

Sorry?

00;03;22;00 - 00;03;41;00

Andi Obarski:

When we did this shot of her running outside again, we did that like seven times and he used the first or second. Um but if you listen to it, he, she passes this group of women who just say, oh my god! Because there's a car that's tracking a woman running, we have the AD running behind her. So it just looks like we're trying to kidnap her.

00;03;43;00

Audience:

(laughter)

00;03;43;00 - 00;03;47;00

Andi Obarski:

So these poor, these women are like, oh my god, are you okay?

00;03;47;00

Audience:

(laughter)

00;03;48;00 - 00;03;51;00

Andi Obarski:

And then we had to explain to them, yes, we're shooting a movie. Uh (laughs), but it was.

00;03;52;00

Audience:

(laughter)

00;03;53;00 - 00;04;01;00

Andi Obarski:

But yeah, it was all one day and we just, the director and I, like, are very meticulous. We storyboarded the hell out of this. Like, we knew exactly when we wanted to shoot.

00;04;01;00 - 00;04;03;00

Audience:

You feel you okay with the time you had?

00;04;03;00 - 00;04;11;00

Andi Obarski:

I mean, I always wish I had more time, but yeah, especially considering we shot a scene that you didn't even see. So, actually the

00;04;11;00

Audience:

Oh really?

00;04;11;00 - 00;04;38;00

Andi Obarski:

Yeah, that, I was talking about the, the button that happened at the end. That had the most artificial light because we, like, chained up their, their, like, dining leg and we rig that, we put that on a dimmer, we did all this other stuff with the lamp light that was in there. So, the most time that we spent lighting was in a scene that wasn't even used in a short film which is kind of ridiculous if you think about it. And I think he's going to, like, do something with it now. But I was like, damn it, we spent so much fucking time planning this.

00;04;38;00

Audience:

(laughter)

00;04;39;00 - 00;04;47;00

Andi Obarski:

And, like, we shot it and it was part of our day and we could have spent more time on something else. But if it's not, if it doesn't enhance the story, I guess it doesn’t need to be in the film, you know (laughs).

00;04;47;00

Audience:

(laughter)

00;04;47;00

Andi Obarski:

Yeah.

00;04;48;00 - 00;04;50;00

Audience:

Do you produce it as well as?

00;04;51;00 - 00;05;12;00

Andi Obarski:

I mean, as much logistical things as I can in regards to communicating with the rental houses. Um, but beyond that it was mostly Nathan who would, you know, talk to the locations, made sure everything was, like, kosher when we, when we started shooting. But no, I was mostly involved in the coloring. He's like a pretty sound editor, so he, he pushed through a piece pretty quickly.

00;05;13;00 - 00;05;20;00

Justin Joseph Hall:

How did you work with color when you… like, you seem like you did… cause you just came from going outside.

00;05;20;00 - 00;06;01;00

Andi Obarski:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it depends, I think, you know, we didn't really have a choice of lenses on this. We just, we shot on um a Dragon with Zeiss CP.2’s which are, like, kind of soft and contrasty. I think I might have had, like, a ⅛ Black Pro-Mist. So I knew that I wanted there to be a lot of shadow, and I wanted there to be, like, soft, creamy blacks. Um, but it's really, you know, depends on the film and the look that I go into it with the director. You know, he's pretty good about thinking what he wants ahead of time and we're able to, like, kind of achieve that look, you know. Um, yeah! All of them were colored by the same colorist too which is very advantageous.

00;06;03;00 - 00;06;10;00

Justin Joseph Hall:

Do you, do you like, with the colorist, do you like um sit with them the first day or do you let them come up with a new look? Or…

00;06;10;00 - 00;06;22;00

Andi Obarski:

Sure, yeah. He definitely did like a clean up pass. He was like, I'll do a, I'm, I'm totally cool with that just to, like, kind of get everything on the playing field. If I give rough notes, then I can come in and see, you know, what they've done.

00;06;22;00

Justin Joseph Hall:

Yeah.

00;06;23;00 - 00;06;40;00

Andi Obarski:

You know, if I'm working with the colorist for the first time, I like to be able to, like, know… their ability as to what, you know, interpreting what I can say via email or via the phone. Totally respect colorists and I have zero desi-desire to ever do their job, you know, like.

00;06;39;00 - 00;06;40;00

Audience:

Why, why is that?

00;06;40;00 - 00;06;50;00

Andi Obarski:

Ah, ‘cause I like to move and I like to, like, operate. And I like to be ergonomic and, like, sitting in a chair for 12 hours sounds like the fucking death of me. But I love going to coloring sessions and telling people what to do

00;06;51;00

Audience:

(laughter)

00;06;51;00 - 00;06;53;00

Andi Obarski:

But I don't want to know what (laughs),

00;06;53;00

Audience:

(laughter)

00;06;54;00 - 00;07;06;00

Andi Obarski:

I don't want to know how to do the program, but I like to think that I shot it in a way that was, there was really only one shot that I was like, I have to, like, push this. Um and it, you might have noticed it, it was when she was walking.

00;07;06;00 - 00;07;07;00

Audience:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00;07;07;00 - 00;07;12;00

Andi Obarski:

Is, it's very, it's very grainy and I was like, fine, it works. It’s very, it’s the RED…

00;07;13;00

Justin Joseph Hall:

I didn’t notice.

00;07;14;00 - 00;07;18;00

Andi Obarski:

Okay, well then that's good. If it didn't detract from the story, then there you go. Um.

00;07;18;00

Audience:

Oh…

00;07;20;00 - 00;07;22;00

Andi Obarski:

Oh, no. No. Yeah, we could talk about it, I can talk about this all day, so.

00;07;22;00 - 00;07;23;00

Audience:

Yeah, yeah, I'm going to talk with you later.

00;07;23;00

Andi Obarski:

Okay.

00;07;24;00 - 00;07;26;00

Justin Joseph Hall:

Do you like, I know you shoot RED all the time, um, what do you like about it, like, like better or what do you like about it, what do you not?

00;07;31;00 - 00;07;47;00

Andi Obarski:

I mean, it depends. I don't, I pick it if it's good for the projects. Like, I'm not married to one format or camera or the other. It totally depends on the story. I actually really liked the Dra-the Dragon and then we, we upgraded our camera to the EPIC-W and it's just, I don’t know, it's fine.

00;07;48;00

Audience:

Yeah.

00;07;48;00

Andi Obarski:

It's a camera.

00;07;48;00 - 00;07;56;00

Justin Joseph Hall:

So what do you think is different about the, the RED versus other. Like what do you get on it that's unique versus another camera.

00;07;58;00 - 00;08;37;00

Andi Obarski:

Do you really want to have that conversation (laughs)? It's like a whole, whole thing. I don't know, the, the colors tend to, you know, arc a certain way. There seems to be a little bit more, at least in this new sensor to me, tends to be a little bit green. I do like, it can operate very well in low light if you know how to, like, expose for it properly. It has an amazing amount of latitude, you can do a ton with it in post which can be advantageous and disadvantageous according to, like, whatever you, you know, choose. You know, I like its high-speed capability. But unfortunately at the end of the day, cinematography has become such a game of, like, “oh, do you have an Arri or do you have a RED? Like, what do you have? And so it's totally, like, if you don't have one, then you have the other…

00;08;37;00 - 00;08;38;00

Audience:

It’s just a tool.

00;08;38;00 - 00;08;52;00

Andi Obarski:

Exactly, but for producers that don't know the difference between the tools and or the capability of the DP to be able to do something over the other with one, then it's like, so. I don't have one preference over the other. I could give two shits about what kind of camera I have.

00;08;52;00 - 00;09;16;00

Justin Joseph Hall (as narrator):

After that, Andi presented her feature film which is called Thelma from 2017. It's a sci-fi classified as a horror, although it's more of a slightly experimental drama. Very cool film that everyone took in deeply. Very interesting subject matter, semi-magic realism. Very cool.

00;09;16;00

Justin Joseph Hall:

Did you say anything about the…

00;09;17;00 - 00;09;27;00

Andi Obarski:

Oh, it's good. I like it. I like the color scheme uh of it and uh it's a little gay, so that’s kind of cool too.

00;09;27;00

Audience:

(laughter)

00;09;28;00 - 00;09;29;00

Andi Obarski:

You know, I like gay things (laughs).

00;09;29;00

Audience:

(laughter)

00;09;30;00 - 00;09;55;00

Andi Obarski:

It's just like a thriller. It's like a thriller, but it's not scary, but it's cool. It's a little like if you've ever seen Let the Right One In along the same visual veins of that. It's spooky, it's supernatural. There's a um film critic I like who comes out every year with this, like, best film of best top 25 films. And he, like, edits it together in, like, such a way that you get excited about cinema. Like, every year, his name’s…

00;09;55;00

Justin Joseph Hall:

Was his name Urlich?
(chatter)

00;09;57;00 - 00;10;08;00

Andi Obarski:

Yes! Exactly! Yeah. He does, he works for Slate, I think. Um, but I love watching his stuff and this was on the movies, one of his lists from 2017. And I was like, this is amazing.

00;10;08;00

Audience:

Yeah.

00;10;09;00 - 00;10;23;00

Justin Joseph Hall (as narrator):

During the film, we served red wine, orange juice and tea at the appropriate moments. After, we had a very curt discussion about the contents of the film and then went home as everybody was processing.

00;10;23;00 - 00;10;25;00

Andi Obarski:

It’s a lot slower than I remember it being (laughs).

00;10;26;00 - 00;10;28;00

Audience:

Maybe that’s definitely like a really exciting first…

00;10;29;00 - 00;10;30;00

Andi Obarski:

It’s very visual.

00;10;30;00 - 00;10;32;00

Audience:

I could see how…exciting… the second time.

00;10;34;00

Andi Obarski:

Did you guys like it?

00;10;35;00

Audience:

That was a good movie, I really liked it.

00;10;36;00

Andi Obarski:

Cool.

00;10;37;00

Daria Huxley:

It kind of gives me chills, though.

00;10;39;00

Andi Obarski:

Cool. I'm glad you guys liked it.

00;10;40;00

Andi Obarski:

Dead markish?

Justin Joseph Hall:

(laughs)

Andi Obarski:

Dead markish.

00;10;43;00

Audience:

(laughter)

00;10;44;00

Andi Obarski:

I think my post discussion is going to sleep.

00;10;45;00

Audience:

Oh, yeah.

00;10;46;00

Audience:

(laughter)

00;10;47;00

Audience:

…

00;10;48;00 - 00;11;34;00

Justin Joseph Hall (as narrator):

Thank you so much for listening. Write us on social media, wherever you get your podcasts. Just let us know what you like about the show, what you'd like to hear more of, what you guys want to hear more from actors, cinematographers, post-production people, animation. Just reach out and let us know and you can reach us either at info@fourwindfilms.com or pretty much any social media site @fourwindfilms. That's f-o-u-r-w-i-n-d-f-i-l-m-s. And this episode was actually hosted by New Revolution Arts, so thanks to Cisco Bradley and Jenny Roemer for bringing us into their space. Thank you much and see you soon. Or you can hear me soon. That's more likely what’s gonna happen.

Bruce Lithimane: Échappé, Postman Blues

August 24, 2018

Episode #8 - Creative Director and Cinematographer Bruce Lithimane was the appointed contributor. From Iowa and a film buff, Bruce presents his chosen films at Fourwind Films’ headquarters in Bushwick. To see more of Bruce, follow his vision through his lens on Instagram.

For the first film of the event, Bruce presented the 2018 short Échappé, which stars Olesya Senchenko and was directed by Allison Mattox. Bruce was Second Assistant Camera and Steadicam Operator for the short which is a visually incredible Russian ballet story. In the episode, he takes us through the struggle with a camera rig and dance with ballerinas. For this film, we had Japanese alcohol, whiskey and beer.

For the second film, Bruce presented the Japanese mixed genre feature film Postman Blues (1997), directed by SABU. It is a funny and sometimes disturbing flick that Bruce wants to rewrite into a modern Brooklyn-based adaptation. During the film, we had raw fish and sashimi to consume along with the characters.

Credits:

Host - Justin Joseph Hall

Location & Production Company - Fourwind Films

Bruce Lithimane - Camera Operator/Cinematographer, photo by Daria Huxley

Transcript:

Justin Joseph Hall:

Welcome to Feature & a short where an appointed contributor chooses one feature and one short to present to an audience, one film they've been involved in, one they haven’t. My name is Justin Joseph Hall. This week, we have presenter Bruce Lithimane. Bruce Lithimane is a commercial cinematographer and creative director and a film history buff.

He enjoys great independent cinema around the world, and today he brought his foreign language narratives to watch. The first film, entitled Échappé, is a ballet film shot in the US and the main stars are Russian. Bruce was the Steadicam Operator as well as Second AC. The short movie starred Olesya Senchenko who is a Russian model who lives in New York. And here's Bruce giving us an introduction to the film.

0:52

Bruce Lithimane:

I’ll give, like, a breakdown, so I'm Bruce Lithimane. I am a commercial artist, I guess is the best term in New York. Um, I am completely self-taught. Because of my love for film, I was able to kind of translate what makes film pretty interesting into viable skill sets later on in life. So, it's all ode to film. I never studied commercials. I only studied film.

Bruce Lithimane:

So both films tonight are actually subtitled original language films. The first one we're going to watch is a film I worked on for three days called Échappé, which is a period piece shot in Jersey about two Russian siblings that are touring America, and they're getting ready to defect. This is during the Cold War in the 80s. So, really interesting movie about motivation behind, you know, loyalty and, and what you, what you love to do. And, and is that even worth it?

Justin Joseph Hall:

After watching Échappé, which was incredibly beautiful. We had a discussion, the short film and Bruce's involvement with it.

Bruce Lithimane:

So Beth Napoli was the DP. Uh, Allison Mattox is the director, writer, executive producer of it. Beth is married to someone who I believe is in R&D at RED. So we shot this on, like, a RED Epic 8K camera. It is insane.

Audience:

8K?

Bruce Lithimane:

8K. It was 8K. It would fill up four terabyte SSD’s in 40 minutes.

Audience:

Really?

Bruce Lithimane:

Yeah.

Audience:

(laughter)

Bruce Lithimane:

They finished it in 4K, not 8K just because editing an 8K, I believe, is like still quite difficult, especially when you're using Avid.

Audience:

Yeah.

Bruce Lithimane:

Right. And yeah, this was actually, you know, it was a funded short film which I love for many reasons, mainly because then you have people that work in the industry. You're not kind of throwing a ragtag crew together, even though no one had worked together previously.

But I'd never worked with a group of 20 professionals that had never met, and it was probably the smoothest experience I've had on, on set mainly because of budget. Because you have things like coffee and PAs and set designers because again, it's a period piece. But, you know, I think it turned out super beautifully. They're currently shopping it around to some distributors. Um, it's playing in Traverse City tomorrow, if not tonight.

Audience:

Oh, really?

Bruce Lithimane:

Yeah. So we got into Traverse City. We got into a couple other film festivals. I was Second AC on it, so I would help set up the camera, make sure everything is charged, passed off stuff to DIT when things were full. But, main job on this set was Steadicam Operator. So, a rig like a RED Epic is once you put a bunch of shit on it, it's like, ends up being 70, 80 pounds. And so I, you know, had this rig on my back like 4 to 6 hours a day.

And the original thought was I was going to move around and we're going to kind of edit it together as a kinetic type of music video. They decided to get rid of all that stuff and just use the static shots. But I was dancing with them for several hours when we shot this. And, and you know, I had not rehearsed with them.

Yeah, it was very insane because like, you're on a stage, you can fall off of it. There's like a eight, eight-foot drop off and I'm spinning around in circles trying to keep up with them. ‘Cause if you are working with real ballet dancers, they move incredibly quickly, incredibly powerfully,

Audience:

(laughter)

Bruce Lithimane:

and I'm trying to keep up with them.

Audience:

(claps)

Bruce Lithimane:

Funny little tidbit about that movie, everything got ADR’d afterwards, which is,

Audience:

Oh, really?

Bruce Lithimane:

Which is where you have to go into,

Audience:

Oh, they did a great job…

Bruce Lithimane:

a studio and record the lines because the, the costumes were so loud.

Audience:

Oh, really?

Bruce Lithimane:

Yeah. Like at first I thought they were crazy because I've never, ever been a part of anything where you go into a studio and overdub every line.

Audience:

Every single…

Bruce Lithimane:

Every single line.

Audience:

Well, they say most Hollywood films are 90% dubbed.

Bruce Lithimane:

Yeah, now they are. Yeah. I love Beth because she has this slew of short films, but she's also an amazing commercial DP too. Sometimes you will, like, separate both worlds, right? They say, I only do film. I don't touch commercial because it's beneath me. And I love the fact that she's like, I like making art no matter where it’s, it’s…

Audience:

Yeah.

Audience:

That’s like Bob Dylan's respect.

Bruce Lithimane:

Yeah.

Audience:

But she does dance also?

Bruce Lithimane:

No, no, that, that was a double.

Audience:

What?

Bruce Lithimane:

Yeah (laughs).

Audience:

No way.

Bruce Lithimane:

Yeah. Dude, are you saying you're confusion?

Audience:

I'm just saying.

Bruce Lithimane:

(laughs) But, like, you know, also you have to understand the scale, like. So someone like Tom Cruise, and you have a lot of time, you can afford to train him. It's kind of backwards, but it's actually cheaper to hire a double to just do it.

Audience:

Yeah, that’s an interesting-

Bruce Lithimane:

Great.

Audience:

point.

Audience:

…Wow.

Bruce Lithimane:

Yeah. Olesya is a Russian runway model in the United States. She's super successful here as a model.

Audience:

Oh, okay.

Audience:

Oh.

Bruce Lithimane:

Right.

Audience:

Yeah.

Bruce Lithimane:

They wanted Russian-speaking actors, like native Russian actors and they wanted Olesya because she was-

Audience:

They wanted her?

Bruce Lithimane:

semi-famous. They did want her because she’s semi-famous. But those two, um, dancers are, they perform at Lincoln Center I think like five nights a week. They're like legit ballet dancers. They're not just ballet people. They're like the-

Audience:

Right, they’re not,

Bruce Lithimane:

pinnacle of U.S

Audience:

uh…

Bruce Lithimane:

ballet dancers.

Audience:

starving for…

Bruce Lithimane:

No, no, no.

Audience:

It was beautiful…

Bruce Lithimane:

Yeah, go, thank you.

Stephanie Gould:

Yeah.

Akiva Zamcheck:

It’s a great thing. Like that, there was a really lovely grain to it.

Bruce Lithimane:

I'm sure they added it in post…

Audience:

???

Bruce Lithimane:

Well, well actually, I don't think so. They poorly lit stuff so that they could crank up the ISO or the grain.

Audience:

Okay.

Bruce Lithimane:

Because it's a look now.

Audience:

To give it that…

Bruce Lithimane:

Right. Exactly. Yeah.

Justin Joseph Hall (as narrator):

After the discussion, while we had already been consuming Japanese alcohol, whiskey and beer, Bruce gave us a little intro to Postman Blues. Postman Blues, that's my best Japanese, which is a very interesting comedy, independent flick. And while we were watching, raw fish was brought out, sashimi to consume along with the characters.

Bruce Lithimane:

The reason I picked this is because this is my favorite movie that is, like, artsy. Everyone talks a lot about, like, some of, like, Guy Ritchie. He's, you know, takes a crime caper, makes it suspense, makes it comedy. It's nice. He did Lock, Stock, Two Smoking Barrels.

Akiva Zamcheck:

(chuckles), that’s our favorite movie!

Bruce Lithimane:

Really, Lock, Stock?

Audience:

(chatter)

Bruce Lithimane:

Yeah, yeah! So, so, so that's a, that's a suspense crime thriller-

Audience:

(laughter) Yeah.

Bruce Lithimane:

mixed, mixed with a fucking comedy. Like,

Audience:

Yeah.

Bruce Lithimane:

you're dead on comedy.

Audience:

Like…

Bruce Lithimane:

Yeah.

Audience:

(laughter)

Bruce Lithimane:

And so this has, this has elements of that. Right. But it's just done in a different way. I typically hate fusion. I'm a purist at heart. But like, when it's done really well, it’s like amazing. Japanese cinema’s very similar to Korean cinema.

Audience:

Yeah.

Bruce Lithimane:

It's very, very methodical. The beats are very freeform and you'll notice that very quickly in this film. There's not a rhythm to it, it’s just stuff happening. Um, scenes probably go on 10 seconds too long a lot. But this film is about my favorite two things in the world, honestly, isolation and connection. Right? It tells a story about isolation and how he just feels like he doesn't understand anyone in the world and then he finds a connection.

And that's why it's, it's just a beautiful film in many ways. Not, not just a theme being told to its utmost potential but also it, its, its genre mixes. There's action, there's comedy, there's a rom com in there. It's just very beautiful and I think it has an amazing ending. Uh, I'm actually going to steal the ending. You guys will see it when, when you see it.

Akiva Zamcheck:

You're making a film?

Bruce Lithimane:

Well, I'm, I’m, I’m, actually this is called Postman Blues. I'm going to make a film called Brooklyn Blues which is based in Brooklyn but the exact same themes, themes of isolation and connection. And I'm going to make a short of it, but I'm definitely going to reference that it is inspired by this, this director whose name is SABU, goes by one name.

Stephanie Gould:

SABU?

Bruce Lithimane:

Sabu. I'll be the megalomaniac on that one. I'll be the, the director and the director of photography on it. Hopefully.

Justin Joseph Hall:

Why do you want to make the short of this movie?

Bruce Lithimane:

Because I don't think more than 100,000 people saw this fucking movie.

Audience:

And why is it important to see it?

Bruce Lithimane:

Because it's one of the coolest stories and the way it's told is one of the coolest ways I've ever seen any modern story told.

Audience:

When you watch it, what do people say to you?

Bruce Lithimane:

Oh, typically people think the movie is too slow and it's too random and there's not enough going on, which I completely disagree with. Obviously, a lot of people agree and disagree with it.

Audience:

It's true. We disagree with it.

Bruce Lithimane:

(laughs) Why, why do you disagree with it though?

Audience:

Because everything's setting up the next joke and it has a flow from-

Bruce Lithimane:

Right.

Audience:

scene to scene.

Bruce Lithimane:

And again, to me, maybe I'm just too affected by it. But when I watch it even that time with you guys laughing, to me it's like, it's not as funny to me when I watch it now. And I’ve-

Audience:

Because you know the ending.

Bruce Lithimane:

Because I know the ending and I know, like, the gravitas of, like, what they're trying to tell. And he does this, like, uh, 4, 5 shot reveal, tempo thing a lot, where typically if, if you show the beginning of an action, you have to cut to what happened at the end of the action. But he actually cuts to, like, 4 or 5 reactions before he actually shows what the fuck happened.

Justin Joseph Hall:

And sometimes he doesn't.

Bruce Lithimane:

Yeah, and sometimes he doesn’t even show the ending or the, yeah, what happened.

Stephanie Gould:

Or he shows that like…

Bruce Lithimane:

Yeah, yeah, exactly. I, I would actually want to hear like a true, true, because I, I, I'm a film nerd.

(robotic sounding voice):

Fucking Leon from the professional stream… super pretentious…

Bruce Lithimane:

Do you guys ever watch Enemy, Jake Gyllenhaal?

Faster computer voice montage:

What the fuck is that? But he was super famous in Australia…

Justin Joseph Hall:

That’s Feature & a short. If you want anything more by Fourwind Films, please follow us on social media, f-o-u-r-w-i-n-d-f-i-l-m-s on any platform. We are also premiering a short film of our own this month entitled Abuela’s Luck. The debut will be August 25th at AMC Theater, Times Square in New York City and if you want to buy tickets, please go to the New York Latin Film Festival website and you can buy them there. We will also be at the screening so come say hi. All right. Tune in next month for another edition. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Gary Jaquez: Abuela's Luck, Children of Men

July 7, 2018

Episode #7 - Los Angeles-based freelance Cinematographer Gary Jaquez was the appointed contributor. Gary works with Fourwind Films often and was the Cinematographer on our last 2 short films. To follow Gary's future set escapades, check out his Instagram for Behind The Scenes shots on his major projects. The next short film he worked on, Prologue, will be released by Fourwind Films later this year.

Our screening took place in Bushwick at Fourwind Films’ headquarters where for the first film, Gary presented Fourwind’s latest release, Abuela’s Luck (2018), directed by Ricky Rosario. He takes us through wearing multiple hats and creative decision-making on set. He also flips the table during the event discussion and asked other people present about their roles in Abuela's Luck. For this short, we had different things that you’d find in a Brooklyn bodega which included Ho Hos, Little Debbie's, fried plantains, and the beer Presidente which makes it a prominent first appearance in the film.

For the feature, Gary presented Children of Men (2006), directed by Alfonso Cuarón and shot by his hero, Emmanuel Lubezki. Gary gives us further explanation on why Lubezki is an important role model for a Latino in Hollywood. During the film, we brought out some peanuts, and we also had a whiskey and coffee mix that we enjoyed just as Clive Owen’s character enjoyed during the film in addition to some white and red wine.

Credits:

Host - Justin Joseph Hall

Location & Production Company - Fourwind Films

Gary Jaquez - Cinematographer, photo by Daria Huxley

Transcript:

00;00;03;14 - 00;00;43;06

Justin Joseph Hall:

Hi, welcome to Feature & a short, a monthly podcast hosted by Fourwind Films where our appointed contributor presents their chosen feature motion picture and a short movie. There's only one condition for the screening selection that the presenter must have been directly involved with one picture and not the other. This month, after a long hiatus, we'd like to say hello.

We went off and shot a short film entitled Prologue, and we were finishing post-production in another film, Abuela’s Luck, which happens to be the film that Gary Jaquez, our presenter this week, brought to share with us as his short. For his feature, he brought Children of Men.

Fourwind Films shot Abuela’s Luck here in Brooklyn at a bodega. And so during the event, we had bodega food scattered around the viewing area, and that included Ho Hos, Little Debbie's, fried plantains, different things that you'd find in a Brooklyn bodega. We also had the beer Presidente, which makes it a prominent first appearance in Abuela’s Luck. Gary Jaquez works with Fourwind Films often and is a director of photography.

00;01;10;21 - 00;01;27;20

We had a discussion on what it was like to shoot the film, difficulties that Gary ran through, and working with director and producer Ricky Rosario. We had a lot of people who worked on the film in attendance as this was the first private screening.

00;01;27;23 - 00;01;53;22

Gary Jaquez:

And a little backstory about the film, Ricky and I are both of Dominican descent. Both our parents are from over there, and, this is very much like a day in the life of, of, you know, going in and out of the bodega and what the bodega represents to the community. I, personally, have about 6 or 7 uncles and my grandfather who have owned their own bodegas.

00;01;53;25 - 00;02;19;10

And yeah, it's just very common.

Audience:

Here, and like here in the city?

Gary Jaquez:

Here. Two of them were in Manhattan, two were here in Brooklyn and one in Jersey. So yeah, it's, bodegas are very much like a way to success, um, in the eyes of a Dominican immigrant coming to this country. So. I, am, I've been there since, since Abuela's luck was just, you know, a Venn diagram.

Audience:

When was that?

00;02;19;12 - 00;02;40;10

Gary Jaquez:

Oh, man. Maybe, maybe a year and a half ago already. Yeah, it was quite the process. So I guess the toughest part was wearing as many hats as I had to wear. Being as, you know, Ricky and I, you know, we go way back. We've known each other since before high school. I'm a cinematographer and that's my main focus but I played many roles on this film and in doing so, you know, you spread yourself thin.

You know, I was picking up gear and shot listing and then getting something for production design. I came about a week and a half prior to principal photography, and that was the first time I saw the, the location. The interesting story is that we're on our second day of production, and it's about 1 p.m., we're scheduled to shoot till about six. And a guy shows up and he tells us, he says, hey, I own this building. Nobody's paid me for any of this. So unless you want me to show up with cops by 3 p.m., either you're all out of here or you pay me X amount of dollars. I forget exactly the figure, but it was a couple thousand. Mind you, we had already paid the, the bodega, the people who actually lease a spot.

00;03;35;19 - 00;03;53;10

But, yeah, apparently, you know, because he owns a building, he was the one who had the rights to the money. Whatever. Uh, we ended up trying to fight it a little bit, and clock was ticking, so we ended up having to find the money. We figured it out. We kept going. We pushed forward, and we got it done.

00;03;53;12 - 00;04;00;10

Justin Joseph Hall:

The film ended up. It looks very green and, like it just has a green…

00;04;00;12 - 00;04;05;05

Gary Jaquez:

Well, it’s not so much the lights. And, and I noticed even shooting just seeing like the Rec 709 on that image.

Justin Joseph Hall:

But the skintones look great.

00;04;06;13 - 00;04;29;23

Gary Jaquez:

Right? So that's, and it was shot on an Alexa, like, skintones are amazing on an Alexa.

Justin Joseph Hall:

On an Alexa, yeah. Okay, that’s…

Gary Jaquez:

So, what I chalked it up to was just the potato chip bags. And obviously a lot of that stuff is, is very poppy, it’s greens and reds and oranges. And I just, I noticed that overwhelmingly it was green. But Alexas in general don't have a green tint.

00;04;29;23 - 00;04;51;07

So I'm going to chalk that up to location. And Ricky and I both from the beginning we, we pretty much agreed that, like, we really wanted to capture the feel of a bodega. You know, like, he really wanted it poppy like that. He, he wanted, he wanted a location that was going to, every angle you look, everybody was just going to be engulfed.

Because that's, when you go to a bodega, every little corner of the bodega, there's something there that's for sale. Whether it's, you know, shampoo, deodorant, detergent, food, potato chips, salami. Like, there's everything in a bodega that you can even think of. So.

Audience:

Did you guys change out any of the lighting in the bodega itself, or did you just add to it?

Gary Jaquez:

I added to it. If it were up to me, we would have shut everything off in the bodega and just.

Justin Joseph Hall:

That’s hard, that’s hard with…

Gary Jaquez:

Right, but it’s just not realistic. So I shut them off when I could, and I supplemented that, that stuff with, I had an HMI outside, uh, an Aladdin which is small LED that’s nice on skintones.

00;05;31;17 - 00;05;50;28

We had that right behind the cash register to pretty much act as daylight. So, yeah, a little bit of both. We.

Justin Joseph Hall:

I didn't even see that.

Gary Jaquez:

Yeah, I, I did. You actually see it in the movie, but I.

Justin Joseph Hall:

Oh really?

Gary Jaquez:

I’ve asked plenty of people and nobody can tell what it is. And I'm like, it looks like just a piece of window sunlight coming in, but it's a light.

Justin Joseph Hall:

Oh. Okay

Megan Masur:

(laughs)

Gary Jaquez:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Gary Jaquez:

Yeah. And honestly, the whole shutting of the lights, that was never planned. That scene, what we were shooting on our second day, and we're on our way home, and I'm trying to think, like, how could we make this a little better just so it's different, just so we have a little separation? Then I'm like, okay, if I'm a thief, you know, it's the middle of the day kind of, kind of makes sense.

00;06;15;26 - 00;06;31;12

Like, hey, shut the fucking lights off. You know what I'm saying? So we ran with it. He loved it right away. We had him do it. The, the bodeguero, we had him do it in sections from where I was back there with the camera on top of that ladder. So, it just went boom, boom, boom. You know what I'm saying?

00;06;31;12 - 00;06;51;01

Just to kind of, like, guide us into what was going on. So that was kind of my idea was like, just have like the, the light or the lack of light, the lights going off, guide us to, like, the shit that’s going down, then boom, we cut right into like a slider of, of us going into to them silhouetted a bit which was just probably my favorite shot. Yeah.

Audience:

(laughter)

Gary Jaquez:

Yeah.

Gary Jaquez:

Do I get to ask any questions?

Audience:

Yeah.

00;06;57;18 - 00;07;09;21

Gary Jaquez:

Cool. All right. Justin. So, from an editing perspective, what was your favorite part to edit? What part were you editing? And you said, oh, wow.

00;07;09;23 - 00;07;21;09

Justin Joseph Hall:

Well, definitely when you have the more angles. So when we ha–, when the lights turned off, that’s probably more exciting.

Gary Jaquez:

Yeah.

Justin Joseph Hall:

The worst part, though, was when it went to the black and came up. That was a little confusing.

00;07;21;11 - 00;07;38;13

Gary Jaquez:

That actually, congrats to you guys. I didn't know that was going to happen and I thought that worked great. To be honest, he, he, he told me I want to shoot this at a higher frame rate. I want to do slow motion. When the gun comes to his head. And I fought him on that. It’s just at the time, I could not visualize it. Kudos. Kudos to you, Ricky. Kudos to Ricky,

Audience:

(laughter)

Gary Jaquez:

because I just didn't, I could not see it. Just with the sound design that you guys got going on and, and also props to the sound mixer right there. Just the music.

00;07;50;22 - 00;07;52;02

Justin Joseph Hall:

…Yeah, that's Josh Heilbronner.

00;07;52;04 - 00;07;58;05

Gary Jaquez:

The music that came in and everything was just how I'm happy to be wrong. Yeah, yeah.

Audience:

(laughter)

00;07;58;07 - 00;08;00;06

Megan Masur:

Where did the music come from?

00;08;00;08 - 00;08;08;08

Justin Joseph Hall:

Ricky had it all made. Well he licensed two, but I think, but that was from the same artist that composed it. So there was the original songs.

Gary Jaquez:

Yes. Yeah.

Justin Joseph Hall:

And then he licensed the last…

00;08;08;10 - 00;08;16;13

Gary Jaquez:

Which are very, they're, they're, they're actually a group that's very common amongst a Dominican community here in New York, New Jersey.

Justin Joseph Hall:

MaxBanda?

Gary Jaquez:

How do you know?

00;08;16;15 - 00;08;17;18

Justin Joseph Hall:

Because I edited the film.

Audience:

(laughs)

Gary Jaquez:

Oh, okay.

Audience:

(laughter)

Gary Jaquez:

Is that what you did?

Gary Jaquez:

MaxBanda, very popular amongst the Dominican community. It was very nice of them to, to, I guess, help push the culture forward. I got a question for you, Daria. What was your favorite part about the titles?

Audience:

(laughter)

00;08;37;05 - 00;08;47;10

Daria Huxley:

I like Ricky’s vision. I mean, I think he really had a clear vision on how they should look like.

Gary Jaquez:

Yeah. Yeah, he did.

Daria Huxley:

And I try to suggest, like, something else but it was very clear, so…

00;08;47;12 - 00;09;11;12

Gary Jaquez:

That's so funny, I did too. I was like, what do you mean you want bubbles, man? How old are you? But no, it came out, it came…

Audience:

(laughter)

Gary Jaquez:

It came, it came out really good, man. And stuff that people don't even catch like the radio announcer in the back.

Audience:

Yeah, that's.

Gary Jaquez:

That's my cousin, Billy.

Audience:

Oh, it's your cousin! Man.

Gary Jaquez:

That's my cousin Billy and our friend Phil who was actually the person I moved out to California with.

00;09;11;12 - 00;09;14;00

Justin Joseph Hall:

Wait, they did the pop up text, texts…

00;09;14;02 - 00;09;24;03

Megan Masur:

Oh, yeah. Those were awesome. I love when movies use that. That's an amazing way to be, to show text message.

Audience:

I think…

Megan Masur:

I hate seeing… shot the phone.

Audience:

Yeah.

00;09;24;04 - 00;09;28;15

Justin Joseph Hall:

I think, I think we used inspiration, high maintenance…

Megan Masur:

Yes! And yeah, I…

Justin Joseph Hall (as narrator):

After the discussion, Gary introduced Children of Men, directed by Alfonso Cuarón, who often works with the famous director of photography, Emmanuel Lubezki. Children of Men is especially famous for the cinematography and the, the use of long takes. There's a famous sequence in the film that is one shot. Emmanuel Lubezki did not win the Oscar for this film, but with his unique style and this was sort of the launching pad for that style, he ended up winning two Oscars in the future as the director of photography.

00;10;03;00 - 00;10;26;08

Gary Jaquez:

So, I chose Children of Men because it's actually one of my favorite films, particularly because of the cinematography on this thing. So, little backstory. When I moved to California, my first day at Panavision who's prepping for their next movie is the one, the only.

Audience:

Really?

Gary Jaquez:

Yeah.

Gary Jaquez:

So. And mind you, I was already a big fan. So I see him and I'm like, no, no way, no fucking way.

Audience:

Do you notice anything?

Gary Jaquez:

The DP is called Emmanuel Lubezki, but they call him Chivo, Chivo Lubezki.

Audience:

Oh.

Gary Jaquez:

That's his nickname. They're, they're, they're all Mexican. All three of them. They kind of grew up together, came up together. They went to film school in Mexico.

Audience:

Oh, okay.

Gary Jaquez:

Yeah. So Iñárritu, he's the one who did like Birdman and Cuarón, I think, did this one. And he also did like Gravity. But yeah, he pretty much works like, like exclusively with them. Yeah. But yeah, so I, I, I started this job at Panavision. I, you know, I was skeptical going in and then I see this guy, I'm like, okay. I'm where I need to be because this is already a guy that I study and here he is testing lenses for his upcoming movie, The Revenant. And, yeah. Like, I guess maybe I'm a little biased because there’s just not a lot of Latino cinematographers, so I'm drawn to that. But that's just a talking point because at the end of the day,

Audience:

Oh, he’s the best.

Gary Jaquez:

He's, he's awesome. He's awesome. And, and this movie that's already 12 years old will show you that, like, he's not joking around. He wasn't joking around 20... It didn't take, you know, The Revenant, you know, deciding to shoot everything in natural light and, and 12 mil lenses. It didn't, it wasn't that that made him great. Like, he's been awesome. And even before this he also, I believe he also shot Y tu mamá también. Right? Back then, he was more, more longer lens. Now, as of recent, is more wider.

Justin Joseph Hall:

Oh, okay.

00;11;50;24 - 00;12;08;22

Gary Jaquez:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, which he'll showcase in things like The Revenant. He doesn't like to do interviews. So it's kind of hard to, like, really dive into his head. Uh, but the times that he has, he's, especially in regards to the wide angle stuff, he feels it's very, uh, intimate. You're very intimate with the, with the…

Audience:

That’s what my, my directors, the directors who I work with who are also cinematographers, vérité, they say the same thing.

Gary Jaquez:

Yeah.

Justin Joseph Hall:

They live off it.

Gary Jaquez:

Yeah.

Audience:

And they, they live off of it.

Gary Jaquez:

Yeah.

Audience:

That's what they do.

00;12;16;18 - 00;12;33;27

Gary Jaquez:

Yeah. Which is interesting to me because I'm not the. I'm, like I wouldn't naturally gravitate towards that because of what wide angles does to, like, faces. You know, it really kind of like distorts the faces and whatnot. But I mean, but the proof is in the pudding. It works because he's amazing and he has Oscars to prove it. So with that said, ladies and gentlemen, let's dive.

00;12;37;15 - 00;12;58;16

Justin Joseph Hall (as narrator):

As food is pretty scarce in the world of Children of Men, during the film we brought out some peanuts, but we also had a whiskey and coffee mix that we enjoyed just as Clive Owen's character enjoyed during the film in addition to some white and red wine. After Children of Men finished, we had a quick discussion in reaction to what we just saw.

Justin Joseph Hall:

Thank you so much for listening. If you would like to see Abuela's Luck, the film that we executive produced at Fourwind Films for yourself, it is going to be playing in film festivals. To get more information, the best way is either follow Fourwind Films on our social media. It is f-o-u-r-w-i-n-d-f-i-l-m-s, so you can follow Fourwind Films. Or you can follow Abuela's Luck on Instagram. That is a-b-u-e-l-a-s-l-u-c-k. And those will have all the informations for future viewings for the short film. Please leave us a review. Wherever you listen to this podcast, we'll be broadcasting out to you. Thank you very much for listening.