Anatomy Of Frames

Sun•day On The Tracks: Filmmaking Test

in

Such a cool shot

At some point, this time last year I had the chance to play around with a genuine Germany( maybe Canadian) crafted Leica R lens. With endless excitement and only the weekend to play around with it, to get an idea if I wanted to buy it, I set up an afternoon with Francisco to shoot some test footage.

Like anything I do, there's not an ounce of scientific reasoning for the things I do in the pretentious name of art, which includes A.) filming on active train tracks just because it seemed cool B.) Endangering an old ass lens that I don't own and whipping it around active train tracks & C.) Inching humanly possible to the edge of the tracks to film train whizzing by with 50% regard for safety, but this was never meant to be a technical lens test ( me technical, I laugh).

Proud of the way this framing came about

What I set out to discover about the Leica was its characteristics; the way it renders the world through the Olympus EM5 Mrk III, I wanted to test the kind of mood and atmosphere that can be achieved with this pairing.

Look at that pop in that stance

Creatively I wanted to do something loosely narrative with the test because at the end of the day we're making narratives, so all through this past December, I was toiling over the idea of how to make this test with a semblance of a story(this was a process having just filmed Wolves in The Wilderness and Holiday cheer creeping up). I eventually started listing to the track "Signals From The Noise" by BADBADNOTGOOD (an amazing fucking album you should listen to) and there were parts in the tracks that helped me visualize the mood I wanted to portray.

I started off building my timeline with the track and then this evolved into using audio clips from archived train videos from the '40s, and because I'm such a fan of Jessica Chastain in "The Tree of Life" this led to me using the beautiful monologue of Grace and Nature and bastardizing it for my nefarious purposes( Mwhhaaaa).

Look at that dumbo ear action

I want to say this was filmed at ISO 200 mainly to help cut the amount of daylight without an ND and hoping I wouldn't have to stop down, but that was a fool's game ( damn you sunlight). Looking back on it stopping down wasn't a horrible compromise, I think around F/4 or 5.6 was what we shot for the majority and the rendering looks stellar.

Overall this came out pretty well and this gets me excited to try my Leica R 35mm F2 because as good as the 2.8 is based on this test I couldn't deal with the weird Series VII filter thread situation.

• Olympus EM5 Mark II • Leica R 35mm f/2.8

Hope You Enjoy

-Andrew

A New Re•solve

in

It’s come to my attention that this idea I’ve been working on lately has been on my brain for at least two years now. It’s honestly flooring to look back on the last two years and really reflect on all the changes that have happened. When I started BluePrint VisualWorks I made a declaration that this would be the place I would use to become the filmmaker I want to become. A lot of life has happened to me; lots of heartache, lots of growing pain, and lots of doubt but even then, with all the bumps and bruises and occasional self-deprecating monologues to myself I’m still steely on this resolve.

 

Something that is often preached by my favorite cinematographer, Christopher Doyle, is “why you, why do you dare to be an artist?” That concept of being an artist; to share something of myself to the world that I created; this something that comes from some sort of emotional realm that’s personal and can only be shared through art, in my case through imagery. Why on earth do I dare to share myself in such a way? Is it because of the way I experience life, the way I perceive the world that compels me to create and share? Or maybe the gnawing fear of dying without having shared a piece of myself I can’t summarize with ease. I honestly have no fucking clue, but I do know I’m fortunate to have these questions. I’m fortunate to have a life where I have chosen to express my understanding of the world through film.

I’m happy to share this project that’s very close to me at this point, a project called Triptych. This has been a labor of absolute love and even when I’m banging my head and overwhelmed by the sheer ambition of this idea, I still get excited. Triptych is an anthology exploring the idea of abundance and absence of love, stories told only utilizing three frames of visuals.

One film, starring the lovely Mariannjely Marval, is already in the can, and two more are currently in prep to be filmed later this autumn. It’s bizarre that all the time and effort put into various webs of work is finally forming together and taking shape. The series is my attempt at becoming the filmmaker I want to become, the art I want to share.

In the coming weeks you’ll see a lot more “documenting” of this process, not just because I'm always recording everything,but because I love the making of films and this is an experience I want to remember. A reminder of the struggles and epiphanies this journey brings. An inspiration for the times when the lack of belief from within needs to be rekindled, the belief that this is why I dare to make art.

Hope You Enjoy

-Andrew