I have spent the last few months seriously thinking about my current choices when it comes to my career. Having the career I want is incredibly important to me, not because I want huge success or to make vast sums of money, were that the case I have certainly picked the wrong profession. I want [...]
50 Documentaries of the Decade
Last week Paste declared their 25 Documentaries of the Decade. To be honest it was a bit of a disappointingly obvious list, in terms of safely including most of the biggest docs of the decade. Every film on their list is a great documentary but there were also a great amount of other films that possibly should have seen a mention. I tried to limit to 25 but it's just impossible. This isn't necessarily in any order, I hate the idea of saying one is better than the other, especially when you're talking 10 years of filmmaking and also the sheer ...
Top 15 Documentaries of 2009
1. Antoine (Laura Bari, Canada, 2009) - website - trailer As usual I couldn't stick to convention and pick 10 or 20, but this is the list that just appeared when I began writing down the documentaries I've loved most this year. I know there are some big films missing but there are a few that I haven't had a chance to see (Collapse, Objectified and Best Worst Movie being three in particular that I'm itching to get hold of.) As with the decade list this isn't in any order, I still can't bring myself to do that. All of these films I ...
Research Process: Clip – Encounters at the End of the World
My friend, and filmmaking partner, Jemma has set me the task of showing her documentaries she hasn't seen so that we can look at visuals and filming techniques for a documentary we are currently in the research stage for. Jemma has largely always focused on current affairs TV docs, as that is her main area of interest, and has little knowledge when it comes to feature documentaries. I don't see this as a bad thing and it means I get a chance to re-watch a lot of films I love, so I've begun trying to think of particular films or ...
Remembering Dennis Stock
Magnum Photographer Dennis Stock sadly died today. Stock started his career as an apprentice to Life magazine photographer Gjon Mili and joined Magnum in 1951. Although best known for his intimate portraits of James Dean he was also a prolific Jazz photographer taking some of the most iconic Jazz portraits in history for his book Jazz Street. in 1968 he founded the production company Visual Objectives and shot several documentaries but returned to Magnum to serve as president of Magnum's film and new media division in 1969 and 1970. Stock generated a book or an exhibition almost every year since the ...
Tag Archives: Filmmaking
Texas: Anticipating Hurricane Ike
We’ve now left Houston as Hurricane Ike is heading towards us. We’ve rented a motel room but everything’s full up as of tomorrow so hopefully we’ll be staying with some local people for the next few days.
It’s actually quite frightening, the confusion and uncertainty more than anything. The news is terrifying making you really feel [...]
Texas Blog: The Beginning
Attempting to make connecting flights when your plane has to fly through a hurricane is a difficult task. Needless to say it didn’t happen, we missed our connection by about 20 minutes.
Heading back to Texas
In 36 Hours I will be on a plane headed back to Texas! Even though it’s been a lot more expensive (due to petrol costs, air fare etc) it’s such a wonderful feeling knowing I’m going back to finish a project that has meant so much to me
Long distance inspiration
It’s probably been close to a year since I last heard from Ali and to be honest I expected never to hear from him again, which made the phone call all the more fantastic.
