HD feature film reviews
Simone reviewed byJohnathon Forman NY Post
What makes "Simone" worth watching are not the obvious potshots at Hollywood narcissism and celebrity culture nor the pseudo-interesting technological premise (the threat posed to the art of movies by computer-generated imagery) - but the performances by Al Pacino and the always excellent Catherine Keener, and the photography by Ed Lachman.
Spy Kids II reviewed by Paul Goodwin, Portsmouthnh.com
Spy Kids II works because the cast is attractive and the gadgets are neat and the pace is so satisfyingly breakneck that you never have a chance to get bored or critical. It also has a nice insider tone that lets you know that the movie knows that none of this makes sense, but isn't it fun?
SESSION 9 Resreviews Laura Kern
The looming hospital is an ideal location for the events to unfold and cinematographer Uta Briesewitz does an impressive job capturing its menacing presence. Shot on 24P, "Session 9" is proof that that format is really coming along....It is suspenseful, genuinely unsettling and keeps you guessing right until the very end. In concept and partly in execution..... Anderson reportedly wants to make another horror film and I look forward to what's to come.
Mike Bassett: England Manager Variety, Derek Elley
"Though actually shot on high-def video, whole pic looks amazingly like it was made directly on 35mm."
Vidoc Screen International October 28th review of HD featuredirected by Pitof
"Visually, it is often extraordinary, but, as with Brotherhood of The Wolf, the pictorial dynamics are quickly sapped by the clunky scripting, wooden acting..."
Our Lady of Assassins Variety review of by Todd MCCarthy. Shot on 1st generation HDcam camera.
"Schroeder chose to shoot HD to half his production schedule. The resulting transfer looks generally OK except for two elements- the generally flat unvariegated flesh tones, and a visual jumpiness that often occurs when the camera pans or tilts or when vehicles go by at certain speeds. Latter stems from problems in transferring the 30fps HD700 format to 24fps 35mm film" Note There is a significant difference between the HDW700 and the more recent 24p HD cameras. Blurryness isn't an intrinsic part of shooting and transferring HD to film, if one acquires at 24p or 25p.
LA Times Kevin Thomas, staff writer reviewing Our Lady of the Assassins
"its destined to be the most powerful and important foreign language films"
Bill's Gun Shop reviewed by Jonathan W. Hickman
"Bill's Gun Shop" is shot on high definition video by veteran cinematographer Mickey Freeman. I can't say enough good things about the way the film looks. Although I saw the film on television (via a tape mailed to us), it looked clear and sharp with texture that felt as good to me as Carl Franklin's "One False Move." Again, because I knew it was shot in video, I looked hard for problems but found nothing significant--the opening sequence in the woods looked a little too dark to me but it was a night shot so what do I expect. Certainly, on the big screen the film should look terrific.
Tadpole reviewed by Betsy Pickle, News-Sentinel film critic
The movie, shot in 15 days with high-definition video cameras, is lightweight yet sophisticated. Love is tough at any age. It's hard to find the right person, and even if you do, daily life has a way of eroding any semblance of passion or magic. Even with the taboo of the age difference, "Tadpole" doesn't feel nearly as exploitative or pornographic as the countless Hollywood films that pair aging male movie stars with female co-stars less than half their age. OK, so that argument wouldn't hold up in a statutory-rape case; that's where it helps to hold on to the"sophisticated" and "French" interpretations of the film.
Russian Ark reviewed by Bryan Appleyard Sunday Times
"By the simple decision to film the whole thing in one take, Russian Ark exposes the vacuity of much contemporary moviemaking. Computers and special effects can amaze us no more. They routinised the cinematic image to the point where we take the manipulation of reality merely as a given......we are happy to bask in the cheap thrills of a medium that that has reneged on its obligations to reality."
Screen International "The film's look augurs well for the future sales of the 24p HD,....."
(Jeff Cree from Sony, has said that this is the film that Sony Classic Pictures bought not realizing that it was shot on HD)
Matinee Magazine, Jason Clark / The one distinction the movie has above any other is that it is the first film shot with the brand-spanking new 24P HDTV digital format (the same one that George Lucas is using for the next Star Wars feature) and I'm happy to report that it is a success. Steadfast movie buffs will notice its differences, but to the untrained eye, it offers surprisingly rich results, especially coupled with M. David Mullen's evocative photography, also a standout feature in the Polish's Twin Falls Idaho. It lacks the depth of film, but used correctly, it could really give celluloid a run for its money, and has none of the crudity of recent movies like Bamboozled or Chuck & Buck, which didn't exploit the digital craze to any kind of logical means. Jackpot looks crisp and picaresque, and points to a promising digital future.
City Search, Dan Fazio / Shot on a high-definition digital camera, the movie features stunning imagery, such as a panoramic shot of Sunny's pink Chrysler against a big sky.
Slant Magazine, Ed Gonzales / Jackpot is the first film shot with a Sony CineAlta 24 HD camera to be shown in theaters. Mullen's color palette is gorgeous and his trashy color schemes more than compliment the film's Midwest settings.
Reel.Com, Pam Grady / As they did Twin Falls Idaho, the Polish brothers display a keen eye for the low-rent Americana of dive bars and diners. This is not some Hollywood art director's imagined vision of what the world alongside the road looks like, but the real deal with all of the immediacy of a Robert Frank photograph. Director of Photography M. David Mullen shot Jackpot with the 24P HDTV camera that George Lucas developed for the next Star Wars movie. The results are impressive, as the camera captures equally well the dark, shimmering ambiance of discos and taverns and the bright, garish light of the daytime view outside the Chrysler's windows.
Hollywood Reporter, David Hunter / Using the same Sony high-definition digital camera that George Lucas employed on the next "Star Wars" film as "capture medium," "Jackpot" is most satisfying visually and is a mostly unpretentious film that grows on one over time.
Film Journal International, Doris Toumarkine / Jackpot has a terrific wide-screen look
Daily New Los Angeles, Glenn Whipp / The picture's look is impressive
Metroactive San Jose, Jimmy Aquino / the surprisingly garish and textured cinematography by the Polishes' regular collaborator M. David Mullen is a plus
This review was based on seeing it digitally projected, the only reviewer to see it that way:
Film Threat, Tim Merrill / Cinematographer M. David Mullen captures (capturing is the byword now, not filming) images of crystalline clarity, brighter and sharper than ever seen before. Colors pop out like mad, particularly the truly shocking pink of Les' trusty New Yorker.
Austin Chronicle, Marjorie Baumgarten / Both Twin Falls, Idaho and Jackpot were shot by cinematographer M. David Mullen, whose mood-setting visual contributions cannot be underestimated. Jackpot was shot on high-definition video, yet the image clarity and resolution of the film transfer give no hint of video's usual flatness and artificiality. The look the filmmakers achieve is just right for capturing the atmosphere of the smoky bars and clubs that Les and Sunny frequent night after night, and the long hours of intimacy they share in the front seat of the Cadillac as they travel the lonesome Western roads by day.
TV Guide Movie Guide, Maitland McDonagh / …the film was shot on high-definition video, and the cinematography's gloomy glamour is one of its greatest assets.
San Diego Union-Tribune/ Karla Peterson / "Jackpot" looks fabulous
Chicago Tribune / Michael Wilmington, Most critics have described "Jackpot" as a comedown from "Twin Falls," but I liked it much better. The ending is enigmatic (you've got to remember that the film uses fractured chronology and flashbacks throughout), but the acting is primo and the cinematography, on high-definition video by the gifted M. David Mullen, is striking.
From Film & Video November issue: Rave Macbeth. By G.Jarrett
The notion that Shakespeare's characters are cliched whilst his plots grow more powerful by the century was given immense credence by Baz Luhrmann's Romeo+Juliet. Before and since that release countless modern interpretations of his major works have struggled to fit the Bard's dialogue into the mouths of prototype characters, living in stark pockets of contemporary society.
This is not a problem that dogs Rave Macbeth, because once writer Harry Ki had given his script to producer Stefan Jonas they had a clear plan for the project that was to become the first full length feature shot on Sony's HDCAM format.
"Rave communities are huge in number, strong and happening, and what we planned was an interpretation of Macbeth. Our first decision was to skip Shakespeare's language, and the action was written to happen in one night. It is very contemporary; but still explores the traditional issues of greed, power, jealousy, murder, and sex. It's also a powerful anti drug message," said Jonas.
One of the four founders of Das Werk, now a group of 65 companies with 750 staff, Jonas started Frame Werk to satisfy a lifelong desire to make movies. He started out shooting news on reversal film, his mother was an editor, and grandfather worked at Babelsberg Studios in their prime.
Frame Werk cannot be part of Das Werk yet for development reasons, but the disciplines that Jonas follows come from the group.
"The founders' concept was that if we own post production, it's easier to produce. It's still fun to do it. We live for it, and it is still our vision," he explained.
"Road Movies was the first content company acquired. Since then the content investments include funding the 3D animation company Trixter, which wins prestige work like Peter Pan and Mobey Dick. My own mission is to make English language features and produce at least a portion of each one out of Europe. Rave Macbeth fitted to my vision, because it was a small picture we could handle and shoot out of Munich. We brought in the cast from LA."
The producer's tale
Harry Ki is the younger brother of Jonas' Canadian partner Seijin Ki (of Falcon Films). His version of Shakespeare's gruesome play gives us a male Hecate, three witches - The Petry Girls - that are the cosmetic opposite of the traditional hags and appear far more frequently, a Lady Macbeth who commits murder by pill, and a Macduff who is cast as head bouncer. Birnham Wood does not come unto Dunsinane, but the Petrys foretell the same doom: "The day is lost only when blood rains from heaven."
Why would a fledgling producer risk such a gem by shooting on HDCAM when the cameras, lenses and support technology were so rare?
"We saved a lot of money - 500-600,000 DM on a budget of $3.5m - but this was not the reason we elected to shoot on video. We also saved on lighting and electricians, because the camera was ideal for shooting in variable low light amongst 3,500 extras in the rave club Nacht Gallery," said Jonas.
"The 'film is dead' issue is bullshit. HDCAM is an additional tool that will never blow away 35mm because of the sensitivity of the film camera. But there were many conveniences in using HD, apart from money and low light sensitivity. One was the 2K monitor which we treated like a video assist. You can also wrap the set in the evening because you're not waiting for a lab report.
"We shot all the time, with the two cameras, doing 30 reloads a day. Each reload (40 minutes) took no more than three minutes, and the actors said this helped them keep concentration. You get a new look, which I describe as the '3D look' because it separates a sharp background from the foreground. But HDCAM should fit to the content and the script, as it did for Rave Macbeth. I could not imagine using it for a historical drama," he added.
Jonas started out with ambitions to direct the movie and operate the second camera. He quickly dropped both jobs.
"I couldn't risk that involvement with the camera. After three days I saw the dailies and said we must speed up. Klaus Knoesel came on board in February 2000, when I recognised I had to admit to myself that we needed someone else," he said.
"As producer, I financed Rave Macbeth personally, with one partner in Media! AG (his HDCAM supplier) and seven companies of the Das Werk Group on a deferment basis. This leads back to the original concept of owning post production."
The director's tale
Knoesel remembered Jonas giving him the script. "When I read a script I need three days to know what vision I want to follow, and what the background will be. It was easy to see Macbeth was perfect to condense, to tell the whole story in one night," he said.
"The interaction between the original play, which happens over weeks of time, is not possible to tell in a modern rave surrounding where you should think about how a police investigation would interfere, and stuff like that. The film should give the feeling to the audience that you don't know if the dancers are from rich or poor families: it doesn't matter, they go to a rave and that's where it starts."
Although Rave Macbeth is a low budget movie, Jonas did not force HDCAM on Knoesel and DP Arturo Smith.
"The decision to go for HD came out of the Berlin Film Festival where Jonas and I saw a trailer promoting the HDCAM format. It featured bits and pieces from test shots Wim Wenders did, and we had some discussion with Wim afterwards and saw the opportunities for our project," said Knoesel.
"Shooting in a real rave situation I wanted to have the atmosphere as authentic as possible. We had two days with 3,500 people dancing - they don't like it if it's bright. They need the darkness to get in the mood of dancing.
"HDCAM is unbelievably good in low light conditions, so our lighting concept was just to build up a little laser light in addition to the light they had in the disco. We also put two xenons in for moving lights. The rest was just a little flash light on top of the camera. That was basically our lighting rig, and that would never have been possible on 35mm," he added.
Another crucial stage was the casting, both of the young stars in LA and the Petry Girls in Germany.
"Casting agent Susan Peck suggested a lot of people. I was at the casting in May 2000 and I saw 30 actors for each of the five main parts. In Germany the casting conditions are not as good as in LA, where the actors sometimes have three auditions a week, and are always well prepared for each new character," said Knoesel.
Peck helped him find Michael Rosenbaum (Marcus the Macbeth character), Nicki Lynn Aycos (the Lady M character Lidia), Kirk Baltz (the club and drug King Dean), and the hapless victims Helena played by Marguerite Moreau, and Troy played by Jamie Elman. The witches were Knoesel's personal discoveries.
"In the play the witches are always old and ugly. I decided to have older women than the usual young raver and selected the famous German actresses Anna Thalbach, Annette von Klier and Jeanette Hain. They are all young mothers, which I found personally interesting because it gives them a different behaviour," he said.
Anna is the daughter of Katharina Thalbach, whose glittering stage career includes direction of a celebrated production of Macbeth that ran for seven years. Knoesel took plenty of advice from the Thalbachs, including encouragement from Anna's father Thomas, who did an acclaimed Macbeth translation into German.
"For me that was perfect preparation about the ideas of Macbeth and what's behind the whole plot. The witches are featured much more in our film than they are in the play. But they have the same job to do - drive Macbeth into personal catastrophe," said Knoesel.
The director did not think the 2K assist and quick reloads were big deals.
"They are not so important for a director. As I'm used to shooting on 35mm, I know how to use breaks I get through the shooting process. You can use them for discussing things with an actor," he said.
"But HD was very helpful sometimes, especially on the days where we had a lot of extras. We shot with the music running, because the extras can't dance without music, so the communication was not normal on the set. We had to discuss a lot in advance or find a code - sometimes I just played with red and green light sticks. So the direction, even of the actors, was a little bit unusual. Using HD it was a great help that we could say 'it doesn't matter if we lose a little bit of material, just keep it running and do it again'.
For cinema release, Rave Macbeth was printed out to film at Das Werk via an Arri Laser, but how was it offlined and onlined?
"We went directly from the HD tapes into a PC-based Avid," said Knoesel. "It was capable of handling the 24 fps. You edit at 25 fps and later your EDL works fine, but we had to have an Avid that gave us the right EDL.
"We got a lot of bullshit from the technical side. The HD recorders from Sony at that time made mistakes in counting numbers from 24 to 25. We gave an edit out for a MIFED trailer, and half the EDL was wrong!
"We corrected by hand, and later found out that the connection through to editing had not been thought out properly."
Where does Knoesel now sit in the film versus HD debate?
"My experience is that there is only a connection between both things. People ask me if I would shoot my next film on HD and I can only say
I would shoot on HD if it makes sense, and I would immediately shoot again on film if it makes sense. And I would even like to shoot a mixture, because I think you will never see it later on the screen if you use the right camera for the right condition," he said.
"For example if you have a script that plays basically daylight outside somewhere and has one extremely problematic scene, for example in a red light district where you can't really light anything, HDCAM is perfect. My experience is that the dark light sensitivity of the camera is nearly unbeatable."
Quote outs.
Stefan Jonas: "Europe has good locations, good film labs, good kit, good post houses, no unions and good studios. I will never do a picture without a domestic deal. Banks are now talking to me because what I did with my little structure was develop notable original content. We are filmmakers, not finance guys."
Klaus Knoesel: "On a low budget movie you cannot plan every single step and it was not that we had the option of directing 3,500 dancers. A lot of things in the film are just the rave atmosphere. For me, one thing that was unbelievable about the HD cameras was that even working with the different colours of the lights the finished image is very close to the original thing we taped. There is very little colour correction."
Klaus Knoesel: "During my whole preparation I always thought that my main cast should move in a different time than the dancers, who are not affected by the whole Macbeth plot."
Klaus Knoesel: "I like the basics of doing FX shots from thought not technique. There are still so many things you can do with actors and ideas. Technique is not making the movie - it is a welcome help to realisation."
Lidia's murder of Helena with a rogue Ecstasy tab is the most powerful scene in the movie. "That is the scene which does not exist in the play Macbeth. Harry Ki brought it up from the first draft, and it was one of our casting scenes for the two girls," said Klaus Knoesel.
"The kill with pill, had to do with the whole problematic thing. If you do a rave movie, which has to deal with drugs, it shouldn't be a movie which glorifies them. It is a thing you can enjoy and have a sort of a trip, but what stays in mind is that drugs are dangerous."
Links HD Pictures - The HDTV Information Source
Stuart Calcote - HDTV Producer/Director
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