rogerjporter Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 I just saw a preview for a new horror movie called the midnight meat train, about a leica toting street photographer in new york who starts unwittingly photographing murder victims, and his leica sounds suspiciously similar to a canon 1v with the motor drive blaring... i wonder if it is just the preview creators who don't know better or if we are going to be treated to another movie where the director has never handled a camera before? anybody have any other favorite movie camera inconsistencies? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Laur Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 I'll settle for any episode of CSI:Wherever. Apparently every camera ever made has infinite resolution, but only a buxom or dashing technician using software running on a ridiculous-sounding operating system with a 10-foot transparent plexiglass display is capable of teasing out those true, accurate images. *sigh* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertshults Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 The thing that gets to me is the omnipresence in movies of disastrous darkroom technique. I recall that "Blow-up" has decently consisent DR work (excepting the ease with which David Hemmings creates a 4x5 copy negative), "Elephant" has a good DR scene, which is, accurately, fairly tedious. RE: "Midnight Meat Train", reminds of the X-files episode "Tithonus", wherein Scully investigates a photographer able to forsee (and, subsequently, photograph) the deaths of his subjects. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0751245/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aplumpton Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 I heard that Leica will bring out a special "Darth Vador" version of the MP, with an upgraded quiet shutter of sinister quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertshults Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 Awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_l3 Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 The Wire on HBO occasionally shows a camera used for surveillance, presumably a modern DSLR with exotic long lens. It's really a 35 year old Nikon F2S Photomic with what looks like an old Spiratone, or similar, 400mm f8 lens. I even saw an actor crank the film wind lever after taking a photo with the fake motor drive sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christoph_hammann Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 Robert,<br> In that X-Files episode you linked to the prescient photographer is named Alfred Fellig. That is (obviously intentionally) close to a real photographer: Arthur Fellig was ... <br> Weegee!<br> Had to chuckle when I read that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpo Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 Talking about movies, may be you are interested in this <a href="http://www.popphoto.com/gallery.aspx?section_id=50§ion_prefix=featuresamer&webtrends_section=featuresamer&article_id=5137&window_id=1&gallery_id=1405&page_number=1&seq=1&cnt=5&slide=on">American Photo article</a>. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertshults Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 Christoph is pretty sharp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertshults Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 I just thought of another one. Now, I haven't seen the movie, but in the Broadway production of "Rent" the character Mark explains that he cannot film Benny's apologies to the other characters because "I had no juice in my battery." Unfortunately, the prop used was an admmittedly beautiful, but manually wound Bolex H-16. Plus, he had no sound recording equipment anyway. I have to agree with the author of the American Photo article the "Apocalypse Now" may not qualify as a movie ABOUT a photographer. "Salvador" seems a notable omission; I'd be willing to drop "Pecker" to make space. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david j.lee Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 hey, what about Austin Powers...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack_lo_..._t_o Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 In John Sayle's "Passion Fish" , the main character uses a Leica M that apparently had had a Nikon mirror installed. I always thought Hollywood was so attentive to details, that they hired people to see after these things. In 70s TV, a lot of mean bikers were apparently riding hogs powered by 100cc two-stroke engines! But what kind of person works for an arts organisation? People that never did an oil change or used a camera that requires mechanical aptitude. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david j.lee Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 i liked "closer" with Julia Roberts as a photographer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogerjporter Posted March 8, 2008 Author Share Posted March 8, 2008 I loved Pecker, but i don't remember much about Apocalypse Now, i should watch it again soon. Salvador definitely should have been on the list. I watch that one regularly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertshults Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 Yeah, good call, David. At its core, "Closer" explores the ways in which people mediate the realities of their interpersonal relationships (again, see "Blow Up"). As such, that play and subsequent film couldn't really exist without a photographer-character could it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronin1 Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 My favorite photographer movie, after "Rear Window", is aptly named "The Photographer" (2000). http://imdb.com/title/tt0240802/ I rented "The Notorious Bettie Page" when it first came out to watch with my then 95-year old Dad. It's the only movie in years that he's stayed awake for the whole movie in one sitting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogerwb Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 My favorite (?) faux pas is the forties period movies with press photogs using Speed Graphics at full bellows extension. Also WWII movies showing photogs with Pacemakers. It's been a long time since I've seen it, but I thought Robt. Bedford in "Under Fire" was fairly convincing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertshults Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 Perhaps you're thinking of Nick Nolte? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086510/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orvillerobertson Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 How about TV's Night Stalker? Kolchak was always deftly and nimbly photographing these "creatures" as they closed in on him. Awesome series. Darren McGavin was a wonderful and quirky actor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lutz Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 I second Roger's vote for Nick Nolte. He even follow-focused very convincingly while shooting with a long lens on several occasions in the movie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogerwb Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 Nick Nolte is correct. Foggy brain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bstinshoff Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 Seems like a lot of horizontal shots in movies and tv always come back with pictures in a vertical format. Interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogerjporter Posted March 9, 2008 Author Share Posted March 9, 2008 I just watched Death Proof last night and Kurt Russell uses what looks like a manual nikon camera with a long lens, and the shutter sound was convincing, but when they showed the view he was seeing is was completely letterbox format just like the movie. Oh well, i guess bits of the movie are in black and white, and there are intentional scratches and smudges across the film to make it look like an old 1970's low quality grind house movie. I thought James Woods pulled off in Salvador just as good a performance as NIck Nolte did in Under Fire. someday i will have to watch those back to back, so i can compare just how similar the stories are. different war, but i remember them having very close story lines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CosteaM Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 What camera was Harvey Keitel using in "Smoke" to take one picture of the street at the same time every day for many years. that was a cool idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dg1 Posted March 12, 2008 Share Posted March 12, 2008 In "Ronin" DeNiro does some stealthy camera work with a Leica R, then they have some BW 8X10s hanging in the safe house.. don't recall seeing an enlarger or other equipment.. Maybe they had Walgreens do them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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