In early November 2018, I attended a class in cinematography presented by Jeremy Wilker at Film North in St. Paul, Minnesota. The class represents another step toward proposing a multi-media documentary production class. The following post brings together 11 takeaways from that two-day workshop. 1. Every shot must serve a purpose. This reminder is important…
Tag: cinematography
The Title ‘Happy People: A Year in the Taiga’ Says It All
The title of Happy People: A Year in the Taiga describes well what the documentary is about. For one year, it follows trappers from the village of Bakhtia, located in the Siberian taiga. In the voiceover, co-director Werner Herzog explains why the trappers are happy with their lives and with hunting in balmy minus 33-degree-Fahrenheit…
Father Advises Son to ‘Tell Them Who You Are’
In the first moments Tell Them Who You Are might seem to be about the life and career of famed cinematographer Haskell Wexler. Wexler stands in his storage room talking for a moment until his son, photographer and filmmaker Mark S. Wexler, asks from behind the camera where he is standing. Thanks to a well-timed…