November 16, 2021

Cinematographer Mihai Mălaimare Jr. on shooting the stylized Western film, The Harder They Fall

Cinematographer Miahi Mălaimare Jr. understands the power of images to communicate a feeling right away, and in a more straightforward way than with spoken language. For The Harder They Fall, Mihai discovered that as both a director and a singer-songwriter, Jeymes Samuel communicates through music, and the two enjoyed working together to find the visual language of the film. The Harder They Fall is a mashup of blaxploitation, spaghetti Western and musical in one sprawling and stylish package. Samuel had previously made a shorter Western called They Die By Dawn, but Mihai had never shot a Western before. They were prepping to shoot in March of 2020 in New Mexico, then everything was halted due to the pandemic. Finally, in July of 2020 Jeymes called up Mihai to see if he could be ready to shoot within a few weeks. They headed out to New Mexico and shot the film while under strict COVID protocols.

Both Mihai and Samuel took visual ideas for The Harder They Fall from The Wild Bunch and several Sergio Leone movies. Finding the rhythm within a scene was a huge part of the film. Samuel had a few songs written into the script and would often play music on set. The script was very challenging with several complicated shots, a large cast, dealing with horses, guns, set pieces and period costumes, but Jeymes Samuel and Mihai were able to achieve Samuel’s vision with prep, discussions every night, and many, many rehearsals.

You can watch The Harder They Fall on Netflix.

Mihai recently wrapped the currently untitled HBO drama series about the Lakers in the 1980’s.

Find Mihai Mălaimare Jr. Instagram: @malaimarejr_photography @malaimarejr_cinematography

WIN an autographed copy of Directing Great Television by our recent guest, director Dan Attias! Follow us on Instagram @thecinepod and comment on our post for this episode!

Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links: https://camnoir.com//ep148/

Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com

Sponsored by Assemble: Assemble has amazing production management software. Use the code cinepod to try a month for free! https://www.assemble.tv/
Be sure to watch our YouTube video of Nate Watkin showing how Assemble works! https://youtu.be/IlpismVjab8

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheCinematographyPodcast
Facebook: @cinepod
Instagram: @thecinepod
Twitter: @ShortEndz

November 9, 2021

Jay Rosenblatt, independent filmmaker, artist and professor on being a jury member of CamerImage

Our host Illya Friedman had the opportunity to speak to one of his former film instructors, Jay Rosenblatt at CamerImage back in 2019. Jay taught Super 8 Filmmaking at San Francisco State University and has made over 30 short films. As a member of the jury for the Energa CamerImage film festival in Poland for the past several years, Jay looks for innovative storytelling in the films they screen.

Jay’s latest short film is When We Were Bullies, which premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and will be screening at CamerImage next week.

The 2021 CamerImage film festival begins in Torun, Poland next week.

Find Jay Rosenblatt: https://www.jayrosenblattfilms.com/

WIN an autographed copy of Directing Great Television by last week’s guest, director Dan Attias! Follow us on Instagram @thecinepod and comment on our post for this episode!

Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links: https://camnoir.com//ep147/

Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com

Sponsored by Assemble: Assemble has amazing production management software. Use the code cinepod to try a month for free! https://www.assemble.tv/
Be sure to watch our YouTube video of Nate Watkin showing how Assemble works! https://youtu.be/IlpismVjab8

Sponsored by DZOFilm: https://www.dzofilm.com/

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheCinematographyPodcast
Facebook: @cinepod
Instagram: @thecinepod
Twitter: @ShortEndz

November 3, 2021

Dan Attias, Emmy-nominated director and author of Directing Great Television: Inside TV’s New Golden Age

Dan Attias has directed dozens of episodes of critically acclaimed television shows such as The Wire, The Sopranos, Homeland, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Americans, Billions, and many more. His years of experience led him to write the book, Directing Great Television: Inside TV’s New Golden Age. The book is not only for those who want to direct, but also for fans who want to know how these shows are made.

In college, Dan studied acting and had to make a short film as part of his film studies. He found he enjoyed being behind the camera as a director, and continued to study film with an eye to directing. Dan started working on several big movies as an assistant director, such as E.T., One From the Heart, Airplane! and Twilight Zone: The Movie. His first directing job was on Stephen King’s Silver Bullet, a werewolf horror movie produced by Dino De Laurentiis.

Dan finds the best way to approach directing a television show is to get invested in the story by finding what interests you in the script. In series television, directors often don’t even get the script until a few days before they’re going to direct it. If the show already exists, Dan likes to immerse himself in the show, watching several episodes and asking the production to send over past scripts. Directing one episode of a long-running show is like writing just one chapter of a novel- it needs to fit in seamlessly to the entire story, while still feeling compelling and propelling the story forward. A director of episodic TV has to balance making it their story while still executing the showrunner’s vision and honoring the intention of the writers. Dan also likes to explore every scene of the episode he’s directing with the writers during a tone meeting. He often asks, what is the story being told? The story isn’t simply what happens, but the meaning that you give to what happens- where you’re directing the audience’s focus. Make sure you keep asking yourself, how does it make me feel? The director must be able to dig down with the actors and come up with an interesting subtext to the story if the scene needs a boost.

Find Dan Attias: www.danattias.com

Directing Great Television: Inside TV’s New Golden Age is available on Amazon.

WIN an autographed copy of Directing Great Television! Follow us on Instagram @thecinepod and comment on our post for this episode!

Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links: https://camnoir.com//ep146/

Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com

Sponsored by Assemble: Assemble has amazing production management software. Use the code cinepod to try a month for free! https://www.assemble.tv/
Be sure to watch our YouTube video of Nate Watkin showing how Assemble works! https://youtu.be/IlpismVjab8

Sponsored by Aputure: https://www.aputure.com/

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheCinematographyPodcast
Facebook: @cinepod
Instagram: @thecinepod
Twitter: @ShortEndz