Technically Amazing Movies?

[Joves]

Can some movie nut please try to explain what is meant by "Amazing Technical Value"? Thread seems to beg a listing of people's favorite movies which may or may not be "Technically Amazing".

Well how about movies that are like moving photos or have photo moments in them? I think that would be more on the technical side. In that case the opening credits of To Kill a Mockingbird is a moving photo. Then there are films where they freeze on the main subject for a short time or, do so on an object with nice empty space while the character leaves the scene.

 

[NeverGlassImaging]

Can some movie nut please try to explain what is meant by "Amazing Technical Value"? Thread seems to beg a listing of people's favorite movies which may or may not be "Technically Amazing".

That's true. For the record, my definition of a technically amazing movie is one with superb lighting, exposure, sharpness, composition, post processing, and directing.

Napalm or explosions are moot.

 

[craig]

Besides the obvious; Kubrick and Copolla I would like to add

The Sandpit on Vimeo

Not really a movie but it is technically years ahead of it's time.

Love & Bass

 

[NeverGlassImaging]

Besides the obvious; Kubrick and Copolla I would like to add

The Sandpit on Vimeo

Not really a movie but it is technically years ahead of it's time.

Love & Bass

::O

THAT'S ****ING INCREDIBLE!

At first I thought it was using miniaturized figurines, mislead by the opening text, and I wondered how they did the people. I didnt think it was real because it was all so crisp! But when you have over 35,000 raw stills, I guess so!

Thanks for this!

 

[craig]

)'(

 

[Actor]

Citizen Kane
/thread.

Technically perfect but boring!

A technically perfect movie generally means a BIG budget movie, which means you can hire top talent on both sides of the lens. If a big budget movie does not have technical perfection it's on purpose. They want it that way to achieve some sort of artistic effect.

On the opposite end of this spectrum are the opening scenes of Dirty Harry. There's no fill light, nor does the lack of fill seem to serve any artistic purpose. It seems they just did not want to bother lugging the equipment up to the roof of the building. No big deal since the scene only lasts about a minute. I suspect the movie was not considered big-budget.

 

[Actor]

The entire movie was filmed on 70mm film... that's roughly 4 times the resolution of most other movies. (4 times the surface area of the film anyway...)

I'm no film buff, but wouldn't that be 2x the resolution? 35mm x2 = 70mm?

It's wider and taller. It would be like 4 35mm frames arranged in a 2x2 grid.

Edit
I may be wrong on that - not sure now.

It was filmed on Super Panavision 70 though. I don't know the exact dimensions of that.
And, I guess after a little googling, there are a lot more movies filmed on 70mm film than I thought, lol!

The area of the image on 35mm movie film is approximately 24mm x 18mm. The wide screen effect is accomplished with an anamorphic lens. The area is 432sq mm.

Most 70mm formats (actually 65mm in camera) use the Todd-A-O format which is 5 perfs per frame (35mm is 4 perfs) with an aspect ratio of 2.20:1. If the perf pitch is the same as 35mm (I suspect it is) then the image is 22.5mm x 49.5mm, and area of 1113.75. However, this is usually cropped vertically to the cinemascope ratio of 2.35:1, so the effective area is 1043 sq cm. This is 2.4 times the area of 35mm film.

These are in-camera numbers. Distribution prints have to make room for the soundtrack. Todd-A-O uses 65mm film in-camera and 70mm film for projection leaving 5mm for sound track. 35mm makes room for the sound track by "blowing down" the image, i.e., making the image smaller than 24mm x 18mm.

 

[JohnMF]

not sure about the sharpness thing, but...

besides for some already mentioned, a few that stand out for me are...

the Godfather (prob a bit obvious)
Leon (think it was called The Professional in the US)
Jean De Florette and Manon Des Sources (French film/s, probably my favourite film/s of all time)

On a side note, I love to see New York on film, I never tire of it. In the right hands, a shot of New York can leave me in awe.

 

[kundalini]

Citizen Kane
/thread.

Got it in one! :thumbup: The opening scence is wonderful.

 

[fast eddie]

Another amazing example is the 'Dekalog' by Krzysztof Kieślowski. Director Stanley Kubrick described 'Dekalog' as the only masterpiece he could name in his lifetime.

It's not the sharpness of the films (they are not), but the style and composition contribute so much to the mood of the films, that they are almost another character.

 

[Alpha]

The Fall, hands down.

 

[dhilberg]

Besides the already mentioned excellent films like 2001, Blade Runner, Jean De Florette/Manon of the Spring, etc., check out The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. The compositions and camera work are excellent and many of the scenes are quite simply exhilarating. Particularly the opening scene, the scene where The Bad visits his first victim (second scene I think), and the scene near the end where The Ugly is running through the graveyard (the panning work in this scene is phenomenal). I recently picked up the Blu-ray...wow, awesome film. Best viewed on an HD TV for sure. So sharp I thought it was going to cut my TV. Don't be put off by the fact that it's a Spaghetti Western. It's pure art, without a doubt. However, be patient with this one: It's long (3 hours), and many scenes are very, very slow. Totally worth it though.

Also, another film to check out is Delicatessen. It's a French film with English subtitles available. Great camera work. See this one multiple times.

If you've never seen Planet Earth or Galapagos, also highly recommended. Excellent camera work. The Blu-ray versions are awesome.

Dark City: Director's cut is another good one (if you like Sci-Fi). The scenes are very dark. The indoor shots are great, lots of long hallways and big rooms.

There's just so many it's hard to think of them all off-hand. I would love to get Blade Runner, 2001, and Dark City on Blu-ray.

 

[--ares--]

A scanner darkly is one I think is over looked a lot. The defining aspect of that movie was that it was entirely rotoscoped. If you look at the original scenes they look bleak and boring, but once the post production was taken care of it looked like a brand new movie.

 

[Josh66]

The wide screen effect is accomplished with an anamorphic lens.

Yes, I know - but the film (both the actual film and the movie) in question was shot with spherical lenses - not anamorphic.

Not 100% sure what the 'image area' would have been with the spherical/anamorphic differences...



...Anyway, I guess it doesn't really matter much.

 

[matteahmb]

So when I started thinking of movies...I realized most seem to be either indie type movies or foreign.

2046 -This is a foreign sci fi. To be honest, it's a hard movie to get through, but anywhere you pause the movie, would make an amazing photograph. Composition was well thought through.

City of Lost Children - Nice with a dark tone.

Lost in translation/Virgin Suicides -depending on your taste, I appreciated the look of both of these (sofia coppala seems to be off to a good start)

High Art - ok, so I can't say if the actual movie fits what you were looking for, but it's note worthy for some amazing photographs. The movie follows a photographer who shoots amazing candid style shots.