Wow - made it into double figures. For week ten, I'm doing a movie-themed week with my attempts at re-creating some of my favourite movie scenes, moments or characters. Thanks to everyone on Facebook who made suggestions (at least those of you who made half-sensible suggestions). I've been spending time looking at stills from some of my favourite films, and that was enoyable enough before I got round to dressing up, using props, threatening my wife with a carving knife and so on. I have to apologise to anyone who has the misfortune to run across me ths week dressed as a hitman, stripped off for boxing or trying to make me out with my cheeks stuffed with cotton wool and saying "Don Barzini...." I make no apologies for the fact that of my seven shots this week, six are self portraits.
17/01/12
I started off trying to produce John Travolta in Pulp Fiction but wasn't sure what I ended up with here. It's definitely threatening and "hitman-ish" but wasn't exactly what I was aiming for. Posing and taking photos with a remore release or self timer is a bit hit and miss. At this point I remembered about using tethered capture in Lightroom and seeing the shots on screen.
18/01/12
Homage to Scorsese and Raging Bull. I picked up a "making off" book about Raging Bull at the recent QFT swap shop and was again reminded that it has always been one of my favourite films. I first saw it on a school rugby trip to London with some school friends when it had just been released. Just as has been the case recently with The Artist, there was a lot of complaining that it was in black and white. I watched it in awe from the moment the opening credits rolled and there was De Niro shadow boxing in the smokey ring in slow motion to the strains of violins. Gorgeous.
19/01/12
Another of my all time favourites - Brando as Vito Corleone. With the box set of Godfather movies there is a disc with extras and on this is the "costume test" they made Brando do before giving him the part. They called it a costume test because they knew Brando would throw a huff and walk away if he knew he was being screen tested for the role. Anyhow - Brando just starts packing his cheeks with cotton wool, mumbling and within five minutes Vito's character and look was born. I tried something similar. I love the result but I'm not sure how close to Brando I got. I have to say that this and the shot below may well be my favourite of the project so far.
20/01/12
Given my Jeff Bridges fascination and my belief that he is now (after the decline of De Niro) our generation's greatest actor, I had to tackle Lebowski. The lack of long hair or a suitable wig meant that my attempts at the dressing gown, sunglasses and shorts look failed badly. Then I remembered some of the posters for The Big Lebowski and those which featured a shot of Bridges in sunglasses with fractal patterns on the lenses. Bang! Close up portrait with sunglasses, download a fractal photo, spend an hour or two trying to figure out how to combine the two in Photoshop and Bob's yer uncle.
21/01/12
I could set this up as a "what film is it" type poser but just couldn't be bothered with all that "e-mail me the answer and you'll win something" crap. Some of the posters for Rear Window feature James Stewart with his camera and a picture of a rather strange lady super-imposed on the camera lens. I super-imposed Hitchcock.
22/01/12
I couldn't say that I was a great fan of The Deer Hunter and much prefer Christopher Walken's vietnam vet in Pulp Fiction to his role in Deer Hunter. But, the russian roulette scene never fails to get me. And it was one of De Niro's really great roles early in his career. The poster I remember was the stark black and white shot of De Niro with the pistol to his head and the headband picked out in colour.
Anyhoo, I enjoyed this week and having a theme made me work a bit harder. Recreating shots (although never quite perfectly) made me think about both lighting and post-processing. Cheers to Conor Barbour for suggesting The Big Lebowski, Johnny McKee for The Deer Hunter
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