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Hollywood Land

How Social Pressures Can Shape A Movie Opinion

In our last course, The History of the Hollywood Musical, I professed as to not have been a big fan of the latest Musical Oscar contender La La Land. I knew my opinion was contentious especially up against such overwhelming high regard for the film. But the point of this post isn’t to explain my […]
John P. Hess
The Black Dahlia

How a Movie Can Go Wrong (Even When It Had Everything Right)

James Ellroy’s novel “The Black Dahlia” is a fictionalized crime noir that launches from one of the most gruesome unsolved murders of old Los Angeles. Ellroy’s book is quintessential noir layered in a dark world of criminals, muscled confessions and crooked cops. No one is innocent in the pursuit of justice for the murder of […]
John P. Hess
Dunkirk

The Treachery of Expectations

Let’s start with the first expectation. You read the ominous title and saw the screen grab of Dunkirk, you might be expecting this to be a negative review of Christopher Nolan’s latest epic. Well it’s not. I took in a late screening on Sunday night of opening weekend.  Being that it was the day after […]
John P. Hess
camerainternal-1

When It’s Time to Look Beyond the DSLR

I started my career before you could capture video on DSLRs. Right out of business school, I started shooting local cable commercials first on a 1/3rd inch chip Sony PD150 at the tail end of the “DV revolution” before graduated to an HDV Sony Z100 and then making my way to full HD 1/2 inch […]
John P. Hess
George-Clooney-director_Clooney-behind-camera

Crafting a Director’s Visual Reference

This article was originally posted by Nick LaRovere on his blog, Storyteller. Do you want to be an effective director? Creating a visual reference for your film is a vital step for effective teamwork and good storytelling. As the decision-maker of the film, you must take the time to know what you want. By being ready […]
John P. Hess
psycho_primary

Never Ask for Artistic Permission

Nothing makes me cringe more when I see a question on a forum asking permission. “Is it okay to push the greens in my color grade?” “Is it okay to shoot shutter speed other than the 180?” Imagine if Alfred Hitchcock asked, “Is it okay to kill off my lead actress in the first act?” […]
John P. Hess
lade-runner-by-denis-villeneuve-blade-runner-1982-420477

Why the Movie Theater Still Matters

I’ll be honest – I always liked Blade Runner but I never thought it was a great movie. To me it was just okay, a somewhat muddy film that never felt like it delivered on its sci-fi promises. That was until I saw it on the big screen. Blade Runner was released the year I was […]
John P. Hess
the-many-stages-of-making-a-film-3

The Many Stages of Making a Film

It was summer 2017, things seemed simpler, the weather was hot and season five of Orphan Black was airing on Netflix. Lexy Anderson and I (Harvey Puttock) were discussing the lead actor, Tatiana Maslany and whether there was anything she couldn’t do. In Orphan Black she played several women, a trans man and different nationalities […]
John P. Hess
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