June 13, 2004
Baadasssss was as great as I had hoped it would be. I felt a few feet higher when I left the theater; it made me feel really proud of being independent. Granted, I'm not making anything that's culturally and socially important, but it still inspired a little bit of a revolutionary spirit in me, and considering where we are in our careers at this point, where there's no turning back, I think that's a pretty important and necessary thing to feel.
It's also the best looking HD movie I've seen yet (at least until its producer's new film comes out at the end of the summer). It's not riddled with CGI (a la Lucas) or semi-sloppy photography (a la Rodriguez) that offer tell-tale video artifacts when transferred to film (I'm not counting the presence of actual cheesy video effects, since they were an artistic decision).
I think Sony's HDW-F900 is still the 24p camera of choice, but it seems that Panavision and Sony are now teaming up to raise the bar. I can't wait to see what sort of imaging power this thing has, what with the CCD being the same size as 35mm frame. Also, the mag-style VTR is a nice aesthetic touch.
Posted by David Lowery at June 13, 2004 12:00 AM