Ray Roman BTS Football Documentary Cinematography

by Ray Roman in , , , , ,

GoPro Experiment: Wavves "Post Acid"

by Ray Roman in , , ,

After all these years I've finally got my hands on a GoPro! I've been wanting to experiment with these cameras for many years but never really had any particular use for them. Recently a friend of mine got one for free because the art department where he works was getting rid of a bunch of first generation GoPros. Since I'm into filmmaking he decided to give it to me. I've been thinking about purchasing the recent model that came out last year but it looks like I can wait for the next generation now.

I tested out the time-lapse feature for the first time yesterday. Watch the quick video I put together below.

I think GoPros are a good tool for any filmmaker to own. The reason why it's taken me so long to get a GoPro is because I've always been able to capture what I needed with the cameras I've had. Even with the iPhone I was able to create time-lapse videos through the apps available. One of my favorite cameras that's as durable as a GoPro was the Kodak ZX3. It was able to function underwater, and shoot up to 60fps which in comparison the current GoPro I have can do as well. It's great that the current state of technology allows us so many options, I can't really fathom how much better it could be within the next 5 years. I think for a filmmaker owning a GoPro is like an artist having many different brushes to choose from. I'm excited for the possibilities this camera has to offer, especially with its durability and freedom to move the camera.

Good artists copy, great artists steal.

by Ray Roman in , ,

“Good artists copy, great artists steal.”
— Pablo Picasso

Below is an animated .gif of a scene from My Imaginary Friend, a short film I worked on with my friend Brandon Mackey.

Now here’s a frame from the film Citizen Kane directed by Orson Welles. (screen capture is fromCreativeCOW.net)

As I mentioned before, the screen capture above is directly from a CreativeCow.net article titled “The Camera Is An Eye – Not A Vacuum Or A Gun”. The article refreshed my memory of a scene I worked on from the short film ‘My Imaginary Friend’. This image stuck out to me the moment I saw it because I can remember lifting this same technique from Citizen Kane. In 2006 when I was in college and made ‘My Imaginary Friend’, is around the time when I watched Citizen Kane for the first time. I may have watched it a couple years before, but just around this time of my life I was obsessed with Orson Welles. Now I don’t believe I was technically ‘stealing’ like I have titled this post, but I was for sure influenced by the cinematography in Citizen Kane.

Nowadays these choices of where to place the camera is ingrained in the way we make movies today. In fact every movie is technically stealing from the past in one way or another.

As a filmmaker I believe it’s important to try and understand the history of filmmaking as much as possible in order to stay creative, and fully understand how stories can be told.