Interview with Duygu Sağıroğlu

This is an interview that I did with Duygu Sagiroglu in 29. 05. 2010. He is a filmmaker that I truly admire and he was really kind to give me his time in his office. Here, he talks about John Huston's relationship with his father and how he helped him to relaunch his career.

I am a Smoker

"The money is not in offline editing." says the digital artist on the video prepared to promote the Smoke in Mac. I still believe that editing requires a great deal of sensitivity and classical montage has a lot to do with what we are trying to accomplish today whether it is an art project, commercial film or any kind of broadcast. Yet I am aware that most clients nowadays prefer to finish their offline edit at home before starting to work with digital artists who are specialised in post production tools. I also believe that it is now a good time to enchance my skills in post-production and start learning some of the Alias softwares step by step. Smoke could be a good way to start.
I think for students and semi professional filmmakers, videography not only became an opportunity but also the only choice. I have kept myself away from this fact for the last couple of years and I tried to improve myself in other areas in filmmaking. But understanding some essential tools such as reading the scopes in grading tools makes my job a lot easier whether I am shooting or editing.
Media Composer and Final Cut Pro are considered to be as the two official softwares to do offline editing today. I prefer to use Adobe Premiere because I love the way Adobe Link works and I love to move within different softwares in post-production. Yet it is said that in Smoke, the process become one, and you can wrap up the whole project in one software.
My quest on the subject will continue.. :)

To see a previous post about Kubrick and montage, click here.

Back to Work!

Filmmaking has its own way.. And I love it in every way!

Camerimage 2011

This year's Camerimage had two significant value for me. First of all, I have had the pleasure to work as a cinematographer for Benjamin B to document his masterclasses. John Seale was one of the main guests during the festival and he had a long panel conducted by Benjamin B. The videos will be online soon in his website the filmbook.
Secondly, I had the opportunity to meet Todd Hayes. Haynes was, along with Ed Lachman, this year's director duo award guest. I had the chance to talk with him for a couple of minutes about Douglas Sirk and how Sirk influenced his filmmaking style.
For more information, visit Camerimage 2011' website.
The photographs above are taken by Kaan Arici.

Squirrels!

I have been editing this documentary the last three months and I have to say that I enjoyed every minute of it. The shooting was done near Helsinki, in a small island and I captured the squirrels using a Canon XLH1 HDV camera. It is a work in progress and as you can see, I am trying to finish advanced color grading for the film. Once I finish grading, I will hopefully start the sound design process. I am still struggling to find a good sound designer, some designers don't want to take part in projects where there is almost no budget and some of them are just too busy. But I am sure I will be able to come with good collaborators who in the end will create impressive output.
The film depicts the ruthless rivalry to find the best nut ever. I have tried to use low angle compositions in order to represent the camera acting as almost a squirrel. Therefore I expect the sound design to be perceived as from the ears of the squirrels and give the audience the feeling of the depth of a forest.
I have to mention, here, that I have shown this film to my favorite cinematographer, Hoyte Van Hoytema during Camerimage 2011 and he was very impressed by the editing of the film.
I expect to finish this short documentary by the end of this month.
I would like to mention couple of links that I have found very useful during the post production of this film.
Here are the links that you may find useful:

http://www.rhedpixel.com/
http://richardharringtonblog.com/
http://3exposure.com/
http://amigomediallc.com/
http://www.robbiecarman.net/

Feel free to contact me for your comments. I am open to any kind of collaboration to finish this project.