verdict

Improvisational Cinema

2012-02-04T01:01:00.000-08:00

The film you have just seen was an improvisation.

From Shadows (dir. John Cassavetes, 1959)

I made certain choices

2012-02-01T08:05:00.000-08:00

From Hanna (dir. Joe Wright, 2011)

Editing Isea2011 Documentary on Avid Media Composer 6.0

2012-01-30T01:36:00.000-08:00

The Beauty of 16 mm on Skin Tones

2012-01-21T04:38:00.000-08:00

Make the Cut is a beautiful book!

2012-01-20T05:32:00.000-08:00

Make the Cut is a beautiful book. Not only it teaches you the unwritten laws of film industry, it also emphasizes the importance of making short term and long terms plans in order to keep up with the industry without having a nervous breakdown. And it teaches you how to shine!
The book, in some cases, reminded me how important to be specific about one's own ideas and dreams. I think this book is not only for editors or assistant editors but for anybody who would like to have a career in feature film market.
Having said this, when I look at the books about cinematography or art direction, very few of them really mentions about career plans and moving in the industry.

++

The film industry is highly compartmentalized. It sucks to be indecisive!

John Seale Masterclass sponsored by Panavision

2012-01-16T13:32:00.000-08:00

I am really happy that I have been able to find myself in this panel as a cinematographer. Needless to say without the help and support of Benjamin B, this would have never happened.
Click here to see the post by Benjamin B at Panavision official website.

Mayerson on Animation: Freelancing

2012-01-10T06:50:00.000-08:00

I have been following this blog for the last couple of months and although it is mostly about animation, I find some entries really useful especially the ones about the production side of animation making as well as the aesthetics of it. I would like to share in this blog the entry about working as a freelancer and your rights that you should keep in mind before starting working with a client. It is recommended to anybody who does freelance work.

Mayerson on Animation: Freelancing: I'm writing this post for the benefit of Sheridan animation students and grads, but it may prove useful to others. If you are not on salary...

Interview with Duygu Sağıroğlu

2011-12-27T11:36:00.001-08:00

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

2011-12-20T05:31:00.000-08:00

"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!

2011-12-20T01:51:00.000-08:00

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

Camerimage 2011

2011-12-15T09:42:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-12-06T13:23:00.000-08:00

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.

Outline!

2011-07-16T01:36:00.000-07:00

Hello! It has been quite sometime since I have written anything in this blog. As a matter of fact, I have been having difficulties with some of the work that I am trying to accomplish and I still do. I thought making a list of the stuff that I would like to accomplish would be a good way to motivate myself. Why not write about the things that I would like to do, I have to do and I already did.

Let's start:

The things that I would like to do:
- Finding the right distribution channel for our short film "Evcilik" directed by Aytuğ Üngör and produced by me. (I have already made a list of film festivals in Turkey and we will start with Altın Portakal and the deadline is 12 of August. We will continue submitting our film to İzmir International Film Festival and Akbank Kısa Film Festival subsequently. Our aim is also to participate to film festivals abroad but I have not made a list about them yet. I am not sure if we will be able to get in first rate film festivals such as Cannes or Venice but we may have some good opportunities in festivals elsewhere! And by elsewhere, it is my job as the producer to find out the right festivals. My encounter with a photographer friend from Åland, Kenneth Bamberg may actually give us the opportunity to screen our film in that area.
- Develop the short film project I.N.D.I.A. This is a project that I have been willing to develop for a long time but the negative thoughts as well as insecurities because of not so much of lack of information, but from an exaggerated fear of making a mistake prevented me from doing so. And finding a way to integrate this project to my thesis -which is about staging methodologies- is also something that I have to think of.

The things that I have to do:

-Finish the last two videos for ISEA2011. We finished the shootings with Emre Birismen and now I have to finish the editing by Monday.
-Rewrite the introduction for the thesis.

The things that I did:

-I finished 16 videos for ISEA2011.
-We finished the shooting for my dear friend's exhibition Kenneth Bamberg.

Now I have to go but I hope to expand this list later on!

From Charles Chaplin: My Autobiography

2011-06-05T11:45:00.002-07:00

The mechanics of directing were simple in those days. I had only to know my left from my right for entrances and exists. If one exited right from a scene, one came in left in the next scene; if one exited towards the camera, one entered with one's back to the camera in the next scene. These, of course, were primary rules.
But with more experience I found that the placing of a camera was not only pscyhological but articulated a scene; in fact it was the basis of cinematic style. If the camera is a little to near, or too far, it can enhance or spoil an effect. Because economy of movement is important you don't want an actor to walk any unneccesary distance unless there is a special reason, for walking is not dramatic. Therefore placement of camera should effect composition and a graceful entrance for the actor. Placement of camera is cinematic inflection. There is no set rule that a close-up gives more emphasis than a long shot. A close-up is a question of feeling; in some instances a long shot can effect greater emphasis.

p. 152

Stan Winston Studios

2011-04-25T13:55:00.000-07:00

I remember when I was an undergraduate student at Bilgi University, I was desperately sending my CV to Stan Winston Studios. Of course I never received any reply from them but that's okay. :) I think the first time I sent my CV was in the year 2005.
But my real fascination to Stan Winston really started after having seen Jurassic Park in 1993 when I was eight years old. I was astonished by what I have seen on the big screen and it was just incredible.
When I was in Taik, in Helsinki (maybe the only film school left in the world where they have production design department as well - because today most of the film school don't have a design studio) I was walking around through the studios and I found this book about the art and craft of Stan Winston Studios. I decided to scan the pages related to Dinosaurs and share it in this blog!
Stan Winston passed away couple of years ago but the studio is still very active.
You can check an extract from the book by clicking here.

Terrence Masson, a full time academic faculty and Director of Creative Industries at Northeastern University in Boston came to Sabanci University for Isea2011 Istanbul and he presented his paper Revolution. Excellence. Agility. I was very pleased by the lecture as it also covered his collaboration with Stan Winston. Here's the video. I hope you enjoy it.

Finally

2011-04-24T10:30:00.000-07:00

It is nice to realize that I can log in to my blog again and write whatever I want. The last couple of weeks have been both exciting and sometimes depressing. As usual, I am reading a lot of stuff for my thesis but when it comes to writing, the process becomes very difficult. The Film Festival is now over and it was nice to see a bunch of good films as well as some old friends from high school.
I think the best part of the Film Festival was the conversation with Derviş Zaim which was held in Aksanat. You can see an extract from this link.
As for my projects, I am trying to develop two fiction films but my biggest fear is to let them go before they have been incubated long enough. I think this is something that I usually do, I start discouraging myself about how bad my ideas are and in the end, the projects dies, unrealized.
In that sense, I think it would be nice to share in this blog, an article from the good, old Mackendrick about the techniques for having ideas. But most importantly, how to keep them alive?

The Beauty of Bresson

2011-02-28T11:43:00.001-08:00

The Film Makers Compromise

2011-02-15T00:06:00.000-08:00

Words and Movies by Stanley Kubrick

2011-02-06T12:50:00.000-08:00

The perfect novel from which to make a movie is, I think, not the novel of action but, on the contrary, the novel which is mainly concerned with the inner life of its characters. I t will give the adaptor an absolute compass bearing, as it were, on what a character is thinking or feeling at any given moment of the story. And from this he can invent action which will be an objective correlative of the book's psychological content, will accurately dramatise this in an implicit, off-the-nose way without resorting to having the actors deliver literal statements of meaning.
I think that for a movie or a play to say anything really truthful about life, it has to do so very obliquely, so as to avoid all pat conclusions and neatly ties-up ideas. The point of view it is conveying has to be completely entwined with a sense of life as it is, and has to be got across through a subtle injection into the audience's consciousness. Ideas which are valid and truthful are so multi-faceted that they don't yield themselves to frontal assault. The ideas have to be discovered by the audience, and their thrill in making the discovery makes those ideas all the more powerful. You use the audience's thrill of surprise and discovery to reinforce your ideas, rather than reinforce them artificially through plot points or phoney drama or phoney stage dynamics put in to power them across.
It's sometimes said that a great novel makes a less promising basis for a film than a novel which is merely good. I don't think that adapting great novels presents any special problems which are not involved in adapting good novels or mediocre novels; except that you will be more heavily criticised if the film is bad, and you may be even if it's good. I think almost any novel can be successfully adapted, provided it is not one whose aesthetic integrity is lost along with its length. For example, the kind of novel in which a great deal and variety of action is absolutely essential to the story, so that it loses much of its point when you subtract heavily from the number of events on their development.
People have asked me how it is possible to make a film out of Lolita when so much of the quality of the book depends on Nabokov's prose style. But to take the prose style as any more that just a part of a great book is simply misunderstanding just what a great book is. Of course, the quality of the writing is one of the elements that make a novel great. But this quality is a result of the quality of the writer's obsession with his subject, with a theme and a concept and a view of life and an understanding of character. Style is what an artist uses to fascinate the beholder in order to convey him his feelings and emotions and thought. These are what have to be dramatised, not the style. The dramatising has to find a style of its own, as it will do if it really grasps the content. And in doing this it will bring out another side of that structure which has gone into the novel. It may or may not be as good as the novel; sometimes it may in certain ways be even better.
Oddly enough, acting comes into the picture somewhere here. At it best, realistic drama consists of a progression of moods and feelings that play upon the audience's feelings and transform the author's meaning into an emotional experience. This means that the author must not think of paper and ink and word as being his writing tools, but rather that he works in flesh and feeling. And in this sense I feel that too few writers seem to understand what an actor can communicate emotionally and what he cannot. Often, at one point, the writer expects a silent look to get across what it would take a rebus puzzle to explain, and in the next moment the actor is given a long speech to convey something that is quite apparent in the situation and for which a brief look would be sufficient. Writers tend to approach the creation of drama too much in terms of words, failing to realise that the greatest force they have is the mood and feeling they can produce in the audience through the actor. They tend to see the actor grudgingly, as someone likely to ruin what they have written, rather than seeing that the actor is in every sense their medium.
You might wonder, as a result of this, whether directing was anything more or less than a continuation of the writing. I think that is precisely what directing should be. It would follow, then, that a writer-director is really the prefect dramatic instrument; and the few examples we have where these two peculiar techniques have been properly mastered by one man have, I believe, produced the most consistently fine work.
When the director is not his own author, I think it is his duty to be 100 percent faithful to the author's meaning and to sacrifice none of it for the sake of climax and effect. This seems a fairly obvious notion, yet how many plays and films have you seen where the experience was exciting and arresting but when it was over you felt there was less there than met the eye? And this is usually due to artificial stimulation of the senses by technique which disregards the inner design of the play. It is here that we see the cult of the director at its worst.
On the other hand, I don't want to imply rigidity. Nothing in making movies gives a greater sense of elation than participation in a process of allowing the work to grow, through vital collaboration between script, directing and actors, as it goes along. Any art form properly practised involves a to and fro between conception and execution, the original intention being constantly modified as one tries to give it objective realisation. In painting a picture this goes on between the artist and his canvas; in making a movie it goes between people.

Published in Sight and Sound, Winter 1960 - 61

I'll not date in August!

2011-02-05T12:49:00.001-08:00

Upside Down

2011-02-04T04:03:00.001-08:00

Notes on Film Noir and Pickpocket

2010-11-15T11:13:00.000-08:00

I have decided to share two articles by Paul Schrader. One of them is about Film Noir and the second article is about Bresson's film Pickpocket. I was looking for the first article for a long time but couldn't find it even in his website but recently I found the book, Schrader on Schrader in Taik's Documentary Department and the article was inside! I thought I might scan and share it in my blog since I find it very important. Moreover, it is also interesting how I wrote about Film Noir when I first started this blog. I think we now need this article in this space to sum up the whole idea! I am sure Mr. Schrader will not be happy about that!

I will try to write more about Film Noir since I got to see Samuel Fuller's films in Orion, Helsinki and I would also like to write more on Bresson, more on more I become more attached to him and I believe understanding his cinema and his method is crucial!
Well, if you would like to get more pdfs from Schrader's writings in LA Press in the 60's, click here!
For Notes on Film Noir, click here!
For Pickpocket, click here!

What Have I Learned Today?

2010-11-09T12:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning, I was asked by my directing teacher Jarmo Lampela to produce a one minute script and shoot it the next day which means this morning. The main idea for this exercise was to enhance our skills on ADR which is the dubbing process. Dubbing is the post production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting.

One of the major reasons why I love the film department in Taik is that you are always asked to produce short films in a very small scale of time. That kind of exercises really teaches you how to become alert all the time not only in case of film practice but also as an individual. For exemple, Susanna Helke's class was held in a way that we were expected to write small articles all the time on subjects such as what is political for us and what kind of political events have we had that had a long term affect on our lives. These kind of exercises really teaches you to become aware of your surrounding and help you in a way to deepen your skills in filmmaking.

I was informed by Jarmo that I would get two actors, one male and one female so I had to write a short story about a couple. Moreover, I wanted to emphasize the sound because we were going to practice ADR for the first time and I really wanted the sound has a major point in the story. This is the story I came up with:

Tom is in the kitchen to make some coffee. Julia is in the bathroom brushing her teeth. Tom takes two cups from the closet and starts boiling the water. He asks if she wants any coffee. “Black or white” he adds. She says black but her answer is incomprehensible because of the brush in her mouth. Tom goes to the toilet and asks her again. Her answer is black. He puts hot water in two cups -one of them is black, the other is white- and he puts milk in one of them. Julia goes out from the bathroom and takes the black coffee. Tom approaches her and hits the glasses. He seems happy. “To Buenos Aires” he says. Julia grimaces and explains that she won’t be able to make it. “Why not?” says Tom still hugging Julia and trying to kiss her. “We will have the best time of our life there!” Julia steps back harder and saves herself from Tom. Tom takes Julia’s coffee and runs to the bathroom. He locks the door. Julia comes to the bathroom but she cannot get in because the door is locked. She tries to apologize but he is busy washing the cups. He pours both cups in the lavatory and that creates a weird mixture of both milky and black coffee.

We had to shoot it very fast and we only had one hour to shoot all the actions. In case of filmmaking, I always tend to think storytelling by shots, in a way that I would like to shoot the scenes by blocking the actors and the actions in the right compositional way, starting from a wide shot to the close ups in the end and so forth. I always feel secure by using that methodology and it is really hard to skip a shot.

Well for this exercise, I had to shoot the shots by rolling all the story from the beginning to the end. I think it was quite difficult for the actors since they had to perform all the text once we said action. The reason why I chose this way because I didn't have time to rehearse with the actors. I didn't really know how I was going to block them in case of the place of the camera and editing. I gave my camera operator full initiatives which gave me a chance to concentrate on the actors.

I just finished synchronizing the materials and made a rough cut. I realized that I shot one establishing shot, two medium shots and one medium shot in the bathroom. I think it would be better if we had some close up. Anyway, I think we did a good job in a very limited time! Now we will see what happens with the editing and the sound design.

Scenes From a Marriage

2010-10-31T13:18:00.000-07:00

Before coming to Helsinki, I never realized that I would go back to my theater days but this time not as an actor but as a filmmaker. I met Carine Ravaud, production designer student from Paris and she was already designing a Bergman play Scenes From a Marriage in Helsinki. She told me that the director would like to use video installations during the play and asked me if I would be interested. My answer was yes without any hesitations.

Next Monday, I went to Helsinki Theater School, Teak to meet with the director. Marcus Groth was directing the play and the next thing I know, we were already in the process of brainstorming.

Marcus was looking for a realistic and natural way of telling the story. The actors were trained to perform in a natural manner and the set design was built in a realistic way. I knew from that moment that at least the introduction video should act to fulfill the set design and extend the idea of home feeling in the mind of the audience.

But to accomplish that, I also knew that I needed elements of tension because the intro scene had a crescendo. I wanted to divide the composition by emphasizing the difference between man and woman and I used objects that can sometimes be dangerous such as knifes and boiling water.

Between the acts, we have decided to use animal couples, Marcus had the idea to show the animals to underline how it is actually easy to be together. For this reason, I spent plenty of time looking for animals that would match what we are looking for. I went to a stable to shoot some horses, I shot squirrels, swans, dogs and fishes. We didn't really like the horses and the squirrels (although I found the experience rewarding!) and we went to use swans, fishes and dogs. The reaction to these videos by the audience was extremely satisfying. I believe we were able to extend the play with the installations.

To shoot the introduction videos, I have visited a lot of houses. I was lucky since the people in Teak found me couples where I could go and shoot their homes. And in that sense, I was able to see inside the houses of real Finnish people which was also a rewarding experience.

We had ten shows and we had the last play last Saturday on 30. 10. 2010. We had really good reviews which I have shared some of the links with you below. I will never forget the experience, I will definitely miss everybody that I met at Teak during the production. It was a really good opportunity and I feel really lucky to be a part of it. I think the play was a blast!

Below is an extract from the introduction video originally used in the play. Of course the video by itself doesn't really say much because it was made to be shown during the opening scene where the characters are interviewed by a journalist.

Here some of the articles and reviews:

Website for Ingmar Bergman Foundation

Newspaper/Västra Nyland

On Radio in Finland!

Borgåbladet & Östra Nyland

Newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet!

The photographs above are taken by Niklas Sandström.

3 Day Lecture with Christine Vachon at Aalto University

2010-09-26T13:38:00.000-07:00

It is not easy for me to define my feelings about the lecture conducted by Vachon since she has been producing today's cinema most appreciated independent and arthouse films. Her collaboration with Todd Haynes and Todd Solondz and her virtue to discover first time filmmakers has always been a fascination for me and the lecture gave me an insight look of how to really operate in a system like American Cinema and yet creating very personal and auteur films today which seems almost impossible!

A few years ago when I went to my hometown to visit my parents, I realised there was a new book in the house. It was a book by Andrew Bailey edited by Paul Duncan and the name of the book was Cinema Now. As I turned the pages, I came to understand that there were many filmmakers operating today which I never even heard of. And one of them which really attracted me with its strong visuals was Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven.

Three years ago, I came across a detailed interview with Ed Lachman which was conducted by American Cinematographer. It was about the new film by Todd Haynes, a biopic on the life of Bob Dylan. I knew from that moment that this was never going to be released in Turkey. Yet I was wrong, it was released but a little bit delayed. However, I saw the film in a very small theater in London in 2008 and the impact was inevitable.

Christine is that kind of a producer. She is smart, practical, funny and she has a very strong sense of what will work in cinema and what will not work since she has been in this business more than twenty years producing more than three films in a year.

She advised us about many things. About presenting a film to a sale agent to exhiting a film in a major film festival. She talked about the new narrative forms of today and how twitter was going to be bigger that facebook in terms of social media, communication and marketing and distributing a film.

She said the most important thing is to articulate a vision properly! Effecting talking in a comforting level is the most important aspect of how to pitch a film! And pitching is a skill. Not everybody has it. Look for the people who has invested the kind of films you would like to make. Make a research about them, understand their background, impress them with your knowledge and get the money you need to produce your next picture. Be kind and smart! Do not get into elaborate plot explanations!

She even spoke us about how to find new materials for projects and how they produce ideas from books, articles and paintings.

When working with first time filmmakers, she emphasized the significance of a strong short film. A well done short film may not lead you to go to shoot a feature yet it has a key factor to promote yourself as a first time filmmaker. In order to promote yourself as a filmmaker, an image book instead of a screenplay is very effective to hunt the producers since it gives them a solid insight of what kind of visuality you are looking for!

"Nobody's going to read your script! I don't know you why would I?" told us. You really have to start from the bottom and make your way all the way to the top! It is a very complex profession which requires full time commitment and consistency! She ironically told us that when looking at first time filmmakers, she checks whether the director has a long term relationship or not? It is a very effective way to understand whether the person is able to commit himself or herself three or four years for a project to be done and finalised!

"Do you like the process?" a student asks, "No, but I like the films being done!"

For her, the task of a producer is to keep the balance between the director who protects a vision and financier who protects his money. Todd Solondz, before making Happiness, lost most of his budget because Rosanna Arquette was unable to be a part of the film yet Solondz worked very hard to protect his vision and make the film he wanted to make with his choice of cast!

What kind of films you would like to make? It is the most important question before meeting a sale agent! What is the tone? Is it a film that has redemptive qualities or an uplifting movie? Or make the world a better place? Without these answers, it is impossible to produce a film. Since what you are trying to sell is about communication. It is not about the product itself.

Execution Dependant is a term that I learned during these three day lectures. “Execution dependent” means that the best version of the movie is a hit, while a mediocre incarnation is worth vastly less. It’s not a diss. Most films that win Academy Awards are execution dependent, as are many blockbusters.

Yet when you think about most of the films she has been producing, all her films are execution dependant. The films directed by Todd Haynes could not be directed by someone else because it is a film that can only done by him not by someone else and that's what makes the film so special!

Before wrapping up the enty, let me share you some links that she shared with us. I also would like to say that I am very lucky since I was in a Todd Solondz lecture this April in Istanbul and it was a really good opportunity to meet with Christine in Helsinki...

http://trulyfreefilm.hopeforfilm.com/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1492030/

http://www.killerfilms.com/

MakingOf - Movies - Inception - Behind-the-scenes of "Inception"

2010-07-26T12:06:00.000-07:00

MakingOf - Movies - Inception - Behind-the-scenes of "Inception"

Vimeo Page

2010-07-25T15:11:00.000-07:00

Hi,

I have decided to use my Vimeo account to share some of the stuff that I did from 2007, so if you want to check it out, here's the link!

By the way, have you ever had what they call a writer's block! Well it seems to me that I have had it in my whole life. Today I was thinking about myself of four years ago and I have realized that I still have the same problems today. Which is, trying to do something so desperately but not to be able to find a subject or a voice or to come up with a story or I don't know what they call. Well I have red and listen to a lot of people and I just couldn't find any solution. Well if you have any advice, I would be really happy to hear your thoughts.

Personal Website!

2010-07-10T13:19:00.001-07:00

Hi! I organized some of the stuff that I have been working on throughout the winter and decided to share them with you through my website.

Click here to see my website.

Learning and Teaching

2010-07-09T09:27:00.001-07:00

Riding down an elevator I observed two young fellows, both with guitars in identical cases. One fellow was about 21 and in a hog helmet; the other was slightly balding, about 31, with blond hair and beard, and obviously the teacher. I couldn't make out whether he was the teacher of the intricacies of the motorbike they had parked outside, or of the guitar. At any rate, he said to his companion: "I will teach you how to play it."
The other boy said, "No. Nuh-uh."
The older one said, "Why don't you want me to teach you? You are going to have to learn it. Why don't you let me teach it to you? I'll take fifteen minutes."
The younger boy said, "No, look, well, maybe - " And he stalled and stalled and stalled until the elevator got to the ground floor and the door opened.
It struck me that maybe those in the upper five to ten percent of their classes are there because they enjoy the exhibition of themselves learning something, while the majority are embarrassed at showing that they have learned something in front of other people. the volunteer in the classroom is probably an exhibitionist. Why is it that so many of the men of brilliant scientific or scholarly achievement were so often last in their classes, so seldom one of the top five?
I think the group system of learning is perhaps no longer an acceptable or functioning method.
Learning is finding out what you already know.
Doing is demonstrating that you know it.
Teaching is reminding others that they know it just as well as you.
We are all learners, doers, teacher.
Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself.
You teach best what you most need to learn.
Live never to be ashamed when something you do or say is published around the world - even if what is published is not true.
"There is no problem so big that it cannot be run away from."
-Snoopy the Dog
Open any book and read what's there: you'll find your problems. Hold a problem in your mind. Open a book.
Don't turn away from possible futures before you're quite certain you have nothing to learn from them. You're free to choose another (different) future, another past.
There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts.
You will find a helping hand at the end of your arm.
Anyone worth knowing is also a little odd.

1971

Nicholas Ray - I Was Interrupted - 6, 7.

Ozan Adam on The Auteurs!

2010-02-22T08:04:00.000-08:00

I am very happy to find out that my teacher's film (from Bilgi University) can be viewed on The Auteurs. Ozan Adam is actually an experimental filmmaker and I believe "The Two Names of a Testimony About the Execution of a Happening and a Suitcase Full of Broken Records" is a wonderful piece.
Here's the link.

The Beauty of Almodóvar

2010-02-19T13:09:00.000-08:00

Again From Budapest Masterclass and I Porti Dell Arte

2010-02-11T15:19:00.000-08:00

Click here to get the issue of Budapest Masterclass in British Cinematographer.
And this is for I Porti Dell Arte.

Have You Seen My New Car?

2010-01-29T06:23:00.001-08:00

Film Noir

2010-01-28T09:29:00.000-08:00

I have a great desire to write more about Almodóvar these days, as I loved his last film "Broken Embraces", for me it was a perfect mixture of melodrama, film noir and Pop Art. And I love every one of them. As I understood from his interviews, he is a director who repeatedly sets his stories on his memoir and souvenirs and tries to borrow from everywhere that he adores and his films are the melting pots of his own dreams, fears and interpretations.
There is always one single fact in film noir. The existence of a dangerous woman. For me, today, was "Volver" day and I don't seem to recall a better composition (see above) to describe what film noir is in any of the films that I have seen before. The breasts of the beautiful actress Penelope Cruz seem perfectly the right spot for the audience to look at but on the left side of the composition, we see Penelope's hands washing a knife. But we are not aware of it since we are stuck to these two beautiful breasts and we ignore completely the dangerous side of the character. If you have already seen the film, you will know what comes in the next scene, and will understand what I am talking about.
Douglas Sirk is considered to be the master of melodramas especially the films that he did between the years 52 to 56. Today, very few melodramas are shot but from time to time, what I would call great film directors revisit the genre. Almodóvar is one of them. Todd Haynes also explored the genre in 2002 with "Far From Heaven" heavily influenced by Sirk's "All That Heaven Allows" and of course Sidney Lumet's films can be considered to be a melodrama. I was very surprised when I found out that Lumet considered "Silence of the Lamps" one of the great melodramatic films of all time because he said there is nothing more melodramatic than a man eating human flesh. Now, that's a definition we can not find in any of the books I think!
But what makes Almodóvar's melodramas so unique is his use of vivid colors especially red heavily borrowed from Pop Art.

You Are Boring!

2010-01-27T08:45:00.000-08:00

Now, this is something that I wouldn't like to receive from my producer or actually from anybody else! It seems to me that Weinstein and Errol Morris had difficulties promoting their films in 1988 "The Thin Blue Line" because Morris was such a bad PR!
And this letter is Weinstein's reaction to Morris!

Some Inspirations

2010-01-25T14:21:00.000-08:00

I have decided to share some of things that inspired me and I was thinking of using them in my own short film which I intend to shoot in the spring. I was fascinated by lighting, colors, composition or technique.

It is not easy to understand the shot because of the titles but it is a shot of the road seen from inside the car. On the rear window, we see the reflection of Humphrey Bogart driving. It is a close up of his face.
I thought about reproducing this shot in a way that I would shoot the road and the close up of the reflection separately and I would combine them together in the editing software. I think that would create a sort of a different surreal feeling, a combination of different shots coming together to create a linear whole within the composition. And by doing it with very clear, sharp and colorful image by using an HD camera, it will possess an absurd look. But I am not really sure how it is going to end up!
I also like a composition to have layers and hierarchy within it. I believe without those, it doesn't mean anything.

This is a shot from Almodóvar's film, I love the way he plays with color. Red always signals the victim but in this particular shot, it is the telephone. The director, here, probably refers to the character who is going to call, we don't see him, but he is the Fabula. Yet without showing that character, Almodóvar points out that he is the victim. It is very clever.
In his last film, the color red plays a major role in the film. Red presents the hierarchy between the characters and changes all the time by their power, love, lust or misery.
My favorite scene from Broken Embraces can be viewed here.

The way Almodóvar chooses to use elements of pop culture fascinates me. I decided I have to combine my own work with pop references and one of the magazine that is very important for me is "Les Cahiers du Cinéma". That magazine was very important for the foundation of the New Wave French filmmakers and it is still a very important film magazine for world cinema. I don't know how am I going to use it but I just want to combine it with a very self reflexive way!

Studying Cinema

2010-01-15T05:42:00.000-08:00

David Bordwell defines film criticism and film studies in his article. I still can't decide whether I am on a path to film studies according to what I am doing, reading, watching or am I belonging to a film fan subculture (Fans are also highly evaluative in their talk (“Wasn’t the lightsabre duel cool?”) or someone who wants to produce films.
Yeah, it seems like I am quite lost, no?
Here's the link.
And, hey, I just want to add one more thing. Eric Rohmer recently died and Fatih Ozguven wrote a wonderful article about it. Ozguven was my teacher during my film studies in Bilgi University and he was the only one who recommended me that I have to see Rohmer films as much as I can.
Here's the link.
And what I though about Rohmer was in the 60's and 70's, filmmakers were also film writers and film critiques. Today, it seems to me that very few people who practice filmmaking write about films comparing to the New Wave directors like Truffaut, Godard or Rohmer. Today, film practice and film studies seems quite broke away with each other.

Godard & Allen

2010-01-14T05:51:00.000-08:00

I just found a conversation between legendary filmmakers Jean-Luc Godard and Woody Allen. Godard asks Woody his relationship with cinematographers and this is what Woody feels about Gordon Willis's style which I find very close to what I like and what I expect. Let the shots tell the story!

Well, Gordon is a very American style cameraman. He is very comfortable with a very clean American style. He feels most at home when the shots are spacious not concentrating on the individual but concentrating on the whole composition of the room rather than individual. And he feels very much at home with cutting, with a simple not too much movement, simple cutting and telling the story in cuts.

The interview is here.

Some Works!

2010-01-13T14:19:00.000-08:00

I have been working and editing for Lanfranco Aceti since September and here are some of the works we have just finished!
Some of them are edited by myself, some of them were already finished works so I had to re-transfer and re-master but for a few, I also did some shootings that were missing in the videos and it was cool!
Here's the link.

Nana Fait de la Philosophie Sans le Savoir

2010-01-13T12:37:00.000-08:00

Bound

2010-01-10T11:24:00.001-08:00

Wachowski Brothers first film is a film noir inspired by the films of Billy Wilder and Alfred Hitchcock. The film was shot in color although their use of color in set design, costumes, make up and props is so monochromatic that makes the film more black and white than any other film that was shot in the 40's and 50's. As can be seen above, the color black and white were the dominant palettes of the film.
An interview from 1998 can be found here.
I hope to write more about this film in the future because I believe the film's use of color, composition, transcendental style makes it so powerful that one has to study to understand the medium. Wachowski's film noir based on a relationship of a lesbian couple led to reevaluate the film noir style in the 90's.

Through Hockney's Eyes

2010-01-10T09:06:00.000-08:00

Are we in danger of forgetting how to look properly at the world around us? David Hockney thinks so!
Here's the link.

11 Years

2010-01-09T03:24:00.000-08:00

"The Matrix" was released 11 years ago in 1999. I was 14. I saw the film for the first time in a movie theater in Izmir "Karaca" and the minute I got our of the movie theater I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker.
Morpheus believes in Neo. He thinks he is the One and will be their savior. The whole story is based on the idea if he is really the One. The Oracle says that he isn't but maybe in another life. She says someone will die and that Neo has to make a choice. Neo sacrifices himself for Morpheus because he believes he is not the One and Morpheus is more important than him. He saves Morpheus and then is killed by the Agents.
But somehow, he is resurrected. He gets up and stops the bullets. He becomes the "One". If he wasn't killed, he wouldn't be the "One".
Sometimes, all it takes to understand our mission in our lives is a change. A change that will makes us aware what we want and what we desire. Neo had to die to become the "One" without that he was just a normal person.
Sometimes we do mistakes. What I learn from my mistake is actually myself. It reminds me what I love and who I care.

Interview with Stanley Kubrick

2010-01-03T10:26:00.000-08:00

I just found an interview with Stanley Kubrick conducted by Jeremy Bernstein in November 27, 1966. Kubrick never liked interviews therefore we have so few with him. This one is quite interesting. In 1966, Kubrick had just finished Dr. Strangelove and was working for his new feature, an adaptation from an Arthur C. Clark novel, A Space Odyssey: 2001.
Near the end of the interview, he discusses director's relationship with editing:

With the exception of a few directors, like David Lean and, well let’s not say who, but with the exception of a few directors, most people have their film edited by film editors as they go along. And then, when the film is done, they look at the film and dictate some notes about it and the film editor tries to do what they say and then maybe they look at it again and they do it again. But basically it’s like trying to, say, redesign a city by driving through it in a car, you know. You can notice a few things and say, you know, “put that traffic light in the middle of the street” or “those buildings over there look kind of shabby” or something, but if you really want to do it right, you must do it yourself, you know, piece by piece. So, I think by now I have enough, sort of, ability to imagine the way a scene will come out so that I can tell without editing the material if I have enough film coverage and, you know, what I can do with it, and then I edit the film with the editor myself when the film is… when I’m all finished.

I would also like to mention a wonderful book about Stanley Kubrick "Eyes Wide Open" written by Frederic Raphael who wrote the screenplay of Eyes Wide Shut. The book is about his collaboration with the director while working on the screenplay in the early 90's. It was just published after the death of Kubrick and the release of the film in 1999. However Kubrick family set against the book because it was published without their permission and the family accused him for not having respect for privacy and writing a memoir on Kubrick with inaccurate information.
After a very long search, a friend of mine found the book for me in New York and gave it to me.
Although I am not sure about the accuracy of information written in the book, I just love this piece of dialogue.

S.K.: I don't know. We can talk about that. We'll have to. Do you want to work on it or not?
F.R.: Of course I do. I was afraid it might be science fiction.
S.K.: Don't you like science fiction?
F.R.: I never read it. I never feel remotely interested in people who are going to be alive three centuries after I'm dead, do you?
S.K.: I don't know about people. Situations, yes!

Inception

2009-12-29T12:41:00.000-08:00

http://inceptionmovie.warnerbros.com/

The Verdict: A Collaboration of David Mamet and Sidney Lumet

2009-12-26T10:50:00.000-08:00

I was once asked during an interview about Eisenstein Montage Theory whether it has changed during the history of cinema or not? I responded without hesitation. No!
Of course, cinema is a form of art that is very much related to technology, and every new invention brings something to the craft, but essentials don't go away. When, in the fifties, American film producers chose to go with a wider and deeper screen called CinemaScope in order to make a difference against television, Andre Bazin called it "fin du montage". Of course, that wasn't true. When we think about dominant cinema, we still tell our stories within the cuts.
Here's what Mamet, the scriptwriter of "The Verdict" says about visual storytelling and montage.

There's another way to make a movie, which is the way that Eisenstein suggested a movie should be made. This method has nothing to do with following the protagonist around but rather is a succession of images juxtaposed so that the contrast between these images moves the story forward in the mind of the audience. This is a very succinct rendition of Eisenstein's theory of montage; it is also the first thing I know about film directing, virtually the only thing I know about film directing.
You always want to tell the story in cuts. Which is to say, through a juxtaposition of images that are basically uninflected image. A shot of a teacup. A shot of a spoon. A shot of a fork. A shot of a door. Let the cut tell the story. Because otherwise you have not got dramatic action, you have narration. If you slip into narration, you are saying "you'll never guess why what I just told you is important to the story." It's important that the audience should guess why it is important to the story. It is important simply to tell the story. Let the audience be surprised.

The movie, finally, is much closer than the play to simple storytelling. If you listen to the way people tell stories, you will hear that they tell them cinematically. They jump from one thing to the next, and the story is moved along by the juxtaposition of images - which is to say, by the cut.
People say, "I'm standing on the corner. It's a foggy day. A bunch of people are running around crazy. Might have been the full moon. All of a sudden, a car comes up and the guy next to me says..."
If you think about it, that's a shot list: (1) a guy standing on the corner; (2) shot of a fog; (3) a full moon shining above; (4) a man says, "I think people get wacky this time of year"; (5) a car approaching.
This is good filmmaking, to juxtapose images. Now you are following the story. What, you wonder, is going to happen next?

In that case, my shot list would be as following:
1. I leave the glass with the liquid in it in my room.
2. I have lunch in the restaurant.
3. I come back to my room.
4. A close up of the glass. Melted.
5. The expression of my face.
6. I enter in the studio, he is painting.

Well, I think that looks premising. But it can be better.
Now what Mamet argues here is interesting:

The truth is, you never have to establish the character. In the first place, there is no such thing as character other than the habitual action, as Mr. Aristotle told us two thousands years ago. It just doesn't exits...
...As long as the protagonist wants something, the audience will want something. As long as the protagonist is clearly going out and attempting to get that something, the audience will wonder whether or not he is going to succeed...

Now, after having red this, I will try to make a shot list of the very first scene of "The Verdict".

1. A working class funeral. There are about thirty people.
2. A man (Funeral Director) with a black suit fills the screen.
3. Second man (Galvin) puts discreetly folded ten dollar into director's pocket.
4. They all walk to the funeral parlor.
5. Widow is crying.
6. These two men approaches her.
7. Funeral Director: "Mrs. Dee, This is Joe Galvin, a very good friends of ours and a very fine attorney."
8. Widow nods.
9. Galvin: "I knew him vaguely through the Lodge. He was a wonderful man. It is a crime what happened to him. A crime. If there is anything I could do to help..."
10. Galvin removes his business card from his pocket and hands it to her as he was giving her money. (i.e., "Take it, I want you to have it...")
11. She takes the card.
Beat

Ellipsis

2009-12-25T12:47:00.000-08:00

I experienced something very interesting yesterday. It reminded me ellipsis, transformation, time and change. I had to do a shooting for a project and I needed special liquid for the paint. Therefore, I went to see a painter friend of mine and took some liquid from him. We put it in a plastic glass and I left it in my room. It was early in the morning and he was just recently woke up.
I didn't know anything about the characteristics of the liquid and I thought I didn't have to. He just told me how to apply it to the paint and I didn't ask anymore questions about it.
After leaving the liquid in my room, I thought I might have lunch and I could hopefully do my shootings afterward.
After I came back, I realized that, the liquid melted the glass and was all over the place. The plastic had a strange look. It wasn't solid anymore but became much more into something more organic.
Because I didn't know anything about the liquid, I didn't realize the cause and effect. It reminded me that while I was somewhere else, something occurred in my room without my control but because of me. And this was a strange feeling.
One of the things that I immediately thought was the picture above. It is taken from the book "The Story of Film" written by Mark Cousins. Here, he mentions three filmmakers from different periods, who influenced themselves and changed and manipulated the same shot within the history of Cinema.

How directors learn from each other: Carol Reed has a visual idea, Jean - Luc Godard adapts it and Martin Scorsese modifies it still further.

At the same time, I thought about something completely different. Storytelling and Dramatic Irony.

Dramatic irony is described by Mackendrick as follows:

A situation where one or more of the characters on the screen is ignorant of the circumstances known to us in the audience.
Most stories with a strong plot are built on the tension of cause and effect. Each incident is like a domino that topples forward to collide with the next in a sequence which holds the audience in a grip of anticipation. "So, what happens next?" Each scene presents a small crisis that as it plays out produces a new uncertainty.
And this is a description given by Hitchcock about the relation between dramatic irony and suspense:
Let us suppose that there is a bomb underneath this table between us. Nothing happens, and then all of a sudden, "Boom!" There is an explosion. .The public is surprised, but prior to this surprise, it has seen an absolutely ordinary scene, of no special consequences. Now, let us take a suspense situation. The bomb is underneath the table and the public knows it... In these conditions this same innocuous conversation becomes fascinating because the public is participating in the scene. The audience is longing to warn the characters on the screen:"You shouldn't be talking about such trivial matters. There is a bomb underneath you and it is about to explode!"

The American Heritage dictionary defines irony as "The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning."

In my case, if I am the hero in my story and the spectator is following me throughout the whole story therefore their range of knowledge is equal to what I have, than what I experience and feel is the same that the audience has.(We expect the average audience not to have any knowledge about the characteristic of the liquid.) And that creates a certain identification between the reader, audience or spectator and the character.
Because I left the liquid in a plastic glass, it melted. Therefore I had to revisit my painter friend to get another one. And that was the main effect in the story. That I had to visit him again.
What I realized after I went to his studio is that he already started working. I didn't really realize the time has passed and I hadn't done any work until that moment. So, I was stressed. Something also was changed during that time. That he wasn't still hangover like I saw him the last time, but he started working during the time that I experienced all of this.

Some Books I Should Read Before The End of 2009!

2009-12-25T01:49:00.000-08:00

Nicholas Ray: An American Journey - Bernard Eisenschitz

I was Interrupted: Nicholas Ray on Making Movies - Nicholas Ray

My Last Sigh: Luis Bunuel

The Interpretation of Dreams: Sigmund Freud

The Uses of Enchantment: Bruno Bettelheim

The Parade's Gone By: Kevin Brownlow

Picture: Lillian Ross

Hitchcock / Truffaut: François Truffaut

An Unspeakable Betrayal: Selected Writings of Luis Bunuel

Final Cut: Art, Money, and Ego in the Making of "Heaven's Gate", The Film That Sank United Artists - Steven Bach

Technique Of Film Editing - Karel Reisz, Gavin Miller

Thank you Nigel Walters BSC

2009-11-20T06:40:00.000-08:00

"An early morning hotel breakfast is not the usual time to encounter lively film students. The first to appear with the typical live - in look was Barbaros Gokdemir, the lone Turkish participant, who informed me that he had found the most useful aspect in the previous three days, had been the lectures. Lectures are harder to come by in developing countries such as Turkey. On the bus journey the magnificent Korda Studios the various advantages of this style of "hands on" Master Classes with lectures and analysis carefully choreographed were to be revealed to me by various scholars and participants."
Thank you Nigel Walters for mentioning about me in your article about the Budapest Cinematography Masterclass 2009. It has been quite a long time since the masterclass is over but I just found out about this article and I was very happy. The Masterclass provided me with an invaluable experience of the craft of cinematography, filmmaking, and collaboration. I was able to work with film students from different 16 nationality and a very strong mixture of film schools. To meet and work with film students from UCLA, Nfts, Taik, Lodz, Victorian College of Art, Westminster, FTII and many others put me on the right track in the sense of knowledge and experience and gave me a chance to enhance my skills on cinematography. I believe what I recieved from the masterclass is transferable and marketable in the field and it will help me reach my goals as a filmmaker.
Without the masterclass, I don't know if I would have the experience to work with Panavision cameras under the supervision of a great tutor Benjamin Bergery. Working on Korda Studios and understanding how a sound stage really works and how major productions are being done is very crucial. Having lectures and conversations with great cinematographers like Vilmos Zsigmond and Elemer Ragalyi and great tutors like Nik Powell, and having a chance to meet and hear his experiences on film industry from Anthony Dod Mantle was all a part of the masterclass.
I miss you Budapest and I am very happy to be a part of the masterclass.

Filmmaking Has No Boundaries

2009-11-10T12:05:00.000-08:00

"Telling stories, communicating through images is what this profession is about. Today the film industry is a global sector and filmmaking has no boundaries. A project may launch in France, the pre- production part may be done in Italy, the production may be handled in Middle East and post - production in England. Within the international working environment I think it is crucial for any young filmmaker to have advanced social skills. I believe studying at the University of **** will provide with an invaluable social experience: to work, collaborate and create with people from different backgrounds who share the same passion for films and filmmaking."

That's what I wrote in my letter of intent last year for my application for graduate degrees. And finally, I am experiencing what I said. A friend of mine from Turkey is about to finish his graduate degree in England, Westminster Film School and he just completed the principal photography of his thesis project in London. He is still there fighting to get a decent post - production company to get the timings and gradings of his picture and I am sitting in my room at Sabanci University, editing his thesis project. It is incredible how technology evolved and became what it became today. It is just extraordinary. I am just editing a short film that was shot by a Turkish director with British actors and actresses and with a British team. I mean of course, we knew that from big productions of Hollywood that we were led to a work flow without the boundaries of space and time but I never imagined that I could be a part of a film project just sitting in my room. If I am lucky and if I am good at what I am doing (first of all you have to know what you are doing, right!) in the future, I may even edit the new film of Tom Cruise that was just shot in L.A. which has to go all over the World within the virtual space to complete the post - production. The future is full of opportunities and it is a god damn fair play!

Missing the Reality

2009-11-09T03:15:00.000-08:00

Last Friday, I found out that two close friends of mine are getting engaged. I was very surprised by that and of course very happy. The reason why I was very surprised by that is because it is not something that occurs very often in my life. Or because I am just getting older and older (though I am only 24), that kind of event will occur more often that usual because all my friends and I are getting in a period where we can officially work, have a career, get married and have kids.
Actually, that wasn't the only factor that I was affected by this event. That we are getting adults. But I started questioning myself. What am I doing for god's sake. Sometimes you lose yourself in trying to make long terms plans for your life and for your career and you lose the reality and what is happening around you. You forget to be happy. You forget that you can actually love someone, meet someone or even have a conversation with someone. As an individual who always had issues on having intimate relationships with the opposite sex, it gave me a chance to question myself. And I am happy for that.
When I think about my past relationships, I can't stop thinking about the notion space and time. Thought I was always close to my girlfriends in case of in the same city or even sometimes in the same house, the idea of making progress in life, achieving something always destroyed my relationships. And I wasn't always the guilty one. The objectives and our passions in our lives made us so different that our relationship became a conflict for them and it was something that we had to abandon. It always led us to loneliness.
Now, I am scared of having a relationship. One reason for that is because I cannot really trust anybody. You say "Relationship? What for?" You know that it is going to end with a failure again. Does it worth it? I don't know.

How Does One Take an Action as a Filmmaker?

2009-11-08T11:40:00.000-08:00

I don't know about you but aren't you sick of hearing the same advices from the filmmakers you admire so much? Why is that? Are there some kinds of things that they have to say in interviews of stuff like that in order to promote a certain product? Or may be we are caring to much about what they say and we ideolize them and this is something that we shouldn't be doing!
I was reading another article or interview by Roger Deakins and I am sick of hearing the same phrases.
Here one for exemple:
"A lot of people say it's nicely photographed, and I think it is," he says. "And I think it's the simplicity that makes it well photographed. ... It's not like these are necessarily fantastic images; it's really about the content. It's not about making great images."
Or:
"When you move the camera, or you do a shot like the crane down [in Shawshank] with them standing on the edge of the roof, then it's got to mean something," he says. "You've got to know why you're doing it; it's got to be for a reason within the story, and to further the story."
In a way, I am obsessed about reading interviews. But doesn't seem to be improving anything in me. Or may be I am wrong but I just can't make it anything out of it to really understand their choices and of course when I am in action (producing something) doesn't really make it easier for my choices and my dilemmas. For me they are saying to much and at the same time, they are saying anything. It really doesn't answer any of my needing as a person who wants to do that job. I guess you just have to find a way to answer all these questions and that is something that has to come from within. And that's really the point when you really understand the craft and this profession and actually all the answers are already in yourself. You just have to look for it. In that way, I am trying to be as much optimistic as I can.
"There's nothing worse than an ostentatious shot," Deakins argues. "Or some lighting that draws attention to itself, and you might go, 'Oh, wow, that's spectacular.' Or that spectacular shot, a big crane move, or something. But it's not necessarily right for the film — you jump out, you think about the surface, and you don't stay in there with the characters and the story."

Missing the Camera

2009-10-24T04:27:00.000-07:00

It has been quite a long time since I didn't shot anything. I am dying to shoot something. Anything. Short film, documentary, music videos whatever I can get. The reason why I haven't shot anything for a long time is because recently I have decided to take part in big projects that I could only work as an assistant director or assistant editor. But now, I have the confidence to take full responsability as a cinematographer or director to realise projects. The other reason why I stopped working as a cameraman is my thesis project that I have mentioned before. After my thesis project, I felt like I lost my ability and I didn't have what was required for this profession. But I was wrong. I am not going to listen any critize and I will not be afraid of making mistakes. And I will not apologize because I am using the latest camera, sorry middle age old fashioned cinematographers located in Istanbul but this is the future and you are already too behind.

...

2009-10-15T13:55:00.000-07:00

From now on, I will write all my dreams on my blog. I always thought about writing my dreams somewhere because I usually forget them even the ones that really affects me.
I think I had this dream in 2008 but I am not really sure. But I know it has been more than one year. I am from Izmir but my parents are from Akhisar, Manisa. I lived all my life in Izmir. My grandmother still lives in Akhisar and she lived in the same house I think for more than 30 years. So I only saw the house that she is living now and didn't see the previous ones.
When I was younger or when I was kid, we used to go there every holiday to see my grandparents. It is one of these usual grandparent's houses where every children may feel annoyed when he is there because there is really nothing special about it and there isn't really a decent television.
In the dream, I am at the same age as I am now and I am alone in my grandmother's house which I think never happened before. I have never stayed there by myself, there was always other people, my parents or my grandmother. A knock in the door and I go to check the door. Two middle age men which from their apperances, you can understand that they are local, they may be farmer or something, they enter in the house without asking me anything. I don't understand and I feel stressed about it but they don't tell me anything except pushing me. They go to the living room and I am trying to understand what is going on. One of them sits by the table where there is a laptop. (I have never seen a laptop in this house before because I never took mine there, and of course because my grandmother doesn't have one.) The other one starts to push me by the window. I can remember harsh light coming in from the window, It is in the middle of daytime and I am trying to get these people out of the house. The other one turns on the laptop and he starts to surf on the internet. The one who was pushing me goes next to him to see what is on the laptop. They are now not talking and watching the screen. I am going close to them to understand what they are watching and I see that they are watching a porn film on the internet.
That was a very tense dream which I am thinking about it for a very long time to understand why have I dream something like that. Needless to say, for me, it was a nighmare.

Another Shark in a Suit

2009-10-09T15:53:00.001-07:00

Everybody loves you. Pisses me off.

Jerry Maguire: I'm finished, I'm fucked. Twenty four hours ago, man, I was hot! Now... I'm a cautionary tale. You see this jacket I'm wearing, you like it? Because I don't really need it. Because I'm cloaked in failure! I lost the number one draft picked the night before the draft! Why? Let's recap: Because a hockey player's kid made me feel like a superficial jerk. I ate two slices of bad pizza, went to bed and grew a concience!

Okay. I am going to talk about a film which I think it will give me the opportunity to fully describe what I enjoy seeing and what I intend to do. Actually I am very much interested about male characters fighting for their goals, fighting to earn money, earning respect from the others, get a decent powerful career... If possiple conquer the world. I am interested about smart characters who want it all.
The film, Jerry Maguire may seem cheesy to many but I think it is a very powerful film in case of written character and its strong visual storytelling. Jerry is a succesfull sport agent, he is strong, funny, dependable. He is working in a major company called Sport Management International. "Everybody loves him" is one of the taglines of the film. But at the age of 35, after a nervous breakdown, he starts writing a mission statement in one night "The Things We Think and Do Not Say: The Future of Our Business", proposing "Fewer Clients, Less Money" but a better personal support to the clients. He delivers it to everone in the company but of course in the next day, he is fired.
Once he is alone, he becomes the boss of himself, Jerry is so frighten that he instinctively tries to get all his clients back with his new company as opposed to his mission statement that he is about to start but like a destiny, he can only convince two of his ex-clients.He is now confronting with his writings, "Less Clients, Less Money" even he doesn't want to because he just wants to get to back to business to get a revenge from his ex-bosses. One of clients is a very young promising football player and the other one is a black, in his mid-thirties who thinks only about money to support his big family.
At the same time, Jerry who was never alone in his life breaks up with his fiance and another challenge awaits him. Loneliness.
But the main conflict starts when the young promising football player which he was his only salvor decides in last moment to make a deal with Sport Management International, Jerry is now with only one client who doesn't promise a potential as a football player, he is difficult to work with, he is aggressive and everybody finds him a pain the ass in the team. But as oppossed to Jerry, he has a very strong respect and caring for family values which Jerry in the end will learn a lot from him.
So Jerry, in his journey, will have to continue with the most difficult football player to get back in the business and will have the chance to really understand and go through all that he wrote before. In a way, now he has the chance to prove whether he was right or wrong to himself and to really understand what really matters in life. Like his mentor would say "Personal relations are the keys to this business."

Jerry Maguire: I will not rest until I have you holding a Coke, wearing your own shoe, playing a Sega game *featuring you*, while singing your own song in a new commercial, *starring you*, broadcast during the Superbowl, in a game that you are winning, and I will not *sleep* until that happens. I'll give you fifteen minutes to call me back.

Now, another thing which I would like to discuss here has got nothing to do with Jerry Maguire, but something that I shot two years ago as an exercice. I love working with maquettes, small figures and stuff because it gives me the chance to experiment things that I really can't in real life because it is expensive. Therefore I like to work with actions figures, light them, direct them and creating a living environment for them. I think the most difficult part is creating the environment, for exemple this saloon doesn't really look to real because there is really no detail, no traces of past, time, doesn't really look like it is living. And to do that, you really have to work really detailly in order to create a living environment. And it is really a craft. It is what production designers do actually.

What I would really like to do as a long term project is actually combine both. A very well written character and a story with a very stong sense of visual storytelling. But isn't that every filmmaker wants to achieve at the end?

Sweet Smell of Success

2009-10-01T13:40:00.000-07:00

I always think about succesfull people because in a way I don't want to be a loser in life. I want to be appreciated. I want my grandmother to tell her friends that she is proud of me and that in a way I made all the clever choices in life and I always worked hard and I made something out of my life. When I got in a film program in 2004, she didn't tell her friends that I was going to study film. But what is success really? 2008 was the worst year in my life. I mean it was really bad. I was working for my thesis project which was a short film that I wanted to do but I really got unlucky during the production process. Okay, I have to admit, I had a very weak script and I just couldn't make it better. I felt like the main character in Barton Fink, I mean whatever I did just didn't work for that script. My intention was to make a film about chracters because that would enable me to really work closely with actors and acting and I was thinking that could sharpen my skills of directing. I think I was right in that way if there is one thing I don't regret, this is it. But the script? It was a nightmare! The other problem was that I just couldn't find a decent professor who would go with me with all the process of scriptwriting. When it came to casting, it just got worst. I mean let tell you something about the young generation actors situated in Istanbul. Ofcourse there may be exceptions but they are really running away from the hardwork. I visited all the universities which had theatre program. I mean what are you waiting for? I am an aspiring film student and you want to be an actor, what are you waiting for? Are you waiting an invitation from Spielberg? This is a chance for you to show yourself, to experiment, to know yourself and even if you don't want that, it is an opportunity to know people. I mean what more can I say. Most of the actors in Istanbul, they live in Cihangir, they usually go to tv serial shooting (which I think is a nightmare) for two or three days a week and the rest of the time, they drink tea in the middle of Cihangir doing nothing! They sit there with there huge ego talking about how big they will become as an actor in the future. Let me tell you something. You are not going anywhere and you are not going to leave Cihangir for the rest of your life! But I am sure the second one is what you expect from life. Like I said before, there are some exceptions. For exemple, the actress which I could find in the last moment was really great and she really wanted to be a part of it. I was very luck to have her.
The day when I was going to show my film to the professors in my university, I was stressed. There were about 40 or 50 people in the screening room and I always feel weird when I watch my work with the audience. After the screening, when I got up in front of everybody, there was an uncomfortable silence for about a minute. Than people started to yell about how bad the film was. I just coulnd't say anything. And I worked hard not to cry there.
I was feeling very bad but I just had to find a way to get over it. After 3 days of screening, I was going to start to work in a feature film as an assistant director which I was waiting eagerly, I was invited there by my professor which I had a great relationship in the school, I wasn't going to get paid but I really liked the director and I was looking forward to it. At the same time, I got an e-mail from the film school that I applied two months before saying that they were interested in my portfolio but wanted to know more about me and I made a schedule with them on the day of my birthday, 2nd of july, for the interview. I had 2 weeks before that day.
People I started to work with on the feature were really mean to me. I think this is something that I will never understand for the rest of my life because I don't know why they acted this way. My professor too, was very hard on me and I just didn't know what to do. I was trying to be positive all the time but everything I said or did was wrong for them. I was already feeling very bad because of my graduation film and this was very hard for me. Everytime, I thought about quitting, I said to myself not to give up and everytime I wanted to speak to my professor, he never had time for me and everytime I wanted to ask him about something, he would yell at me for no reason. I mean why?
The day before the interview, I told them that I was going to have an interview tomorrow, we had to go to Beykoz for the production, than at some point, I would go back to my house to get online on skype. Tomorrow morning, when I was at Beykoz, my brother who was staying with me called me that there were calling me on skype from the school. I couldn't believe it. I always thought it was going to be in the afternoon but not in the morning. I was working so hard that I just couldn't realise it was going to be in the morning. I called the school, they gave me 15 minutes!! From Beykoz to Sisli?! I arrived home in 45 minutes but it was already too late. I missed the interview with Brian Tufano and I missed my chance. And it was my birthday. And for a very long time, I really felt like a loser. I still do.

Failure?

2009-09-30T11:39:00.000-07:00

I hate myself when my answer is "I don't know" when someone older and more experienced than me asks me something about what I want to do in my life and what I expect from the future. I don't think I have ever been lazy in my life. Actually what is lazy? Is it when you are good in your studies in high school or whatever and that makes you a hardworking person? I dont think so. When I was a teenage, I was distracted by many other things. Girls, Stanley Kubrick, Robocop and my grades were average but I was always interested in something. I did theatre, acting because I just loved to act and to be on the stage in front of everybody. I was interested in learning other langages, I had additional classes to learn italian and english at the weekends. But there was one thing that was very obvious. Film. Now people ask me everywhere this question. "What are you going to do?" And I say I dont know. Actually I know it. I know it from the age of 13. But I just dont know how to do it. There is one thing that I cant figure it out that blocks me do it. Or maybe I am just impatient. Or maybe I wasn't lucky enough to find the right companion so far to share my ideas with or to work with all the time. Or maybe I didn't made the right decisions at some point in my life. But that's okay I think. I am in this road now, and I dont have the intention to shy away from the hardwork.
I hate when people criticize me because of my choices. Or I hate when people find me not appropriate for my choices. I exactly know what I am doing and believe me, I have thought about it just last night more that you did in your entire life.
I was very lucky to be in a workshop in Budapest last month where I had the chance to meet with film students from different places who share the same passion for films and filmmaking. Anthony Dod Mantle came to visit us and told us he didn't know what to do until the age of thirty but he never stopped trying and forcing himself to find what he is actually looking for in life. It is a path actually and it is a very long path. Last year, he won an oscar for his work Slumdog Millionaire.
Now, people who know me very well, know that I was trying to get in a school for two years but I was unfortunate because I missed my interview for the application process. God, I worked so hard to get in that film school! Believe me, I did everything. Sometimes things just happens and you cant control it. There is nothing you can do about it.
I am now in a art school and I feel strange. People ask me "Do you want to become an artist or stay in the mainstream?" My answer is obvious. Mainstream!. It was decided before I was born before the time of the Alexander the Great before all the myths were created. But then they ask me this question. "Is there anybody you can work with at this school?" And my answer is I don't know.
Scottish born british director Alexander Mckendrick was a great film director. But in some point in his life he just couldn't work anymore. Because he just didn't like the way film directors had to start to promote themselves in Hollywood to get a job and he just didn't make any films until the day he died for twenty years. But in his second part of his life, he started teaching at the famous film and art school CALARTS, in California. His teachings were absolute, sharp, fascinating and inspiring. He taught so many young filmmakers and he inspired them. I wish I could be his student. David Mamet, in some point in his life taught at Columbia. And we all know about Terence Malick who is a very famous professor in Harvard who contributed a lot to the motion picture making business only with his four groundbreaking films. Why do I tell you this? I dont know.
I was also very impressed when I met film students in this workshop. They didn't have any fear or they werent stressed because of their choices. They were just happy to be in that profession and didn't really care about more than that. I mean how do you do that? Is it only me who thinks about everything to much more and feels stressed and I just cant handle it anymore.
I think I will have to finish this writing some other time but I don't know how to end it. By the way, Mckendrick used to say, if you have a great beginning for a story but dont have an ending, there is probably a problem in the beginning...

What Makes This Shot Believable?

2009-09-30T10:35:00.000-07:00

I love production design. Actually, I love production designers. Production designers are the best and sometimes worst friends of cinematographers. Just look at this shot, from Coen's film "No Country For Old Men" which was shot by Roger Deakins ASC, BSC. If you look closely you will see the details of the wall which is dusty, dark and sticky. This kind of work done by production designers makes the visuality of the film much stronger and gives much more space to cinematographers to play with.
This is the first time that I am writing to this blog and I just wanted to share a certain shot from a film which I love and to show why particularly I love it. I will try to share more stills from certain films to discuss certain area of filmmaking and also just to talk and think about it.