Sam's Blog

Not too long ago, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I sat in my advisor’s office as a sophomore transfer student and the question was brought up: What do you want to do after you graduate? I had no idea what to say and got mad at myself by how much that question caught me off guard.   Over the following weeks after giving that question some serious thought, I landed at film because, and I quote myself saying, “cameras are fun”. The only things I’ve ever found that I was good at or enjoyed more than a short time are cameras and music.   Before starting at the University of Alabama, I met a friend in one of my classes. Everyday after class, he would grab his skateboard and his camera and just skate until he saw something cool to take pictures of. I was amazed at how interesting this sort of lifestyle he’d created for himself was. After having him teach me a bit about cameras, I ended up falling in love with creating videos. Over the course ...

Let's cut to the chase. Scene Remake Final:  https://vimeo.com/266251297 Here's the fluff.    \/   \/   \/ Visual References:

I analyzed a scene from my favorite movie, Fight Club. It's the scene of Jack's Revenge. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pJC0FLA3Sk

Motivated Camera Movement - Sam Gay Blog Post #5 Tokyo Drift Opening In the clip below, there is a shot dolly backwards (1:02 - 1:05 in the clip below). This is a good example of motivated camera movement because as the characters are trying to one up each other before a fight, the protagonist drops a wrench from his sleeve and the camera cuts to the football team and tracks back to show how many of them there are. This was important to show how small and outnumbered the protagonist is. I'm assuming a crane was used to get this shot because of the high angle and the open parking lot set. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-EheX9m-dE Fight Club - The First Rule of Fight Club In this scene from Fight Club, starting at 7 seconds, we see the members coming in as we begin to truck right with a whip pan to reveal the protagonist as soon as he starts talking and the camera continues to truck in a 360 around him. This shots motivation is to show the vast amount of people coming in and...

Documentary Assignment Director: Sam Gay Director of Photography: Makena Wasserman Anthony Celiano - Founder/ Artist Management at Project Gateway Entertainment vimeo.com/254816622

Sam Gay - Blog Post #3 I read about the Zenmuse X7 at cinema5d.com. It was super cool to see the making behind their film Over The Wilderness . In the video, they mentioned they had to hike a lot to get to where the drone could reach the landscapes they were after and were flying the drone in -15 degrees and 3,000m above sea level at times. I am blown away by the quality of footage they were able to capture. I also watched the Cinema 5D ON THE GO episode talking about cinema cameras vs dslr and dslr-like cameras and footage. It's crazy that he said he tested the cameras and chopped up shots from both and people couldn't tell the difference between cameras. He actually recommended a dslr on set in conjuction with cinema cameras as a way to get in tight places the cinema cameras can't get to. Very interesting that a $2000 camera and a $100,000 camera can be used together.

Blog Post #2 Breaking Bad - DP Michael Slovis Michael is from New Jersey but went to school in New York at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He started his career in 1981 and was a camera operator for many years working on numerous films before becoming a cinematographer in 1995. He's worked on many notable films and series including  Halloweentown  (1998),  CSI: Crime Scene Investigation ,  Law and Order: Special Victims Unit , and his newer work which includes  Breaking Bad ,  Better Call Saul , and  Game of Thrones.  Michael has been a part of the ASC since 2010. Sam Kolder Sam is originally from Canada, but has relocated to Los Angeles. Unlike the typical Cinematographer that starts out working as a Production Assistant on sets and working their way up to a notable position, Sam instead used social media and more of a short documentary films following artists on tour to gain his title. Sam, who is now only 21 years old, got ...