The Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
A short featurette from 1981, originally used as promotional material for the upcoming release of the first Indiana Jones movie: Raiders of the Lost Ark
OTS - Over The Shoulder
In film or video, an over the shoulder shot - AKA an over shoulder, ab tu, OTS, or even third-person shot - gives the perspective of looking over the shoulder of another person. The camera is positioned behind the back of the shoulder and head, however, their head and shoulder are used to frame the image.
The OTS shot is used often when two characters are having a discussion, usually following a wide establishing shout which helps the audience members get a sense of ‘where’ the exchange is taking place. The where in this example is the setting.
“N” AKA Nouvelle Vague
The French ‘New Wave’ is as generic a term to define a style and a movement similar to the use of ‘Grunge’ to define Seattle music. However, the comparisons are striking.
In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s a group of French filmmakers Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer, and Alain Resnais, who began as critics on Cahiers du Cinema formally rejected tradition. They shot on-location. Their films were about social issues.
They also experimented with the craft and form of filmmaking. Examples include the cinema cinema verite style. They used jump cuts, hand held cameras, non-linear storytelling, and loose to improvised direction.
Their style would directly influence the next generation of Hollywood directors in the New Hollywood phase or American New Wave - very specifically in Bonnie and Clyde - staring Warren Beatty and directed by Arthur Penn.
Exceptional examples include: Chabrol's Le Beau Serge (1958) (aka Bitter Reunion),
Truffaut's feature film debut The 400 Blows (Les Quatre Cents Coups) (1959),
Godard's Breathless (A Bout de Souffle) (1959),
Marcel Camus' Black Orpheus (1959),
Chabrol's Les Cousins (1959),
Resnais' Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)
The French New Wave changed cinema around the world, and their influence can still be felt today.
PS - We really like the band that covers New Wave music of the 80's too!
The optimum time for filming romantic or magical scenes due to 'warm' and 'soft' lighting conditions, characterized by a golden-orange hue color and softened shadows.
Magic hour occurs for about 30 minutes around the time of sunset and sunrise - which also is known as ‘golden hour’.
When on set you’ll typically hear the First Assistant Director yelling that ‘we’re losing daylight, people’ in his/her attempt
to motivate the crew to roll the next take. The First AD’s not joking around, as there is a limited amount of time to get the perfect glow of Magic Hour. It can get expensive.
Nestor Almendros' cinematography in Terence Malick's Days of Heaven (1978); and Phil Alden Robinson's Field of Dreams (1989) are fantastic examples of Golden Hour or Magic Hour on film.
One night in 1837 a bright light beamed on a juggler in Covent Garden in London. It was the first use of a Limelight - an intense white beam produced by heating a piece of lime (Calcium Oxide) in a flame burning oxygen and hydrogen.
First discovered in the 1820’s by Goldsworthy Gurney, and demonstrated by Michael Faraday, the application of the light was brought to land surveying by Sir Thomas Drummond. By 1856 limelights were used at Fort Sumter at the beginning of the Civil War, and during the night construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. The first theatrical installation was put to use in London's Princesses Theater.
Operators would sit on bladders of oxygen and shift their weight to control the pressure. Not unlike a bagpipe of light? Not surprisingly, accidents were common. London’s Drury Lane Theater burnt to the ground after a bag burst.
Actors on stage, in the center of the beam were literally ‘in the limelight,’ however the turn of the phrase outside of the theater really caught on around the turn of the century.
Because the light was so intense, and because (reportedly) the light had a slight greenish hue, actors would get ready and rest in a room painted green. This was to allow the actors to adjust their eyes. It’s been said this is the origin of the term ‘green room.’ Although other sources say that ‘green’ is the area of grass where actors would wait to go on stage, the term is still used for the talent preparation room to this day in theater and television production.