NPAC Forums
NPAC Forum => General Discussion => Topic started by: Steve Russell on June 18, 2008, 11:45 PM
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The American Film Institute released their Top 10 Top 10. (http://www.afi.com/10top10/), The Top ten movies in the top ten genres.
Well, photojournalism must have been the 11th genre!
What would have been the #1 movie in the photojournalism genre?
Photojournalist Movies
Under Fire (1983) - Nick Nolte,
Salvador (1986) - Oliver Stone + James Woods
City of God (2002) - Great movie!
Killing Fields (1984) - Some scenes filmed in Toronto Star newsroom
Rear Window (1954) - Grace Kelly, Wow!
Blowup (1966) - A lot of the old timers told me this is a movie that gave them the shutterbug!
The Bridges of Madison County (1995) - Clint Eastwood
The Eyes of Laura Mars (1978) -
Harrison's Flowers (2000) - My wife would never look for me! Especially after seeing this movie.
The Year of Living Dangerously (1982) - When Mel Loved Photographers
Paparazzi (2004) - When Mel Hated Photographers
Other possiblities?
The Public Eye (1992)
Welcome to Sarajevo (1997)
Pecker (1998)
The Paper (1994)
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HOLY STOP BATH STEVE-MAN! How could you leave Spider-Man off the the list?! ;)
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though.....not a photojournalism movie per say.....How could one not be inspired by Dennis Hopper as the photojournalist living at Col. Kurtz's camp in Apocalypse Now. Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window and David Hemmings in Blow Up were not technically photojournalists......though I did expect that since photographer David Bailey (Hemmings) drove a Rolls Royce convertible in Blow Up....I would someday do the same, still waiting after 35 years... ???
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Dinnis Hopper, what a photographer he portrayed,
but Photojournalist Movies
steve you got my top three right up there
Salvador (1986) - Oliver Stone + James Woods
Under Fire (1983) - Nick Nolte,
City of God (2002) - Great movie!
and on TV
remember
LOU GRANT
and
Daryl Anderson, who played the photographer Dennis Price, on the show he was referred to as animal
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I remember watching "The Eyes of Laura Mars" when it first came out and thinking... she has the same camera as me.
I still think Salvador was the best.
-Rob
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One of the most interesting, especially to a tabloid shooter, is a very rare and not-available-on-DVD movie called SHAKEDOWN with Howard Duff from 1950. But I've only seen it once more than 25 years ago.
Duff, a prototypical film noir actor, plays a shady photog who gets tied up with the mob and the ending is over the top - as he photographs the mobster who kills him. Now that's the way to go!
Will be a must buy when it surfaces on Blu-Ray.
-Peake
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Then there are movies where the photojournalism is incidental but interesting.
All those popping speed graphics in all those old movies (and in the ones the flash powder going off usually before the cowboy gets killed)
The one I always remember from when I was a kid was North by Northwest.
Cary Grant walks into an office at the UN to talk to some guy. As Cary Grant approaches
the man, the bad guy throws a knife at the target and the victim falls into Grant's arms.
There's a guy with a speed graphic on a couch (waiting for who knows who) and grabs the picture, which of course is on the front page of every paper the next day (including when the cops pick up Cary at the auction)
Any other photojournalistic moments you remember that aren't necessarily the focus of the whole movie?
Robin
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Here's a couple I found in one of those bins of lonesome DVDs:
War Stories, 2004 – Jeff Goldblum, Lake Bell, Louise Lombard, Jeffrry Nordling
Somebody has to shoot the picture, 1999 - Roy Scheider, Bonnie Bedelia
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How about one for the girls? Jennifer Connelly in Blood Diamond!
In Kalifornia Brad Pitt is a journalist with his photojournalist girlfriend Juliette Lewis, on the trail of a serial killer...
Clive Owen played Photojournalist Dwight in Sin City...
Z (1969) - Jacques Perrin plays a photojournalist...
Barry Pepper played a photojournalist alongside Mel in We Were Soldiers...
Joe Pesci played a 1940s photographer in The Public Eye...
Julia Roberts played a photojournalist in StepMom, and a commercial portrait photographer in Closer...
and lest we forget Jimmy Olsen from Superman!
and via some googling, if anyone is interested a Columbia student wrote his Thesis on:
"How Ethical Dilemmas Shape Stereotypes of the On-Screen Pree Photographer in Motion Pictures from 1954 to 2006"
http://ijpc.org/Photojournalist%20Thesis.pdf
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Andy;
Your 1966 Roller is here
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Rolls-Royce-Silver-Shadow-LOW-MILES-1966-ROLLS-ROYCE-SILVER-SHADOW-A-C-88K-MILES-LOADED_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1713Q2em153Q2el1262QQcategoryZ157073QQihZ008QQitemZ180254630493
It's cheap enough you can even get the top removed and get it painted like David's!
dg
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Just thought I would mention that in Under Fire, Nick Nolte sets up a photo of a dead rebel leader to make him look alive for anti-government propaganda. Not so great for our image. But I bought my first Nikon F-2 with the MD-2 after seeing that movie.
I loved James Woods crazy character in Salvador, if you watch closely when he fires the shutter the rewind crank doesn't move because there is no film in his film cameras and when John Savage takes a photo of an execution with his Leica it has the sound of a motordrive, with no drive on the camera. Not to mention John Savage sits in the middle of the road taking a photo of an airplane with a huge zoom lens for no logical photographic reason and is killed doing so. John Savages character is partly based on the real life and death of John Hoagland in El Salvador. I heard a story that Nikon would not pay sponsorship on the film and Canon did, so all the Nikons have the name taped over. James Woods never uses or even holds a Canon in the whole movie, yet the poster has him holding a Canon F-1 prominently on the poster.
Let's face it most of these movies misrepresent us and make us look bad. Although they are entertaining and when I was a kid inspirational, then again I thought Dennis Hopper in Apocalypse Now was inspiring. Heh heh heh...
How about War Photographer? It is a "movie".
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Public Eye has to be in there for sure. The movie was written and loosely based from some tails from the one and only Weegee. America's first street and hard news shooter? His self written autobiography "Weegee Naked City" with bad grammar and typos is a very interesting read.
Our movie review back in 1992 was and still is the funnies typo I have ever seen in our paper, the headline read; "Pubic Eye" it did pass the spell checker of course!! We were just glad that movie was not about a hairdresser as it could of been called "Public Hair" Now that typo would of been just too funny! ;D
Weegee's portrait; http://home.att.net/~skweegee/weegee.jpg (http://home.att.net/~skweegee/weegee.jpg)
Public Eye movie link; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105187/ (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105187/)
Some Weegee Imgaes: http://images.google.ca/images?q=Weegee&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi (http://images.google.ca/images?q=Weegee&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi)
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Kat I'm pretty sure that Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis were the psychos and David Duchovny was the journalist with his girlfriend Michelle Forbes.
Cheers
David Lucas
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C'mon folks...Pecker, it's funny, quirky, and really shows how 95% started out, just walking the local streets snapping away, maybe not on stolen film, but still.
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I loved James Woods crazy character in Salvador, if you watch closely when he fires the shutter the rewind crank doesn't move because there is no film in his film cameras and when John Savage takes a photo of an execution with his Leica it has the sound of a motordrive, with no drive on the camera.
My husband hates going to movies with me if there are any scrums or people taking pictures because I always have to point out the errors - old fashioned flashbulbs or side brackets used in modern eras films (c'mon seriously....do the filmmakers never watch the news!), the motor drive sounds with no motor drive, the obviously backlit images with no flash that turn out perfectly balanced on the print, etc. etc. Drives him batty! ;D Me too though....aren't there people on set paid to watch out for stuff like this?
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Yvonne asked:
[quote ]
aren't there people on set paid to watch out for stuff like this?
[/quote]
The answer is NO. Back in the 80s when I was writing my first book, as a member of ACTRA, who got full union rates, I was a professional extra for two years and made a good living.
The director in most circumstances is not in charge of that sort of thing, the director is concentrating on the stars and the scene The First AD (first assistant director) is in charge of "background."
So this is what happens: They call for a bunch of extras. The prop person gets the cameras he/she has (depending of course on budget) and hands them out to the extras....who on large sets are nothing more than cattle and do what they're told. In those days (the 80s) of course the cameras had no film. The flash units did have the batteries, and were placed on any camera where they fit. The first AD is the main choreographer but the actual instructions usually come from the 3rd AD. ( A 3rd AD on a set is roughly the equivalent of an editorial assistant in a newsroom).
One time the lobby of Toronto City Hall was turned into an airport VIP arrival area. Not sure what the story was but someone arrived being freed from some ordeal and was greeted by friends and a very beautiful young lady. As they hugged, the first AD instructed all the extras, including those playing the media, to applaud.
I was a "TV field producer" in the Toronto-shot Switching Channels (remake of The Front Page).
Here is one scene you never saw. It was outside the offices of "SNN" (an empty office building somewhere in Mississauga) A stunt driver is at the wheel of a truck that makes a squealing two wheel turn from main street into the office campus, the driver then hits the brakes and the guy playing the main field producer leaps out and runs toward the front door. Only what the audience saw on the screen was a tight shot from the B Camera of the producer leaping out of the truck door. Why? Because they were showing a satellite van speeding back to the station!!!!
Someone caught that one.
The one time there was a demand for total accuracy was an episode of the old horror series Friday the 13th. This episode took place in a haunted a movie studio. And the crew wanted to make sure every one of the extras did their jobs properly, showing them how to hold the equipment, handle the lights in the set (not the real lights) and every other tech job on the set. In one shot a guy yelled "Cut" because the extra was carrying his mike boom wrong. It was fixed and the shot resumed.
So that's how it works in the movies.....
Robin
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The Omen - 1976 and 2006
Film (and digi in the '06 version) were both able to pick up a representation of how the characters met their ends, including the photog (David Thewlis).
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Nice to see more than a few movies getting a lot of love.
I just watched Killing Fields recently, with the passing of Dith Pran in March of this year, I had it on my lis to re-watch.
A quick google linked me to this NY Times feature, The Last Word: Dith Pran (http://tinyurl.com/5kkomh)
I had the opportunity talk to Nick Nolte about the move a bunch of filmfests ago.
He told me yes he had film in the camera and they had intended to use some of the frames he was shooting to promote the movie, but, he told me hardly any of the frames were in focus.
I recently shot Roger Spottiswoode who was the director of Under Fire and asked about the out of focus pictures. He told me that when he was working on 48Hrs with Nolte he gave him a SLR with 100 rolls of film to shoot while filming to prepare for Under Fire. He wanted Nolte to be familiar with the gear to the point where he could change rolls with out looking.
I also forgot a movie that was filmed in Toronto that a few of the local shooters were cast as extras, Shannen Doherty's 1999 movie "Striking Poses" with the compelling tag line, "Beyond The Lens Lies The Truth..", Heck, I might get that put on a T-shirt.
Spiderman, yeah, I think it is more Spiderman III, because the plot line touched on the use of pictures and photoshoppery.
Also Batman, Kim Basinger plays a photographer.
Other movies with a PJ in it.
Clint Eastwood's "Flags of Our Fathers" Dealing with the Joe Rosenthal's Iwo Jima picture
also, Full Metal Jacket
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The Philadelphia Story made in 1940 ranks right up there.
Ruth Hussey plays a magazine photographer with her boyfriend writer Jimmy Stewart who are assigned to cover Katherine Hepburn's high society wedding from the inside.
The writing is superb throughout and there's a great scene where Hussey's cameras and film are ruined deliberately by Hepburn.
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aren't there people on set paid to watch out for stuff like this?
The next time you see a scrum in a film note how many of the photographers hold the camera a foot away from their faces while snapping away. I'm guessing that these actors are trying to maximize their "face time" in the film by not acutually looking through the viewfinder and covering up their faces. Can't blame them really, any edge to get them to the next level of their profession. I think becoming a movie star is almost as difficult as landing a newspaper staff job.
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I happened across the ping pong movie "Balls of Fury" on the tele the other night. There was a scene where a kid playing ping pong was knocked out and standing over him was a photographer with a 400 shooting his picture about three feet away. I had to laugh at the ridiculousness of it, they just have no idea.
Not so much photojournalist movies but good movies The Paper from 1994 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paper and another good old school smoking, drinking and gambling newspaper movie is Front Page from 1974 with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Front_Page
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It was recommended by a Lieut. with the Canadian military i know that i see "We Were Soldiers", mainly for the scenes with photojournalist Joe Galloway. There to report the goings on in Vietnam, Galloway trades his camera for a gun, and then back to the camera and more. Mel Gibson is in it, not a big fan of him, but i watched the movie anyway. There are wayyy better war movies out there, but i stayed awake for this one. Also I would have to agree with the movie City of God. Excelente!! And War Photographer, also Excelente!! I ll have to check out some of the others mentioned as well.
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Frankie's House is a movie about PJ's and journalists who stay
at a bar/brothel/hotel in Saigon (I believe) that takes
place in the Vietnam War days and is, apparantly, based on a
real place and real people :) I used to see it on A&E every
once in a while (about 4 or 5 years ago) but haven't seen it
in a very long while.
Here is a link to the "imdb" stuff: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104294/ (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104294/)
and here is link to the history of Frankie's House: http://www.thecatfromhue.com/frankieshouse.htm (http://www.thecatfromhue.com/frankieshouse.htm)
If you've never seen it, try find it and I think you'll enjoy it.
Cheers,
Jack
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Not sure if this one counts or not......... BMW made some short movies a few years ago. One of them was about fictional Times war photographer Harvey Jacobs trying to get out of Nuevo Colon in an unnamed South American country.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp6c_LFM5_4&feature=related
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"Striking Poses" with Shannen Doherty, produced in the late 90's. I've never seen the movie, but I think it also stars Tim McKenna, Mark O'Neill, Pete Fisher, Greg Henkenhaf and several more of your favourite "actors." ;)
Earlier up this thread, Kat mentioned "Stepmom" which starred Julia Roberts as a (commercial) photographer. The neat thing with this movie is that the Roberts character uses a Hasselblad and a Nikon F5 (with a 50mm lens), but partway into a shoot, she suddenly gets inspired and calls for the digital camera! (movie was made in 1997-98). This may have been the first appearance of a digital camera in a Hollywood movie. I believe the digital camera she used was a Nikon E2. She then goes on to combine a couple of photos using Photoshop.
Angelina Jolie in the "Lara Croft, Tomb Raider" movie. Lara Croft is a photojournalist, although I don't think a camera is ever shown in the movie.
Brad Pitt in "Spy Game" (2001) plays a CIA agent who's cover is that he's a photojournalist who covers mideast conflict. Leica and Nikon cameras, (an old Nikon FE in 2001?)
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New one to add to the list...
This just came up in my Zip.ca recommendations:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triage_(film)
"Triage is a 2009 drama film starring Colin Farrell, Paz Vega and Christopher Lee. The film focuses on the psychological effects of war on a photo journalist. It is based on the novel Triage by American veteran war correspondent Scott Anderson."
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The Bang Bang Club - looks promising!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfP6kghx7Vs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfP6kghx7Vs)
but honestly, who are we kidding..Full Metal Jacket takes the cake on best PJ movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEEWE7gcPw0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEEWE7gcPw0)
-Ben
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'Rear Window' anyone?
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Parts of "Blood Diamond" would count I'd say...
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This thread rules! Steve, your list is great.
Agreed that Pecker is an interesting one.
There's a red carpet scene in The Aviator where DiCaprio as Howard Hughes walks dazedly down the red carpet, which is covered in broken flash bulbs. It's brief but I enjoyed the aesthetic the photographic elements added to an otherwise fairly common type of scene.
In JFK, there is a discussion of how a photo of Lee Harvey Oswald might have been doctored which is sort of cool.
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LOVE that someone else mentioned "Pecker", although not a photojournalist per-se, the main character was a pretty darn interesting street shooter.
Surprised there's never been a serious movie about Weegee, and as much as I thought "The Public Eye" was OK it wasn't a credible movie about the man.
Any love for "Fur", the fictional take on Diane Arbus starring Nicole Kidman, speaking of interesting subjects for a biopic?
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The Weight of Water (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0210382/) (2000) is about a newspaper photographer investigating an old murder. Of course, I'm sure most of us spend a lot of time solving murders.
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Added: Not really about photojournalism: CBC's 1980s TV series Seeing Things (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa-YGJqKHyg) about a Toronto newspaper reporter who solves murders with his uncontrollable psychic visions.
(Edit: added links)
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Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2872718/) (2014) plays a freelance video guy covering overnight crime in Los Angeles.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0359950/) (2013) is about a guy (Ben Stiller) who is the long-serving "Negative Assets Manager" at Life magazine. This means he's a picture editor and he runs the film archive at Life. The movie is set against the closing of Life magazine (well, at least the fictional closing since the magazine closed a long time ago and the movie is set in the present day).
The photojournalist is played by Sean Penn who shoots only film and is seen with a very shiny Nikon F3T and a 400mm f2.8 AFS VR lens which he seemingly leaves behind on a mountain top.