Photojournalism in the Movies

[Robin Rowland]

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

[Jonathan Currie]

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).

[Steve Russell]

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

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

[Randy Fiedler]

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.

[Derek Ruttan]

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.

[Jason Franson]

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

[Chad Hipolito]

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.

[Jack Simpson]

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/

and here is link to the history of Frankie's House: http://www.thecatfromhue.com/frankieshouse.htm

If you've never seen it, try find it and I think you'll enjoy it.

Cheers,

Jack

[Lars Hagberg]

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
 

[Warren Toda]

"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?)

[Scott Clouthier]

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."

[Ben Nelms]

The Bang Bang Club - looks promising!

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


-Ben

[James Park]

'Rear Window' anyone?

[Christopher King]

Parts of "Blood Diamond" would count I'd say...

[Paul Galipeau]

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.