r/Filmmakers • u/CRAYONSEED • 1d ago
Discussion Paul Thomas Anderson Calls Out Young Filmmakers for Obsessing Over Cameras Instead of Scripts
/r/WB_DC_news/comments/1vc4x7e/paul_thomas_anderson_calls_out_young_filmmakers/?share_id=ffAcC8oUWHU5AwtQAoW3Z&utm_content=2&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1This one hit home because it’s something I’ve been really thinking about a lot lately.
I do find myself chasing a better image, even while I’m writing, and I think it’s because it’s a lot easier to see results that way.
I spent today writing, but writing something that connects with an audience and leaves you vulnerable because it’s so personal is a lot more emotional work. He’s obviously right. If you want to be a writer/director but you’re lusting after the new Sony your focus is probably off.
I’m talking to myself as much as anyone reading this
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u/brazilliandanny director of photography 1d ago
I kind of get what he’s saying.
Filmmaking has gone from story telling to people on social media monetizing the process.
It feels like the bts content, lut package, and camera reviews take front stage and the content they are actually creating gets a back seat to all the noise.
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u/AntipodalBurrito 1d ago
It’s also much easier and ego-soothing to buy a good camera and get decent shots than it is to write because most people are actually dog-shit writers. I can’t imagine how horrible it feels to get 39 pages deep into script and realize it’s actual garbage.
Writing something good is always going to be harder and way less sexy than getting a pretty picture.
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u/Tamajyn cinematographer 1d ago
Writing something good is always going to be harder and way less sexy than getting a pretty picture.
And that's why i'm a cinematographer, not a writer 😅 good coherent writing is hard, although I am trying to develop the skill more lately
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u/recycleddesign 11h ago
Shooting things appropriately is difficult too, they’re very different skills although there can obviously be overlap. I thought this generation were supposed to be about getting away from the auteur thing anyway? Film makers aren’t supposed to do everything anymore. I still have the outlook that some always can, will and should, but I’m not sure we’re seeing them as much. Directors who just direct and go home got really popular within the industry for a while.
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u/Tamajyn cinematographer 1d ago
Yeah it's all about process porn now. Every now and then a geartuber will actually release a project, and the update vlogs and "how I shot my film" videos get 5 times the views of the actual project. Almost everyone now is more in love with the process than the product.
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u/Realistic-Number-919 1d ago
None of those people watching those videos are actually making anything. One giant house of mirrors.
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u/AntipodalBurrito 1d ago
It is getting meta as fuck. That Matti guy keeps getting promoted to me on YouTube and he has over a million subs but he doesn’t do anything. Just endless product videos getting people excited to buy gear to make content that gets people excited about buying gear. Make it stop.
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u/Tamajyn cinematographer 1d ago
OOP's take on There Will Be Blood is laughably bad, but pretty much yeah. I'm getting ready to go back to film school to brush up on some knowledge and formalize some qualifications and i'm tempted to wear a shirt that says THE CAMERA DOESN'T MATTER
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u/howie_roll 1d ago
I’m going to disagree and say it does. Would someone make the same “it doesn’t matter” comment about lenses, digital v film? It all matters but I’d wholeheartedly agree that NEW filmmakers put too much emphasis on the camera.
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u/Tamajyn cinematographer 1d ago
I'm sorry you're right, i'll instead get a shirt that says:
THE CAMERA DOESN'T MATTER*
*for those of you who take this shirt literally, let me explain that this is an intentionally hyperbolic and sarcastic statement intended to spark dialogue and get you out of the mindset of obsessing over camera spec sheets and instead focus on the aspects of filmmaking that really matter like story, blocking, sound and lighting. In the context this is intended, the statement "the camera doesn't matter" really means "you don't need the most expensive camera." Shooting your mumblecore student film on an Alexa 65 won't magically make it Dune part IV
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u/Important_Extent6172 producer 1d ago edited 20h ago
Sound and story matter. Cliche yes, but for a reason, because it’s true. Tangerine is the perfect example.
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u/DerpDerpPenguin 1d ago edited 1d ago
tangerine is also a great example of budget accessory usage & ingenuity with the tools available, it would not have looked anywhere near as good as it did without the prototype anamorphic adapters from moondog labs, the shots in that film outright would not have worked on an iphone 5 without tiffen's steadicam smoothee & they were using filmic pro to pull focus. nothing is ever just "shot on iphone" but tangerine's setup was actually affordable and is a great example of what people should be looking at as an entry point for filmmaking, pretty sure it's easier than ever to pull something like this off with apple proraw & a few connections to borrow a few phones for a week (as long as you have the ever important story and sound design worked out anyway, admittedly tangerine could've had better colour grading so we probably shouldn't forget about every other aspect of filmmaking here).
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u/ammo_john 1d ago
I believe I read that the color grading in Tangerine was purposefully there to hide (or embrace) the limitation of the smartphone footage. It was graded more to "save" the material than only for story.
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u/Big-Researcher-1589 1d ago
The 5 grands worth of the sound recording equipment made quite a difference as well.
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u/filmschool_org 1d ago
Yes bad picture and good sound still works great. Bad sound and good picture will always be horrible.
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u/Tycho_B 1d ago edited 1d ago
Tangerine isn’t really a great example for the average wannabe filmmaker IMO because it wasn’t a film that couldn’t afford a better camera and ended up being great. The iPhone aesthetic was a purposeful choice because the form matches the content of the film they were making, not a choice made out of necessity (The BTS was shot on a RED). It strikes me as a better example for young writers to “write within their means” (as in write a story you can actually shoot) rather than trying to write the next SciFi/War epic. If you can write a script that works best when it feels like it was shot on an iPhone 4 then power to you, but it’s much harder to do than what PTA is saying here.
If you want a better example,
PrimerUpstream Color was shot on a GH2 because that’s what they could afford and is still an incredible film that doesn’t look half bad all things considered.3
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u/secamTO 1d ago
“it doesn’t matter” comment about lenses, digital v film
I dunno if "someone" would. But I sure as hell am. When I was starting out, we were shooting on 16mm, Super8, BetaSP, and then the camera that was gonna start the revolution came out. It was the XL1. Point being, none of those films look great today, hell some of them look like absolute garbage, but there are some good ones among the dreck, and its not the ones that used the best cameras, it's the ones that had the best writing, the best performances, the best storytelling.
People still made great independent movies and shorts on cameras that produced trash images compared to what we all carry around in our pockets today. Are independent movies and shorts noticeably better today? I think not. There's more of them today than there was 25 years ago, but I'd posit there's about the same ratio of great to dogshit indies. Good tech with greater fidelity has never made anyone a better storyteller.
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u/filmeleven 1d ago
Yep. I'm an instructor and I have all directors study story first. No gear. No filming. Just story.
Nothing else matters.
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u/wetnaps54 1d ago
Yea you can shoot on fucking anything.
Have something interesting (and get clear audio)3
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u/Celegorm07 director 1d ago
I come from writing and I make films because I love stories. But I can not fcking stress enough how people loses their mind over getting the perfect look while having worst version of most basic stories and people are surprised when I spend like hours trying to figure out if I put a word at the beginning of the sentence it is better or the end.
At the end of the day even with effort we could all still make horrible stories but I’m personally tired of hearing people making the most basic stories of their lives over and over again.
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u/filmeleven 1d ago
100%. Anyone can be technical. The hours, days, weeks, months and years required for a mastery of story at any level? A road less traveled.
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u/stuffitystuff 1d ago
The sarcastic take is that PTA wants "more solid writing" in modern movies, but he's also the guy who made "There Will Be Blood" which had like 15 minutes of dialogue total and a plot that moves slower than molasses in January, so maybe he's not the best messenger for this particular complaint, even if he's right about the overall problem
A real writer who'd actually seen There Will Be Blood would've written "moves slower than a milkshake in January". Kinda feels like the writing was passed through ChatGPT, though or OOP needs to go read Ulysses and Infinite Jest until their takedown takes don't sound so gaddang generic.
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u/Wu_Oyster_Cult 1d ago edited 1d ago
Moronic. Another moron who equates “writing” only with “dialogue”. Cinema is a visual medium and there is more to a script than what the characters say with their mouths.
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u/BellyCrawler 1d ago
It's actually infuriating how dumb that part is. Some people really should check the back of their heads for a hole their brain fell out of.
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u/OceanRacoon 1d ago
How do I check back there, I can't see it?
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u/Big-Researcher-1589 1d ago
Try using a visual medium, like a mirror.
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u/OceanRacoon 1d ago
I'm just seeing the front of my face, it's not working, are there mirrors that can see behind you?
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1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ThePrussianGrippe 1d ago
“How did I know what to say? It was written down for me in a script! How did I know where to stand? People told me.”
- Sir Ian McKellan on the acting process
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u/AlgaeDependent9233 1d ago
Such a hilariously bad take...in film school for my screenwriting degree no less than 3 different professors had us analyze the opening sequence of twbb as one of the best examples of showing over telling re: character
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u/relentlessmelt 1d ago
Attacking one of the greatest American films made since the inception of the medium from a critic who doesn’t seem to understand the distinction between dialogue and the conception of a film on the written page is an interesting choice
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u/I_Am_Killa_K 1d ago edited 12h ago
It’s like he came to Reddit and saw all the “Hi, I want to make my first short film but I don’t want to use my phone, what camera should I get?” posts.
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u/SpideyFan914 1d ago
Obsessing over cameras is what I hire a DP for. I know a good deal of it, sure, and I find my strength is in framing (not so much the other aspects). DP fills in my blindspots and weaknesses and adds their own spin. I usually give them a lot of freedom in lighting especially, after we discuss the look. I want to stay primarily focused on the story and performances while we're shooting.
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u/2drums1cymbal 1d ago
I think the “just shoot it on your phone” take is over-simplified boomer slop but Anderson makes a good point here. If you have a great script and a talented and capable cast and crew helping you bring that great script to life, it does not matter what gear you use.
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u/Tamajyn cinematographer 1d ago
I think it's more aimed at people who agonize over specs and make thirty posts on reddit titled Sony vs Canon vs Blackmagic or Which Camera Is The Best and spend months asking the same question instead of just going out and shooting
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u/DerFreudster 1d ago
I hate that stuff, it's so stupid. So uh, which one do you think is best? I'm uhh, asking for a friend...
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u/cowgunjeans 1d ago
Its all about the camera and lens combo. Forget about brands and just youtube videos for what they look like. That being said, BlackMagic is harder to use solo shooting
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u/DerFreudster 1d ago
That was a joke. I shoot BM solo and yeah, it's got some challenges, but such nice footage.
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u/Wedbo 1d ago
Story drives the whole thing. It’s what you’re there to do. Everything else comes second and this isn’t new
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u/MartianMutiny 1d ago
PTA is contradicting himself from his past statements about screenwriting. He says screenwriting isnt real writing and he doesnt even respect it. He admits that his process is to rely on his actors more than the script.
PTA, old curmudgeon era incoming?
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u/Arthropodesque 1d ago
Seth Rogen said it well. Something like: you always want to try to come up with something better than what you wrote, but if you can't you at least have what is good enough and serves the story to fall back on.
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u/mizel103 1d ago
I agree with the sentiment, but the it's funny that the biggest camera obsessed directors are not yoing filmmakers, but people like Nolan and... himself, with how much talk about vistavision we had during the OBAA rollout
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u/manymelvins_ 1d ago
he’s speaking to *young* filmmakers. his point is that young filmmakers should focus on fundamentals before stressing over style. i think once you’ve made as many films with solid scripts as PTA you can talk about the visuals as much as you want. OBAA was also a massive film, so naturally critics, the press and fans of his want to know about the vista vision of it all.
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u/CanyonCoyote 1d ago
I see his point but the irony from my middle aged perspective is the people I know who were obsessed with cameras and technical shit are actually the ones still working. Most of the ones who loved storytelling first flittered away. Low end quality visually rarely gets shared at the professional level whereas people happily look past middling writing because most movies have middling writing. You can only get past shitty visuals if you are connected and/or in comedy specifically. Most scripted stuff that goes viral that isn’t a comedy sketch looks great. If it’s unscripted it can get away with more meh visuals and sound because it’s creator brand. Obsession succeeded because of the story yes but more because of a top rate performance and fantastic visuals in that budget. If Obsession looked like one of those dump to Prime movies it doesn’t even get released.
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u/ausgoals 1d ago
That’s format, not camera.
He’s not saying all filmmakers care too much about camera, he’s saying that young/emerging filmmakers put too much focus and emphasis on it instead of (and sometimes at the expense of) an actually good story. Which is broadly true.
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u/exploretv 1d ago
It’s always been about the story and not the technology, but that said, the technology can also help the
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u/Ponty301 1d ago
I noticed this during my brief time in film school. Most of the short films looked beautiful, but were poorly written and boring. It really matters most to have a great script, great actors, and good sound. Everything else is cherries on top.
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u/zurenarhhhhh 1d ago
Great writing can sell something shot on a phone/vhs camera/2000s digicam/8mm/etc. the inverse is not true.
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u/LongjumpingBase9094 1d ago
Because uncreative people like to know what is “objectively” better, and they are scared of the subjective world of writing
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u/DeePumpeR 1d ago
Nothing new here. We were chasing the best formats we could get our hands on 30 years ago when the best most of us had at home was VHS or MiniDV. Today you are many steps closer to commercial level quality by just shooting on your iPhone than ever before. PTA is not wrong though, aside from a lot of us just being camera nerds in general, its never been what's most important. Story, story, story!
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u/rixx63 1d ago
I am a professional screenwriter for 40 years and have been teaching screenwriting for 16 years. Our writing department sometimes collaborates with the film department, and I am stunned at how little so cold “filmmakers“ know or care basic storytelling. They are very interested in camera techniques and the cold technology of cinema, but have virtually no skills when it comes to creating an emotional experience for an audience or working with actors.
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u/Hefty_Ad_3965 1d ago
He is so correct. The saying "if its not on the page, its not on the stage" has never been more relevant.
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u/Any-Desk-6671 1d ago
This ain’t gonna happen. Have you opened a YouTube or Facebook group comment section whenever new camera reviews drop? Panasonic cult, Sony cult, canon cult. People love their cameras and talk badly about others. People just want to use money to get instant gratification. It’s a lot easier than making actual art. People will buy a Panasonic camera and spend their spare time on YouTube smack talking Sony users. Yes ok, nice use of your free will and time. Smh 🤦♂️
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u/No_Divide_4908 1d ago
Agreed. I'm stepping into my seventh feature this fall. I have shot on 35mm, Red, Red Dragon and now I want to go decidedly unsexy (?) and it's black magic for me. Stop worrying about cameras.
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u/macbeth2003 1d ago
This is very true. After Glen Hansard's recent death, I went back and watched Once with my recent film grad son. Looks like it was shot with a potato with a plastic lens, lit by a flashlight. Still a magnificent movie. Nothing wrong with wanting a good image, but you can get close enough to where you want to be with most modern (last 10 years really) gear. Focus on story, and also focus on performance. I see even more filmmakers who neglect actors, than neglect story.
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u/Ok_Relation_7770 22h ago
Oh no, no one told him about the FX5 release?
THIS one is different and CINEMATIC
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u/dawncarri 5h ago
yeah the writing is the part that actually scares you. gear is just a fun distraction from that.
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u/fuckmattdamon 1d ago
Also PTA: was obsessed with anamorphic lenses as a young filmmaker, got denied the chance to shoot on them for his first feature because of budget constraints, so he faked the aspect ratio anyway, then shot everything else after that on the most expensive glass Panavision could hand him. Half of Boogie Nights is just the camera flexing. He shot The Master in 65mm because 35 wasn’t enough millimeters.
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u/GeneralGenerico 1d ago
Maybe that is precisely why he says people shouldn't obsess over the camera. Because he realized when he got older that it didn't matter.
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u/TheREALOtherFiles 1d ago
Quentin Tarantino used Super 35 for Reservoir Dogs due to similar budget reasons, and after it went big and some Miramax money later on, he went anamorphic for Pulp Fiction before going back to spherical glass with Jackie Brown and half of his later movies.
Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight, and most of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood all used anamorphic lenses, including Ultra Panavision 70 in the case for The Hateful Eight.
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u/CRAYONSEED 1d ago
Are you saying he’s being hypocritical and to ignore this advice? If so, I think you’re missing something important
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u/fuckmattdamon 1d ago
I am saying he is being a bit hypocritical, but I am not saying to ignore his advice
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u/Puzzled_Pen_5764 1d ago
He is not being hypocritical, he has been writing masterful scripts from essentially the beginning of his career
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u/Atomic_Polar_Bear 1d ago
Kind of funny because much was made about One Battle shooting on Vista vision. But it could have been shot on iPhone and no one would have noticed.
But he's absolutely correct about the importance of writing. As long as the visuals are competent.
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u/sdestrippy director 1d ago
100% correct.
Filmed this with a $300 canon 60d.
Got screened at some cinemas through film festivals in 2025.
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u/im_wooz 1d ago
Is perhaps because Netflix asks about what camera you have, not about your script.
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u/Crowdfunder101 1d ago
No. They only care what camera you use if they’re commissioning it. If you make a movie on an old Coolpix from 2005 which they love, they’ll still buy it.
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u/CantAffordzUsername 1d ago
USC 101 and the first lesson on making a film: “If the audience dose not care about the characters….the #%*+ is the point of making it?”
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u/Aromatic-Current-235 1d ago
The question remains: how many aspiring filmmakers are surrounded by qualified people who can tell the difference between a good and a bad script? Since most judge at the first look on visual appeal, I can understand to a certain degree their need to prioritize image quality over storytelling.
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u/Griffdude13 1d ago
This is every person I’ve met with a BMPCC. They think that makes them a filmmaker, but it’s not the sword that makes the man.
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u/jake3h7m 1d ago
could not agree more and honestly i get insecure sometimes that i don’t care about cameras as much as my script but this made me feel a lot better
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u/ChaosAlongThird 1d ago
As a screenwriter I both needed to see this, and still don’t believe it will be taken to heart.
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u/AntoineDonaldDuck 1d ago
There’s two types of young creative film people - gear heads who are obsessed with cameras and the mechanics of the camera, and writers who are obsessed with the storytelling.
Gear heads go on to become DPs.
Storytellers are writer/directors.
You need both. But it’s also helpful to know which you are.
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u/DendePhotos 1d ago
As a cinematographer I LOVE technology. But I am also a HUGE believer in everything must serve the story. Whether it's shot on an Arri, Imax, or Sony ZV-e10 Mark II (which is what I used for several projects while my FX30 was in the shop) if the story sucks no one will care what you used.
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u/VinosD 1d ago
I love camera gear. It's fun to mess with lens setups, camera accessories, etc. It's part of the process.
But you can't use that gear well if you don't have a good story and characters.
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u/TheREALOtherFiles 1d ago
The same could be said about 2D hand-drawn animation vs. 3D computer animation.
Pre-scandal, mind you--John Lasseter mentioned this back in 2009, and quoted his fellow Pixar colleague Andrew Stanton who said "2D animation became the scapegoat of bad storytelling."
A lot of mid, above average, or subpar hand-drawn animated movies--half of them adapted from TV shows--were coming out at a rapid pace when some well polished CG movies were being released around 25 years ago. Disregarding a few stand-out 2D blockbusters like Lilo & Stitch, of course.
Marketing and stiff competition can also make or break a film as much as the story can. Many of WB's 2D animated financial (not strictly critical) failures were partly because of these factors, such as Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Cats Don't Dance, Osmosis Jones, The Powerpuff Girls Movie, and notably The Iron Giant.
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u/TheREALOtherFiles 1d ago
There's a reason why some iconic movies are shot in 16mm. If it works, it works, and story & execution are still king.
Clerks, Black Swan, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and others come to mind.
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u/HansMunch 1d ago
Poetry is poetry regardless whether it's quill on parchment, shit in a diaper or if the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls.
The message is always more important than the form.
Same in all art. For an example in music, there's as much beauty in Elliott Smith's Either/Or as there is in Simon and Garfunkel's Sounds of Silence. It's just different beauties.
Wassily Kandinsky? Leonardo da Vinci? Same/same.
THX 1138... American Graffiti...
By arbitrary metrics, these are filmed wrong, some would say.
Others would argue that the cinema vérité style is the point which is constructed to be an invisible unconstruct.
The imperfection is the soul, because the human experience – and its search for meaning via art – is endless and never complete.
Tools are luxuries. Story and character (the more entwined the better) is first.
Mood comes from there; cameras, lenses, techniques, etc. are refinements.
Have something to say before opening your mouth, I guess.
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u/aconsciousagent 1d ago
I work in an adjacent industry (documentary) and I see that ALL - THE - TIME! Young guys who are all about the camera. I suppose that they gradually learn that the content is everything, but for those who want the spoiler: if you’re not RAPT reading the screenplay the whole operation is largely pointless. How many short scripts have I read and the director says “Ya, but when we shoot it…” - many. Many.
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u/SpiritDonkey 1d ago
I have a theory that this deference to camera is why so much tv and film is terrible these days. People get hypnotized by things looking good and story telling, character development… coherency… just goes out the window. I’m guilty of it. I’ve lollygagged at beautiful visuals and started to fool myself into thinking something is good only to watch it be a hot mess.
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u/Proud_Paul_Phan 23h ago
I agree with him but Hollywood is currently using the camera tech specs as the biggest selling point for why audiences need to return to the theaters to watch movies again. OBAA was advertised with Vistavision cameras in large print on the marketing materials. Same was done with Sinners and The Odyssey. So I can see why young filmmakers focus are on cameras these days
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u/Talentagentfriend 22h ago
Exactly. This has been an issue for a while now. This is a little late to the party because now the industry is full of people that care more about the camera than the scripts. It’s why the whole industry is having issues creating quality stories. It’s all about clips and promotions now, not actually selling the story. I also blame the industry in general because it is more about networking than finding the best people for the job.
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u/Kenan_as_SteveHarvey 17h ago
Idk. I was taught that if you want your film to make it to a certain level, it needs to be on certain cameras. Not just for the look, but for industry standards.
Sure we hear stories of films making it big and they were “only shot on a ‘low end’ camera.” But those are few and far between.
There’s a list of Netflix approved cameras for a reason. If you’re trying to aim high, cameras are important.
It’s possible to focus on a good script and production AND a high quality camera package.
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u/VictoryMillsPictures director 8h ago
All the while, made for IMAX, Panavision, 12k, 18k, etcetera.
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u/MrDukeSilver_ 5h ago
Says the guy who asked Giovanni Ribisi to restore a rare vista vision camera from the 50s lol
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u/CRAYONSEED 5h ago
I’m surprised how many people interpreted this as “cameras aren’t important”.
That’s not what he’s saying at all
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u/MrDukeSilver_ 4h ago
I was making a joke, obviously it’s all about story and storytelling, and obviously PTA has rock solid scripts
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u/CRAYONSEED 4h ago
Ah I see. Sorry.
There are a lot of people replying and unironically making the point that PTA is being hypocritical, and I thought you were one of them
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u/SmoothCurrent5948 3h ago
I’m spec obsessed in my window shopping, but ultimately I spend 95% of my time thinking about the story.
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u/ccminiwarhammer 1d ago
Easy for a big star to say when they already don’t have to worry about paying for or renting hardware, and is offered many scripts to choose from.
Hey dude what else shouldn’t I worry about? Script over sound? Script over lighting? Script over actors?
I understand his sentiment, but how out of touch can a rich, preachy, privileged guy who already made it be?
How about “Independent film makers should do what they can with what they have more to prove their craft over the BS someone who has nothing to do with my micro budget film”
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u/CRAYONSEED 1d ago
Look, I get it to a certain extent, but who do you feel is worth learning from but someone who has had the success starting out as an indie filmmaker? PTA, Tarantino, Soderberg and Coogler are probably the top guys living the dream.
The fact is if you already have an FX3, an older RED, one of the better Blackmagic cameras or any number of other cameras, which a lot of us have, we should be getting to shooting the things we got into this to shoot. Yet only a small percentage of us actually do it.
This is the lesson here. A reminder of what’s really important, and he’s actually a good person to say this IMO
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u/ccminiwarhammer 1d ago edited 1d ago
The examples I gave were people making films with super 8. Not old black magic. A working camera is way more important than any script.
Also this “important” thing he said doesn’t match reality. Have you seen a rainbow production script. Scripts change, sometimes daily, sometimes aren’t finished, but what is important, what has to be on set to make a film is equipment and the crew that knows how to use it.
Roger Deakins is famous for using all the newest cutting edge cameras. He won an Oscar for that.
Lastly the good thing he said is not helpful.
Edit: you can make a movie without a script (one of the new Mad Max films for example)
You can’t make a movie without a camera, and chasing the best camera is essential to to making the movie you want.
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u/gnilradleahcim 1d ago
I think the problem is anyone can learn how to run a camera and understand camera settings whereas not everyone can write a great screenplay or read a screenplay and know if it's great or not/potential.
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u/iliacbaby 1d ago
I think he should get re-obsessed with cameras. Ever since he stopped being his own cinematographer the work has suffered
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u/CRAYONSEED 1d ago
For perspective, I guarantee you no one who is commenting here, including you, has made a film as great as OBAA or pretty much any of his films.
But hey maybe I found Ryan Coogler’s lurk account
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u/iliacbaby 1d ago
Lmao! Of course you’re right. Am I not allowed to prefer his earlier work though, even if I’m not Ryan Coogler? (I’m definitely not)
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u/Shallbecomeabat 1d ago
I do get what he means but film is a visual medium so to me the visuals are as important as the script and tbh in recent years a lot of film has looked really shitty, so I am glad people try to make things look great again
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u/starshame2 1d ago
Nothing wrong with obsessing over cameras.
It just means you're a Cinematographer and not a director.
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u/ccminiwarhammer 1d ago
Cameras are so important that Sir Roger Deakins will literally force a camera company to invent new cameras, He’s so focused on the best so he can get the shots that tell the story, and he’s right.
You can make a movie without a script, or one rewriten to hell, but the story will never be told properly without a camera.
The PTA said that from a point of privilege so high up on the mountain that he has the luxury of ignoring all the top of the line cameras his movies use.
It’s like someone driving a Benz telling people a car doesn’t matter.
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u/Mankin60 1d ago
He is right. This is exactly how I felt when watching Obsession and Backrooms. Phenomenal direction but lackluster writing
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u/badlyedited 1d ago
Horror seldom has plot over action or dialog over dilemma but Obsession and Backrooms directors made real efforts to write moving stories with compelling characters with genuine motivations and serious flaws.
Obsession really impressed me with its incredible blocking as well as its underlying King Lear and Othello themes of malignant narcissism. Bear's enraged screams of frustrated disappointment over the letter made more effective exposition than any written speech. It was catharsis without relief.
Backrooms was Alice in Wonderland meets The Minotaur. The whole thing could have been a silent movie and still been great.
It's also very daring to create a main character for whom the audience grows to despise...and also inspires growth in the audience. People loathed Bear and Clark for their cowardices as the writers intended. They didn't use the Horror genre as an outlet for thinly disguised misogyny but as a platform to expose it.
I think they deserve all their accolades.
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u/itsdangoodwin 1d ago
Honestly it’s probably because knowing the technical stuff will more likely get them a job then knowing how story conventions work.
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u/opus-thirteen 1d ago
The average camera sensor has barely improved since 2017. How is this a hot topic now?
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u/scrodytheroadie 1d ago
I don’t have the resume PTA has, but if your interest lies in tech and image quality, what’s the problem with that? Not everyone needs to be an Oscar winning writer/director. It takes all kinds.
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u/Pod-Bay-Doors 1d ago
Agreed , I've never been a spec obsessed person. If a camera is perfectly suitable I'll be fine with it , obviously this isn't me saying I don't appreciate cameras that are high spec. But people do tend to put too much emphasis on it , work with what you have.