Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Roger Deakins
If you have ever seen a Coen Brothers movie than you have seen the work of Roger Deakins.He has a great look to all of the films he shoots, B&W, desaturated color,straight color. Every look matches the tone of the story.He started off documenting farms and villages before entering film school. You can check out some of his photos through the link.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Photographers/Musicians
It seems to me that a lot of photographers are musicians. Most of the photographers I know play an instrument. I'm not sure if music is the gateway to photography or the other way around. In my case music came first. I thought it would be hard to make a living as a musician so I chose something safe like photography.
Photographer/Director and Musician Sam Jones made a great documentary on Wilco called "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart". It's a couple of years old but I watched it the other night and forgot how good it was. I don't know much about Sam Jones but I am aware of who he is and what he does. I'm a sucker for a good documentary. Sundance Channel runs this movie quite often. Check it out.
Click on the title link to read a interview with Sam Jones about the movie.
Photographer/Director and Musician Sam Jones made a great documentary on Wilco called "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart". It's a couple of years old but I watched it the other night and forgot how good it was. I don't know much about Sam Jones but I am aware of who he is and what he does. I'm a sucker for a good documentary. Sundance Channel runs this movie quite often. Check it out.
Click on the title link to read a interview with Sam Jones about the movie.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Tom Dowd
If you have followed my blog then you know that music is a huge part of my inspiration. Primarily the music of the sixties and seventies. I believe that music had it's greatest advancements in creativity during this time.
Tom Dowd was a music engineer and producer that help change the way music is recorded. There is a great documentary running on IFC this month called Tom Dowd & The Language of Music. You get an inside look at the eveolution of the recording process and the motivation that it gave to the artist based on how Tom recorded and produced. It is set to run again on Feb 25 @5:10 pm, set your DVR. If you click on the title link you can hear a NPR interview with the director of the documentary.
Here is some info from Wikipedia on Tom Dowd.
Dowd took a job at a classical music recording studio until he obtained employment at Atlantic Records. He soon became a top recording engineer at Atlantic Records and recorded popular artists such as Ray Charles, The Drifters, The Coasters, Ruth Brown, and Bobby Darin (Dowd recorded the legendary "Mack the Knife") and capturing jazz masterpieces by John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Thelonius Monk, and Charlie Parker by night. His first hit was Eileen Barton's "If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd a Baked A Cake". It was Dowd's idea to cut Ray Charles' recording of "What'd I Say" into two parts and release them as the "A" and "B" sides of one 45 rpm single record.
Dowd worked as an engineer and producer from the 1940s until the beginning of the 21st century. He recorded albums by many artists including: Eric Clapton, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rod Stewart, Wishbone Ash, Cream, Chicago, The Allman Brothers Band, Joe Bonamassa, The J. Geils Band, Meat Loaf, Sonny & Cher, The Rascals, Willie Nelson, Diana Ross, Kenny Loggins, James Gang, Dusty Springfield, Eddie Harris, Booker T. and the MGs, The Drifters, Otis Redding, The Coasters, Bobby Darin, Aretha Franklin and Ruth Brown. [3] Dowd received a Grammy Trustees Award for his lifetime achievements in February 2002.
He died of emphysema on October 27, 2002 in Florida, where he had been living and working at Criteria Studios recording studio for many years.
Tom Dowd helped to shape the artists that he worked with, and because he worked with an array of great artists on some of the world's greatest recordings, Dowd was highly influential in creating the sound of the second half of the 20th Century. It was he who encouraged Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records to install an Ampex eight-track recorder, enabling Atlantic to be the first recording company to record using multiple tracks.[4]
Dowd is credited as the engineer who popularized the eight-track recording system for commercial music and popularized the use of stereo sound. Although stereo had been invented in the 1930s, Dowd was the first to use it on a record. He also invented the use of linear channel faders as opposed to rotary controls on audio mixers. He devised various methods for altering sound after the initial recording. [1]
In 2003 director Mark Moormann premiered an award-winning documentary about his life entitled Tom Dowd and the Language of Music. In the 2004 biopic Ray, Tom Dowd was portrayed by Rick Gomez.
Tom Dowd was a music engineer and producer that help change the way music is recorded. There is a great documentary running on IFC this month called Tom Dowd & The Language of Music. You get an inside look at the eveolution of the recording process and the motivation that it gave to the artist based on how Tom recorded and produced. It is set to run again on Feb 25 @5:10 pm, set your DVR. If you click on the title link you can hear a NPR interview with the director of the documentary.
Here is some info from Wikipedia on Tom Dowd.
Dowd took a job at a classical music recording studio until he obtained employment at Atlantic Records. He soon became a top recording engineer at Atlantic Records and recorded popular artists such as Ray Charles, The Drifters, The Coasters, Ruth Brown, and Bobby Darin (Dowd recorded the legendary "Mack the Knife") and capturing jazz masterpieces by John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Thelonius Monk, and Charlie Parker by night. His first hit was Eileen Barton's "If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd a Baked A Cake". It was Dowd's idea to cut Ray Charles' recording of "What'd I Say" into two parts and release them as the "A" and "B" sides of one 45 rpm single record.
Dowd worked as an engineer and producer from the 1940s until the beginning of the 21st century. He recorded albums by many artists including: Eric Clapton, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rod Stewart, Wishbone Ash, Cream, Chicago, The Allman Brothers Band, Joe Bonamassa, The J. Geils Band, Meat Loaf, Sonny & Cher, The Rascals, Willie Nelson, Diana Ross, Kenny Loggins, James Gang, Dusty Springfield, Eddie Harris, Booker T. and the MGs, The Drifters, Otis Redding, The Coasters, Bobby Darin, Aretha Franklin and Ruth Brown. [3] Dowd received a Grammy Trustees Award for his lifetime achievements in February 2002.
He died of emphysema on October 27, 2002 in Florida, where he had been living and working at Criteria Studios recording studio for many years.
Tom Dowd helped to shape the artists that he worked with, and because he worked with an array of great artists on some of the world's greatest recordings, Dowd was highly influential in creating the sound of the second half of the 20th Century. It was he who encouraged Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records to install an Ampex eight-track recorder, enabling Atlantic to be the first recording company to record using multiple tracks.[4]
Dowd is credited as the engineer who popularized the eight-track recording system for commercial music and popularized the use of stereo sound. Although stereo had been invented in the 1930s, Dowd was the first to use it on a record. He also invented the use of linear channel faders as opposed to rotary controls on audio mixers. He devised various methods for altering sound after the initial recording. [1]
In 2003 director Mark Moormann premiered an award-winning documentary about his life entitled Tom Dowd and the Language of Music. In the 2004 biopic Ray, Tom Dowd was portrayed by Rick Gomez.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Tripp'n
PC is back from the road for a while. We went fifteen days longer than we had planned, which was very cool and unexpected. I didn't blog at all and I didn't miss it all that much. I took the approach that doing was better than talking or writing.
While I was gone I got the chance to step out of my comfort zone and work differently than I have in the past. Due to the specs of the gig I couldn't rely on my usual process, so I had to learn something new. It's been my experience that most photographers don't like learning something new and I am no different but much like Jules Winnfield I'm in a transitional period so I gave it a shot. I learned something new that I wouldn't have done on my own and as it turns out it was rewarding and a great learning experience. I will now be able to implement what I've learned into my future work.
A lot of people have been writing about the end of Polaroid as we know it. I get why people are upset and rightfully so. Change can be a real MotherF'er but I prefer to look at things like this as being forced to do something different. It's not all bad just different. What do I know? I'm part of the problem, I haven't used Polaroid in five years.
A good point has been made that how we work is being decided for us not by us.I felt the same way when Kodak stop making Royal X in the mid eighties.If you use Polaroid I feel your pain. I have embraced digital for the last ten years but I do see quality going down the shitter.I see a lot of bad Photoshoped images and I'm from the school of just because you can doesn't mean you should.Something is definetly lost when you haven't gone through the process of exsposing film and or Polaroid.
While I was gone I got the chance to step out of my comfort zone and work differently than I have in the past. Due to the specs of the gig I couldn't rely on my usual process, so I had to learn something new. It's been my experience that most photographers don't like learning something new and I am no different but much like Jules Winnfield I'm in a transitional period so I gave it a shot. I learned something new that I wouldn't have done on my own and as it turns out it was rewarding and a great learning experience. I will now be able to implement what I've learned into my future work.
A lot of people have been writing about the end of Polaroid as we know it. I get why people are upset and rightfully so. Change can be a real MotherF'er but I prefer to look at things like this as being forced to do something different. It's not all bad just different. What do I know? I'm part of the problem, I haven't used Polaroid in five years.
A good point has been made that how we work is being decided for us not by us.I felt the same way when Kodak stop making Royal X in the mid eighties.If you use Polaroid I feel your pain. I have embraced digital for the last ten years but I do see quality going down the shitter.I see a lot of bad Photoshoped images and I'm from the school of just because you can doesn't mean you should.Something is definetly lost when you haven't gone through the process of exsposing film and or Polaroid.
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