Monday, January 16, 2012

Jim the cameraman

I'm off today to shoot interviews with the nephew of Raoul Walsh, a Hollywood director considered one of the top directors in town in his day. Walsh directed movies with Bogart (High Sierra), Errol Flynn (Objective Burma), Alan Ladd (Saskatchewan), Clark Gable and many others. While never considered the level of the great independants like Ford and Huston, Walsh did somewhere around 140 movies in his lifetime and is considered one of the best studio directors of his era.

I'm doing this as a favor to a director friend and also to the woman who recently wrote a book on Walsh, published last year. She hopes to compile this into a documentary to supplement the book.

Today I get a chance to visit his home in Simi Valley as well as shoot the interview with his nephew. It's also an opportunity to shoot some HD finally as I can now edit it in my newer version of Final Cut Pro. 

Pretty uneventful, but I'll have a longer blog Wednesday.

And just to show you I know  y way around cameras, here's a pic that's at least a hundred years old... at least I think that's me... with hair!!

BTW that's my favorite camera, an Arriflex BL 16mm, a work of art.