… for Random Weirdness

Tip #1489: 3 Stories About Optics, Sight & Lenses

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Lenses do far more than simply “capture” light.

Zeiss recently launched a new website called: Zeiss Stories. These profile all the different ways that lenses are changing modern life – and helping us reconstruct the past — LINK

Here are three stories you might like:

The First Lady of Optics — LINK

Women have faced a glass ceiling in many fields, but the glass ceiling in glasses may have been the toughest to break through. During the first half of the twentieth century, only one woman managed to overcome the obstacles and rise to the top in the field of eyewear lens design, Dr. Estelle Glancy (1883-1975). Glancy’s brilliance in mathematics and lab skills helped create some of the significant advance in vision correction of the 1920s. This includes the design of progressive lenses as early as in the 1920s.

Imagine an African American John Wayne — LINK

American photographer Rory Doyle has been documenting the life of African American cowboys and cowgirls in the Mississippi delta since 2017. With his series “Delta Hill Riders” he won this year’s ZEISS Photography Award themed “Seeing Beyond – The Unexpected”. Doyle’s photos astound with an unexpected reassessment of the American cowboy myth – and break with stereotypes that still distort the public image of Afro-American culture. An interview.

More Than a Pair of Glasses — LINK

Claude Monet was the poster child for impressionism. But the French artist initially lacked both fame and a steady income. In the winter of his artistic career, he even had to contend with cataracts. But he never gave up on painting the world as he saw it – until he almost went blind, in fact. Finally, it was a pair of glasses with ZEISS lenses that helped him see the world in color once more.

… for Random Weirdness

Tip #1487: 8 Filmmaking Lessons from “Mission: Impossile”

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

8 Ways to Improve Your Story-telling

This article, written by Jason Hellerman, first appeared in NoFilmSchool.com. This is a summary.

Perhaps my favorite film franchise of all time is Mission: Impossible. There are lots of amazing lessons to learn from [this first film], but today we will focus on eight of them.

1. Embrace canted angles. When it comes time to do your movie, think about shaking up the camera angles from the boring norm.
2. Set pieces must be memorable. One of the best things about the first Mission: Impossible is that it set the standard for set pieces. When you set out to make your movie, think about how the set pieces stand out.
3. Write yourself into a corner. When you write your story, get the character to a place where you have no idea how to get them out of it… and then get them out of it.
4. Stars still have power. In this era, we think about the faces that can sell movies. If you are trying to sell [your film] to studios, consider packaging with a star. Or at least someone with a face that has star power.
5. Practical effects hold up. When in doubt, do your effects practically. They will stand the test of time.
6. You don’t owe the original anything. When you are adapting an idea, you do not owe anything to the original. You owe the audience the best story you can muster. Focus on that, always.
7. Collaboration is key. [This] first movie really was a collaboration between the star, director, writers, and the studio. Everyone had their own agendas going into this movie. [Still,] everyone acted like professionals and made appropriate concessions for the vision [of the film].
8. Know when you’ve had enough. Mission: Impossible became a very successful series of films, but Brian De Palma only directed one of the installments. In an interview with AP News, De Palma said sequels were about money, and he wasn’t in it for that. Is there a lesson here for you? Choose your projects with your heart, not your wallet.

EXTRA CREDIT

The original article includes more details and multiple videos illustrating these points.