when the director is reeeally good at their job 

none of this is clear. it's poorly done. (do better)

A huge huge content notice for sexual violence should be noted for Dogville! One of the hardest scenes I've ever watched in a movie. Maybe even put it in the video (if that is still possible)

So, this very same movie popped up in my recommendations yesterday. Different title, different thumbnail. Changing a video's identifyable attributes makes it harder for people to keep track of whether they've seen something or not. So I click the three dots on your video in my recommendation feed and select "don't recommend channel". That's how I deal with that sort of nonsense.

@@JupiterMan98 Yeah - it's an amazing movie - but god it traumatised me for a loooong time. Hard viewing.

The secret of Spielberg is that his shots imply meaning, almost like a second script. That's what makes his movies so compelling , this implied meaning by the way the shots are filmed it feels like it has meaning.

This comment needs WAY more likes!

I agree.

@@CinemaStix has validated me I can die happy

eyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Hehe

TOtally. I didn’t have time to include that in this video, but I was thinking the same thing. The end of that shot also has a great example of invisible editing when he cuts to a slightly wider angle of the same shot to maintain the continuity of the scene.

@@CinemaStix Totally. It feels like a cut, and a whole new shot, but it's all one shot. The genius of the shot of Indy looking at the myriad of baskets is that, as the audience, we actually KNOW what he's seeing before Speilburg shows it, because we've seen it before in films. After a second of Indy's eyes looking worried, they start to look left and right, and we, the audience, are waiting for the shot showing dozens of similar baskets. The fact that Speilburg sidesteps that POV shot entirely is the most ingenious decision in editing I've ever seen.

Jorge Lukus

@@emmagrove6491 I think the only reason you say we "know" what he's seeing, is specifically because of movies like Indiana Jones. You put the cart before the horse.

Edgar Wright paid homage to that exact shot in Hot Fuzz.

But some shots impressed me even as a kid (who thought Indy was a real person) like how his eye is so precisely framed in the light here 7:46

I actually used to desaturate various movies from time to time just to appreciate the lighting and composition more. Sometimes color isn't that strong of a character in a movie anyway. Most modern movies are in color mainly because it's the thing to do, but the underlying lighting and composition is oftentimes the fundamental anchor that the cinematographer's decisions were based on.

@@chrisjfox8715 Composition is the same whether it's color or monochrome.

@@pipster1891 that's the whole point, but just like this video pointed out more of your attention is on those aspects of the image when the color's been stripped. Especially with the lighting since color can oftentimes kinda clutter the image by comparison. Jaws is an even better example of this that Indy is

Yeah and until someone pointed it out to you.

Sooo good. Completely elevated the scene and you don’t even know it’s happening.

He does it all the time and so well. And it's a very old (1930s/40s technique). Hardly anyone does it anymore.

Are you White?

@@Siegfried5846 What? What does that have anything to do with anything?

*Trimming Heaven's Gate to 2 hours is easy. Take out the party. Done.* Now let's see what he can trim 1972's Solaris.

That’s a super cool insight

Master of the master shot

This is similar to what George Lucas had in mind for his visual style in shooting the original Star Wars. He aimed to shoot it like a typical documentary, to visually guide the audience into feeling like it was watching something that had actually happened. Between that and the myriad ways that Star Wars took classic elements of cinema and applied it to a new, fantastical setting and you had the most familiar, real-feeling fantasy world ever put on film! It's no surprise that the two men were buddies who loved to dive into the minds of the other.

Schindler's List has that same quality, which makes it all the more disturbing and poignant. Also another black and white masterpiece, bringing out the effects of light and shadows without the mental interference of colors.

He also realizes the side benefit of thwarting any overzealous editors from potentially *re-imagining* his carefully planned scene.

It isn't a tribute to THE film that inspired Indy. Secret of the Incas is a colour film.........its a straight copy of character and more that many people on the crew have said they were made to watch. Sort of sad Lucas and Spielberg never just said it but it does lessen its impact as a film when you know this.

Indiana Jones: Golden Era Hollywood; but it's a modern-day Action Blockbuster. 😉

​@@Badbenthammodern day? raiders came out over 40 years ago, now.

When I watch Casablanca, the beginning scenes feel so much like the world Raiders takes place in it just makes sense to make Raiders B&W.

What are some of those films?

Totally. And something I really didn’t have the opportunity to fully show here was just how oddly well a lot of the Fincher scores lined up with action beats in Raiders, the way Soderbergh laid them out. It’s almost bizarre. -Danny

In the case of Spielberg he often storyboards obsessively, similar to Ridley Scott who will plot out even the most basic dialogue exchanges extensively with storyboards. The difference between them is Ridley's a bit more of slave to his original vision whilst Spielberg tends to use all that planning as a jumping off point to improvise on the day.

Your correct

@@mainmanmainlining7575 *you're

@@pipster1891 "Grammar Nazis. I hate these guys." -Indiana Jones

When you see anything on the screen while watching a professional-level movie, you can be sure that somebody put thought into placing it there (sometimes a lot of thought before arriving at the final image). With experience and learning from other filmmakers a lot comes more easily to mind because you spend so much time thinking about things like framing and blocking, and by seeing what works in practice. But none of it is by accident or done without thought, especially when it looks natural (which means it's successful). As the saying goes, the greats make it *look* easy.

ja brah; watch a movie first with the sound on then off and its like two completely different movies

I don't now if I'm wrong, but I like to think of the concept of the skill of a director showing when you turn off the sound; now, I don't know how much the score impacts in this take, as _music is the len which the director wants us to see a scene through_ but I think a good directing work still ahould let you follow the thread of a scene just with the visuals.

It also works in reverse. If you want to know if the sound engineering is good. Turn off the picture, and just listen to the sound and dialogue. You should be able to get a good picture of what is happening in the movie.

Turn the colour off on the tv settings.

​@@scobitronmcscobie9965 having each scene tweaked for a black and white presentation would be better than simply turning color off on a tv

@@scobitronmcscobie9965 how? my sony bravia doesnt seem to have that option

I did this years ago. It works great.

​@@rileydd08it's probably done by turning color all the way down instead of a straight off switch

Haha, right? I was worried when writing the intro to this video that folks might think I was confusing the two. Steven Soder/Spiel-Berg(h).

Solaris was great

Steven Sodabread

Just be thankful it's not Steven Seagal

@@CinemaStix At first I thought it was some kind of a troll or joke - that you replaced Spielberg with Soderberg or something like that

People often get hung up on the criticism that Indy is mostly unneeded in the film b/c the Nazis are defeated by the Ark itself.

I'm definitely going to rewatch this. I never took it seriously.

It is such a cinematic experience.

@@jp3813 It's the effect of deus ex machina. This often involves Indy's realization of the object of his quest being bigger than himself. The only Indy film that doesn't have this is Temple of Doom, in which Indy utilizes the object to thwart the main bad guy.

@@commandercaptain4664 I wouldn't categorize it as a deus ex machina since the film has warned the viewer repeatedly of the Ark's power. Indy utilizes the Holy Grail to save his father after Elsa used a false cup to destroy the main villain. In any case, people tend to forget that the Ark ends up in America's hands b/c of Indy.

We sure can! It's sublime. But the video beat you to it.

I get so frustrated when cinematographers aren’t mentioned and all their work is credited to directors, thank you for bringing Slocombe up!

his cinematography for the servant is still one of the best ever.

Absolutely !! His creatively in service to the film & Spielberg is mesmerising, and he was - as the video says - 75 at the time !!

@neinnonon It's as if the OP didn't even listen to the video narration. Taking a moment to appreciate Slocombe's work is precisely what Cinema Stix did, at 7:32.

I don't think Spielberg is criticized for his technique, he's criticized for the message in his films - the conservatism, the lack of thematic depth.

@@pipster1891 It seems to me that the more skill Spielberg developed, the more mastery over the medium he achieved, the less interesting his films became. I'm beginning to think this is a very common problem that great artists face. In the beginning, when they're running on pure intuitive skill, their work tends to feature something magical, a sort of intuitive depth. Spielberg's earliest films are also his most thematically complex. Raiders of the Lost Ark is a perfect example. The complaint people have about it, that the "plot" isn't actually affected by Indiana Jones, and that the ending would have happened the same way without him, actually conveys the dramatic irony of the story. Belloq expresses the theme perfectly. Indy is just passing through history. The ark is history. So while it's a great heroic tale, it's also about the grandiosity of the Hollywood "hero" figure, and the humbling of that grandiosity. But did Spielberg intend that consciously? Based on what he's done since, I would say maybe not. Yet that duality, that ending, puts Raiders far above its sequels. Only Raiders is a true masterwork. The rest have one simple thing to say, and even the best of them is very on-the-nose compared to Raiders' complex, ambiguous ending. The movie makes us wonder if this was even a triumph, and for whom, and how. And it offers no answers. I think the more Spielberg mastered the craft of filmmaking, the more emphasis he put on saying just one simple thing, and saying it with perfect clarity. But the problem with that is that there's no conversation to be had after. Italo Calvino once said that a classic is a book that never finishes telling its story. Take Mary W. Shelley's Frankenstein. There's a reason the creator and the monster are conflated. The story is that Frankenstein is the scientist who created a monster, and that Frankenstein is the monster. Both are true readings, yet contradict one another. So the thematic complexity can never be unraveled to a simple truth. That element of ironic complexity is present in early Spielberg films, and absent from his latter career. The better he gets, the less his work has to say.

Great post,

@@rottensquid Both Raiders and Frankenstein are fantastic points! - As a simpleton, I would like to add : Kubrick. He is not. 😉

@@Badbentham As a fellow simpleton, I concur. I think there's so much emphasis on great cinema, people don't notice that the greatest cinema in the world can't make up for mediocre storytelling.

I don’t know about unparalleled. There are other directors that are on the same level with Spielberg, like Wes Anderson, Scorcese, DePalma, and Paul Thomas Anderson.

@@eyespy3001Kurosawa did it best.

@@georgemorley1029 I think he was the biggest influence. A true genius.

Fast cuts aren't necessarily bad. I would argue they are a tool that isn't used properly.

@@eyespy3001 None of the directors you just mentioned would be considered "modern pop cinema"... so I'm not sure what you're on about.

Well said - agreed!

Couldn’t agree more. Doesn’t matter how many times I’ve seen the movie-make these changes and it’s like seeing everything for the first time. Noticing stuff I never would’ve even considered paying attention to.

Are you White?

@@Siegfried5846 ummm what kind of response is that hehe, you don't need to be white to admire Spielberg...

Fun comic-book films but what do they really tell you about the human condition? Almost nothing. Shallow.

@@pipster1891 I don't even find them fun. Especially in the end when the Germans are put in ovens. It's an evil film.

@@pipster1891 Yes, how dare people be entertained. Don't they know life is pointless! Just pointless! Stop it, stop your enjoyment! Be more miserable!

I have used the squinting to decide which product is more visually aesthetic than another similar product. For example, when looking at several images of watches. It's easy for them to become just a blur because most watches are pretty similar in shape and style and materials. But if I squint at the same images, I become more aware of the colors and overall style. I don't get as distracted by little things like the hour and minute hand or the font used on the watch dial. I can decide more easily which watch fits my style.

Brilliant - never thought of that - it makes complete sense because it's real! Thanks.

Well, just simply turn the saturation/color off on your display, and enjoy

You can change the saturation in VLC

@@Dommbuscus nah. when you do it like that it sorta looses depth? I don't know the correct terminology. It looks better when the entire movie has been tweaked by editors to be black and white without loosing that depth.

@@ye11owman29 True, it's not as good. But it does the job okay

@@ye11owman29exactly, the values that Soderberg created are perfect.

Right? Completely transformative, almost as if it was made the year it was set.

There should be a theater where all films are played in black in white.

Highlights is one word. No hyphen needed

@joshlee7935 🤓👆 No need to edumacate some-person on the internets, this is a U-Toob comment section.

@@joshlee7935 Noted, but if I do say so myself, considering how well the rest of it is composed, I don't feel the urge, or need, to download Grammarly just yet.

Is First Blood as good in B/W?

@@sulivanmagnum watch it and find out?

Rocky was a contender.

I also suggest the original "Alien" movie for the B+W treatment. Really adds to the dark intensity of the picture.

@@sulivanmagnum I don't know. The reason ROCKY is so beautiful in black and white is because of all the green in the backgrounds. In color the film has a green hue. I don't know why,, but it transfers to Black and White beautifully. Watch it. You'll be amazed.

Well, George Lucas said that you can watch Star Wars: ANH as a black and white silent film, put the volume off and you could still understand the plot (though I wouldn't remove Williams' score), I'm surprised nobody has done yet a silent cut of Star Wars, now imagine if Star Wars or the Indy films were released decades earlier, I think Star Wars would have worked in the 50s or 60s, also Lucas said that the acting and dialogue in ANH is like the one from 1930s films in contrast to method acting from the 50s, now I want to see an "old Hollywood style" cut.

@@jesustovar2549The light sabres would still be clearly sci-fi even in black and white and I supposed Vader would had been SUFFICIENTLY established as being an evil warrior by the time he shows he has a red blade. (It doesn’t HAVE to be clearly different looking blades for the dichotomy to work.)

Color somehow flattens the image; B&W relies solely on light and dark, therefore shaping objects and their spacing and giving a more stereoscopic look. And the gradations of black are so beautiful.

That’s great, because I’d spent years wondering why no one else had! :)

How do you change them into B&W is it just altering one "bar" on your TV?

Just turn your color down to zero on your tv I do it a lot

@@BernardJMorgan That's assuming I even have colour as an option.

So glad! Not this next video, but the one after it is going to be on Soderbergh. And it definitely won’t be the last time. :) -Danny

@@CinemaStix Sweet! Still makes my head spin that the same director did King of the Hill, Schizopolis, Traffic, Ocean's 11, and then ... Bubble? etc. And on the DVD behind the scenes for Out Of Sight talking about how it took two days of who-knows-how-many-takes (well into double digits) just to get the scene of them talking in the trunk til it was just right - yet the whole movie is one of those that's so utterly watchable no matter where you start watching, dips seamlessly in and out of heavy drama and deadpan comedy, and plays out sooo smoothly it's like the perfect musical album that you want to listen to all over again as soon as it's over. It's like he's making these choices from a deeply nerdy encyclopaedic cinematic knowledge base, yet has the discipline to step back and let his actors feel out the moment. What a treat. Really enjoying your channel mate. Keep up the great work.

thing is the fact that he's made SO many films and there's so few bad movies to point out in comparison to good ones, and even the ones we do immediately remember are hardly bad nowadays, and hardly bad across cinema. I mean Lost World, 1941, Ready Player One, Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, AI; some of these movies are fascinatingly bad for sure, but many of those have even more fascinating backstories that explain it. I mean you look at a 'worst of Spielberg list' and most of them are fine films, that's how consistent he was. And most of them are still well-shot. I mean Lost World is still a favourite among many, because compared to Jurassic World, its brilliant, and by itself its still extremely competently shot and produced in terms of production value and set-pieces, that are iconic still. Its a shame that people dismiss him now simply because he is so famous, so he's become so big that people kind of dismiss him. Praising him seems to annoy people because he gets 'too much' praise. And it's not 'cool' to praise Spielberg, it's not alternative or non-mainstream, saying you like Scorcese sounds cool and hip more than Spielberg (not dissing Scorcese lol). The dude single-handedly changed cinema on multiple occasions, with movies that inspired the world, I mean the way Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park and Jaws changed pop-culture across the world is hard to measure. Except that its one of those few films everyone knows regardless of seeing it.

He'll be remembered as a child rapist

@@GuineaPigEveryday A.I is a great film and one of Spielberg's best and Crystal Skull is good. I wouldn't call either of them bad films of his, he's did *much* worse. Let people praise lesser filmmakers because it's "cool" and you praise who deserves it. Like you said even his lesser films are beautifully shot and have great set pieces, he's obviously the greatest director of blockbusters of all time. If only James Cameron hadn't went with Avatar and made movies (like T2 and Aliens) more frequently he could have compared.

@@GuineaPigEveryday I always loved lost world. Some of that might be just my fascination with the universe that the first movie created, but it still has some highlights. The scene where the RV gets pushed over the clip is probably my favourite out of all the films. And it is also incredibly well shot.

@@GuineaPigEveryday To me Raiders and Jurassic Park are two absolutely perfect films.

Thank YOU :)

:D

Oh, that’s a great idea!

Thanks! Yeah, I definitely recommend it for the experience. It’s on his website, EXT 765 as “Raiders”.

Thank you! Ah, the intro comes and goes depending on the video. Sometimes it helps me kick things off and sometimes I like to dive right in. But it’s definitely not gone forever :) -Danny

Right? I mean you’re not really meant to. That’s the genius of it. But every decision is just brilliant. -Danny

I recently listened to the Rewatchables Raiders podcast and it's such a guys movie and a fun adventure movie for anyone young at heart, but all that incredible camera work and framing and (I'm not a film major) positioning just flies right over your head. He gave the world such a treat. And you just picture nerdy little Steven sitting in his chair with his cap on looking so happy haha your never expect it! And I love you pointed out Steven has been flexing his skills and style since the start. Great video I shared it with my older brother who we bonded growing up over Indy.

:D Gotta keep those lights on :) But in all seriousness, I’m extremely fortunate. Thank you so much for the support.

And the art his ego. Not that it’s always bad

And yet he made the Ocean's trilogy.

@@pipster1891 ocean 1 is pretty great. Shots, blocking, transitions, it's very creative

:D