Rebecca Arnold, Artist Blog: Kimberly French

Well, as we can all see from my last post, I was in kind of stuck in my ideas, but I’m trying to work them out right now.

I’ve been trying so hard to find the perfect idea for the perfect picture to perfectly define my old-Hollywood storybook perfection life concept, and all I can say is that doesn’t just crop up overnight.

I’m going to chat with Tom about this on Tuesday, so this isn’t final final final idea, but: I might as well just start where I should’ve to begin with. With a video camera.

I shied away from this idea early on, as I did a lot of ideas I’m using now, but I think this is the way I’m going to find what I really want – a film still.

I have a digital video camera, and with its less-than-film quality, I think I could really achieve some interesting juxtapositions between the contemporary grainy digital film-still and the old fashioned setting being filmed.

That being said, I’ve looked up a few film still experts, and stumbled over Kimberly French.

Growing up in British Columbia, French enrolled in photography at Selkirk College developing an editorial photography portfolio. While studying at North West Film and Video Training Centre, Phil Hersee, a still photographer in the motion picture industry, became her mentor. She worked as an assistant for many years and eventually became a movie still photographer herself.

French started out with more independent feature films, but worked her way to more notable assignments, including Brokeback Mountain and The Assassination of Jesse James.

The Assassination of Jesse James

While she is mainly known for her movie still work, she also has art photography, with those works appearing in two shows so far.

Women (her personal work)

In an interview with Kimberly French, she explains that as a child, she always loved movie posters and how through a single image the allure of them could ignite the desire to go see a particular movie. She also admits that she didn’t know that the job of Movie Still Photographer existed, and that she believed the images came from the film negatives. While this could be possible, she explains that the images are usually blurry because the speed is so quick.

On explaining when and how she makes her stills, French says “The stills photographer often makes images that you do not see in the motion film, as we can choose our lens size, our frame/composition, and timing. Sometimes I make photos of the actors when they are not on set. For Brokeback Mountain, one image, of Heath Ledger, was made while he was rehearsing his lines outside the set…”

Kimberly French also says in her interview that when shooting a certain scene, she doesn’t get direction from anyone on set. Her free hand in her photographs is a great perk, as she is pretty much on her own without a boss on the big movie sets. She and the director of photography sometimes communicate, but overall she is on her own.

“Shooting movie stills is not as restrictive as one might think. Timing, composition, lens choice, perspective, all decisions I can make, creative decisions.” – Kimberly French

Suspicious River

I’m glad that the interviewer has asked these questions because I’ve been interested in this profession for a very long time. Who knows…

Anyway, that was a little insight on Kimberly French. I looked through a lot of her work and her photography is truly gorgeous. I hope I can channel her on my next shoot.

http://scribbleking.typepad.com/scribbleking/2007/02/interview_still.html

http://www.kimberleyfrench.com/

one more pic because I love Twilight…

New Moon