Almost Famous

Over Thanksgiving break I was driving to Long Island to see my family while my Spotify played on shuffle. All of a sudden, the song Tiny Dancer by Elton John came on and I was overcome with memories of one of my favorite movies that I haven't even seen in the longest time. Isn't it crazy how music can do that to you? You hear it and are instantly reminded of a moment - whether its happy or sad, there is always an association. The movie I immediately connected this song to is Almost Famous, starring Kate Hudson. She is my favorite character in this film as she plays the quirky happy-go-lucky Penny Lane. The movie is based on a young writer who gets hired by The Rolling Stone and travels with one of America's most popular rock band of that time. What I love about this movie is how it incorporates real rock musicians from the 70s such as Simon and Garfunkel and Black Sabbath, but the band being documented is completely made up.The movie does a great job of incorporating Stillwater into the time period and connecting their music style to other ones that actually exist. This movie is an excellent period piece. It documents the 1970s very well along with the lifestyle of sex, drugs and rock n' roll. William, the teenage journalist starts out very naive but after befriending one of the rockstars, Russell and Penny Lane, his life quickly turns around. It is a great story for character development as we witness Kate Hudson's character nearly hitting rock bottom. There are sad moments, but the emotions that will come over you from watching this film are worth it. Directed by Cameron Crowe, it very much reflects his own experiences. He himself was a teenage writer for the Rolling Stone and toured with multiple bands including The Allman Brothers Band, Led Zeppelin and The Eagles.  You can definitely tell that this story is written from some kind of personal experience because it touches close to the heart.

Center Composition

Even though center composition is the first topic in the series of articles, I actually read them all, I just found the theme of center composition to be intriguing. Like they said in the article "If one were to hand a camera to an aunt, and ask her to take a picture, she would most likely photograph the subject in the center of the frame." Basically, center composition is one of the most basic forms of framing. But because it is so simple, it is so easy to mess up. Being at a student film school, I see a lot of techniques that turn out extremely well, and some, well, not the best. Even though it is such a simple use of framing, Wes Anderson's work displays that just about any technique, when perfected, can be a staple of any great film, or film-maker. Here is an example of his work in relations to center composition.



Here are some other examples of center composition in movies:

Iron Man (2008) - Director of Photography: Matthew Libatique

Dirty Harry (1971) - Director of Photography: Bruce Surtees

The Shining (1980) - Director of Photography: John Alcott

Almost Famous (2000) - Director of Photography: John Toll

Meloncholia (2011) - Director of Photography: Manuel Alberto Claro


Here is a clip I shot for my FF1 film: "A Shrouded Order" that utilized center composition. I'm not saying its a good example, just an attempt by me. Feel free to criticize.

Cameron Crowe

One of my favorite directors, Cameron Crowe is working on an untitled project scheduled to come out next year. It is about a military contractor returning to the site of his greatest career triumphs and reconnecting with a past love while falling for the Air Force watchdog assigned to him. What I'm most excited about is the stellar cast of actors and actresses: Rachel McAdams, Emma Stone, Bradley Cooper, John Krasinski, Bill Murray, Alec Baldwin, and more.


Cameron Crowe was born in 1957 in California. His writing career began as a 15 year-old high school student submitting articles on music to Rolling Stone. His film, Almost Famous, is slightly based off of his own life. It's one of my favorite films, as it is typical Cameron Crowe - an offbeat but charming drama/romance that creates an atmosphere the viewer never wants to leave.

Most of his main characters tend to start from great success and lose everything, having to reevaluate their lives and thus gaining understanding. They are relatable on many different levels. The audience will fall in love with all of them. His characters seem so real and raw - that's why all his films resonate so well with me. They go through real struggles that everyone can understand. For example, in We Bought a Zoo, the father (played by Matt Damon) is trying to cope with the loss of his wife. He needs a change and to focus on helping something, so they move to the countryside to renovate and re-open a struggling zoo. Alright, maybe the audience doesn't relate to renovating a zoo, but we understand the human condition. Going through a loss forces people to make changes in their lives.

In Almost Famous, Penny Lane (played by Kate Hudson) is comparable to Audrey Hepburn's character, Holly Golightly, in Breakfast at Tiffany's. They both are sad yet endearing women looking for happiness in all the wrong people and places. My heart aches for them, as it does for many other characters in Cameron Crowe's films.

Cameron Crowe is the ultimate music guru. He is known for his great soundtracks. On set, he plays the music that will be used in the specific scene during that scene. He makes the actors and actresses listen to it before they shoot. Some actors/actresses like this and others do not care for it. But he feels it sets the mood for everybody.

If you haven't seen a film directed by Cameron Crowe, go do it now. Check out: We Bought a Zoo, Elizabethtown, Almost Famous, Vanilla Sky, Say Anything..., Jerry Maguire, etc.

Almost Famous

Over break I watched "Almost Famous," a movie about a 15 year old named William (played wonderfully by Patrick Fugit) who, as a writer for Rolling Stone, follows the rock band Stillwater in order to write an article about the up and coming band. The movie is semi-autobiographical, based on the life of writer-director Cameron Crowe ("Jerry Maguire," "Elizabethtown"), who really wrote for Rolling Stone Magazine.

William lives with his strict, feminist mother (Frances McDormand from "Fargo") who hesitantly lets him go to concerts, giving the mantra of "Don't Take Drugs!." He meets Penny Lane (Kate Hudson), a  band aid (a non-sexualized groupie) who introduces him to Stillwater. Penny Lane is a manic pixie girl, charming and cute, dispensing wisdom and guiding the hero through the movie.In Stillwater, he meets Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup) and Jeff Bebe (Jason Lee), the two big personalities of the band. He bonds with the band and the band aids on the road, all while getting calls from his mother and trying to wrestle interviews out of Hammond.

The movie has great performances, especially Philip Seymour Hoffman as Will's mentor, and it is a very cute and funny movie. I highly recommend the film and apparently there is a director's cut that expands upon the story and characters. The movie is a love story to the rock'n'roll era of the late 1960s/early 1970s, with great music all through the film, ranging from Simon and Garfunkel to Led Zeppelin.