DANNY GEVIRTZ
Danny Gevirtz, is a commercial and documentary filmmaker from Philadelphia, USA. He currently lives in Maui with his girlfriend where he is currently working full time on Youtube. His youtube videos are very unique, educational and inspirational. Compared to other photographers and cinematographers who make content on youtube, Danny does everything his own way and doesn’t follow the usual trends. He doesn’t do camera or lens reviews but rather focuses on try to help and teach other aspiring filmmakers how to create cinematic stories by teaching cinematic lighting, camera and composition techniques. He has worked for big brands such as Nike and the Philadelphia Eagles. Danny has been a big inspiration of mine when is comes to filmmaking, I regularly watch his tutorials and other videos as I try to develop my own craft. I like the way he shoots and the videos he creates, his style is similar to mine and his videos are engaging.
HIS WORK
Danny has worked on commercial projects with brands like Nike, On running and Lululemon. He has a unique style of cinematography which is easily recognisable, his video work often features shooting at sunset or blue hour if the vibe of the video suits it. He shoots handheld a lot or static on a tripod on a canon C200 cinema camera or a Canon 1DX mk2 he will also choose to shoot at 24fps over 60fps and does not use a lot of slow motion. He has directed and filmed multiple commercials and short documentaries. The screen grabs below are from his most recent mini doc commercial ‘Rapha Rides Maui’ and some of his short documentaries and commercials including ‘Bad Mama’ which I will be doing my analysis on.
RAPHA RIDES MAUI
MONOPOLIO BEER
ODEKE
BAD MAMA – Analysis
TECHNICAL/VISUAL: This screen shot from the film was one of my favourites because of the lighting and location. In terms of technicality, the whole film was shot on anamorphic lenses, these lenses are associated with the ‘filmic look’, they capture the image in a different format which needs to be de-squeezed in post production, as a result you get the widescreen cinematic look. Light streaks across the whole screen appear when light is shone straight into the lens, this is one of the best known characteristics of anamorphic lenses. This image has a light streak across the screen from the sun which gives the image more character and the cinematic feel. A wide aperture around f2.8 would have been used because the fence behind the subject is out of focus but the hands of the subject is in focus. Because Danny would have been using a wide aperture he would have set the ISO low but would have needed to use an ND filter because there would have been too much light. The use of a wide aperture helps to isolate the subject in frame and make the audience focus on what the cinematographer wants them to focus on. I like the setting of this scene. The use of the fence makes the scene feel more industrial and grungy which fits the theme of boxing, by backlighting the subject also gives the scene more contrast and makes it feel more moody. The fence also could represent the limitations and imprisonment that jamie felt when she was suffering abuse from her ex partner.
CONTEXT: Bad Mama is a short documentary shot, edited and directed by Danny Gevirtz and co-produced by Image Revolver. The mini doc is about single mum and professional MMA fighter Jamie Colleen who suffered from domestic abuse from her ex partner. She was homeless for a while as she tried to look after her daughter and get back on her feet. After 3 years of not fighting, she rose up from her lowest point she found a place at a local shelter where her daughter would be safe so that she could start to train again and return to professional MMA fighting. Domestic abuse is still a huge problem around the world and especially prominent with single mum’s falling victim. A few years ago Jamie shared her story sider when she began fighting again, she continues to fight now and is an activist for helping domestic abuse against women and children.
CONCEPT: Danny states in his explanation video of his film ‘Bad Mama’ that ‘So at the end of 2019, I had some free time and I had some bonus points left over from a local rental house, so I knew I wanted rent some gear and whip together a little mini documentary to help someone in my small circle, help tell their story’. He says that the first person he thought about was Jamie as he knew she had a powerful story and he wanted to make it known. She was onboard with the idea and as Danny spoke more with Jamie and her daughter he began to realise that what he thought he knew about her story had really only scratched the surface, this made him even more passionate about telling here story and helping others who may have had similar struggles. This film was what is known as a ‘passion project’ for Danny as he felt in his heart that he needed to tell this important message, as a result the budget was low, he used his own money and left over points to rent some extra gear and only had one day to record all the footage.
MY RESPONSE
I really like the work and content that Danny Gevirtz has produced. His commercials and documentaries are unique and have a very recognisable style. He stresses how important pre production is when speaking about his latest cycling video but sometimes having a more ‘run and gun’ approach can be more effective at times. He took more of a ‘run and gun’ approach to his film ‘Bad Mama’. In my film I want to emulate some of the techniques and styles of Danny. I plan to story board my film and have a solid idea of what it is I need to shoot, but when it comes to filming I want to be more relaxed and not follow a shot list religiously. I want to film large portions of the film at blue hour as the lighting is softer. A recognisable style of Danny’s that I want to take inspiration from is backlighting the subject to make the image feel more moody. His films feature voice overs to help tell the story and visuals are put up on screen to assist what is being heard. This is what I want to try and replicate.