12 http://www.amateurphotographer.co.ukDoyouhavesomethingyou’dliketogetoffyourchest?Sendusyourthoughtsinaround
500 wordstotheaddressonpage 20 andwina year’sdigitalsubscriptiontoAP,worth£79.T
here’s a website that’s been
going for years where
enthusiasts rigorously record
the appearances of cars in
lms and TV. The Internet Movie Cars
Database is a fantastic resource. Just
the place to read a discussion about
whether the Aston that goes over a cliff
in The Italian Job is actually an Alfa 2600
Spider, to give just one authoritative
example. I really think there should be
the camera equivalent – an Internet
Movie Camera Database that records the
appearances of cameras in lms and TV.
The thought occurred to me after a
Gadget Show viewer got in touch
regarding an item where I’d brie y
celebrated the launch, back in 1971, of
the Canon F-1. He enthusiastically
informed me that examples had made
lm appearances in both the Crocodile
Dundee lms. The fact that these lms
were being remembered for a camera
that appeared in them fascinated me.Caught on lm
Once you start looking, lots of potentially
memorable camera appearances crop
up. There’s the very charismatic Brooks
Veriwide used by the Ghostbusters when
they conduct an on-site investigation of
the Manhattan Museum of Art. Instant
cameras are particularly popular – all the
whirring noises and the spectacle of
prints popping out the front or being
peeled apart provide drama that directors
can’t resist. There’s a Kodak Kodamatic
in The Terminator and, amongst many
Polaroid appearances, an Automatic 100
Land Camera (and a Pentax SLR for that
matter) pop up in that surreal sixties
Nicolas Roeg classic Performance.
Though Mick Jagger isn’t convinced, he
says, ‘I’ve got a Leica M3 myself.’
You might argue that camera
appearances could be equally well
recorded in the better-known Internet
Movie Database (IMDb), that collects allsorts of information about lms and TV
shows including their cast, production crew,
plot summaries and trivia. Some lms are
indeed keyworded by camera, but often not
in the sort of thorough detail that camera
enthusiasts would expect. IMDb tells us
that James Stewart’s camera in Hitchcock’s
Rear Window is an Exakta VX and that
the telephoto lens is a 400mm Kil tt but
it’s the exception rather than the rule.
In the camera database the Nikon F entry
might include its appearances in Blow-Up,
the seminal Antonioni photographic lm;
and in the hands of war photographers in
Apocalypse Now and Stanley Kubrick’s
Full Metal Jacket. Kubrick was particularly
meticulous in his camera casting. When
the photographer gets his camera stolen
in the street while off duty it’s the smaller
and lighter Nikkormat – just the model
he’d have for personal use.
A database might encourage other
producers and directors to be similarly
accurate, reducing the number of
instances where paparazzi are seen
wielding bridge cameras or the Elmar
lenses on Leicas are shown in the
collapsed position while taking a shot.
Documenting the lives of cameras on
lm and TV would be great fun and
genuinely useful.THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS COLUMN ARE NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER MAGAZINE OR KELSE Y MEDIA LIMITED
Jon celebrates the launch of the Canon F-Keen to know which camera was used in a
certain lm – how about an Internet Movie
Camera Database? Jon would certainly be a fanViewpoint
Jon Bentley
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