Ejovi Nuwere

Today I went to see Spike Lee’s new film Inside Man and I loved it. I’ve always loved Spike Lee’s cinematography style but I haven’t been too excited about all of his films. When I worked for him as a teenager I learned not only about the film industry in general but specifically about how he works. For example there are a number of things you will always see in his films. Some of them I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t worked for him.

He always uses children in his film. They are usually first time actors or picked off the street from the neighborhood the film is made in.

He has a fascination with construction / hard labor workers and tries to place them at least once in the movie.

One or two of his production staffs are always prominently featured in the film. In Inside Man the Hispanic security guard who has a speaking role at the start of the film works on Spike’s staff. I know because I used to work with him! Though their may be others I don’t know.

When characters are in a highly emotional state they appear to be floating. He uses this technique in all of his films. The actor is standing on a trolley and rails. Then he is pushed with the camera focused on his face. Very low tech and simple technique that’s super powerful.

So I enjoyed watching it and highly recommend others to go out and see it. It brought back old memories of when I worked for him and hopefully some day soon I’ll be able to tell Spike in person how important it was to have worked with him.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 25th, 2006 at 11:42 pm and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.