directingfilm:

The Most Influential Filmmaker You’ve Never Heard Of: 

I still refer to Lenny Lipton’s 1972 book Independent Filmmaking as a resource for low-cost celluloid (not digital) production.  A recent interview by Don Diego Ramirez showed me that Lenny has done more in his life than just write a few books on 8mm and 16mm production.  I was amazed by the breadth of his work.  Creativity that truly knows no bounds. Some highlights:

• He pioneered early documentary filmmaking - with films such as Revelation of the Foundation.
• He pioneered 3D cinema.  Note the photo above.  The man is holding two Super 8 cameras: this is, in essence, how 3D films are shot today.  Lenny even wrote an article in that magazine about shooting 3D Super 8 films in the 1970s.
• Authored the seminal book Foundations of the Stereoscopic Cinema (1982).  
• His 3D work was used by NASA in the Mars Rover.
• James Cameron acknowledged Lenny’s work in the making of Avatar.
• He wrote Puff, the Magic Dragon with Peter Yarrow, later made popular by Yarrow’s group Peter, Paul and Mary.
• He also kept company with Tim Leary and Ken Kesey, novelist of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and lived with Salvador Dali.

Don’t just be a filmmaker.  Be an artist.  Read more about this fascinating filmmaker here.

~ü