mine

An element of the storyline takes place as an internet chat. The director and I created a set of files that were used as on-screen elements. The “perp’s” computer desktop. (You’ll notice the striking resemblance to a Window’s desktop aesthetic. Bad guys don’t use Macs!) The director and I created these graphics using Photoshop elements and then animated it in AfterEffects. The director’s computer fed a monitor in front of our actors and a functional keyboard was used for the perp. To animate the conversation between the perp and his victim, the first three frames we’re lines of the conversation in the message window. The actor simply pressed the “forward arrow” on the keyboard advancing frame-by-frame and displaying the next line of text in the message window. (For the example above, I expanded each line of text by 10 frames for display purposes.) Then, to animate the pop up window, another actor pressed the space bar to play the movie. These were QuickTime files. When opened with the QuickTime player, we set the application to Full Screen and Loop. In this graphic, we went with a more Unix or proprietary design. The conversation windows are similar but we added a tracing program and locations window. The tracing program is built from transparent windows (I got the idea from the way I set-up my Terminal window in OSX.) A random number generator and multiple text path plug-in layers are then added with offset transparency routines. The FBI seal is a download from the web. ]]>

Day 1 – I got an email from Mark (the project’s director, writer and producer) that he was looking for a director of photography for an upcoming project. I called him and straightaway I could hear in his voice a great enthusiasm for filmmaking. We scheduled a time to meet and hours before that meeting, he emailed me the script. When I got to page 7 of the 11 page script, I started to wonder what was I getting myself into – and not in a good way. But then when I finished the script, I just had to pause and think “wow, what a great script”. I won’t get into the story until the project is finished, but it’s one of those script you’re grateful to get. The bulk of the script takes place at a park and we had the good fortune that someone Mark knew was selling a house with a large backyard that could work as a park courtyard. The home is in Hancock Park – a well to do neighborhood, south of downtown Hollywood. A funny moment came up when I asked Mark if we would have any parking issues. He looked to me and said “No problem, there’s plenty of street parking – these people don’t park on the street.” He wasn’t kidding. Huge houses in a community where only the gardeners and maids park on the street. (Another anecdote to the weekend came the morning of the first day. Someone came over to visit with a little child in tow. I didn’t really notice – I had things to do. But as I rushed to get something, I passed by this person only to find it was Diedrich Bader of “Office Space” fame and he also did a little show called “Drew Cary” you might also remember. It was one of those moments where look and you know that’s someone you know, but you don’t know if you know them. Mull over that one for a while! Back to the show.)Mark managed to get a free Sony F-900 camera package courtesy of a third party. The camera package came from VER (Video Equipment Rentals – Glendale, CA). It was minimal, but hey, I’m not complaining. The camera was set to my modified neutral settings. We composed for 16:9 but generally kept it safe for 1.85. A stocking net was placed behind the lens to take out some of the HD bit using an I-Ring my friend Toby purchased for me several years ago when they first came out – still using it, dude! The latest software modifications to the camera are a big improvement. The menu structure is also much improved. When we originally scouted the location, it was a bright sunny day. Instead we got cloud cover most mornings and patchy cloud which came in and out throughout the afternoon and ending in mostly clear skies and bright sun in the evenings. It was, needless to say, a challenge we didn’t always win. I often found myself riding the iris to compensate with some success. It’ll ultimately be a long color grading session down the road – but do-able. The grip/electric came from Wooden Nickel (Burbank, CA). Here again it was minimal but we were never totally hamstrung by it. The order consisted of:- 12×12 Butterfly kit (single, double, solid, silk, and grifflyon) and a Full Grid, also- 1200HMI PAR – The usual compliment of C-stand, shot bags, flags and nets, etc.We also ordered a Super Pee Wee dolly with 2, 8′ straight tracks and 4, 90° curve tracks. The crew was small, real small – but, everyone stepped up and did multiple jobs and some for the first time. I had hoped to get a few extra hands but no luck. (I’m sure I’ll now get messages that go something like this, “dude, you should have called – I would have totally been there.”)I think my favorite shot of the day is a dolly shot we did that’ll introduce us to the setting. It was a dolly shot in the shape of a question mark that swung by a group of kids, then another set of kids, then another set of kids and finally ending on our lead actor, alone. Very nice. Day 2 – Today we had no extras, just our two leads. Today was a day that Mark could more closely work with them and with few distractions. The casting of these two kids was fantastic. They played so well off each other. The younger actor, for only being 13, showed such maturity and sophistication. And our sweet vixen handled her duplicitous role with ease. I really think it’ll be something worth watching when it’s finished. We had hoped to shoot out the weekend on five tapes, but no luck. We were 24 minutes into tape five just after lunch when we started a frantic search to find someplace open on a Sunday that sold HDCAM tapes. It was harder than you might think. But then, our set photographer asked the question, “what about the folks you rented the camera from?” It was worth a try since no one else was open. Sure enough, they were open and someone rushed to pick-up two tapes – at a premium I might add!Day one in many ways dictated the look for the show, that of an overcast day. To serve that, we all but tented our leads with the 12×12, using the Full Grid on the frame tabled above them and the silk draped along an edge. 4×4 Floppies helped conceal any other spots of stray sunlight in the background. I think for the most part it’ll be convincing. I’ll obviously have a better idea after the first cut is finished. The color grading is going to be hell-on-earth trying to dance around the times the sun came in and out from behind the clouds. But Mark covered the script very well and so we should be saved by coverage. This tent was a sight to see, though. My favorite shot of the shoot has to be the last shot of the day. It was a circular track around our two leads seated in iron patio chairs next to each other. A slow move around them starts us off during a seduction and at a turning point the dolly tracks the opposite direction with some speed. I know it’s been done before, I know it might call attention to itself, but it is totally motivated, appropriate and just plain awesome. I love it when Spike Lee does it and I think it was an excellent choice by the director. As a safety net for the editor, we shot the same bits in the opposite direction. A million thanks to Jose – sometimes boom op and sometimes dolly grip – what an awesome sense of movement and handling of the dolly!Kudos to Mark for a great script, excellent direction of that script and for producing a great weekend with few problems. I’m sure I speak for the entire cast and crew that we can hardly wait to see the short finished and that this was a weekend well spent. Great job! PHOTOS FROM DAY 2 Mark directs the actors.”the Tent” Last shot of the day and maybe the coolest shot of the show. ]]>

No!, not the television show… just the number of hours I worked on Wednesday. It was actually more like 28, 29, maybe 30 hours, but who’s counting (actually, I really don’t remember)?

0530hrs- The fun began with the second day of a two day shoot for Merle Norman – a cosmetics manufacturer headquartered in Torrance, CA (call time 0730hrs). It was for a training video that focused on make-up application and customer service. On-site, they have a mock store and training room where franchises learn the art of running a Merle Norman store.

The director, Greg, works out the script.

The gang’s all here.

The shoot consisted of two Panasonic SDX900 cameras with matching Canon 9×19 (9-117mm) lenses. The image was shot for 4:3 and set with my modified Wexler image-neutral settings. Filter wheel set to 3200K, 1/4 ND (0.6 ND), the camera “white-balance” selector was on Preset and the “Auto Knee” was off. Koji K. served as the other camera operator.

The lighting was fairly simple. We merely need to augment what was already there. To that end, we used two 4′ 4-bank Kino Flos (no grid) and with 216 diffusion and positioned close to the lens axis of each camera. We also added a 650W open-face Arri also with 216 diffusion hung from the ceiling grid using a scissor clip which served double-duty as a fill light and backlight. A 2′ 4 bank Kino was always on stand-by as a bit of fill for the woman that was having the make-up applied to.

1830hrs- We wrapped out by 6:15 and from there I headed south to Long Beach’s Veteran’s Field for my second helping of work. This job came to me by way of Jim Jacks at Alternative Rentals. The shoot was looking for – what I’m hesitant to call – a Digital Image Tech. I really served more as a Video Engineer. The two night shoot was for a car spot destined for the web, but there was talk between the agency and the director about other distribution options.

My responsibilities were mostly to make sure “smoke and fire” didn’t come out of the equipment. Seriously though, I was there to keep an eye on the settings and timecode of the cameras and decks, make sure problems get fixed when they arose, offer my operation experience to a crew that spends most of its time working on film originated shoots, and make myself available if changes to settings needed to be made. For the most part, I was there more for insurance (worst case scenario type of stuff). They took out three Panasonic DVX100 cameras (set to 4:3 at 24P, 0 dB gain) and three micro cameras – specifically, the Toshiba IK-TU51 (often called “Ice Cube”). The kit came with a CCU and three, C-mount lens kit – 2mm, 4.1mm and 6mm. These cameras were plugged into a Sony DSR50 portable DVCAM deck. The DVX camera goes without saying that they’re great, but the fun stuff came with the “Ice Cube” cameras. This is especially true with the last shot. They had a car sid into a corner which ran over the camera on the second take. Great shot – not so great for the camera. But that’s what they’re for.

The track was lit up in a very cleaver way. They used push lights under orange cones. Push lights are those lights you see on late night TV – they’re dome lights that when pushed, light up. They run on batteries and when i spoke to the gaffer, he said he got the idea from another show. Very cool and it really looked great.

0800hrs- Dawn rolled in hard and fast.

Ice Cube camera (Toshiba IK-TU51 with CCU).

The very efficient camera cart.

Location transpo by way of skateboard.

The course – cones lit up using push lights.

The show of cars. Some nice, some not so nice.

I haven’t work on a documentary in a while and this weekend broke that dry spell. I got a call about a month ago from Jim Jacks (Alternative Rentals) about a feature documentary that needed to shoot some pick-ups and that they were looking for a director of photography for a day to shoot some b-roll and a couple of interviews. I said “sure” and that was that until last week when thing started falling into place.

I met with the director and producer this week to talk about what needed to be shot and to review some of the footage that had already been shot. I love to watch documentaries and I have to say that from just watching the first ten minutes or so of their rough cut, it already looks like a documentary I’d watch. So, just what is this documentary about? The director is a writer (author of Clara Bow: Runnin’ Wild and Bombshell: The Life and Death of Jean Harlow). While researching MGM for his book on Harlow, he stumbled across some information about a MGM party that took place in 1937 where a 20 year-old was raped. What followed is the subject of the documentary. I’m not gonna give anything away – go see the documentary when it comes out.

We got some shots of the director, on camera, filling in story elements and an interview with Judy Lewis. Who’s Judy Lewis you ask? Well she just so happens to be the “love-child” of Clark Gable and Loretta Young. If you have the time, there’s lots of information online about her Hollywood story and it’s worth it to read her story.

I’ve said this before that it really is spectacular to work with someone who knows the ropes when it comes to being on-camera. She asked me about the lighting, she directed the make-up artist on what to do, and when it came to answering the questions, always answered in complete sentences with wonderful diction and paced enunciation.

We shot with the Sony CineAlta camera with neutral color setting provided by Alternative Rentals. We shot for 1:85 and TV safe (center-extraction). Color was controlled on set with the lighting and with white balance moving more toward a warm tone (this way as opposed to tinkering with the in camera controls). The lighting for Judy only required two lights. Both 650W open face Arri with small Chimera. For her key, I used the standard skin on both the outside frame and inside. For backlight, I used the same rig from a c-stand and without the internal skin and on a dimmer. It looks deceptively easy and I suppose, it is. The key was kept low – just above her eye line – and close to the lens axis. This served, primarily to flatter her face but it also served to light the room, casting nice shadows on the wall from the plant. The backlight was on a dimmer to warm up the light and offered a nice kick to her shoulders, hair, and the sofa. The key-light and backlight also worked to light her mother’s Oscar – the light’s large white surfaces reflected nicely on Oscar’s shiny, flat features.

(Sorry for the image quality – I took it with my mobile phone.)

Photo of the field monitor between shots – the plaid is our sound mixer, Joe

Equipment Summary:
Sony HDW-900H HDCAM CinelAlta
Fujinon 18×7.6 lens (7.6-136mm)
Microforce V+F2 Control
Panasonic 8.4″ Color LCD HD/SD Field Monitor
Miranda MDC900 HDSDI Adaptor/Down Converter
Sony 14L5U 14″ CRT Monitor with SDI card
Ronford Tripod
OConnor 1030HD Head

One last thing. While at prep, I had a chance to see and hear the new screen theatre at Alternative Rental. It’s a thing of beauty! We watched some DVD clips and the sound is amazing. So much so, that while prepping the camera, the room rumbled a bit. It though it was a train passing by, but no, it was the sound system. The room holds about 25 people in reclining leather chairs. The screen is about 15′ tall by 25′ wide. The room can be used to view dailies, screen projects and very soon, also can be used for color grading sessions using a 2K projection system and Final Touch software. Sweet!

Many thanks go out to the folks at Alternative Rentals – Brian for helping me set up the camera, VanNessa for helping with prep (and for coming in on a Saturday so I could return the equipment) and, of course, Jim for considering me and all his help in making sure I had every possible thing I needed.