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.
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