The first of many production meeting took place tonight mostly to massage the schedule. I was introduced to our 1st AD, Gary, and our Key Make-up, Kristin. It’s all coming together. We’ll have day and night shots, a little location work and lots of stage work. The cast is almost complete – I look forward to announcing who’s in the show.
Tomorrow morning we’ll tour the stages on a tech scout. Some of the sets are already finished so it’ll be a great opportunity to talk shots out with Corbin (dir) and Josh (CLT).
I start a feature in a week and I knew we’d be shooting HD, but I wasn’t sure which camera I’d want to use. To figure it out, I visited Alternative Rentals this morning to do a test on an Sony CineAlta F900 with a new software package they’re promoting and it’s called YedLog – named after the one of the inventors Steve Yedlin. The software essentially bypasses the preamp and sets all the menu setting to a zero state. What you end up with is a Log color space in 4:4:4 (F950) or 4:2:2 (F900).
It’s a fascinating possibility. I’ve included my camera log for what we captured. The test was a very simple over and under exposure test to see what what can be saved when conditions are really out of wack as well as what are the most pleasing settings. In the coming month, I’ll be back to do it again this time with a model and if time permits and Alternative Rentals is agreeable to it, I’ll take the camera out of the prep room and into real locations both day and night.
I’ll be looking at the footage next week on a Avid Nitris and report back on what I find.
: : click on image to see larger version
Here’s a bit of a tip. On a project this weekend we needed to some footage of wood floors at a new home. No low-mode available so here’s the next best thing. We took a sand and mounted the camera on it. We then pushed it forward, pulled it sideways, and pushed it in an arch around one of the tiles. One addition to this is to attach a C-stand arm to the sandbag to help you push and pull it by giving you leverage. An other option I used on a shoot last year is to attach a rope to the sandbag. Run the rope through a pulley and pull the rope. It’s smooth and you can get a very long run with this method.
: : photograph from the monitor.
: : the “poor man’s” low-mode.
: : attach a rope the stand bag and run it through a pulley.
The first and likely the last of the location scouts took place today. We visited some stages in North Hollywood called Chandler Toluca Lake Studios.
(more…)
In December I shot a commercial for BargainPays.com and directed by Justin Viar. It’s a fantastic and fun spot. We used the Panasonic HVX200 and while we did have an M2 lens adaptor, we chose to not use it. It proved to be a bit clunky given our situation. I am looking forward to using the M2 in the future and under different circumstances. The project required motion tracking so you’ll see little green dots on the clothing in the images below. The dots connected a virtual price tag added in post and then painted out. I think it worked swimmingly.
{ watch the commercial }
: : Justin directs his actors and the action.
: : That’s quite a smile.
: : It you wanna look good, you gotta coordinate!
Your moment of Zen…
The ball is rolling and the clock is ticking. We’re now officially moving forward on this project. The money is making it’s way to the bank, casting is being finalized and a final script and locations are due for completion later this week. So far we’re looking to do some days on a stage, some days on location and a few nights. We’re picking some more of the “keys” this week also. I hope to have my visual treatment finished by the weekend after a couple of more readings of the current script.
Project: “Donna on Demand” – Feature Film
Director: Corbin Bernsen
I said this was already shaping up to be a busy year and here’s my first entry as proof. I had my first meeting with the Corbin today. The producer, Jesse Lawler, arranged for me to meet him about his upcoming feature. We met at his office in Van Nuys and jumped right in to talking shop. I think that before I knew it, I was already selected to shoot the project.
So what’s the project? I’ll talk about it more in a later entry. There are still a few minor changes that are going to be written into the script. But here’s what I can say.
It’s a 12 day shoot here in Los Angeles – six days on two days off then the final six days and maybe a weekend of pick-ups down the line. It’s a high definition show and we’ll be shooting with the Panasonic VariCam. It’s a single camera show with several “oners”, but don’t confuse that with just shooting a master. The oners we’re considering shooting are blocking intensive shots.
The look is clean but dark. I’ll be playing some more with what shadows can do. I’m am, of course, having many more meetings with Corbin about the look in the next two weeks. We should next week have the locations locked down which will contribute a great deal to how interpret the look of the project. I have however already started my visual treatment of the movie. This treatment I work out is a written set of concepts and visual rules we’re work from and a structure for the visual arch of the movie. (It may not be to evident, but I’m trying really hard not to use the word “film” in this entry since it’s an HD show.)
Birds flying high you know how I feel / Sun in the sky you know how I feel / Reeds driftin’ on by you know how I feel
It’s a new dawn / It’s a new day / It’s a new life / For me / And I’m feeling good
Love that Nina Simone. Happy New Year everyone – let’s make it a good one.
Here are some pics from the New Year’s at our place. The confetti sticks sounded like a good idea (until it was time to clean it up).
Munchies consisted of lots of champagne and homemade pizza.
