e. gustavo petersen | cinematographer

While things have been painfully quite, there’s still things to do…

I just finished shooting a presentation for a pitch, one that I can’t reveal too much about just yet. What I can say is that It’s a comedy, being shot like a reality television show. I did a bunch of research watching shows like Campus Ladies, Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Hills, Reno 911 and of course, the Office. It’s quite a thing to think in terms of how to make it look “live” and real while capturing comedy which is by it’s very nature a contrivance. I especially got a kick when shooting some of the scenes and adding a little bit of camera movement to make sure that you can “feel” the camera’s presences. Other times the aesthetic meant shooting with one of the actors, a prop or set dressing placed at the edge of frame to give the shot a more voyeuristic feel. Another device we used was when panning from on actor to another but slightly behind the delivery so as to be catching up with what’s said as would normally happen in real life – reacting to the scene instead of having forethought as to who will be speaking next.

We shot 24 pages in roughly four days using three Canon XL2 cameras and shooting handheld. One day at UCLA, half a day at one home and two and 1/2 days at another home in the Valley. The grip/electric package was very simple: Kinos, 1200HMI, Arri light kits (practical and as props), shiny boards, China lamps with 250W photo floods for daylight and 200W clear utility lights for night, etc. As part of the storyline (the story includes an element of a college news cast), we incorporated Flip cameras. They’re small video cameras whose footage can easily be plugged into a computer and downloaded as quicktime files or viewed on a television directly. The idea for using them was that while our cameras captured their interactions from the outside looking in, these cameras would capture their going-ons from the inside looking out. It also gave some of the actors comedic “business” in the background while other action happened in the foreground.

↑ Mike Wade (Miles) just before
→ Aaron (UPM) awaits the results – sorry, no big money, just whammies!

↑ Sound department: Pyxz & Chris H.
→ Actors Ryan Michael Oman (Bryce) and Mike Wade (Miles) having fun before the start of day one.

↑ Tess Lynch (Chaz) looking smashing!
→ Nick Pasqual (Jimmy) and Bear Badeaux (Sleestack) dink around with the Flip cameras

↑ China lamps in full force
→ Sarah Rodenbaugh (Cindy) preps

↑ Me and director Andrew Powell prep a scene
→ The monitor room – Andrew (dir), Reg Powell (producer) and Chris Powell (composer)

↑ Sarah (Cindy) readies for her net newscast
→ Rosie R. & Justin V. (camera operators)

↑ The cast
→ Krista G. (production designer)

↑ The cooking head cams. Nice!

↑ Roll your mouse over the picture.

Additional Notes:

EI:200 – Aim exposure: ~30FC or ƒ/2.2
Shot 24P // 16:9
Cine gamma // Gamma +1 // Knee +2 // Black +2
NR @ 0 // VDTL @ 0
Color Matrix 1 // Color Phase +2 // Color Gain +2
Red +2 // Blue 0 // Green 0
Setup Level 0
Sharpness -2
Coring -3
Master Ped 0