Please feed your assistants

Found this great article in an old issue of a CICA (Canadian Independent Camera Association) publication. Some food for thought for cinematographers/cameraman, camera assistants, grips, electrics and PA's alike.


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Wanted: More Storage

It looks like I need to put another shelf into my shop. The clutter that I eluded for a little while, after putting up the first shelf, is back with a vengeance. I think I'm gonna put one frame right to the current one. It's fun figuring out how to pack everything into the small space the most effeciently. This picture was taken with my Canon Elph S400 (which is still on the fritz with card errors) and a cheap 0.38x wide angle lens I bought at this clearance centre. I'm just holding it front of my camera lens.

I'm shooting a music video this week for a local artist - Chris Casserly with my friend and fellow filmmaker AJ Matias directing.

It's Practical!

I've been carrying an assortment of practical bulbs with me to shoots for a little while now. In fact it's what I used solely when I first started out. Recently I've really come to like using them - they're cheap, portable and come in a variety of different types. When combined with some blackwrap they're great for eye lights or backlights. Stronger wattages are great to help boost the overall ambience and lower wattages help to keep lamps in shot from burning out. You can put them in chinaballs, you can build them into custom housings, they're easy to rig and the list goes on and on.

As I was walking through my local hardware store (my next favourite place next to a camera shop) I realized I'm always buying bulbs wherever I happen to be, not remembering exact specs or prices from other stores. This got me thinking about doing a comprehensive test of various types, makes, etc comparing them side by side.

Over the next few days I'll be coming up with a criteria of what to test specifically. If you have anything you'd like to see specifically feel free to leave a comment here. Stay tuned for more updates.

In The Can

This is the opening sequence for the show "In the Can with JR Digs" that I shot for director Winston Hacking. Currently the show has no real opener so it was created to serve that purpose. It's a half hour show that showcases behind the scenes making of a short film, eventually showing the finished film at the end of the half hour. "Suburban Ninja" which was shot for "In The Can" should be airing in the next few weeks. If you're in Toronto the show airs on CH Network (Global) on Friday's at 12:30am. You can probably check it out if you're elsewhere in Canada. Check your local listings.

Check out the video here:

I'm Still A Ninja

Here are some production pics courtesy of editor Matt Johnson, including the bikecam rig (that was fun riding!). Thanks to Winston Hacking, who directed the film, for resizing and sending them to me.

The exteriors were lit with daylight supplemented with a handheld silver bounce or 6x6 Grifflector. I dealt with late daytime contrast with a 3x3 frame of light grid cloth. This was my first time using grid cloth - not too sure what to think of it yet. I'd still like something much lighter to complement it as grid cloth still softens things right out. Something that still lets the sun through but takes off the edge just a little bit would be perfect. Will have to re-examine my gel swatch book.

Our one interior (pizza place) was lit mainly with daylight streaming in and the overhead flourescents. Reverse shots were keyed with a Chimera (Half CTB) and Source 4 Par (Half CTB, Opal, Wide lens) as a backlight. There was still too much contrast and I had to let the windows blow out but it kind of worked within the context of the script. A 4' 4bank Kino would have been nice and maybe a 12x12 double outside the window but when you get dealt lemons you make gotta make lemonade....or something like that...:-)

I'm A Ninja

Just finished shooting "Suburban Ninja", a comedy short film about a pizza delivery guy who dresses as a ninja delivering pizzas in the suburbs dealing with his insecurities with the opposite sex. It was a pretty hectic 2 days and I was under crewed but we got it done. The weather surprisingly held up during the entire shoot. Probably 90% of the time it rains when I shoot - I'm worse at governing the weather than golphers.

Unfortunately my digital camera and/or my memory card (I'm still figuring it out) has decided to fail on me so I don't really have any pictures to post. I snapped a few on film ("what's film?" - lol) but the roll's not done yet. I should have a few selects from the editor Matt in a few days.