On To The Next One - "Murdoch's Other Eye"

I begin prep on my next short which is shooting a week from now. The film is being directed by Katherine Fitzgerald, who I know through Humber College - she teaches 2nd year sound and taught me. Originally I was asked to Gaff for Cinematographer Marcus Elliot but he's tied up on another job so Katherine asked me to shoot for her.

The script is set in an office environment and revolves around 2 main characters - Murdoch and Johnson. Johnson and Murdoch neither like looking at each other but because of this end up looking at each other more often. Johnson has also become obsessed with Murdoch, or rather what's under Murdoch's eye-patch, which he fixates himself on all day pondering the contents underneath the patch.

The film will shoot in 2 1/2 days next weekend and we're going for a film noir/pyscho-noir kind of style. We're shooting on a DVX100A with a P+S Technik Mini35 adapter and Zeiss Hi-speed 35mm primes. This is the first time I'm shooting with this system as a cinematographer. Katherine wants to do some nice moves with the camera, which I'm excited about, and we have a doorway dolly and small jib to help us accomplish this.

My lighting package is fairly small but complete. There are scenes in a boardroom, washroom, office coffee room, white infinite space (dream sequence) and a bedroom. All scenes except the bedroom will be shot at Humber. I have a team of 2 assistants and 3-4 lighting grip tech's, including my regular gaffer Angie, which will be a welcome change from "A Short Film".

I don't have a firm lighting strategy so far. I'm concerned about the apparent 2-stop light loss that you get from using the mini35 system. I normally work at fairly low-light levels that mimic the levels you'd get in real life - if it's darker I normally work at darker levels instead of lighting for "dark". My thoughts are to pop an open face 1K into the ceilings to build some ambience but I always find you have to do a lot of flagging to get it to look right. I'm going to take advantage as much as I can of what's already available to me. For example the overhead fluorescents that are in the office spaces. I have these Phillips Colortone 50 bulbs I'm probably going to switch in and skirt the lights to get some gradient on the adjacent walls. I see a lot of use of negative fill also. Angie and I will bat around ideas...

"A Short Film" - Day 5 of 5 and Wrap-up

We finished our last shoot day with a night shoot. Calltime was 6pm. The sequence took place on a hill in the back of the residence at Sheridan College. The scene was Chris' imagination as he ponders further what his next short film idea is going to be. We were the most short handed this day but I think we faired quite well. The weather luckily held up - it was windy at times but was warm compared to what it could have been at this time of year.

In one sequence, Chris is burying some of his old idea represented with tombstones that art dept made out of foam. The lighting was super simple. I lit the scene with a 1200 HMI as backlight with 1/2 CTO on it. A 4' 4bank Kino with tungsten tubes keyed the scene.

We then went to a birds-eye shot. In order to get the height and angle I rigged the camera to an Avenger 2K stand that has an angling boom option on the top risers. I used a baby pin with 3/8" male thread that fitted into the baseplate of the camera. That was rigged into a grip-head and safetied.

Chris wanted the light to brighten as the character Chris has a moment of revelation. I rigged a 1K red-head on a similar 2K stand boomed out, rigged to a dimmer with Full Blue. a 2' 2 bank Kino with Daylight tubes keyed the scene when the dimmer was down.

Not many photos:





Our 2 major setups respectfully.

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Overall I had a really good experience making this film. The way we made the film is something I haven't done in a while. I'm used to having a little more guys, more gear, and more money on a per day basis which I didn't have any of on this job. I think this made the experience all the more more tactile and hands-on which was really nice. We had a great group of people and we did quite well. I'm happy with how the footage has turned out.

The shoot was also the longest consecutive shooting on one project I've ever done to date which was something new and a little bit of a test. I have to credit Chris for keeping his coverage tight so we could take the time to set things up properly. Thanks to all the various crew and collaborators we had over the 5 days. Will have my 35mm still shots processed soon and will post.

On to the next one!

"A Short Film" - Day 4 of 5

Day 4 of 5 done - we're nearly there!

Today we started our day shooting some plate shots continuing our bridge sequence from Day 1. The actual bridge we shot on day 1 was about a 10ft drop but Chris wanted it to be a 50ft drop so we shot some POV stuff off of the Oakville viaduct bridge which is about a 150ft drop. We shot hi-res plates with a digital SLR and some POV stuff with zooming the DVX. I'm not sure if either is going to work but Chris wanted to get something and feels confident he can make something work with his SFX guy. While we were out there it started to rain as usual! Just can't catch a break...

Our first major setup was a dining room scene with a family having dinner. The scene is essentially in Chris' mind as he imagines what kind of movie he should make next. The scene was shot on a standing set that exists in one of the studios at Sheridan College. We see "Chris" having dinner with his parents as we pan around the table to them. We took a standard table and removed the leaf insert which left just enough room for me to stick in a set of baby legs and the camera. The shot starts off with Chris in the scene and pans around the table to Dad, Mom and eventually back to another version of Chris who's observing the scene. It required some coordination as Matt had to get changed very quickly as we panned around, having to be re-dressed as we land on our last frame with the other Chris.

I had my regular Gaffer Angie Bailey with me today which was great. We hung a Chinaball with 2 100w clear bulbs over the table. The overhead grid in that studio is way to high and we didn't have a scissor lift so Angie devised a great system of sash-cord to get the Chinaball in place overhead. A 75W par practical was positioned in the faux fireplace on a dimmer, 420 Peppers created ambience and slashes on the wall and practicals were lamped with 15w bulbs. I played a Black Frost 1/4 over the lens. Another 15w bulb was rigged on top of the camera to give a glint in the eye - it kind of worked... it also filled in just a little under the eyes which helped.

As the scene continues, Chris decides that maybe he should make a horror film. In a close up of him, the scene transitions in camera. We had an elaborate rigging of dimmers and guys with flags to accomplish this. For the horror scene we had a 1K Fresnel with Full Blue come up and put a slash in the background, a pepper creating new backlight on Chris, a 1.2K HMI soft light coming through a window and 2' Kino daylight tube. All the lights for the dinner scene were dimmed out. We also had a fog machine for effect. Again I played a Black Frost 1/4 throughout.

We finished our day shooting some plates on a green screen. This is the first green screen stuff I've ever shot. The scene is supposed to take place in infinite whiteness but a studio wasn't available otherwise we would have done that. I'm skeptical how it'll turn out as we're shooting DV with 4:1:1 color space. I tried to control spill by laying down Duv in various areas and also added some backlight with some Minus green to help counteract the green spill.

Some pics...



The dining room setup. You can see the camera, with 15w practical rigged to the top, situated in the centre of the table on babies. We shimmed the camera up with apple boxes to get the height right. In the background we had 2 peppers with 4x Opal giving some light to our walls. The pan bar was extended fully as I walked around the table. Art dept walked around with me removing glasses and anything that might have gotten in the way. In the picture - Adrian (holding the blue gown), who donated the camera and has been a great help on set, Dan (the producer) in the back and Steve our 1st AD. Actors Carol and Tom sitting at table and Helen (in red) adjusting Matt's wardrobe.



A better look at the camera setup. The practical on the camera was rigged with a mini matthelini and mini grip head which I carry in my kit these days. Both pieces of gear have come in really handy since I've added them to inventory. They also don't take up much room in your bag and are light. Actor Tom looking on while drinking his soup.





The horror scene transition. Kino tube hanging out between takes. I had ND 3 wrapped around it to take it down. I handheld the unit to get the right distance quickly. This technique is becoming a favourite thing of mine. Thanks to Angie for making the suggestion - I totally didn't think about it.





Angie and her awesome sash positioning system..



The green screen setup....hope it works!!

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Tomorrow is our last day and a night shoot. It's going to be tough as we have a bare bones crew (more than usual) tomorrow and are dealing with the outside elements at night. It's going to be interesting...

"A Short Film" - Day 2 and 3 (of 5)

Doing a combo post here since I got home at the end of Day 2 and crashed early. Even now at the end of Day 3 I'm fighting to stay awake...

Day 2 started off poorly. We were hit with a bad case of rain and our 1st AD Steve feeling ill. The rain is to be expected with me on the set. I think I must have at least a 90% chance of it whenever I'm shooting exteriors. Our first major sequence was a musical number which I ended up playing au naturel. I had the guys set the genny hoping I could sneak a 1200 HMI in somewhere but it ended up not playing at all. Popped in a Coral 1/4 in front of lens to warm things up but it never looks quite right without the contrast of the sun.

The rain started getting heavy to the point where we couldn't even muscle through it so it was decided that we'd shift the 2nd half of the scene to an interior location since you can do that sort of thing with musicals. Characters are always popping in and out of contrasting locations with no justification - awesome!

The interior was the front hallway of a building at Sheridan College which we were previously using as a holding/work area. I lit the scene with a 1200 HMI and 4' 4bank Kino with daylight tubes. I started using the Fig Rig also but abandoned it by the end of the day. I find it too cumbersome and awkward - it's better for me just to stick it on my shoulder and grip the support rods.

Due to the weather, we lost the romance sequence down by the waterfront, which was pushed to Day 3.

Again not too many pictures...



Originally the entire sequence is supposed to take place outdoors. You can see the brutal weather were were dealing with. All the background dancers were troopers.



Some of the gear waiting on standy as we attempted to wait out the rain. Eventually we just came indoors and shot the 2nd half as an interior.



Our interior locations for the 2nd half of the musical number. 1200 HMI and 4' 4bank provided some contrast. The area was facing a big glass front which keyed the scene. I played a Black Frost 1/2 on the lens for everything.



Makeup artist Jamie catching a snooze..... I lit this with a practical bulb..:-p

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Day 3 started off just as gloomy and grey as Day 2. We started our morning on a couple of inserts on the Bolex. Again I shot 7245 50D. We picked up our waterfront romance sequence where it was freezing! I played the scene with a Black Frost 1/2 and Schneider Classic Sunset in front of the lens to help hide our our grey reality.

We then moved to a theatre interior which played as a student awards ceremony where we witness "Chris", a nominee for a film award, lose out to his evil nemesis Marvin. For the angle of Marvin looking out to the crowd I lit Marvin with two theater spotlights, already in exitence in the space, rim lighting him. A small 1K chimera keyed Chris who was just to the left of frame and a 1K fresnel on the floor backlit some of the extras at various tables. A 4' 4bank Kino with Tungsten tubes and 1/4 CTS gave a soft edge for closeups. Practical table lamps with 40W bulbs were wired into dimmer for control.

The reverse shot facing the stage was keyed with one of the spotlight fixtures and a 420 Pepper backlit him. I played both a Black Frost 1/2 and 1/4 to get his white coat to pop.

We finished our day in a classroom scene where Chris is sitting in class watching some obscure film as a pretentious artsy fartsy fellow student spiels anecdotes about Kubrick. I lit the scene with a 1K Chimera on a dimmer to emulate the changing density of the film he's watching and a 420 pepper (?) on a dimmer as a subtle rim light.



Wardrobe artist Helen standing in for me at the waterfront. Grey and very gloomy - ugggg...





Our two angles in the theatre scene...



Our last scene on Day 3 in the classroom...



Gaffer Tony and Art Asst/Grip/Actor Jon Garcia catching a moment at the end of the day...

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Tomorrow we start our day shooting some quick shots off a bridge matching with the bridge scene from Day 1. After that we have a big sequence in a living room set and a sequence in a green screen studio..

We also see a shift in crew tomorrow. Angie, my regular gaffer, will be joining me taking over from Tony who's done a great job. We also lose Tad, our art director and Kari our PM to other job commitments. Hopefully we'll also get Steve back, our 1st AD, who been absent battling the flu.

Special thanks to Tony again for all his hard work for the 1st 3 days and Natalie for keeping us all fed!

"A Short Film" Day 1 of 5

Just finished wrapping Day 1 of 5 on "A short film...". For Day 1 I think it went relatively well. All "day 1's" on any production generally are the toughest but I think we faired quite well. We lost a lot of time in the morning due to various reasons but managed to make our day before the sun set. We're battling not enough crew but everyone is hustling as best as they can - I can really use a camera assistant... just someone to slate, man the changing of filters and moving the camera around from setup to setup.

We were shooting outside all day today and had great weather - a rarity for me! The weather was warm and the sun was out, which though nice, left shooting conditions super muddy! I'm going to have my share of gear cleaning once this job is over...

Most of the day we played in bounce receiving a 1200 HMI in the afternoon which played in our 2nd scene.

We shot a mix of DVX100 and Bolex today. Chris and I decided that we'd shoot all our highspeed footage and cut-aways (which are supposed to be different films within the film) on the Bolex. I shot Kodak 7245 EXR 50D mostly at 64 FPS. Chris has had the film stock sitting in his fridge for the last few years which he bought off Ebay - eeek! Since this choice was made late in the game we had no time to test the film which I highly advise you do with old stock if you're in the same situation. Hopefully it turns out alright!

The lighting today was pretty minimal. I used a combination of a 6x6 silver grifflector and hand reflectors for most of the day. I tried to stay within a 2.8/4 split on the DVX and on the long end of the lens.

Here are a few pics... Wish I had more though everything was quite simple...



This was our first major setup of the day. The main character "Chris" played by Matt (I'm not sure his last name) walks down a bridge, climbs over the railing and jumps to what is supposed to be a giant canyon. We cheated the angles to hide the fact that it was only a 10ft drop. You can see the 6x6 bounce lighting him from the side. The sky held quite well today. I'm carrying an ND 0.6 and ND 1.2 SE grads to help when I need it. That's producer Dan Mayberry standing in to support the 6x6 and Matt waiting for his cue on the ledge.



This was our 2nd major setup we shot after lunch. The scene is a continuation of the jumping off the bridge. "Chris" jumps off and lands in a big pile of papers which represent all the failed film ideas he's had. For the jumping part I rigged a high hat on a ladder shooting down. The scene was lit with a 6x6 bounce again with the 1200 HMI coming in as the sun washing over his face for one part. We shot a pass on the Bolex at 64 FPS, also, as he fell.



This was part of the same scene. After Chris falls he sits up and addresses the audience. We cheated the camera the other way because of background. I set up a 3x3 frame with Light Grid just to avoid what I like to call "squinty-mcgee" syndrome - that horrible thing when actors squint because of the sun. I also used some mirror silver bounce to add some backlight. I played a Schneider Black Frost 1/4 for this entire sequence. That's real director Chris Pare (in red) directing Matt playing Chris.

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Tomorrow we're outside again shooting a musical sequence, a romance sequence and a few smaller inserts. Hope the weather holds out!

"A Short Film"

I start production tomorrow on a short film directed by Chris Pare (www.plywoodcutouts.com). The film is actually called "A Short Film by Chris Pare". It's about a 10-12 minute comedy exploring the pitfalls and cliche's of making short films, in particular student short films. The film has a variety of sequences in various genres and should be interesting to shoot. The production is shooting for 5 days and we wrap on Tuesday.

We're shooting on a Panasonic DVX100A with a couple of sequences possibly on a Bolex. My equipment package is as follows (minus the odd thing here and there):

Camera
- DVX100A
- Petroff 4x5 mattebox
- Follow focus
- 4x4 ND solids complete (3/6/9)
- 4x4 ND SE grads (6/12)
- 4x4 Classic Sunset
- 4x4 Polarizer
- 4x4 1/8, 1/4 Black frosts
- 4x4 Coral 1/4, 1/2, 1, 2
- Tall legs
- Baby legs
- Manfrotto 503 fluid head
- 100mm bowl hi-hat
- Manfrotto Fig Rig
- 9" Director's monitor

Lighting/Grip
- (1) 1200 HMI Fresnel
- (1) 4' 4bank Kino Flo
- (1) 2' 4bank Kino Flo
- (2) 2' 2bank Kino Flo
- (3) 1K Fresnels
- (1) 1K Red-head
- (4) Arri 300's
- (2) Arri 150's
- (1) Lowell Pro light c/w battery belt
- (12) 50' AC
- (12) 25' AC
- (3) 1K hand dimmers
- (1) China ball fixture
- (1) 24x32 small Chimera
- (1) 3K Honda genny

- (8) C-stands
- (5) 750 stands
- (2) Sky-hi's
- (5) Cardellini
- (5) Mafers
- (2) Magic arms
- (2) 750 Base plates
- (4) Each Full/Half/Quarter Apple boxes
- (1) Box pancakes
- (1) Box wedges
- (4) Each 24x32 Flags/Single/Double/Silks
- (4) 18x24 Flags
- (1) 6x6 frame
- (1) 6x6 Silk
- (1) 6x6 Silver bounce
- (1) 3x3 Lite grid

Most of the gear is coming from Sheridan College with the remaining amount of stuff from my own shop. Most of the camera accessories are from Image Gear.

I'll try to take as many behind the scenes photographs to post as possible. The shooting schedule doesn't seem too crazy so I should be able to. On the other hand we're also under crewed a little so it might get tough.

Fig Training

So I started Fig Rig training today. I go to camera on this short film starting this Friday and the director purchased a Fig Rig and wants me to use it for some of the shots. I've played around with it briefly before but have never used it on a job. It's a unique kind of product designed by Mike Figgis and manufactured by Manfrotto. The thing looks like a big school bus steering wheel. The principle is that the camera is more isolated from your body movement and that you can acheive "steadicam" like shots. I'm somewhat skeptical but I also know how to take equipment for what it is. So with that in mind it should yield decent results...for what it is. I just have to get practicing because I only have a couple of days until we shoot!

The film is being directed by Chris Pare. You can check out some work him and his collective have done at Plywood Cutout Productions.

Humber College "Foley" Shoot

Just finished shooting a 30 sec spot promoting the Humber Film and TV production program. The spot was directed by my friend Mike McLeod. The entire spot is set up as one shot (minus an ending product type shot). The idea is we start up really close in on a guys eyes and we hear all these sounds. He gets more scared as the sounds escalate. Eventually he gets up, runs out, only to reveal that we're in a foley studio stage.

I keyed him with a 1K Chimera hanging on a goalpost setup with a 2' kino tube as eyelight. The spill from the Chimera also keyed the background foley artists who were also sidelit with a 2K with brushed silk on it. A 1K fresnel with Full Blue on it gave some background color. A 4ft 4bank Kino Flo was used off to the side to key the guy running off camera.

We shot on an HVX200 in 720 24P mode. The dolly is a Chapman Peewee which production kindly secured for me.

Thanks to the camera and lighting team for a good job - especially Harry Ycaza on dolly who really had to yank that thing quickly.

Here's a couple of pictures - took a few more candids with my Lomo on B&W Ilford which I'll post once they're processed.


The setup. You can see the goalpost setup and the 1K Chimera overhead.


Me taking a reading to see the stop difference. With video I'll still sometimes use a meter to check contrast in various areas.
Gaffer Angelica Bailey looking on.


Angie and 1st AC James O'Bryan - two of my favourite people. You can see the Kino tube as eyelight rigged to the camera. I wrapped some ND 3 gel around twice to take it down.

New Film Stock

Just bought these 3 film stocks to try:

- Ilford Delta 400 B&W
- Kodak Ultra Color 400
- Fuji Superia X-tra 400

Doing a shoot over the next few days and will be trying them out along with a roll of Fuji Sensia slide film to cross process.

First Lomo Roll

So I got my first roll back taken with my new Lomo LCA+. I have mixed opinions about it and it's raising interesting questions in mind about what an image really is. That was the whole point of getting the camera in the first place. As an imagemaker I'm really trying to answer the question: "What makes an image?"

All the images posted below were processed at Black's Photography and are the images coming off digital files on a DVD. There has been no correction besides resizing. I also had proofs made. I'm not so pysched about the proofs but the digital files look a little better or at least have some "character" (i know that's such a lofty statement).

Like I said above I'm really starting to ask myself questions about the nature of images. Why do I feel mixed about the results? What if I took it to a different lab? What would different film stock do? What if I printed glossy over matte? Even things like printing with borders or not or the size of an image can have a very drastic influence on the perception of an image.

Does any of this even matter?

I'm definitely just at the beginning of exploring these questions...

The one thing I have to say is that operationally the camera is the best I've had with a point and shoot camera. The lens is the fastest I've worked with. Where I would normally expect the camera to hold its shutter open long to take in enough light, forcing you to really hold it steady to avoid motion blur, the LCA clicks open and shuts quick - and I shot in some pretty dim areas. The focus I'm getting used to also. Instead of an auto focus function the LCA has 4 focus settings - 0.8m, 1.5m, 3m and infinity which you toggle on the side depending on your shot. It's quick and the camera doesn't lag to find focus like most P&S cameras. You just have to remember to set it!

More to come...

Projects, Projects, Projects...

Gearing up to shoot a few projects in the next few weeks. The first batch is 2 commercial spots promoting the film and tv production program at Humber College (where I'm graduating out of in April). I'm shooting on an HVX200 at 720. Both spots play off the idea of taking an ordinary (even boring) situation and exagerrating the reality that surround them. The one spot is going to be especially exciting to work on - we're referencing Raiders of the Lost Ark.

I'm also gearing up to do a short at the end of March. It's a unique script with a variety of different genres mixed into it - which should keep things interesting and fresh for the visuals. More to come.

New Camera!

So after a couple of weeks of waiting for backorders to be filled I finally received my Lomo LCA+. It's a 35mm still camera and is based on the original LCA that was produced out of Russia. Lomo has created a whole sub-culture of lomo photographers or "lomographers" and they produce a whole line of wacky and unique cameras with equally wacky and unique images. If you're interested you can check out more information at http://www.lomography.com. I ordered the LCA+ deluxe package.

The camera is pretty cool right down to the packaging it comes in - it's definitely something different and that's how Lomo perceives itself - something different. The wording in the manual is plain, the packaging has a homemade quality, and even the two rolls of free film they send you is covered in bright colorful eyepopping images. I'm still not sure if it's brilliant marketing or cult-like creepyness?

Eitherway the proof will be in the images. For my first roll of film I've decided to play it as straight forward as possible to see what the camera is capable of. A lot of "lomographer" examples that are present on the web tend to be cross processed slide film, pushed/pulled negative, used with strange coloured flash techniques (via their colorsplash unit - which I also received) which instantly gives images an "edge". Right now I'm more interested in what the camera can do in the most simple setup. I loaded the camera with a roll of Kodak Max 400, a very common film, and have set the built in light meter to rate the film at 400 ASA. I'm planning on taking it to a local Black's photography to have it processed with no correction and see what happens. I should have the roll finished within the week.