Wed - August 13, 2003
Look ma, I'm on the internet!!
For a long time I've wanted to have a way of
documenting the projects I work on, the difficulties and successes of those
projects, and a general account of what I did over the course of the year.
Well, this blog is going to be just that. I'll try to be as accurate as memory
will allow and I'll try to be kind to those whose names make it into this
journal. At first, I'm only going to document my projects, but that might
change in time. So if anyone actually reads this, enjoy.
What's going on with me.
posted at\\: 10:15 PM e: @
Thu - August 14, 2003
Time Warner Cable - "iControl" - Informational Spots
Information loop
I've got a job for Time Warner Cable to shoot a
series of informational loops that will air on their iControl channel. We're
gonna shoot at the Gear
Monkey stage in Orange, CA. On this shoot
we're using the
Panasonic
SDX900 camera.
posted at\\: 12:41 PM e: @
Circles of Life - location scout
Concert at the
Galaxy
Today we had a chance to look at the venue - the
Galaxy Theater in Costa Mesa, CA. Oh, boy, is this gonna be hard. We've got a
job to make that place special and grandiose. I've got some ideas and Ken (Art
Director) has some ideas - but, I think our ideas are bigger than the location,
the budget and the available crew.
posted at\\: 12:43 PM e: @
Fri - August 15, 2003
Music video: Isaac Romelle (R&B) & Virgil (Rock)
Weekend of fun...
This weekend I'm shooting a pair of music videos
for artist Isaac Romelle and the band Virgil. The shoot for the Romelle video
is being shot at Cal State Northridge. The Dragon Fly on Sunset is the location
for the Virgil video. I'll post photos as soon as after the weekend. The
director of the videos is Merrilee Burke.
posted at\\: 11:23 AM e: @
Circles of Life - Concert at the Galaxy
Technocrane for the
shoot?
Panavision (Woodland Hills) offered some very
tempting rates for the Technocrane. We're looking into the possibility of using
it for this shoot. The producers and I have a budgetary meeting Monday
afternoon to consider our options. And it looks like
ELS
(Entertainment Lighting Services of North Hollywood) will be our vendor for our
supplemental lighting needs, i.e. moving yoke/mirror, hazer, color changers,
etc.
posted at\\: 12:43 PM e: @
Music video - Isaac Romelle - "Don't Trip" - R&B
Geared up and ready to
go
Today Merrilee (director of the two music videos
I'm shooting this weekend) and I when to Alan Gordon to pick-up the Intel-A-Jib. A 5'
jib with a 2-axis head for lighter cameras. I'm gonna play with it this evening
to get comfortable with the controls. If all else goes well it should make for
some nice shots.
posted at\\: 05:52 PM e: @
Sun - August 17, 2003
Principle Photography / Day 1 of 1 - Isaac Romelle
• Artist: Isaac Romelle -
"Don't Trip" - R&B •
Tonight director Merrilee Burke and I shot the
"Don't Trip" music video for artist Isaac Romelle, and by far and away, the
shortest day I've ever had on a music video. We arrived at Cal State Northridge
at 7PM and started setting up. The gear consisted of Panasonic DVX100 (Thank
you, Aaron), a 2500W genie from Home Depot, a jib with a 2-axis head, and
whatever lights I could dig up from the studio. The biggest job was the jib -
balancing, securing the cables and getting power to it for the eye-light and
camera AC.
The jib we got is an
Intel-a-jib, unfortunately not an intelligent jib. Overall, it's a good idea
except for the single switch that reverses the joystick control for pan and tilt
direction. Normally, both the pan and tilt have reverse direction
switches - this only had one. What's the big deal you ask? Well, when the pan
was OK, the tilt was backwards for me and when the tilt was OK, the pan was
backwards for me. We lost so much time on poor camera shots while I struggled
to work with the dang controller. It would have taken too long to explain it to
the director, so we marched ever onward.
(UPDATE:
I recently got an email from the makers of the Intel-A-Jib pointing out that
they do not make the remote head controller. Fair enough. Then a word to the
wise, make sure you're comfortable with the remote head you get when renting
from whatever vendor you go to.)
Then
we had to move the jib, which was a chore - it must have weighed at least
85-awkward-pounds.
(UPDATE:
Again a message from the makers of the jib who have issues with my claim of 85
lbs. True the jib itself does not weigh 85 lbs - by their specifications it
weighs 65 lbs - but when you build it and you have the camera, a monitor, the
head and the heavy-duty tripod to support it all, it clearly weighs quite a bit
to be sure. As to my use of the word "awkward", let's face it when you have to
move a jib that doesn't have wheeled support it is awkward, period.)
Not a big deal when Merrilee's friend
was there, but after he left... well, let's just say I muscled my way somehow.
The crew? Well, only the director and myself really. No crew... again.
(Someone shoot me until I learn!) For some strange reason everyone I know wants
to get paid! Go figure.
The lighting was
shamefully simple. Merrilee wanted to work with the use of car-lights as
background elements and as lighting units. It worked for the most part. I used
paper tape to control the intensity of the car-light. The key light was a
single source from a 750W open-face broad light generally placed about 3/4
front, 30° height, with Lee 216 clipped to the barn doors. Overall it
looked very nice. After the wide-shots were done, we moved onto the medium,
then close ups of the singer.
After the
close-ups, the night was done shortly after mid-night. It took an hour and a
half to break down everything and put it away. I ended up being the last man
standing. The drive home was nice - it'll be nicer still after I move to North
Hollywood.
posted at\\: 02:53 AM e: @
Principle Photography / Day 1 of 1 - Virgil
• Artist: Virgil - "Got You
Where I Want You" - Rock •
The start of the day began with, "Oh, my back
hurts." Moving the jib around and loading and unloading the gear did a number
on my back. Can't stop now, two aspirins and off I go, got to get to L.A. I
arrive at the Dragonfly five minutes after call time (noon) only two folks where
there and neither had keys to the club. (Note: When dealing with club
employees, always set their call time at least a half-hour earlier than you need
them. They're always late.) We started setting up the jib outside the club and
it was finished by the time someone arrived with keys. After everything was
moved inside that's when the real work started… I placed the jib, secured
the eye-light, set up the monitor, focused the par cans, set the lighting
levels, tried to figure out the lighting board, set up a couple of accent lights
behind the equipment, ran power to the set and made sure none of the equipment
got lost or misplaced... I knew the job was dangerous when I took it, but this
further strengthens my resolve about free work and making sure a
qualified crew is available on all subsequent shoots.
The jib's funky pan/tilt control was
still an issue. I must not be the first to complain about the controller. When
I dropped off the jib, the guy who checked it in mentioned they've already been
discussing modifications to the control to make it user friendly. My feel
slightly vindicated, but not by much. This jib renewed my admiration for my jib
and crane operators… Tracy, Scott and Dave, my hat's off to you!!
The lighting was more of a happy
accident. We mostly used the stage lights by focusing a dozen or so PAR 64s,
and they had three Martin moving mirrors. If there was any time at all, it
would have been nice to program the mirrors, but that was prohibitive and so we
used a pre-programmed strobe sequence that I thought worked very nice,
especially during a close-up of the opening verse. Besides that two broads
lights with Congo blue were placed to accent the speakers and back wall. I
placed an eye-light on the end of the jib but if we had more time, I would have
like to have rigged a better placement for it. The photos at the bottom don't
do it justice.
The shoot went well
enough, but short. I thought we had to be out by 8:00 p.m. but it turns out we
needed to be out by 6:30 - in all, a seven hour day. From what I remember, we
got some great moments from the lead singer. He's got a strong presence. The
band looked good also - some were more image conscience than others, but I think
in the final edit, they all will have a chance to
shine.
An unfortunate thing happened on
the last shot. The video will likely open in full frame of an iron, Spanish
chandelier hanging from the back of the room, then boom down to reveal the band.
The hope was to bookend the video with the last shot finishing on the
chandelier. Well, on the last shot, the cable that controls the head got
snagged on and when I moved to reset, it snapped from the connector. It was
unfortunate that cooler heads didn't prevail. We could have done it with the
head locked into position - but instead it was decided to shoot the balance of
the song hand-held and then call it a
day.
The weekend had its share of
problems and disappointments, but also successes and contentment and I'm
convinced that the two videos will turn out great.
posted at\\: 12:43 PM e: @
Wed - August 20, 2003
Circles of Life - Concert at the Galaxy
Final revisions?
Well the Technocrane is out. Which in someways is
good. It would be a nice toy to play with but I'd rather have my crane operator
have some work. The final lighting ideas will be presented to the client
tomorrow afternoon. I'm considering a just using the moving yoke lights and
some PARs on above the star field backing and some LED Ringlite from Fisher
Lighting. I think they'll be look good and not often used this way. I'll need
to see if we can set up a dimmer control from a Edison connection to DMX. I'll
put sketches later.
posted at\\: 12:44 PM e: @
Thu - August 21, 2003
Time Warner Cable - "iControl" - Informational Spots
Budget approved
So, the budget was approved and now, we're into
step two - pre-production. Two of the four scripts are finished and the final
scripts should be available by the end of next week. I'll be visiting
Moviola
next week to create a "looks" set-up for the commercial. It'll be nice to put
my SD cards to good use.
It seems the
engineer at Time Warner recently got a portable waveform monitor and
vectorscope. I'll be using that on set which will be a very nice addition.
I'll post photographs and my set-up files after principle
photography.
posted at\\: 12:42 PM e: @
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