35mm - Day 2 - Jibbing (Go Big or Go Home)

Call Time - 12:30pm - Dark
     After a long first day of shooting day 2 panned out like this - 2 locations (rowing docks and mt. bonnell), all jib shots, and hazardous locations for the camera.
     The first location was on the rowing docks down by Zilker Park in Austin, Tx.  The shots required 2 jib setups with the jib on the floating docks with a 6 ft arm.  When setting up a jib on an awkward terrain, you have to take into account the weight of the entire setup, the feasibility of leveling the system, and operating room.  

D.P. Kate Steinhebel

Kyle Mahler on the jib

     On the dock we encountered several problems - First, docks float and putting weight in places that aren't in the center cause the dock to sink on that side,  Wakes from passing boats along with movement on the dock result in camera shake, Finally there is the aspect of water surrounding a limited work area and camera and operator safety.  After a slow start, we worked out the issues as best we could and only had to hold on boat wakes a couple of times.  
     As Assistant Camera my challenges for this location were securing the camera transport to/around the dock, supplying monitor support to the director on a sunny day, and measuring/pulling focus.

Me, D.P. Kate, and Director Kate Phillips

     Camera transport, as is the usual, required making sure steps and keeping myself between the camera and the water.  Breaking out the Panavision accessories solved the rest of my problems.  For the monitor I used the monitor hood included with it and ran longer cables than usual to the director (since we didn't set up a video village).  To measure the focal distance from one dock to another with water in between I decided to throw a rope across to the other dock and then measure how long the rope was - this way I could make sure most of the guess work was out of the equation.  Finally for pulling focus I attached a Whip to the focus ring so that I could stand out of the way of the jibbing action.
     The second location for the day was at the top of Mt. Bonnell at sunset.  Again we used the jib.  Around 200 lbs of weight along with camera/lenses, jib, and tripod head had to be hiked up to the location.  The jib had to be leveled and sandbagged on rocky/uneven terrain and the camera carefully hiked in. 

     The first shot was mostly a static shot on the 150mm f/2 Ultra Speed MKII lens.  Luckily for me the shot was not designed to push in or out because after consulting the Depth of Field Charts, my DoF for the setup (150mm lens at f/2.0 with the subject 13ft away) was just slightly more than 3 inches. 

      The day's martini shot was definitely one to end on.  Shooting on a 35mm f/1.4 Primo lens we jibed the camera into the actor walking towards a slight camera left, then at the actor's 2nd mark he turned to his right and stepped on top of a rock for his 3rd mark as the camera paned left to follow him while pulling out to the final frame.  Because the jib arm was moving from a 9 o'clock position to an 11 o'clock position while the camera panned left, the jib arm got in Kate's way about half way through the shot and left her unable to look through the diopter.  To solve this problem she had to operate on monitor and I had to once again use the Whip to pull focus.

D.P. and A.C. on top of Mt. Bonnell

  From here it was time to hike out at dark, box up the camera, and get ready to roll out to a ranch in North Texas the following morning.