SXSW Bumpers / Phantom

Back in February I was asked to help out on a few shorts for South By Southwest that will play before screenings during the film festival during spring break.  Little did I know that I'd have a chance to work with a version of the Phantom.
     After the first day of filming on a couple Canon 7Ds, things began to slow down - no really, not just because the second day had us shooting at 600 fps.  The sequence was a mob scene full of colorful extras in costume and money falling from the sky as they chased a thief down the downtown streets of Austin. 

Half the Rig - couldn't fit the computer in even though the camera is SO tiny

PHANTOM (hey everybody, look at my massive heatsink!)

The whole setup - sorry about the quality

     A quick rundown of the Phantom - The camera is entirely opperated by a separate laptop running software that controls the fps, recording start/stop, clip duration, and a variety of other things.  The ISO on the camera is locked in (I believe it was at 600).  After choosing your fps, the program tells you your maximum clip duration (somewhere between 4s-8s depending on how many frames you're shooting).  The bulk of the recorded file is saved to the camera after each take and you have an option to review a rough rendering of the clip (around 200fps view played back at 24) before either Dumping the take or saving it.  Once you save a take, there's about 15min of downtime on top of the 5 or so min it takes to review the mostly un-rendered clip (it's worse than waiting for the RED to power up).  So after the data travels from the camera, through a CAT-5 cable, to the laptop, you're good for another go.  The mount on the Phantom (we were using) was a Nikon F-mount.  The top of the camera is almost completely open to vent the heat and an extremity of cables are flowing out of the back to various locations.  
     Enough complaining about the Time it takes to shoot on this thing.  The Footage is INCREDIBLE!  All the moving equipment to set up for a different angle, wrangling cables, resetting of extras - ITS WORTH IT! 

Top Down: Power, CAT-5 adapter, BnC for Monitor

I'll try and get a link for the footage we shot posted soon so you can see what i'm talking about. 

My Dolly makes a Cameo

     My take aways from working with the Phantom is just the continued emphasis on preparation.  You can get some incredible shots with this tool that will blow your mind, but unless you adequately prepare and know what you're trying to get out of it, you won't be happy with the results (or maybe you will). 
     Anyway, hope this one was intresting - now back to work on my thesis.  We're going for broke and shooting 35mm!  

+john

Catching Up

     So it's been a while since my last entry for various reasons - mostly this thesis film I'm working on with the help of some talented colleges called "Belief".  I'll try to wrap up the last month in short but significant fashion and get to the moment at hand.

The Jib and Dolly being setup

      The last day couple days in North Texas were an adventure to be had as AC.  After a brief walk through of the shots, the DP Kate Steinhebel was put on the disabled list after an incident involving a tree limb cut her non-shooting eye.  The hazards of the Texas brush revealed themselves once again as the limb she was clearing from the camera splintered resulting in a piece of bark inflicting a half inch cut across the white of her left eye.  In a valiant effort, Kate finished shooting the scene before heading to the hospital during a company move across the ranch.  Because the shots were storyboarded and we were adequitly prepared, we were able to set up and film a couple shots in her absence.  Kate's diligance and drive to continue the shoot paid off when she was greeted back from the hospital with the 35mm Panivision GII mounted on a jib/dolly combo set up for the final shot of that location.

Trashbags, sleet, cold, jib, and wet filters

      The final day of the spec shoot was set to wrap out with the closing shot of the jeep commercial.  Two young adventurers drop the top on a Jeep and drive out down a dusty road.  The catch was that when we woke up, it was freezing outside, overcast, and sleeting.  Visual compensations for the weather elements aside, my duties as AC were to be challenging.  Without dexterous gloves, I worked with frigid hands to keep the camera dry, its body warm, and the matte box filter clean.  The one accessory Panavision did not include was something to protect the electronics from the sleet so we used the old plastic trash bag gag to keep the camera dry.  Easily enough, the GII has built in features not only to defog the diopter, but to warm the camera's body - something that needed to be done between nearly every take.  Finally the last challenge was to clear the melted sleet and water droplets from the mattebox filter.  The camera was pointed into the oncoming percipitation for the shot and was happy to collect water droplets.  First thoughts were to use a lens cloth to dry the filter, but after evaluating the situation and the onslaught of sleet I opted to use a duster instead.  Using a lens cloth would have left smudges across the filter, made more work for me trying to eliminate them, and possibly ruined the image.  By using the hand duster and using the surface tension of the water droplets to my advantage, I was able to easily move the droplets out of the lens' field of view without smudging the filter.

"Magpie" - Mark!

Dolly and TV Rig

     The next shoot came around after one day of down time.  A UT Graduate student and friend, Russ Bush, was filming his thesis film ("Magpie") on the RED.  Once again, I assumed the position of Assistant Camera - this time for Director of Photography, Allen Ho (also a UT graduate student and former teaching assistant to my Cinematography class instructed by Deb Lewis).  This was my first time to AC on a RED shoot but the learning curve was easy.  Navigating through the menus (as with all digital cameras) is the hardest part and the first thing I focused on - Find the basic settings/options you'll be working with most often and go from there.

John and Carlos with his Mirror Magic*

     From here I'm just going to hit a couple highlights of the 6 day shoot.  One shot was a slow push in on the dad watching tv.  Russ wanted him to be able to watch what was playing on the TV while we did the take to get better reactions from him.  A hand full of gobo arms and the ingenuity of gaffer/badass (Carlos Boillat) later, a rig was fashioned to the dolly that held a laptop directly above the camera.  In another instance, Carlos fashioned a mirror rig on a c-stand for an overhead shot of the dad laying in a bed (trying to keep this short so I won't go into detail on the design of the shot). Then, just for fun, why not put the RED on top of Russ' Suburban to get a magic hour wide shot of the house?

RED on Suburban/John, Allen, and Carlos

Allen - Covert Camera Op

     Finally (skipping a lot of interesting things here) to the biggest adventure.  After a 12+ hour day of shooting, the crew wrapped (minus Russ, Allen, the lead Actor Dan, and I) but there was one more sequence to shoot.  The plan was after a short break for the next day's scheduling we would head to the bus stop, catch a bus and shoot a scene guerrilla style on the bus.  At 11:25 we hopped in Russ' Suburban with the RED stripped down and packed into a suitcase and headed out to catch the 2nd to last bus of the night at 11:37.  5 blocks or so down the road (halfway to the bus stop) the Suburban stalls at a red light - we're out of gas.  The night's drizzle turned into more of a steady rain (of course it would).  Russ directs Allen and Dan to stay with the suburban after we pushed it across the intersection and that me and him are going to run back, get my car, grab a can of gas, and make the last bus at 12:05.  Suddenly I'm sprinting behind a former college cross country runner, in the rain, at night, wearing the worst running shoes possible.  Skipping ahead, we just make the bus.  The character's on board aren't the roughest looking crowd but they're close to it and my job is to get the RED out of the suitcase and ready to roll without anyone noticing.

Yes, It fits in a Suitcase...

     12:45am: hour 15.5ish of the film-making day - we get off the bus with the shots we needed 20 miles up the road, yellow cab's line is busy and nobody is answering their phones.  It's drizzling, we're alone at a bus stop in the middle of the night with a $30K set up in a suitcase - of course we review the footage while we wait on the cab to get there.  2am - Success! the footage is downloaded and I'm leaving set - What A Day!
     Still to come - SXSW bumper series, Phantom Camera, and "Belief" (my thesis project)






+john

35mm - Day 3 - Travel and North Texas Sunset

Call - 6am
     The third day of shooting was more of a travel day with a magic hour shot at the end of it all.  We headed out of Austin towards Henrietta, Tx with a loaded equipment truck and numerous cups of coffee.  After arriving at the cabin we were staying in, we all loaded up into a jeep to go on a safari style location scout for the places we'd be shooting at in the next couple days.
   The only shot slated for the day was a sunset shot of an actor on horseback riding up towards the camera, stopping and staring into the distance.  Simple enough, so we put the Panavision GII on high sticks, set some marks, took a meter reading and were good to go.  But wait! (and there's always something that you have to do before you roll) I had to get a measurement of the focal distance. 
     If you've ever worked with or been around horses you know that they don't like fast movements or strange things around them especially when they make weird noises (like a tape measure).  So after avoiding that mishap with the actor/horse, I took a quick measurement to the mark they were supposed to hit - compensated for the added height of the actor on the horse and was ready to roll.
   Here I'd like to make note of some more Panavision accessories that became useful.  The on-board camera light worked beautifully to illuminate the f/stop and distance marks on the lens and as a nice light to reference AC Bible - American Cinematographer Manual.  Once again shooting in low(ish) light with an 85 filter to correct our Kodak Vision 3 500T film to daylight, we were shooting at an f/2.  It's always comforting to know just how much DoF you have when shooting film so a quick glance at the Depth of Field charts let me know that I had a good 3ft of acceptable focus when the mark was 15 feet away.  This was a nice cushion to have since there was very little chance the horse would actually hit his mark.

      This is the best chart I could find off hand, but basically to read it you look at the following.  Look at you f/stop, lets say f/2.  Then find your focal distance, 14 ft.  So then what it says is that your Acceptable focus on a 35mm lens at f/2 at 14 feet is from 12.7 feet to 15.6ft - around 3 feet depth of field.  Of course you want everything to hit the marks, but this tells you your wiggle room or how focal depth will play out on the processed film (for stylistic choices).  There is also a Hyperfocal distance (which this chart did not include) but the Hyperfocal distance tells you that from half of that distance to infinity will be in focus.  Just throwing that in there (without getting into circles of confusion etc which is a good discussion to have - so maybe someday..).
   

 +john

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.

35mm - 3 Specs 5 Shooting Days - Day 1

Call time: 6:30am - 12am
     My first 35mm shoot, need I say more... Going into Day 1 I was a little intimidated being 2nd Assistant Camera on a 35mm production.  Basically that means my job is Loading/Downloading the film from the mags, cleaning/readying the lenses, and slating/taking notes.  Well, Surprise! I was suddenly made 1st AC without a 2nd AC adding to my duties building the Panavision  GII Super 35 camera, pulling focus/giving the actors marks, and everything else that comes along with being the right hand man to the Director of Photography (the wonderful Kate Steinhebel).  So after a crash course on building the Panavision GII the night before we roll for an 18 hour day, I was set to go.
     Put the first shot of my 35mm production days on a jib at sunrise and BOOM welcome to filmmaking.  Our Camera setup was a follows:
Panavision GII Super 35mm Camera with Monitor assist.  Three Perf Kodak Vision 3 200T 5217 and Kodak Vision 3 500T 5260 suited for 500' and 1000' magazines respectively.  Panavison Primo Primes Set. A ridiculous O'Conner tripod head (weighs around 30 lbs. on its own) fitted for a high hat, short sticks, tall sticks, and a 6' to 10' jib.  I'm sure there's more, but that's the gist of it for camera. 
     The first day went smoothly at a moderate pace that I can't complain about since I was still learning the ins and outs of the camera and working as Kate's AC for the first time.  But after day 1 of the shoot I've already learned a lot of pretty cool/new stuff.
     Loading the Panavision camera is simple but it's not a walk in the park.  For starters, the film magazine has one compartment for both the unexposed and exposed film.  This was the first time I've loaded such a mag.  All of my other loading experience has been on the CP-16 (16mm camera) and the Arri SR and SRII (16mm cameras) which both have separate compartments for the film.  Basically what this means is that all of the loading you have to do in the changing bag is to get the film from the can into the mag and feed it out once - the rest (take up side and threading) can be done in the light.  So the Panavision Mags with one compartment make you do double the work blind (in the changing bag) - put the film in the mag, thread it out, thread it in, and attach it to the take up core.

     After the loading, threading the Panavision camera is the fun part.  It threads much like the CP-16 camera but you have options of attaching the magazine to the top of the camera or the back.  The process requires a series of fliping rollers up and down, attaching the film to sprockets, and of course making the right sized loops above and below the pressure plate.  Luckily, unlike the CP-16, the 35mm film is much larger and you can use your hands to move the film into place instead of your pinky fingers.
     So to wrap up, I think we've all taken the simplicity of building and loading Arri film cameras for granted.  I'm not saying I'm not in love with the GII, but the Germans make a damn fine camera.  Tomorrow I will go more in depth in the camera discussion and talk about accessories for the Panavision GII Super 35mm Camera.  Until then I'll leave you with the Panavision slogan - Panavision, Safety locks and Accessories for Everything.

Gear Up for the New Year

     After the chaos of last semester's shoots (which inspired me to start this blog) my gear was scattered everywhere - around the apartment, in the car, boxes, bags, you name it.  So I decided the best way to start this year was to gather and inventory everything into coherent list.  Since tomorrow will be my first shoot of the year where I will be working as 2nd assistant camera, here is my AC kit: