The Big Think

The agony of Rotoscoping. Pretty cool little film about the process.

The Periodic Table of Videos. Cool.

Tron 2 (or TR2N) trailer.

It’s only online for a few more days, so don’t miss Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog. Just brilliant, and one of those things that makes me green with envy.

As many of you know, Erin and I got to spend last week up in Colorado. I had been hired to go shoot another video by a camp that hosts military soldiers and their families. Three years ago we went up to the very same camp and made the first video. They were so appreciative of the first vid that they wanted me to go and update it, so off we went again. For a whole week I shot footage around the camp (6 hours), conducted lots of interviews (8 hours), ate great food, and got to know the “other 1%”: the soldiers who make up our military (Army, in this case). They told some incredible stories. I had my perspective rocked quite a bit three years ago and worked really hard to make sure that their stories and their appreciation for the donors got through in the video. Through the whole process I have felt like all of my skills have been engaged. Technical: filmmaking, audio, lighting, framing, etc, and interpersonal: interviewing, getting to know people, keeping the “customer” happy, trust on camera, etc. I’ve felt completely “used up” and stretched to my limits while I strove very hard to put out something that would be high quality and hopefully have an impact.

Mission accomplished. I just found out that the people responsible for getting funding for the camp were able to use my video to raise half a million dollars for subsequent camps. This money has been used so that hundreds of families could come to camp together and reconnect after their soldier-parents had been overseas serving for one, two, or even four different deployments (up to 15 months per deployment). Seeing the appreciation on the families faces and knowing that I had a small part in that has probably been one of the most satisfying things I have ever done.

I’m definitely not taking credit for it, though. There were a few other key people who spent those three intervening years traveling around, talking to donors, interfacing with the military machine, and generally making it work, and they’re the real reason that the camp continues to this day. But I’m proud of the small part I was able to play and happy that I got to go back. It’s not often that we get to see the fruits of our labor used in such an obvious and meaningful way and I’m grateful to have seen first-hand the effect that my work had on these wonderful families.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog!

How to make a DIY Chroma Key screen.

So, I got the gig! Erin and I will be traveling back up to Trail West in Colorado to spend another week with members of the military. I’ve been hired to shoot a short (6-8 minute) documentary/thank you to show the donors. They used the last version I did three years ago to raise $250,000 so more military soldiers and their families could enjoy a week of vacation (something, sadly, that few of them had ever had). They were pleased with the video last time and want to make a new one.

So I’m in the process of gathering the equipment that I’ll need for the project, as well as planning shots and talking to the folks up at the ranch. I’m using part of the pay from the gig to continue purchasing equipment. For a longer project like this (we’ll be gone for 12 days), the gear rental is approximately 1/4 the cost of buying new, and I’m starting to do more of these things. So instead of continuing to throw money away on gear rental I’m committing to purchasing my own. I’m getting a good quality CF recorder, an decent 3-light kit for interviewing, a C-stand, and a couple of other small things. Unfortunately, I have to rent an anamorphic adapter for the camera I’m using (the DVX-100), and that will cost a bit for the 12 day rental, but as I have no need for it long term, it’s not worth spending the $1000 to buy the thing for one gig. Yes, a thousand dollars for a lens adapter. Sheesh. Just renting it will cost me almost three hundred. Ouch.

We are SO looking forward to this. The only downside is that they have to put us up in a hotel a couple of miles away since the camp is so full. But we’ll be there from sun-up until after sundown so it’ll feel like we’re staying at the camp- we’ll just be sleeping somewhere else. And this means that one more military family can go (we won’t be taking their spot), so that’s a very good thing.

Got an email tonight that’s got me all atwitter. It looks like I’ve been hired to do another major documentary project that will require some travel. I’ll post more in a few days when I have things confirmed (and if we can work out schedules), but I’m really jazzed about it. And the CFO of the company wrote me himself to tell me that he had sent word down to “absolutely use” me. Can’t get much better than that. Truly grateful that I’m able to do what I love so much.

Here is an exhaustive list of the Hollywood fodder coming out this year that will be in that newfangled 3D. Haven’t we already tried this? I don’t want so sound like an old codger, but the prospect of getting a headache with my movie (and motion sickness, to boot), isn’t going to convince me to part with my money.

Now that my body has recovered a bit from the abuse of two consecutive all-nighters, I figured I’d post a few pictures of the gig. Overall it was a great experience (with the usual occasional snafus here and there). I managed to do my job and get the sound recorded well in the midst of a somewhat challenging schedule. Normally you’re lucky to film 3-5 pages a day but we were on a schedule of 9-10 pages each night. Lots of footage shot and a bunch of camera changes, as well as shooting coverage (where you re-shoot the same scene from several angles), meant that I was constantly futzing with the wireless mic placement. Sometimes I had to wire up an actor and sometimes I had to hid the mics in the scene. If the camera shifted a bit the mics would become visible, so I had to keep constant vigilance over what was going on.

At one point in the night one of the set guys asked me if movie sets are always like this. “Always like what?”, well, with lots of sitting around and waiting. I told him that’s usually the case for a chunk of the crew, but the time passes very fast for me because I’m always doing something- wiring actors, moving mics, looking for shadows, coiling cables, untangling cables, changing batteries, or watching the scene rehearsals to try and figure out where I can put the boom without a) breaking the frame (horror!), b) getting squashed by the camera dolly, c) tripping over the tangle of cables leading to and from the recording rig strapped to my chest, or d) all of the above. It’s a very dynamic and challenging environment to be in. The more I do this, the more amazed I am at how misunderstood sound on the set can be. For instance: do you watch Lost? Did you know that up to 80% of any one episode might be looped? Yes, 80% of what you hear isn’t what was recorded on set. Usually big wide shots or shots in the water or walking through the trees all have to be looped. The closeup stuff is probably audio from the set, but everything else you hear comes from the actor recreating his or her dialog in a studio sometime later.

On this shoot the producers didn’t have the money to loop anything, so it was extra important for me to get clean tracks. This meant that I had to be very careful with mic placement and the final sound of the dialog. Add to this the normal stress of having to get all the shots before the sun comes up, the time it takes to move the camera, blocking and rehearsal, and there’s normally little to no time for the sound guy to place mics. It’s a common thing in the business, unfortunately. What happens is that the director or A/D calls for the next shot (okay, moving on… scene 101), they decide how they are going to shoot it, they move the camera and lights, set up any dolly or special equipment, and rehearse the scene. While they’re rehearsing the scene the director is over at the monitor watching what the picture looks like and making comments (more light… close-in… pull out, etc). It’s basically a camera rehearsal and the only ones in the shot should be the actors. When the director is happy, the A/D gives the command to roll and we start shooting.

Notice anything missing? Yup, the sound department didn’t have time to set the mics. I can only set mics once the rehearsal is done, and that can only happen once the basic blocking is completed and the camera angles are chosen. Unfortunately, once all that is done there is nothing to do BUT shoot the scene, so I usually have to rush in at the last second and place a mic, tape up an actor, or do whatever I need to do without getting in the way. It can be very frustrating and stressful, which is why I spend so much time watching what the evolving shot plan is going to be. If I can see where they’re going with the shot, I can take a good guess at where the camera is going to be and where I should locate my mics, dodge into the frame (hopefully without getting yelled at for being in frame!), place my mics, and then scurry back out. If I’m lucky I’ll only have to do a quick adjustment to something before the director calls ACTION. If I’m unlucky, I might have to call a hold for 3 minutes while I fiddle with something. The other night there were about 15 people dedicated to how the frame looked (lighting, grips, camera, props, continuity, etc), and only one guy (me) dedicated to how it sounded. If I do my job wrong the entire investment is wasted because there’s no sound. Do it right and it doesn’t get noticed because, hey, doesn’t “running sound” just mean holding a pole over your head for ten hours and turning some knobs? Get off the set, we’ve got a tree to light!

So overall, a very fun experience. The producer walked up to me at the end and gave me a very nice compliment, and the DP was a dream to work with. 40ish camera guy with a substantial investment in equipment (I was dodging and plugging into a $100,000 camera all night!). I really liked the directors as well. Hope I get to work with them all again.

Here’s some pics from the other night. Enjoy!

The dreaded noisy generator to power all the lights. It was pretty quiet once we hauled it around to the front of the house.

Grip truck with the camera and lighting stuff

Here’s the set

Cool action shot between takes. I like the way this is blurred with the actress partially in focus. The scenes take place in the 1950’s (hence the dress) in a Biergarten.

Me with my great new Petrol bag and harness. WHAT a difference a good harness makes. Best $99 I’ve spent in a long time. While my shoulders were killing me after the shoot from holding the boom over my head, my back and neck felt fine. I love, love, love this system. Small, light, with a billion places to hang stuff. It was really designed from the ground up for this kind of work. Buzzy in the middle is a key grip who’s been doing movies since 1973 (worked with Steve McQueen), and the great DP, Charlie is on the right. Charlie and his business partner Bobby own Producer’s Choice. We shot the film on his great HD Varicam.

If you look closely at my bag you can see the small repurposed Glidecam monitor I use during a take. I grab a feed from the director’s monitor so I can see what the camera is doing during the shot. This is incredibly valuable as it lets me ride the very edge of the frame without poking into a shot so I get the absolute best sound. If the DP pulls back or tilts up and my boom is there… whoops- busted! If I can’t get a feed from the camera I have to take my best guess and leave a bit of leeway, but it’s easy to get “caught” if the DP does something unexpected and I can’t see a monitor.

If you pay attention during a lot of TV shows it’s easy to catch a boom shadow or even the very tip of a mic poking into the frame. It’s very hard to be 100% clean all the time and I’m proud of the fact that I only had one boom shadow and one frame violation in two days, and we had to reshoot those takes anyway for other reasons.

Action shot. This was about 4 in the morning saturday night. I’ve got a short boom (6-7 feet) in this shot because I’m right next to camera. For a few shots I had to really stretch it out to the full 14 feet because the shot was so wide.

Went for a rehearsal down in Buda for the movie shoot. What a great time! It’s so nice to get a rehearsal and get an idea of what we’re going to be shooting. I’m really grateful to not have to hit the ground running tomorrow night with setups, cameras, and unknown actors/lines. There will be 20 principle actors and 30 extras, a prop dept, an extras wrangler, a continuity person, script supervisor, director, sound dept (me), AD, DP, and even a “greensman” (who I conscripted to trim some trees for me so the boom wouldn’t hit branches). All in all, a very professionally run operation (I even got the first half of my payment- joy!).

After the rehearsal the technical crew sat down for 30 minutes for a full on crew meeting to resolve last minute issues and make sure we’re all on the same page, so to speak. The director, AD, DP, producer, props, and other departments had a final check before we do the double overnight thing.

It’s really going to be a slog but I can’t wait. Everyone seems extremely professional and knowledgeable. I’ll post in a few days.

*UPDATE* I forgot to mention that I got to try out my new AT 4073a microphone tonight. LOVE. It’s a huge improvement over the old ME66 I was using. It was about half the price of the standard workhorse 416’s, but (IMHO), 95% the sound. Just a wonderful mic with an extremely long reach, great rejection, nice air, and lightweight (a good attribute when you’re holding it overhead for a few hours)

About a week ago someone on the film list of which I’m a member posted that they needed a soundamn for a two day shoot. I made the call, met some people, and got the gig. I’m really excited about it and have been prepping the past few days by going to the location, reading the script, studying storyboards, and generally doing the conscientious soundman things. One of the cool things about the gig is that the 16 page script (about 15 minutes) takes place entirely at night. As a result, our shoot starts on Friday night at sunset and goes until sunrise, then repeats the following night. I’m gradually adjusting my sleep time by one hour later each night (not hard to do for me anyway). By Friday I figure I’ll be staying up until 4 or 5 AM and sleeping until noon or 1. When the shoot arrives I’ll be fairly fresh in the middle of the night. I’m looking forward to the challenge. I’m unreasonably excited about this and haven’t the foggiest idea why, except that maybe once we’re all bleary eyed and sleep deprived it’ll feel like a feature film set around day 85. Think of me this weekend.

The other thing that happened this morning is I finally decided that the time was right to invest some more in my audio kit. I’ve been renting a mic and boom pole for several years and decided that I had a good idea what I wanted to own long term, so this morning I took the plunge and purchased a 20 foot breakaway cable, a professional 13 foot carbon fiber boom pole, a shotgun mic, a mount, and the harness system for my audio gear bag. The harness system means I can hang the bag in front of me comfortably instead of draping it off-center over one shoulder. It’ll be MUCH more comfortable long term than the old way.

The gear took some courage to hit the BUY button on, but I’m glad I did it. I’m now the proud owner of a truly professional mic, brand new, who’s history, condition, and provenance I don’t have to question. When you’re the only member of the audio dept, and some director has put the entirety of the audio for their baby on your shoulders, it’s nice to know that you can trust the gear. As good a job as the rental house did of maintaining their gear, I never had that 100% faith. A reputation means never being caught short with a bad mic, or having to apologize and stop production while you go search out another mic, so it’s nice to have this covered. I’m still renting the two wireless systems, though. Those range from $500 to $4000 EACH so it’ll be awhile until I’m ready to commit to buying them.

So now I’ve got a killer little mixer, a stellar mic, a very useful breakaway cable, a light and sturdy boom pole, and a harness system/bag to hold it all, not to mention all the fun little accessories that make life easy on the set. Bring on the work!

Erik Sofge expounds upon the lameness that is current Hollywood “Science Fiction”

What would Homer Simpson look like as a real person? This. Yikes.

Erin and I watched Die Hard 4 tonight (Live Free and Die Hard is the actual name). Pretty fun, if you’re willing to suspend your disbelief by a razor thin thread, then have that thread repeatedly thrashed by very sharp blades. At one point during the film we paused the movie and both burst out laughing because Hollywood had stepped over the line of believability so far. Not only were we calling the major plot points out thirty minutes before they happened, but seeing one Bruce Willis endure punishment that would have put Bruce Banner in the ICU, then walk away and crack wise, was a bit much. I mean, how much punishment can a human body take?

I found out a small amount of the how much in my shop yesterday, actually. I have been working on the entertainment center and was gluing together some boards. I reached for a clamp hanging on the wall and one of the clamps next to it fell off, pirouetted through the air, and landed sharp side down on my forearm. Didn’t break the skin, but I thought I had maybe fractured the bone or cracked something. Turns out I didn’t, but there’s a nasty deep bruise in the spot.

If I were John McClain I’m sure I’d just laugh it off and make some clamp-related pun. Fortunately, I’m only Jason and so am far too unclever to think of any.

How to make a stop motion puppet.

Stop motion cardboard Tron lightcycle chase. Awesome.

This is what it’s like to be a nerd with X-10. Check out the first 2:40. Gets dumb after that.