Busy enough

Well dang... It's been six weeks since the last blog post. During that time I had a trip out to Denver with the OU MBA program, two work trips out to Bentonville, AR, another work trip out to Springfield, MO, and a crap ton of grad school work to plow through. It's been busy to say the least. Like, "stress induced physical pain" levels of busy. As always, crazy thanks to Saint Anne the Wife for putting up with my nonsense and keep our two housefires from burning the place down while I've been so busy and traveling .

This last week I had my final exams in both my Managerial Economics and Business Law & Ethics classes. I've not seen my final grades yet, but I'm confident I landed an A in my economics class and goodness knows what I got in that legal class. I'd applied to law school years ago, but decided against going. Still pretty sure I made the right decision, especially now after going through these last seven weeks. Still, there's plenty I picked up in that business law & ethics class considering the nearly 80 pages of handwritten notes and the 19 page study guide I'd put together in studying for that final.

Work-wise I got connected to a true crime show that kept me crazy busy. It's been a two camera shoot on Sony cameras (FS7s and/or FX9s) as well as a couple drone days on my Mavic 3. As much as I'm not a fan of Sony cameras and their dumpster fire of a menu, those FX9s are kinda growing on me; those FS7s can go straight to hell.

I picked up a couple used Hive Hornet 200-Cs LED lights that were on sale and I'm for sure a fan. I'm diggin' being able to control the color and intensity of my Titan tubes and now these 200-Cs with my iPhone. As much as I love the Hives, I've had some issues with the units shifting colors while I'm using the app, but so far I'm blaming user error. I'd love to pick up one of their Super Hornet 575-Cs, but that's crazy money. I also got introduced to some 3d printed gold mount plate covers that were super interesting. Can't say I'm rusing out to pick up a couple of my own, but the possibilities are interesting.

Another gem from the last few weeks was landing short-term drone insurance through Skywatch.ai. My current production insurance won't even consider covering drones, but I was able to pick up a month's worth of covereage for a client shoot for about $62. Not bad.

That trip out to Denver with the OU MBA program was an opportunity to meet with a couple businesses out in that part of the world as well as a chance to spend some time with fellow OU MBA students. We got a VIP tour of the Coors Brewery out in Golden, CO, plus we got to meet with a consulting firm and a few other OU MBA alums who're killing it in the business and finance world. I'm still hoping to use my MBA to better understand the business end of the work I get to do, but hot damn it's been worthwhile getting to be a fly on the wall in other industries and expand my business worldview.

I'm still hoping to write up some blog posts anchored in what I've been studying in these graduate business courses. My Managerial Economics class had me studying different pricing models and that has all kinds of implications to day rates and equipment rentals. My law class had an entire section on contract law that I actually used with a client in the last couple weeks and saved myself from losing a good deal of money. I've also been digging into artificial intelligence via ChatGPT, but that's something else entirely. Here's part of a ChatGPT response I got recently regarding cinematographer rates:

"...As an AI language model, I cannot provide a specific or exact figure on how much you should charge documentary clients for a full day of camera work since this can vary depending on various factors, such as your level of experience, the location of the shoot, the equipment needed, and the specific requirements of the client. However, there are some general guidelines that you can consider when determining your rate. The first step is to research the standard rates for cinematographers in your area and for the type of work you will be doing. You can look at industry associations, online resources, or ask colleagues in your field. Next, you should consider your level of experience, your qualifications, and the type of equipment you will be using. Generally, more experienced cinematographers can charge higher rates than those who are just starting out, and the type of equipment you use can also affect your rate. You may also want to consider the scope of the project and the expected length of time it will take to complete. Some clients may require additional services, such as post-production editing, which can also affect your rate. Ultimately, the most important thing is to determine a fair rate that takes into account all of these factors and ensures that you are being compensated appropriately for your time, expertise, and equipment. You can also negotiate with the client to find a mutually acceptable rate." - ChatGPT

My Filmsupply sales have absolutely tanked these last few months. I'd gotten spoiled with those licensing fees covering my monthly overhead and then some. I can't say for certain what's causing the decline, but I'm assuming it's related to rising interest rates eating into advertising budgets, where we are currently in the U.S. election cycle, the scope of my stock footage portfolio, and the world being on this side of Covid. That said, one of my clips was in a recent Joe Biden spot – now my third stock footage placement in a U.S. presidential election. It's a follow shot from a manufacturing plant and about 30 seconds in.

DIY Tube Light Case

It's been a bit quiet around this part of the website the last few weeks. I'm neck deep in an edit for a project I directed/DP'd a couple of weeks ago and I'm prepping for another shoot in NYC this coming weekend. Turns out there's only so much time in a day.

That being said, I did manage me work out a DIY PVC pipe case for my two Astera Titan tubes. There aren't a ton of case options for LED tube lights unless you've got quite a few of them. I've been looking for case options for individual tubes that could fit in another case vs. dedicated cases that would just be an additional checked bag for flights and/or one other case I'd be lugging around on shoots. I've been using the cardboard tubes the lights ship in, but they got rained on during a shoot and quickly started coming undone.

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Astera has a fancy $1,500 case for their Titans that's super nice, but it holds eight LED tubes, is heavy AF, and tough to travel with. They've also got a soft case, but it's not a good fit for what I'm looking to do. Hot Rod Cameras has a custom case for Quasar tubes, but again, I'm not looking for an additional, dedicated case that'd most likely end up costing me more in checked baggage fees than if I'd just rented at the destination.

Surprisingly, the Google searches for "DIY tube light case" were more about building your LED lights which is something I'm not even close to wanting to do. There are tons of YouTube videos for DIY PVC pipe cases for fishing rods, so I figured that'd work. Freakin' kudos to the YouTubers and the rest of the internet for making step-by-step tutorials for the rest of us to follow. If I hadn't been rushing to get these done in between my normal work day and family responsibilities, surely it'd have made for a useful resource.

For this project I used a 2" wide PVC pipe and glued a fixed cap on one end and a screw top setup for the other. The pipe came in 5-6' pieces, so after working out the measurements with the Titan tubes, I hacksawed them down to 41" long and sanded off the painted and raised labels on all the parts. For the interior padding, I glued 2" of dense foam to the interior end of the closed/fixed cap. I also ended up making something like a sock to put over the light so it doesn't get scratched and banged up once it's inside the rigid case. There's a bit of extra fabric on the open end of the sock to act as additional padding to keep the whole thing snug once the cap is screwed on.

All in I think I've spent about $50 on parts, so that's like $25/case. They haven't traveled or been on a working set with crew yet, so I'm curious as to how they'll work out. If I were to do it again, I'd like to find a bit thinner walled PVC pipe and not be as messy with the purple primer/glue process. The sock is made out of some fleece-type fabric my mom and I scrounged from her sewing room. I'm hoping the seams hold and the fabric doesn't stretch too much. The DIY PVC cases are close to the same length and diameter as the cardboard tubes I've been using, so it's not a problem to fit them in my 48" Tenba stand case. I'm planning to also get a couple of C-stands with turtle bases to go in the same case to make for a travel-friendly, battery-powered interview lighting setup.

UPDATED 6/1/21
Traveled back and forth to NYC in mid-May with these DIY PVC cases. The lights did fine and were packed in that long case with a couple of C-stands with turtle bases. The case did get a bit heavy but was still under 70 lbs, even with a 15lb sandbag.

The TSA did go through and open both PVC pipes while in the screening process on my flights out and back. They left their handy dandy "TSA Screening" note inside the main case and I could tell they'd pulled the lights out of their blue socks. No harm, no foul, and they lived to fly another day.

Catastrophic Bingo

It's cool to say that things feel out of control at the moment, right? Like, I'm pretty sure we're one asteroid the size of Texas speeding towards the Earth shy of a completely catastrophic bingo.

There's the coronavirus and its quest to kill us all. We heard about the confirmed case in Manhattan this morning and you'd better believe I was more aware of my surroundings riding the subway this morning. The stock market had and incredibly rough week — the worst since the financial crisis. And just this morning I had two solid travel jobs (international & domestic) scheduled for the end of this month postponed due to this hot mess.

There's also craziness and inescapability of the presidential election, tax season, and being a parent to a two year old. I honestly wish I could just head west and hide in the desert for a few days. By all means I'd take Saint Anne the Wife with me; I guess the boys should come with us too. And Clara the Dog. And we'd need clean underwear, diapers, and food. And dog food. We'd need water too. And honestly my notebook and pen. I guess the boys would probably need something to do as well. Ugh... We should probably just stay in New York. I don't want to take all that nonsense to the desert.

But reality and responsibility remind me that I've got edits and taxes and rent and childcare payments – for next year – due and I'd better get back to work. But I also need to run to Target because we're out of Q-tips, Cherrios, and Elliot needs new toothpaste. And then I've got a lunchtime coffee with a buddy. Oh, and I'm supposed to schedule a bunch of other stuff. Thank goodness I've already filed my corporate taxes – and by that I mean my CPA is the best and I learned my lesson last year that those taxes are due in March, not April.

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Again, crazy thankful that I've been busy the last few months. I'm dumb deep into the edit of three short doc pieces for a shoot back in January that are taking way too long to cut. I've also been on three different sets the last couple weeks, one of which had me absolutely falling in love with the way a DP buddy of mine, Jeremy McDaniel, lit an interview – surely parabolic sources are now yesterday's book lights. Oh, and seeing another DP friend of mine, Peter Fackler, light another interview on a white cyc and actually use his light meter was a treat.

But seriously though, hiding out in the desert with no contact to the rest of the world for a few weeks would be nice.

Phoenix and Red-Eye Flights

This week had me booked again with Running Robot to shoot out on their home turf in Phoenix, AZ. Being used to flying out of Oklahoma City all these years, it was a bit of a hike from New York to that part of the country. Flying out Wednesday afternoon got me there in time to get to sleep that night, pick up rental gear the next morning, the actual shoot, return rental gear, and then race back to the airport for a red-eye flight back to NYC Thursday night.

Big fan of LensRentals and how easy they make shipping across the country. For this trip, it was easier to rent and ship a similar tripod to a local FedEx vs. me traveling with mine. For grip and electric, I connected with MP&E Equipment Rental out in Scottsdale. They're 30-40 minutes outside of Phoenix but the scenery was worth the drive.

Speaking of Scottsdale, Chris Fenner – a solid Instagram follow and car enthusiast – introduced me to Four Coffee and their rubber stamps. Have I mentioned I've got a mild obsession with collecting rubber stamps from coffee shops? It's a thing and filling up my notebooks...

Once again, we were rocking the two-camera interview setup: Canon 5D Mark III with a 70-200 lens for the tight; Canon 7D with a 24-70 for the wide. They also had me shoot a third camera through the interview to act as additional B-roll for the edit. The Running Robot guys booked a conference room in a downtown Phoenix co-working space. Three of the four walls were floor-to-ceiling glass so reflections were a real issue.

Slowly but surely I too am preaching the good news of working with these 4' Quasar Crossfades. The slim profile let me get the backlight in a tight spot between the talent and the glass wall. The skimpy dimmers from the rental house were unusable trash, so instead I used some gaffe tape on the fixture to make a small skirt on the light cutting back some of the output. Oh, and the baby pin mounting option and rubber bumpers on each end of the tubes – so rad. The hodgepodge of color temps flooding the glass room from everywhere was a hot mess. I still feel like the color on these fixtures is a bit more red than I'm used to, but it's an easy fix in camera or post. My iPhone Xs was having issues too in getting the color temps correct for these BTS photos. Side note: we had to rig the audio boom pole to a light stand via spring clamps because we felt like it (and didn't have the proper mount anyway).

Can we talk for a moment about red-eye flights? They're pretty awful – but still have their place. By all means it was my choice in scheduling because I wanted "the experience." Plus I knew it would help budget-wise seeing as how expensive all this is. Plus (plus) I'd already scheduled a couple meetings back in NYC knowing I'd be back in time thanks to flying through the night. The air travel part isn't that bad. Yes, it sucks trying to sleep on a plane, especially on a rough flight and next to a seatmate who isn't into "personal space", "boundaries", or "jackets without massive shoulder pads." Some solid red-eye flight tips are only a Google search away and I know what I'll be doing next time – i.e. neck pillow, window seat, glasses instead of contact lenses, etc...

For me, the rough part of flights back to NYC is actually getting from the airport back to my place in Brooklyn. There's a tipping point between the financial benefits of public transit ($15-20 and 60-90 minutes) and the time and comfort of just hiring a car from the airport ($50+ and 30-40 minutes). It was seriously a trip stumbling into my now regular coffee shop knowing only a few hours earlier I was standing on the other side of the country (Phoenix to San Francisco to Newark). I was fried for my 11am meeting in Manhattan, but it still went well. I was two coffees in before my 1:30p back in Brooklyn, but again, it went well too.

Philadelphia for a Night and Day

Just before moving to New York a client I've worked with the last few years reached out about a quick shoot in Philadelphia. No question – let's go. I knew I'd already be in Brooklyn by then, so I did the normal thing and looked for flights, this time out of New York City. Google Maps made fun of me and let me know Philadelphia is a two-hour drive from the city.

"Don't be dumb, get a rental car." - Google Maps (pretty much).

Booking a car and picking it up in my neighborhood – easy. Driving in and around NYC and trying to park – I'd rather lose a fingertip in a fight with a table saw.

Not having to fly my gear on this shoot allowed a bit of wiggle room with my grip and electric budget. All the cool kids on the internet shoot with those fancy Quasar LED tubes but it's tough getting your hands on those Jedi laser swords in Oklahoma City. This is where Lightbulb Grip & Electric comes in. By far they were more than accommodating in my small order and made sure I had what I needed and knew how to use it. They set me up with two 4' Quasar Crossfades, dimmers, clamps, and c-stands.

After more than an hour trying to drive the four or so miles from Park Slope to the other side of Brooklyn to pick up the gear at Lightbulb, I was off to Philadelphia and working up fresh 'Yo Momma' jokes for the next table saw I came across. Good lord it was weird being out of the city after not being more than six to eight miles from my apartment for nearly a month.

It was dark when I got to my hotel in downtown Philadelphia and paid the $30 for overnight parking. I bundled up and headed out with a camera instead of camping out in my room because, again, that's what the cool kids do (I'm told). Word to the wise, the National Park Service Rangers – or at least the hired overnight security guards – will yell at you if you're walking too close to the chain railing on the street next to Independence Hall. Also, make sure your headphones aren't up too loud so you can hear them yell at you the first time. Oh, and they're not up for jokes if you're trying to lighten the mood and get them to stop yelling at you.

The shoot the next morning and the reason I was in Philadelphia went very well. We were shooting another two-camera interview for a series of client videos. It's not like these things come with a built-in location scout, so I showed up with my normal Rock-N-Roller cart full of gear. Thank goodness for carts. We had to park in a garage a couple blocks away and then use a service elevator to get where we needed to be in another building. Luckily I was able to get all my nonsense from the car to where it needed to be in one trip.

So those Quasars... I'm a fan. We were shooting in a white room with plenty of daylight bouncing around. If I'd just had my trusty tungsten ARRI kit (650/300/150) I'd be freaking out knowing the gel and diffusion death march I'd be putting it through in getting the color and softness I wanted while praying it still had enough horsepower to overcome the ambient light coming through the windows. Those Quasar Crossfades were soft and bright, and I was able to quickly dial in the color temperature to what I wanted. They also weren't hot so the talent wasn't melting and I didn't have to wait for them to cool off before packing up. They felt a bit more magenta than I was used to, but that could've been how my monitor was set up. I've heard the color temp warms up a bit as they're dimmed down, but I had them at full blast. Seemingly the only butt-pain in using these lights in a travel kit would be hauling around c-stands; surely there's an easy solution to that.

Clara the dog is up here with me in NYC and needed to be boarded overnight while I was gone. That was a whole thing too, but it was a great experience with both the neighborhood vet's office and the actual boarding facility. I'm assuming you're not here to read about my dog, but I will say she had a good time riding the subway. You're not supposed to have a dog on the train without them being in some kind of carrier – which again is a whole thing – but she immediately made friends on the train and surely made it on at least one more Instagram account.

Could've Been Bike Shorts...

"You could always make bike shorts if your idea doesn't work out."

To the nice lady at the craft store who sold me a couple yards of Spandex: Thanks for not tripping out when I showed you some weird reference images on Pinterest and then asked me to come back later to show what I ended up making.

So yeah, this one went super dark and ghostly. Like the way these things normally start off, I'd been sitting on a handful of reference images and used them as a starting point to make something; I'm suuuper interested in selective focus and in-camera effects.

Footage from this film is available for licensing over at Filmsupply.

The internet told me I'd need to shoot through some kind of transparent layer, so I started experimenting with different types of plastic diffusion and fabrics. I was looking for something translucent that would look interesting on camera when you touched it. A trip to an arts and crafts store had me finding a couple different types of Spandex that were on sale. Figured I'd need a frame to stretch the fabric to keep it taught, so it was off to Home Depot to spend like $3 on two 1" x .5" x 8' pieces of cheap lumber. I used screws to keep the pieces together and attached the Spandex using spring clips.

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Once I got the framed fabric and my camera set up, it took a bit of experimenting before I finally landed on a look. I'd bought both white and black versions of Spandex and tried out each one individually as well as layering them. The white looked more interesting with the lighting and how the shadows worked. Having the black layered behind the white kept the setup from being translucent.

Initially, I had the lighting setup on camera right with no diffusion and in front of the fabric. That made for some interesting-looking long shadows on camera as I touched the Spandex screen, but wasn't the look I wanted. With how I pictured the edit and knowing I'd never be able to reproduce the light-to-dark gradient across the screen, I moved the light above the frame but still front-lighting the fabric. Most of the reference images I had were backlit, but I wasn't able to reproduce that look with how small a space I was using. Moving the overhead light just behind the fabric worked for the space I had and gave me the look I wanted. I didn't use any of the footage with my hands in front of the backlit fabric, but it still made for some interesting-looking imagery as the light interacted with the fabric stretching the other direction.

A monitor tethered to the camera allowed me to see what I was doing as I was interacting with the fabric. The initial imagery I was getting looked super dark and ghostly and reminded me of a Nine Inch Nails track I'd heard from an interview with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross on the Song Exploder podcast – I'd highly recommend checking it out if you've not heard it already.

The initial test footage was shot at 48 frames/second but was still too fast for the look I wanted. 60 frames/second didn't work either, so I lowered my camera resolution from 8k to 6k widescreen so I could get to 99.9 frames/second on my RED Weapon Helium. The movement speed looked right, but I ran into flicker issues with the lighting and 180° shutter. The FLICKERfree iPhone app fixed that by letting me know I needed a 299.7° shutter angle. Thanks internet...

Another unexpected result from the testing was how flexible the look was once I got it into post – obviously though working with a high-end camera and raw .r3d files doesn't hurt. My reference images were black and white, but after experimenting with different color temperatures I again fell in love with shooting with tungsten lighting on a white background at 4500k. Neither the blacks nor whites were being clipped in the raw .r3d files so there was still all the color information to use in post. I kept the in-camera dark and ghostly look for this edit and didn't do any color correction or grading, but can easily imagine other possibilities with this footage.

Monsters and Night Scouts

Anne and The Boys are out of town for a few days this week. It's always weird having the house to myself overnight and having even a short respite from parental responsibilities. I joke about Anne being the family quarterback and me being the JV waterboy, but she NO DOUBT runs the parent show around these parts. That being said, not running the dinner service, being wrist-deep in the day's dirty bottles, and coercing two small children to go the f**k to sleep, I made the most of last night and was out before, during, and after dusk like some kind of monster.

The better three-quarters of my family are off visiting relatives with her mom. They're planners – and better than me – so they arranged their trip while I was working the deadCenter Film Festival this week. If you're up for it, go watch what on-camera talent Katie Parker and I put together for them last year.

I was also out last night scouting for another small personal project shooting this week. For scouts, I'm normally out with my Canon 5D Mark III & 24-70 lens kit plus the Artemis app on my iPhone. The DSLR is out there because the images are better and I can do more with the camera, but having an iPhone app that will show the aspect ratio with a specific camera, resolution, and lens is incredibly helpful in prep. Sidenote: I promise I shot these last night; The app dates are off.

If I'm out by myself, I'll shoot my clenched fist to get an idea of what the light will look like. The knuckles and creases are a quick stand-in for the shapes of the face and eye socket. Lower light levels don't always play nice with my camera's auto-focus, so I'll open my hand up to give it at least a fighting chance. I've also seen people online carrying around black marbles to check for eyelight – but I'm not dealing with that kind of nonsense. Probably should though...

Shooting with Penny Pitchlynn

Meet Penny Pitchlynn. She's a badass. She's the Norman, OK, based musician behind LABRYS, plus she's the bass player in the indie rock band BRONCHO. I also remember her Low Litas days a while back. She reached out a few weeks ago through a buddy of mine and we finally got to work on something together. Have I mentioned I'm always down to make stuff with other creatives? 'Cause I am.

When she reached out I immediately knew I didn't want to shoot something with her playing or an interview about her music projects – there's plenty of solid stuff out there already. I did want to try and play with contrasts though. I'm always a fan of the idea of who we are vs. the person we sometimes need to be. In setting up the shoot, I sent Penny some reference images and an idea of a person being in two different worlds; Kinda like how I feel about being on LinkedIn. Footage from this film is available for licensing over at Filmsupply.

This was also a bit of a shotgun blast in the dark with hopes of hitting something. "Hey, let's try a book light." "Oh I know! Let's shoot white on black and black on white!" "Man, that Vaseline on a clear flat would be cool." "What about shooting through a curved piece of glass to distort the image?" If you're up for it, here's a link to download the look book I put together for the shoot.

Penny had an interesting comment while we were shooting and trying out different techniques and ideas. She mentioned it was kinda like her time in the recording studio and recording with different microphones. There's not always one right way to do something and there's creative value in trying different approaches.

CRAZY thanks again to Cynthia Dreier for coming on again to be part of a personal project. She's one of my favorite people to work with on set. Obviously, she kills it with the hair and makeup, but more than that, I trust her and the ideas she brings to keep things looking great on camera.

For wardrobe, I had Penny bring a couple different options but we stuck with solid white and black. I knew I was going for a Polished vs. Rough look and wanted contrasting white-on-black and black-on-white, but wasn't set on which was which personality beforehand.

I did the whole "convert-your-bedroom-into-a-simple-studio" thing again with a white paper backdrop for one setup and a black piece of fabric for the other. I knew I wanted to feature Penny and especially her facial expressions, so I didn't try to go all dark and moody" with the lighting. Again, I used my styrofoam bust to rough in the lighting setups before having the talent sit in.

For the black background, I set up a book light to camera left using an ARRI 650 bounced off some white paper I'd taped to the wall, and pushed through a roll of diffusion hanging from a C-stand. I also used a small ARRI 150 through diffusion as a backlight on camera right to help separate her from the background.

For the white background, I'd originally planned to stay with the book light on camera left as the key, but having such a large light source made the white background too bright and distracting. Having the background brighter than Penny's face wasn't working and I didn't have a way – or the space – to cut the background spill from the book light. I swapped the lighting setup so the key light was a smaller source and coming from above. Now that the source was smaller, I was able to use a solid flag to cut even more of the spill from making its way to the white background.

For the in-camera effects, I used a thin coat of Vaseline on a clear flat in the matte box for some shots as well as shooting through a curved lens. Shooting through the Vaseline made for softer edges and a cloudy image if you use too much. Yes, I know... I used too much of it in some of the shots and it's distracting – fight me. I also used the curved lens of a pair of plastic safety glasses held right in front of the lens to make the double image distortion. I've also tried shooting through curved glass like wine glasses and vases, but keep coming back to the smaller lenses on safety glasses. Shooting through the curved lens changes the path of the light as it gets to the image sensor.

Seamless Paper Backdrops

A client I've been working with recently hired me to shoot a campaign they were working on for a small clothing brand. They wanted to feature on-camera talent wearing the brand's clothing in front of multiple solid color backgrounds. We didn't have the budget or the time to build out multiple sets in different colors, so our best option was to use one lighting setup and multiple colors of seamless paper backdrops.

Over the years I've shot a ton of talking head projects and normally our only requirements are making sure the room looks somewhat decent and is big enough for our equipment, crew, and talent. Recently I started using Savage Seamless Background Paper to try and improve our production value and it's been a great experience. It does take a bit more time and effort to get everything set up given the additional space and stands necessary. It can also be a hot mess to transport those wider paper rolls if you don't have a larger vehicle or box truck. Once you figure that nonsense out, the improved look can certainly be worth the effort if it's in line with the creative direction.

Talking heads are pretty simple. More often than not they're locked-off shot(s) and the on-camera talent is sitting and not moving around. For this project though, the client wanted the talent to be moving around and for us to capture a mix of close-ups, mediums, and full-body shots.

We had the budget to rent out a larger studio space here in the Oklahoma City area. The additional space gave us plenty of room to unroll enough paper for our head-to-toe shots. The space also had enough power for the larger fixtures we needed to evenly light our bigger setups.

The goal was to keep the shadows super soft, so for our key light we made a book light with one of the studio's 5k fixtures bounced into a 6x6' ultra bounce and back through a 6x6' silk. For the backlight, we pushed a single 4' Fourbank Kinoflo through a 48" diffusion frame. The larger light sources gave the talent plenty of room to move around while still maintaining a consistent look. We also used a large black solid opposite the key and a double net at times to help sculpt the lighting. We shot another look during the first half of the day using the studio's large white cyc wall, but we can talk about that some other time. Sidenote: my life is forever changed after using wheeled combo stands for the first time. Those things are magic.

Knowing how well they'd worked for me in the past, we used those Savage Seamless Paper Backdrops and the client picked out four colors: blue, yellow, pink, and red. The final delivery would be a 16x9 format, so we used the 107" wide backdrop. Savage does have a 140" option, but we weren't able to get that for our shoot.

The paper backdrops we were using were wide enough to fill out the background of our close-up and medium shots, but the full-body-length shots would need a bit of work in post. Depending on the edit, the paper backdrop edges would need to be digitally extended to fill out the 16x9 frame. As long as the on-camera talent didn't go past the edge of the paper, they'd be fine.

In the end, we were happy with our footage. The client didn't want to deal with a ton of post-work so we shot the full sensor 4k ProRes on my RED Weapon and baked in the the RedGamma 4 / Dragon Color 2 look. You're a bit limited with the framerates in using the 4k ProRes option on the RED Weapon, but we were able to get what we needed and the client didn't have to deal with the much larger raw 8k .R3D files.

CLIENT: Red Moxie Media
DIRECTOR: Tanya Martineau
AC: John Dewberry

2017 Film + Music Conference

Short of all the coffee I bought in 2017, one of the best spends last year was attending the Film + Music Conference in Ft. Worth, TX.

Pretty much like all things from the Musicbed/Filmsupply mothership, the Film+Music team killed it. They brought in some freakin' fantastic speakers: some I'd heard from before, others I'd followed online for years, and still more that were new to me. The music and live performances brought another dimension to the event. A serious kudos is due to whoever was behind the lighting design on stage. Most of all, the people attending seemed to be the "Who's Who" – and the rest of us plebeians – in the creative film/music world. 

My biggest takeaways were ideas like "The world needs you to stop being boring" and "The internet is a treadmill that doesn't love you" from Brad Montague of Soul Pancake/Kid President. Ryan Booth – of Ryan Booth fame – encouraged us to "Go home, make things that are interesting to you, and put them on the internet." Natalie Kingston's lighting workshop was pretty rad and wish it would've lasted longer. 

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