I Blame the Leadership

Finally finished up this two week documentary shoot in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Well, Broken Arrow to be exact. We were working 12 hour days, six days a week. The timecards I'd filled out had us working something near 70 hours each week. Thank goodness for direct deposit and clients actually paying in a timely manner.

We're not supposed to share project details at this point, but I'll go out of my way to mention how great an experience it was. We absolutely got worked like dogs, but from my perspective, I felt like the leadership and production teams went out of their way to try and make us feel supported and empowered to do out best work. Treating production crew well shouldn't be the exception. I can't say enough about how rare that is in my professional experience.

I've been on these types of longer, intense documentary jobs in the past and in the days leading up to this one I was overly anxious due to countless bad experiences. Making this kind of creative nonsense is incredibly resource intensive and I can't tell you how often I'm on jobs with clients and producers who seem to go out of their way to cut corners. I'd only had a few phone calls and emails with my direct supervisor and I'd never heard of the rest of the crew.

On our prep day before the shoot, I literally cried seeing the mountain of gear cases that'd come in from a well known New York rental house. The leadership actually built in the time we needed – and paid us our full-rate – to build out our camera packages and trouble shoot the inevitable hiccups that come with that amount of gear. By the end of the two week show, we had nine cameras all sending video feeds to multiple locations on set in addition to the sound and story teams. Dealing with that amount nonsense plus everything else isn't something that just happens on its own.

There were some major take aways from this project. First, it seems like everyone on set already had some solid production experience and brought that expertise with them. I blame the leadership for putting a solid crew together. Second, we all seemed to connect and work well together, like we all were all working towards a similar goal. Again, I blame the leadership. They made the hiring decisions and brought in crew from all over the country (NYC, LA, Albuquerque, Atlanta, Dallas, OKC/Tulsa, etc.). Third, there was also a strategic move – in my opinion – in bringing us in early and doing a big meal before the shoot. There were like 24-30 of us crashing a fancy Italian place in Tulsa and they spent a good deal of money on that meal, but that early time together gave us a chance to connect before we were thrown into the fire. We lost a few crew members during two week shoot due to Covid infections and other commitments, but I honestly think that initial crew meal was key in setting the tone. Some of the team already knew each other, but most of us were new and barely knew anyone. Throughout the rest of the show, we went out of our way to spend time together outside of the 12-14 hour work days.

Again, treating production crew well shouldn't be the exception. At one point we mutinied against the catering brought in for our daily production meals. There were also some communication hiccups along the way, but we all worked together to figure things out and do the thing. At the end of the show and after I'd taken off my EasyRig and walkie-talkie for the last time, I cried as I walked to my car and drove back to the hotel knowing it was the last time I'd be working with this specific team of people. Again, I point to the leadership for making this such a good experience, worts and all.

No clue when the documentary project will come out, but I'll keep you in the loop.

 

UPDATED Feb. 2024

Did want to toss out a bit of an update with this here blog post. The actual film has yet to come out, but in the course of my MBA I've now had multiple classes cover this TED Talk from Margaret Heffernan: "Why it's Time to Forget the Pecking Order at Work."

Via the video's YouTube description:

Organizations are often run according to “the superchicken model,” where the value is placed on star employees who outperform others. And yet, this isn’t what drives the most high-achieving teams. Business leader Margaret Heffernan observes that it is social cohesion — built every coffee break, every time one team member asks another for help — that leads over time to great results. It's a radical rethink of what drives us to do our best work, and what it means to be a leader. Because as Heffernan points out: “Companies don’t have ideas. Only people do.”

Each time I've seen this video I can't help but think about this Summer 2022 documentary team and how the leadership intentionally built in time for us as crew members to connect. It's tough to accomplish that on the typically short freelance jobs I'm on where we're usually on set for only a day, maybe two or three at most. Given the chance though, it's in the leadership's best interest to adopt this kind of mindset.

Arri Light Case Wheel Replacement

I appreciate the fact I can normally find whatever it is I'm looking for on the internet, or at least something close enough to accomplish what I'm looking to do. That being said, I got stuck the other day and couldn't find something.

I've got this small ARRI lighting kit that that's been a workhorse for years, but it's starting to show its age. Not so much the tungsten lighting units themselves because they're tanks and I don't care what my fancy-pants gaffer buddies say, but the freakin' wheels to the plastic case gave up the ghost a long time ago. They've both blown out and no one needs to hear that "ka-klunk, ka-klunk, ka-klunk" as I roll my light case down some corporate hallway before the shoot.

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Google sent me this YouTube tutorial and some different written posts about changing out the wheels, but not the exact thing I was looking for. So for the sake of trying to contribute more than I consume, please accept the following:

Another YouTube tip was a drummer replacing the blown-out wheels in his SKB Hard Case. He drilled out the rivets, so I did the thing and pretty much butchered the plastic around where those demon rivets were on my case. Some of those two-pronged turds had to be dug out with a flathead screwdriver and a pair of pliers even after using the drill. I used a utility knife to clean up some of the shredded plastic because no one needs that sharp nonsense.

Keep in mind these wheels probably weren't made to be replaced. The actual wheels themselves were held in place by a crimped pin that wasn't having it with me trying to drill them out. I ended up hack-sawing the end off each of those pins while also hoping for the best about not losing a finger and/or destroying much more plastic.

You'd be surprised how hard it is to find replacement rollerblade wheels here in Oklahoma City. After wasting the better part of a work day driving around and calling different sporting goods stores and bike/skate shops, I gave in and ordered the 64mm Inline Skate Wheels and Inline Skate Axle Screws off Amazon. I did find some machine screws, washers, and locking nuts at a local hardware store. They also carried those stupid rivets, but hard pass on that death trap waiting to happen.

Don't forget, I did pretty much butcher a decent amount of the surrounding plastic while drilling out those dark-horned rivets of death. One hole had to be abandoned entirely, but I just drilled another one right next to it because I do what I want and you're not the boss of me.

The inner diameter of the Amazon wheels was just a bit bigger than I'd hoped for – something like 1-2mm off – but it wasn't a problem once I got them installed. I'm sure I could've done a better job keeping it from looking all Erector Set, but that ARRI light case rolls like heaven again with its fancy new wheels.

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Take Notes and Have a Second Monitor

Had an opportunity this past week to DP for a director I'd met earlier this year. We'd stayed in touch and a few weeks ago he and his producer reached out about a corporate project. It'd be a straight forward internal project for one of their corporate clients with employee interviews and b-roll. We'd planned on shooting with one camera but ended up adding a second to help with the interview edits. Camera-wise, we'd be on two RED Weapon Heliums with Cooke S4 lenses shooting 4k ProRes for the interviews and .r3d files for our b-roll.

The shoot was broken up over two days. We had a dedicated room for our interviews, but due to scheduling we'd need to clear the space at the end of each day. Surely this isn't rocket science and I'm not sure where I'd picked it up, but one of my go-tos is taking panorama photos of the setups from multiple angles in the room with my iPhone or iPad. I'll take those photos into the GoodNotes app on my iPad and write down whatever notes I'll end up needing. Typically I'll include the measurements as to where cameras, lights, and interview chairs will be as well as any kind of camera (T-stops, filters, ISO, color temps, etc) and lighting information (color temp, intensity, etc.). Obviously this was key in keeping consistent the second day with interview setup.

Also, it was the first time I'd worked with the AC and my camera package, so it was helpful (to me at least) to be able to send him my gear and a photo of how it's all packed. Helpful too being able to check each item off as it was re-packed and back in its place following the shoot.

Also, in having a two camera setup I was able to have two SmallHD 702s mounted to my camera setup (tight shot with a 100mm) so I could monitor both cameras while also operating one. The wide shot was on a 50mm at a T4 and the interviewee was seated at 10'-13'-ish from the camera so I wasn't worried about losing focus if they moved around a bit. This ended up saving our tails at one point because we had a power failure on the wide shot, I caught the problem immediately, and we were able to pause the interview. Having the two monitors side by side was also helpful in being able to judge both camera exposures from one place vs. running back and forth between cameras while the gaffer and swing made adjustments. We did have a larger client monitor with both camera feeds, but that lived in another room. Crazy thanks to the crew for making sure everything went smooth.

DP: Tanner Herriott
AC: Ryan Nocella
GAFFER: Rob Bevis
SWING: Andrew Landreville

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.

Becoming an Old Freelancer: Mental & Emotional Health

Originally, the idea of sustainability and becoming an Older Freelancer dealt mostly – I thought – with finances. I'm on the back side of my thirties at this point and spending more and more time thinking about what this line of work looks like into my 40s, 50s, and past that.

Not sure what this looks like to you, but if you're planning to stick around as a freelancer – especially if you're married and/or have kids – you’ve got to be intentional about keeping your mental and emotional well-being in check. Obviously, freelance creatives aren't the only ones susceptible to depression and anxiety issues, but as a freelancer myself I've gone through it, I know that it's a thing, and learned ways to cope with it.

I do want to add that I'm happily married to my best friend and we've got two young boys. My mental and emotional health very much impacts our home life as well as our friends and family and the people I get to work with.

By no means am I a qualified medical and/or mental health professional, but there are plenty of people who are. Just know that help is out there. I went through a season of deep depression after college and came out in a better place thanks to a licensed professional counselor. I've also gone through a short season of taking prescription medication to help with depression. I've had quite a few conversations with other freelancers over the years and I know I'm not alone in dealing with anxiety and depression. Thank God I lucked out and got a wife who can read me and knows when I'm close to my mental and emotional limits.

There are seasons where I’m a hot mess emotionally and the winter and early spring are typically the toughest. Seasonal Affective Disorder is a real thing. The aftermath of holiday bills is a thing too. Oh, and the typical client work and cashflow slowdown after the holidays isn't helpful either.

You've got to figure out your thing. For me, my mental and emotional panacea during the winter and early spring is running. Those first few years in full-time freelancing were especially tough and I started running as a mental break while preparing for the LSAT exam. I figured law school would help me to become an adult and get a "real job," but the best things to come out of that season of studying were knowing I didn't need to be in law school and the importance of healthy mental breaks now and then.

Since I started running in the fall of 2011, I've run two full marathons and six half-marathons. The Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon is in late April, so the training schedule starting January 1 each year with the OKC Running Club is quite the antithesis of my seasonal depression. Running allows me to veg out and just focus on breathing and not falling down vs. being mentally overwhelmed by family, personal, and professional responsibilities. I know all those things will still be there when I finish my run, but that break is a godsend.

Some less physically demanding coping mechanisms are spending time with friends outside my family and work circles, my Moleskine notebook, and foam earplugs. As a parent with young kids, I don't get as much time outside work and family, so those times are gold. Journalling has always been an outlet for me to mentally work through the good and the bad of whatever is going on. The earplugs are there when I need some quiet and help focusing.

Another means of keeping myself in check knowing when to shut off social media. Theodore Roosevelt's "comparison is the thief of joy" is a much more eloquent way of saying "comparison is a bitch." I typically distance myself from people who are self-promoters and opportunists, so I tend to not follow accounts that are the same. The other day I saw a couple Instagram Story posts dealing with anxiety from Oren Soffer that I thought were helpful.

"...[don't] let yourself get overwhelmed with how big the pond is[.] You just have to focus on your own work and making your own little corner of the pond as prosperous and enjoyable as possible, and avoid as much as you can getting bogged down with comparing yourself to any of the other fish."

"...someone once said that a cinematography career is a marathon, not a sprint. ...when you run a marathon, unlike a sprint or another foot race, you're not actually competing against the other runners; you're only competing against your own best time. ...remind yourself to stay in your lane and focus on your own career, and not keep looking at other people's marathons..."

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...

Have Gear, Will Travel

The travel side of what I get to do is honestly worth the uncertainties and stress that are also part of this work.

A couple months ago a client hit me up about a shoot in south Florida scheduled for mid-January. When possible, I’ll head out a day earlier on my own dime to take in being in a new place or city. I’ve already been to Florida, but I’m not about to say “No” to a beach and a chance to find another decent coffee shop. Thank goodness West Palm Beach didn’t let me down.

It’s still slow season at the moment and every dollar counts, so I booked a cheap room for the night, got a rental car for less than it would have cost to pay for a ride share or taxi, and ate dinner at the United Club during a layover.

It's worth the effort to commit to one airline and take advantage of the perks. Years ago a DP buddy of mine got me hooked on United Airlines and I’ve not looked back. At this point, I'm not flying enough to get club membership via elite status, so I pay roughly $450/year in membership fees for a United MileagePlus Club Visa card. It gets me Premiere status with easier check-ins, earlier boarding, and two free checked bags on each flight, as well as United Club access. The two free checked bags perk alone helps me save a crazy amount of money considering all the gear I travel with and more than covers that yearly membership fee. There are other perks too, but those are the main ones keeping me a loyal United customer.

I found a solid coffee shop in downtown West Palm Beach and after breakfast, I walked up and down the beach until my parking meter ran out. Before meeting the rest of the crew, I picked up some gear I’d rented from Lensrentals and had shipped to a local FedEx branch.

We scouted the first location that afternoon before heading back to the hotel for the night. I’ll typically have my Canon 5Dmk3 with me on scouts along with my iPhone. For sure I’d rather scout the location during the same time of day before the scheduled shoot, but that wasn’t an option. The Sun Seeker app let me know where the sun would be during our shoot and Artemis helped me make some shot choices by being able to plug in my camera, resolution, and lens choices.

The shoot itself went well the next day. The creative agency, Signal Factory, hired me out with my RED Weapon Helium package and CP.2 lens set. We used their Oconnor 1030Ds fluid head and sticks plus their Dana Dolly. For the Dana Dolly, Signal flew out with their setup and we bought two 10’ pipes from Home Depot near the location. They’d also rented some additional grip & electric but we didn’t end up using it – pretty bummed we didn’t even turn on the ARRI Sky Panels.

Signal Factory had also hired a couple local photogs to shoot stills and drone footage so we had to coordinate on set as needed. The client nixed the second location and we were able to get all we needed at the first.

We dumped footage back at the hotel, cleaned up, and went out for dinner. Our flights were stupid early the next morning, so it wasn’t going to be much of a late night.

One thing I plan to look into this year to try and make my life easier in airports is TSA PreCheck. In addition to my checked bags, I travel with two carry-ons: a larger backpack (personal items, 13" MacBook Pro, and iPad) and a roller bag for my "must-have" camera gear (camera bodies and lenses). I always carry on my main camera gear just in case a checked bag gets lost. Clients are spending good money on me and my travel expenses, so it does them no good for me to show up to a travel job without my gear – it's happened before.

TSA typically freaks out at having to check all my gear during security screenings. There have been more security measure updates recently and when I was leaving Oklahoma City, the TSA agents took out all my camera gear, batteries, and iPad to X-ray again without giving me a heads up. I understand their purpose is our safety, but experience has taught me they seem to have more to think about than how to properly handle camera gear. TSA PreCheck is something like $85, lasts five years, and because they've already done a background check, it helps get you through security much quicker. Their website mentions that “In December 2017, 93% of TSA PreCheck passengers waited less than 5 min.”

Interrotron Teleprompter Hack

Nerding out about finally using the iPad/iPhone/FaceTime/Teleprompter Interrotron hack I'd seen somewhere on the interwebs. We were doing another project for Central Oklahoma Habitat for Humanity and wanted the interviewee to look directly into the camera. That's easier said than done as most people would prefer to make eye contact as they're talking to another person and not lens. Honestly, it worked out much better than we expected.

In a nutshell, you're essentially having the on-camera talent look into the teleprompter and see the person they're speaking with via an iPad that's FaceTiming another iOS device – in our case an iPhone placed right behind the camera. ProTip: make sure you mute the iPads/iPhones being used so you don't get a feedback loop. If you're interested in the teleprompter I'm using, make sure to check out the 15" ProLine Plus by PrompterPeople.