Behind Lovelace
This week I began shooting footage for a short documentary behind the scenes of the production of Lovelace, currently in principal photography by Telling Pictures with directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. The film is being shot on super 16mm with a two camera package at various locations in the greater Los Angeles area.
My BTS package includes my usual (BYOC): Canon 5D Mark II, hand-held rig and I picked up a Rode VideoMic for only $100 at Samy’s Camera here in Hollywood. I was told the larger version I purchased is nearly identical to the newer, smaller one, which has a gain switch that was added for use with the 7D.
Shooting this BTS will be a challenge, creating a piece for Academy Award winning documentary filmmakers, but I’m looking forward to the challenge and experience on set for the next few weeks.
by admin on Jan.11, 2012, under Digital Filmmaking, DSLR, Film, Filmography
Leave a Comment more...Your Good Friend
Your Good Friend is a feature film shot on location with director and actor Matthew Jacobs and DoveTale Films in the San Francisco area in the Fall of 2010. Currently in post-production the film is garnering good feedback and being finalized for distribution.
The film, about a Rabbi and a pornographer with a shared dream, is a well scripted storyline involving mostly improvisational dialogue.
An incredibly tight timeline combined with a ‘microbe’ budget called for an exceptional cast and crew who put their hearts into what is turning into an excellent motion picture. We shot the film using the Canon 5D Mark II with L-series Canon lenses and a few Nikon Nikkor primes with available light supplemented slightly with standard bulbs, china balls and a mobile Lowel four light kit.
See the website for Your Good Friend or view Your Good Friend on IMDB.com.
by admin on May.27, 2011, under Digital Filmmaking, DSLR, Filmography
Leave a Comment more...Rabbit Hole
In the summer of 2009 I had the privilege of working with a fantastic director and crew on filming a wonderfully written Pulitzer Prize winning play titled Rabbit Hole, by David Lindsay Abaire. From the end of May through July we worked 12-18 hour days on location in Manhattan and the greater New York vicinity to complete principal production of the film. I enjoyed virtually unrestricted access to the set, working closely with the camera crew as the camera intern.
- Director John Cameron Mitchell
- First Assistant Camera Michael Burke
- Second Assistant Camera Lauren Haber
- Camera Operator George Bianchini
by admin on May.27, 2011, under Uncategorized
Leave a Comment more...Tascam DR-100 Mark II portable audio recorder
Tascam DR-100 mark 2
As I start getting into interviews on my behind-the-scenes documentary of the film Lovelace, I decided that I should employ an external recorder with my Canon 5d mark ii rather than just an external mic – so I asked my friend Vanessa if I could use her Zoom h4n, which I’ve used many times and she agreed but then realized it was missing. After a bit of research I seemed to get the impression that the Tascam DR-100 was slightly better, except for the built-in mic (which I hardly use anyway) but soon learned the new mark ii has an improved mic that out performs the Zoom making it an overall better choice.
The Tascam DR-100 mark ii has a metal body which is good for longevity especially considering the wear and tear that gear gets with run-and-gun type shooting. It apparently also has analog limiters which provides better attenuation of loud noises. The ergonomics are quite similar to the Zoom, though it is slightly bulkier and heavier, so a little harder to hold on if you’re hand-holding. I picked up a handy nano-clamp that was quite cheap (compared to other options – seems that anything that’s made to attach to a rail runs a premium) and locks onto the 15mm rails on my Cinevaterig.
Karyn Wagner, Costume Designer for Lovelace
I shot an interview with the very talented Karyn Wagner, the Costume Designer on Lovelace, in their costume trailer at the staging area in Long Beach. She contributed some great talking-head sound-bites and followed up by digging through the costumes to pull Chuck Traynor’s (Peter Sarsgaard) clothing and Linda Lovelace’s (Amanda Seyfried) jewelry for the following day at the beach.
The Tascam is also coming in handy for picking up some ambient sound and occasional bites of the sounds of the set: people yelling “quiet” or “rolling” or “cut” or “action”. If I can just get the AD, Rod Smith, to say my favorite on-set phrase: “Moments Away”
by admin on Jan.18, 2012, under Digital Filmmaking, DSLR, Film
Leave a Comment more...Anxious
Shooting real film is challenging when you’ve grown up in the digital age, but I do agree with the traditionalists who suggest that doing so makes you a better filmmaker. Anxious is a short created on the ARRI 35-III camera on Kodak 5207, 35mm film stock. No instant gratification, particularly if you don’t have a video tap on hand. It’s a true exercise in trusting what you’ve learned about exposure and working with the light meter and again, these are excellent practices to follow when returning to digital mediums. It helps curb the tendency to just keep the camera rolling and leave editorial with a nightmare to manage in post.
by admin on May.26, 2011, under Film, Filmography
1 Comment more...Gold
Filmed using the Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 7D and the first shot using the Arri 35-III with Kodak Vision 2 50D 5201. We used an Indie-Jib, a Karen Abad brand custom dolly, a basic Slider and a variety of Canon zoom and Nikkor prime lenses.
My camera operator and essentially partner DP on this film, Karen Abad was instrumental in making this production come to life. We dragged a truckload of digital and film gear from San Francisco to Gold Hill, Oregon where we spent two days filming this short and a couple thousand feet of 35mm film in the woods near Union Creek. The part of the Gold Miner in this short was played by Art Glockler, a real living gold miner, who incidentally restored the antique pickup seen in the film.
Assisting with lighting, grip and transportation was the amazing Raman Ravindran whom I later helped in lowering the 35-III down a canyon to shoot what turned out to be a lovely high speed sequence along the Rogue River. Karen coerced me into a twenty-five cent mustache from a vending machine and a bow-tie for two shorts filmed on the 35-III, Colours and Nothing to See Here, Move Along, which illustrate the wonderfully whimsical absurdest style that I’ve come to love.
by admin on May.26, 2011, under Digital Filmmaking, DSLR, Film, Filmography
Leave a Comment more...Tiffen Filter Tests on the Canon 5d Mark II
My good friend Karen Abad and I were curious to see how a variety of filters would affect outdoor shooting on the Canon 5d Mark II. We checked out a handful of Tiffen 4×4 filters along with Karen’s Redrock MicroMattebox ($995 through amazon) and headed to Yerba Buena park. The results of that test can be seen in these two Vimeo videos:
These tests include the following Tiffen filters:
by admin on Oct.27, 2010, under Digital Filmmaking, DSLR
Leave a Comment more...Heart Mountain Japanese Relocation Documentary
A couple of interview stills from the production In the Shadow of Heart Mountain, a documentary I’ve been working on with Vanessa Yuille for almost two years. The stills are from last summer’s shoot around Cody, Wyoming where the Japanese concentration camp stood during World War II. We wrap up shooting the opening of the interpretive learning center in August of 2011. We’ve been shooting on the Canon 5d Mark II with Canon L series lenses and some fast Nikon Nikkor lenses.
While on location at the Heart Mountain site, our special effects coordinator Kevin Yuille setup environmental markers to be used by the effects people to map a 3 dimensional environment over the existing shot so that a rendered version of the camp, as it stood in the 40′s, can be composited over the live footage we shot on-site. This was the director’s vision in telling the story of this important historical site in a compelling and revealing way when only a few buildings remain at the site.
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by admin on Sep.29, 2010, under Digital Filmmaking, Film
Leave a Comment :documentary, DSLR, film, production more...