I'm in Sarasota right now, on what I believe is my first paying video job. It's operating a HI-POD, basically a 30 foot pole with a camera on top, for filming a soccer tournament. I've seen more soccer matches in that past two days than I've seen in my life, and...
Video Equipment
Fight Scene in a Barn
Monday was a day off, which was nice. Of course there's not really such a thing as a day off. Today we were back at the pig farm. I think this is where Deliverance originated. Deep in their property I stumbled on bones (hopefully animal) spread all over the place. And...
It’s Dailies, Not Weeklies
In a perfect film set world (real world), you shoot for the day, send the film to the lab that night to be processed, return the next day, shoot some more, and then during lunch (or beginning/end of the day), you watch what you shot the previous day. These are called...
91 Set-Ups in 3 Days
Yes, we got 91 set-ups ((A set-up is essentially a shot. Every time you move the camera, change lenses, change lighting, or film new action, that's a new set-up.)) in 3 days. That's about 30 a day. The 6 day show had 106 set-ups. Bottom line is we got a shit-ton of...
Cinematography Notes
Here are a few notes I dug up from an early cinematography class. They're short and good to keep in mind. Eye first looks at what is moving, then what’s brightest. Film is a 2-Dimensional medium. The idea is to create the appearance of 3 dimensions through...
Your Worst Shot [Cinematography]
Yesterday was our first cinematography class. We had to choose the worst shot from the F3 we were Director of Photography on, bring it in, and discuss what went wrong. It was a good idea, and a good way to learn. My shot (not the one pictured above) was this clunky...
I Didn’t Keep the Lens Cap On
The footage I shot as DP has returned. If we play by the rules, we are supposed to wait until this Wednesday for dailies when the entire crew gathers and we watch the footage, synced with the sound in script order. I was going to go along with this until I had to...
Morning of DP-ing Nerves
It's 4 AM and I'm about to shoot a movie in two hours, but I can't seem to go back to sleep. So I'll write! It seems that Director of Photography is the most nerve wracking position. It's a blend of using your technical knowledge to create artistic images, while...
A Busy January
January is going to be a busy month for me. As I said before, three films are down, four to go. These four are all ATL jobs, and are every Friday-Saturday for the next four weeks when school starts up again on the 7th. Week 1 - Director of Photography This is a sci-fi...