In looking at past posts, I realized I never laid out what exactly an F3 is, the project that has and will be taking my attention and life for the next few months. The F stands for Filmmaking. The F1 was our little digital short, the F2 the half day film exercise, and...
Video Production
A First Assistant Directing Moment
Day two of production. It's an outdoor shoot, so when the sun's gone, the day's over. It's the last shot and covers an entire scene. The camera is inside an ambulance looking out through open doors at a guy whose daughter was just loaded. The doors close, letting the...
Crew Drills – A Practice Run
For the past three days at The Film School we've been having Crew Drills. Crew Drills are basically a two hour run through of an F3 set. That's enough time to set up, get a shot or two, and then take everything down for the next show. It accomplishes a few things. The...
How to be a Second Assistant Director
Get a thumb drive. A car helps too. You're the paperwork person. Crew sign-in, meal sign-in, call sheets - it's all you. I'm a big fan of filling the crew names in, alphabetically, during pre-production, versus having people write their own names in. This speeds...
Thesis: Ending With a Bang
Two days left on the last thesis show. This is another six day double - the Director of Photography gave up his film to DP and co-write this show. To my knowledge, this is the largest thesis production ever. It's a sci-fi film with massive sets built on both...
How to Be a Boom Operator
Bring a backpack. Get the sound cart off the grip truck. Go find a quiet spot and build the boom. Stuff all the extra cables and pre-amp inside the backpack. It will make moving around a lot easier. Find craft services and chill with the Sound Mixer as you wait for...
Smashing Production Design
Just got off another three day thesis show as boom operator. The director is a big Sam Raimi fan, so Unmasked was about superheros. It was also one of the most elaborate sets I've been on. On the first day, Dr. Squid and the Electric Avenger had a showdown in a house,...
How to Turn 10 Extras into 100
This was a trick that was used during one of the shows I was on last weekend. It was a funeral scene inside a church, so the pews had to be full of mourners. The only problem was we had about ten extras, half of which were crew. Fortunately, the camera can be fooled....
Grip and Electric – You Will Get Wet
I'm finally done with my two back-to-back film sets as Key Grip and Best Boy Electric. We wrapped at 12:45 am last night, pushing just about every Film School rule with overtime and wrap times to the limit. I learned a few things during the past two sets. One, though...