Night 2 of the shoot

Call time was 3:30PM for crew. The location was a bit different from last night's. Don't worry, there's no spoilers here; just a few behind the scenes photos.

We were lucky to get to shoot in a nice home. The owners were very generous and gracious, and they put up with a long, late night of noise.

The camera crew positioned the dolly for the party scene. The house was filled with antiques, and the crew was required to take off their shoes or wear boot covers to keep the floors pristine. My biggest fear was of accidentally knocking over a Ming vase with the boom pole. I don't even know if they had any Ming vases there, but I was really careful just in case!



Product placement! Since the producers didn't want to have to deal with clearing any trademarked items, the art dept. came up with these clever fake product labels.

I don't know how it'll taste, but I'd like to try a Konig beer sometime! (I'm sure it tastes like water...this is all make-believe!)

Here's a shot from the big party scene while I boomed it from the balcony. Director Antanas Bakalov is at left. Atanas was in my FITP Sound Dept. class this year. Standing next to him is cinematographer Trenton McRae.

Party scenes are always fun to shoot, but we took hours getting all sorts of different angles and set ups. At least we didn't have to deal with generator noise.

I got home at 6AM, and after I saw my wife off to work, I promptly fell asleep. Sunday was pretty much a lost day for me, but I got to watch a lot of football!

We have a day or two more shooting scheduled for later this month. I'll post more updates then.

GO TO DAY 3 OF THE SHOOT

Night shoots are fun

Worked on a short film last weekend, "Lover's Leap". The two days were scheduled as night shoots, so the first night we got to the location around 6PM, and I expected us to be there at least until midnight.

Silly me, thinking I'd actually get home before dawn!

Grip & Electric gear spread out during preparation for the shoot.

Sound mixer and producer Josue Saldana at the sound cart. I worked as boom operator. Predictably, there were some minor equipment issues both nights, which made for an interesting exercise in dealing with problems. Location shoots are special that way.

Josh had great sound hardware on his cart for us to work with. This is a Sound Devices 788T digital recorder, absolutely top of the line model.

Josh also was involved in procuring a Red One camera for the shoot. The Red cameras are totally amazing, and often provide a better-than-film look.

The clear air in the hills around Candlewood Lake cooled down quickly after sunset, making it a chilly evening for the cast and crew. There were issues with the generators making noise that hindered us sound dogs, but we captured the sound that was needed. Several times I mic'd from inside a car; once with five of us and a camera in a less-than-spacious sedan. Fun, except for the leg cramps.

The sky was just starting to show signs of dawn when I finally got home. More photos soon from the second night of the shoot.

GO TO DAY 2 OF THE SHOOT

The Wilhelm Scream

What with me being a sound guy, I'm a fan of obscure film trivia related to sounds. The "Wilhelm Scream" is a great example of this.

In the early 50s, a character in a western named Wilhelm was shot in the leg with an arrow. The sound department used a shriek of pain that had been recorded a couple years earlier in another film.

Since then, the scream has attained a sort of mythical underground cult status amongst film buffs and sound engineers. Here are two videos that relate the entire story of the Wilhelm Scream. First, the history of the scream:



And next, a video compilation of some of the 130+ films and TV shows that have used the Wilhelm Scream over the years:



So now that you know all about the Wilhelm Scream, you too will be able to bore your friends and acquaintances with this trivial bit of film lore!

Coming Attraction?

(cross posted from my political blog ConnecticutBob.com)

With Hurricane Earl possibly moving in to ruin my weekend boating plans, I figured it was about time to take a trip down memory lane about a storm that roared through Connecticut 25 years ago.

Cliff Clavin Dept:

It's a little known fact that "Gloria" was the most popular name given to newborn girls all throughout southern New England in the weeks following the storm.

(See how I cleverly used a well-known character from a popular 1980s sitcom as a literary device to state a fact about a storm from 1985? Awww yeah! I'm da shit, yo!)

Here's my early camcorder video, with loads of archived TV news footage included:



Is this a "coming attraction"? I hope not!

"Ethan"

Did a brief day's work this week on a short film, called "Ethan" about a young boy and his father, played by a young boy and his father, Greg Nutcher (who was in the FITP short film "To Dye For").

Directed by James "Jim" W. Hawk (IMDB listing), and filmed by Tristan Douglas (whose mom Maria was in charge of wardrobe and props), I also did double duty on the film, helping with lighting.

Jim and Maria discuss set dressing and wardrobe for a scene.

Tristan positions the camera for a low angle shot. We obviously filmed on location, which was the actor's home in this case.

Me, with my super-awesome boom set up.

Cast and crew after successfully wrapping all the scenes with dialog. The next day the rest of the crew shot exteriors MOS, so I was wrapped for the project.

I'd gotten a voice mail while we were shooting about another project, which will be a short film in early September. So I'm keeping busy.

Photos from the weekend shoot

Here's some photos from the project we shot over the weekend. It's a pilot for "Jaki's Buzz", which we expect will be ready very soon. Don't worry, there's no spoilers here, except maybe for the fact that everyone worked like hell over the two days to successfully get all 19 pages of the script shot!

This is me in a totally posed shot, pretending to work the mixer that really never worked properly. We ended up recording directly to the camera, and used the on-camera settings to control the levels. To good effect, I should add.

Booming a scene, with Alex Winter on camera shooting actress Crystal Aya. As the production crew had no sound equipment available, I loaned the use of my low-budget consumer-quality equipment to the show.

Above, I'm using my Rode Videomic attached to the upper arm of a mic stand, which extended about six feet and made a passable (but not very lightweight) boom pole. I also used my Nady Duet Encore wireless lavs for several scenes, but they were just a bit temperamental, so we tried to use the boom mic as much as possible.

Colleen Ellis was the other part of the sound crew, helping with boom and utility. As I totally expected, she did a terrific job. That's Jaki on the right, listening to direction from off-screen.

"Ooh, donuts!" Actor Brett Epstein joins Crystal for a scene in a room, which is roughly the size of a largish refrigerator box. How we got six people in there, I'll never know!

On location during the second day of the shoot, Colleen stretches out the boom to get a wider, more open sound.

Cool photo of me booming a scene in silhouette.

The sound dogs at the end of the exhaustive but fun two-day shoot!

A shoestring political ad

UPDATE: KEVIN WON BIG! WELL DONE, MR. LEMBO!

By "shoestring", I mean it cost absolutely nothing (other than a single mini-DV tape and the gas to drive there and back).

I shot this in under two hours at the location, then edited it for maybe another four, counting the extra time it took to recover the hour or so of labor when I accidentally deleted about half the nearly finished project because I was so tired!

I used my Canon GL-2 with my .5x wide angle lens, my Rode Videomic on a mic stand just out of frame for the interior shots and mounted on-camera for the exteriors. I didn't use additional lighting, but tried to work with the available lights. During the editing I used the Scorefitter music from Pinnacle Studio 11. I know I need a Mac, but that's way out of my budget for quite a while.

There's absolutely a few things I would like to have done to tighten the final video up and make it a bit smoother, but considering the very limited shelf-life of something like this, I needed to get it done and posted quickly to have any usefulness. The primary is only a week away, so I didn't have any time for extensive "tweaking".

Anyway, I was glad to do it for free. Kevin Lembo is one of those rare public servants who go above and beyond duty to help people in this state, and it was a real pleasure working with him on this project.

Documentary project

I've been working about two weeks on my video project, which is to document the final few weeks going into the primary (August 10th) of candidate for Governor Ned Lamont's campaign.

Basically the campaign has given me tremendous access to tape appearances and talk to the candidate, due in part to my years of supporting Mr. Lamont and helping the Democratic party as a political blogger. You should visit ConnecticutBob.com to read about the actual political stuff.

Above: Taping Lamont and Lt. Gov. candidate Mary Glassman (off-picture at left) during a tour of a high-tech Connecticut manufacturer.

For equipment I'm using my trusty Canon GL-2, shooting on mini-DV tapes. Format is 16x9 widescreen. I'm using a cheap .5x wide angle lens (Kenko? something like that) to allow for tight close ups, which really helps the audio when there's a lot of background noise. Like in most of my run-and-gun videos.

Audio provided by a Rode Videomic, which is a super-cardiod. Sony 7506 Professional headphones provide crystal clear audio so I know what's being recorded to the tape.

I'm using the new Video Innovations shoulder mount (see earlier post), and coupled with a cheap $20 monopod, I have a lightweight and comfortable carry mount. With the monopod folded up to about 18" long, I rest it just above my hip to provide extra support and stability. It works great!

FITPing around

I've been ultra-busy lately, what with my project of following around and videotaping a candidate for governor here in Connecticut, but I've also been keeping up with my Facebook friends.

Jeff Cannata has posted an awesome video (below) that shows quite a bit of the outdoor production of our student film, "To Dye For". You can see me several times during the video (if you don't blink), but I've saved you the trouble of blinking and looking for me by grabbing a couple screen caps:

This is me, expertly handling the boom (giving the actress what we in the biz call a "haircut") during a scene in the car.

Here's a shot of me on the right, at the mixing board during the day-for-night outdoor scene.

And here's the terrific video that should be used as a recruitment tool:

Another useful little gadget

Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm a big fan of low-cost solutions to problems. Anyone can solve a problem if you throw enough money at it.

The trick is, to solve the problem while throwing little or no money at it!

How about this? Here's a nifty little shoulder mount that I found at B&H:

Great huh? Girl not included (sadly) but it's still a nice shoulder mount, for $59.95 with free shipping from B&H.

Another cool thing is that the camera can slide about 6" along the top of the mount, so you can optimize how you want to look through the viewfinder. And the hand grip can be placed in about five different positions. Plus, the entire mount can be placed on a tripod (or monopod) without removing the camera.

It's simple, affordable, and very useful.

Is it as good as some of the $500 shoulder supports? Of course not. But for an inexpensive solution to preventing those shaky arms (and shaky video) after holding the camera for a few minutes, it works great.

All I need now is the green light for my documentary project, and I'll be likely using this before the end of the week!

Documentary: Dissent or Disloyalty

Now that I'm back from my week-long vacation on the sailboat, I'm ready to get back to work!

This is a short documentary I created last September, after attending several very contentious political events during the lead-up to health care reform. It is one of the over 300 videos I have on my Youtube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/CTBob and be warned: quite a few are crappy production-wise, but posted for sheer fun or news value)

Now that I've completed the FITP program, I'm currently in talks to arrange a zero-budget political documentary, which will quite possibly begin production next week.

I'll keep you updated about that, and also other creative projects I'm working on. In the meantime, please watch "Dissent or Disloyalty?" Comments and/or criticisms are welcome; but please be gentle, as I'm still learning this stuff!

FITP: Day 20

(Go back to Day 19)

(If this is the first time you're visiting my blog, please start at Day One of the Film Industry Training Program to follow my progress. At the end of each post is a link to the next day's entry!)

(Disclaimer: please note that my opinions are strictly my own, and don't reflect the opinions of the Connecticut Film & Digital Media Workforce. In fact, many of my opinions don't reflect what is commonly thought of as "consensus reality" in any way, shape, or form!)

The final day of the shoot! Wow, that was a fast four weeks! It was a perfect day, sunny with low humidity, which was great because we were shooting all exterior scenes.

Tracy mixes a scene early morning. Our call time is 9AM and we got completely set up and the first take shot before 10AM, which is incredibly fast to get everything set.

The next scene I mixed a total of three mics with two actors outside the car and two inside. We had two actors with radio mics and a boom covering the actors in the car.

I boomed a few takes of the actors talking and then fleeing in their car, then Colleen had to sit in the back seat to mic the actors while a camera mounted on the door was filming.

Pat boomed a scene at the car, and by then it was starting to warm up a bit.

Director Richard Dobbs sat in the back seat to shoot a scene, while Samantha mic'd the actors like Colleen did in a previous setup. The back seat of a Chrysler convertible is small enough to start with, and then having two people with video and recording equipment trying to work in there is quite a task.

It's a wrap! After loading out and packing up Chat's car, we posed for one last group photo by the sound cart. Chat bade us a very fond farewell soon afterward as he needed to drive about three hours to get home tonight.

Clockwise from upper left: Atanas, Jon, Tracy, Dan, the sound cart, Chat, Fred, me, Samantha, Colleen, Pat.

At the wrap party at Aunt Chilada's on Whitney, I shot this photo of Marty Lang, who wrote the screenplay, Chuck Miller, and A.D. Danielle Rigby, whom I let know that I learned an amazing lot about the A.D.'s job simply by watching her.

Finally I got a photo with Angelo DiGiacamo, the Director of Photography who took some time the other day to coach me about how to work on a set. I thanked him for his honesty and congratulated him on his retirement, which begins today. He'll still be involved in the business, but on the teaching side.

We all felt sad that this incredible experience was drawing to a close, but we'll stay in touch and hopefully get to work together again. I can say now that I had a wonderful and challenging time, and it was intense at times but also very rewarding. I feel fortunate to have had this opportunity to learn, and after I get back from vacation next week, I'll start looking for a job.

And now, here's some video goodness for you:



I'll post more updates after I get back from vacation next week, but for now I'm beat and going to sleep. Email me at futuredv *at* yahoo.com if you wish to contact me.

Especially to offer me a production sound job!

FITP: Day 19

(Go back to Day 18)

Another 10-hour day on location. We all got to do some cool stuff today.

Samantha mixes a scene while Pat "thirds" for the Sound Crew. Thirding is basically a utility person/cable puller, who supports the mixer and the boom op.

Director Richard Dobbs (center) discusses blocking a scene with actors Marty Lang and Greg Nutcher. Marty also wrote the screenplay.

After lunch there was a scene that required Atanas to stretch out the boom pole about 12 feet to mic the actors. Usually it requires a bit of muscle to hold the boom steady at that distance. After a minute or so you start getting trembling in your arms.

Well, Atanas got to test his muscles because this was a scene where the director wanted to keep trying new things while keeping the cameras rolling. Meaning Atanas had to hold the boom over the actors the entire time without letting it dip into the camera frame, nor drifting too high that it loses the sound.

Which is all well and good if the scene goes for a couple minutes. But Richard kept tossing out ideas to the actors while the roll was going, and I noticed the timecode on the digital recorder creeping up past three, then four minutes, I began getting concerned for Atanas.

Then Richard ran through a bunch more ideas, and the timer hit six, seven, then EIGHT minutes (for a SINGLE take, mind you!) and I really began to worry. As soon as the director finally yelled "cut" somewhere just shy of nine minutes, I ran onto the set to help Atanas. The poor guy was soaked in sweat and clearly flayed, but he toughed the scene out and did an amazing job with the boom. It wasn't my turn to boom but I decided right there and then to relieve him. He was relieved all right, and the first thing he did once he was disconnected was to grab his water bottle and take a giant swig out of it.

I boomed a couple of scenes and did a good job, then went back to the sound cart to see where else I could help. We were well into the afternoon by then, and were on our way to finishing up the rest of the interior scenes.

This is a shot of the living room set where a couple cameras were set up. We had an "A" camera and a "B" camera for many scenes, and that made it challenging for the boom operator because they had to watch TWO frame lines.

Our dear instructor must have had a taxing day trying to whip his sound crew into shape, because during some interminable delay waiting for the cameras to get ready for a scene, Chat rested his head on his arm and took a short vacation to snooze-land.

By the way, it clearly is weird how camera crews can take all frickin' day to set up and tweak their cameras to perfection, happily holding up production for hours if needed; but if the sound department takes more than two minutes to properly resolve a mic issue, they all look at you like you're preventing them from eating Thanksgiving dinner until it gets cold! I mean, c'mon guys, how 'bout a little respect for the people who invented the concept of "talkies"? If it wasn't for us sound-dogs, movies would simply be shadows moving on a wall.

Although, our Director of Photography Angelo DiGiacomo is very much a sound crew's kind of guy. He was very attentive to our needs when it came to video monitors, and the few times he needed to point out our mistakes, he did so in a very low-key and constructive way. He's a great guy.

Back to Chat's snoozing. The best part is when the flash from my camera woke him up! I didn't even know the flash was ON, so there were TWO very surprised people involved producing this photo. Thank god I didn't try to snap a photo while on the set; the director or A.D. probably would have killed me!

And I'd have deserved it, too.

Now I'm gonna get some sleep. Tomorrow is the final day of the shoot. No way do I want to be late!

Click here to go to Day 20

FITP: Day 18

(Go back to Day 17)

Today was the Green Team's day, and it dawned sunny and quite comfortable compared to the steam bath we'd just spent the last two days enduring.

Colleen, Jon and I were on the set, mixing, booming and thirding for most of the day. It was fun but challenging at times.

These are the two cameras that filmed most of the scenes today. I got to boom a 6'5" guy in a room with a 6'11" ceiling, or so it seemed. "Tiny" just doesn't leave a lot of headroom in any shot with a low roof. But I mic'd him anyway and didn't dip the mic into the camera frame while dancing just above the frame line. Too bad there wasn't much in the way of dialog, but not every scene has a lot of talking in it.

During lunch we all gathered in front of the location for a team picture, hence mostly everyone wearing the FITP crew shirts.

Green Team member Jon mixed while I was out on the set. We had a few bizarre headphone issues, which led to me being sonically blasted through my cans while I was booming. They're called "cans" because back in the old days, they used two tin cans and a length of twine to communicate with people. If you believe that, there's definitely a bridge in Brooklyn that you'll want to snap up at the first opportunity.

Anyway, my "cans" were so goddamned loud that the camera and A.D. crews motioned for me to shut it down as they got ready to roll. Being in Sound means never having to say you're sorry; and it definitely means that you should NEVER be the fucking cause of a sound problem! I actually never physically felt someone's eyes drilling into me until I told the director and A.D. that we needed to hold the roll for Sound.

And the drilling continued as we took a couple minutes to solve our problem; which, speaking of drilling, made me feel about as popular as BP right about then.

I had to unplug my phones from the jack because there's no volume control on it, and when the A.D. calls for "sound", I'm supposed to listen to the mixer say "speed" on my cans and relay that back to them. But being unplugged is better than being deaf, so finally someone called out "speed" from the other room. Eventually we figured it out, but my ears were ringing for the rest of the day.

Green Teamer Colleen boomed the scene that will likely get the biggest laugh in the film, but in this picture you can't see the actor she was miking who was lying face down on the floor right behind her, pretty much wearing only a pair of skimpy underpants.

She was a trooper and flawlessly boomed quite a few takes over several setups before we relieved her. Colleen seriously rocked today, and she proved that it's not just the biggest (and noisiest) assholes who can do a great job in Sound! She's a star.

Chat tasked me with mixing the most technical scene of the day, our final shot outside. We had to deal with three talking actors walking from around a corner, up a slate walkway while being filmed from a dolly, and into a small porch area. And a bit of a breeze. And about a 30-minute window before it got so dark they'd have to light the entire goddamned area, which obviously nobody was thrilled to have to do.

Good. No pressure. Just the way I like it.

I had to decide on how to mic it. Knowing that Chat firmly believes in "Boom it until you can't", I designed a two-boom scheme that had Jon using the long shotgun to follow the actors from the corner up to the porch, and then Sam using the short shotgun to catch their dialog as they turn to enter the house.

Well, after a rehearsal we could see that there was no way the shotgun could pick up the actors before they rounded the corner, so Chat called for a wireless lav on "Tiny". A take or two later and we realized that Paul needed a wireless lav also. Which gave me a total of FOUR mics to mix, which was a fantastic challenge.

I did screw up a bit by not checking if the second boom was properly connected to the mixer when we decided to go for it. It wasn't, and although I found and fixed the problem quickly, Chat looked at me and said grimly, "That's one!"

Jesus, I thought, bad things usually come in threes! I better make sure I do everything right from here on in and keep Chat at "one"!

We ran through a few more takes, and with the light leaving, we needed get some usable tracks. Chat mixed one take just to be sure, then he had me mix the final two takes. I got the last one nearly perfect, although if we didn't have to worry about the light, I would have liked to do one more to really nail it.

But overall I'm very pleased with how it went today. The way Chat teaches is that he constantly pushes you way the fuck past your comfort zone, which can be nervewracking but also gives you the opportunity to shine.

I don't know if I officially "shined" today; but without a doubt I definitely "glowed" a bit!

And, considering how far we'll all come in the last 18 days, I feel pretty durned good about it. Two more days, then we wrap. Honestly, I can easily do this for another month!

Click here to go to Day 19

FITP: Day 17

(Go back to Day 16)

Day 2 of the shoot!

Daniel handles the boom while Chat discusses the scene.

Tracy mixes a scene while Colleen watches. The kitchen is still ridiculously small, and the monitor didn't work because they ran longer cables to get them out of the shot, so everyone who worked the board was mixing "blind".

During lunch Chat decided that it would be a good idea to have a Sound Dept. meeting so he could go over strategies to ensure the best chance of success during the shoot. For some reason Samantha has started making goofy faces at me each time I take a picture. She's probably just getting back at me for crossing my eyes at her right before her line during a dramatic scene were acting in together.

My team members Jon and Colleen listen to Chat, along with Fred who was the boom op for much of this afternoon. When Chat asked if any of us had any suggestions on how he could do a better job, I almost suggested "Maybe you could scream at us a bit more!", but I was worried he wouldn't get the joke and then actually DO it!

It's kind of a running gag, and when some folks from scripts asked how it was working with Chat, I replied, "Oh, he's the bestest and nicest guy you could ever meet! Of course, I'm suffering from Stockholm Syndrome!"

Which is a joke, because we all love and respect Chat and enjoy working with him, and his stories make what could easily be a dry and boring subject into an entertaining learning experience. Yes, he does occasionally let us know when we're behaving in a particularly doltish manner, but then he goes out of his way to explain WHY what we're doing is wrong and the best way to correct it. Plus, he's very generous with praise when it's merited, which makes us all want to do a great job and actually earn that praise.

The reality on a film set is that you need to think and to act in a way that will guarantee a successful production. Any screwing around or inattentiveness is enough to get you tossed out of a job, and possibly blacklisted from getting any other jobs! Chat is making sure we know the lay of the land and avoid the pratfalls that many people take in this business.

And I think he's fuckin' awesome for being a no-bullshit instructor, and I'd highly recommend him for anyone who truly wants to learn the subtleties of this business, even if it doesn't perfectly match whatever romanticized fantasy about working on a film set consists of.

A dolly track for a scene we'll likely shoot tomorrow. The missing apple box in the foreground was pilfered for a scene we were shooting in the house.

D4N, which is saying "day for night". On our call sheets, the daily schedule given to us the night before (we hope), it shows the interior party scenes as being filmed at night. So a blindingly bright shaft of light beaming into the middle of the set during a supposed nighttime party scene might ruin some of the magic we're creating.

The way to solve it is to screen the windows with black fabric, and in this case also put a weather resistant shield over it. Which is what they're doing on the upper floor windows.

The screened-in room on the three windows on the left is the "video village", a roughly 12x18' space our six non-working (at the moment) sound crew shares with a lot of script supervisors. Who are a fun and jokey bunch, but when I look at the endless amount of paperwork they have to process, it makes me happy that I'm in Sound.

Inside the "controlled chaos" of a location film set. By the end of Day 2, the overheated set was starting to smell like a 1940s era Vic Tanny Gym!

Okay, so I'm always on the lookout for interesting photo-ops when I have my digital camera with me. Here's a license plate I noticed as I turned off on exit 34 of the Connecticut Turnpike.

Nothin' like letting your freak flag fly!

...on your license plate, even. Hey, something tells me there's some fur-lined cuffs and a riding crop or two in this fella's trunk!

I think in order to convey my new chosen interest, I'll apply for a vanity plate myself. How about this one:

"SNDDOG"

Click here to go to Day 18