Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Looking Back
It is crazy to think about how much we have accomplished in just one semester. We set out to finish principle photography and we did it. If it weren't for our lead actress dropping at the last minute way back in December, we would not even have to shoot the few pick ups we have scheduled for after graduation. I am so proud of everyone for sticking with it and accomplishing something that I'm pretty sure no other undergrads have ever done before. No other grad program either. We shot an entire feature while still passing our classes, barely. For that we should all be proud. I know we still have a lot of work ahead of us in post, but I absolutely can not wait to show the final product to all the teachers and administration at the school. I can't wait to show all the people that laughed behind closed doors when they heard what we were trying to do. No one believed in us except ourselves. We all believed we could get it done and thats all that mattered. I can't wait for everyone to see what all our hard work amounted to and realize that we have accomplished something truly great.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Almost There
This weekend went very well overall. Like always, its tough to look back and reflect because at this point in time, every day blends with the next. Friday we shot a pick up scene at the shadowy house and it went very smooth. It's amazing how much less pressure there is when you only have one scene to shoot as opposed to 5 or 6. Everyone is more relaxed and you can concentrate more on little details that you sometimes have to forgive when you are working against the clock. We also had a small crew, which sometimes makes this go faster rather than the opposite. Kelly and I stayed a bit longer to shoot some shadowy house establishing/cut in shots.
Saturday was a big test for me because I knew that Kelly was not going to be on set and that lighting was my responsibility. I know that I have learned a lot about lighting in these past few months but I was still a bit nervous about having to do it myself. My biggest problem is having confidence when it comes to lighting. I used a lot of CTB to cover the overhead halogens in the cafe and utilized the light from the sun through the big cafe windows. I used the omni's to fill in some more general light on wide and 2 shots. I had to use the soft box later on in the day because the sun was setting and not giving enough light through the windows. I know they weren't the hardest lighting set ups in the world but I was really proud of the way most of the lighting came out. Saturday really helped boost my confidence. We also did the really complex cafe shot that involved dollying in on Bobby at 12 fps. It was really tough because bobby had to stay completely still for like almost 4 minutes while all these other people were buzzing around him. I felt bad because his eyes kept watering because he was trying not to blink. I wish we had more extras for the shot. I was really impressed with Cody's system for controlling the extras in the background. He grouped them by numbers and called out each number when he wanted certain groups to move. I thought that was really cool.
Saturday night was just alright. We shot in a classroom, there were a ton of white walls and not really much we could do about it. In the interest of time, we were forced to use the shitty florescent overhead lights. They blew out the walls a lot which sucked but at least they didn't look green. I hated having to use them but to be honest we would have been shooting till 2 a.m. easy if we didn't and we had another big day early in the morning on sunday. It was a sacrifice we had to make. Enough about that.
I lit again without Kelly on sunday. I wasn't as nervous going in because of the small bit of confidence I was still riding on from saturday. It was also not the most complicated scene to light and I knew my main source would be motivated by the single window in the room. I clipped the soft box to a shelf next to the window with the mafer clamp to mimic sunlight and used the Omni's to fill in some more general. It was actually pretty simple. Maybe I just think its simple because I know more now... or maybe it was just simple. There were only a few shots that I wasn't completely happy with lighting wise on saturday but once again the clock was ticking and not everything can be perfect. I think the weirdest thing about sunday was that Brianne wasn't there and Cody was doubling as the A.D. It was so weird because Cody is always the one that wants to do just one more take and he had to play the opposite roll and be aware of time instead. I will never forget the moment that I wanted to do one more for safety and he looked at me and said, "we have to move on." I was so shocked because I'm usually the one thats pressing the time issue and he is usually the one that wants to do one more. It was actually kind of refreshing to have Cody as A.D. because it forced him to be more aware of the time. I found myself more relaxed, probably at the expense of Cody being more stressed haha. At the end of the day we moved over to the studio to shoot one dolly shot for the montage sequence. I used a a few of the studio lights for general and I used an Omni to backlight the students sitting and another one to light David and Lancaster. It was a fun shot to light. I'm actually starting to have fun lighting things. I remember when I used to hate it.... interesting.
Saturday was a big test for me because I knew that Kelly was not going to be on set and that lighting was my responsibility. I know that I have learned a lot about lighting in these past few months but I was still a bit nervous about having to do it myself. My biggest problem is having confidence when it comes to lighting. I used a lot of CTB to cover the overhead halogens in the cafe and utilized the light from the sun through the big cafe windows. I used the omni's to fill in some more general light on wide and 2 shots. I had to use the soft box later on in the day because the sun was setting and not giving enough light through the windows. I know they weren't the hardest lighting set ups in the world but I was really proud of the way most of the lighting came out. Saturday really helped boost my confidence. We also did the really complex cafe shot that involved dollying in on Bobby at 12 fps. It was really tough because bobby had to stay completely still for like almost 4 minutes while all these other people were buzzing around him. I felt bad because his eyes kept watering because he was trying not to blink. I wish we had more extras for the shot. I was really impressed with Cody's system for controlling the extras in the background. He grouped them by numbers and called out each number when he wanted certain groups to move. I thought that was really cool.
Saturday night was just alright. We shot in a classroom, there were a ton of white walls and not really much we could do about it. In the interest of time, we were forced to use the shitty florescent overhead lights. They blew out the walls a lot which sucked but at least they didn't look green. I hated having to use them but to be honest we would have been shooting till 2 a.m. easy if we didn't and we had another big day early in the morning on sunday. It was a sacrifice we had to make. Enough about that.
I lit again without Kelly on sunday. I wasn't as nervous going in because of the small bit of confidence I was still riding on from saturday. It was also not the most complicated scene to light and I knew my main source would be motivated by the single window in the room. I clipped the soft box to a shelf next to the window with the mafer clamp to mimic sunlight and used the Omni's to fill in some more general. It was actually pretty simple. Maybe I just think its simple because I know more now... or maybe it was just simple. There were only a few shots that I wasn't completely happy with lighting wise on saturday but once again the clock was ticking and not everything can be perfect. I think the weirdest thing about sunday was that Brianne wasn't there and Cody was doubling as the A.D. It was so weird because Cody is always the one that wants to do just one more take and he had to play the opposite roll and be aware of time instead. I will never forget the moment that I wanted to do one more for safety and he looked at me and said, "we have to move on." I was so shocked because I'm usually the one thats pressing the time issue and he is usually the one that wants to do one more. It was actually kind of refreshing to have Cody as A.D. because it forced him to be more aware of the time. I found myself more relaxed, probably at the expense of Cody being more stressed haha. At the end of the day we moved over to the studio to shoot one dolly shot for the montage sequence. I used a a few of the studio lights for general and I used an Omni to backlight the students sitting and another one to light David and Lancaster. It was a fun shot to light. I'm actually starting to have fun lighting things. I remember when I used to hate it.... interesting.
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