Director of Photography: Short Films- Broken & Life In A Suitcase

___At the end of November I wrapped principle photography on a 7 day shoot in which I shot 2 short films back to back. I was working along side gaffer/grip extraordinaire Jeff Marlowe who played an integral role in the success of both projects. We were working with a 1 ton grip package as well as a small Arri Fresnel Kit. We also had a few small additional lights at our disposal. The biggest challenge with these shoots was the fact that they were comprised mainly of night exterior scenes. Ir was a challenge to light these scenes correctly with only a small light package. I also shot most of these night scenes at a 1/125 sec shutter (about 70 degree shutter) to give it more of a strobey/frantic look. This meant we had to up the light level even more to compensate for the shutter angle. It was worth it though because I think action shots look so much better at a high shutter speed. In the end I think the night exteriors were some of the best looking scenes in both films.

Having the 1 ton grip package to play with was really helpful. I'm pretty sure Jeff's favorite item in the package (soon to be my favorite item as well) was the baby offset arm. It allowed us to get a back/edge light on the subjects for closeups without getting the light stand in the shot. It's such a simple piece of equipment, but it makes a world of difference. I think we used it on 90% of the lighting set ups. It was also really great to have single and double nets to use in addition to scrims. They really allowed us to be precise in controlling light levels. It seems that it is the simple pieces of equipment that really make the difference.

For the interrogation scene (See still top left) Jeff and I built a menace arm using two combo stands connected by 4 c stand arms. We hung a 650w right above the interrogation table that shot straight down so that the actors had a hard top light but were also lit from below because of the bounce off of the table. The funny thing was that the barn doors didn't fit on the light correctly when it hung upside-down so we had to shape the light with black-wrap and Jeff had to stuff a scrim inside it so it was held up only by the wrap. I was waiting for the scrim to fall down onto the table in the middle of the scene, but it stayed up there the whole time.

Looking back on it now, it was a challenging shoot but I think we got some really great shots and I definitely learned a lot.

Shooting On The Island of Pohnpei

___My latest job as Director of Photography is on a documentary entitled, “Soccermen.” It follows two Englishmen who set out to play on the “worst soccer team in the world.” After wikeapediaing that very statement, they found themselves on a remote Island called Pohnpei. This island, along with 3 others, Yap, Chuuk and Kosrae are all part of the FSM (Federated States of Micronesia), which lie in the Pacific Ocean somewhere Northwest of Australia and Southeast of Asia. Shortly after their arrival, they quickly realized that they would be much better suited to coach the team and made it their mission to transform this group of youngsters into a serious futbol club.

My job is to spend the next 10 days documenting their training and preparations leading up to Pohnpei Soccer’s 3 game tour of Guam, culminated in a match against the Fifa ranked U19 Guam Team. This game involves flying 16 boys (most of whom have never left the island) to Guam to play their first official soccer game against real competition. I will also be accompanying them to Guam and documenting their experiences there for another 8 days before returning to LA on October 8th. These next few weeks should be pretty exciting.

Rise And Shine: The Final Touches

After about 50 shooting Days and only 31 editing days, Rise and Shine: The Jay DeMerit Story is complete. This marks the end of my second feature in which I have taken on the roles of both D.P. and editor. I enjoy both positions and am glad to have taken them on, but shooting is definitely my favorite of the two. As my career continues to unfold, I really want to concentrate solely on cinematography and continue to learn more and more about the art of lighting.

This project has taken me to 3 different continents over the past 6 months and it is amazing to see it finally come together into something great. It has been a crazy ride, from dragging light kits on trains in London to running around shooting in the townships of South Africa. It has been a huge learning experience for me, as every project always is, and I am grateful to have had such an amazing opportunity. As I have said before, I can’t wait to see what is next for this film as it enters the festival circuit. Wish it the best of luck!

Director of Photography: Rise and Shine: CHICAGO

___My last of the many stops around the world for this documentary was Chicago. We needed to pick up a few interviews from Jay's college teammates as well as some coaches at the Chicago Fire Reserves team. We also made a quick stop in Green Bay to interview Jay's old High School coach, Aldo. Jay commented on his calming "grandfather" type coaching style and I wanted this to be reflected in his interview set up. I lit it fairly even and soft to give it a warm, welcoming feel. I was glad we were able to travel with a small light kit. It was key for adding some drama to a few of the other interviews that we wanted to look a bit more edgy. As always we shot non-stop the whole trip. The film is growing nearer to completion every day. It is really starting to come together and I hope that it does well in the festival circuit upon it's completion.

Director of Photography: Rise and Shine: SOUTH AFRICA

___My latest job as D.P. has taken me to South Africa to shoot at the World Cup! It was an amazing trip and I captured some really good stuff. I was able to connect with a guide to take me through the township Soweto. We drove around looking for kids playing soccer in the streets and in open fields. We found some really great locations that really captured both the landscape and the people of South Africa. I shot a lot of footage at a high frame rate, as I wanted to really see the detail in the grass and dirt as the kids kicked up dust while playing. I got some really great moments that I’m glad I shot in Slow Mo, as they could have easily been missed at regular speed.

I also captured the sites and sounds of the city in the midst of the World Cup. There were fans everywhere sporting tons of gear in order to support their respective teams. It was a shame I couldn’t get nearer to the stadiums, as FIFA pretty much had those areas on lock down. I was able to get the massive crowds that gathered in the streets to watch the second South Africa game on a giant projection screen. It was fun yet hectic trying to run around interviewing fans from various clubs. They all had great things to say about the World Cup and soccer in general. I was also able to hop on board some safari trips and capture some of the wildlife as well. I got some really good close ups of Elephants and a few Lions at the Lion Park. Overall, I think I got more than enough footage to accurately portray the atmosphere in South Africa during this amazing event.

Director of Photography: Rise & Shine: LONDON SHOOT

____After returning to LA for a few weeks after my trip to Green Bay, I set out once again with the rest of the crew to London. We spent 10 days shooting all over London. We had about 8 interview setups scheduled throughout the course of the trip. The rest of the spare time was spent shooting various parts of the city and capturing as much B-roll as possible. It seems as though we were always pressed for time, but we got a ton of great footage. Some interviews I was able to take the time to light, but others were pretty much run and gun. I was also able to get some really artsy shots along the way as well. I played around with extreme contrast and rolled on a lot of silhouette shots. Overall it was a successful trip and we definitely added to the ever growing pile of raw footage.

Director of Photography: Rise and Shine: GREEN BAY SHOOT

____My latest job as Director of Photography has been on a documentary feature entitled, Rise and Shine: The Jay Demerit Story. It is the true story of a professional soccer player's struggle and eventual rise to stardom. It begins in a small Wisconsin town in which American football, not soccer, is more than just a game. Jay Demerit grew up here, a world away from the roaring streets of London that he would eventually find himself.

Our first part of the documentary consisted of shooting in Green Bay Wisconsin, Jay's home town. We spent 5 days shooting interviews with Jay's parents, friends, siblings, high school teachers and coaches. We also shot Jay's high school/middle school and numerous fields that he grew up playing soccer on. We got a chance to drive around and shoot the landscape as well. This was really awesome and I think these shots will really help capture the essence of Green Bay living.

We have some really great footage already and we have only completed one of the many trips we have scheduled for this entire documentary. Below is our shooting schedule for the rest of the documentary.

LONDON,ENGLAND: APRIL 20th-MAY 2nd
HARTFORD,CONNECTICUT: MAY 21st-26th
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA: JUNE 7th-17th
CHICAGO: TBD

1st A.C.

_Last weekend I worked as a 1st A.C. on a pilot for an episodic called, The Room. We shot on the 5D with a few different cannon zoom lenses. The setups were relatively simple because the premise of the show is that each character is locked in a room while being recorded by a video camera behind a pane of glass. There is also one other "security" camera shooting each character in their respective rooms. The camera that was supposedly shooting through a pane of glass was obviously relatively simple because it was just locked off on sticks. The only time I really needed to pull focus was if a character leaned in close to the camera to draw attention to a certain line or to "examine" the camera.

The "security" camera setup was really a challenge to pull focus. The operator was snapping the zoom in and out randomly as I was whipping the focus in and out at the same time in order to create a mechanical feel. We didn't want the focus or the moves to look organic and smooth, we wanted them to seem as if they were machine operated, like a security camera would be in real life. It was a challenge to return to the right point of focus after purposely making the image soft on either side of the focal plane but I think the footage came out great. I hit my marks when I needed to and I did a pretty good job of adapting to random movements from actors on the fly.

I think The Room has a lot of potential and if it is cut right, it has a good chance at getting picked up. The crew was small but everyone really seemed to gel and things went relatively smooth on set. I hope we all get a chance to work with each other again in the future. Good times.

Shooting a Reality Show on Medical Marijuana

___I'm currently shooting a reality show pilot based out of one of the many Medical Marijuana shops in California. There are 5 total shoot days for the pilot and so far we have completed only one. We shot numerous interviews as well as some b-roll and I was pretty happy with how most of the footage looked. I only had a small lighting package to work with for the interviews but the director seemed happy with the look. I didn't want to use just ambient lighting even though it was a reality show but at the same time I didn't want it to look like a film. All in all I think the footage looks a bit more "filmic" than your every day reality show but I like it. We shot with two EX1's. I did most of the lighting and shot the tighter setups while the B-Camera operator covered the interviews wider and or profile. It was an interesting shoot to say the least. There will certainly be more than enough footage to cut together a 22 minute pilot. I'm interested to see what we are shooting throughout the next 4 days.

Christian Audigier's Tequila Shoot

Yesterday I worked as a videographer shooting behind the scenes footage of a photo-shoot to promote Christian Audigier's new Tequila, Paco Chicano. There were 3 main setups that the photographer chose for his shoot, all of which were in a high end bar called the "R-Lounge." He was shooting on the 7D and the pictures that I got to see looked really great. He used a lot of his lights to create lens flares in the background of his photos. It was something different and I liked that. All the setups were basically models posing around the bar showcasing the new Tequila. It was a long night but it turned out to be a pretty fun shoot.

1st A.C.

On Saturday I worked as a 1st A.C on a web-series called M.E.N. We shot it on the RED with Zeis lenses. The D.P. had a pretty cool and relatively inexpensive setup in terms of RED. He owned all his gear and his kit was much more manageable than than the massive kits I've seen with RED in the past. One thing I really liked was that he had a Red Rock mattebox that he customized with an Arri filter mount on the back. It was pretty cool because you could put rectangular filters in the front as well as circular filters in the back. A few shots outside we used ND in the front and a polarizer in the back. The polarizer was really cool, we could spin it around in the matte box to take glare off of certain parts of the image. There weren't too many difficult focus pulls but it's always good to get to work with lenses etc. I also got to really study the "false color" mode on the red, which this D.P. used a lot. It is a really interesting and different way to judge exposure and I like using it. It was a pretty laid back shoot and I learned a lot.

3D Shoot

The other day I worked on my first 3D camera project. The camera operator from "Mother's Little Helpers" was shooting test footage for a documentary that will be pitched to Gatorade and he invited me to come with. It was a pretty guerrilla style shoot, no permits. The Sony 3D rig was set up inside a van which served as our portable video village as well. We spent the night following bikers around the city streets of L.A shooting first out the back of the van and then out the sliding side door. The rig was so big and complex it took us about 45 minutes to move it from one shooting position to the other. The rig itself was made up of two identical cameras, one that shot straight out like normal and another that shot straight down into a mirror that was attached to the bottom of the matte box. This allows both camera to shoot basically the same image at the same time. In video village, the DIT could adjust the "ocular distance" of the two cameras remotely. This adjustment changes how close or far away the two image beams intersect and become one. Any object that is in front of the image intersection will pop forward on the screen and anything behind it will fade into the background. The DIT can control exactly what elements in the frame will pop out.

I learned a lot about 3D but there is sill a ton that I don't understand. Hopefully if Gatorade likes the test footage, the project will get a green light and I will get a chance to work with the 3D rig again.

Day Trippin

Over the weekend I shot a pilot for a television series called, "Day Trippin." It's a documentary style show that follows a female host around as she visits various attractions in California. On saturday we shot in a spa, at the beach, at a wine tasting venue, and then a roller derby. Santa Barbara is a pretty beautiful place. There were a ton of people surfing on the beach, I want to try it so bad. Once I start making a little more money surfing is the first thing on my list of things to try.

Sunday I got to shoot out of a helicopter, it was insane. They took the door off so I could basically hang out and shoot straight down. I got some really cool footage. I wish I had a better mount but I got some pretty steady shots for just being hand held. The biggest challenge was the difference in exposure between the inside and outside of the helicopter. Every time the host wanted to be on camera or talk to the pilot I had to quickly readjust exposure/ND level for the inside of the helicopter and vice versa for when I wanted to shoot the landscape. Overall it was an awesome weekend and the client seemed happy with what myself and the other camera operators had captured. They will sure have plenty of footage to sort through in the edit. I'm excited to see how the final 30 minute show comes together in post.

First Feature in LA

After getting settled in LA for a few days I managed to get on board a feature called "Mother's Little Helpers" starring Denise Richards and Jim Belushi. I can't believe after 4 days here I'm already a part of very legit production. I've gathered from people so far that it is extremely hard to break into the industry and to get on any sets at all, never mind a feature with some big names attached to it. I consider myself extremely lucky to have already gotten such a great opportunity and I'm working hard to make it count. This one job could make or break my career out here.

I really like everyone on set and I'm trying to learn as much as I can from the people in each department. There is a really fine line between not asking enough questions and asking too many. It's hard because you want people to notice you and the fact that you want to learn, but at the same time you don't want to be annoying and interrupt the flow on set. It's only my second day but I'm already beginning to feel that camaraderie that can only come from spending 14 hours a day in a hotel room with the same people night after night. I forgot how much fun it was to be a part of a team again.

Hopefully if I work hard enough on set this next week and a half, someone on the crew will be impressed enough to want to hire me on their next project, and so on and so forth until I can start making some money and officially say I made it in this crazy industry.

Off to L.A.

I'm officially heading out to the west coast in search of feature film work. Ever since wrapping principle on my first feature, I have been dieing to get on board another and start the movie making process all over again.Doing freelance work around the Boston area has been great, but I miss being part of a larger crew. I will be staying with a friend in Hollywood for at least the month of February to see what I can get myself into. I'm excited to see what the scene is like and hopefully find some work on any kind of feature film, indie or mainstream. My flight leaves today and the job hunting starts tonight.

Shooting the Eastern United States Danceport Championships

My last freelance shoot was at the Renaissance Waterfront Hotel in Boston for the Eastern United States Dancesport Championships. I've shot live performances in the past, but this one was one of my favorites. A ton of colorful clothes flying in and out of frame made it a fun shoot. Every style of dance dictated my own shooting style. I liked being able to switch up the movements according to the music. I'm interested to see what kind of a piece will be made with the footage I shot. There were definitely some really good moments captured that night. I've never seen so many talented dancers before. It was a much bigger event than I had expected and I was glad I got the chance to work it.

Video Lock

After one last meeting with the director, all major decisions were made regarding the video and my responsibilities as both cinematographer and editor have finally come to an end. We have reached yet another important milestone in the progression of this film, and I hope it will continue to move at a steady pace. After working on The Mercury Cycle for almost a year and a half now, it feels weird to finally be moving on. I know big things will come in the near future for this film, but for now at it enters post audio, things will be quiet for a while.