Gaffer: Short Film- Dogs of War

___At the beginning of March I worked as a gaffer on a short called "Dogs of War." It was about a motorcycle gang and it featured some pretty cool locations. Day 1 we were at a night exterior location downtown near some abandoned railroad tracks. The location featured some cool brick buildings with some nice texture and it was surprisingly well lit with practicals. We used a 1.2 hmi through a full sick as a back light for the 3 main characters that walk down this back Ally. As they settle and stop to converse, there key comes from a diva light that I rigged to an 8 foot chain link fence. We also had a 1x1 LED panel that was held and moved with the subjects as they walked to provide a constant fill. There was also a very strong practical that was reading very warm in comparison to the lights we brought in, which actually made for an interesting color temp combination.

Another location that was really great was a metal scrap yard in the middle of nowhere. I don't even remember where it was, but it was cool. The main lighting set up there was in an "abandoned gang meeting house." It was basically a half finished small room with the wall frames exposed on the inside. It featured a few dirty windows which we half boarded up. These provided a great way to bring in a hard sunlight source. We punched 2 1.2HMIs with wide lenses straight in through both windows. This back lit 3 subjects and served as a key for the 4th that was tied to a chair in the center of the room. We also had a 400w joker that I rigged to the ceiling to provide a hard back light for the actor sitting in the chair. There was another "skinny man" Kino that we hid to provide more overall ambient light. There was one other "worklight" tungsten practical that would play as part of the scene. With a little bit of smoke added, the beams from the HMI's really popped and gave the scene a pretty cool look.

Camera Operator: U.S. Soccer Federation- Guatemala City, Guatemala

Through the end of March and into the first week in April I worked on an 18 day shoot as a camera operator at the U20MNT World Cup Qualifying Tournament in Guatemala. I was responsible for creating an episodic series entitled "20 Under 20" that followed the team as it prepared for and played in the tournament. The series relied heavily on interviews with the coaching staff. These were simple talking head setups that I lit with a small tungsten fresnel Arri Kit and a Rifa light. I used the Rifa as a key and wrapped it a bit frontal to spill onto the fill side. Then I used a 300w fresnel as an edge light opposite key side and one more 300w fresnel to put a slash on the background curtain. The rest of the footage consisted of b-roll from training, recovery sessions, meetings, video analysis and anything else the team may have done together while on the road.

Camera Operator: U.S. Soccer Federation- Montego Bay, Jamaica

_____I recently shot for the U.S. Soccer Federation at the U17 Mens National Team World Cup Qualifying Tournament in Montego Bay, Jamaica. It was an 18 day shoot in which I was responsible for documenting the teams performance as they progressed through the tournament. I had to shoot interviews with both players and coaches before and after every game as well as cover practice and any other activities the team did together during their stay in Jamaica. I also created various "Get To Know Me" segments highlighting individual members of the team so that fans can learn more about their favorite players. It was tough at first because most of the boys were a bit camera shy (as anyone would be at 15 years old) but for the most part they interviewed well.

I didn't have any lighting equipment at my disposal for interviews so I had to spend some time scouting the resort to see where I could use natural light to my advantage. I tried to chose areas that would help capture the flavor of Jamaica and give the audience a sense of perspective. It was tough to keep the highlights from blowing out in the direct sun but I tweaked the gamma settings in the camera so that the highlights held a bit more and tried my best to pick locations where there were not huge variations in light level. After the first day I shot the interviews hand held to give the pieces more of a casual feel. Shooting them on sticks gave the interviews a more professional feel but the static frame combined with the nervousness of some of the players wasn't really working. Overall I think the pieces came out well considering the time constraints and strict schedule that the team had to adhere to. The boys ended up qualifying for the World Cup as well as winning the entire tournament so I would say it was a successful trip from both a shooting and a soccer stand point.

Director of Photography: Gatorade: G-Series Fit Piece

____I recently shot a small promotional piece for Gatorade's "G-Series Fit" products. It was a quick shoot consisting of one interview set up with personal trainer Todd Durkin (www.ToddDurkin.com) as well as various b-roll of him training clients around the facility. This piece will be cut together with another piece about female personal trainer Lacey Stone (www.laceystonefitness.com) that will be shot in New York. For my shoot, unfortunately I couldn't turn off the overhead florescents in the gym so I had to let them play. I added a hard kicker/edge to the right side of Todd's face with a 650w fresnel through 216 diffusion. This added a bit of contrast and helped make the image look a little less flat. All of the b-roll was run and gun hand held but the content fit the shooting style and it seemed to work in the final edit. Fun shoot, good people.

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!