My man-GPS severely failed me today. I was driving up to Hollywood to scout a location for an upcoming dance video segment and completely missed the Santa Ana freeway. So, of course, I decided to take the Pasadena freeway north because I hadn't see the Santa Ana and thought it would be a shortcut. Nope (buzzer sound)...sorry, wrong answer - but what do we have for him Johnny? Yep, a couple miles into Pasadena I realized my mistake and made the appropriate U-turn still not knowing exactly where I was. Hoping that I just needed to get back on to I-5, made another wrong turn and started heading toward the snow capped San Fernando mountains - which soon alerted me that I was going the wrong direction again. Something funky was in my oatmeal this morning.
The good news is that I arrived exactly when I said I would in Hollywood at the location. Hah! Still made it despite someone using a voodoo doll on my sense of directionality today. Amy and I talked shoot logistics and I had a chance to finally use my brand new Sekonic L-768 light meter to check the location. When I saw the interview couch location at f/5.6 - 60th...ahhh bliss. However...the outdoors measured f/5.6 - 1000th to 2000th....ahhh crud. Time to rent lights. Should be a fun shoot in a very camera friendly setting. Below is a photograph of the interview couch and the background going nuclear. This is what I have to at least get down to a reasonable contrast range.
Then it was off to Venice Beach (pictured below) to hang out with fellow gear pr0n (work safe'd misspelling) addicted shutterbugs. Philip Bloom asked for a meeting of people interested in 5D cinematography and boy did we have a turn out.
You can see me in the first group picture of his blog entry today (follow link to picture). I'm the only one in a green shirt. I'm also in the background of a photo of Rodney Charters holding a new Canon T2i.
Rodney (pictured far right) is the DP "for a little show called 24," as he modestly put it. Rodney brought along his gaffer, David St. Onge (pictured second from right), as well. David used to live just north of the Venice beach "circus" and was evidently used to being yelled at by beach psychics for blocking their "office" (i.e. umbrella and cardboard sign) as we experienced. David was kind enough to offer some pointers about interview lighting. Considering I have the task of keeping five dancing women happy with set work for four hours, I'll take just about any, much much appreciated advice I can get at this point! It's great to meet nice people like this who have worked hard and found success in the industry. First it was Shane Hurlbut last year; now Rodney and David. Makes me consider that I might have made the wrong career choice.
Philip spent most of the day being surrounded by "man crushes." We're talking about the "gee, golly, shucks, Phil actually talked to ME" type of man crushes. Today I feel like dubbing him "Guru Phil." You'd almost expect to see TMZ following him around asking stupid questions about his cats. ...and yes, he's taller than you expect in person. But I digress, back to the gear pr0n.
A company called Viewfactor was there to show off Shane Hurlbut's "man cam" configuration, which included battery (hidden), HDMI to SDI converter (hidden), a remote control follow focus, cage, man handles, and remote start/stop (drool). Hey, if you've got the money, why not? It was definitely cool.
Jehu Garcia (i.e. JAG35) and his brother were there to show off some of their toys. I think the shoulder rig was a first mock up, but they do sell the cage, rods, monitor, and necessary mounts. At $250 the monitor might be mine very quickly. I needed one...like yesterday.
Also there was the obligatory Zacuto should rig setup sitting on a tripod. But I have to admit that the stuff that Viewfactor, JAG35, and D-focus showed up with seemed more exciting. I took my rail mount setup, but let's face it - their stuff is much more polished than anything I'm working on. I'm under a deadline to get my stuff built so I can actually use it.
After gorging ourselves on gear pr0n, it was time to consume sustenance. I had an opportunity to have lunch with David Aldrich (D-focus) and the JAG35 boys, which of course led to more conversation about gear. You can see a bit of what's coming sitting on the table with us. After today I'm thoroughly convinced that to be in this industry you gotta love toys.
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2 comments:
Those windows are much larger than I imagined. Gelling them would be a massive project. I suggest getting a joker 800 or Arri 1.2k and filling in the foreground as much as you can.
Keep in mind, the light is going to change a lot throughout the course of the day. There may be a time where the sun is in the perfect position to give you your stop both in the background and foreground.
Also, this meet up looks awesome! I wonder if they're doing one on the east coast..
The "Zacuto" tripod setup is acutally a Korean ebay / magic spider rig
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