Nightfire: Filming in Verona, Italy

While many of you may have either seen the trailer, or even the full film, Nightfire is probably a talking point you've heard about when hanging out in the Park School. I was lucky enough to travel to Verona, Italy this past January to work as the 1st Camera Assistant for this thesis film. It was a great opportunity to work on a professional run set with amazing actors, crew, and of course gear. Oh, how I miss that gear.

Now as demonstrated in the trailer above there were some quite intricate scenes that occurred throughout the film. From bike chase scenes to explosions, every day was an adventure to say the least. But you must know that this film wasn't made over night, well yes we constantly shot through the night, however, the production lasted 3 weeks and most days we worked for 16 hours with the occasional all nighter shoot. Well choreographed shots and blocking was the name of the game, because when explosions and special effects come into play there are only so many takes you get before you must move to the next shot.

(16mm ARRI Ultra Prime used with the Red Dragon.)

As 1st AC I was in charge of everything from making sure batteries were charged before we went on set(or right before the next big explosion), calibrating our DJI Ronin, even making sure the DP was out of bed in the morning. Now while I look back fondly on this trip, there were some serious road bumps we ran into across the way. 

(View from the watchtower located on the set of the military base.)

First off, the weather. We were filming in the middle of winter in northern Italy, seeing the Alps as we drove to set became a normal part of our day and it was a clear reminder of the winter cold. Not only did you have to bundle up before venturing to set, but we had to make sure the electronics would work properly. 

(Director of Photography, Garret Nicholson, preparing a shot on the Jib)

The entire film was shot on the Red Dragon which had quirks we constantly had to deal with. The first thing to know about Red cameras is that to have a clean image at higher ISOs you must perform what is called "Black shading". Black shading is the process of obtaining the functioning temperature of the Red. Typically this rests around a 45/65 split. There are two temperatures of the camera as you can see in the picture below.

To perform a black shade you will wrap the camera in a sound blanket or jacket, whatever is around really, and ensure that no light is getting to the sensor. It takes about 20 minutes but this will eliminate any grain obtained through high ISOs. However, after the one black shade is run, the camera needs to stay at that temperature of 65/45 (a few degrees off doesn't hurt). With the cold affecting the camera we would always have to have the Red otherwise the camera would drop below operating temp and the grain would trickle back into the shot.

Battery life was short lived and like most sets we needed a charging station. Sometimes it was a room indoors located on set, other times it was out of the back of a van or running off a generator.

(DJI Ronin)

Due to the calibration needed for the DJI Ronin's 3-axis gimbal we were forced to used RED volt batteries. To ensure smooth movement from the rig we had to have perfect balance and the larger batteries would not cut it. These RED volt bricks only last about 30 minutes when the weather is warm,  so when the cold was added it was cut down to 15 minutes at best. To keep the volts warm we resorted to holding onto batteries beneath our long johns and armpits. 

When using a tripod the larger Anton Bauer V-mount batteries were able to be used, but the majority of the film was shot on the Ronin so we had to troubleshoot this problem. When we were constantly running around I would carry the V-mount adapter. After we completed a shot we would set the Ronin on it's stand and plug the AC power adapter in and prepare for the next shot. This was a huge stressor of the trip, since the responsibility of battery master fell upon myself. However, having the AC power truly helped our situation.

Another issue we ran into was difficulties with the wireless follow focus. Due to the cold and issues with the receiver the follow focus would not deliver it's signal. We tried everyday to get the follow focus to work but still struggled to find the solution. In the end we had to just close our iris, cross our fingers, and keep our distance. The follow focus would have been an extreme help, especially for the long tracking shots the movie had. It just goes to show you never know what will happen on set, but you better be damn ready to work around anything that gets in your way. 

(Paul Wolter getting Wild)

Overall, I had the time of my life. Being able to travel across the world for film is something I want to continue to do for the rest of my life. I met amazing people, learned so much about the filmmaking process and how to become a better DP, and the wine made up for any sort of mishaps we had on set during the day. There is so much that I took away from this project but I'd have to write a book to do explain it all, so until then this will suffice. Until next time.

The Golden Doorknob Awards

The Skip Landen Golden Doorknob Awards is an annual tradition in Park, and this year's event was celebrated during alumni weekend for the 40th anniversary of the School of Communications. The ceremony was entertaining as always, hosted by Peter Johanns, who made the entire auditorium laugh out loud with his stone-cold jokes about giving his kid away. The night started with some of the classic doorknob films from students in the past, there was a tribute to Skip Landen, the name behind the Golden Doorknob Awards, some previous award winners, and some other gags throughout the night before the montage of this year's official entries.

The winning mini-knob film, Death Door 3000, starred Canon Brownell and was the story of a young adult who becomes aware that he is currently in a doorknob film and must try to stay alive, and away from doorknobs. He eventually gets shot to death by a malicious door, in a hilarious ending. The entries for this year were creative, with some notable entries such as the The Man With The Golden Knob, a James Bond parody with amazing intro and ending credits sequences just like in the Bond movies. Second place went to Gerbert The Pervert, a wildly sexual and gory short film about two characters who attempt to murder a pervert, but the murder attempt goes horribly wrong. The gore effects were done very well, and they used swish pans effectively. The winning film was Happy Birthday, which I was a part of. It is the story of a young adult on the day of his deceased father's birthday going to pay him respects and give his father a message. He writes a letter to his father and leaves it at the base of Ground Zero, where his father was killed in the 9/11 attacks. There is a flashback to the day his dad left for work, and to the last words his father said to him. My roommate James Majeau came up with the story last year, he edited it and also starred in it. The film was shot over fall break in 2012. Rebecca Hersey was our colorist, Breanna Espina was our director of photography, Brian Felsenthal was our audio editor, and I was the special effects editor. When James was taking Fiction Field I, he used this for his news story project in this class, like we are now. I am so glad that I was a part of the production, it was a great experience and I enjoyed watching James' excitement when all of his hard work finally paid off. At the end of the ceremony our group met with one of the professors who was here when production classes were just getting started. He gave us a great piece of advice, and the one lesson he has learned throughout his 80 plus years of life. He told us there is no such thing as a boss, there are only teams and captains. Everyone is in it together, and has something to contribute to the team. If you help your peers out, they will help you out, we all learn from each other.

Screenings

So tonight, I decided to go with a few of my friends to see some of the thesis screenings at 7:00. I have to say, overall, I was pretty impressed. I know people take a lot of time on these projects, but in some of them, I really saw that hard work and energy shine through. They were pretty creative and different from each project, and I like the way they formatted the screening. It wasn't documentary after documentary or short film after short film; there was a mix.

One of my favorite films of the night was the documentary City Under Siege, the documentary that highlighted the destruction of Hurricane Sandy. This was a documentary that the producers began the semester before taking senior media thesis. They began the project during their doc studies class where they accumulated footage and interviews from the aftermath of the hurricane from people living on Staten Island.

The film opened with interviews from President Obama and other notable politicians as well as footage of the storm itself. They then moved onto the following days, using voice overs and b-roll of the neighborhoods closest to the water. After that, they did interviews with families about the hard times they went through. It first harped in on the lack of attention the government, FEMA, and the Red Cross was giving the population. From there, they highlighted the help of the volunteers and how much they contributed to the clean up of the areas. One of the saddest portions of the film was the interview they did with the family whose house burnt down. They evacuated their home and travelled to Pennsylvania, and as they watched the news, they watched their own house burn down. The producers stuck with the family as they searched through the rubble and found items that survived the flames such as a box of old pictures. They then finished the film with the extreme weather that has occurred over the years and how global warming is a problem they are dealing with.

The documentary, I think, was one of the best shot projects of the evening. It made the audience feel like they knew the people in the story and helped the audience relate to them in a struggling time. I also really enjoyed how they included their own footage as well as footage from other new sources, which added a great effect to the film.
 

Open 24 Hours

There is so much talent in the Park School of Communications at Ithaca College. The number of fantastic productions that come out of the school is amazing. I have personally worked on five ICTV shows and one senior film thesis in my short time here so far. This weekend I'll be helping out on another film. This one is a CP2 (Cinema Production II) film, Open 24 Hours. 

The basic plot is as follows: a man and his long-time girlfriend go to the store to get a morning-after pill, but after a meeting some interesting people they begin to think that this might be the perfect time to forget the pill and start a family. (disclaimer: I haven't read the entirety of the script. I read the treatment and that's pretty much the gist of it)

Even though I'm only boom op for the film, I am still really excited. We are filming in the Tops here in Ithaca (the one down past Wegmans). Because we are, y'know, filming in a supermarket, there are a bunch of things that need to be taken into account. One thing is that we can only do stuff when the store off of peak hours. Hooray for overnight shoots! The rough schedule of filming is 9pm-7am on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. 

Other things that I've thought of that could be intriguing: 

• We are probably going to have to move some food packaging around so we do not see any logos. EDIT: Apparently we aren't worrying about that
• Continuity would be a b!%&# over the course of filming three separate days. Customers or employees could move things around on Saturday that will mess up Sunday. 
• What kind of security/supervision will there be? I hardly think a supermarket will trust 20 college kids to roam in their store. EDIT: The Tops night crew is small, about seven people.
• Almost all of the crew knows each other, and I predict lots of distraction. Everything is nice and organized, however, so there's hope!
• I've never been to a shoot that has been shot on actual film, so it will be neat to see that happen.

So yeah, I am excited. It will be an interesting weekend to say the least. I wonder how much sleep I'll get...