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.

MōVI STARTS MOVING

Earlier in the year a couple students, including myself, posted about the new MŌVI... a hybrid type of steadicam that can provide very smooth shots in versatile situations. The device is already being used in a couple productions, but one production team has actually worked with MŌVI technicians to mount a RED Epic camera onto this flagship device. Their creation is pretty cool looking... a mechanical dance routine on an artistically lit backstreet, all with the MŌVI flowing around the scene:

When interviewing GAREN, the producer of the music video, he stated:

Did using the MōVI make my job as a producer easier? No. Did we come across difficulties because of its learning curve? Yes. Did it cause us to lose some time? Yes. But these things are all to be expected when embracing new technologies.

His answer seems very logical and brings forth the point that the MŌVI is not yet meant for anyone to pick up and start making their very own backyard video. It's a technical piece of equipment and it will take the industry a little bit of time to discover its full potential. 

Of course what would any of this be without a handy behind the scenes video?

Read more about this on nofilmschool.com

Violins, Assassin's Creed, and Parkour

One of my friends a couple of weeks ago showed me this video of an amazing violinist, Lindsey Stirling. He said, "Danielle, you have to see this girl. She's freaking amazing." Expecting to see some live performance or a classic homemade youtube video where the girl presses the record button, gives a little introduction, and then plays some really complicated music, I was pleasantly surprised to see such a beautiful and well made video accompany such a talented artist. I could not tell at first whether I was more impressed by the musician or the cinematographer.

The cinematographer, who makes his living solely off of youtube videos, is Devin Graham. I could not find much biographical information on Devin, except that he is primarily located in Salt Lake City, Utah. Lindsey and Devin have teamed up to create a multitude of sensational videos since early 2012. My favorite videos tend to be the ones that contain medleys from video games like Zelda and Skyrim. I also throughly enjoy the Lord of the Rings one and of course the video 'Shadows,' which you can watch on the link above. These videos are visually very aesthetically pleasing. First off, the locations are incredible. For the Lord of the Rings video they actually went to New Zealand, where they shot the LOTR trilogy, and for the Zelda video they are in an unspecified location, but it is in the mountains of a beautiful, desolate, area that is absolutely breathtaking. The colors on these videos are gorgeous and highly saturated. The pacing and style of the editing and video effects are fantastic and create a lot of energy. What I also love about these videos is that the cinematographer, Devin, often releases a Behind the Scenes video to accompany the original, which is very helpful in understanding how he filmed it (what camera he used) and how he did some of his stunning visual effects. He often uses his RED Epic, 5Dmkii (which he has now upgraded to a mkiii), and his Glide Cam HD 4000.
Here is another video that blew me away.

For those who don't know, Parkour is when someone finds a route from point A to point B and tries to quickly go from one place to another in the quickest, most efficient, and (sometimes) most entertaining way while encountering several obstacles in-between.
To make this video happen, I love the attention to detail Devin Graham has because he knows if something video game related is done wrong, this could upset the diehards gamers. He worked hard on getting a good costume, score, and making sure that his (stunt) actor played the game for inspiration on how to walk and execute moves similar to the video game character. He also mentioned that he did not get a permit to shoot anywhere because he did not want to close off sections of streets and instead wanted to have regular non-actors in the background because in the video game, this character runs amongst similar crowds. Granted, I haven't played Assassin's Creed so I don't know if he is accurate or not, but if he says that he tries to stay true to the video game, I believe he does whatever he can to closely resemble the game's character in a modern day setting because he is very thorough with all of his videos.
If you haven't seen any of his videos already, you should definitely check them out!