Finally, after so much waiting, the shoot came and went...and with very little drama on set. The day started off great and as it went on, I began to appreciate more and more the shiny boards I borrowed from Robin of Banana Grip Equipment. Never having DPed anything with a real budget, I haven't had access to such basic professional equipment before. I was totally amazed by the quality and amount of light we got out of those shiny boards. At first, I thought they were going to be more of a hassle than they were worth (they didn't even fit into the trunk of my car). But after seeing the light they produced and how easy that light could be manipulated, I honestly believe they added a higher production value to the whole film. I'm also excited to have something so beautifully lit with my name on it. But I should really stop talking up the lighting, because I'm sure there are plenty of mistakes to be pointed out and, of course, lighting isn't everything. But still, I'm pretty pumped about it.
All the prep paid off. We had minimal issues with equipment (it took a few minutes to get the wireless lavs up and running) and only one p2 card issue (which was actually a false alarm). What happened was...
I gave a full card to the camera assistant for offload/ingestion. The AC then informed me that there was no footage on the card, even though it continued to be read as full in the camera. After much panicking and gnashing of teeth, the problem turned out to be improper erasing of the card. Basically, the AC had gotten the card back when it was actually full, but instead of reformatting the card using the p2 store, he simply manually deleted all of the files from the card in Finder (which didn't actually reformat the card, it just erased the mxf data on the card).
Towards the end of the day was the only time I began to feel any pressure for time and we still got in everything by 5pm so all in all, probably the smoothest shoot I've ever been a part of. The actors were perfectly professional, the skeleton crew and extras couldn't have been more helpful and there were absolutely no personality clashes. I can't wait to see the first cut.
Next up on the list, my new job. I no longer work for Echo Entertainment, my home for the last year and 8 months. And while I will miss lots about the place: the people, shooting, editing; I am very excited to learn some new abilities and work in a fairly different environment. My new job is at CBS Television City where I am a post production assistant in the On-Air Promotions department. Basically every show that airs on CBS gets promos made in this department. My job is to help keep everybody on track as to what promos need to get shipped out that day. The real job, though, is the night shift. The day shift and night shift's work culminate in a satellite feed to New York of all the day's promos at 2am (LA time). All the people I've met so far have been uber-nice so...I think I'm going to like it here.
On days I do the night shift I do still plan on doing small freelance gigs during the day. So you can continue to look forward to my riveting blogs about such gigs.
Plenty more to come...
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