It may be years until the day my dreams will match up with my pay

This project has already become the most educational because it introduces me to the entirely unique process of documentary. I began this project in the fall of 2009 with my friend Courtney (lead actress in 'The Runner'). She approached me about co-producing a documentary featuring her (now ex) boyfriend's band. The first part of shooting coincided with the band's first official "tour" outside of Los Angeles. The band would be traveling to the lead singer's hometown and playing several shows in and around the area. With some experience in filming documentary-type footage, I was disappointed that I could not join the tour myself as the cameraperson. Courtney proved a much more stealthy operator in that the band was already familiar with her and comfortable in her presence. I was given the role of director of photography of the film (and filmed some key moments of the film myself) but Courtney's footage is the meat and potatoes of the piece. Before going on tour, I created a shot/wish list - trying to plan for any and every usable moment that could possibly occur (or be persuaded into occurring) while the band was there. Courtney was very enthusiastic and captured some amazing moments. After shooting wrapped (around May 2010), I began the process of digitizing all 40 hours of footage into my newly built Hackintosh equipped with Final Cut Pro.

The most interesting part of this experience for me so far has been the process of 'writing' the script for the documentary before ever touching an edit station. Our initial viewing of all the footage, along with extensive notes, allowed us to create an outline for editing (something that I have deemed essential in attempting to sort through all of the usable moments in the raw footage). I am currently in the middle of what I have dubbed 'pre-editing', which is basically taking out all of the unusable moments (driving shots, minutes of silence, shots deemed too dark/too shaky, etc.) and stringing together any and all usable "soundbites" which will be laid into the edit timeline first to establish a story arc. Visual storytelling moments are second on my list (montages of the band getting from one place to another, concert footage, beginning and end recaps). With b-roll, of course, being the last on the list. Music will come in earlier than normal - at the story arc stage, because it will set the pacing for the piece.

It's been embarrassingly long since I've last posted. I fear I may not remember all the details of the last big shoot I did camera for - but I will do my best.

Back in April, Garrett Rowe (key grip on 'Like the Penguins') approached me about being the DP for a web series pilot he was directing called "Strangely Enough". I was excited right off the bat because Garrett has a real technical knowledge and knows a thing or two about production value. He was also willing to put up his own money to make sure this looked as good as possible. One of the first ideas he pitched to me was wanting to shoot with the RedRock Micro lens adapter and Zeiss primes. It was to be my first time as DP on a shoot with film lenses. Needless to say I was jumping at the opportunity.

The shoot was scheduled over 2 days: July 25th (office scenes) and July 26th (exteriors, web video sequence). The office setups included an interior office room, a conference room, and a common area. I was going to be filming up to 3 people at a time, one of them African-American. The variance in light a subject's skin tone calls for is a great exercise in shaping light around an actor, rather than just blasting it across everybody and everything. We rented equipment from Wooden Nickel for the 'Like the Penguins' shoot and found them to be very helpful people (even after/before hours). Wooden Nickel took care of all our lighting needs for this shoot. I took advantage of the budget Garrett gave me and got everything I thought we could possibly need: 2 4ft. 4-bank kino flos, an array of Arri fresnels (1K, 650W, 300W, 150W), and a 6X6 silk for the backyard sequence. Garrett took care of renting the RedRock and Zeiss primes (an 85mm, 55mm and 35mm). I can't remember where he got them from.


Shooting in the office was straight-forward but lighting it was quite time-consuming. Every setup required a complete breakdown and rebuild. Keeping the light/shadows off of the walls as characters moved through the frame was the most difficult obstacle. One dolly shot took over an hour to light. I still don't feel I effectively used the flags I rented - it just seemed like opening a whole new can of worms and I was already feeling the time crunch. I did make it a point to use a lot more backlight than usual to make sure the series looked sharp and polished.


I am quite satisfied with the lighting for the most part and the film lenses did WONDERS for the image quality. We shot on the Panasonic HVX-200 (one of my favorite cameras). I was astounded by the beautiful colors, shadows and selective focus the film lenses provided and ever since using them, I always suggest reserving some of the budget to rent an adapter and lenses (it's quite costly, so I haven't had any takers just yet - but I'll keep trying!)

That's not to say I didn't make some new rookie mistakes. It being my first time using film lenses - and having a two-person crew specifically to help me run camera - I did not stress the importance of critical focus as much as I should have. Because the depth of field is so small, my AC had to constantly pull focus from one character to the other in a basic 2-shot. Garrett has assured me that the focus issues are minimal or have otherwise been covered in editing.


The exteriors were much less stressful to shoot - a lot of that was because we were forced to shoot them guerilla-style. But again, the film lenses just make everything look beautiful. The backyard "web video" sequence required very little setup. We didn't even end up using the silk. In retrospect, I wish I would have put up at least one silk - I think the sunlight in that scene (at least from my memory of shooting it) are way too bright/blown out. But I don't think it will be distracting for the casual viewer. Plus it is representing a no-budget web video - so I really shouldn't worry.

I haven't seen an edit of the footage from that weekend, but Garrett is enthusiastic. We should be shooting again by the beginning of next year (pickups for episode 1 and all of episode 2). Locations will include a bar and tv studio - wrangling those should be a blast!