Anamorphic Lenses

I've been brought in as the Gaffer* for a short film based on the DC character Static Shock. We're still in pre-production and look to be shooting in April. A few weeks ago the director and I started looking into the possibility of shooting this project in a cinemascope, 2.35:1, aspect ratio.

Most HD cameras record video in a 16:9 aspect ratio (as are most new TVs and monitors) such as this one:




An anamorphic lens uses optics to squeeze a wider-angle image onto a piece of film or a digital sensor. Once you have the image captured you can either stretch it in your editing software (like I did) or you can project it using another anamorphic lens - thus stretching it back out optically. Here is a test with the directors new Panasonic AG-LA7200 anamorphic lens:




As you can see we now get the wider 2.35:1 aspect ratio without losing any vertical resolution or cropping. We also get those mega-sweet anamorphic lens flares that shoot horizontally across the frame.

"But wait!" You say. "There are awesome horizontal lens flares in the "Pilot Light" video as well!"

Yes, but those were added in by our visual effects supervisor and took 48 hours of hand-tracking for that 3 minute video. Now we can just do them in camera!

*I'm also talking to the director about DP'ing - we'll see what happens.

Also: hey r/photography - mcarneybsa

48Hours Film Project 2011 - Indianapolis

Well Hello All! It's been a few weeks so I thought I'd post a bit of an update. Most recently I just finished a 48Hour film for the Indianapolis 48Hour Film Project.

I became the Gaffer on the team Brïán's Blankets - Directed by Ben Dewhurst, the 1st AC for Syncope. We wrote, shot, edited, and delivered a Superhero movie in under 48 Hours (47 Hours, 51 Minutes to be exact).

We were all really excited about our film, but unfortunately we were immediately dis-qualified. Our film had a run-time of 9:30. We were only allowed 7:00. Our director, editor, and everyone else present at the time felt that the integrity of our story was more important than winning awards, so we turned it in anyway.

The great project coordinators let us screen our film with the rest of them anyway, so we were still able to win "Audience Favorite" which is what we wanted anyway.

The nice thing is that now we can put our film into other festivals and release it online when we want. It's going to get re-mastered, cleaned up, and all the audio fixed (had a few problems editing in the car ;) and then we will publish it. In the mean time, here is the trailer and a Behind The Scenes video (the last half of which is just the product of staying up too late...)




Super Party BTS from Michael Carney Media on Vimeo.
Behind the Scenes on the Super Party short film. Written, Shot, and Edited in 48 Hours by Brian's Blankets team for the Indianapolis 48hours film festival.



Table of Contents:

00:00-00:40 - Day 1 planning

00:04-06:10 - Day 2 Shooting

06:10-07:24 - Day 3 Edit and Drop Off

07:24-15:55 - Day 3 Ben's CoinStar Butt-Bank and other awesome ideas (aka too little sleep; too much caffeine)

Not quite "as I go..."

Okay, so it wasn't possible to blog-as-I-go during Syncope (no wifi or cell service for 85% of the time + 12-20hr days...).

So instead I'm just going to post some more of the photos I took (mostly with my phone) from the shoot. Some might get explanation.

In the abandoned hospital, its important to to maintain a safe working environment!

Hannibal Smith would be proud

ready-ing the RED + Steadicam for the Tunnels

Stalactites being formed in the tunnels, you might say it was a little wet down there

We lit most of the tunnel with 100W practicals and a 2k at the end (behind camera in this shot)

L to R Gaffer,  Director (in cell) and DP talk about lighting the isolation cell

They decided to shoot a 2K through the main window and a
400W HMI into each of the sides (peppered with small ventilation holes

Clearing all the crew for the dock scenes. Talent is laying in the bow of the boat,
Director, DP and Sound in the stern and the 1st AC is in the water, holding the boat in place (behind the other three).

Not only Best Boy, but also the Dolly Grip I had the pleasure of rigging my own handle from
2 cartellini clamps, 4 gobo heads and 3 c-arms. Later, in the "motel room" I just used the cartellini clamps andpushed from a crouch.

Day for night. Talent had to leave the building through a visible door so we blocked off the sun with a 12-by solid and re-lit through the windows.

And the next shot was supposed to be daylight again,
so in one of my favorite moves, we shot Day-for-Night-for-Day.

So, there you go, the last half of the Syncope shoot all wrapped up in a few photos.... Just kidding, there was way more but I was just too busy to snap the pics.

Syncope is scheduled to premiere in October in Chicago before it hits the festival circuit. I'll post updates with date/time/location if you are interested. In theory there should be a trailer out sometime in late August/early September, I'll post that when I get the chance as well.

Syncope Days 1-4 Recap

What a blur! The first four days of filming Syncope went by so fast, but I'm not complaining about our much-needed four day break.

Last week was hectic from the get-go. I had problems getting to, and finding the location for the North Vernon headquarters. My GPS took me to a cemetery instead of the NV Police Department - but I got there before the safety briefing and that is what is important.

I apparently could not find either of these tents...

I was assigned to work as a grip with one other guy. Grips set up the lighting and camera support and work under the Gaffer - the man in charge of the physical act of lighting the scene (who is in turn under the Director of Photography - who designs the way the light looks).

Part of my job as a grip was also laying cable. Lots, and lots of cable. Did I mention that I lay cable? And then when we change the shot angle (generally when doing a reverse shot or "flipping the world") I get to re-lay the cable. Lots, and lots of cable.

Myself and the other grip laying the "5-strand" main power
cables from the generator to the distro-box (not destructo-box).

Aside from the bit of rain and lots of wind, the first night's shooting went rather well. We wrapped filming for the day at 4:45am and I finally left the set at 5:30 when everything was put away. I then tried to drive home to get ready for work at 9am...

I only made it about 25 minutes to Columbus, IN where I promptly fell asleep in a McDonalds parking lot for 2 hours. I then woke up, cleaned up (in the Mickey D's bathroom) and went to work. Afterwords, I went home, slept for another hour and then drove back to beautiful North Vernon for another night of filming.

Seriously, it looked like this for three evenings in a row.

On the second day the gaffer came over to me, took my name tag and crossed out "Production Assistant / Grip" and wrote "Best Boy Electric." The Best Boy Grip is more-or-less second in line to the Gaffer and would be, on a full film set, in overseeing other electricians. The other grip was promoted to Best Boy Grip. Normally the Best Boy Grip would report to the Key Grip, but we don't have one, so instead he reports to the Gaffer. All of this is semantics, however, because it is only myself, the BB Grip and the Gaffer to begin with (but we do get to grab PAs to help us whenever we need it).

The second day was pretty sweet because we had an 18' jib on set.

This fella.

They guys at Hearland Camera Jibs did a great job getting some killer footage. But wait, there's more! They came back again on Friday (day 4) for the bridge scene. 

Toward the end of the shoot, the Gaffer had to leave to drive to Chicago to get condor certified which left me in charge of the lighting for about 3 hours (plus tear down). Things were a bit hectic, but I think the AD's and Producers were happy with my hustle. 

Myself and the gaffer adjusting a flag and a light (respectively)

After day 2 I was able to catch another 3 hours of sleep before heading back to Indy for another shoot for 12 Stars. I then drove back to North Vernon (with a quick stop-over at Arby's) for day 3. 

Day 3 was pretty typical, no steadicam, jib, or explosions to report. But I definitely started to feel the effects of limited sleep (if you've done the math, I'm at 6 hours from Tuesday morning through Thursday night). I finally got to get a slightly normal amount of sleep after everything got cleaned up from Day 3 (and our last day in the town of North Vernon). I managed to eek out another 6 hours of sleep before getting up for Friday's earlier call time.

Friday (day 4) we changed game plans and instead of doing a super-long day, we only did 4 shots, all at the same location, and with only ambient light - My job was cake for the day, except for the massive inventory I had to do of our 1ton grip truck and equipment from three different suppliers...

Friday's 30' Jib - booyah!

I was able to sneak away from the truck long enough to grab a quick video from the cheap-seats at Video Village and bring you this teaser...

Well, that's it for now. I'll try to blog during the next 4 days of production (Wednesday through Saturday) since I'll be able to stay down on location without driving back to Indy nearly every day.

Gripping for Syncope 1 of ?

wrenches, tapes, markers and gloves. Hopefully
I haven't forgotten anything...

Over the next two weeks I'll be spending 8 days (and nights) on the set of the short film Syncope. I'm working as a Grip/PA so I'll basically be doing just about anything.

I'm going to try and blog-as-I-go, but I have no clue how tired or how much of an internet connection I'll have so we'll see.

I'm glad I'm young(er)

'Cause that means I don't have to shoot film/tapes. I just spent twenty-five minutes dicking around with final cut pro and a JVC BR-HD50 firewire tape deck trying to log and capture footage from this weekend's shoot of "Clutter."

I enjoyed the aesthetic of shooting Tri-X in my BW film photography class last semester (I especially like the highlights!). But I hated getting told what to shoot each week with a deadline. Granted, that's what I do for a living, but this was supposed to be fine art - my perceptions of my world. Instead I had to shoot assignments like "Show me maximum depth of field" or "Show me you know how to change your shutter speed."

With Convergence and the introduction of more digital systems (like Panasonic's P2 system and the RED) Logging and capturing (much less developing!) tapes and film is almost becoming a thing of the past.

Film will always be around, but damn it Purdue Film and Video Studies, we aren't shooting "Film" anyway, we might as well switch to fully digital systems and save ourselves hours of keyboard-head banging swearing in the DLC.

/rant

And then the cops came...

So today I was shooting for my black and white photography class (film - gasp!) out between Beering and Recitation Halls.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the Purdue campus, there is a random - and pointless - brick wall between these two buildings.

My goal for the day was to shoot one roll of film (36exp) of nothing but portraits of people walking by me.

I taped up a white sheet (since my instructor wasn't able to score me any white seamless... :( ) and a small sign saying "free portraits." As people were walking by I politely introduced myself and asked if they could spare a few seconds of their time to help me with my project and, in return, I would email them a copy of the photo once it was developed so they could send it home to mom, dad, wife, whatever.

Things were going pretty well, 25%-ish of the people I asked were kind enough to spare 15 seconds to help.

About an hour (and 26 frames) later, a Purdue Police officer came and told me that I was not allowed to "do that."

When I asked her why, she started talking about not having reserved the space to set anything up, not having waivers signed, and that I wasn't allowed to ask people for their email addresses, etc (almost all of which is false).

Stupidly, I neglected to snap a photo of the officer or get her information - she basically ran off as soon as my back was turned (however the people at the OSRR were able to Identify her by her description quite quickly which makes me wonder if she has caused them problems in the past to...).

Not feeling like getting arrested today, I obliged the officer and took down my sheet and headed to Schleeman Hall (an administration building) where I started to talk with the kind people at the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities.

I explained to them my story, and they were quite confused because A) they have never had a complaint like this and B) they weren't quite sure what was wrong seeing as there is no provision about photography in the 2009/2010 Purdue University Regulations guide (which I now have a copy of that lives in my camera bag).

After about 15 minutes of pondering, looking things up, and discussing, we decided that nothing I was doing was wrong or illegal, however I did not have the 'space' reserved (mind you this is a bed sheet taped flat against a useless brick wall).

Needless to say, I will be calling space management tomorrow to reserve this wall for the rest of the semester so that I will not have any more run-ins with the Purdue Police, or if I do, I can kindly tell them to - as the ever so wise Fonzie would say - "sit on it."

I'm glad to see the Purdue Police are keeping the campus safe - one photographer at a time.