And Many Happy Returns...

Over the last few months, I've been shooting a piece for Philip Dolin of Particle Productions for former Manhattan Borough President and humanitarian, Ruth Messinger's 70th birthday.  The video was commissioned by the organization she currently runs, AJWS (American Jewish World Service).  Though there is some nice archival material throughout, the piece rests solidly on interviews with an impressive roster of names including Mia Farrow, Elie Wiesel, former NYC Mayor David Dinkins, and NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof.

I shot all of the interviews (except for the Bill Clinton one, which was provided by his own office's media people).  The A-cam (close coverage) was a Sony EX-1 and the B-cam (locked-off wide) was my trusty 550D.  Just to note - the last interview was shot last Monday and the piece was completed and screened to an audience of around 1000 people on Thursday night.  It's already a great piece, but even moreso considering the rapid turnaround.  Take a look...

Produced, Directed, & edited by Philip Dolin & Molly Bernstein
Cameraman: Me
Sound recordist: Bret Scheinfeld
Production Assistant: Alex McBean
Production Company: Particle Productions




For the lighting geeks... for most of these interviews, we were very limited in terms of time and space, so our setups and gear needed to be versatile but compact and quick.  My lighting package for this whole piece consisted of my trusty 4bank fluorescent, 2 Lowel Pro Lights (250w), a 5-in-1 reflector, my faithful unbleached muslin reflector, and a small soft gold/white flexfill.  Philip and I decided that the look was to be naturalistic but not boring.  Whether motivated or not, every key was an inside key.  If there was a window in the right spot, I could force in an edge.  Without motivation, I would try to sneak one past if I needed the separation.  This package was the perfect compromise of versatility and compactness.

On the camera end, the 550D was almost always fitted with my 28-50mm Contax/Yashica Zoom.  In general, I (and many others) find it to be good practice to have zooms on hand in most doc situations (though on a recent Gevalia shoot, I shot for a solid hour on just a 50mm prime).  Especially when time is so tight, being able to nudge a few mm tighter or wider is so valuable.  In the Joy Levitt interview, however, I decided to go with my 24mm Pentax, because I wanted a wider field of view than the C/Y could give me.

One of the more difficult things about this shoot was crippling the DSLR to match the EX as best as possible.  The standard picture styles and some of my favorite non-standard ones are incredibly beautiful in how they handle contrast and skin tones.  However, the A-cam EX1 has a much flatter image.  I didn't have the prep time to go in and match everything as well as I'd have liked.  It would have required days of testing as the settings are vastly different.  The EX has gamma and knee adjustments as well as a dozen other things that make a difference, while in-camera, the DSLR has contrast, saturation, sharpness and a couple of others.  On most of these shoots, I opted for a more flat setup on the 550D to match the lower contrast EX but it's funny - even held back like that, I much prefer how the DSLR shots look.  With a reasonable amount of time, Particle Productions could have matched the two perfectly but to be honest, I'm glad the finish was so quick - it's really nice to see the two cams side-by-side in the same lighting environments.

Here are some of my setups.  In some situations, I used everything I brought and in some I didn't.  Mia Farrow's interview, for instance, was shot using just the flexfills.

The only time I used a diff frame.  Joy Levitt's interview.

Sound guy Bret sitting in for Elie Wiesel.

Setup for Dr. Sakeena Yacoobi.

Village Vanguard recap.

The day started at the ungodly hour of 8AM. It was brisk - I was a little chilled in a fleece jumper - but the crafty frying pans were sizzling hit. I heard the "ssssssss" as I rounded the corner and my mouth began to water. I was one of the first to arrive.

Soon after, Roger, the Director of Photography, strolled around the corner. He smiled, shook my hand and proceeded towards the omelet station. Pleasantries and good, hot eats took a half hour or so.

The morning was camera setup. I set up the bazookas (adjustable pole-like camera platforms) and gave the video technicians a hand running cables. And oh, was there a lot of cable. Once all of the cable was set, I took to breaking out the cameras. We were using heavily modified Sony EX3's. The camera, a solid-state HD camera, is, in its stock form, sortof small. Perhaps 18" front to back. Ours were modified to be ideal for multi-camera live switching. The longest, were perhaps a foot longer than stock. The three main cameras were fitted with larger-than-stock lenses. 2/3" 21X and 22X HD zoom lenses from Canon and Fujinon. The left and right side cameras had 1/2" wide-angle zoom lenses. At the back of each camera was a metal plate supporting a control unit that allowed each camera to send and receive lens data, camera settings, and all sorts of other fun stuff. This also facilitate careful matching between cameras by JM, our faithful video engineer. By about 2pm, all cameras were set, matched and ready to go. So we took lunch.

Upon our return from our meal, Barbra's band began filing in. There was a soundcheck for the sound department and a Babs stand-in for all of us on the visual side. The G&E crew made lighting adjustments and the camera's ran more tests. The director informed the camera and lighting crew where exactly the Clinton family would be sitting. Yes, those Clintons.

By 4pm, Barbra had arrived (with James Brolin in tow), and we were ready to do a rehearsal and test edit so Babs and her people could take a look at what we had done. Up until this point, I had been assigned to the wide master. Once Babs got a look, though, she expressed a preference for how she looked in my camera position's closer framings. So Camera 1, my camera, became the medium to close. Can't say I was disappointed at all.

Come shoot time, it was understood that while I would dwell in the mid to close range, Roger (who was operating two feet to my right) and I would ping pong our framings. So if the director called for a slow zoom from Roger's wide into a song, I would reframe while he was live so they'd have still have a wide frame to cut back to if need be. That said, I was medium and close a lot of the time so needless to say, many of my shots made the cut.

I have to say, while I'm talking about the shoot itself, I really enjoy shooting live. I couldn't tell you how long it's been since I'd done it last and I had forgotten how fun it is. Mind you, it's a lot different than regular doc shooting. With this setup, you don't have to worry about camera setting or exposure or anything like that - there's a guy in the truck with scopes for that. It's just you, the camera and the subject. Just frame it up, focus, and stay alert. The director and the TD in your ear, talking to you, talking to someone else, talking to each other. There's an amazing energy when your offline, getting something good they can switch to. And then when they do, when that tally light in your eyepiece comes on and you are live. Hold your shot, make any moves count. It's like a performance in itself. Babs is up there, singing, and everyone is right there with her - but you're there too, catching the beats like her band, playing off the crowd.

After all was done, all of us camera ops just remained perched above the crowd as they filed past us, towards Babs, towards the exits, towards each other. Bill, Hilary and Chelsea, hovered a bit in front of me. SJP and Nicole Kidman greeted each other and caught up some ways away from me. James Brolin spoke to some fans who seemed to love him as much as they loved his wife. Donna Karan was lost in the crowd - to me, at least. For all I knew, she was the woman who smiled at me as she left - probably not, though. Not sure I know what she (or her famous daughter) looks like. I've got a belt of hers, I think. Actually, no. Mine says "CK." Just goes to show you, maybe that nice woman was her.

When the club was empty, the crew wrapped. Took down the cameras and handed them off to the video techs. Broke down the jib and packed it up outside in the rain. Camera was wrapped a good hour - at least - before G&E, so I said my goodbyes. Wished everyone well, and grabbed a tomato, mozzarella and basil sandwich on Ciabatta from crafty. Ate it on the way to the subway, and got flower from the bread all over my black shirt.

Spent the train ride home with a bit of a high - exhausted but feeling accomplished. I smiled to myself knowing what the other passengers around me did not know - that just an hour or so earlier, I had been in the presence of Yentl, Slick Willy, the Secretary of State, DKNY herself, SJP, and the glamorous Nicole Kidman. When they all went online the following day to watch highlights, or when they eventually would see the broadcast or DVD of the show, they would see my work. And they would never know that it was me, that young guy on the train, in the powder-coated black dress shirt with the tired eyes and stupid grin on his face, who executed that smooth, steady, felt-but-not-noticed, 60 second push in on Barbra Streisand.

What a night!