A Lot Of Art

First off, please excuse the title pun.  You'll see...

For those of you that have known me or have followed my blog and/or tweets, you've heard all about the variety of art videos I work on.  For years, I've been shooting art-related content for Philip Dolin of Particle Productions but over the last twelve months, I've added Christie's to the mix.  Shooting artist interviews and exhibits is great fun - shooting auctions bringing in millions of dollars is, well, a whole other game.  I guess the function is similar, but to be in that high stakes auction environment is unlike anything I've ever done.  Last week, I was fortunate enough to be shooting at a record-setting sale at the NYC auction house, and you can check out the video below.  If I can track down other videos I've been a part of, I'll post them as well so check back soon and often :)

Good News!

Today's post comes as a bit of a surprise to many, including Dave Dodds of a number of years ago, when I began my freelance career in the film business.  I've discovered a deep appreciation for an unexpected part of the film and video world... News.  In June 2013, I joined the roster of cameramen at News 12 Long Island.  I think many in the filmmaking community devalue news for it's incredible pace and varying standards, and I'll admit, I've seen some sh**ty news shooting.  But done right, it's really worth taking the time to admire.

First off, there's no B.S. in news - there's no time for it.  Most days, your job is to get important content quickly so it can go out the same day.  No time for pre-production or location scouting before, or assembly cuts and copious amounts of post time afterwards.  Story happened today, so it goes out today.  Go into a place blind (unless you've been there before on another story) and make a decision quick about where you want to shoot.  Usually there isn't time to bring in your lights, so use what's there.  Quick!  Find your background.  Quicker!!  Now you're done, so hurry back to the studio to cut (or do it on your laptop in the field).  The 5pm show is quickly approaching!  Edit faster!!  There's a lot of room for the careless errors that fuel negative stereotypes of news production, but a newsman with a good eye can make it work.  That pace, though frustrating at times, can be exhilarating.

It's also an interesting feeling to see through a news package from pre to post in a workday.  There's a great sense of satisfaction to have your work on the air at the end of the day, unlike in the straight doc or doc tv world where you've got at least a few months turnaround.  I've often had things air so far after shooting that I've almost completely forgotten what it was all about.

I'm not going to be turning down Discovery Channel any time soon.  I enjoy the scale of that work and the care put into the projects there and in other longer forms of documentary.  But, I'll definitely look forward to the news days and the refreshing change of scenery and pace... not to mention the 15 minute commute to and from the studio :)

Busy vs. Social Media

Looked at my site today and I realized that it's been a while since I've posted a proper post.  It reminded me of the funny balance of being busy and looking busy.  Any casual viewer of my site might think I haven't had anything worth posting about, but the truth is, it's been too busy to post...  I've been working on a large corporate gig, a few more art videos, and doing some TV work for some Discovery Channel recreation crime shows.  I've been able to tweet fun stuff from these jobs, including pictures from the set and other things worth sharing, but that's all on my smart phone.  It's difficult to actually get some time to sit down and write a post.  Hopefully by moving my Twitter feed to a more featured location, it will help convey that I am actually working, even if I'm not posting a lot on this blog.

Here's something new, another art video I recently shot for Particle Productions:



Produced and directed by Philip Dolin
Lighting cameraman: Me
Sound recordist: Ben Berger
Production Company: Particle Productions

Video As Art

Here's another video about a video I shot for Philip Dolin of Particle Productions.  Unlike the Bill Viola piece I posted a while back, the one is more about the artist, Hiraki Sawa's body of work.  It's a cool piece with a lot of clips of the actual work - very different, very out there stuff (definitely worth checking out).  Enjoy!

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE

Produced and directed by Philip Dolin
Lighting cameraman: me
Sound recordist: Bret Scheinfeld
Production company: Particle Productions

Jaguar/Land Rover USA

A few months ago, my frequent colleague, DP, Roger Grange, called me to gaff a series of videos for him for Jaguar/Land Rover USA.  It was a fun, productive 2-day shoot at the US headquarters of the company.  It was varying sizes of talking-head shots in front of and inside these very nice - and very expensive - cars.  We had a relatively small crew for this - Director, DP/Operator, AC, Gaffer (me), Key Grip, PA, Hair/MU, Art Director and some brand reps - but we managed to make it work.  Take a look at the final product(s) below (click the pic).

WATCH THE VIDEOS HERE

The most fun we had was lighting the cars right.  Lighting talent for this sort of thing is pretty straight-forward, but on top of that, we had to work hard to capture the unique style of these vehicles.  We had to, of course, get exposure, but beyond that we had to accentuate the contours of the bodies while at the same time managing reflections and glares.  It took time, but in the end we got what the client desired.  Below are some snapshots of the set and some of our lighting setups.

Side note: we regularly made use of 2 of my favorite lighting tools on this shoot.  Blondes (2kw open-faced fixtures) and "The Whale" (a 3'x4' white softbox with removable black skirts which allow you to use it traditionally or, with the skirts removed, as a large space-light).

Roger and Me in front of a Range Rover we were working with.

Minty

Late last year, while in the middle of work on the Ruth Messinger video I shot for Philip Dolin of Particle Productions, we found ourselves in the middle of a production day with nothing to shoot.  As is always possible with high-profile (or powerful) interviewees, someone on our schedule was called away for something big that couldn't possibly be moved.  So, we had to figure something out.  Check the link out below for the result.

Mint Theater - NYC (Vimeo album)

This was a fun one - we were given a nice, large, interesting space to shoot in (which is becoming a rarity in industrial work these days).  I also had the benefit of controlling the stage lighting, so I set my frame, built my key and adjusted the stage light levels to be about a stop under my key.  My key was a diffused 4bank fluorescent, with bounces for fill and edge.  I also used two 250w Pro Lights to shape the seats in the background.  Sound was recorded by my cohort, Bret Scheinfeld.

A Founder's Vision

If you've been following this blog, you'll remember a certain star-studded video I shot last year for Philip Dolin of Particle Productions and the American Jewish World Service ("And Many Happy Returns...").  In March, Philip and I headed down to Florida to shoot a follow-up piece on one of the founders of AJWS, Larry Phillips (of the Van Heusen apparel company).  It's a simple interview-based piece, like the Ruth Messinger tribute, with a similar style to the previous video.  Enjoy.

Produced, Directed & Edited by Philip Dolin & Molly Bernstein
Cameraman: Me
Sound recordist: Roy Chase
Production Company: Particle Productions

Flip Flop Gorilla

The last few years have been really interesting for me, at least as far as equipment goes.  Regarding DSLR video, I went from they're nice but not video-friendly enough, to basically swearing by them for certain styles of production...

I now am of the camp that HDSLR (Canon, particularly) cameras are among the best options for guerilla and low-profile filmmaking - as long as you know how to focus and expose manually (those out there who are used auto focus, exposure and other auto features as a crutch should stay away).  Here's why:

• In "guerilla" or run and gun filmmaking we often don't have time or permission to light.  The DSLR cams have the ability to shoot at a very high ISO (sensitivity).  And they're so good that the digital noise typically associated with doing this (raising your gain on a conventional video camera) is often hardly noticeable, and rarely distracting.
• Shallow depth of field.  Now this is where I really sound like I'm flip-flopping.  I used to be of the opinion that the shallow DoF was a pain for doc shooting... don't get me wrong, it does make things difficult for those out there who are used to letting the auto focus work.  However, I discovered on a recent shoot that the shallow DoF actually made things easier for a run 'n gun shoot I was on.  I was shooting footage on a nighttime police ride-along (awesome, yes, I know) and much of the interview was done while the officer was on duty, patrolling in the squad-car.  I used the shallow DoF (especially shallow because I needed to be wide open for exposure) to let the world outside of the vehicle get milky.  It let lights and signs blend together for this beautifully milky wash of moving, breathing color in the background.  It really made for a beautiful shot in a pinch.
• They're SMALL.  DSLR cameras are tiny and they look like still cameras.  Ok, fine, they are still cameras.  In the first bullet point, I mentioned lack of permission regarding lighting.  While most of my projects, big and small, are on the up and up as far as permits and permissions go, there's a good 10% that are done on the DL.  On those few projects, there are always any number of valid reasons for going that way, but we're not here to discuss those sorts of things.  Whether you're not supposed to be filming or you've been asked to be inconspicuous, the small form factor of DSLR cameras lets you be just that.  It's not a whole lot more than you just standing there.  In addition to avoiding attention, it also lets you shoot differently than you would with a larger camera.  You can essentially shoot anywhere your body fits - while a large-format camera ads considerable depth to your figure, so you're limited.

Below are some grabs from a recent run 'n gun shoot on a police ride-along - this shoot was the motivation for writing this post.  I basically encountered all of the above advantages over the course of that night.  This was footage for a segment in a PBS-bound documentary, "Small Matters," directed by Matt Wechsler.  It's a film about a young man with Tourette's Syndrome who's become an advocate for TS awareness with this segment showing some "success stories" of people who grew up with TS and made something of themselves in spite of the hardships and setbacks.  The producer wanted a very intimate feel, with the interview segment being shot inside the car with Brian (the officer).  Also, since I was working with Brian while he was on-duty, it was a huge advantage for me to be able to maintain a low profile.  Add to that shooting at night (LOW LIGHT) in an active police car and having absolutely ZERO control over anything... Thank heavens for the DSLR...

As I've said in previous posts, I'm not an advocate of any do-all camera or format, but the current crop of DSLR cameras, in particular, are certainly establishing a solid footing in professional video production.

Recent stuff...

Been a busy few weeks:

-Shot an interview in NYC for an NHK Japan Special Documentary regarding the nuclear crisis over there.  Had to light and shoot according to a formula they use - basically matching the look of their pieces.  Also encountered one of the first really good reasons not to bring on a sound mixer.  "Oh, it's going to be dubbed into Japanese, so it's really not worth it."

-Gaffed a video for Bayer (Aspirin co.) for DP, Roger Grange.  Another situation where we had to match a look, except this was even more precise.  The client (a great, top-tier marketing co.) had a swatch for the color of blue on the background that we had to replicate.  The result was great, though, and it was a short, relatively easy short with some great people I like to work with.

-[Almost] shot a spectacular interview with former NHL star, Sheldon Kennedy for "Coached Into Silence."  We arrived, loaded in, set up a wonderful shot and then found out that of the 12 different people the producer confirmed with at the location (to remain nameless), none of them really had any say in the matter.  Kennedy and his friend/colleague Wayne McNeil gunned so hard for us at the location, but ultimately the location didn't budge and none of the aforementioned 12 answered their phones that day...  Ultimately, the crew got to sit down with Sheldon and Wayne a bit to figure out what was next.  The situation really seemed to set Kennedy and McNeil on fire and they offered to secure us location in Toronto that would be even better (and more relevant) than the pompous, elitist one that had ignored our efforts here in NY.  Air Canada Centre, here we come!

-Shot a music video in Tribecca for local artist, Andrew Watt.  Kinetic Fin got me involved with this one and though it was a lot of work, I think something cool will come of it.  Also got to meet a couple of really great people in the process.  AND on top of it all, 2 hours before wrapping on the last day (and leaving Tribecca for a very long spell - I don't make it down there much), I ran into a friend I haven't seen in 10 years.  So random...

That's it so far.  This Sunday, I'm headed off to Phoenix with Matt Johnston from Kinetic Fin for the PDMA Conference on Social Product Development & Co-Creation.  Should be a good time.

More good stuff on the horizon... keep checking in...

New Doc Reel

Here's the new doc reel, a montage of clips from various projects through June 2011.

The Interview

One of the staples of documentary filmmaking is the interview.  It's a useful device for providing exposition, transitions and so much more.  Ken Burns's films, which are largely based around archival material, rely heavily on interviews for coherence.  Errol Morris's works, use them as the main narrative - and his use of the Interrotron (a contraption designed to allow the subject to comfortably address the camera directly) provides an amazing intimacy.  "The Office" (I know, it's not a real documentary), uses them to deliver joke setups and often, punch lines.  "District 9" (another fake documentary) uses them as a setup to the mystery/story at hand.  However they're used, shooting interviews well is an important skill any good documentary cameraman has to master.

If you look to your local news for an example of good interview shooting, stop a second, go jump in the shower (use COLD water), then dry up, come back and never do that again.  The News, which is VERY dependent on interviews, does only one thing good - it delivers content quickly.  The camera and lighting setups are designed to be quick.  In the lamest of news interviews, the cameraperson will turn on the on-camera light, set the subject much too close to the wall and roll.  The result is a nasty, flat - albeit properly-exposed - shot.  Got the job done, though... delivered the content about as quickly as it's happening.

The next step up is the news magazine - your "20/20" or "60 Minutes" programs.  Better?  Yes.  Cookie cutter?  Hell yes.  Soft, pleasing, almost frontal key light.  Add some fill to flatten the faces out.  Then a hair light and edge.  Then put some sort of element in the background that has something to do with the story.  Usually books.  Light those with some colored light.  Usually blue and frequently gobo'ed.  Done.  Sure, this is pleasing.  The subjects look nice, there's some nice modeling going on, and they're separated from their background.  Sometimes this setup is the very best setup for the sake of the story, but not always and not often.

The good documentary cameraman goes into a project without preconceived ideas for how to light the interviews.  Different projects will call for different styles.  Sometimes, there's a look to the piece.  Perhaps all the interviews need to be dramatic and contrasty, or maybe they need to look natural or bright or whatever.  Sometimes, there are protagonists and antagonists (like in fiction), and the good guys should be more modeled and bright, and the bad guys, more low-key.  It depends on the film.

Here's a piece I shot recently for Philip Dolin of Particle Productions/Circle Terrific Media.  It's almost a narrative of interviews.  I'm quite pleased with how they came out.



For this piece, Philip and I decided that all of the interviews needed to be bright and pretty but of course, throughout it all, not flat or over-lit.  My approach to the lighting was to make all non-key lighting elements subtle and based on reality.  That is, I was never going to just setup a kicker and work in a hard edge for the hell of it.  I wasn't going to just throw a light up on the background.  It's got to flow.  See below for an example.

In this setup, the subject, Joy Levitt, is somewhat of an academic and the bookcases were something the producer definitely wanted to include.  The room was DARK.  I started with a large key, a 4 bank fluorescent through a 40" square diffusion frame.  I used an unbleached muslin bounce for a warm, soft fill.  For the rear bookcase, I bounced a small 250w fixture off of the column you see in the shot.  It was a nice, soft, subtle illumination that gave me what I wanted without drawing attention to itself.  Lastly, I knew I needed further separation for the subject so I added an edge light.  My first choice for an edge is always a bounced one.  It's much more subtle a touch.  Typically, it's a small gold/silver stipple flexfill reflecting the key.  In this particular situation, having such a soft key with limited throw (positioned high to avoid reflections in the subject's glasses), I had to do something a little different.  My edge for this shot was another 250w fixture shot into a 22" white flexfill, bounced back onto the subject.  You can see how nicely it plays over the subject, separating her from the background in a nice, subtle way.

Another example of my favorite setup for a natural-looking interview setup can be seen in this grab from our interview with Elie Wiesel.  Simple key from the fluorescent, bounce fill and bounce edge.  As you can see in the still, it's modeled, all the necessary separation is there, but it doesn't look "lit."  In my opinion, that's the best lighting - when the technical work doesn't draw attention to itself and lets the subject matter take the leading role.  You can view the setup in the still below (featuring my frequent collaborated, sound mixer Bret Scheinfeld).

So all this lighting stuff is well and good when you've actually got lights and power, but what about outside?  On a project with a large budget, I'd bring on some big HMIs and a load of grip (and a big crew to help manage it all).  In doc work, though, we're often working on as small a budget as possible.  So what if it's just you and natural light?  Well, there's a way for that, too.  A good example of that from this specific piece with Philip was our interview with Mia Farrow at her home.


As you can see, the modeled lighting present in the rest of the interviews certainly carries over, even though I was working with just the sun.  The first step is deciding how to use the sun.  Diffuse it and use it as a key?  Sometimes, that's the best way to go.  For Ms. Farrow, though, I decided the best use for the light as we had it was as a backlight (which also let me shoot the direction you see with the very nice background).  For Ms. Farrow's key, I used a large white flexfill to bounce the sun back on the far side and then used my trusty unbleached muslin flexfill for some fill.  And that was it.  As you can see, it looks natural and Ms. Farrow looks good.

So you've got the lighting aspect down.  Great!  Now what?  It's a shame, but so many up-and-coming camerapeople tend to light their subjects beautifully in front of boring or oddly-composed backgrounds.  Blank walls of various colors, weird architectural lines, or dead on flat with some sort of background element...  Yuck.  Us doc guys are usually stuck with whatever space we're thrown into.  No production designer, no set dresser, nothing.  We have to be able to look at a space cinematically and find the one great angle in an otherwise-crappy location (there is always one somewhere).  Find interesting lines and use them well.  Take this grab below, of our interview with NY Times columnist, Nicholas Kristoff.

Look at the lines in the background.  This is an example of using lines in your composition.  The floor, the walls, the vertical windows are getting smaller and smaller.  They lead your eye to Nick.  What if we had left our cameras where they were, but flipped nick and the lighting setup.  Well, A) the key light is less motivated, but B) the lines don't lead anywhere.  They're just there.  They don't do anything.

Beyond lines, you should also look at elements.  As mentioned with the interview with Joy Levitt, the bookcases were an important element of the shot (and by the way, the lines also work to our advantage in that shot).  Sometimes in the "20/20" stuff, it's a flag or a poster or some other prop.  My favorite personal use of relevant background elements is in an interview I shot with video artist, Bill Viola.

This was for a short documentary on an installation of his.  The piece was a deeply personal expression for Bill, an exploration of memory and the subconscious.  I suggested to the producer that we integrate him into the piece for the interview.  As you can see, we incorporated part of a screen into the shot.  Even moreso, though, I positioned him in such a way that the actual projection would play over the fill side of Bill's face.  His key side is exposed properly and modeled and I bounced some back for an edge to pop him out from the black on screen-right.  But the fill is all projection.  It's subtle but what I loved about it was that it only plays out in that left-most (screen left, that is) part of his face.  I lit the key side bright enough that the projection doesn't interfere with it, but only reads in the deepest of the shadows.  It plays over much better in the video as the projection moves, but you can still see a bit of the effect in the stills above.

And then you have projects where there is no background - the black void interview (or the Apple-style white limbo).  These types of setups are hardly my favorite, but sometimes they're necessary.  Perhaps the production intends to put text or graphics in the blank space.  While it is simpler to not have to worry about lighting or composing a background, there are a number of commonly overlooked elements.  You start with your subject and light them (again, you can do any number of things and light them for beauty or for drama).  Now what?  Just put up a black cloth and shoot?  Uh... no (see the photo above - there's a lot going on, lighting-wise).  One of the most frequent problems folks have shooting black void stuff is noise in the blacks or, heaven forbid, detail (a wrinkle or fold of the background, or maybe even a shadow).  The key for keeping the black black is separation.  First, like with most other backgrounds, put as much distance as you can between the subject and the back.  A shallow depth of field will take care of all but the worst wrinkles and other sorts of imperfections in the background.  Also, the distance will make it easier for you to control your light and keep it from spilling all over your clean black void.  Use flags and blackwrap liberally.  Lastly another frequent issue - and this is specific to the black void interviews - is lack of separation.  Most of the time, you won't want the subject's shape to just melt into the background.  To prevent this, you'll want some sort of edge or kicker or hairlight.  Framing is also pretty crucial.  If you've got a void that won't have graphics or text laid in (see below, left), you want to play your shots on the closer end.  This rings more true for shooting 16x9 or wider.  If you pull back too wide, you will have a ton of negative space on the eye-side of the frame.  When shooting 4:3, it's less of a problem because there's less horizontal frame space, but it's still something to remember.

I guess the point of this post is to illustrate the importance of versatility in the documentary cameraman.  This is important for your work that is seen on screen (being able to produce different types of lighting for different situations) and off screen (using your tools effectively).  Going into situations with little to no information (which happens all too often in doc) also means being prepared and being experienced enough to know what will work before you even get a chance to set it up.  For instance, I know for a natural-looking interview, my key-bounce-bounce interview setup is a good place to start - that saves a lot of time on the first setup.  I always remember that physical separation between subject and background helps A LOT.  Through and through, though, I'm always ready to break my rules if it fits the story or the goals of the film.  So get out there and light.  The more you do it, the more you understand it.  You'll discover what works and what doesn't, you'll figure out creative solutions to common problems.  Take your girlfriend/boyfriend/mother/father/
brother/sister/whatever, sit them down, and light them.  See what happens...

Russian Invasion!

A few weeks ago I traveled to Nürburg, Germany with Kinetic Fin to shoot material for a documentary series on Jim Glickenhaus and his Ferrari P 4/5 Competizione, a remarkable one-off supercar.  In June, the car will compete in the 24 Hours Nürburgring endurance race.  Last week was qualifying and testing.

Going into this first trip (we'll be going again for the 24H, and possibly one more time before), very few details were known by the crew.  Where were we to stage?  Where could we shoot from?  What exactly is the schedule for the race?  We knew the car, we knew what it set out to do in Nürburg, but we were in the dark as far as logistics went.  So we considered this trip somewhat of a scout and just went into it open-minded, ready to adapt.

I knew that even if there were prime press areas to shoot from, I'd need a lens on the long end to get great shots of the car and the action.  I already had an 80-300mm zoom in my arsenal, but it's a long and thin beast and can get a bit wobbly on occasion.  Ideally, I'd use that on rods with a lens support but with Kinetic Fin, we like to roll light and scaled back as much as possible.  Also, I wanted closer than 300mm.  Enter the Russian-made Zenit 3M-5CA 500mm f/8 lens...

This beast is a reflex lens, that is, it accomplishes its focal length with the use of mirrors in the lens, rather than the traditional design.  This allows it to be lighter and -let's not dance around it- cheaper than comparable-length telephotos.  The problems with reflex lenses are that you usually sacrifice some contrast and the bokeh is ellipsoidal.  The bokeh thing was not a problem for me.  I don't mind interesting stuff going on back there.  The contrast issue, however, was a concern.  So I researched and researched and stumbled upon the Zenit.  A few videos later and I was sold.  A quick search found me a mint one for a reasonable price and a week later, I had the lens in my hand...

As you can see from the video, it holds up nicely.  Being on the longer end, there is considerable "jello" (DSLR sensor-related wobble) but while following fast cars or completely locked off, that is hardly an issue.  The biggest problem I found was that the lens is a fixed-aperture lens.  It's f/8 and f/8 only.  Normally, I would've loved to stop down on a long lens like this and increase my DoF.  But of course, compromises must be made if you want to save literally thousands of dollars on a telephoto lens like this.  So I had to rack focus.  Luckily there was time to practice - if I had to roll live, this would not have been the ideal lens, but shooting to edit leaves room to rehearse your shots and practice your racks... let me tell you, maintaining focus on cars going this fast towards and then past you is no easy task.

Anyway, I managed and got what I needed for the job.  I'm definitely looking forward to shooting with this bad boy again in June.  Here are some selects using this lens (there's a lot more good stuff on this lens but until the film comes out, I'm limited to what I can show).

Art Upstate

Here's a link to a great art video I worked on with Philip Dolin of Particle Productions/Circle Terrific Media.  It's a short doc about Sherry & Joel Mallin and their amazing outdoor art collection on their expansive estate in Bedford, NY.

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE

On this piece, I shot b-cam for the sit-down interview and a bit of the walk and talk stuff.  Then, as the D.P. and producers continued with the subjects, I roamed the grounds and did beauty work - the landscape, full coverage on the art (details, wides, etc.).  It was a lot of fun to be able to just set off and shoot.

Produced, directed & edited by Philip Dolin & Molly Bernstein

Director of Photography:  Mead Hunt

B-Cam, 2nd Unit Photography:  Me

Location Sound:  Mark Mandler

Production Company:  Circle Terrific Media

**For the geeks, the A-cam was a Sony PDW700, and the B-cam was an EX1.

A year in review

2011 starts off slow (I'm taking it easy because I'm getting married in 6 days)

So, 2010 in review:

* Budapest

* A feature film I shot in the spring, "Director's Cut" is produced (and is currently at the Hollywood Reel Independent Festival and other festivals)


* "One Night Only: Barbra Streisand and Quintet Live at the Village Vanguard" (which I was a key camera operator) is released on DVD and Blu-ray (and DVD/CD combo) and subsequently goes platinum.


* I shot a number of great videos with Kinetic Fin for Gevalia Coffee.




* I shot a very nice tribute video for Ruth Messinger featuring a pretty awesome interview lineup, including Mia Farrow, former NYC Mayor David Dinkins, NY Times Columnist Nicholas Kristof and more.




* I shot second unit and b-cam material for a nice series of videos for Columbia Business School.



* I became a HDSLR convert (I'm not a an evangelical HDSLR shooter but I've discovered it's an amazing tool for a lot of things).

* Some fun industrial work for Nokia, Wunderman, PwC, BBCAmerica, and Kraft Foods.

* Gaffed and shot NY material for a feature doc, "Small Matters" (currently in post-production, eying a PBS run).

* I lit a commercial photo shoot... for video.  That was different.  For designer, Ippolito.

* A whole bunch of other little things...

...I learned a lot this year, as a cameraman and gaffer and filmmaker in general.  When I was assisting, my years tended to yield lessons on practice - new lighting principles, methods of operating, craft-based things like that.  As a working cameraman (and occasional gaffer for other D.P.'s), my years have brought about fewer and fewer new technical lessons.  This year was sponsored by... "Compromise."

• While working on the Ruth Messinger piece, for the higher profile interviews, the crew went in with the mentality that the subject could walk in any minute and demand to do the interview then.  Working faster that we'd have normally liked was the compromise for having access to these folks.
• On "Director's Cut" the production had much less time and money than ideal.  We compromised on setups to get the movie finished.
• For the BBCAmerica videos which took place in real, functioning focus group sessions, we had to have high production values in terms of lighting and camerawork, but at the same time, we, the crew could not infringe upon the participants' comfort levels.  Usually, what's out of frame doesn't matter (leading to forests of c-stands, messy rigging contraptions and stuff like that just out of the camera's view), but for this, it had to be pretty.  Even a clean-looking large Chimera overhead was too "movie-set" for the clients liking.  But they loved when we rigged a very large chinese lantern overhead (it felt "homey").  Meanwhile at the PwC industrial I gaffed maybe only a month or two prior, the client insisted we use the Chimera for it's "expensiveness."  In that situation, meanwhile, it would have been a LOT easier to rig than the large Chimera.  Compromise...

2010 was a great year and there's some pretty fun stuff on the horizon for 2011, not the least of which is getting married.  More on that (and the great video team I hired for the event) and other stuff in February, when I return...

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.

Follow Up: A Greenscreen in Harlem

UnemployedWorkers.org has launched and features the material I blogged about last.  I shot the interview with Christine Owens (bright office) and Roger Grange & I shared the duties of shooting all of the interviews against black.  Those particular interviews were shot on greenscreen (see "A Greenscreen in Harlem") - the decision to go black background was done late in the game.  Otherwise, we'd have shot it on black for real.

And... segue...  Here's another video I worked on recently that features interviews against black.

Producer/director Larry Locke shot the b-roll, while I lensed and lit the interviews (against actual black).  There are a lot of digital effects over the video, diffusion, color stuff FX, etc., but the solid work is there.  I'm happy with how the interviews came out.

The setup (forgive the Blackberry photo quality):

Simple duvetyne backdrop (velvety side towards camera), 4bank flo for key,  Lowel Pro Light for edge, and an unbleached muslin reflector for fill.  A lot of blackwrap and black foam core for control (which, along with a good amount of distance between subject and BG, is essential for good interviews against black).

Soon to come - a big post on interview lighting (and shooting).  Stay tuned!

Current, recent and upcoming projects.

"AJWS" (doc short) in production
lighting cameraman
Dir/Prod - Philip Dolin, Particle Productions
     A short interview-based video celebrating 25 years of the AJWS.

"UB Ideal" (promo) in post-production
lighting cameraman
Dir/Prod - Larry Locke, Larry Locke Films
     Video about the Ideal program of the University of Bridgeport.

"NELP" (promo) in production
lighting cameraman
Dir/Prod - Immy Humes, The Doc Tank
     Video for the National Employment Law Project

"Velvet Noir" (commercial/promo) in pre-production
director of photography
Dir/Prod - Bradley Farrell, Kinetic Fin/Gevalia
     A choose-your-own-adventure style video for the release of Gevalia Coffee's new flavor.

"Columbia Business School" (promos) in post-production
cameraman, 2nd Unit
Dir/Prod - Philip Dolin, Particle Productions
     A series of documentary promos for the Columbia University Business School internship program.

Authorship

Many art forms are the result of an individual's painstaking commitment to his or her craft; countless hours toiling over the piece, funneling their own emotions and experiences into this very personal expression.  In these such cases, like poetry and other forms of writing, music, and visual mediums like sculpture, painting, sketching, etc., it is always clear who is responsible for this work.

Film, however, is in a gray area.  Occasionally you have a movie where one person conceived and produced a work in its entirety - including shooting, editing and other parts of the process.  More frequently, however, the final movie is the result of many individuals' hard work and expression.  And yet, so often there is a certain credit that reads "A Film by [director's name]" at the beginning and end of the movie.  This brings up the question of true authorship.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately after a friend asked me who's responsible for the shots of a movie, the director or the cinematographer.  Is the D.P. just a technician that does what the director tells him to?  I've been lucky enough so far that all of the directors I've worked under have really allowed the process to be collaborative - thorough discussions of look and feel before shooting and then come time to roll camera, I am entrusted with the image.  A lot of this may be due to the fact that in documentary, there really isn't an opportunity for the director to nitpick my shots.  On "Director's Cut," the narrative feature I'm currently working on, my relationship with the director is similar to my doc work.  She has put so much trust in me that the process of shooting is stress-free and fast.  Prior to shooting, Elana and I figured out our style for the film and from then on, we just do it.  Elana does her director thing with the cast as my crew and I set up the shot.  Then she comes around to her monitor, smiles, and calls action.  So for "Director's Cut" the direction of the film is Elana but the compositions and a lot of other visual elements are very much mine.  As I understand it, the process is very different with other filmmakers.  James Cameron, I hear, is meticulous with his planning and shooting.  I think he even operates the camera.  While he doesn't set up the lights himself, I'm sure he has a heavy hand in that stuff as well.  AND he edits.  So perhaps "A Film by James Cameron" is appropriate.

I guess there is no single answer for my friend.  Different films have different hierarchies and different degrees of trust between crew members.  Sometimes, the singular authorship of a movie is valid.  More often than not, though, these "A Film by" credits ignore the crucial creative contributions of many key crewmembers.  I've found that also more often than not, I tend to think the more collaborative movies are better anyway.

A post by Dave Dodds.

2010, huh?

This year has some potential...

Spent more time with director, Bradley Farrell of Kinetic Fin on a follow-up to December's Gevalia shoot.  There will definitely be more stuff to come with Gevalia (including one very exciting bit that I don't want to jinx so I won't say any more).  You can check out the previous spots here.  I was D.P. for the product shots (with  Bradley operating) and some pretty great guys shot the rest of the piece (the party, interviews and such).  I can see some pretty cool stuff in the future with Kinetic Fin - will keep you posted.

I've done some more cool stuff with Philip Dolin of Particle Productions recently.  He's the chap I went to Dallas with and have done some other pretty cool things with.  One recent piece with him was a video on author, Barry Lynn, discussing his new book Cornered.  Most recently, we shot author and professor, Bill Duggan of the Columbia [University] Business School.  It was a follow-up to a class he had given (that we also covered), titled Strategic Intuition.  Over the years, Philip has produced a number of videos for the Business School and I've had the pleasure of working on all of them.  It's been very informative as we've essentially audited all of these great programs for free - the client has even joked occasionally about giving us honorary degrees.  Anyway, just further reinforces my appreciate for the wide variety of things I get to learn working in documentary.

And totally opposite that, it is now confirmed that in the Spring I'll be shooting an independent feature film, "Director's Cut."  There are some pretty great talents signed on and the crew is shaping up to be very nice (including my frequent collaborator, sound recordist, Bret Scheinfeld).  There are two days in late February and then the bulk of principal photography resumes in May.

That's about all there is worth reporting for now.  Future stuff may include my own feature, festival follow-up stuff for "Johnny B" and hopefully a lot more.

Until then...

What's Up, Doc?

My life as it relates to film has taken a number of unexpected turns over the years. When I first got into film, I did so because I had an idea for a film and wanted to follow through. That particular movie has not been made yet. It is shelved but not forgotten. Through college, I maintained my interest in narrative films, particularly in becoming a successful Hollywood director. When I started learning about cinematography, I found I had a knack for it, and my classmates noticed too. As I shot more and more, I realized that I might be happy becoming a big-time Hollywood DP. And then life happened...

When I graduated college and had to figure out how to make a living, I realized that if I was going to direct, I'd have to spend a lot of my own money. So I turned instead to the camera and lighting departments, where I'd work for all those directors-to-be who were spending their money.

Remember that whole bit about being a Hollywood DP? Yeah, not the easiest thing to do on the opposite coast. There is a lot of fiction work in NY, but the most work for a cameraman in NYC is in documentary. I assisted under some of the most notable documentary cameramen and slowly but surely began to really feel my place was there. In time, shooting documentary work became my bread and butter. There's something special about it - it's spontaneous, energetic... I enjoy it more and more on each doc shoot I do. There's always something new and interesting and I always learn something. Sometimes, I figure out a new way of shooting or lighting. Often, I learn just stuff I never knew or never thought I would ever know because of the documentary subject itself... and I love learning.

And then there's stuff like today. Today I shot an interview with video artist, Bill Viola, for director/producer, Philip Dolin. First of all, I was very pleased with how it looked. Found an excellent framing and the lighting was great. The film is about his latest installation, basically a room of screens and this carefully constructed beautiful display of audio and visual white noise. We framed his sit-down so that the background was half black (directly behind Bill) and half his piece. I set a daylight softbox as Bill's key (daylight to match the color temperature of the projections), bounced some of that back for an edge, and let the projections subtly play over Bill's fill-side. Everyone was really happy with the visuals.

On top of the look, Bill was probably one of the most kind, profound, funny people I've ever met. Such a sweetheart with such amazing things to say about his work and inspiration, life and death, love, religion... it goes on... coming out of the interview, I just felt good.

That's documentary for ya'. And I love it.