Sole Mates

Our first experience on the red camera was Sole Mates. Everyone had a specific role in their department, and mine was a camera operator. I was very excited that we were given the opportunity to be filming on 2k, a few steps up from DSR 570. It brings major difference in the quality of the product.
In the morning of day one, the wonderful red blessed us with great footage, but in the afternoon it decided to break down. Very quickly our team readjusted and came up with a solution of using another camera. Although not perfect, Canon 550D carried out the rest of the shoot. I'm pleasantly surprised that we pulled off an entire short on a stills camera! At first, the director and DP must have gone through all stages of panic, but managed to keep our spirits up and most importantly showed their trust in us as a camera department. However, the 550D doesn't give as many options on the overall look of the film as the red, so the decisions on some shots had to be amended. Quite often we had to improvise attaching the camera to a tripod it was not meant to mount on (with a pizza box!), or even attaching it to a bicycle (which actually worked out quite well)!





The lenses available to us were EOS 50mm, EOS 18-55mm, EOS 28-135mm, EOS 55-200mm. In other words, we had only one prime lens instead of 6 RED Primes. I discovered that the long lenses have great limitation in lighting, with an aperture of maximum 5.6, so we had to use twice as much lighting indoors for night shots than we would have with the red lenses. Furthermore, since we hired some filters for the red, we decided to make use of them as well. With an Italian clamp and a few other clamps, a mat box was attached to the Vinten head and luckily the camera fitted onto it. The NDs were of great help for an exterior scene in John Street when the sun is high up and throws harsh shadows. There were some complications because of our imperfect attachment of all the components around the camera, the result of which were unpleasant reflections between the glasses, that eventually got fixed. I'm glad we used filters because it gave me further insight why we need them, especially outdoors.





To continue with, another difficulty that we faced as a camera department was the change of roles among the assistants. When working on the red camera, we all know what to do. But on a small camera like the 550D, it is pretty difficult to use a first AC, even though help is needed. For example, with focus pulling, the distance between the focus points on the lens is so tiny that it was easier for me as an operator to pull focus than ask the first AC to do it. On the other hand, when I had to pan/tilt and follow the character it was very hard for me to keep the focus, so then I definitely needed assistance. Moreover, even measuring and remembering the focus points was mainly done with my fingers, since the marks on the lenses were not clear at all. The small camera screen and lack of any other connection to a bigger monitor limited the picture of the shot to only the DP, camera operator and the director. Any DP would experience hard times when they can't always see how the shot looks like. It reminded me of the early days of film cameras and how probably the directors had a look through the viewfinder only occasionally, because they relied on the DP. In our case, we took a risk with using a small stills camera instead of switching back to the tested Sony 570. We succeeded, because we transferred our knowledge first from the Sony camera to the Red camera, and then from the Red to another model.

Now when I look at Soul Mates in retrospective, I'm convinced how well our class works together. The main thing we have in common as a crew, is that we prioritise the storytelling and try our best to overcome any technical issues in the name of the final product. I saw growing in each one of us since Melissa's Mail, Love Mugs& Stickmen and Little Clown. We spent a lot more time on the actors and their performance and it definitely gave results in our end of year project together.

Paperskin

Assisting on the grads was a good experience, on one side working with a different crew, on the other- learning to be more professional. My role was a second AC, which I had to share but at least I did the fun bit (the clapper board!). On the first day there were lots of awkward moments like "tilt for the clap", "on the end", "strike the board", which I would always mess up because I've never been familiar with these terms. But now I have an idea how it works. I bet the editor is having fun listening to my "ssssecond clap" at this moment. On that day I remember the red camera seemed very complicated and now after a week working on it I'm much more comfortable. One of the greatest advantages we have with such a camera is the wide choice of lenses we can use to imply meaning to the scene or the character.

Back on the grad shoot, I was observing what each person was doing and noticed how relaxed the atmosphere was. I am always stressed on shoots no matter what my role is, but everyone there was so chilled even I relaxed. The first AD was doing great job not stressing anyone, but gently pushing the work forward. It is the great preparation of the camera department, director and his actors that made that possible. Otherwise even the greatest AD wouldn't be able to organize the crew if they haven't done the work in advance.

I must mention the Art Department did an excellent job as well, creating a mood with images we all enjoyed to work around. Charlotte did drawings for the wall while Ashley arranged them in a collage. I was trying to explain to myself why certain lights are being used, the number of them and what's their purpose. Lighting for film has always seemed difficult, but now I think I can work out the wattage needed for daylight and tungsten, and try to think of the position of the lights regarding the object. I started using my eyes more and play with the aperture to achieve the right exposure. On my camera, I play a lot with the shutter speed as well, but since the red uses only 1/50 I can't really touch that. I read somewhere that the lower the shutter speed, the smoother the movements will appear. I wonder if it's possible to use 1/30 or 1/20 in the epic or scarlet.

What Daniel was visioned to be:

To sum up, it was a pleasure to work on a different set and learn so much about communication and collaboration, rather than technical knowledge which is also gained but is not the most important to me. I hope for the first film we're making next week we manage to create the same relaxed atmosphere.