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.