I set a goal for this year that I would like to work with actors with a camera between us at least once a week. In truth I've shot three little shorts. That's great, but I might be setting my expectations too high. Maybe to slow myself down I should just do an on-camera rehearsal next week. I'm doing a pretty good job of not getting precious.
Last night we shot a little short with Eric Stevens, Michael Smolski, October Moore and Jen Ha. It was all exteriors. We used the ambient light from a card-lock fueling station behind my old studio. Our only light was a tiny battery powered LED LitePanel that we placed wherever we needed to keep things from getting totally muddy. I think the cameraman I was using last night was skeptical of mixing color temps and the motivation of the source, but he understood that it was primarily an exercise. Brian was excellent to work with. I did notice that I missed the ease with which Jordan and I work together. For me, I know we're doing a five minute short that's going to end up on Youtube at best. We're spending zero dollars and cents, using a location without permission and we have only three hours to shoot fifteen shots. I want to see the subject and the key elements in the shot. I don't really care if a soft light or an abstract reflection appears illogically. I've never heard a civilian go, "Well, the story was really good, but I couldn't understand why the color temp on the car in the background was so much cooler than the foreground." Never going to happen. Try telling that to a cameraman or lighting tech.
It was clear and very crisp last night. I didn't dress very warmly for some reason. It could be that my wife has been in Thailand on a job for a week and I'm ragged from being a single dad to three kids, one of whom is two and wants to nurse in the middle of the night and screams or sobs for most of the night when she can't. After a couple of hours of working in freezing temperatures I was pretty disconnected. But anything that happens at all happens exactly as it should; right? I responded by focusing on the basics, letting go of things that were sources of tension and, above all, maintaining a kind and patient attitude toward the actors and cameraman.
I couldn't exactly articulate or direct the physical actions of the actors to maximize cutting continuity. I asked for a general adjustment that would get us in the ballpark and let it go. I assured myself that that was the point of the exercise -- to make lots of mistakes, gain experience and get closer to mastery through doing. I realize already that I could have done a master of the sequence which would have helped with the continuity and covered the scene better. I have a habit of seeing and shooting things in pieces. I did this originally to save film back in the day. It also saves time and keeps things fresh. It prevents less experienced actors from robotically going through their motions in coverage while disconnecting from their inner objects. Even so, a little master run through of the last sequence last night would have been helpful all around. The awesome thing is I have a record of my work that I can review.
¡viva!
Signore Direttore
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