Music Video: Run CMD - My Adidas are F**cked

In this section labelled June, will be the area of my blog that is dedicated to my work with Robert Sanchez on his music video; I was to be Camera, D.O.P and Lighting for the project; what I was looking to achieve personally from this project was to create another music video that was completely different from the one that I had made with Crooked Brow Productions, also it was a project that Rob was in full charge of and had a clear mind set as to what and where we were to shoot the video, which I thought I would gain good experience with working for someone else under their timescale and vision; i.e. producing a product to meet a clients needs.

Synopsis for the Music Video

Below here is the synopsis that Rob wrote for his idea behind the video that he wanted to make.

Rap supergroup RUN CMD star in the video for "My Adiidas are fucked"The group in reality are a live elecronic act made up of djs and producers from the gabba scene, visually we jump back and forth from the 80's to the 90's with an obvious rip on Run DMC and old skool rap vibe although we're also veering on 90's gangster rap, kinda like Run DMC if they weren't so clean cut anymore! We have about 5 actual members - Dj Contort, Hip.P, Dj Ex-S, Dj Assassin and Mc Tricky (as well as two robots who are mc's of sorts!) a posse is required for one scene however so I'm er - recruiting one currently! There will be no rapping or need for lip syncing as it is an instrumental track, so basically we just need to look good!

Shot in the style of 90's hip hop videos - posse shots - (no no, I know that sounds rude) scenes quickly cuts from location to location as different sections of the track play out, lots of hand gesturing, gang signs, pouring out liqour, throwing dice and piles of money on the floor, slamming dominoes, running away from the cops) 

Research: Cher Lloyd - Swagger Jagger

Rob showed me the beginning of this music video as he wanted to replicate this opening 15 seconds for his music video; after studying each shot, I felt that we could try and replicate this opening scene with the Merlin Steadicam; though it would be very difficult as I've not had much time to practice with the Merlin as of yet, so it could pose quite a challenge come shoot day.

Research: NWA - Quiet on Tha Set

This group Rob mentioned was one of the standout groups that he grew up listening to and that the cover photo for the album "Straight Outta Compton" had really stuck with him over the years, I listened to the track whilst looking at the front cover and thought that this would be a scene that we could easily replicate through me lying down on the ground and using my Sigma 10-20mm wide angle lens; which would look very cool; the posse could even perform a beat down which could really add to the homage/parody of the music video to old skool Hip Hop. What I find visually strong within this still is the power that the group seem to express upon its audience and even looking back at 'Fly By' video; this seems to be something that Hip Hop makes overly prominent, expressing raw power throughout their videos and building up their characters as tough guys. Given the appearance of Run CMD this portrayal of strong aggressive power over the audience should work really well as being funny whilst still staying true to the roots of Hip Hop without mocking it or making fun of the genre as that's certainly not the intent.

Research: Fly By

As part of my research Rob sent me a link to this music video for reference for how he would like his parody of the genre to come across; what really struck me from watching this music video was the kinetic energy that the camera movement seemed to generate throughout the video; this is something that I will look to bring into the video from Run CMD; hopefully I will be able to get a lot use out of the Merlin Steadicam for a large part of our shooting days. The other thing that really stood out to me in this video was how up close and personal the artists seemed to like to get to the camera, this is something which I will make sure we film as it seems to be a staple within the genre and wouldn't seem quite right if we shot this music video without some of the crew from Run CMD getting right up in the grill of the audiences watching.

Cast & Crew

Crew

Director/Producer - Rob "Dj Contort" Sanchez
Assistant Director - Robert "Bob" Brice
Camera/D.O.P/Lighting- Ricky Everett / Joe Tippet
Wardrobe/props/location manager - Rob "Dj Contort" Sanchez
Editing - Rob Sanchez, Joe Tippet and Bob Brice
Colour correction - Brent Zilwood.

Cast
RUN CMD:

Rob "Dj Contort" Sanchez
Luke "Dj Ex-S" Bowers
Dave "Dj Assassin" Macallum
Hip.P

Extras - Posse:

Jo Pickering
Alex Littleboy
Piers
Bob Brice

Location Recce

Early in the project Rob had been doing his own recce shoots looking for locations that would be best suitable for the music video; he uploaded some still onto Facebook for me and Joe to look at, to see what he had in mind for the shoot, soon afterwards me and Joe joined Rob on a Recce shoot around the City Centre on a couple of occasions to finalize the locations for the actual shoot days.

Car Park in Stonehouse 

Opposite the Job Centre, if framed correctly could be made to look like a high rise building, much like New York.

Dingy looking area, near local Car Park, very inkeeping with the Hip Hop style. 

North Hill, shoot here for our stoop scene, again trying to keep that Hip Hop visual style and locale for the music video.

Outside Voodoo Lounge, possible posse gathering scene.

Pedestrian Subway close to City Centre, ideal for Steadicam shot of Run CMD.

Voodoo Lounge; we as a group will be going there for lighting tests, with Run CMD performing live there soon after, which me and Joe will record, which will make it into the Music Video.

Shooting Schedule

Below is the shooting schedule as arranged by Rob Sanchez.

18/1/12 - Test shoots for lighting. Locations - live performance @ The Voodoo Lounge / Night shot in graffiti ally way. 

25/1/12 - Test shoots in daytime and night time. Locations - graffiti ally way, city rooftops, shitty run down alleyway, fire escape stairs on outside of building, king street. Lazer test with Luke.*

*meet at 11am at the ERC for the day test then meet at 8:30pm at contort HQ for the night test.

30/1/12 - RUN CMD live performance at the Voodoo Lounge, clips to be featured in the final video.*

*meet at the voodoo lounge at 6:30pm to debrief and prepare.

5/2/12 - Shooting the "posse" scene at the graffiti wall located at Manor Gardens, Stonehouse.11am meet at my house (26 Adelaide St, Stonehouse) wardobe allocation followed by walk to graffiti wall taking approx 1 minute. we will set up the lighting and I will allocate props and accessories and then run you through each shot as we do them, it will be fun!We will have to try and be quick and aim to get as much done as possible, I have no idea what the weather will do at this stage but I intend to keep a close eye on it.

12/02/12 - shooting all other scenes with Run Cmd, rooftops in city centre, north hill stoop, western approach subway, voodoo/ money centre precinct, Cher Lloyd intro sequence, jobcentre/uptown New York scene.

Test Footage

The above is some test footage that I shot with an 8mm Fish Eye lens; which seems to be quite a popular look that appears in the Hip Hop genre; once we watched the footage back, Rob mentioned that he really liked the effect of the fish eye but wasn't too keen on the visible black curves bending the image; I mention that we could digitally zoom in on the image in post, but Rob was concerned that we might lose quality and cut off parts of the footage that he wanted in the final cut of the music video; I mentioned that I had a fish eye lens adapter that I could attach to some of my prime lenses that would given a variation of the fish eye effect without having the black curves in the footage.

Voodoo Lounge Recce

A few days before Run Cmd are due to perform at Voodoo Lounge as part of a Cafe Concrete event, me and Joe went with Rob to Voodoo Lounge to look at the lighting within the upstairs area; Rob also went through with us how the set up of the event was going to be; and with only me and Joe as camera operators, we made a plan that Joe would stand behind the set filming Run Cmd from there whilst they were playing their set and I would be free to roam the main floor space trying to capture as much footage as possible with various different angles; and to help getting something other than handheld footage we would bring and use a fig rig to vary up our options on set. From doing some quite tests with our Canon 550D's we found out that there was a colour light that was interfering with our images, giving us really bad interlacing issues when stood directly in it's sight, we made note of this; and planned to make sure that this light was turned off during Run Cmd's set.

Still from our tests in Voodoo Lounge, with Rob playing the song through laptop and discussing future plans for the music video with Bob Brice.

Run Cmd Live at Cafe Concrete

Above is the video that me and Joe shot whilst Run Cmd played out Cafe Concrete; it wasn't planned prior to the shoot on the day, but Rob found that once he got all the footage back onto the hard drive that he was able to edit together a video with all the live audio recorded there on the night. This is the video that Rob edited together with a small amount of this footage we be included in the final edit of the music video.

This was actually quite a difficult shoot, as we only had the one chance to capture the footage there and then on the night and had to pay close attention to the performance to try and capture the best bits from Run Cmd's performance; I experimented with different camera angles and camera movements with the fig rig and tried to capture just as much close ups as well as the group themselves. I was given free reign on what and how to film on the night and I think that between myself and Joe we captured some really good footage and you can see in the video above that Rob has edited it really does work as a stand alone video of a live performance of the track very well.

Posse Shoot (05/02/12)

Today's shoot was all about the posse scenes that we were shooting down at a car park in Stone-house, much of today was very much improv, by all those involved we tried to make as much use out of the Merlin Steadicam as possible, but whilst also getting the key shots that we had already decided were needed for the music video. First I set up a wide angle lens in front of the graffiti wall with Run Cmd stood directly in front and got them to pose for the static shot and then we added some extra movement, looking back at that Hip Hop style of power and authority over the audience, so I had Rob and another member stand in front of the rest of the posse and got them to move towards the camera and really get up in the face of the audience. The next key shot was the 'beatdown' scene which was reference/homage to N.W.A; this involved me lying down on the floor shooting directly upwards with a wide-angle lens as the posse gathered around a pretended to beat down on me at the camera; this shot was quite difficult to frame as I wanted to get the camera as low to the ground as possible, but also giving me enough space to see the LCD display so that I could frame and direct the posse as to where they needed to be to get the desired framing.

The rest of the days shoot involved the use of the Merlin Steadicam which me and Joe both used, though it was quite a challenge as we hadn't had too much time to practice with it; and also I made use of a fish-eye lens adapter to get some fish-eye style shots without having the black curves in shot, again this style is something that really suits the Hip Hop scene.

Still of Rob getting in the face of the camera.

Beatdown shot, reminiscent of the N.W.A album cover. 

Wide angle shot of group and their posse, against the graffiti in background.

Last Shoot Day (12/02/12)

For our last day of shooting, the day was split up into two halves with the first half of the day used to capture the rest of the shots that we required that could be filmed during the daylight; this involved the 'rip off' scene from the Cher Lloyd video, this was a very diffucult shot to get as I had to use the Merlin Steadicam to get the desired look and camera movement for the shot, but with this being filmed outside and right amongst the elements, it was actually quite hard to balance the Merlin correctly and some of the camera movements that I needed to perform with the Merlin were actually very tricky (i.e. starting very low down to the ground whilst following a crew member walking forward, rising the Merlin and finishing with the correct framing) this section of the day was rather long and did over-run on our schedule, but I feel that the time we spent going over and over the shot, helped to get the shot we had, though I would still have liked to have more practice time with the Merlin before this shot.

The whole day was a case of guerilla style film making with us shooting out in public and this made us aware of our surroundings and we knew that we had little time to set up shots, in case we were ever asked to move on before we got the required shots, but I thought that as a crew we actually managed really well to make sure we got the daytime shoots complete, despite our earlier setback with the Cher Lloyd sequence.

Later that night we all met up again down at Voodoo Lounge where we shot some footage of the band at a fake crime scene; I tried to add some improvised camera movement to get something different from the rest of our earlier scenes, which Rob thought looked good, though we did experience some disturbance from some drunk idiots which Rob decided that we best just move on and cut our shoot short at Voodoo Lounge so we didn't risk running late on our schedule for the rest of the night, this I feel was a very good decision as we couldn't have known how long those idoits were going to hang around and we needed to get all the shots filmed that night.

The last part of the night we shot down at a pedestrian subway near the city centre which involved Joe getting on his skates with the Merlin Steadicam to get some nice smooth action of Run Cmd approaching the audience/camera, I had to pull Joe backwards trying to get the framing and focal length consistent which considering our lack of trails beforehand; me and Joe did a great job and got the desired shots almost straightaway through good communication during filming; we ended the night by having fun and experimenting with filming more footage of Rob's robots that he wanted to be prominent in his music video.

Still of stoop shot on North Hill

Still of band shot opposite Job Centre, shot with telephoto lens to try and make the scene look more like New York with the buildings being seen as high rise buildings; the Jeep helped add to the groups character and disguised the location effectively. 

Scene shot on escape stairs near a city centre car park; aesthetically in-keeping with the Hip Hop style.

Still from our parody rip-off of the opening to Cher Lloyd's 'Swagger Jagger' filmed with Merlin Steadicam.

Still from Pedestrian subway in City Centre; shot on Merlin Steadicam combined with the use of Joe's skates as  I pulled him backwards with the same pace that the group were walking towards the camera, keeping the sharp focus.

Equipment

Camera
Canon 550D x 2

Support
Merlin Steadicam
Velbon Tripod
Fig Rig

Lenses
Sigma 10-20mm F3.5EX-DC
Canon 50mm F1.8
Carl Zeiss planar F1.4 50mm ZE
Canon 24-70mm F2.8
Canon 28mm F2.8
Canon 35mm F2
Opteka HD 0.20X Professional Super AF Fisheye Lens

Target Audience/Screening

The music video will be screened across the social media platform with the likes of YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook, also to be promoted through the likes of the Cafe Concrete sound and film collective and the same associated web places for "Dimensional Schizm" - a Gabber / Breakcore event and radio show run by Dj Contort. Hopefully this video will appeal to those that are interested in the experimental electronic music movement and those that grew up listening to old skool Hip Hop.

One Sheet

Synopsis.

Experimental electronical outfit Run CMD star in their first official music video. A montage of gritty urban scenery, retro fashion, style and robots.

Ricky Everett

Running Time: 5 m 24s

Aspect Ratio: 16:9

Format: HD 1080p

Title: My Adidas are F**ked

Country of Origin: United Kingdom

Sci-Fi Short: Untitled

Under this section labelled as May will be the section that contains all the blog work for my work as Cinematographer on the Sci-Fi short film about time travel with Joe and Bob. Main main aim with this project was to get closer with Lighting as I've never been too comfortable setting up the lighting by hand, but used to directing others to setting it up for the visual style I wanted; the project also has great opportunities to work with the full range of equipment in the stores, things that I've not used before on set, like the track and dolly, crane and the new Merlin Steadicam.

Bunker Short w/ Joe Tippett & Bob Brice

During the proposals in college with everyone's pitches, Joe and Bob's project really appealed to me and I mentioned to them straight away that I was really interesting in being part of their crew and hoped to take on the role as Director of Photography/Cinematographer. They said to me that they'd really like me to be on board as part of their crew.

Their initial idea of a short Sci-Fi time travel film really reminded me of the likes of Time Crimes and Primer, two films that I personally really enjoyed and certainly within the genre of science fiction that I would like to shoot from a visual perspective, as the genre is open to visual interpretation of lighting styles.

For my research for this role on the project, I plan I researching and revisiting the two above mentioned films for refreshment and hope to find inspiration for the upcoming project.

They plan on shooting the film on DSLR which is great as I'm really keen to expand my experience with filming on this format and already own my own Canon 550D; Joe and Bob have found a location on the net of a dis-used nuclear bunker near Salcombe and are in the process of planning a Recce shoot, I will hopefully be able to attend this as it will be a great help in finding inspiration from the location itself for how I'd imagine the film is going to look aesthetically.

Step Outline

Establishing shots

Scientist in his room, smoking and listening to his radio. In voiceover he describes what has happened.

Flashback to scientist working at his machine, sees his 'vision'. A radio broadcast/song is playing through his radio. Flicks the switch.

Describes the aftermath, the rest of the scientists leaving etc.

Walking around the bunker, describing his loneliness. MADNESS.

He's built a time machine. He talks about how he will go back and fix everything, even implying he will murder his past self if that is what it takes.

He gets the message on his radio, but its gone again. (whilst he is making repairs in tunnel)

He's in the corridor, frantically tuning his radio, trying to find a signal. Hears a banging on the outside door. THINK HE CRAZY

He runs away down the corridor to his machine, plugs himself in and travels.

He finds himself in the past. He sees somebody in a lab coat at the end. He hears the same radio broadcast/song which is present during the initial flashback.

He looks through a window into a room, where he sees his past self, working on the machine. He tries to signal through the window at himself, but as he and his past self look at each other, he disappears in a flash of light.

Back in the present, he realises that it was his time machine that doomed the world.

He sees his pre-time travel self disappear through a door, and lock it behind him. Frantically trying to signal to his past self, he uses his radio, but it breaks halfway through his broadcast.

He picks up a fire extinguisher and tries to break the door down. He gets through and begins to run down the corridor.

He makes it to the time machine room, just in time to see his past self disappear through time.

In a rage, he smashes the time machine, but triggers the mechanism, sends him hurtling uncontrollably through time.

He finds himself in a cave, the site of the laboratory. However, it has long since crumbled to dust, or has yet to be built, it is not made clear.

He ventures outside, and walks away through the barren wasteland.

He comes across a group of primitive humans, dumb, ape-like and seemingly unintelligent. They watch him approach warily, jealously guarding the dead animals they are eating raw. He smiles and holds out his cigarette lighter, igniting a small pile of dried sticks for them.

Hope Cove Bunker Recce Shoot (01/03/12)

Here are some stills that I took during the Recce shoot today out at Hope Cove Bunker (near Salcombe); we didn't imagine that this location could provide just so many possibilities with regards to usable rooms for our production; and in fact because of the great location and the potential of such great scenes, Joe and Bob are now going to go back to their script for a re-write so that we can really make the most of this fantastic opportunity to film in such a unique environment.

This still is a shot just on the other side of the one of the main hallways; I  switched off the lights  leaving the lights on in the corridor, this really captures that creepy and atmospheric visual style got I feel could really add to the overall aesthetic feel to the project.

This is a still of one of the finest finds on the day; with a back lit board with a wore desk and chair that almost fits perfectly within the script already; this was a real gem of a room and with the correct lighting I think we can certainly achieve some of a German Expressionism scene or something along the lines of Bela Tarr's Damnation; this room has huge potential for our project.

Joe and Bob discussing the possibility of making use of the machine and the textured nature of the dials within this room for the project.

This is a still of the room above; the machinery in this room has a lot going on, and we agreed that we would try and make use of such great machinery available to us here to really set the scene of the characters location in the film.

A still from the underground crawlspace; with the lights turned off this really reminded me of the shaft scene in Alien, I think this really has to be in the final cut of the film, and Joe and Bob thought this was really amazing and will be re-writing the script so that we can make use of this space.

A still of the same crawlspace with the lights turned on; here you can see that this space has great texture  in it's walls and with the piping on the right, this has fantastic potential to look very interesting with the correct lighting set-up highlighting the atmospheric feel that you get from being down in this space.

Still of a passage way; in the script there are scenes of our character passing through hallways, this is one of the potential areas that we could use for these scenes; it's narrow and with a wide angle lens you do get that claustrophobic feel from this shot.

A still of another hallway; but here you can see that there are numerous doors down the way, this might not have the claustrophobic atmosphere that the above hallway does but it works more with the script as you can see entrances to another rooms that might help sell the location to our audience.

A still of the board back lit with the lights off; this shot looks great and there's potential here to make use of the board itself to write on, that could add to our film and the scene itself, setting the scene and portraying our characters background to the audience.

A small room with lots of potential for a time machine room as there is already a desk with interesting character and shapes; Joe and Bob weren't convinced that this would be the idle location for the time machine, but they were keen to make use of this room in the film.

The Recce shoot proved to be vital and highly useful for all parties; Joe and Bob got a feel for the place and by seeing the whole location found some great rooms that they feel have to be taken advantage of, so they are going to go away and rewrite their script so that we can get the most out of this location. For me being in the actual environment and getting a first hand feel for the views and atmosphere of the location, I got some really great inspiration and sparked some interesting research ideas and film related styles that would really suit this film and location well; I'm going to go and watch Alien and Damnation in particular to see if my initial responses to the Recce are potential interesting in the manner of lighting and atmosphere.

Research: Primer (2004, dir Shane Carruth)

I feel that Primer itself works quite well as a low budget Science Fiction piece and its element of time travel is very well implemented, but overall the story is actually quite confusing at times for the audience and I'm not entirely convinced that films overall plot and story really comes together that well. From this it's become apparent that dealing with time travel on film can actually be a high risk hurdle that this project will have to tackle on a whole; we don't want to be too obvious and treat our audience as children overly explaining the plot and science to the audience, but whilst also making sure that the film itself and the science behind it really makes sense within the universe of our film.

The opening to Primer, really struck me from a visual stand point as it makes really good use of the limited location space available to the crew and the jump cuts bring you the viewer into that feeling of traveling through time before the actual plot and characters have been fully introduced to you, setting the scene really well for the subject matter that ensues.

Something that I really like is the use of very slow pans within Primer, from a visual standpoint you can really engage your audience with camera movement whilst only actually really showing the audience something as mundane of characters just holding a meeting around a table that is vague to it's audience. This is the kind of camera movement that would like for this project to use as I feel this can really add to the films visuals.

Research: Time Crimes (2007, dir Nacho Vigalondo)

Time Crimes for me is certainly the film that the project has most in common with; certainly from a story and plot perspective. Looking at this film from the view of a cinematographer and d.o.p. I really like the films use of shadows to create a tense and mysterious atmosphere, and this is something that I would like to implement to this project, the use of high black contrast in scenes and casting shadows of our characters face to give them an edgy feel, hopefully portraying to our audience the characters dilemma and feeling of loneliness.

For our films lighting, I think that it would be interesting to make use of both LED lighting and the Dedo lights in the production of the film and look to actually keep the lighting quite minimal i.e. with the likes of Chiaroscuro and much like the German Expressionist movement of film.

Time Crimes works really well with regards to the science of time travel and certainly portrays this to the audience much better than Primer (2004). But what I really like is that the film really works on as a Horror piece and I'm hoping that I will get the freedom on this project to add my own horror element to this project without actually taking anything away from Joe and Bob's initial idea.

Research: Alien (1979, dir Ridley Scott)

After the Recce shoot down at Hope Cove Bunker we found that there was a crawl space underneath the actual floor of the hallways and the owner was more than happy for us to use any space within the bunker for our project; Joe and Bob were really keen to do a re-write of the script so that we could use this space in the film and get the most of this great opportunity of filming in such a great location. Going down into the space really reminded me of the Shaft scene in Alien where Dallas enters the shafts in an attempt to flush the alien out.

What I like most about this scene is the great use of darkness and such low uses of light so minimal, but works so effectively to highlight the texture and aesthetic of the vent that Dallas is boxed into; it really helps to build up the tension of the film, and I'm hoping that with the script re-write that I will get the opportunity to set-up a shot underneath the ground that will be very reminiscent of this scene. Especially given that I'm a big fan of horror, this location we definitely give me a great chance to explore this style of lighting to create atmosphere and sense of horror within our project. I think that I will be able to get some Dedo lights down into the crawlspace and potentially create something similar to the scene in Alien yet with my own twist on it, something that will make it really standout.

Research: Damnation (1988, dir Bela Tarr)

After the Recce shoot that we had down at Hope Cove Bunker, I went back and re-watched Bela Tarr's Damnation (1988); the two areas of the Bunker that really got me thinking of this film was the crawlspace underneath the floor and the room that had the back lit board; the things that really standout for me with Tarr's film is his use of very high contrasts for creating the scene and atmosphere, the monochrome finish adds that artistic look that I think think could really work with the crawlspace and boardroom; though I don't feel that we will shoot those scenes in black and white, but with very high contrasts I think that we can keep that aesthetic feeling that monochrome gives to a film whilst still including colour (though with the lighting, colour should come across very limited, as with the lighting.).

The other area that really strikes me with Damnation is the camera movement, in particular the very slow and smooth pans, this is certainly something that I think will complement our film very well; we will certainly look at getting the track and dolly for the boardroom scene and certainly look to get some interesting Merlin Steadicam shots within the crawlspace; we all agree that the use of Steadicam footage in film really adds that high end 'bigger budget' finesse gloss to a film. Me and Joe will be looking to practice with the Merlin in the near future and hopefully have it nailed by the time the shoot days arrive. 

Test Footage from Recce of Hope Cove Bunker

Here is just a short video of some test clips that I shot whilst out on our Recce shot of Hope Cove Bunker; a lot of the handheld motion shots here are something that we will certainly use with the Steadicam when it comes to the production of the film; especially liked the shot from the crawlspace going out of the hatch into the corridor, there is certainly great potential for use to use the Merlin to get some fantastic looking shot with smooth fluid movement. 

Low Key Lighting Tests with LED Lights

This is a video of some Low Key lighting tests that me and Joe did for research and to experiment with the LED lights that I hadn't worked effectively with before. We did quite a few set ups and were planning to make this a short film, but we never really found the time to finish it off properly, but as a lighting workshop it was very productive as we found that the LED were very useful and did give us that soft lighting that we were going for, keeping away from the staged and hard lighting that the Arri's offer; we are now planning to make a lot of use of LED lighting in the upcoming project.

The Merlin Steadicam - Easter Break

After having a short induction with Stu on the Merlin Steadicam, I decided to book it out to learn and practice with it over the Easter Break (2 weeks). Joe came over to my house and for 2 days solid we watched the Instructional DVD through on a few occasions and practiced setting the Merlin up first along with the DVD and then eventually from memory, whilst referring to the manual when we were struggling to get the balance quite right. 

Over the 2 days we actually managed to set the Merlin up very with with various different lenses with the Canon 550D:

Merlin Set-Ups (Canon 550D)

Kit Lens

Mount Hole - M

Weights

Lower Weight - 1 x mid 1 x start

Middle Weight - 1 x end

Gimbal - 6 turns

Stage Mount - minus 2.25

Arc Size - Between quarter and half open

28mm Canon 2.8f

Mount Hole - N

Weights

Lower Weight - 1 x start 1 x mid 1 x end

Middle Weight - 1 x end

Gimbal - 0 turns

Stage Mount - plus 1

Arc Size - 8.5 inches from plate to bottom weight

Trim Left - 0.75

Trim Right - 2.2cm from left of plate

10-20mm Sigma 3.5fx

Mount Hole - M

Weights

Lower Weight - 1 x start 2 x mids 1 x end

Middle Weight - 1 x end

Gimbal - 0 

Stage Mount - 0

Arc Size - 9 inches from plate to bottom weight

Trim left - 1

Trim Right - 2.6cm from left of plate

Practice

After finding a few days of practice and these notes above to help set up the Merlin (though it always needs tweaking) we managed to get the set up time down to around 10-20 minutes from getting the Merlin set up to getting it correctly balanced.

During the rest of the Easter break, me and Joe practice shooting with the Merlin, and even went out onto the Hoe under some quite breezy conditions to try and shoot with the Merlin out in the open and Joe wanted to test using the Steadicam combined with his roller blades, which under the weather conditions worked quite well. Joe also had an idea to try and pass the Merlin from operator to operator, so we practiced passing the Merlin to one another with me crouched down and passing the Merlin up to Joe who'd be stood on a chair to try and get that crane motion action look, which we nailed after a day of practice.

Merlin Steadicam Test Footage

Here is a video that I put together from mine and Joe's practice sessions with the Merlin Steadicam; the conditions up on Plymouth Hoe were quite breezy and very cold which made setting up the Merlin quite difficult and even harder to control the balance. Towards the end of this short scene, we tested how well the Merlin worked combined with Joe operating it whilst skating on his roller blades, which I though showed great potential under my controlled conditions.

Character Brief

The Scientist

When we first meet the Scientist, he is a broken man. His faith in technology and progress has been torn down in an instant, his own ambition and imagination becoming his worst enemy as the machine he built to 'save everybody' does the exact opposite. He is consumed by remorse due to the accident, however his faith is not entirely extinguished; he still believes that through careful application of his trade, there is still a chance to write his past wrongs. However, when this fails, his mind fractures under the weight of his own guilt.

The Scientist represents two conflicting philosophies; the belief that science is a tool for the betterment of the human condition, but also that it can destroy as easily as create, that human ambition can be a destructive force if we lose sight of our goals, or allow them to consume us. At the end of the film, when the Scientist introduces fire to the Earth's inheritors, it is perhaps a desire to return to a simpler, almost child-like view of science, and posits that there are obvious yet complex wonders all around us when we look, and that when stripped down, science is about the discovery of new wonders rather than the fulfillment of some god-like ambition to fix everybody's problems.

Research: Inheritance Animatic (03/05/12)

In preparation for the filming of this project, I watched this animatic that Joe and Bob created from the storyboards that Bob drew; after watching it through a number of times I found myself more familiar with the script and how the film was going to look; this will prove to be a huge positive when it comes to the shooting of the film as I now have a clearer picture in mind of the desired look of the film, more than I had previously from just reading the script alone; this should mean that effectiveness of shooting on set will be increased due to visual nature of this animatic.

Crew Roles

Robert Brice: Writer, Director, Set Design, Producer

Joe Tippett: Writer, Director, Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Camera

Myself: Cinematographer, Lighting, Steadicam Operator, Grip

Patrick Sheenan: Lighting, Set Design, Grip, Crane Operator

From this project I have improved on my already good communication and practical skills working with Joe and Bob enabling me to grow more confident with lighting scenes and finding that cinematic visual style; working with Patrick was new to me, but we worked very effectively together when needed to with regards to the lighting department and setting up the equipment like the crane and track & dolly. Also with this project containing so many challenging shots I feel that my lighting and work the the track and dolly was improved vastly; and my work with the Merlin Steadicam was hugely challenging physically after being stuck underground for so long with low headroom, I feel that my confidence and ability with the Merlin has grown immensely through this project.

Cast

The Scientist - Adam Bacon

Shooting Schedule

Friday 25th May: Hope Cove Bunker

Travelling to location with all the equipment and setting everything up whilst Joe and Bob do a quick recce on location to finalise the locations of each shot from the shot list. Then begin shooting with track and dolly shots; the rest of the shoot to be confirmed depending on time scale.

Saturday 26th May: Hope Cove Bunker

Begin first full day of shooting with priority of order deemed on the difficulty of the shots within the script.

Sunday 27th May: Hope Cove Bunker

Continuation of the plan from day before, must shoot all the difficult shots remaining in the script due to Joe not being available to attend final shoot day tomorrow.

Monday 28th May: Hope Cove Bunker

A shorter day of shooting, getting the last of the pick up shots remaining for the shot list; personally taking on more responsibility due to Joe not being able to attend. 

Day One @ The Bunker (25/05/12)

Today was the first day of shooting for our film at Hope Cove Bunker; after unloading all the equipment out of a transit into the location (we kept all the equipment together in a room that we used as a base of operations); we got straight into the production; whilst Joe and Bob went through the plan for the day and the rest of the weekend, I was assigned the role of going upto the boardroom and setting up the track and dolly for one of the more tricky shots in the script. This was the first time that I've actually had to set up and use the track and dolly outside of college on a film-set, I did have to ask Patrick for a bit of help setting up the legs for the dolly; so as a reminder of how to set this up I took stills of the dolly for reference point for any future productions.

After setting up the track and dolly, I then went straight into setting up the lighting for the scene, whilst Bob was working on the set design; using a couple of Dedo lights I started to test lighting setups with our the actor sat in the shot and Joe on the camera I was able to find the correct lighting setup whilst keeping in constant communication with Joe as to the style and then discussing the fine tuning of the lighting as a group together. After quite a few attempts at lighting the set, I eventually got the shot we were all looking to achieve, for the shot itself I had to push the dolly slowly towards our actor whilst Joe was pulling focus on camera. The shot was actually quite difficult from my perspective as there was a little dip in the floor and the dolly seemed to speed up at a certain point and to get the right framing for the end of the tracking shot I devised a DIY strategy for knowing where to stop the dolly perfectly, which actually worked really well.

After this scene was finally shot, we had to shoot the rest of the angles in the boardroom scene; this for me was again a case of working with the Dedo lights to get the right highlights needed in the shots, this meant I had to make use of diffusing the lights by using the panels that came with the LED lights which seemed to work really at getting rid of the harshness of the Dedo's.

After this scene was shot the rest of the day was used to try and film as much of the 'easier' scenes that we could managed before we had to leave the Bunker; this meant for most of the day I was lighting scenes using the LED lights which was something that I haven't done on previous films, but this is where my low-key LED lighting test with Joe really came in handy; as I was able to light the scenes the way required pretty quickly, and with some really good communication with the rest of the crew we were able to light these shots very effectively.

Still of my DIY stopping point for the dolly shot; using a Lucozade bottle with a mobile phone; from my operating position of pushing the dolly I set these 2 items up so that I could see where my end track point was accurately given my point of view.

Still of the lighting set-up that I used for the tracking in shot for the "boardroom scene")

Still of my lighting set-up for the close up shot of our character, highlighting his face whilst bouncing lighting off the back wall onto the board; making the written formulas more visible in shot.

Me diffusing the light from the Dedo using the LED cover to get the desired look for the lighting in the close up shot..

Day Two @ The Bunker (26/05/12)

This has certainly been the most physically taxing day, but also the creative day for me as a cinematographer with regards to lighting and even camera movement; for the first few hours of the day I was left to my own accord to try and light the crawlspace scene underneath the floor of the bunker. At first I started to try and light the crawlspace with just the one Dedo light, placing it further and further down the space trying to keep the lights out of shot, but whilst also trying to light the scene so that the texture of the walls and piping really came out well on camera; after a few different set ups I spoke with Joe who actually informed me that he imaged the scene to be very dark and high in contrast and suggested that we could disguise the Dedo lights as work lights that our character was using; with this I was then able to find the correct position for the lights that with our character almost being silhouetted by the Dedo's; I am really happy with this lighting as it was something that was part of my research that I was hoping to achieve, I think I've been able to capture something that really does look like a cross between Alien and Damnation.

The second part and probably one of the most technically challenging hurdles that we had to cover was the filming of this scene; this involved the Merlin Steadicam which for the opening of the shot, I would be underground in the crawlspace filming our actor and they have to follow him with the camera as he climbs out off the hatch into the hallway, at which point I would follow him to the hatch and pass the camera on the Merlin through a small space to Joe who would be on his roller-blades who would the film the rest of the scene which ended with him being pushed down the hallway as the actors runs away.

For this shot I would have to try and balance the Merlin whilst being crouched over in the crawlspace and tackling the issue of a breeze that kept drifting through this space, in order to be able to passing the Merlin up to Joe smoothly without risking knocking the Merlin out of balance I literally had to hold the grip with just my thumb and index finger so Joe would have enough of the grip to grab hold of during the change over as to not disturb the balance. I was given free reign to shoot the scene underneath anyway I wanted; so I tried to give the scene so creative camera movement to get the most out of the scene and adding my own horror twist on the shot, keeping the camera moving implying that voyeuristic style giving the audience a sense that our character is being watched, but then the moment he turns to face the camera I stopped dead transferring the full attention of the scene onto him as he climbs out of shot.

Still of early lighting test down in the crawlspace.

Still of where I'd placed the Dedo to achieve the shot above.

First lighting test with Dedo on right-hand side of shot (disguising as work light), with Joe standing in for our actor.

My next test with actor in shot; me and Joe both agreed that we needed another  Dedo to find the right style and it was just a matter then of adjusting the flood and strength of the Dedo's to get the desired creative visual style for this shot.

Day Three @ The Bunker (27/05/12)

Because this was the last day that Joe could be on set, we as a crew really had to work extra hard to film as much of the remaining film as possible so that tomorrow (our last day on set) would be a much easier job to tackle with our crew down to just the 3 members. We managed to film more footage than we had on any of the previous 2 shoots and we were working so effectively as a unit to capture everything whilst not rushing and excepting a second rate take of any of the scenes; this meant that we had to stay much later than previously and due to the fact we were relying on Bob's parents for transport, me and Patrick had to leave before Joe and Bob who were left behind to pick up the last couple of shots that Joe needed to be there for (i.e. roller-blade shots).

One of the more interesting shots visually we shot today was one which required to use of my Lensbaby Composer. Having the ability to blur the image of our characters face in shot with the use of the LED lighting really sold the scene of time travel I thought.

Still from footage showing characters face highlighted with the Lensbaby blurring the image from the left, beginning to blur our characters face.

The rest of this scene above proved quite tricking to light the way that we wanted, and I eventually had the idea of putting the LED on a extended tripod and whilst standing on a chair out of shot. lifted the LED light up and over some vents so that the light was shining directly down into the scene which finally gave us the look that we were looking for.

One of the more complex shots that required all hands on deck, involved the track and dolly again; the shot was very difficult to light and we eventually had to put one LED light onto the front of the dolly to keep the required lighting throughout the tracking shot and also I had to shining light onto our actors faces and back again timely whilst also quickly jumping out of shot before the tracking shot met it's final viewpoint. It took us quite a few attempts to get it right, but I feel that the hard work and team work really paid off with this shot.

Opening shot of the tracking scene described above; lighting from an LED attached to the front of the dolly.

Shot as I shine the light from the LED past our actors face.

Shot as I quickly shine the LED back across the actors face catching is line of sight before making a swift exit out of shot.

End shot as actor walks towards hallway door, with me just out of shot hiding in a room just to the left out of sight.

Day Four @ The Bunker (28/05/12)

Today we were a man short due to Joe having to be away from set; so once we got to the bunker me and Bob went through the shot list to see which were the remaining shots that we had to film today (our last shoot day); we both agreed that we needed to concentrate on the scenes that involved our actor first before moving onto the cutaways; so we wasted no time in getting on with the shooting whilst Patrick was left to set up the crane for the shots that we would shoot at the end of the day.

Me and Bob worked really well together and got the shots we wanted with the desired lighting at a very good rate of productivity, the final scenes that we needed to shoot with our actor required that Patrick helped out with lighting which for a few scenes needed me and Patrick to flicker the hallway lights in tandem so that the shot got the correct visual style; this took a couple of attempts but I feel in the end we got a great looking shot that will add to the essence of travelling through time for our character within the film.

Towards the end of the day we had to shoot some scenes with the crane; this needed all hands to achieve the shot from the shot list; I was in control of the camera head whilst directing Bob who was free-handling the LED light following the movement of the camera trying to keep consistent and even lighting; Patrick was left to operate the crane arm whilst pushing it along track in constant communication with myself over the pacing for the shot; to try and make this shot smoother even our actor helped to support the crane arm; what we ended up with was a shot that had constant fluid motion of the dolly moving forward, the crane arm being lowered as I tilted the camera on the head downwards; this shot I feel has come out very well and is down to our great teamwork and communication skills on set.

We were running a little behind schedule after these scenes and still needed a crane shot and some cutaways for our montage sequence; so we decided as a group to divide up with Bob and the actor going off to get the last few cutaway shots, whilst me and Patrick moved the crane downstairs to get the last of the crane shots; we needed a shot of dripping water which Patrick set up with a pierced bottle of water just above some piping; we then took turns operating the camera and lighting, eventually we found that with the LED lighting shining directly up moving in tandem with the camera we got the best lighting effect.

Though today should have been an easier day with less to shot, the fact we were a man down and I personally had to take on more responsibility on set, the day was actually really challenging, but because I've worked with Bob on numerous occasions before, we've grown to have a good working understanding and I feel that we do get the best out of each other on set; Patrick was crucial to the day going as well as it did as his previous experience with setting up the crane proved invaluable; despite this shoot day feeling very rushed I still feel that we kept the same approach that we had on the previous shoots; where we weren't willing to accept a second rate shot before moving on and I feeling that the desire of the whole crew really showed today despite the long hours and lack of sleep had taken a lot out of us I feel.

Me and Patrick operating the crane getting the correct framing for our 'Dripping Water' shot.

Me and Patrick shooting the final shot for the 'Dripping Water' shot.

Still from the first frame of Crane Shot going into the hatch in the floor.

Still from the same crane shot above as the shot falls into the hatch and into darkness.

Still of close up shot of actor; Bob on Camera with me lighting the actors face with a flickering Zippo lighter just out of frame below.

Still from Hallway scene after actor has just time traveled; having set up a LED light next to the camera, me and Patrick then flickered the hallway lights in tandem to add to the scenes atmosphere.