The Thing (2011)

  Or as they should have called it, Shit (2011), is a simply horrible movie. Every lazy filmmaking mistake you can make was made in this piece of crap. Sigourney Weaver lookalike? Lazy filmmaking. CGI creatures that were done BETTER thirty years earlier by Rob Botin with stop motion animation? Lazy filmmaking. Bland Swedish (Nordic? Norwegian?) character development ? Lazy filmmaking.The last twenty minutes when the characters are suddenly on the planet from Aliens? Lazy filmmaking. American hero (?) with a raspy voice? Lazy filmmaking. As a huge fan of John Carpenter's The Thing, I really was looking for something special out of this movie. What I got was bad CGI, worse acting, and even worse filmmaking. Blah blah blah and I'm done with it. So if you have nothing to live for or have absolutely no taste in movies, rent Shit (2011), or as it is marketed, The Thing (2011). 
  The Captain has spoken.

Better Early Than Late

  We are doing a lot of blind* Technocrane moves on this show with a very exacting director (and DP). As a result, I've recently become reacquainted with one of my old rules that I had almost forgotten: generally, it's better to be a little early, and fudge it in the feather-down, than late, because you can never catch up. This is a principle that usually comes in handy when you are trying to match to a certain passage of dialogue or land on a specific word in a piece of dialogue. As long as you don't get too far ahead, you can always stretch out the move in the feather to make it almost unnoticeable. If you're behind, there is almost no way to catch up and you end up just stopping short when the dialogue ends, running the risk of ending on too loose a frame. Usually, this is a function of actors getting faster in their dialogue as they get more comfortable with a piece of dialogue. Especially off camera dialogue. This happened earlier this week when the writer/producer (whom I've known for years)was reading off camera to an actor supposedly watching him on an iPad. Another actor was cued to walk in on a specific word in the off-camera dialogue and I had to be in a certain spot to see him walk in in the background. He read faster and faster until the camera was flying around to reach the specific point in the dialogue. At this point, the only way to not be late was to get there early, and slow it down into a creep to the number two spot before wrapping around the actor who walked in. It worked (although we still took around ten takes to get it right. So remember this: better to be ahead and slow down, trhan behind and rush to catch up.

* A blind move is one in which you can't see all the actors or set pieces because of your position on the bucket. Also called "flying blind." It often involves a little on the fly calculating combined with desperation and luck.

Technocranes

  Let's talk about Technocranes for a moment. I generally love them. As long as you have the right size (not too large, not too small), they make life a lot easier. You can hit multiple points in any shot without laying floor or track, and the shots generally become more creative just because you have the ability to go any direction in space (assuming you have the room). On exteriors, usually the bigger the arm, the better. It gets a little trickier on interiors. I have found that often you have more arm than you need. By which I mean you sometimes end up trying to thread a fifty footer around in a space where a thirty, or even a twenty would work much better. Here's the crux of the problem though: too much arm, and you are forever fighting the bucket end hitting walls, etc, and too little, you end up laying track for an extendable crane. Today, we had both situations. A large space to swing a fifty around in, but it wasn't quite enough to get us the reach we needed. So we ended up laying forty feet of track to do an extremely technical series of moves in a space where a thirty footer would have made life easier (because of the shorter bucket end swinging through doors etc.) By the end of the day I was exhausted. No, utterly exhausted. We swooped and circled, and dove in and quite literally missed the walls on the bucket end by sometime a half an inch. With a Technocrane, it's always a game of variables. On a normal dolly shot, you have a Dolly Grip, an operator, actors and a focus puller. With a Technocrane you add another: the pickle operator. So now you have six variables that all have to work together in a ballet of movement. When you add the extra variable of an interior shot dodging cars, and support beams, and lighting fixtures, it can become a little daunting. The only good thing about an interior Techno shot is the plethora of sightlines. Outside, you generally start high, which gives you nothing but the sky as a sightline. So I'm forever trying to remember that the matte box is straight up from the church steeple, and the sidebar is at hipbone height. I don't use lasers. I've got enough to watch for without trying to calculate if the laser is off the tape mark because the extension is off or I'm too high or low. This reminds me of a story, which I've told here before, of the dayplayer who informed me that I "shouldn't use the sun as a sightline because it will move." And with that, I'm out.
D

Finally, Something To Do

   I've been a little lax in the posting duties lately. Mostly it's because we have not only gone into straight nights, but also have entered a dialogue phase of shooting where the camera isn't mounted on a car, so I actually get a chance to swing a Technocrane around, or push a dolly. As a result, I'm a lot more tired than I normally would be, so forgive the rarity of posts.
   Don't forget the Fisher Open House on May 18th from 9AM to 4 PM. have a beer tell Frank Kay hi for me.
   Well, it's pissing rain (a continuation of the rain I stood in all night). I've got cheeseburgers from Five Guys, a jug of Captain Morgan, and the beginnings of a six day work week starting at 11AM in the morning. Life is good.

Help Out!

   A student at UC Santa Barbara recently contacted me about a three part workshop they are having on Sunday April 28th. They have a Fisher rep, and an SOC operator lined up, but are looking for a dolly grip to come in and take part in discussions with the camera operator about their working relationship. They also would like the dolly grip to give a short how-to on basic things like marking and track laying. I don't know if there is any financial remuneration, but if I was available, I'd do it just to help out. Shoot me an email if you are interested and I'll put you in touch with the interested parties. Thanks.
D

Hello From Northern California!

   I'm two weeks in on a fourteen week show and I've had....one day of dolly work. Since it's a movie about a cross-country race, most of the work is, as you may have guessed, Interior Car. Since we have, not only the regular grip crew, but a crew of three car rigging grips, I don't have a lot to do. I've never felt more like a Steadicam operator in my life, (or a Standby Painter). Although they have been sending me to splinter unit a little more lately, I spend a lot of my time just trying to be useful among the nine or so grips we have rigging cars already. Today was a little bit more excitement since I got sent off with the second unit to do some introductory dolly shots of actors and beauty shots of cars. After that, I spent a lot of time waiting. Mostly on this show I wait. So, here I am....waiting. Who needs a wrench?

Wheels. Wheeeeeels.

  I recently was asked a question on Twitter about wheel setup. As a Chapman user, you have a few options and the questioner wanted to know what works best where. Well, things are always changing and what is in favor at one time is out of favor a few years later. Back when the Hybrid was Chapman's signature large dolly, I would always put on the pneumatics and leave them on for the run of the show. By design, they work on both track and floor. Later, when I became a Hustler 4 user, we would combine both the track wheels and the pneumatics (I always put the air tires on the outside and the track tires on the inside) which seemed to give the best of both worlds. Although I doubt there is much difference in where you put them, the pneumatics on the outside seemed to make more sense to me. My good friend GHB does the opposite and sets up the track tires on the outside. I can't argue with success 'cause he's done well for himself. As far as the Hybrid goes, a lot of Camera Operators I work with began to complain about the bouncy nature of the pneumatic tire on floor, while some thought it was fine. After using the medium softs, which I found to be very good on dance floor, I began to agree. As far as the Pewee goes, I always switched out the hards for pneumatics for floor, but switched back to the hards after the shot because the air tires make the dolly so much wider and hamper maneuverability. I think it boils down to communicating with your Camera Operator. He/ she is your best source of feedback for what is happening in the lens. If the pneumatics are causing problems, try the medium softs. I do what I know until I'm told it isn't working. Unfortunately, now that we are doing more and more HD work, the little bumps that we used to get away with seem to show up much more vividly than they did in film. It's a more unforgiving medium in every sense.
   As far as Fisher dollies go, you have two choices: the standard air filled or the round track wheels. I also have no idea why Fisher refuses to let go of the old square track/ bogie wheel setup. I haven't seen, much less used square track in at least fifteen years. Who are you catering to? The music video market? If I'm wrong, please fill me in Fisher users/ insiders/ Wick?

The Aerocrane

   A while back, I included the Aerocrane on my list of Things That Suck. I had used it on a series and had very bad luck with it. We couldn't ever seem to get it back in the cases right (not just me, three of us) even after taking pictures. This culminated in a 2 AM aberration involving a ratchet strap and a note to the rental house. Yes, I know it's easy to take it out and make a note, or a diagram, but none of us had time. Plus, every time it came out, it was in a different case setup. This was minor compared to the problems I had with parts that didn't fit, or wouldn't come apart due to a piece inside the arm shifting. The solution involved me attacking it with a pair of channel locks to turn the male coupler inside it, which had shifted out of vertical, to make it go together. It also never seemed to be quite long enough at around nine feet max.  Now I won't say it was all bad. We got some good shots with it. I just didn't like it very much. I recently became very familiar with this jib once again and the circumstances were somewhat different. Instead of using the Hustler 4 or some other heavy dolly as a base, we used the lightweight Magnum Dolly from Movietech. This thing was a dream. Two grips can very comfortably carry it, set it on the track, and then mount the arm. With a Power Pod on it, the options are greatly increased from the standard dolly on track scenario. The secret is in the system. The Key, Dolly , and Best Boy I was working with have been using this setup with the DP for many years and have it down to a science. It takes a couple of days to get used to it and get the steps down as well as become familiar with the arm, but once that's done, it's extremely fast and easy. The secret is also in using your own arm, so that you know it's been well maintained and you know where it's been, so there are no unwelcome surprises with sections that don't go together etc. So, I have to say, I was wrong. In the right hands, with people who know it's strengths, it is a very effective piece of equipment. So yes, in short, I have reevaluated my stand on the Aerocrane. I was wrong and am proud to admit it.

D

PS:
 I recently reacquired the .com suffix back from the clutches of Crazy Lady. It's mine, I invented it, and I stupidly and drunkenly let it go. It should be linked back up to the site and operational by tomorrow. So now both .com, and .net bring you here. So there.