Session Players

  I'm up in New England doing a TV series. It's lonely. It rains a lot. And it's still cold a lot of the time. I'm going to talk about something that's been on my mind for several years now, which may seem a little strange, but, I've had a couple, so hear goes:

  I have a huge respect for the old school studio guitarists. Stay with me, this does tie in to Dolly Grips. Steve Lukather, Dan Huff, Tim Pierce, I've watched endless numbers of Youtube videos on these guys. These guys showed up for any given session in the 60's through the 90's, often not even knowing who the artist was whose record they were making. And they had to be perfect. Every time. Or they were gone. Just about any record you heard in those days from Micheal Jackson to Boz Scaggs had these guys on it. And their parts were often made up on the spot. The mastery of their instrument assured that they would be called back for the next record. 

   This is something that I've recently tried to bring out in the classes I teach to young Dolly Grips. You have to learn your instrument. Moving a camera isn't about going from one mark to another. Especially now in the digital world where we often roll on the first take. You have to be able to interpret instructions on the fly and make the shot happen the first time you do it. "Move right, boom up, push into a fifty-fifty" with no rehearsal. That's your job often these days. In the last few years, I've often thought about myself as one of those old studio guitarists. Learn it so well you can do it on the fly. And nail it in the first or second take. You're making music. Visual music, but music just the same. Learn your instrument. Learn it.

In the meantime, go to Youtube and type in "Steve Lukather", or "Dan Huff" or even "Glen Campbell" and learn about people who mastered their instrument. Then master yours.

From rainy New England, the Captain has spoken.

  

 

Walk and Talks

   Here is a subject near and dear to my heart. I realized that after hundreds of posts and thinking I had covered just about everything, I never covered Walk and Talks.  I love them. It's a way to knock out three pages of dialogue in one shot ( unless they want tighter coverage). I did a movie last year, Saturday Night, where the first shot of the movie was a seven minute walk and talk on a Peewee with a Matrix head and we covered seven pages in about ten hours.  I love them almost as much as I love stand ups and sit downs. There are a few things to know however. Rule one, no matter what machine you choose to do it on,use a monitor. For years I have preached about becoming overly dependent on monitors. I stand by that. However, in this case they are a valuable tool and I've come to believe that they are really helpful for this particular shot. Before they were widely available, I did what most dolly grips did and locked into a space between the actor's feet and the front of the dolly and held it. And I was pretty good at it. For the last few years though, I have really relied on a monitor to help me hold a frame size. Now, I didn't use one for the shot on Saturday Night. The operator, Matt Moriarity, and I decided to use a combination of dead reckoning and headsets to basically talk our way through the shot. But it was a very unique shot that required a little more finesse than a standard walk and talk. But in general, for a rickshaw or dolly down a hallway, I use a monitor. The technique is simple. Pick a size, base a reference on the bottom frameline (belt buckle, first shirt button, knees) whichever you choose. And hold it. Be warned: these moves are almost always faster than you think they will be. Don't be too proud to ask for help.

Good luck and don't hit any of the extras.

The Captain.