Shots in the Dark, or Shooting So Far

Last night was day four of the shoot, and it went amazingly well. Russ was integral in helping me with lighting set-ups to get the look I was after, so by the time we started shooting we had all the technical kinks worked out. I wish I had had him around on our first day when we shot at Mike and Jessi’s apartment, but the difference in light actually helps to differentiate the two very similar-looking locations, so it still works out in the end.

The shoot the night before at Stain, or “day three” as we like to call it around the office, ended up going pretty well despite my uncertainty at the time. In the scene Bracey is playing a gig for a (very) small group of people inside while Mike and Jon play a scene outside. I was shooting the exterior scene while Russ was on B camera getting Bracey. We only had the place reserved for two hours, and I think I let the time pressure get to me. But it turns out we got good stuff and, despite some sound issues that I’ll have to deal with in post, things went pretty okay.

I’m feeling very confident about the whole thing right now, due in no small part to the success of last night’s shoot I’m sure. But part of it is that I’ve also now shot scenes with all the main characters and more pieces of the story are starting to come together in stark relief. And it all seems to work.

Tonight we’re shooting what I consider to be the key scene in the movie. But you know what? I’m not nervous. I’m excited. I’m confident. Which is a strange feeling to have. But I’ll stop questioning the feeling and just ride it til the end. The scene takes place on a stoop at night, and though I considered shooting day-for-night, I decided I really wanted it shot in actual night in actual darkness. I’ve been pushing the low-light capabilities of the HV20/30 to the limit with mostly positive results. I’ve learned even better what it can handle and what it can’t. So tonight the plan is to set up a single flood about 10-feet up on a light stand to simulate illumination from a streetlight. Sounds like a plan, right?

Hopefully there will be some production photos to post up here soon. For obvious reasons I haven’t really been thinking about candid shots of the production, but I think Russ has gotten some. Eh, who knows. When I start capturing footage I’m sure I’ll post some stills.

Uggh, capturing footage. But that’s a whole other post.

Nine days to go.

Against the Grain

Camera tests at our various locations and different lighting situations took up the past couple of days. And I think I have a better understanding of exactly what can be achieved with the HV20/30 to achieve the look that I want.

One thing that I wanted to do from the beginning was shoot this movie entirely on the HV20/HV30 Canon HDV cameras to prove that you can make a high quality product with consumer grade equipment. I had started to worry, however, that my desire to shoot in low-light situations might be compromised by their less-than-stellar low-light performance. That, combined with their lack of true manual controls, of the gain setting especially, had me wonder whether or now I’d be able to shoot how I wanted to with this equipment.

After the last few days, that answer is a definite yes. A major no-no among videophiles is shooting with the gain setting on anything but zero. Gain is that nasty electronic noise that brightens the image to allow for low-light shooting. Only problem is that it looks nasty and is a dead-giveaway that you’re shooting video and shooting amateur video at that. So gain has never been an option.

But I started to question the zero-tolerance for gain policy, especially after watching films shot on both film and video and seeing the amount of grain that was present in certain shots. After shooting at night with all natural light and adding some gain to the image, what grain could be seen looked like exactly that: film grain. Not that nasty blocky video noise that is usually associated with video shot with auto settings, but something that resembled the granular, natural look of true film grain. I don’t know why this is, but it’s a look that is not only acceptable to me, but even desirable. This proved to me that I would be able to shoot as I had wanted, primarily with natural and practical light sources, and still get a good-looking image with that nitty-gritty documentary feel that I had wanted.

So, yeah, that’s great news. There are still many last minute things to be done in preparation. Only three days til production begins.

Pre-Production Begins

Tonight was my last night at work until after shooting is done. Russ is coming tomorrow to help me plan lighting set-ups. The three most worrisome shooting locations are confirmed.

It’s all happening. Many many more updates to come.