New Episode Posted...More to Come

[Jonathan Ames]

2nd Unit's Episode 6 with Isabella was posted today, a short 20 min production that showcases Isabella and the art of makeup. More a music video than an actual educational episode, it showcases a beautiful young makeup artist who looks like she herself stepped right off the pages of Vogue magazine instead of being the make up artist who works on the the models that grace those pages. I hope you enjoy "Isabella" as just one more direction for 2nd Unit to take as it begins to exapand its offerings into areas most sites don't take you.

In the coming weeks we're going to introduce you to the gaffers behind the upcoming movies "Next" and "Zoom" as well as go behind the scenes with Ken Fisher of the industry-famous Fisher Light, several of which are located at every major studio around the world. We'll look into the art of automotive commercial making and visit the incredible SouthBay Studios where next year's automobiles are being shot today and tomorrow's visions are coming to life. We'll be following that up with a 2-part series on entertainment law to show you how to protect yourself in these shark-infested waters and finally end Season 1 with a surprise guest.

All in all, the "Front Nine" has proved interesteing for 2nd Unit and we hope you're looking forward to the "Back None" as we finish the first season of 2nd Unit.

[Jeff Sayre]

Bravo and congratulations on another great episode!

I think you out did yourself in editing this episode, Paolo! It had great pacing and a wonderful mix between solid information and tasteful, artistic collage scenes. It seems to me that episode 6 could air on a number of high-quality cable stations with great success.

If it is not too late for suggestions for part 2, it would be useful to show Isabella working with a man. The techniques for applying makeup on men may be the same (?), but the areas to concentrate on are different.

[Paolo Ciccone]

Wow, Jeff, thank you! And thanks for the suggestion. Yes, for the next part we are planning on having male makeup as well. We learned a bunch of things about showing makeup with this first part and we hope to have even more useful examples with the follow-up.

[Joe Bowey]

Wow, the production value for "Isabella" was amazing. Each episode just gets better and better. I hope I can make it down for a shoot soon.
I just landed my FIRST PAID JOB this saturday. I am a little nervious but excited.
Hopefully I can make it out there in the coming weeks.
Keep in touch.
Also need to know when you guys are having pre-production meetings for the doc your workng on so I can make it out for that.

[Paolo Ciccone]

Originally Posted by Joe Bowey

I just landed my FIRST PAID JOB this saturday.

Congratulations!

[Jonathan Ames]

I certainly join Paolo in saying congrats. It's a momentus occasion and one to be remembered no matter the subject or the production company. As they say, 1) Show up on time, 2) Know your lines and 3) Don't trip over the furniture. It's pretty simple. Just rermember to keep things in perspective, use everything as a learning experience, contribute where you can and always defer to the gaffer, BB or DP. Good luck and let us know how things turn out.
Jonathan

[Scott Harper]

Ok guys, here it goes... First of all, it looked wonderful. I certainly agree with Jeff Sayre in that this episode looks so pretty it could air on any top-notch cable station without question. Loved the lighting and filters. Which filter(s)were used. Pro-mist? I'm also curious if Paolo's TrueColor camera settings were used for this episode? Paolo(assuming it was him)did an excellent job editing. My issues with an otherwise lovely episode were;

1. Unless I wasn't really paying attention, which is entirely possible with your sexy cast, I really didn't learn anything about makeup other than how important it, apparently, is. I mean that in the sincerest way. Perhaps an example of BAD makeup compared to GOOD makeup would have sold the point more. I'm going out on a limb here but to be perfectly honest, I personally couldn't care less HOW TO do makeup. Just knowing it's important and hiring someone capable to do it is all that concerns me. I'm a filmmaker so an episode(or 2)on this subject might not be too valuable for me "the subscriber" when I become one, Which, by the way, I'm not totally clear on when the pay by the month starts.

2. I found the handheld shots on the close-ups were a bit shaky and became hard to watch. Close ups on sticks are always safer.

3. You had some graphics that said "Let's check the makeup outside" and I was looking forward to seeing the difference, but we never went outside.

4. The mic on Jonathan was kind of hollow sounding or distant in some way. I would like to know if you guys mix your levels differently on purpose or is it on full auto? Were you laved or ???

5. I thought the before and after was a nice touch but would have liked to seen it in the exact same frame(size)to compare them better.

I hope I didn't come across as nit-picky or negative because overall I thought it was a beautiful looking episode. I would personally like to see more equipment and "techy" stuff as a paying customer, though, but I understand you can't please everyone all of the time.

You guys have come light-years since episode #1. Looking forward to next week and beyond.

[Paolo Ciccone]

Originally Posted by Scott Harper

Ok guys, here it goes... First of all, it looked wonderful.

Thank you!

Which filter(s)were used. Pro-mist? I'm also curious if Paolo's TrueColor camera settings were used for this episode?

No Pro-mist, just a bit of diffusion, if I remember well it was one of the HDTV Soft, probably number 3. I usually check the filters with the lighting of the shoot and looking at the subject. Different situations make the filters react slightly different and what seems a mild diffusion in one light can look eccessive in another. The shots with heavy diffusion, CUs of Laura in the montage, were done in post with Magic Bullet. About TrueColor, yes, we use it all the time, for all the cameras. Specifically it's TC3. Read the credits :)

I'm going out on a limb here but to be perfectly honest, I personally couldn't care less HOW TO do makeup. Just knowing it's important and hiring someone capable to do it is all that concerns me.

That was exactly my impression as well and that's why the episode goes pretty quickly. At 18 minutes it's our shortest ever. We had, as usual, about 2 hours of material that I reviewed carefully and trimmed down to what you see now, even though Isabella went on a pretty detailed discussion on how to use fundation. It turns out that it's tougher than expected to make a show about make-up. Personally I never done it. We shot a lot of material in order to have as much coverage as possible. We discussed how to improve and expand the next episodes and we will keep your suggestions in mind.

2. I found the handheld shots on the close-ups were a bit shaky and became hard to watch. Close ups on sticks are always safer.

Yes, we know. We started using a Steadycam with Episode 8, we didn't have it for "Isabella".

3. You had some graphics that said "Let's check the makeup outside" and I was looking forward to seeing the difference, but we never went outside.

OK, miscommunication here. It was meant to introduce what Jonathan says about checking the makeup outside.

4. The mic on Jonathan was kind of hollow sounding or distant in some way. I would like to know if you guys mix your levels differently on purpose or is it on full auto? Were you laved or ???

Had some issues with the mic pre-amp. We never use auto-anything.

5. I thought the before and after was a nice touch but would have liked to seen it in the exact same frame(size)to compare them better.

That would require that we planned that shot :) I found the best matching clips and did my best to resize/retime them. We will do it correctly the next time.

Thanks for all the suggestions and for the great feedback, we appreciate both.

Take care.

[K. Forman]

I'm finally getting to watch episode 6 with Isabella, and have a gripe. After Jonathon comes back on, and interviews her, we get Isabella in frame, and Jonathon's shoulder and elbow blocking the subect in the chair. Not sure who shot that, but I think you should have moved around just a bit, and got all three of them in frame.

[Jonathan Ames]

You guys are killer. Take no prisoners. I love it. That's what this is all about and I'd rather have 1 of you than 100 others; others who seemingly pick up 2nd Unit like they pick up a copy of FHM or Playboy or Pop Mechanics, thumb through it, never read the articles, look at the pix and leave it in the Dr.'s office. You guys really get it. As pickiy as you guys are, you need to get your rear ends over here and do a day ...or couple...with us! \

Anyway, I need to respond to these last couple of posts later today. I'm in New York right now and headed out for a day of 2nd Unit meetings. By the way, where ever you are, count your blessings. You can't believe how hot it is. 108 yesterday. Almost as hot as some of you have gotten at 2nd Unit ;-) LA's gonna look mighty cool comin' home Saturday. By the way, one more week until the big announcement on the end of Season 1 and begining of Season 2.

[Jonathan Ames]

Thanks again for the comments and we really do appreciate them so let me address each of them in order.

1. Unless I wasn't really paying attention, which is entirely possible with your sexy cast, I really didn't learn anything about makeup other than how important it, apparently, is. I mean that in the sincerest way. Perhaps an example of BAD makeup compared to GOOD makeup would have sold the point more. I'm going out on a limb here but to be perfectly honest, I personally couldn't care less HOW TO do makeup. Just knowing it's important and hiring someone capable to do it is all that concerns me. I'm a filmmaker so an episode(or 2)on this subject might not be too valuable for me "the subscriber" when I become one, Which, by the way, I'm not totally clear on when the pay by the month starts.

First, the first episode was intended only to articulate the importance of makeup. We didn't want to show "bad" makeup v. "good" makeup but rather what we all encounter every day; how a girl with average, girl-next-door looks can be transformed into a beautiful model-next-door (which sadly I've never lived next to) with a minimum of makeup and effort IF you ubnderstand how makeup is built up. Our makeup artists run an average of $250 a day and that price for most people is untennable. So, if you can afford to hire one, that's great but if you want to take the money you would spend on a makeup artist and put it into, oh I don't know, a whole other camera rental, then we wanted to evidence the fact that you can do a good job of makeup yourself if we show you how a top artist does it AND give you access to the Studio Direct professional products that sell, on an average, for 70% less that their counterparts do over the counter. Over the counter makeup many times can't be used or does not perform well under stage conditions despite what the commercials insinuate. And, in many cases, stage makeup is too much for real-world user. Studio Direct Makeup, yes, a sponsor but one we selected way before they became a sponsor, is designed specifically for stage use and is also used all the time in the real world. So we made the introduction in the first episode and will do another episode on selecting the right makeup for the right color, complexion and lighting and talk about how to do it right and easy. In short, I think that, just like camera, lighting and every other aspect of filmmaking, even though you can hire it done, you should know at least the basics of every tool you use and make up is just another tool.

As to the cost of membership, we're trying to keep it free for as long as we can. So far, we've ben able to stretch the "first 4 episodes" to the entire first season. We thought you'd like that!

Paolo's addressed the other issues as I would have and I agree on the handheld stuff. I love sticks no matter what. Paolo wanted to do a handheld. Thus the acquisition of the Steadicam. Actually, there's been no acquisition yet. We used a Steadicam in Episode 8 as Paolo said however before we "acquire" one, we're going to take the Steadicam class, try the others that are available and then do a series on the whole arena, select one to acquire and tell you why. That, again, is what 2nd Unit is all about. I thought you'd like to see a Steadicam Shootout so to speak so you can decide for yourself but again, I like sticks. I hate the real hand held look so we're on the same page , Scott.

Oh yeah, and one more thing. The mic on me wasn't hollow. That was my regular voince bouncing around the hollow space in my head before it came out! ;-)

[Chris Forbes]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Ames

As they say, 1) Show up on time, 2) Know your lines and 3) Don't trip over the furniture. It's pretty simple. Jonathan

Jonathan,

Two out of three. I'll try harder next time.

Chris

[Paolo Ciccone]

Keith, the position of the two static cameras, the position of the lights and the direction where the talents where looking at posed several limitations to my movements and framing. I was trying to *not* be in the frame of both the other cameras so that I had at least one other angle to intercut. Sometimes it worked, sotimes it didn't. When you're framing the shot you're considering all these elements at the same time, frame, angle, backlight, camera shake, being in the frame of the other cameras etc. Even with the wide angle adapter, the limited field of view of the stock lens limits your options quite a bit.

[K. Forman]

In situations like that, you need a stick so you can poke Jonathon, and move him out of your way ;)

[Paolo Ciccone]

Originally Posted by Keith Forman

In situations like that, you need a stick so you can poke Jonathon, and move him out of your way ;)

Ahhh, yes! The stick. I forgot that at home that day, I'll add it to the checklist, thank you ;)