Hey HDV'ers -

I just got contacted by the producers of "Fear Factor," "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and "Big Brother". (just a few they produce)

Can anyone confirm that DV mode with a standard light kit looks ok? Has anyone shot sit down interviews yet??

I will probably be shooting in HDV, but I need to confirm that...just covering my bases!

Thank you! :)

No offense here Christopher, and congrats on the gig, but I'm just wondering how you got the job if you haven't even had any expierence shooting interviews with lighting.

Maybe I read something wrong in your post.

But anyway, again, congrats on the work!

Hey Christopher,
sounds like a good gig alright. The audio will rely more on your environment--as well as your mics. Air conditioner noise, fans, people talking in hallways, fricken airplanes....that can be hell.

We use Sony wireless mics, but the ol' wired Sony 77B Lav's sound better to my ears.

Do you have a field mixer and an audio op? With a good field-audio person, you can forget about the audio and concentrate on lighting and camera work. It's well worth having a solid audio person with you.

I light interviews- it seems to be all that I do. Are you using a backdrop, or shooting in a house, or on a location? That will affect the lighting choices and the equipment you want to pack.

I just spent a weekend shooting interviews on a rented backdrop (sandy color).
Used:
1- Chimera video-pro with a tota and a 750 frosty bulb. Honeycomb on front.

A 4x4 foamcore for fill onn a C-stand.

1 250Watt inky for backlight- no schmutz- armed over on a C-stand.

Lit the backdrop from the key-side/back with a 650 Arri with 1/2 CTO and some
opal to soften the light slash on the backdrop.

I cheated the white balance with 1/2 CTB on a white card.

I would light mens faces more sidey, women more fully on the facial plate, and walk the foamcore in to lessen the shadow gradient. The backlight is directly in line with the camera lense to get evenly lit shoulders and hair. Opal works nice to give some wrap-around on the shoulders. Safety everything. Dirt bags, etc..

Totally different if you are lighting with windows/lamps in the room however. Maybe look into hiring a small grip truck? Here you can get one for around $250 a day, and the guy that comes with it lights as well. Again- you can concentrate on the camera work.

Good luck and ask any questions you like. You know my email too, so email me directly if I can help.

Jeff Patnaude

Bryan, yes I've done 100 interviews. I haven't done any with the Z1U...that was my reason for posting. Just covering my butt by asking questions.

I've re-worded my post!

<<<-- Originally posted by Christopher C. Murphy : Bryan, yes I've done 100 interviews. I haven't done any with the Z1U...that was my reason for posting. Just covering my butt by asking questions.

I've re-worded my post! -->>>

Ah, ok. That makes more sense.

Just stuck me as odd, but now I get it.

Can't wait to hear how everything goes!!

Jeff, your information rocks man! Thank you!

It looks like all locations will be houses, so I'll probably do it in living rooms. I'm going to hire a seperate lighting and audio person for this gig...I want more in the future, so I don't want to mess it up. It's hard getting decent national work in the Boston area!

I'm looking for a small crew (lighting, audio) in the Boston area, so if anyone is reading this...contact me. It's a 1-2 day gig with multiple locations north of Boston.

Chris,
there's some great stufff called "roscoe Scrim" that I like to use on windows. It's a black, opaque, net that comes in a roll about 4 ft wide. You can cut it and tape it to window, and it'll buy you at least 2 stops. You could key with a Arri 2K ( or similar). Bounce a 4x4 and backlight with a Baby 1k, or use natural light if lucky.
Specials for plants etc.
I dream of using HMI's... sigh.

Motivated lighting of course.

Jeff P

I was on a shoot for one of my friends uni shorts and we used an HMI, placed outside pointing into the set to act as the sun. It was an absolute dream. I love them, and we got it for £40 ($75?) for 3/4 days. Absolute bargain!

I'm a big fan of the Kino Diva's for location interview shoots.
When you don't exactly have control over th entire location, it's nice to have the dimming control. Allows for a quick setup in a variety of locations.

Thanks for the info guys!

When we shot 3 Sisters (www.904am.com/3sisters.php) late last year, we did a lot of close ups that looked good, and those are similar to interviews. Just make sure there's plenty of light.

heath

Thanks doods, just got back from shoot 1....having lunch and off for 2, 3 and 4. We have 8 hours of driving today...yeah!

Wow, when you mentioned this gig I didn't realize it was right around the corner.

Let us know how it turned out when it's all said and done.
Good luck!

That's Rosco scrim as in http://www.rosco.com

Hey all - details of the shoot:

The shoot was long! I left the house at 3AM drove 3 hours to the first shoot and it was none stop until about midnight.

Keene, NH shoot:
It was on the side of moutain...beautiful house. The family I shot were nice...they were the typical American family. We did more than what I thought originally was on the agenda. (Isn't that always the case?) The producer in LA wanted me to a "walk around". The "reality" (yeah right) thing where you capture people doing their "thing". If anyone has actually shot or even just watched reality programming you'll see everything that's happening is "heightened". People can't help it...things are exagerated. (i'm tired, so i might be spelling wrong)

My biggest problem on the shoot? My PA was to inexperienced and not as professional as I needed on this shoot. I needed someone with a lot of experience. He messed up bad - didn't turn the shot gun on for our first interview after I literally said, "don't forget to turn on the shotgun". How many times have you told someone to do something on a shoot and immediately afterwards they don't do it? That really ticks me off.

Anyway, then later we had abour 2 hours downtime and could go to my house. I wanted to re-charge our extra batteries because it was half full. He said, "We don't need it"...I said, "I want everything operating at peak at all times if possible...you never know when you need batteries, tapes etc.". So, he blew me off apparently and didn't charge the battery. Later, I got mad because...guess what? We needed the battery he didn't charge for our extra camera.

So, eventually we made it across the large state of New Hampshire to Rochester and Milton. We did 3 more shoots in 3 different locations....every single shoot we went to we ended up getting there exactly on time by 5 minutes! I was speeding most of the way...not good. I know, but hey..

All told almost 11 hours of driving, 1 mountain climb, 8 full setups with a lazy green PA I won't use again and a total of 10 kids yelling over every sound bite! Let's not forget total white out from snow outside leering into windows that don't have shades!!! Oh, I won't mention how I was ripped off on my day rate too. lol...oops, just did. It ended up being a 19 hour day because they sprung those last 3 locations on me the last second. Oh, and get this crap....I had the Executive Producer relaying some interview questions to me via cell phone right, and then after all this extra shooting I'm doing (exterior shots of the houses etc.) - I asked for them to pay for my tape stock and extra for transportation. I used Sony Excellence tapes...not cheap tape! Also, WAY more driving then originally agreed upon. Well, he pulls a mini-Hollywood tantrum right on the phone! He goes, "You are the reason Hollywood production costs have gotten out of control man. Everytime we talk this production keep getting more expensive." So, I'm like..."are you serious"?

The second family in Milton, NH will probably get on this show...way more eye candy and sound bites. I'll keep you posted on anything else that happens... :)

Sounds great Christopher! What a day.

Sorry to hear about the trouble with the PA and you're money struggles. Hope you didn't get hurt too bad by either.

Let us know when your stuff airs!

Bryan, I have to no idea what my footage will be used for...it's either casting or actual show footage. I shot it to air, so it's definately good footage. I'm reviewing it now and it's decent. The second family was much better for eye candy... I got this little kid doing wheelie's on his little motor bike. It's really good footage.

The PA problem was a time issue...I got the confirmation at 6pm the night before and I had to be able to pick the person up at 3:30am! Who likes that kind of gig right? So, I was a little limited on PA's to call...lol

It's probably just me, but when I was a PA I hustled like crazy and made sure the Producer on hand didn't have to worry. I made sure everything was done right, I hustled back to the van for stuff, always doubled checked everything and overall made the Producer feel less stressed and was able to focus on the creative and logistical matters. I can't find many (or any) PA's around here that get "it".

Oh, and I pay VERY well....let's just say I am giving 40% of my total budget to my PA. That's more than I ever got. No one shows up anymore for anything less nowadays. This is what I hear..."I'd rather stay home and play video games". I've had 2 PA's give me that jive in the past couple weeks. What's wrong with kids these days? lol!

The trouble is, the good PAs (like you were) don't stay PA's very long.

Soon they become producers. :)

What did you end up shooting/delivering in?

<<<-- Originally posted by Christopher C. Murphy :
Oh, and I pay VERY well....let's just say I am giving 40% of my total budget to my PA. -->>>

Congrats on the gig Murph, that's awesome!!

But 40% to your PA, my God man!! What exactly is he doing for that kind of money? Most PA's we use (local film school kids mostly) are just glad to be getting ANY kind of work and see how the production process works, and they are doing flips for $100/day (the most I would EVER consider paying a PA is $200/day).

I would rather have a cheap, enthusiastic PA who could follow orders than an expensive "experienced" PA who has an attitude.

Of course, if you are talking about a PA who doubles as an experienced lighting grip, that is a different story.

Anyway, congrats again on getting that job, but it pays to be tight-fisted (but fair) if you are a producer.

PA's, for me, is more along the lines of free to $50 a day. I'll buy them lunch if the producers don't provide it.

heath

I was in a major pinch though - I called him at 7pm and said we had a 3am call time. It's pretty tough to convince anyone to get out of bed at 3am. He agreed, but I had to up the rate a little bit more than I wanted to...and I should have based on his performance. I could have done the whole thing better by myself. I can't remember if I mentioned this or not, but he forgot to turn on the shotgun and also didn't charge the extra batteries during lunch. I told him directly to do both and "not to forget" right before I wanted them both done. So, I even reminded him.

Oh, and after the fact I realized I did the hustling too. I'm a huge hustler (lol, not THAT kind of hustler!) - I mean, I run around and get things done in a fast manner. I ran out to the vehicle 5-7 times to get stuff and he didn't go once! He sat on his lazy butt. I don't notice that stuff at the time because all I can think about is getting stuff done. I've got a "if you want it done right, do it yourself" attitude.

Anway, I'm going to change my PA practices as of now. From now on I'm going to outline what is expected up front...maybe even a hand out like I used to give in class. I don't know if any else does this ...but, I end up teaching like when I taught television production. It's like a damn class when I go on shoots with people...even with experienced people I end up acting like a teacher sometimes because they lack knowledge in some area. I wish someone would teach me sometimes on gigs...when I started out I got that quite a bit. Now, I'm the teacher and it sucks when you need to get stuff done fast. lol

I've heard the average day rate for a PA out in SoCal is 150.00.

Just out of curiosity, what is the typical rate for the rest of the country, anyone? I worked for free on 2 gigs just for the fun of it.

Found out I have a talent for keeping the boom mike just the right distance from the talent, even when they are moving, I've been told it really helped in post, even when they had to to AR. I'm also not above simply picking things up and keeping things in order/neat, what ever needs to be done at the moment. Hold the reflector, move the gobos, get coffee, report crimes to the police (yes that really happened).

Joe,

If you're in Boca this summer, let me know.

heath

Being saddled with an incompetent assistant on a shoot like that is a nightmare. Who was monitoring sound and didn't hear the absence thereof when the mic was off? I'm assuming the same guy. Hopefully you've canned him by now. An experienced soundman would be worth the money on that kind of shoot.

I agree with you Bill. But a sound tech used on audition and family b-roll backstory shoots is becoming very rare these days, especially for DV shoots. A sound tech is always worth it but these production companies are absolutely streamlining everything to save a dollar. The worst part is that we are proving that it can be done even though it's pushing the limits and it's setting a precedent. But, if we say no, we need a sound tech, they'll just get someone else so you have to do it. They're even getting field producers to shoot city b-roll on the way in or out of a location to prevent the shooter from going into OT on the actual shoot day. A couple of shows that I have worked on hire the shooter as the DP and audio tech. It's not so bad if you will be in one place such as an interview and there is not alot of surrounding participants in the scene but it does ad stress worrying about levels. The shotgun gets the others but not as clean as a lav. Chris, I know exactly what you mean about having to manage p.a.s but that's just what they are in most cases, p.a.s. I think it's the DP's responsibility as the supervisor to ulitimately make sure that all critical operations get done correctly. I would have a p.a. prep something but I would definitely perform final checks myself before rolling because the client is going to look at you, not the p.a., when it comes to answering for mistakes.

Your p.a. made out like a bandit, especially for his performance that you described, 40%, wheeew!! P.A.'s get between 150.00 - 200.00 per day in the Atlanta market. That's typically for a 12 hour day with OT on some projects. I would definitely agree that you should define the responsibilities to whoever you hire if it's not a key position. That way there is no question as to what is expected of them. I am not a slave driver but I can't stand seeing someone screwing around when things need to be done, especially critical things like charging batteries.

Anyway, I'm glad to hear that you worked on a network show. Just make sure your terms are clear as far as your rate and the hours before OT, tape stock and extensive travel are extra. Make it sound like you have done it many times before and more than likely they will not try to put one over on you because if they detect a great deal they will stick it to you.