So this weekend we shot story number 3. This weekend we shot on the Aaton XTR Prod. We had 9mm, 12mm, 16mm, 25mm, and 50mm lenses. We mostly used the 16, 25, 50mm lenses. We shot friday night and saturday night.

On friday night we had to light a small kitchen table and also an outside alleyway. For the kitchen table we had a 1k outside the window (i think i was ND or going through a silk), then in the small room we had a 100watt bulb in a china ball. We were mostly shooting around an f2. We kept this setup, with some tweaking, for the wide, and the two MS over the shoulder shots. We did three takes of each angle, and then did a few insert shots.

After this, we headed outside. We lit the alleyway with a 2 ft kino flow on the young actor. Then a 600 watt (ND i believe) to light the back fence. We lit the other outside shot with a 2 ft kino flow gelled with 1/4 green. We shot about 400 feet friday night.

On saturday night we were at a different location. The location was a large alleyway. We had a 2k for general fill (although the 2k light didn’t go nearly as far as i thought it would). We then had a 1k also on the subject and a 500 watt on the building. We kept the lighting similar for all the shots because we were pressed for time. We did bring in the 500 watt (diffused) for some of the close up. Once again we shot mostly with the 25mm and 50mm. After a dinner break we shot the rest of scene 4 and then shot another car set up, like we did the first weekend.

Here are a few important things i learned this weekend:
1) light does not go far at all at nighttime. Even with a 2k on our subjects we were shooting at a f2
2) Shooting film (at least at this point) takes at least 5 times as long as shooting Digital.
3) i rather shoot outside in the cold, rather then a small, cramped room where you can barely fit your actors, sound person, Dp and director. Small spaces get me mad, i better never more to NYC.
4) my one generator sucks, and should never be shut off once its running good.
5) i’m starting to really like not being DP and getting to watch through a monitor. plus billy is doing a killer job.

okay, time out form my senior project. please, please, please go

http://www.mtvu.com/music/freshmen/

and vote for the Bill Madden music video i shot last summer. I have a good chance of getting this on TV, so help me out. Thanks.

ps - we shot again this weekend, but i had no time to write about it, i’ll do it soon.. in fact maybe right now.