"One more for safety"

I have been on a few film sets, a lot during university as teaching exercises, led by the tutor. The ones I have been on, have been interesting. I was an extra in a music video to be played at a festival. The director, producer and cinematographer were all they needed with only one actor. Funnily enough, I saw that actor on a different set, where I was the cinematographer. He is a lovely person. Back to this music video set... The cinematographer was super experienced, knew his gear and was 'in the zone.' So he didn't need the assistant. They used the slate once, but it became annoying for them as they weren't capturing dialogue to sync. Just watching this cinematographer get through the shots, there were a lot of shots that were repeated but the actor did variations, or there was a focus rack and a slightly different lighting setup. There was definitely a planned shot list or some sort of storyboard but the cinematographer on the day manipulated a lot and the director changed a few things than originally planned. But the end result was an enhanced mood or feeling about the story. 

The one where I was the cinematographer was really good fun. We had a Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4.6K with a Samyang cinema lens kit. Without being too much of a camera nerd, the camera is super user friendly, the lenses are a great mix of super clean and clinical with a "good vintage character." I shot in a good codec (ProRes 444 and HQ), not RAW because I wasn't too sure if the editor's computer could handle the RAW. We are all students to some degree. (Pun intended) The C Flashcard was 256GB, so it had like 30mins of recording time. Moreover, it was for a pilot, so there is a degree of simplicity for the editor that has to be kept in mind. Lastly, shooting with Blackmagic RAW, there is a set procedure for correctly exposing the sensor. We didn't have the permitted time to allow us to shoot when the light was perfect. It was raining, sunny and cloudy within 5 minutes at a time. My main goal was to expose the image without clipping. Frame the image in the best size, have the continuity and make sure the focus is perfect. Even more, lastly, the actor's performance was critical (AS ALWAYS) so I had to keep an eye on that. If it wasn't framing out the general public, there were holds for good audio. So shooting RAW was not utmost of importance.  I exposed, framed and focused well on all the shots. 

I'll give one little nugget for the camera nerds to froth over, was that I shot most of the scenes on t2.8. With in-built ND sensors, and ISO at 250 to 500. Depending on if the sun just burst through some clouds and I can't change the ND from 4 to 6 quickly and definitely don't want the t-stop to change. I wish I had more time to tweak the shot but the helicopters were constantly flying over our heads. There were a lot of very small time windows, with many shots. An ISO change from 320 to 400, ain't going to matter too much. The audience will be too busy laughing to study the noise level. (Which wasn't that much higher). I did have some fun focus racking, or my assistant did have a lot of fun doing that. As the DoP, my job is the framing and the exposure, timing etc, so the assistant ensures good focus. For some of the later shots, I had to do a T1.5 exposure to blur out the public. The camera had a quick digital 2x zoom and some focus peaking lines. Super easy. 

The people I was working with on the set were all terrific. It was so much fun, talking to the director, making the shots happen, and putting someone else's vision to fruition. It is exhilarating when both my interpretation is the same as the writers and producers. We were all on the same page which is such a good experience. After I read the screenplay, I was hooked. Immediately I wanted to be a part of the show. The highlight of the entire shoot at the swimming pool was during a cutaway scene. One of the writers had to play the 'extra' part. He was told to do a bit of improv, which made the entire crew of ~12 people laugh all over the floor. No one expected him to take it to that extreme hyperbolic (yes, an extreme of an extreme) of the scene. It was a small cutaway scene of maybe 10 seconds in length, but it was taken to one minute and 30 seconds. Thankfully the camera was locked on a tripod and let the camera roll whilst we all held in our laughter.