18 minutes of selects

I think a good batch of selects can tell a lot about an edit. Seeing the things that were weeded out and the things that helped focus something. Here I give you an uncut sequence of selects from a recent film.

DoP -  Daniel Stewart.

Here's a look at the finished piece.

Waco

Had some simple fun the other day with some friends in Waco TX. Shooting a project in probably my favorite location. 

REEL?

For a long time I was totally against making reels as a director. It made no sense, but making this I started to see the point. Making films is very rarely about the facts. Making films is always about representing an impression of something real. Making this was a good challenge of seeing myself in my work, and seeing it together makes me feel like it all meant something. 

THE BEST WAY EVER TO LIGHT ANY AND EVERY INTERVIEWWWWWW!!!!

Sorry, I lied. This topic is brought up a lot on the internet. But specifically this topic is brought up with incredibly clever titles such as “How to light an interview” or “How to light ANY interview”. Most of these titles are made for pure clicks and views, I get it. I just hate it. If i need to know how to change the oil in my car, or change a light bulb, then these phrases are okay with me. When it comes to the topic of art, to often we treat these things as facts. In the topic of lighting, or cinematography, these things need to be opened as conversations. The entire point of making films is about having conversations about the world around us. The way someone sees someone and the way we see them. 

In hopes to add my part in this conversation, i’m going to attempt to do it in the way that I would be proud to see. I would like to merely share my experiences on this topic, simply because I do a lot of them, and i get a lot of questions about it.  

DISCLAIMER 1

These are ideas, and at the end of the day, things that I am visually attracted to. You as a filmmaker are attracted to different things than me. EXPLORE THAT! make up your own ideas about the way you like to do things. BUT! I am sure somewhere in here you will find that we AGREE on many things when it comes to shooting a talking head. 

DISCLAIMER 2

BEN JOYNER is a genius. my friend and 95% of the time, my DOP. So a lot of these ideas are things that me and him find sexy. so yea. 

THOUGHT 1:
MOTIVATION

Whenever I find something that is striking to me, be it sitting in a theater, or sitting on my couch. I tend to enjoy films where I can't see the photography anywhere. Roger Deakins talks on this topic a lot, Its a simple idea that there is a difference between good cinematography and the RIGHT cinematography. My theory is that a lot of this is due to the careful thought behind MOTIVATION of light. How light plays in a scene. And the more and more subtle these motivations are the more natural your image seems to be. 

So when the team is going into a location, once you figure out the blocking of the scene, or interview. My first thought is, what is natural in this location/room. Whether its created by natural light of windows, or by practicals set in the room there is motivation everywhere. 

So here is the interview shot 

and here it is slightly graded. 

Simple enough. So lets deconstruct it a bit. 

MOTIVATION PT: 2

This location had very few options to it. One being that it was night, and two been that is was night. So the first thing we look for is practicals. In the room was a large computer with a few midi controllers. Also on the desk was a small tungsten lamp. 

IMG_1015.jpg

This seems to be a fine place to start. I’ve always found that when you give a viewer VISUAL CLUES they brain seems to connect the dots to what they should be seeing. For example:

show them sources surrounded the key, and your brain connects them to the main key because another light MUST be over in that corner to create the light on his face. And if the can find the subtle value that the key should be pushed to then no one’s the wiser. 

Our main source for this setup was a simple tweenie bounced into some bleached muslin tapes to the wall. 

THOUGHT 2: CONTRAST

This is a big idea for me, because I LOVE black. To me making images is all about understanding the battle between shadows and light. But i think it should remain a battle. I can count on one hand the times in my life I have used a fill light. cause i hate it. 

ANOTHER DISCLAIMER: what i just said is for me. Not for everything. Obviously commercial jobs would call for something different maybe a bit more bright, with nice eye lights and incredibly bright rooms that reflect a reality where buying things they don’t need actually  makes them happier. But I am saying what I like. BLLLLLLLAAAAAACCCCKKKKKK

 

another challenge in this location is the same challenge that many other locations will make you deal with…ITS WHITE!    I HATE WHITE!

 

easy fix, throw up some neg and you’re good to go. 

THOUGHT 3: LAYERS

The challenge with any image is the task of creating layers. Giving dimensions to a space. Making the viewer easily access the geography layout of a room so they can follow whats going on in the story without having to try and figure out where they are. Same as in life, If i’m driving and trying to remember where I am or where to go, the actual task of driving becomes secondary. If I know where I am and how to get there I can focus on the one thing that is most important. So a simple idea to make sure you are playing in your head is LIGHT IN LAYERS. 

 

FOR EXAMPLE

very easily in this interview you can create layers of light that will yes, help the subject separate from the background. But most importantly, creating a natural geography of the room so people can easily place themselves in the room. 

Here is a before and after picture of the back practical lights. 

BEFORE

AFTER

These back lights were a group of two lights built together to add texture to the background. 

LAST THOUGHT

these are just ideas that can be infinitely built upon. There’s so many things that are not mentioned here, but these are the ones that I would say are most important to me. 

Again here is the final shot. 

Future Islands

What is it about this performance that keeps me coming back again and again? I can't put my finger on it, but it feels so incredibly transparent and genuine. I get all the feels from this. 


Studio Sets

We just wrapped on a project here at Musicbed that was a first for our team, shooting an entire video on a set. This came with a lot of unknowns for us, a lot of things that were harder than we had expected. But in the end we learned a lot from it. 

This was also the first project for our new full-time DOP here at Musicbed, his names Ben Joyner (Benjoyner.com) He comes straight out of a film school from Savanna Georgia and so far he's blown us away. Can't wait to see what comes from him in the future. 

We were doing a project to promote our Musicbed Film Fest. But the idea for the film was a split screen, with two stories going at the same time, and at some points in the film actually crossing over that middle line. So our needs were two sets. Two bedrooms, two studios, and venue, and a film set. 

We shot the film over two days at our new Musicbed offices which was built with a full soundstage in the back. More than enough to accomplish everything we needed. 

We had a few references for this piece, as far as lighting and emotions. A big reference was a commercial shot by Gustav Johansson for Levi's. 

We knew a big part of this would be the production design. So we went right into hiring an amazing one, her name was Hillary. (http://www.hilaryrosewalker.com) She's got amazing taste and is also great to work with. 

To create the two different set pieces we new we needed some sort of different backgrounds. We made a trip to Home Depot an came back with these vary inexpensive fake wood paneling. We new we wanted the other set to be mostly white, which solved that issue sense the existing wall was already newly painted white. perfect! 

We had a number of different lighting setups. But for the most part it was very simple. All of our Daylight scenes we shot with a simple book light setup with a M18 as our main source, bounced into a 8x8 Ultra Bounce then diffused again with Full Grid. 

The biggest challenge of the shoot was considering the matching of both frames between each day. So both frames needed to match perfectly in post. These are some of the ending frames we finished with. Over all incredibly pleased with how it came out. And how the newly grown teamed work together. 

HERE'S THE FINAL FILM. PEACE