Nike shoot

This past week I operated the B-Cam/2nd unit DP'd a Nike spot produced by Dirty Robber. Since we were shooting for Nike's displays, which are widescreen televisions rotated 90°, we also turned our cameras on the side, resulting in a 9x16 aspect ratio. That was a fun aspect ratio to shoot in, as it's not something I normally get to do.

While the A-Cam was handheld and operated by Director of Photography Chris Saul, my B-Cam was mounted on a DJI Ronin the entire time. It was quite the workout with the additional weight of the gimbal and I did a lot of running (forwards and backwards) with the unit. At times I'd use an Easyrig, but since it can add a lot of bounce, I just used my arms when running.

The spot was shot on RED Dragons with Zeiss Super Speed lenses in 6K HD.

In the rain. Photo by @emmahollyjones

Director Nick Frew looks over my shoulder as I get a sweet sunset shot.

Director of Photography/A-Cam Operator Chris Saul gives me a break from operating the Ronin rig.

Mystic Cosmic Patrol week 1 complete

We wrapped our first week of shooting Mystic Cosmic Patrol.  It was all overnights, which was a bit tough to get used to, but we managed to finish on time and even got out early on the last day of the week.  Our locations are complete and now we're shooting out the rest of the episodes on our soundstage.  We're also back to regular days.

The script is funny and I've enjoyed seeing the actors bring their own comedic elements to the scenes.  Probably the most challenging aspect so far has been lighting the night exteriors with a small lighting package and G&E crew.  I always worry about trying to make the lighting look natural, but over the weekend I watched some episodes of Parks and Recreation that had nighttime exteriors and I noted that even at the budget and skill level of a larger production like that, they were also fighting against having an obvious lighting source or looking muddy, so I think I did relatively well.  I also tend to be hyper-aware of what I'm shooting because I know what and where the sources are, even though it may seem to the end viewer to be fairly natural.

It's been fun so far and I look forward to seeing the finished episodes.  With the quality of the script, I hope the show gets picked up because it's pretty wildly entertaining.  We're shooting on the RED Dragon as A-Cam, with a RED Epic serving as B-Cam, all on Canon EF lenses.  My A-Cam is kitted out with a Teradek Bolt 600, which has been fantastic, and a SmallHD DP7-LCD.  B-Cam has been rocking a Paralinx Arrow and the 1st AC has been impressed with the clarity of the Atomos Shogun monitor/recorder's 1920x1200 screen.

I can't show you any footage from the show, so here's a boring shot of the cast trailers instead.