If you were to ask me what the difference between an amateur and a professional was, I would have to say the biggest determining factor is consistency in producing stellar results, regardless of the occupation.  For example, in our industry it is possible that over the course of an Indie film project, a budding director would have several brilliant scenes most often interspersed with some dismal failures. A truly professional director would have much higher degree of consistency in achieving those same results.

Lets look at the job of an assistant cameraman. Who is more professional in your opinion, the AC who can consistently perform his job in any set of variable and challenges routinely hitting marks and pulling focus? Or the AC who is pretty good occasionally blowing focus and getting thrown by challenging shots, and dolly moves? How about the makeup artist, do you want someone who can do good makeup regardless of face, skin tone and effects required of them? How about DPs; do you want someone who can light any of the sets you throw at them, and technically handle any camera system required? For me, these are areas I look for in whether someone is worth their pay scale on my crew.

1) Consistency and Promptness Pays
If you have a large crew working on a budget, you can’t have individual crew members performing their jobs inconsistently. One crew member mis-staffed can blow an entire shoot and derail the project from day one. I recall an instance where a makeup artist on a particular project I was on nearly cost us the project. We were on a one day commercial shoot that was tightly scheduled, we had allocated half an hour for a makeup artist to do some touch up. After showing up late, she took around 45 mins to do the same job, throwing our already tight schedule off by nearly an hour we absolutely didn’t have. This leads me to another area of consistency, promptness on set. A professional will be consistent in arriving on time. They realize their job description is a part of a larger machine that requires them being on time and ready to work. Showing up late one or two days and being on time the rest of the time is one of the most frustrating things. I will not hire crew I cannot count on to show up on time consistently, there is too much potential for problems. Learning the discipline of being prompt and consistent is one easy way to set yourself apart from the crowd.

2) The Well: Drawing from Experience
Whether you have ever thought of it this way or not, consistency in producing stellar results is a major trademark of a true professional. In my opinion this is true for several reasons. First, a professional has a deeper well of experience to draw from in solving problems on set. When a problem is encountered, rather than guessing and trying multiple solutions that eventually lead to stumbling upon a solution that works, a professional can cross-reference the problem with a library of solutions that they have already proven to work in the past and immediately choose a workable solution. Experience in and of itself gives a working professional a vast headstart in creating consistency.

3) Learn to Learn, and Do Your Homework
The second thing true professionals do is homework. No experience level can be comprehensive, especially in our creative field. A professional will seek to expand their areas of consistency by filling in their experience gaps and doing their homework. For example, a DP unfamiliar with a particular film stock will probably shoot several tests to flesh out his experience level in order to know how to work with the stock on set. An actor or actress, who really needs to be consistent on set, may perform extensive character research to know exactly how to pull off a performance consistently throughout a range of scenes. It is always amazing to me that the people with the least experience to draw from often seem the most reluctant to do their homework. You would think it would be the other way around, seeing as their library for problem solving isn’t as deep.

4) Know Your Role and Be Aware
Consistency in performance can be increased by knowing your job description and learning to listen on set. No director or department head enjoys constantly giving orders, reminding someone of what their job is. A true professional learns how to hear what is going on, and realizes what his or her job in the big picture is. For example a DP may mention to the camera op that the next shot is moving to a dolly. A good dolly grip would hear that and immediately begin moving the dolly into position. Meanwhile the AC overhearing the same comment would begin to move the camera off the sticks. There is nothing more refreshing than turning to call for a piece of gear only to have it placed in your hand by an attentive crew member who knew their job and was listening. A career AC once told me you can tell a seasoned crew by watching them on short breaks; they always face into the set so they can still see what’s going and be immediately ready to move quickly.

5) Taking it All Personally: Advice for Indies
“Well,” you say, “That’s great! I would die to work with a crew like that, but I’m on a tight budget and I can’t afford to hire professionals on set. So I guess I’m stuck working with non-professionals.” Okay so let’s figure out what we can do to work most efficiently with non-professionals. The first thing is to realize that working with non-professionals will undoubtedly equal inconsistency in job performance. This is not by itself a bad thing, it just means you have to plan accordingly. When scheduling, you must schedule time for errors and mistakes. It’s that simple, inconsistency doesn’t mean something cannot be accomplished, it often just takes significantly longer to reach the end goal. Don’t put a professional schedule and demands on a non-professional crew. You will start your project by setting them up for failure, which erodes trust and creates all sorts of crew issues. Instead, start by compensating for lack of experience by giving ample time for your crew to work. If it’s your first time scheduling, I would say figure the longest time you could see a shot taking and add 20%. Ironically this will also help compensate with your lack of experience in the scheduling department. This goes for crew call times as well; assume some people will show up late and plan for it accordingly.

6) Say What?
Another consequence of working with non-professionals is that people tend to not know their jobs and responsibilities on set. In addition Indie productions are often forced to have crew members cross departments and work in multiple roles. The director has to make even more of an effort to be a great communicator on set. Assume nothing, make sure orders are given clearly and often, provide the guidance needed to facilitate the lack of experience on set. To facilitate communication on set when people are crossing department lines, try to communicate through clear channels from the top down.  If orders are given from just anyone and people are crossing departments you wind up very quickly given the same person multiple jobs. Few things are more frustrating then being given multiple jobs on a short staffed crew, only to be dressed down for overlooking something you had to drop to do something else for another department. Try and establish a chain of command and a priority for departments and try and stick with this throughout the production as much as possible.

It is even more important that you to do your homework and prepare yourself. The tone for a production is set from the top down. If the director is unprepared and not communicating clearly, those problems will often ripple down to the rest of the crew. This is especially true with a less experienced crew. They will all be looking to you to help guide them so your level of preparedness is critical in successfully completing the project. You owe to yourself, your cast, and your crew to be the as prepared as you can possibly be.

Whether you are managing a production set or working on one, I hope the aforementioned tips will help you avoid common pitfalls and help you achieve your goals. And if you enjoyed this article, please take a moment and pass it on to a few friends. Thanks for reading.

Here is the eighth installment of our continuing series on the role of a Director and Assistant Director both on and off a production set. This part 8 segment deals specifically with an AD’s job on set, general set etiquette, and how an AD can take the load off a Director during production. There’s also a basic introduction to the order of commands and “calls” an AD makes during a take.

Watch all eight segments in the playlist below or at FreshTV, and please stay tuned for the next installment of this extensive series. Detailed descriptions follow the video playlist…

If you enjoyed this tutorial series, please tell a friend or post the link in your favorite forum. Thanks for watching.

Part 1 was a 15-minute introductory video that discusses the basic qualifications, job description and overall tasks a director is responsible for in a production.

The Part 7 segment delves into working with your cast and crew on a production set. Joe speaks to why a director should ensure equality and respect across all castmembers, and how to approach correcting an actor without making a scene. Finally, Joe offers practical suggestions on handling the inevitable unseen challenges and hurdles that will arise.

I recently posted my First Impressions review of the Zylight Z50 and Z90 lights over at Pro Video Coalition. Zylight’s unique line of LED lights are dimmable, have integrated color and gel modes, and can be wirelessly linked (yes, really) for centralized control. The review focuses on how the LED lights integrate in an event shooting environment, here’s a short excerpt:

“The Z50 was mounted directly on a monopod, which the lighting assistant would hold above and slightly-off to the side camera while shooting. This enabled us to keep a nice, controlled level of light directly in the vicinity of the camera(s) on the dancefloor, with an additional light on a stand providing overall fill and a nice kick to play off at times. The lighting assistant was able to dim and color gel the Z50 on the fly, which in turn reflected those changes wirelessly on the stand-mounted Z90 light. We were particularly impressed with the color gel features of the lights. It is trivial to make very minor adjustments to the color temperature and matching the ambient lighting is a dream. It made our lights appear to be less jarring to the people dancing, and mixed perfectly on camera. Lighting color changes can be saved on the fly as one of the two user presets and recalled later.

Prior to the reception event, we did some testing and determined that both lights would probably benefit from a little additional diffusion. We gaff-taped two small squares of Rosco diffusion film over the Z90, and a single layer over the Z50. This was pretty close to optimal, and helped to soften the output even more. The result is a light that wraps quite nicely around the subject, and doesn’t hurt the eyes when aimed directly at them (when properly dimmed). The output of the Z90 was cut a bit by this double layer of diffusion, but it still enabled us to nicely fill light a 12’ square area.”

Go check out the full article for all the juicy details on these sweet little lights. You can purchase Zylight gear at Amazon and also direct from the manufacturer at www.zylight.com

AskMrVideo has an interesting post up that talks about a recent Same-Day-Edit project for a corporate retreat. They distributed cheap Flip Video Ultra camcorders to participants, and used the crowd-sourced video and photos to create a highlight of the day’s events. It’s an interesting twist to the idea of an SDE. You can watch the video below.

 AJA IoHD Production Set Case Study [4:02m]: Download

Earlier this year, FreshDV conducted a week of intensive HD camera reviews. We comparatively tested the Panasonic Varicam, HPX-3000, HVX-200, Sony F900, XDCAM PDW-350, and XDCAM PMW-EX1 in a real-world production set environment. Additionally, we shot these cameras next to a RED One camera, with a 35mm Arri for baseline film stock comparison. It was a grueling production schedule to complete all our tests in the short allotment of time we had, and to further complicate matters we wanted to capture each HD camera in a high-quality master codec as well as it’s native media/format. This would allow us later to compare the two and rule out differences in codec/compression artifacts vs. sensor/processing noise. For that task, we opted for Apple’s ProRes 422 HQ codec, which was close enough to lossless for our needs. AJA was kind enough to provide an IoHD unit to handle ingest and ProRes capture, and it greatly simplified our workflow. In addition to ably handling all the ingest duties, the IoHD was very useful for monitoring on our Panasonic BT-LH2600W HD broadcast monitor. You can read a case study article over at B&H that outlines our workflow on set, and we shot some behind the scenes footage from the set as I worked with the IoHD.

View the video embedded below, or high-res at FreshTV. You can also download an iPod/iPhone compatible version via the attached link, or simply subscribe to our Audio/Video podcast feed.

Thanks for the following companies for their support in making this test possible: Resolution Digital Studios, Zacuto, Schumacher Camera, Fletcher Chicago, Abel Cine NY, Lakeview Productions, and Midtown Video. Stay tuned at FreshDV for our test results.

Over at ProVideoCoalition, Art Adams has a few tips for your first day on the job as a 2AC or camera assistant. He talks about the essentials of set etiquette, what your responsibilities may include, and explains the typical order of events.

“After the lighting is completed the actors come back and rehearse with the camera, and then the scene is shot. Once the director has the takes that he/she wants, the crew should immediately drop into blocking mode to block the next shot. The sequence should always be:
(1) Block
(2) Light
(3) Rehearse
(4) Shoot
(5) Repeat until wrap
Find out which actor marks are in the shot and pull them before the camera rolls, or replace them with tiny pieces of black tape so the camera won’t see them as marks.”

He also discusses how to properly slate a shot, the proper way to handle lenses, and why you should never run on set. This is a good primer for those learning the role of a camera assistant.

For more information on the role of a First AC (and focus puller), watch our three-part series entitled The Art of Pulling Focus. One, Two, Three. In it, career 1AC Bob Sanchez talks about the tools and techniques he uses on the job, and wraps up with a fly-on-the-wall demonstration of his unique method of pulling focus with a speed crank.

When working with broadcast clients, it’s important to understand common phrases and terminology. So if you don’t know what the terms packshot, snipe, or bumper refer to, then perhaps this primer on Broadcast Terminology is for you.

(via Final Cut User)

The International Film School of Syndey has a few fantastic articles on the topic of exposure. In their Camera Iris and Shutter Speed refresher they cover the relationship of aperture, shutter speed, and depth-of-field as it relates to exposure. If you are still flying mostly automatic, this is a great way to get up to speed on proper manual control of your camera’s exposure. For a more detailed look at DOF and the finer technicalities behind aperture, see our previously posted video on the topic and our First AC Tutorial Series on how to direct and control your focus plane.

In Camera’s NEED light the IFSS talks specifically about dynamic range, and how to maximize your possibilities in post by nailing proper exposure on set. They include specific charts and examples that clarify the issue as it relates to today’s affordable HD camcorders. This is another must-read if you aren’t up to speed on the topic. And finally, for those wishing to delve deeper into the topic of dynamic range, Stu Maschwitz lays down the law here.

Imagine Products, makers of ShotPut Express for SxS media management, announced ShotPut Red Edition, a tool that automates and simplifies the offloading and transfer of CF and RED Raid media on a production set. Here’s a few key features:

* Fast Copying: Perform copies at top speed without the overhead of Finder or Explorer.
* Automatic or Manual Copies: Manually select one or more drives to copy. Or use the auto offload mode to sequentially copy RED volumes or cards upon insertion.
* Easy Folder Naming: Save time and improve consistency and organization by auto-naming the copy folders.
*Improve Workflow: ShotPut’s multi-threading technology makes up to 3 simultaneous copies at the same time.
* Reformat Cards: After offloading is finished, automatically reformat the CF card so it’s ready to return to the camera.
* Security: Verify byte-to-byte comparisons of your media copies to ensure integrity of the files.
* Verification Report: Create a record of file transfer activity, how the copies were named, time, date, etc. Save complete details for project organization and billable time.
* Print Offload Log: Offload results are presented in a text file, printable with the click of a button.
* Session Error Checking: Prevents overwriting of existing folders and duplicate offloading of the same media volume.
* Progress Bar: Displays overall percent completion and file-by-file progress during the copy process.
* Copy Cards or Disks: The contents of any mountable volume (drive) can be copied including CF cards, RED Raids, etc.
* Compatible with Your Camera: ShotPut RED works with Build 15 and Build 16 file formats. Copies any volume containing R3D files.

The software is available on Mac and Windows, a single license will set you back $49.00. More info here.

About a month ago we linked an excellent interview and video demonstration with Steadicam’s Garrett Brown. Part 2 of the interview is now up and active, check it out here. There are some amazing photos of Garrett in action on Jedi, The Shining, and other classic films.

Users of the Canon XH-A1 may be excited to learn that the filmmakers making Crank 2: High Voltage are leaning heavily on the $3300 XHA1 and another affordable Canon offering, the sub-$1000 HF10. They chose these two camcorders for their image quality, compactness, and affordability. The first Crank film was shot on Sony’s HDCAM SR format using three Sony F-950 HD cameras.

“Mark: I won’t have back problems because, you know, they’re very light. And they’re really inexpensive so it doesn’t hurt my pocketbook, but no really, we can put these cameras in places that people haven’t and we can put 10 of them in places where people haven’t. And one of the things it allows us to do is…we’re doing this moving bullet time camera rig where we take 8 HF-10’s and we put it on a light weight piece of speed rail and I can roller blade and skate around Jason Statham as he’s blasting down the street with a weapon and capture just rad images.

Brian: I mean, this is an ADD movie so we should have ADD cameras, so you know the idea of like moving the camera in outrageous ways and being able to destroy cameras without blinking an eye is more important to us than, you know, sort of having this filmic image.”

I can find no references to capturing footage tethered (nor does the A1 have HD-SDI out, that is only available on the XH-G1), so it seems at least possible that they are recording HDV to tape. See the above image of the XHA1 on a handheld Fig Rig, it appears to have no tether. However they do mention the ability to shoot “full HD” 1920 x 1080, which neither Canon camera can do (HDV is 1440×1080, not full raster). Has anyone spotted other images or references of a capture device in use?

They also said that they are shooting with an aggressive in-camera look, and doing very little in post…which is an interesting approach. The Crank team showed a lot of excitement in the past about the Red camera, shot “Game” with it already, and they mention that in this article as well.

“Mark: We just want to move faster. We’re using these little cameras because, you know, red is a beautiful image. We love red cameras, we’re going to shoot with them again, but it’s like shooting a 35mm film and you need a ton of AC’s and it takes a lot of time for set up. With the cameras we’re using we literally can point and shoot and we have the same image quality that we had on “Crank 1”. You know full HD, 1920 x 1080 res—it’s great.”

It will be interesting to see how this film turns out, both in the way the camera is used cinematically, and the final image quality. Here’s hoping it turns out rad.

You can purchase the Canon XH-A1 and Canon HF-10 at B&H for $3299 and $819, respectively. Purchases made via those links help support FreshDV at no additional cost to you.

The Leatherman Skeletool looks to be a nice addition to the production toolkit. A built-in carabiner allows you to clip the 5 oz gadget to your side for easy access. There’s also a bitdriver available as soon as you flip the tool open, and an assortment of replacement bit options available. Popular Mechanics did a writeup on the Skeletool back before it was released.

Panasonic solid-state shooters have had a fantastic tool called P2 Genie for quite some time now. The software simplifies and automates the process of dumping P2 cards to disk so they can be re-used in a shoot. I’ve used it, and it works beautifully. So I was delighted today to see a similar application for Sony SxS shooters, ShotPut EXpress. It’s cross-platform for PC and Intel-Mac users, and at just $49 it looks like a worthy investment. Here’s the scoop:

ShotPut EXpress features Single card (manual) and Multiple card (auto) modes. Simply insert the SxS card into a PowerBook or Notebook’s ExpressCard slot and ShotPut EXpress makes secure, verified copies of the SxS card’s video contents (the BPAV folder) in up to three (3) locations. ShotPut EXpress makes a printable activities report log of all the file transfer activities. This text file shows all the details including names of cards and files, the copy destination names, file sizes, duration of each transfer and aggregate transfer time, date, etc. A great way to document and organize your project and billable time.

Fast Copying: Perform copies at top speed without the overhead of Finder or Explorer.
Automatic or Manual Copies: Manually select one or more drives to copy. Or use the auto offload mode to sequentially copy SxS cards upon insertion.
Easy Folder Naming: Save time and improve consistency and organization by auto-naming the copy folders.
Improve Workflow: Make up to 3 simultaneous SxS card copies at the same time.
Reformat Cards: After offloading is finished, automatically Erase the BPAV folder contents and Rename the card so it’s ready to return to the camera.
Security: Verify byte-to-byte comparisons of your media copies to ensure integrity of the files.
Verification Report: Create a record of file transfer activity, how the copies were named, time, date, etc. Save complete details for project organization and billable time.
Print Offload Log: Offload results are presented in a text file, printable with the click of a button.
Session Error Checking: Prevents overwriting of existing folders and duplicate offloading of the same card.
Progress Bar: Displays overall percent completion and file-by-file progress during the copy process.
Copy Cards or Disks: The BPAV contents of any mountable volume (drive) can be copied.

You can purchase ShotPut EXpress for Mac or Windows via Imagine Products.

The Digital Cinema Grant Program is a recurring grant that awards a Red Digital Cinema camera to filmmakers for PSA’s, indie features, shorts, and non-profit productions. They are now accepting applications for productions starting in August 2008. Have any FreshDV readers had experience with this program, or it’s founders?

To have your project considered for the Digital Cinema Grant Program, you must submit a complete proposal to the program. This proposal is then reviewed and a decision is made as to whether or not the proposal meets and scheduling requirements. What to include in the proposal:
A cover letter describing the status of your production, who you are, etc.
A shooting schedule - or at least potential shoot dates.
A copy of your script
A copy of your budget
Resumes and bios of all key people involved
A three line synopsis
Application Fee ($55)
Feel free to add anything that you think will cause you proposal package to stand out (location photos, storyboards, past work, etc.) After receiving and reviewing your proposal, we will notify you as to
the possibility of you obtaining an equipment grant. We will respond as quickly as possible, but please allow three weeks for an initial response.

One of the production disciplines we talk about here at FreshDV is the all-important planning process. Hours put into a project on the front-end can literally save days when you are in the field. Unfortunately, pre-planning is all too often overlooked and marginalized…talk to anyone that has worked in production and they’ll tell you the horror stories. This article by Simon Wyndham talks about working with your client to clearly define their needs and expectations, as well as taking care to plan effectively for the location and shoot. It’s a good basic primer on how to approach a challenging shoot and (hopefully) turn it into a quality production that fully meets the needs of the client and properly impacts the intended audience.

“…while clients are often willing to spend less and less on video production, they still expect the same high quality. At the same time we, as the video producers, still have to pay bills. In other words, our overheads do not decrease just because clients have decided to pay less for the same work! The way around this conundrum is embedded within the entire video production process. At the end of the day it all comes down to project organisation, and importantly, project clarity.”