Previous Entries

week 3 (june 19)

week 2 (june 12)

Week 1 (june 5)

filed by becca

I’ve never been so busy as to not have a chance to sit for 13 hours! Being an assistant director is one of the most consistently busy jobs ever. The majority of the jobs on the set so far have been busy…wait…busy…wait. This job is constantly busy because you have to cover all departments and keep everybody happy. Taking care of both cast and crew and keeping them together on the same page in order to get the shot done definitely means multitasking. I had to make sure nobody was going to walk into the shot and keep the area quiet for the sake of the sound crew. I really enjoyed the challenge and learned a lot about what goes on during a shoot. The experience gave me a solid overview of the process. It’s good that I was never afraid of a little hard work!

filed by mark

This week was definitely the most physically-demanding week of them all as I worked with the grip department. Although physically demanding, it was my most progressive week in terms of how much I learned. It was very hands-on work which is something I was hoping would happen. One of the grips best described the position as the “lamp shade.” While electric sets up the lights, the grips shape the direction of the light as well as diffuse or blow out a set with light. For example, we used metal “flags” to block some light streams into a perfect line, while we used a 12x20 sheet, nylon I believe, with a white side and a black side, to either block out light or fill the set with bright white light. The placement has to be correct at all times and needs to be changed often because of the changing of the sun’s position in the sky over the course of a day. This was definitely my favorite department as I was able to do a lot of hands-on work that will show in the final cut of the film.

filed by dan

This week I worked with the Special Effects department. I helped out with various tasks on set. One was boiling water inside pots in the kitchen. A simple job, but important in adding detail to the scene by putting rising steam in the background. The biggest thing I learned from Special Effects is that the best effects are the ones that no one notices. The idea in this case was to make everything look as seamless and realistic as possible. I got an interesting insight from one of the crew members this week. I asked him how the surge in digital effects has changed the role of special effects work, and he said that people are losing jobs left and right. Explosions and gun shots are being built by software programs. Even simple effects like rain are more often being created digitally than manually. It makes me wonder if the Special Effects Department will continue to have a role in film down the road.

filed by jeff

This week I switched to sound mixing. For the first two days, I worked with David Ronne. He was the sound mixer from the beginning of the production, but he left on Tuesday to start on a different project. Also on Tuesday, Shawn Holden switched with him and became the new sound mixer. I got to know a lot about both of their methods and what kind of equipment they are using. It was great to see how much they integrated with the visuals. Something I wasn’t aware of before going into sound on the set was that they jam the slates, which means that they calibrate the clapperboards with the correct time code. They also provide comtek receivers for the cast and parts of the crew to listen to the audio that is being recorded.

In comparison to the rest of the weeks that I have been here, this week gave me far less work to worry about. The three people running sound had a lot to tell me, but not much for me to do, so I found myself talking to other crew members for some of my time when I was unneeded. I talked a lot to Sam Harrison in video playback, Suzie Sax in script supervising, and I also talked to the actors quite a bit when they had some free time. It was great to get to converse with people who are actually on screen for a change.This week Jeffrey Tambor and Christain Slater were shooting a scene, which was great to watch develop. Anthony Hopkins is such an amazing presence to be around – he really knows how to get a good performance out of people.

I love being around this working environment especially in a capacity where I don’t have much responsibility because it gives me time to really learn by observation. I feel so lucky to have been given this opportunity. So few people ever get to observe what happens on a movie set – let alone get to work with people and learn. Next week I will be in special effects. I am told that I will get to learn some very “interesting” methods because of the types of scenes we will be shooting. I am very excited for what the last three days of shooting hold for me.

filed by tim

Week in and week out, I continue to feel like the luckiest guy on the planet. I say that not only because I’m still spending my summer working on a show with a top-of-the-line A-list cast and crew, but because I’ve now been fortunate enough to rotate to the three departments that topped my first three choices prior to leaving (which seems like forever ago, way back in June).

I was lucky enough to be folded in to the mix with the camera department this week, and to say the least, was nearly overwhelmed with the breadth of knowledge passed on by the camera crew. I was a little weary at first, intimidated by the amount of experience and knowledge I knew the crew had, but I was relieved on Monday to hear each one of the guys say it was simply about “attitude.” At this point in my career, it’s important to realize that I don’t know everything and that — more to the point — I’m going to make mistakes. However, if you perform your job with a positive attitude and have the ability to learn from those mistakes, then you’ll grow as a filmmaker, and the crew assured me that finding work would never be a problem. Personality plus. That’s what I keep telling myself.

I tried to hang around the “B” Camera crew as much as possible this week, and as such, was afforded an incredible learning experience. As “B” Cam operator Chris Haarhoff not only operates his camera on dollies and sticks, but he is also the sole steadicam operator on set. There was a brief moment of downtime during a setup, during which Chris pulled Mike Gentile and I aside and asked us if we wanted a brief tutorial on steadicam operation. Of course we said yes, and spent the next five minutes receiving pointers from a man whom Dante Spinotti referred to as one of the ten best steadicam operators in the entire world. To think that this professional, who has worked with the likes of Cameron Crowe, David Fincher, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese, had any inkling of desire to share any pointers at all with two wet-behind-the-ear interns from a cornfield in Illinois continues to blow my mind. I mean, how many people can say that they’ve received advice on steadicam operation from one of the ten best operators in the world?

It’s staggering to reflect on how much I’ve learned in the last four weeks. I’ve never felt more at home while being so many miles away from my geographical home. As I see it, the ups and downs of this business are all part of the roller coaster. I love the ride. There’s no other place for me.

filed by laura

We shot in two different desert locations this week and are still adjusting to the heat and the sun. The students are rotating through various crew positions and learning a good deal about the film production process and the industry in general. As you will note in the photos, the lighting set-ups are still remarkably complex for our location, and the students are very interested in the ways certain lighting looks are created. The grips use various devices to shape and filter the light, including suspending branches to create a dappled shade effect on various characters. This experience is motivating the students to consider more creative kinds of lighting effects, which is exactly what I had hoped would happen. In addition to the vast amount of technical knowledge they are learning, they are also considering how to create mood visually as opposed to aurally. Student productions tend to rely heavily on music to set mood but they are now learning how to accomplish this visually. I am hoping to arrange times for them to come into my classes and discuss their observations and experiences.