I guess you measure brightness in terms of IRE. Well, way back in the day, people had really shitty TV’s, which made the blacks all muddy and crap; there was no detail in them. So broadcasters decided to raise the minimum level of blacks to 7.5 IRE. Now, digital video, which is what we’re shooting on, has a black level of 0 IRE. For some reason, my camera has the option to change from 0 to 7.5 IRE, which will raise what the camera sees as black, by adding gain to it. In my camera, this is simply called “Setup,” and I had absolutely no idea what it meant. I just put it on because it brightened the picture slightly.
Also, in my research of using the Brevis, I read that there was one gamma setting in the camera (how the camera records colors) that was the most natural. Well, this setting it turns out, also raises the black levels by adding gain.
So therefore, everything the camera read as black, was bumped up by two levels of noise. This wasn’t good. The footage ended up looking like a used VHS tape. I talked to Bill, who also talked to Alicia and Steve. Everyone was in agreeance that we should re-shoot everything. Best. Crew. Ever. Now we just had to talk to the actors.
Remember when I said we had the coolest cast ever? Well, I was right. I knew there wasn’t going to be a problem with Harry and Keith, and I really didn’t think there was going to be a problem with Justine and Joe, but this is our first time working with them, so you never know. Turns out, there was nothing to worry about. Everyone’s gung ho about this project. I think we might end up having something good at the end of all this, or else I might not have cared to try to replicate 43 or so hours of everyone’s time.
The day we decided to re-shoot, we started scheduling where we could fit other things into the schedule we have now, to still try to finish around our set end date, and still have a little time to prep for Episode 4.
I’ve already talked to Joe and Justine about re-shooting two scenes Thursday before our scheduled scenes. They agreed to come down early to pick up a couple of scenes that we could re-shoot.
So it begins. The shoot that spans two days. Let me just say that we are some hardcore motherfuckers.
The call time is for 2:30pm on Thursday at Bills. I hope to be there for 1:30 to start setting up stuff so we can just fly once the actors arrive. We’re short two crew members, and to the best of my knowledge, we’re supposed to cover 7 pages today. The only crew we have is Bill, Alicia, Baby Reilly, and myself. Steve will arrive around six. I already know we’re going to go pretty late; I’m thinking two or three am.
I wake up and start testing and playing with the camera and the Brevis, in addition to the testing I was doing the night before. I’m so paranoid about this thing now. I want everything to go smoothly, because I don’t think I’m going to get a second shot to do this.
I meticulously test the adapter and I’m running behind. Great start. I pack everything up, and start heading to Bills, hopefully to get there at about ten to two. I put on different music than the last time I went to hopefully reverse the luck. I get halfway there and realize I forgot the battery charger. I tested the adapter until the one battery died this morning, so we’re going to need to recharge the battery while we shoot with the other one.
I go home, grab the charger, and head back. I get to Bills to find that no one is there. I know Bill and Alicia were supposed to go out around noon to pick up some groceries for lunch, but his car is here and Leannes car is here, so I have no idea what the hell is going on.
About twenty minutes later or so, Bill, Leanne, Baby Reilly, and Alicia walk around the corner. Turns out they decided to go to the Mandarin that’s around the corner, and the waitress was slow in giving them their bill. We get in, we start getting setup, and then I look for the camera case that was left here to get the other battery into the camera. No dice. Turns out I left that at home.
I boot back to my place to grab the camera case and other battery, and come back to Bills and start recharging. I notice it’s about 3 o’clock. I ask where the actors are. Justine and Joe are supposed to be here by now. Traffic’s got them in a headlock. Damn traffic is always ruining my life.
Everything is set up for the first and second scene we’re going to shoot at Bills place, minus the dolly shot in the second scene that we need for the first. Justine arrives and gets her face put on. I grab some equipment out of the makeup room while Alicia is doing her thing, and she says to me “see Carey, this is what I do,” because she read the diary earlier that said I didn’t know what she did. All I see her doing is putting a little brush to Justine’s face. This isn’t enough information for someone that’s not too sharp to know what they do. I say something like “I still don’t know what you do, I just know you get shit done.” That’s really all I need to know.
It turns out that people are actually reading this diary, so I get some cracks from Joe and Harry about me being an “actors director” that I mentioned a long time ago in the rehearsal entry.
Joe is quickly put into wardrobe and makeup and we rock Justine’s coverage pretty quick. We’re starting late, but we’re shooting fast to make up for the lost time (both today and the three days we have to make up). We move over to get Joe’s coverage, and wouldn’t you know it? The Brevis isn’t turned on. We shoot Joe’s coverage, then go back to Justine.
This day is starting to feel like the other days. Fortunately that is the last snag.
We start rocking out the scenes. Steve arrives and we move even faster. This is the pace I like to shoot at. Harry arrives and we’re still a little late for him, but we get him involved and we rock out his scene. Both Joe and Harry were under the impression we were going to shoot another scene involving the two of them. That isn’t the plan, but if these guys are willing to do it, we can shoot it. I just warn them that this will push our schedule back, and we’ll probably be done a little later. We’re actually ahead of schedule at this point, and they say let’s get it on.
Coolest mofo’s on the planet.
We shoot their scene and we’re off to my place to load up the generator and sound baffles. Bill and I grab those, and we’re back to his place to load up the gear. Alicia, Steve, and Baby Reilly are on top of their games today as Bill and I arrive, the majority of the gear is on the front lawn, waiting to be packed away.
Bills got a certain way to pack his truck, so I always just let him do that. We all start bringing the gear to his truck, he packs it up, and we’re off.
At some point in the night, Alicia’s friend Amy arrives to do some pictures. Cool, as long as she doesn’t get in the way.
We get to the St. Catharines Public Library, which is the first location of the two we have to visit tonight. We have two scenes here and hope to start going as soon as we arrive. This isn’t the case.
Steve arrives and hands over the gas can we’ll need when we have to fire off the genny, then he takes off. Dude’s got a life and can’t be staying out all night, plus I think he’s coming down with something, so it’s better he skip tonight and make it to the other shoots.
The dolly gets broken out, as well as the tripod (my new one by the way that I had to rush order from B&H) and the props basket. Well, two guys come along and they decide this is the place to be. The one guy was only drunk I think, but the other was definitely tweaking on something. His eyes are popping out of his head like he has an air pressure problem in his skull, and his mouth is hanging open and a bit rotten I think.
We all kind of watch the tweaker go over to our lined up gear, stare at it, then wind up and kick the prop box. This is kind of funny, I mean, what the hell did the prop box do to him? He apologizes to us, even though I think he should apologize to the prop box, and a long time later they finally leave after a cop pulls up and parks for a couple of seconds.
Finally we can shoot.
We move pretty quickly in the parking garage of the library. We’re banging everything out, and the actors are on. This is the climax of the flick, so we need our shit to be together here. And it is. I know what to expect from Bill, and Bill knows what I expect. Baby Reilly is listening to us, and learning. This production is his first time on set, and he’s picking it up quick. His job is audio today and tonight, so as soon as we go to a new setup, he drops the mic and starts moving stuff with us.
To maximize our shooting time, we setup the audio last, because it’s the easiest, and quickest thing to put back up. Baby Reilly is dropping the mic on a new setup, helping move the dolly, or put stuff away, and then when we’re about to shoot, he grabs the mic again and is in position.
Alicia is really on top of her game too. We all just seemed to really come together as a crew today. It was really something. We all know what to expect from each other now, and we’ve all felt each other out enough to know what needs to be done. We moved faster and more efficiently today with two less crew members than we have for the entire production. I’m so incredibly proud of this.
The actors are really feeling it too, as they’re supposed to have been running for awhile when they get into this scene. As we’re setting up, they’re doing laps around the parking garage. The funny thing is, Justine looks like she hasn’t spent any energy at all; like she just got out of bed and is ready to start her day. That girl’s got the best set of lungs I’ve ever seen. I mean, I walk up the stairs in my house and I got to sit down. This girl’s doing laps and running full out in heels and you’d think she just got up from a nap.
We rock out the two scenes we have here, then we’re off down the street to shoot the last scene, which may take the longest as it’s about two and a half pages. We fly with our setup, breaking out the genny and getting the lights fired up. As we’re about to shoot our first shot at about quarter to four, a construction truck pulls up at the end of the alley we’re shooting down. It’s over I think, because we can’t compete with the sound of construction. There’s no way we can get good dialogue.
We shoot anyway, hoping to get as much done before they start. Turns out the dude just picked up a pylon or something and was on his way. He was only in one shot that we can’t use anyway. We forgot to turn the Brevis on again, and it won’t cut anyway I figure out, when we do our second setup.
We totally rock the shit out of this monster scene. It goes really well, and we end up finishing it all just as the sun is coming up. Bill and I have run out of night once before, and while it was funny the one time to say “we had to stop shooting because we ran out of night,” it’s not something I want to say again. About ten minutes after our last shot, the sun is up too high for us to shoot anything else.
Luck is really on our side today, because as we’re loading the last things into my car and Bills truck it starts raining. We bounce back to my place to unload the sound baffles, and decide to unload everything else later in the day to avoid all the gear getting wet.
I drive Alicia and Amy back to Alicia’s place, then come home to crash. Later on in the day, I unload the gear at Bills place, then we both come back to my place and unload the genny and look at some of the footage that I put on my computer today. Bill’s happy with it, as am I. Sure, there’s some gain in the footage, but that’s the way it is with digital video. It sure as hell doesn’t look like a bad antennae connection to your rabbit ears TV like it did before.
Alicia and I get on the horn to discuss what we’re going to shoot tomorrow and call times. She decides what we’re going to shoot, and we both agree that the pacing at which we shot the day before was stellar. We’re both really happy with how the night went, as is Bill from our conversation earlier.
Alicia also tells me that I calculated the pages wrong. I had thought we were going for seven. It turns out that with the added scene we did earlier at Bills, we shot about nine or closer to ten. This is a hell of a productive day. The script is only thirty five pages. We struggled in the first three days of the shoot trying to do six pages. I was pretty adamant about shooting no more than six anymore; five preferably. It was Alicia’s confidence in us that enabled us to do something I wouldn’t have thought possible.
There’s just something special that you experience when you go to an extreme like we did tonight. It’s a bonding moment that automatically brings everyone closer together. I think it’s because not many people do it, so you have that rare experience with the others that share it with you. Compared to the earlier shoots of this production, we had a monumental task in front of us, and we came out on top.
We went once more into the breach, and come out the other side.
Here are some screen shots with some looks I played with.
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