The Indie Diary

The True Story of Making a ‘Go-for-Broke’ Short

Last spring, Michael Totten, an independent filmmaker and producer, agreed to produce a short film written and directed by Josh Marchette. That left Michael and Josh about six months to make their short before a Sundance submission deadline of Sept. 12th. Film & Video asked Totten and coproducer Leda Maliga to document their production. The team encountered escalating budgets, miniDV/high-def debates, downconversion issues, and crew walk-outs. What they’ve written is invaluable (and often humorous) info that will benefit other indie filmmakers interested in new ways of working. The writers’ candidness in relating the confusion they felt when confronted with new technologies is something most filmmakers will recognize. What follows is the diary of Michael and Leda

Michael: I was working for Comedy Central Stage, shooting sketch shows and one-acts, when I met Josh Marchette. There we were, smoking cigarettes outside the Bliss House Café on Vermont, when Josh tells me he wants to make a short film.

March 15th

I had just finished making a miniDV short with my girlfriend, Leda, for Alpha 60, a filmmaking club she helped start. Alpha 60 is structured so that you have four weeks to make a five-minute movie. Josh showed me his script and we decided I’d produce the movie Alpha 60 -style. I told him I could get two Canon XL1s for free and he’d just have to come up with $20 for tape stock. It would be easy. We’d shoot it in a weekend. No big deal.

April 1st

Michael: Josh and I wanted the short to look as filmic as possible using the XL1s, so I got on the horn with ZGC, the U.S. rep for P+S Technik. They said the converter [an optical lens converter that allows DPs to mount prime lenses made for film on DV cameras] could make our MiniDV footage look like High Def or Super 16 if we lit it right. They said Danny Boyle had shot 28 Days Later using the converter. I went to Birns & Sawyer to check it out. Seeing an XL1 with a huge piece of glass on the end of it made me take the whole thing more seriously. I called Josh and told him if we could come up with $250, we could get this converter and it would make our short stand out from all the other miniDV movies out there. He was sold and we agreed to split the cost.

April 5th

Michael: Josh talked to his attorney and was getting additional money from an insurance settlement. We decided we would use two XL1s and two P+S Technik converters, we’d get a sound guy and make the best short ever made. I was psyched.

I got in touch with a sound guy who mentioned his friend Deanna Esmaeel, who owned a Panasonic VariCam and had just finished shooting a feature with James Woods. I knew we couldn’t afford her, but I ended up getting her on the phone and saying we had $3000 for the whole movie. She said she liked the sound of the project and wasn’t too busy at the time. Then she said she could provide everything we needed, including the camera package, lights and grip equipment for a two-day shoot for $3000. The sound guy would be $400. The only other cost would be food.

April 6th

Michael: I called Josh saying I knew it would be a stretch, but we might be able to shoot the thing high-def. I explained Deanna’s package deal and that I was willing to take out some money. Josh still didn’t have the settlement money, so things were on hold. I continued to research the high-def option and the differences between the Sony and Panasonic cameras. I was convinced that the VariCam looked more like film. We were so excited to make a high-def movie.

From The Director, Josh Marchette

" Turning It Over " was an incredibly personal film for me. I had begun writing what was really a journal entry. Then I saw an episode of CBS’s 48 Hours that fascinated me, about a woman who had been convicted of killing her family. I combined my journal entries with this story, and it became the first draft of our film. I was at a coffeehouse one day when I met Michael. We discussed filmmaking, and I told him I was an actor who had written this short film. I said I needed a producer, as I had no idea how to get it going. Getting something off the ground— that’s the hard part. Michael read it, wanted to produce it and thus began our journey.

I knew wearing so many hats was going to be a challenge, so I put confidence in those around me. Jay Lacopo was incredibly helpful, and Leda pushed me to continue to improve the script. At one point I felt lost, and I became insecure about the story. I also began to stress about money.

At first, Michael and I were going to shoot it ourselves for nothing. I raised enough money to get started, and then I began questioning what to shoot on. I’ve never liked the way DV looks. I wanted to shoot on film, but it didn’t seem possible. Michael researched HD, but I wasn’t happy with it. It was fake, glossy, not the "film look" I like so much. I struggled with this decision. I must have driven them crazy until I finally decided to go HD. Michael found out about the P+S Technik, which made HD look like film. I couldn’t be happier with the way the film looks, and am so pleased that we might have done something that no one else has.

I knew going in that we would have problems. Every small production has them. But I didn’t know how many. I had a hard time finding my voice as a director the first day. I didn’t know much about light so I kept quiet, to my own detriment. After the first day I knew I had to adjust. I don’t think I realized just how much pressure I was under. If it didn’t come out well, it was going to be my fault.

One of the most exciting things about the film is what we learned about HD. I’ve been shopping a screenplay of mine along with "Turning It Over," showing just how good a low-budget film can look. Interest has been substantial. I credit Peter Gray and his amazing knowledge of lighting HD.

I am very proud of having made this film. Many people in Hollywood, including me, talk a big game about what they are going to do, and what they can do, all the while saying how bad everyone else is. Truth is, they (like me) never get it done. That’s different now. We got it done. Who knows what’ll come of this, but two guys outside of a coffee shop who talked about making a movie ended up making one. Sometimes, you never know what will happen if you just show up.

— Josh Marchette

April 22nd

Michael: Josh wants to do it high-def. He’s getting the money for sure, and wants to set the date for June 5th. I told Leda about it and gave her a copy of the script.

April 23rd

Leda: I read Josh’s script and had a bunch of opinions. I was working full-time, so didn’t have too much time to give, but met Josh for coffee to tell him I could work on the script and help him prepare for his directing debut.

April 23rd

Michael: Deanna is in. She faxed me a list of her needs and a contract. She needed a $1000 deposit and full insurance coverage on the equipment. I hadn’t even thought of that. The insurance was going to be another $600. I called Josh and he freaked out. We didn’t have $1600 extra allocated in our budget. We still didn’t have the insurance money!

April 24th

Michael: Josh and I decided we’d find a way to get the money to shoot high-def and that we didn’t want to go back to miniDV. We started talking locations. Josh had a friend with a house they had converted into a makeshift studio. We could shoot the whole movie there in exchange for helping them finish the hardwood floors.

April 27th

Leda: I introduced Josh to Whitney Allen, a series regular on Oz, who I thought should have the female lead. Josh thinks she’s perfect. After she left, I gave Josh some major structural changes to the script. He didn’t like them.

April 30th

Michael: Josh’s friend with the location wasn’t returning our calls so I found a cinema scout and the California Film Commission (CFC). We could shoot three of our seven locations at the Fred C. Nelles Correctional facility for an additional $600. Josh and I went out there to take photos. The place was an operational correctional facility full of hardcore rapists and murderers. The locations were awesome. Whitney said yes to the project!

May 3rd

Michael: I have been inundated with paperwork from SAG, Workers Comp. Insurance, Equipment INS, and CFC location contracts. All of these things are going to cost money, which we don’t have. At all. Also, it’s getting hard being the goalie between Josh and Leda. Josh doesn’t like Leda’s notes and Leda doesn’t think Josh’s script makes sense. Instead of communicating with each other, they call me— and bitch.

May 5th

Michael: Shit, rent was due five days ago. This movie is taking up all my time and I’m not working. I’ll see if I can scrounge up a painting gig in Topanga from Randi Johnson, my cousin, a writer/producer that might have pity on me.

May 12th

Michael: I’ve been working on paying my rent all week. Leda hooked me up with a gig shooting behind the scenes footage for The Man Show. Got paid $250 bucks to basically follow half-naked women around. Spent the other days painting patio furniture for a friend of my mom’s out in Topanga.

May 13th

Michael: Josh still doesn’t have the insurance money. I told him there was no way we could shoot this thing in three weeks if we wanted to do it high-def. I had to call everyone to tell them we were postponing the shoot indefinitely. I had lined up 10 people and pumped it up so much that they were pretty pissed I was canceling. It was embarrassing.

May 21st

Michael: I spent the past week researching the camera, post techniques, lenses, lighting, frame rates, and upconversions/downconversions. I can’t believe how many of the "pros" have different opinions about how to get things done properly. The one thing that’s consistent is cost— it’s all expensive. I found out that Clairmont Camera is the only place in town that has the Pro35 adapter, which is the bigger version of P+S Technik’s "magic" adapter. I also found out that you need all types of accessories to make it work with the camera, in addition to the set of Super Speed prime lenses. I start to think it might be less expensive to shoot on 35mm.

EXPERT ADVICE

As far as accessories are concerned, Arriflex iris rods are required for support of the Pro35, but this is included with the Pro35. What would be needed is an Arriflex type balancing plate that comes with the cameras from Clairmont Camera and would be available from any rental house that provides Arriflex accessories for their HD and SD cameras.

The Pro35 rents for $400 a day and a set of five Zeiss Super speed lenses rents for $300 per day. Five comparable focal length Zeiss HD lenses rent for $930 per day. This is a $230 savings per day by using the Pro35. Add more focal lengths and the savings gets greater.

Denny Clairmont

President

Clairmont Camera

May 25th

Leda: Josh called Matt Damon and Ben Affleck asking if they would help to finance the film. I didn’t know he knew them.

June 1st:

Michael: Matt and Ben are in! Now we have money in hand and money on the way. Within a month we’ve jumped from shooting this thing on an XL1 for a few hundred bucks to a $10,000 high-def short. We are psyched.

June 3rd

Michael: Now that we have nearly $10,000, Josh has been wavering on the high-def thing. I agree with him. The whole idea to shoot HD was to get a film look without the expense. The problem is, it doesn’t seem to be less expensive and we haven’t as of yet seen any high-def that really looks like film.

June 4th

Leda: Michael, Josh and I went down to CFI, a post house, this afternoon to check out some high-def footage transferred to 35mm. A lot of what we saw looked like video. There were a couple of short clips that had blown-out, desaturated looks that were closer to what we are going for, but for the most part, we didn’t love it. Josh was particularly disappointed and took off in a hurry, saying he wants to shoot on 35mm.

June 24th

Leda: I lost my job today. Viacom bought the company and let 25 percent of us go. They gave me three months’ notice, so I packed up my stuff and went home. I’m going to start working on the movie a lot more and going to the office a lot less.

EXPERT ADVICE

The format you work in depends on what the final output for the project is. If you are staying in SD, you should downconvert the 24p HD to 60i SD (preferably on DigiBeta or Betacam SP) and then forget all about the HD masters.

If you plan to go back to your HD masters for final output (for example to make a film print) then you might as well dub the HD to any DV format for your offline edit. In this case, you can use Cinema Tools to generate a 24p EDL that you can use to conform your HD footage to your DV edit.

Michael Wohl

Director, Author of 'Advanced Editing and Finishing Techniques in Final Cut Pro 4'

June 26th

Michael: I’ve been doing lots of research about the VariCam. I spoke with some people at two LA post facilities. The prices that I got for exactly the same thing were thousands of dollars apart. Worse than that, the steps to get to the "finished" point are completely different!

July 8th

Leda: We’ve been hearing that the downconversions and other issues particular to HD can kill a project in post. I spoke to JD, one of the Final Cut Pro teachers over at Promax, who assured me that FCP4 would be able to handle our footage in the proper way and we’d only have to pay for downconversions from the masters to DVCAM. I’m just hoping Final Cut 4 shows up soon so we can test it out at my house and just post this thing for free. We are being bombarded with horror stories and it’s got us scared enough to make us reconsider using high-def.

EXPERT ADVICE

Michael Wohl

There’s no reason to be afraid. If you want to edit in 24p, FCP can handle it. If you want to edit the HD footage without downconverting at all, you can do that too. Of course in that case you need super fast hard drives (i.e. SCSI arrays) and a capture card that can input the HD signal.

If you are going to be editing offline, then you can capture directly from the HD via a capture card or the AJA IO box.

Lastly you can simply dub the HD to SD or DV tapes and edit in 30fps just like a "normal" show. Then use Cinema Tools (included in FCP 4) to create an EDL that will allow you to conform your HD footage later.

July 9th

Leda: Josh still hasn’t received the insurance money. I still think we should shoot this on miniDV using the P+S Technik converter and spend money on a good lighting person and crew. But Michael is the visionary, talking about cranes and helicopter shots and really pushing us to shoot high-def.

July 10th

Leda: The three of us reviewed the budget and decided we can’t afford to shoot with Deanna’s package even though she’s giving us a deal. Josh said he’d begrudgingly shoot miniDV as it would be cheaper. Michael was depressed. He had completely lost interest in shooting on miniDV.

July 11th

Leda: Josh saw Personal Velocity, which was shot on miniDV, and didn’t like the way it looked at all. He wanted to see more examples of high-def. He set out to drive to Deanna’s cabin in the woods. We got a call from him at midnight. He had gotten lost and was coming back to LA without meeting Deanna or seeing any examples of her work.

July 13th

Leda: Michael and I watched some footage Deanna had shot and talked about the particular look we wanted to achieve with her camera. I got a call from an AD who says he can do the job and will make a preliminary schedule for us tomorrow. We met with an online editor who says he’ll let us do our online at his facility for free!

July 14th

Leda: We have been researching the costs for 35, Super16, high-def and miniDV. I don’t know if Josh is going to come up with any additional money and I still haven’t actually seen any of the additional money that we’ve been waiting for.

Michael: We’ve got to make a format decision by tomorrow! Is it high-def or miniDV? This is totally fucking insane. We’ve been setting decision deadlines and breaking them for the last two weeks. This is the last thing we should be haggling about now. So many crucial things are being held up.

July 15th

Leda: Josh has a couple of pretty complicated dolly shots in mind and we’re trying to find a dolly for cheap. The AD’s cell phone seems to have been disconnected, so we have no schedule. We met with a potential production designer named Inga who had worked on a high-def project and was willing to work for free. We went to the house of a friend-of-a-friend in Laurel Canyon, who graciously offered to let us use his mansion overlooking LA as one of our locations.

July 16th

Leda: We went to the SAG offices to turn our paperwork in and give them the $500 deposit. Then we drove across town to the CFC to secure our locations. When we got there, they needed another $1000 deposit. I wrote a personal check. We still didn’t have the list of our crew with all their social security numbers. We promised them we’d get it as soon as we knew whom our crew would be.

When we got back to the office late that night, we sat down with Josh and said we weren’t going to be able to shoot next week unless we made a format decision. Josh decided on high-def. I left messages for the AD all day but got no response.

July 16th

Michael: I sold both Josh and Leda on high-def and we hope we can get the P+S Technik converter and a set of Zeiss Super Speed Primes. This is our best and least expensive way to make video look like film without actually shooting film.

Oddly enough, the amount of money we’re saving by shooting on DV is only about $2000 bucks. Everything else is going to be the same— sound, lights, grip, props.

But high-def will really be stepping up to the plate, keeping us at our best, and certainly giving us more options and looks in post. It’s done. The decision has been made.

July 17th

Leda: We told Deanna we are a go. Josh is still concerned that the high-def look as much like film as possible. We’re planning a production BBQ for Sunday and hope to get these things resolved then.

Our bar location looks like it won’t work, so Kimberley Browning, who runs the Hollywood Shorts monthly screenings, introduces me to bar owners. I have to have a drink with every bar owner on the block, so by the time I get back to Michael who has been waiting for me in the car, I am sloshed.

We got a message from the potential AD, who said he couldn’t do the job but that his roommate, Jack, can do it.

EXPERT ADVICE

The original grip and lighting list requested by Michael and Leda was a general list designed for lower-budget productions. I hadn’t seen a script at this stage, nor had any substantial discussion about the desired "look," or visual style of the movie. After discussion, we ended up streamlining and/or changing many items, although this original list was very useful as a backbone to work from. Because of the (severe) budgetary constraints, I encouraged them to rent a small lighting van with a fixed grip and lighting inventory that provided the basic things we needed as closely as possible. Then I agreed to do the best I could with whatever was available, without renting a lot of additional items. In other words, I agreed to "compromise," or be flexible, for the sake of the very limited budget, while still aiming for high production value.

One advantage of digital production is that you can work very successfully with relatively low lighting levels, meaning you can rent the smaller, cheaper lights, rather than the larger, much more expensive units. I like working with very low light levels because it is highly controllable, so I embraced this approach. There are many small lighting trucks or vans available in Los Angeles from smaller, independent equipment owners that are a god-send for indie production. They are relatively cheap (sometimes as low as $500 a day as an all inclusive deal), but you must accept their fixed inventory. Once you start sub-renting additional items, the price quickly shoots up; so if you can work with what they provide, then it can be extremely economical. This is what we did in the end.

Peter Gray

Co-director of Photography,

Lighting Director

Michael: I couldn’t have hooked up the bar location like Leda did. I’m too big. People don’t respond to me the same way they do a good looking woman (petite, too). She just seems so harmless that they don’t see her coming.

July 18th

Leda: We had a drink with the AD’s roommate. He showed up in a suit. He seemed young, a bit star-struck and really wowed that Matt and Ben put up money for this. He said he’d bring a preliminary schedule to the BBQ tomorrow.

July 20th

Leda: Peter Gray, our co-director of photography and lighting director, made a list of all the additional lighting and grip equipment he’d like to have available on set. We had assumed that the package deal was everything we needed.

Michael and I went to Kinko’s to make copies of the script and then to Food For Less to get food for the BBQ. When we got to the house, the phone wouldn’t stop ringing. The list of crew on their way included Deanna ( co-director of photography/camera operator), Peter, Inga the production designer, my friends Azalia Snail for wardrobe and Sara Tucek for script supervisor, Michael Jesmer as sound designer, and Michael Gordon as behind-the-scenes videographer.

Michael: I’m freaked out. Peter needs a huge list of lighting and grip equipment that would easily cost close to $1500 extra. Leda and I sat there, nodding and trying to pretend everything was cool.

EXPERT ADVICE

Matt Foglia

It was wise of Peter to emphasize the importance of separating boom and mixing duties. While it is by no means impossible or even uncommon on low-budget projects to have one "sound person," the end result can often be less than desired.

You have to be able to trust your sound team. If the sound on a take contains extraneous noises or interference, you have to know that your mixer will let you know. Having someone, especially someone for free, operating the boom and mixer simultaneously leads me to think that, while noble, they will be getting in over their heads. Consider a situation where there’s an audio problem: Would they tell the director, or would they keep quiet so as to look like everything is going well and that they’re doing an excellent job? It’s more cost effective and consistent to redo a take instead of looping the audio in post where you’re paying hundreds of dollars an hour as opposed to hundreds of dollars a day. If your lighting suddenly dimmed, everyone on set would notice and you’d retake the scene.

As far as using the cameras mic; be wary of the audio settings. The internal limiters of some DV cameras are extremely harsh. And while their intent is to allow a "no hands" approach to audio for the consumer, they can really kill the sound of a professional project. Along similar lines, if you are using the DV as your audio recorder (as opposed to DAT, DA88 or other multitrack device), make sure that your record mode is set to 48 kHz, 16 bit (usually the 2-channel record mode) and not the ever-dreaded 32 kHz, 12-bit which sometimes allow for 4 channels of record. This will only reduce the overall frequency bandwidth of your material; making a scene that would normally sound clear, sound hissy and muffled.

Matt Foglia

Chief Audio Engineer

PostWorks NY

July 21st

Leda: I don’t know how we can afford Deanna and Peter’s extra lighting and grip equipment or the sound guys that Peter wants us to hire. John McMinn, another great person working for free on the movie, hired some other sound guy who says he can operate the mixer and boom at the same time. We know this isn’t ideal, but we can’t afford two people in the sound department.

We all had our hearts set on the P+S Technik converter but there’s no money or time. Deanna would need at least a day of prep to get familiar with it and we’d have to have it mounted at Clairmont.

We found a hair and make-up team!

July 22nd

Michael: Peter convinced us we had to have a separate boom operator. Now we have to tell the guy McMinn hired that we can’t use him. And tell Josh we need more money for sound. We’re also going to need more money for food and for the extra grip and electric equipment. And a lot more grips/electrics and PAs.

We put a ridiculous ad on www.craigslist.com saying we need people who are passionate about filmmaking and will work for free. We made some comment about how if you’re in it for the money, you’re in it for the wrong reasons.

EXPERT ADVICE

Denny Clairmont

We have found that the Pro35 really should be used with the film lens set at an opening of T2.8 or larger to make sure that the ground glass grain does not cause any artifacts on large flatly lit surfaces, such as the sky. This is not a problem as the exposure can be controlled by the Pro35’s own iris that does not affect the depth of field and the camera’s ND filters. Also, there is a speed control for the motor on the lens ground glass and this needs to be adjusted when lenses are changed to a different focal length while looking at the monitor for any sort of a motion artifact. This only takes a moment.

Denny Clairmont,

President

Clairmont Camera

Josh and I keep talking about the P+S Technik converter. I call Bill Wiseman, who I like to call the High-Def Guru. He says he knows one of the rental people down at Clairmont and he’ll put a call in. Great!

Leda: We still don’t have the money we’ve been waiting for. All rentals have been going on my credit cards.

July 23rd

Leda: By 9:30 we had miraculously assembled a small crew of PAs and we printed out a single spaced to-do list that filled two pages. We put people’s names next to tasks and sent everyone off.

We are worried about the correctional facility because there is a strict dress code and we need to have everyone’s social security numbers and drivers license numbers turned in, but we are still assembling the cast of 15 extras and the crew. We need more PAs.

Josh brought us $8000 in cash and says he’s got more coming.

Michael: Clairmont called us back. We got the Pro35 converter! Now we just have to get Deanna and Peter over to Clairmont with the camera so they can mount it and teach them how to use it. They’re not really sold on the thing and say it’s going to slow them down, but we’re willing to take the chance.

July 24th

Leda: Josh brought us another $2000 in cash today and Clairmont needs a cash deposit for the converter. We sent a PA over with an envelope. We barely know the guy but we’re trusting him with all that money.

We found an experienced dolly grip from Six Feet Under. What a relief. No one else knows how to operate the dolly.

July 25th

Leda: Today was the first day of shooting and the worst day of my life.

At our first location, one of the neighbors threatened to report us for not having a permit. At lunch we forgot to get anything vegetarian and had no sodas until we ran out and bought some ourselves.

The second location, where we were supposed to get a sunset shot with Whitney on the patio, was way up in the hills. We weren’t even sure the grip truck would make it around some of the curves. We were two hours behind schedule and things started to fall apart.

We started shooting the scene and nothing was in focus. At first, we thought it was bad focus-pulling, but after 15 minutes we realized it was a back-focus issue with the P+S Technik that we’d been warned about. It would take 30 minutes to fix, and the sun was already where we needed it.

Whitney was all dolled up and ready for her big shot. Michael, John, Josh and I met on the backside of the house to try to figure out what was happening. We couldn’t find the AD, and chaos was breaking out. Just then, the key grip quit. We all just stood and stared at him. The sound team came up next, saying they don’t work over a 12-hour day and were leaving. The sun was dipping behind the horizon, and we had not gotten anything we needed. We were standing on a balcony that overlooked LA and I felt like jumping over the edge.

I called my friend Miranda Deponcier, an experienced producer, and explained I needed an AD to come and help me. It was 9 p.m., but I was desperate to schedule the next two days. My cell phone rang and I ran to stand over the toilet, the only place where my phone worked. The stranger was an experienced AD. I didn’t even get his name, I just explained that everything was crumbling and slipping through my hands like fine desert sand. The voice on the other end told me he had been there before and said that it was normal. He talked me down, and I had enough energy to get me through the next few hours.

On the way back to the production office, I looked at my watch. It was 2 a.m. and we had to be up at 6 a.m.

July 26th

Leda: The alarm goes off and I cannot comprehend it. We get to the production office (my house), where we’re scheduled to meet and drive to the correctional facility. Michael, wild-eyed and showing sure signs of serious sleep deprivation, has to drive the truck. There is a specific window of time when people can enter and exit the correctional facility, and if we miss that window we won’t get the shot. And we’re running late.

When we get to the jail, Michael has to lay down the dolly track, as we lost the key grip yesterday. I watch him sweating and wish I could help, but I have to help figure out how to get lunch and dinner delivered to a high-security prison.

Two of the big lights we have won’t work. One of the extra’s girlfriends, Allison Miller, volunteers to get replacement lights. It’s going to be a two- to three-hour trip in traffic! I let her take my car. Meanwhile, the 18-year-old hair and make-up girls are feeling disrespected. I can’t take five minutes to listen to them bitch about their hurt feelings.

We had originally planned to shoot in three different locations at the prison, but I decide to merge two locations. As I run by the darkened windows of the prison buildings, to check on the second location, I hear hissing and cat calls from all directions.

Our actor Jay Lacopo gets stuck in traffic and is over an hour late. We miss the natural light and have to use one of the big lights Allison delivered. Meanwhile, we are trying to plan tomorrow’s shoot. We go around and around in circles.

July 27th

Michael: Today is our last day of shooting. There are a bunch of things contributing to us not staying on schedule. I’ve been on a lot of shoots, and camera and lighting set-ups never take this long. It also seems like blocking (or lack thereof) is slowing us down. We should know exactly where to place camera lights and actors before we shoot. It’s been embarrassing. The first night, our dolly grip walked off set at about 13 hours in and said he couldn’t be a part of our production. Shortly after, our sound left— thankfully just for the night— but they did walk out promptly at 12 hours the second night as well.

EXPERT ADVICE

Similar to any video lens, the Pro35 needs to be adjusted to a given camera. Here’s how: With the lens removed and the motor stopped, shine a soft, even light into the Pro35. Adjust the back-focus ring until the grain pattern is sharp. Attach the lens and voila, you’re ready for the day.

During lens changes, take a quick glance at your monitor. In most cases, especially with modern cameras, you will see that no further adjustment is necessary.

Mizell Wilson

Technical Sales

ZGC, Inc.

Which of the scenes can we cut? We need them all. We’re going to have to do pick ups, probably on miniDV.

I guess the Panasonic DVX-100 might match with the VariCam for a DVD festival screener. The people who choose which films get in are probably watching these entries on a regular-definition TV set— they’ll never know the difference.

Also, today I’ll be playing the part of a bartender, which I’m a little excited about but it’s also a bit odd.

July 30th

Leda: We meet with a young editor who will edit for free. He doesn’t have his own editing system, so we’re editing on my G4. Once the high-def deck gets here to get the downconversions done, we’re going to have to borrow a DVCAM deck and a Firewire drive. We need a rough cut ASAP so we can see what else we have to shoot. We put an ad up on craigslist.com looking for another VariCam for free.

August 1st

Michael: Today we see what we shot. We drive to an editor’s studio in North Hollywood. His name is " Jon 9," and he has a blue Mohawk and tons of expensive equipment jammed into a little room. He offers us hot, green tea.

Jon 9 puts the tape in and it was immediately obvious that we had made the right decision. Everything looked amazing! Peter and Deanna spent lots of time desaturating the colors within the camera’s menu settings which looked nice and the converter gives you the all the depth of field you could ever need. Also, the oscillating ground glass inside the device gives you a look similar to film.

EXPERT ADVICE

Michael Wohl

Since you’re editing from the DVCAM tapes, you’re certainly going to need to edit in 30fps. You can pretty much forget all about the 24fps footage. Once you’re done with your DVCAM edit you can use Cinema Tools to generate an EDL that will reference the 24fps timecode on your HD tapes.

Michael Wohl,

Director,

Author

Anyway Leda, Josh and I were stunned with the footage, with the exception of lots of stuff that was out of focus as a result of the back-focus issue of the converter. This was easily avoided if we knew about it.

Brian, this is for the last sentence of August 1st. Use a picture of his head next to "The Expert Suggests.."

The Expert Suggests:

Similar to any video lens, the Pro35 needs to be adjusted to a given camera. Here’s how: With the lens removed and the motor stopped, shine a soft, even light into the Pro35. Adjust the back focus ring until the grain pattern is sharp. Attach the lens and voila, you’re ready for the day.

During lens changes, take a quick glance at your monitor. In most cases, especially with modern cameras, you will see that no further adjustment is necessary.

Mizell Wilson, Technical Sales

ZGC, Inc.

August 2nd

Michael: Nobody wants to shoot pick-ups on miniDV. We’re going to swing hard at getting a VariCam package and converter.

>August 5th

Leda: We got a call from someone with a VariCam who might shoot our pick-ups for free. We also got in touch with Barbara Lowry at ZGC. When there was no other Pro35 available at the 11th hour, ZGC made their demo unit available by special arrangement through Clairmont! We want to get the rough cut done before we schedule the pick-up day, but we still don’t have the downconversions done.

Michael: I can’t believe that ZGC is sending us a piece of equipment that cost 30,000 bucks!

August 8th

Leda: We brought the tapes to be downconverted and asked the technician to put the timecode in the black so we could matte it out, but he put it over the image. We can’t ask them to redo it, because we got them for free. That sucks.

EXPERT ADVICE

Head clogs and drop-outs are usually a result of switching brands (different brands use different lubricants that can react with each other), or using a consumer grade product. That’s why we recommend filmmakers try Panasonic’s DV Master grade videotape. It delivers higher output, lower head wear, reduced head clogs and improved magnetic density over standard DV tape. Our tapes also use a synthetic, or "dry" lubricant rather than traditional oil-based lubricant.

Despite their different resolutions, the AG-DVX100 and AJ-HC27 VariCam are very compatible 24p cameras, and many projects, such as the Fox series Arrested Development, are successfully intercutting them. For Arrested Development, VariCams are the main camera on set, while the AG-DVX100 are used to offer a different look for shots like shooting flashbacks.

Stuart English

VP, Marketing

Panasonic

August 9th

Leda: Our editor called to ask which settings we wanted him to capture the footage with. Should he edit in a 24fps timeline or a 30fps timeline? We had been advised by "experts" to do it both ways. We made a few calls at dinner and got a few different points of view. You cannot downconvert from 24fps high-def to 24fps DVCam. The DVCAM is going to record at 30fps, so it’s smarter to edit in a 30fps timeline and then output a 24fps EDL.

August 10th

Leda: Michael scores us a free mix a facility in Santa Monica. We are hoping to do our reshoot this coming Saturday.

August 11th

Michael: We watched a cut of the movie tonight. The stuff we shot is beautiful. But there are about eight scenes that we didn’t get to. Martin put big slates with the scene numbers on them as placeholders.

August 14th

Michael: We are heartbroken. The guys with the camera got a paid gig. We have the converter and we can’t use it.

August 15th

Leda: Martin found us a DVX100 we can use.

August 18th

Leda: Whitney called and said she got a last-minute audition. We had two hours to shoot the most important scene of two days. I had to be her body double even though I’m five inches shorter, she’s blonde and I’ve got dark brown hair.

The camera stopped working midway through and we had to stop because the DVX100 had a head-clog. Should the DVX100 be used only with Panasonic tapes? We ended up getting what we needed but even with a no-stress miniDV shoot, things go wrong.

August 27th

Michael: We watched a rough cut. It looks good. We’re trying to schedule the mix but we have to do it on nights and weekends since it’s a freebie.

September 12th

Michael: Josh handed the DVD in to the Sundance office. He said there were a lot of nervous filmmakers there. About an hour after he dropped off the tape he got a call from a well-known production company. Some executives want to see his movie and talk to him about a part in an upcoming production.

Here we go.