Simple things crew people should know

[Guest fstop]

I'd like to add one, David: Learn what a soft light is. Like you said - so many times a diff frame goes up so close to the source that all you have is a hot spot in the middle. Or they don't fill the huge polyboard when bouncing, but rather spot it in the middle. Drives me nuts.

 

One of the things I learned from a stills photographer and I discussed this with David and Michael Nash on here a couple of years ago, is putting muslin on barn doors for certain soft simulation. If you do it with a really hard single source you can get that slight soft edge on contrasty lighting identical to a Carravagio. I haven't ever seen any technique like it on any set in any book or any movie before or after.

 

However I do agree that principals tend to be forgotten- another one is gobos/casting shadows with hard and soft light and the distances required.

[Michael Nash]

Another goof I've seen countless times is someone setting up a bounce with the lamp head directly in front of the bounce, flagging most of it.. DOH!

[David Mullen ASC]

One of the things I learned from a stills photographer and I discussed this with David and Michael Nash on here a couple of years ago, is putting muslin on barn doors for certain soft simulation. If you do it with a really hard single source you can get that slight soft edge on contrasty lighting identical to a Carravagio. I haven't ever seen any technique like it on any set in any book or any movie before or after.

 

However I do agree that principals tend to be forgotten- another one is gobos/casting shadows with hard and soft light and the distances required.

 

Well, the softness is really dependent on the size of the diffusion frame, so muslin on the barn doors of a big stage 10K Fresnel is going to produce a softer effect than on the barn doors of a 2K Baby Junior. So on a 10K, that may create a 3'x3' area of diffusion, not particularly soft but not sharp either and easier to flag, being semi-hard. It also depends of course on how close that diffused lamp is to the subject. That 2K Baby Junior with muslin on the barndoors would be a softish light if really close to the actor, just like how sometimes all you use is a 2'x3' diffusion frame in front of a light in a small space, which is not much bigger a source than diffusion on big barn doors.

 

On the last movie, I had to create a projected shadow on a wall from someone standing supposedly in front of a bonfire, so the shadow pattern had to be distinct but not sharp. So I used a 4'x4' frame of 216, I believe, in front of a 10K with Full CTO and had two grips randomly wave their hands between the frame and light for the flicker effect, while also slightly dimming the 10K up & down. Being fairly far away, the 10K through the 4'x4' frame was not particularly soft and created a semi-sharp shadow pattern.

 

Yes, in terms of Caravaggio, a semi-soft or semi-hard light (depending on how you want to describe it) coming from the side would create an effect similar to some of his paintings. But it would be too hard a source for recreating a Vermeer window-light effect or some of the Rembrandt's portrait lighting.

 

Lighting is not just hard or soft, but many degrees in between. Sometimes on a Condor high in the air with an 18K HMI, I'll put it through a 4'x4' frame of Opal, which barely softens it but takes down that specular highlight feeling away on shiny surfaces like cars.

 

---

 

Another mistake I see is setting up the flag cutting the flare off the lens so that it also flags the fill light behind camera off of the actors, hence why sometimes it is better to set the flag for the lens behind the actors. But it really depends on a number of factors -- sometimes there is no room for a c-stand behind the actors to hold a flag if the backlight is mounted high above the frame on something other than a stand, like off of a rooftop or Condor. Or sometimes there is a dolly move where a closer flag attached to the dolly itself will cover the lens better than a farther flag. Sometimes it's the opposite -- the farther flag covers more of the dolly move. And of course, sometimes you just have to handhold the flag...

 

But what annoys me is when the grips can't deduce that if the light is above the frame and actors, the flag will be a topper, but if the light is coming from the side of the frame, it will probably be a sider. And sometimes I've told them that the light flaring the lens is deliberately in the shot and they still try and set up a flag for it, which is also now in the shot. But at least that's better than never trying to flag a flare, I guess.

 

On the last show, another annoyance was electrics getting confused as to what light to work on. I shot takes with a light on that was supposed to be turned off, and vice-versa, and they did this right after I went to the monitor and didn't see it, and couldn't tell on the video tap. I had a shot where an actor is standing in a doorframe with a hallway behind him and the director said "couldn't the hallway be darker?" and since I didn't have a light on for the hallway, I told the director it must be the video tap just seeing more into the shadows. But after one take, I got concerned that it looked wrong and went back to set to see if some flagging of the key could help darken the background when I discovered that a Kinoflo, set-up for some earlier scene, had been turned on, lighting the hallway. Some electrician just turned it on when he thought he heard something about a Kinoflo on the walkie (a different Kino for another part of the room).

 

And another time, I had two takes of a Steadicam shot lit partially with a Chinese Lantern but on the third take, it was flickering and dimming during the take, so when I went on set to check it out, it turned out that some electrician, when told to put a certain practical lamp on a dimmer between Takes Two and Three, put the dimmer on the Chinese Lantern, which already had a dimmer on it, so two dimmers in a row caused the lamp to freak out during the take.

 

And I lost count of the number of times an electrician didn't know what "lamp-left" or "lamp-right" meant, so if the gaffer said "put a double in the lamp-left 2K on the side of the house" half the time, it would go into the wrong 2K. And there were the times I had to explain what a double half-scrim was ("the red one... with half the wire cutaway...")

[Rik Andino]

My keys were experienced and worked very hard (in fact, it's a bad sign when they have to work THAT hard -- my Key Grip Johnny Martin was drenched in sweat everyday, running around so much doing the work of three people just by himself), but there were limits to how much they were going to get some crew people up to speed. One grip, like I said weeks ago, actually walked off the shoot when told he'd have to work a little faster. And one electrician would go off fishing for hours on end so I'd be short a person on the set. And firing people wasn't really an option unless I wanted to start flying people in from another city to replace them. In fact, by the last week, we did fly in another experienced electrician.

 

To be clear, there are some top-notch crew people that live and work in Louisiana. Unfortunately, they were mostly working on "Deja Vu" and being paid a lot better.

 

 

Oh you were working in Louisiana...

I was just working in New Orleans this past week...

And I understand the problem...

 

 

Most people haven't been to New Orleans or Louisana so they wouldn't understand...

First of all it's call the Big Easy for a reason--everyone takes it easy....

The philosophy is work to live not live to work

Which goes against most filmmakers' principles.

So while your NY or LA filmmaker won't mind moving faster...

A NOLA filmmaker will take it easy and take offence when scolded for not working fast...

And if offended enough they'll walk off and go someplace else...it's the Big Easy.

 

That said if we can remember some news from last year...NOLA was hit by a major hurricane

The city was flooded yadda yadda images from CNN should come back to mind.

Anyways the city is still rebuilding, it's only got about 1/10 of the population...

And most of the people there aren't filmmakers--

In fact it's downright diffucult to find crews, equipment, lodging...

Heck try finding a good place to eat past 10 etc..

 

I'm amazed at the signs on Mcdonalds and Burger King promising to hire people at $10 per hour!

 

So saying it's difficult to find experience crew is an understatement.

However it's good that there are several productions shooting in the city...

The city needs to generate interest and bring back its people...

It is one of the strangest & most beautiful cities in America and it's shameful it was neglected.

 

Anyways good luck on your other projects David

Hopefully your crew will be better

 

And any experience filmmakers looking for a change of pace...

;) Hint Hint New Orleans is looking for a few experience filmmakers. B)

[Hal Smith]

And I lost count of the number of times an electrician didn't know what "lamp-left" or "lamp-right" meant, so if the gaffer said "put a double in the lamp-left 2K on the side of the house" half the time, it would go into the wrong 2K. And there were the times I had to explain what a double half-scrim was ("the red one... with half the wire cutaway...")

David,

 

I took my favorite IATSE 112 stagehand out to dinner this evening. He spent a difficult day with me adding grid pipes into a blackbox theatre in which I'm lighting a production of "Tuesdays with Morrie" and rigging Cyberlights into impossible positions, etc. and I thought he deserved a good "atta boy" meal. The conversation came around to movie crews, how the departments work, etc. He'd like to see more movie work come to OK and wants to bring that about. He personally is a hard worker, always has a smile on his face, and within his experience, knowledgeable - and he works safe.

 

Many of the better IATSE hands here worked on "Twister" and liked the work. They were "doubled" with movie crew who knew the movie lingo and practice. So they were very nicely wrangled by the movie department heads and everyone seemed to have a good time on the set. I think it comes down to that: if a movie production team comes to an area like OKC where there's a fair amount of IATSE work on local productions, Broadway road shows, big time concerts, professional sports events, etc. etc. there is a cadre of hard working, smart hands - but they don't know movie practice even though they can handle just about anything that's thrown at them on a stage or in an arena. Maybe what's needed is crew chiefs who have theatrical backgrounds also and can skillfully use non-movie, but otherwise professional, stagehand crew.

 

The above is all, of course, IMHO. :)

[timHealy]

Hey David,

 

While I think all your complaints about what a crew memebr should know are valid, I would like everyone here to know that what you experience is not the norm. I am a member of IATSE local 52 in New York and 728 in LA and every electrician and grip I know are experienced, knowledgable, and concientious.

 

Unfortunately, as what you experienced, you may have a number of variables affecting the quality of crew members like budget. If the producers pay peanuts you get monkeys. You may get experienced people who are not the cream of the crop, or you may get people working cheap looking for experience. Also if you shoot outside of NY or LA, and there is already another movie in town, you may get sloppy seconds. But it depends on the town how deep you can go with local talent. Another issue is that some states have super locals where the size of the region may be huge as compared to the NY city or LA area. Some guys may travel several hours for a day of work and sleep in their car. Some of the men in these super locals may have to grip one day, electric the next, and be the set medic on another day, so it may be harder to perfect their own crafts. And as Hal pointed you you may get stagehands that are perfectly knowledgable with stage shows but might find movie equipment a little off putting. I'm not sure but movie technicians may be one of the smallest parts of IATSE.

 

My own personal pet peeves are walkie talkies. I have been using them for years without the need for the surveillance earpieces. I generally use a handset clipped to my collar with the volume just loud enough where I can hear it. When the ad's roll I turn it off as do most of the technicians who have been doing so for years. A simple professional habit in which no one has ever lost a take on my account. Personally I find earpieces distracting, uncomfortable, and they electronically cut you off from things that may be happening just in front of you.

 

Best

 

Tim

[David Mullen ASC]

I didn't have problems with all of my local crew, I just want to be clear on that. Some were fine and a couple excellent. And I'm well aware that there are some great crews in Louisiana because we spent some time trying to hire them before opting to bring people in from the outside. We went through the union phonebook trying to find people. I mean, we even had to bring some PA-types from other states to fill the crew, that's how hard it was to find people.

 

But when you are working fast on a hard schedule with a small crew, it doesn't take more than a few weak links in each department to slow you down.

 

It's just that this was the sort of crew problems I'd expect on a half-mil non-union feature, not a 5-mil union feature. Maybe my expectations were too high, I don't know. But I'm not lying about my experiences down there. I really did have an electrician on one of my big night exterior shoots disappearing for hours at a time to go fishing! I really did have crew people simply not show-up for work. I guess it is sort of hit-or-miss; when I was down there in January to shoot a movie that ended up being cancelled, I found an excellent local 1st AC, Gaffer, and Key Grip and they had crew people they could bring. Two months later and none of them were available.

 

I talked to another DP who shot a feature there a year or two ago and he had the same problems I had, again, on a low-budget union film.

 

I know if you pay low, you don't get the best people, but you'd think that the lowest-paid (i.e. scale) union person on a union show would be a guarantee of a certain minimal level of skill, otherwise what does the union label mean?

 

I don't think Louisiana has the crew capacity to handle four or more union features simultaneously, not currently, yet producers are greedily flocking there for the tax breaks. Some crew people left town due to Katrina and are working in New Mexico (which is also busy these days) and elsewhere. So I understand the reasons why I had crew problems on this show but that doesn't make me feel better about my experience. Hopefully the next time I shoot there, it will be better.

 

This would have been a hard show no matter how good the crew was, because of the schedule.

[Guest Jim Murdoch]

If you're shooting in someone's house, don't try to make a nice soft fill by pointing a couple of 2/4K's at the ceiling. Some ceilings melt!

 

(Been there, seen that....)

 

And don't feel you have to use all the lights just because you brought them!

 

And turn the bloody things off if you don't need them right away.

And if at all possible, switch them off before dragging them across the floor.

And TRY not to melt the householder's wall sockets!

[Matt Pacini]

Not to get into a big union/non-union argument here, but when someone gets to go fishing during a shoot, and NOT GET FIRED IMMEDIATELY FOR IT, I'd say that whole "you're better off hiring union workers" idea kinda goes down the toilet.

The protectionism that goes along with unions is the culprit here.

Why wouldn't that guy have gotten fired for doing this?

Is it that hard to fire a union member?

If the reason is "we couldn't find anyone else" then hell, I'll gladly do the job, and you have my workd I'll only take half the fishing breaks!

 

MP

[Chris Cooke]

If you're shooting in someone's house, don't try to make a nice soft fill by pointing a couple of 2/4K's at the ceiling. Some ceilings melt!

 

(Been there, seen that....)

 

Been there, DONE that...

1K Red heads are not the ceilings friend.

The principle actor noticed smoke comming from the ceiling before any of my crew.

[Matt Workman]

Whats Lamp left? Is it the same idea as camera left?

 

Instantly regret asking this question :unsure:

[Paul Maibaum ASC]

Lamp left, or lamp right for that matter, is based on the lamp operator's left or right when he or she is standing behind said lamp. It is exactly the opposite of camera left or camera right.

Paul Maibaum

DP/LA

[Michael Nash]

It is exactly the opposite of camera left or camera right.

 

It sounds a little confusing to state it that way. Camera Left or Camera Right is from the camera operator's point of view.

 

If the lamp is pointed toward the camera, then yes, it's opposite. But it's better to think simply about the instrument at hand, and which way its "lens" is pointed.

[David Mullen ASC]

True if the light is behind the camera.

 

Just stand behind the light... "Lamp Left" is then to your own left, and "Lamp Right" is to your own right.

[Paul Maibaum ASC]

Yeah, my apologies if my description confused anyone....indeed, it is only the opposite of Camera Left or Camera Right if the lamp in question is pointed at the camera....Mr. Mullen's last post sums it up.

Paul Maibaum

DP/LA

[Adam White]

Video village. . .

 

Just because there is a nice TV showing the lovely camera picture, does not mean there is an open invitation for every Tom, Grip and Harry to crowd round it and start offering opinions!

[Brad Grimmett]

Ah, I have one after an intersting day on a low budget feature today.

Hearing the A.D. call private rehearsal or blocking rehearsal is not an invitation for the whole crew to come and stand in the middle of the set. If you need to see the rehearsal you'll know it. If you're not sure, then you should stay out of the way. Just because your boss is in the room doesn't mean you have to be in there too. He/She will let you know on the walkie when it's time to work. It gets very crowded and very loud very quickly, and it's counter productive to try to have a conversation about a shot with the whole crew chatting all around you.

[Adam White]

COCKTAIL WRAPS!!!!!

 

When the crew are asked to wrap a set, it would be a really nice idea for the A.D's and cast not to stand around in the middle of it, having an apparently wonderfull time while the crew try and clear up around them. Yes, I know the director and cast simply love "everyone darling" after the final wrap but cant they do it somewhere else? Yes a glass of champagne (or a beer if we are lucky) is very welcome but not when I am popping off the lens for the return to the hire company.

 

you have no idea how long Ive wanted to get that off my chest. . . .

[Max Jacoby]

Ah, I have one after an intersting day on a low budget feature today.

Hearing the A.D. call private rehearsal or blocking rehearsal is not an invitation for the whole crew to come and stand in the middle of the set. If you need to see the rehearsal you'll know it. If you're not sure, then you should stay out of the way. Just because your boss is in the room doesn't mean you have to be in there too. He/She will let you know on the walkie when it's time to work. It gets very crowded and very loud very quickly, and it's counter productive to try to have a conversation about a shot with the whole crew chatting all around you.

Same thing happened to me on a feature recently where I was 2nd Unit Director. I was with the 1st Unit because I had to pick up later what they were shooting. The 1st called out a HOD rehearsal. When I looked around, there were at least 30 people watching!

[Brad Grimmett]

It's certainly one thing when you're shooting exteriors and the crew can watch from a distance. It's probably a good thing that they get an idea of what is happening as early as possible in those situations. But when you're shooting in a 20x20 room and the whole crew is shoulder to shoulder in there it's ridiculous.

[Max Jacoby]

We were actually in a small tunnel.

[Adam White]

If the DoP has requested quiet on set in order to co-ordinate his lighting/grip/camera teams then please respect this. People seem to get confused when they are meant to keep hush and others are talking.

 

Dont assume that others have done "the nervous" - the final check of a location to ensure that no pieces of kit get left behind. Take responsibility for the kit.

 

If you make a mistake then learn from it and move on. Likewise if you screw up and get corrected, accept the boll**king and move on. Adults sulking just looks kind of pathetic.

[Tom Bays]

Is it too hard to say before you shoot...If you screw up say something? If you don't know, i might be pissed, but ask.

 

Some problems can be avoided with a little communication.

 

Post a joking list of rules somewhere to make people feel at ease.

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

Also: don't give people a bollocking for making mistakes.

 

Nobody intends to make mistakes. Being unpleasant is an unsubtle way of saying "don't do it again, or this is what happens." Nobody can give you an undertaking not to repeat doing something they didn't intend to do in the first place, so it's a pointless dance to go through.

 

Offering criticism of downright stupidity is a good thing - in fact, I think the world could do with a lot more informed criticism of some of the quite pan-galactic stupidity that goes on in it - but blaming people for their mistakes (as opposed to asking that they pay for them, which is fine) is unproductive.

 

Phil

[Adam White]

True, some HoD seem to take delight in humiliating assistants and ranting at them infront of the crew not only makes them look bad but is very unnerving to a crew. I assisted one team who believed in this "toughening up" approach and, by the end of the shoot, not only was my confidence completely shot but the sound, wardrobe and makeup depts were likewise, around them.