Paul Maibaum ASC

Here is an excerpt from an article to be published in the next issue of the SOC Magazine in response to a question posed to me regarding my use of camera operators: ?Ultimately, I want to see shots as if I operated them myself. But ninety nine percent of the time, I need an operator to get that done. The job of a director of photography and that of an Operator are two distinct positions. An operator is somebody that can concentrate on executing the shot. And there are a lot of elements to contend with. There is the dolly, working with the dolly grip, the focus puller, equipment in the frame? It is a full time job that demands constant attention. Before the shot, during the shot and analyzing the shot after they hear cut. Is it good enough? Did you get what you needed or do you have to do it again? ?The director of photography does not have time to do all that and the rest of the things that a DP needs to do. A DP needs to manage the entire camera, grip and electric crews; work with the director about the necessary coverage, working with the ADs to make sure we are on schedule, thinking about the next set we are moving to later that day, evaluating the equipment that will be needed, not only in the next scene, but for next week?s episode. ?No matter how big the show, the DP is constantly looking ahead. It is like a game of chess. You need to be a few moves ahead. There are too many people to coordinate with to make things happen. You cannot do all that and be in the moment to operate the camera well. If an operator starts to look at the lighting TOO MUCH IN THE WAY A DP WOULD, then the shot COULD POTENTIALLY BE blown because ONE?S reaction time is COMPROMISED DUE TO THE FACT THAT ONE IS NO LONGER CONCENTRATING ON MAKING THE SHOT. ?There are apparently some Directors of Photography out there who can and choose to juggle the two jobs? I am just not one of them.? (The caps are not mine but were put in by the writer of the article for emphasis, I suppose)

For a show about bikers one would think that there would be a lot of scripted sequences shot in and around the characters riding their motorcycles but in actuality there are surprisingly few. In most cases when there is a lot of action on motorcycles we give those shots to a ?splinter-unit?, a small crew where I typically bump up my A camera operator to DP that unit. We order a third Genesis package and use a Sony EX-1 as a ?B? camera for quick grab shots and mount shots where the Genesis would be to big and or delicate to hang off the side of a moving vehicle. We use a camera bike as a tow/chase vehicle to get the running shots. This past week we had a simple sequence with two principle actors riding on one bike being followed by another character in a car. Since it wasn?t a complicated sequence with stunts of any kind it became 1st unit material. I elected to operate the shots so I could be judging exposure through the eyepiece as the motorcycle and car wound their way down a ?country road? (Sand Canyon Rd. in Canyon Country) going in and out of shadows created by trees overhanging the road. We also shot in both directions on the road, one direction backlit, the other front lit. I would manually adjust the iris as we shot after calibrating the Genesis eyepiece with color bars much as one would do with the main on-set monitor. Here?s a picture of the bike rig.

Finishing up Episode 5, starting episode 6 on this upcoming Wednesday. The production is going well but the fact that we are shooting an episode in 7 days rather than 8 means that there is constant and considerable pressure to finish the work scheduled for each day. A couple of things have been done to speed things up??I traded in most of our prime lenses for 3 Panavision Lightweight Zooms, 1 LWZ-2 (17.5mm to 34mm T 2.8) and 2 LWZ-1 (27mm to 68mm T 2.8). Since we do a lot of hand-held and Steadicam work it facilitates camera set-up time since we don?t have to change lenses as often and it makes the camera lighter as well. I still carry the 75mm, 100mm, 150mm and 200mm primes and the 11 to 1 zoom as well. The other thing that has been done is that my key 1st assistant made two carts which carry the Genesis deck, ?toaster?, and batteries for the Genesis. We do hand-held and Steadicam with the deck separated from the camera to keep it as light as possible. With the carts we can position all the gear close to the camera in a consolidated fashion and one assistant can easily move the cart around where it needs to be as opposed to schlepping the deck, toaster and the two huge Genesis batteries that are needed to power the deck and the ?toaster?. We refer to the separate Genesis ?brain? as the toaster. This unit powers and talks to the deck when it is separated from the camera. To answer Robert Starling?s question regarding using the Genesis as opposed to the F900?..I prefer the Genesis because of the 35mm sized chip, the fact that we record in 4:4:4 and the greater dynamic range of the Genesis. I could never shoot day exterior scenes without fill the way I do with Genesis if I were using the F900. On ?Sons of Anarchy? I expose much like the way I would do with film, averaging the highlights and shadows and retaining detail in both. The F900 just does not have the latitude to do this. I would always have to use some kind of fill, either a large bounce or more often a 50K or 25K SoftSun to bring up the shadows so I can stop down and maintain visual integrity in the highlights when using the F900. Or I would have to fly large silks overhead to cut down the sun to create a less harsh image. On ?Sons of Anarchy? I usually use no fill outside at all, or if I do, many times (especially when the sun is straight overhead) I just lay large pieces of un-bleached muslin on the ground under the actors to add just a touch of fill for their eyes. On one night interior scene I taped Roscoflex (tin-foil-esque material) on the ground to get a hint of a ?ping? in the actors? eyes since the lighting came only from the practical fluorescent fixtures that were hung in the set. ?Sons of Anarchy? premieres September 3 with the pilot episode shot by Jonathan Freeman and Ed Pei. My first episode airs the following week. The new website is up with pictures, bios of cast and crew and a downloadable viewers? guide at http://fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/soa/#Nav/Homepage.

"Sons of Anarchy" Official web site: http://www.fxnetwork.com/shows/originals/soa/index.php

Rosco 30 Cyan gel used on a tungsten light.

We are shooting HDCam SR for financial reasons and the availabilty of enough of the SSR's. Also there's the whole corporate post work-flow thing that has to be worked out as to who sits and babysits the decks as they are being downloaded/transferred.

Week 3/Day 5: This last Friday we were shooting at the Disney Ranch in Santa Clarita, CA. We had both day and night work to accomplish. The night work was a murder scene that needed to take place in what appeared to look like a secluded part of a forest. The initial location picked by the director on the ?Tech Scout? was beneath a very thick canopy of oak trees that would have been problematic to light. We wanted to be able to use a 20K gelled with ½ CTB as a single source moon as opposed to a balloon which would have over-lit the area. The tree canopy just wouldn?t let enough light from the 20k into the area the director had chosen. Since I am the sole D.P. on the show I do not get the opportunity to go on scouts, I just hear about them and sometimes get pictures afterwards. I arrived early on Friday in order to pick a new location with the director and 1st A.D. that would be more user friendly. We found a spot just off a dirt road that was surrounded by trees. There was a flat spot up the road slightly which would accommodate the condor and an open spot in the tree tops where the 20K would be able to be positioned. There was also easy access for the stake beds to park out of shot and where all the other gak (video village, etc.) could be stationed. After getting the first day set up I took the gaffer and key grip up the road to show them the location and it was agreed upon that it would work, the condor would fit in the position I indicated and all seemed good. That is until, once it had already become dark (we were shooting a few Night for Day shots in the interior of a house set on the ranch), we were informed that the Fire Marshall who had been assigned to us that day would not let us park the condor on the dirt road. In fact, nothing could be parked on the road that would block it just in case emergency vehicles had to get through. It is mandatory in L.A. when a shooting company is on location that a Fire Marshall from either L.A. City or County be hired for the day. Some let you do your thing as long as you are proceeding in a safe manner, others are more didatic and play hard and fast by the rules. Ours that night was of the latter. As a result of the Fire Marshall?s decision we had to go back up the road (once we had finished shooting at the house) and with only flashlights and truck headlights for illumination, find another location where the Fire Marshall would let us park the condor and not block the road and where the trees weren?t so thick that they would block all of our ?moonlight? from the 20K. We managed to trip around in the dark, and finally found an area that would be suitable but once we had done so and moved the company up the road (which we didn?t want to do until the 20k was up and burning so there would be light to set-up with) we were left with just over 2 ½ hours to shoot a very involved 2 plus page scene with 8 characters. We managed to do it finishing exactly on time. No one felt that the look of the scene was compromised by the cluster f**k that the set-up became due to the craziness of having to pick the location at the last minute and in total darkness. I will try to get that gel combo info for the next post.

WEEK ONE-Day 1: Disney Ranch: the set is the site of a burned out ammo warehouse owned by the ?SOA?. 30? Lenny Arm with a Hot Gears modified Lambda Head used to lead and follow the actors in the scene through the debris field and ultimately boom up and point straight down into a crawl space where two female workers employed by the ?SOA? had gone to hide and were burnt beyond recognition by the fire and explosions (shot during the pilot re-shoots). No lighting instruments employed for these scenes, just hand held bounces and for one shot a 12x12 Ultra Bounce. The rest of the day was spent hand-held inside cars?.not so easy with the Genesis. Had to shoot with no monitors, deck separated from camera body. No lights either. The actors were driving themselves. One of the picture cars was a Chevy Suburban carrying two actors, the director, camera operator, 1st assistant, 2 ?dead bodies? in the back, camera and deck. We were shooting on an open road and those of us trying to remain near the site of the location had to scurry down the hillside to stay out of sight since the camera in the car was looking nearly 360 degrees around the site making u-turns, etc. Toward the end of the day I elected to operate myself since the light became so variable as the vehicle we were shooting in drove from shadow into sun and back again, and I had to make manual stop changes on the fly as we were rolling. I was amazed at the latitude of the Genesis, able to hold very bright highlights outside the car as well as detail in the underexposed faces within the car. I was guessing at the stop all day long. Everything came out rather well, considering. Day 2 and 3 were locations in Sunland-Tujunga?..street scenes, interior set of a barber shop, trucking facility, ext park, interior house, night in an alley. The show makes a lot of moves in a given day, equipment is off-loaded from the big trucks into stake-beds to facilitate all the moves. One of the scenes involved two actresses having a conversation outside a small grocery store. I used a 20x20 full black silk mounted on a condor to keep the harsh noon sun off their faces. The black silk works very well to cut the sun without having the light ?bloom? and spread brightly over the scene as a normal silk or grid cloth tends to do. Day 4 were scenes shot at the ?studio? where an exterior set has been created in the parking lot representing the auto repair shop (interior and exterior) and ?clubhouse? where the biker gang works and hangs out. We shot outside first in the compound, then a couple of scenes in the repair shop office before moving to a scene in a set built to look like a large storage locker. By the time we got to this scene it was night and we had to light it up to look like day. We closed the sliding door of the locker about 2/3 and lit up the asphalt that could be seen through the opening then bounced a couple of small HMI?s into the locker which provided a very realistic feel to the interior. We finished off the lighting with a 800 joker with a chimera and a 4x4 un-bleached muslin on a frame as additional diffusion. It is really a pleasure to work on a show like ?Sons of Anarchy? where I can keep faces underexposed and dramatic. We then moved into the ?stage? and shot a scene with all the bikers in their clubhouse bar. Day 5 started out in a garage on location dressed to look like a meth lab (day), then we moved to a convenience store-truck stop where we blacked out the interior of the store so we could begin the sequence (night) by shooting day for night. We changed out the existing fluorescent fixtures with our own tungsten balanced tubes, changed the shutter angles of the Genesis to 200 degrees and let it rip. That was the extent of the interior lighting. The sequence was a fairly involved fight scene (about 35 set-ups for this scene alone) with gun play and shot out windows and we needed the freedom to move around quickly. Plus, all the glass on the refrigerated cases would have reflected any lights placed on the floor. Again, it is refreshing for me to work on a show that is intended to look gritty and real and I don?t have to worry about how the actresses are looking all the time. We finished the night (we wrapped at 5am) with exterior night sequences at the gas station exterior and next door at the truck stop. I was able to use the existing lighting, which was quite green, for the most part, augmenting slightly with some backlight provided by HMIs gelled to resemble the green cast of the existing fixtures. My gaffer has a special gel combination he uses for this but I can?t remember what it is right now. The lab we are using for dailies transfers does not have the equipment necessary to pull stills for me...I will try to bring my little digital camera to set and take some shots to post in the future.

Position has been filled. Thanks.

The pilot re-shoots of ?SOA? were completed this morning sometime around 7:30-8:00am. I think they might have been forced to black out areas of their location in order to finish the work because they ?lost the dark?, the opposite of losing the light. I must admit that during the course of my 4 days of prep, watching regular my camera, grip, and electric crew working with another Director of Photography was kind of an "out-of-body" experience. I have seen all the dailies up to yesterday?s work and the Pilot re-shoot director and his Cinematographer have done an outstanding job of setting the look of the show. The lighting is very dark - the camera work utilizes long lenses in hand-held mode. The coverage is interesting and un-conventional with lots of profile close-ups, and ?French Overs? (over-the shoulder shots done over the backs of people). The hours have been long and some of the shooting conditions have not been ideal (it has been very very hot out here in L.A.) but the crew has risen to the occasion. I look forward to joining them on Monday.

Looking for experienced LOCAL 600 "A" camera operator to fill in for one day on Tues. 6-24-08. Genesis show, 90% hand-held. It is a HEAVY camera and we are shooting in the Sunland-Tujunga area.....it will be hot. Rates are "long-form" based on last year's minimum scale. Those interested please e-mail resume and contact info to me at paulmaibaum@mac.com. No phone calls please as I am prepping and in meetings/scouting all day. Thanks in advance.

Wind can push it all over the place, including down.

The use of the Airstar "Cloud" requires at least one of their techs, we had two due to the nature of the location. The balloon uses 6 tanks of helium to fill it.

Had an opportunity to use the Airstar "Cloud" last week on a day exterior location in Simi Valley, CA. The "cloud" or "light shutter" as it is called, is a 20'x20'x3-1/2' inflatable silk balloon with a stop loss of 3 to 3-1/2 stops. It worked out really well for our purposes.....location was a large home on a ranch in Simi Valley, shooting exterior in the rear patio, large palm trees, 3 levels of patio, as many as 8 actors in a scene, no shade, etc. The floating silk took very little time to place once it was inflated and floated over the area we were shooting in. Re-adjusting for the changing position of the sun was accomplished in a reasonable amount of time by the two technicians sent out with the ballon by Airstar. They were able to let lines out and then winch in other lines to change the balloon's position as we were shooting. Knowing where to start with the placement of the four anchor points was key to the quick adjustments and the guys from Airstar really knew what they were doing. Wind, obviously, is a big factor in the ability to utilize the balloon. It did become too windy during the late morning of the day we were shooting. We calculated when we would pull the plug on the ballon and the crew to get them back to their shop before they went into overtime should it remain too windy to use the balloon. But during the latter part of our lunch break the balloon techs were able to position the "cloud" since the wind had died down, and as we came back up the hill from lunch I could see the thing already up and hovering over our location. (I am not in any way affiliated with Airstar or receiving compensation of any kind for this endorsement)

My regular Gaffer and Key Grip have finished their first 3 days of prep on ?SOA?. The DP who will be working on the pilot re-shoots starts Monday so there has been little communication between my him, my crew, production or the art department up to now. Some facts have trickled in regarding the sets, the majority of which will be more like practical locations built within the confines of the warehouse stages where ?SOA? will be shot. By practical locations I mean that the set walls will be 8 feet tall and there will be hard ceilings on most, if not all the sets. The look of the show dictates low angles, visually adding to the power of the characters on the show. Our hopes are that the art department will install the appropriate practical lighting fixtures in the ceiling to add realism and to help light the sets. This will definitely simplify rigging since an extensive pipe grid over sets with hard, un-removable ceilings would be a waste of manpower and expense. The replacement crew on ?My Boys? is working out to everyone?s satisfaction. We hope to have a short day on Tuesday next which would allow me to get to the stages of ?SOA? in the afternoon and see first-hand what is developing there.

One of the regular grip crew (sometimes BB) will move up to Key Grip. I have hired a new Gaffer, and Rigging Gaffer for "My Boys" while my regular Gaffer and Rigging Gaffer(who is also the "parallel" Best Boy)move to "SOA". "My Boys" shoots at Paramount Studios so there is a Paramount Best Boy who will stay with the show. After much discussion with all departments this scenario appears to be the best one. I think it will be easier to maintain the look of a show that has been up and running for 3 seasons (it is officially our Second Season, but we have had 3 start-ups) with new people, while I believe for the longer run of the new show I need the crew that I have been working with consistently over the past 4 or 5 years. I am sure that it will be more of a challenge for them to work with a new D.P. on the 8 days of pilot re-shoots, than it will be for me to work with a few new people on a show that has an established look. It will probably be just as challenging for the D.P. on the pilot re-shoots to work with an entirely new set of people as well.

I will be starting a new series for FX, ?Sons of Anarchy?, around the 3rd week in June. What makes this all so interesting is the nature of how the show is getting off the ground. The pilot was shot earlier this year and subsequently picked up by the network. However, due mainly to the re-casting of one of the principle characters, about 60 to 70 % of the pilot is to be re-shot. The re-shoots will be helmed by a different director than the original pilot director, and will be photographed by a different cinematographer. This DP will only shoot the 8 days of re-shoots then I come on board to start the series. One reason that I am not doing the re-shoots is that I am still currently on ?My Boys?, the single camera half-hour for TBS/Sony. There is an overlap of over 2 weeks from the time G/E starts prep on ?SOA? and the wrap of ?My Boys?. My Gaffer and Key Grip will leave ?My Boys? early to start prep on ?SOA? along with my 1st ass?t. and DIT. (?SOA? will shoot with Panavision?s Genesis). This arrangement made with the producers of ?SOA? is to maintain a semblance of crew continuity from the re-shoots to the series since the standing sets have to be rigged during prep for the re-shoots. What this all means is a lot of juggling of crew so ?My Boys? can finish and ?SOA? can start up without any sacrifice to either production. I am looking forward to working on ?SOA? since it is quite a departure from the light-hearted ½ hour comedies that I have been shooting of late. ?SOA? is a dark, action filled one-hour about rival biker gangs in the fictitious central California town of Charming. There will be lots of night shoots, motorcycle rigs and the opportunity to do a lot more ?edgy? stuff than I have been doing recently. More to come.

She's the best.....a true professional, personable, funny, caring and very sweet.

?Samantha Who?? has wrapped the truncated season ?1.5? or back 3. We were successful in giving the producers and network what they asked for vis-à-vis a brighter, more comedic look for the show. In doing so, we not only achieved this with lighting but we backed off considerably on the contrast and color saturation of the LUTs sent to the dailies colorist. We gave them a look that can be compared to a very thick negative so there is much greater range for manipulation in the tape to tape process. We also discovered that the brighter and less specific lighting for the show allowed us to move much faster, there was hardly a day over 12 hours and most were 11 or under, something else the producers were eager for us to achieve. I am now returning to my other show, ?My Boys? for TBS, another ½ hour single camera comedy shot with Sony F900 cameras supplied by Clairmont Hollywood. We have 9 episodes to do, wrapping in early June. The producers dangled the ?directing carrot? before me to entice me to return to the show. Their efforts have been successful. I will be directing the 4th episode of the season and I am greatly looking forward to that experience. I will endeavor to post about ?My Boys?, both the shooting and directing aspects, as I have about ?Samantha Who?? There won?t be any stills since dailies on that show are done in house with direct transfers from Digi-Beta (I think) direct to DVD with no sweetening. Although ?Samantha Who?? has been picked up for a 2nd season it remains to be seen when it will actually start up. Many productions will be starting early to finish a few episodes before the June 30 SAG contract expiration date. I am hoping that a strike can be avoided, and ?Samantha Who?? will go back into production in July with my participation. Some stills:

Peter Hyams has never been the Director of Photography on a film he hasn't directed.

?Samantha Who?? is returning to production for 3 episodes. I started prep this past week. Two of the sets are expanding necessitating re-rigging the lighting to a certain extent. One of these sets being a coffee shop where, much as in ?Sex and The City?, I am told, the main characters spent a lot of screen time chatting, always sitting at the same table. This in theory would allow the writers to set the obligatory expository scenes in the coffee shop where the lighting would be faster since everyone is always in the same place in the set. To accomplish this we are adding about a dozen Vistabeam units around the set so we will be able to bring up the light level rather drastically if need be in order to balance to the exterior seen out the windows of the set since production no longer wants to be hamstrung in scheduling around when the exterior façade is in shade (i.e. afternoon). The other set that is being re-vamped (made larger) is the night club set. While we were on hiatus another company used this set and left the electrical rigging in disarray so the gaffer feels it is best to start fresh as opposed to trying to trace everything back to the dimmer board and since the footprint of the set is changing rather drastically this makes sense. We have had our meeting about the ?look? of the show with the production design and costume departments. The thought is that the overall look of the show needs to be brighter, more color in costumes, more saturation and color contrast in the sets, and the lighting brighter and alas, flatter. This as a result, in the show-runners? mind, of ?Samantha Who?? airing after ?Dancing With The Stars? which is a very bright, glittery, video production, and, not wanting to lose any of that audience, perhaps ?Samantha Who?? needs to look a little more like that as opposed to a one-hour drama.

A distinct advantage to working one?s way up through the camera department with the position of camera operator being the jumping off point to becoming a Director of Photography is that one has the opportunity to work closely with the director and actors in addition to being the eyes of the Director of Photography. As a Director of Photography one is frequently called upon to ?help? the director with blocking, screen direction and camera movement. The Director of Photography relies in varying degrees upon his/her camera operator to contribute to this effort. As the camera operator it behooves one to be ?right there? when such decisions are made because the camera operator is the one who executes these decisions. There is also the trickle down of this information, from camera operator and then to the 1st assistant who must be aware of where the camera is relative to the actors at all times. It is there that one learns not only the ?where? the ?what? and the ?how?, but more importantly, one needs to know the ?why? in order to effectively move up the ladder.

It's official: WGA strike is over 92.5% of guild vote in favor of strike's end http://www.variety.com/article/VR111798082...yid=10&cs=1

The amount of filtration used on "Samantha Who?" is mainly for cosmetic reasons, keeping the ladies looking soft and wrinkle free. I would probably be using less filtration if the show originated on 35mm film.

The AMPTP and WGA are entering into informal discussions today as a prelude to formal negotiations. The WGA removed the animation and reality provisions which had been stumbling blocks to resumption of talks so there is reason to be hopeful for an end to the strike sooner than later. The DGA has a tentative deal which won't go in front of their membership until Jan. 26. SAG contract expires June 30. The likelihood that the rank and file of the DGA will vote to ratify their contract is high. The DGA contract is only a jumping off point for the WGA. There are many issues for the WGA and the AMPTP yet to resolve, but at least they are getting together in the same room. The AMPTP would like to salvage the Oscar telecast scheduled for Feb. 24 so there are hopes that the deal will be made by then. That is a month away so there is a decent chance that could happen. If the WGA finds common ground and negotiates a contract then the chances of SAG striking are slim. If a deal is made in February some kind of pilot season will take place. I believe that the current TV season is history, even if the strike is settled by Feb. 24, but that is just my opinion. So best case scenario the town is back to work in late March - April. If the talks between the WGA and AMPTP fall apart then I think the strike will go into May thereby scuttling the 2008 pilot season. I believe (again, just my opinion) that the AMPTP will want to settle with the WGA before SAG's contract expires because in 3 years they don't want the WGA, DGA and SAG to all have their contracts expire at the same time. With that scenario one is looking at work opportunities being few and far between until TV season gears up again in July-August with networks forgoing pilot season per se, picking up a few of their best pilot scripts and going straight into short order production(6 episodes) and renewing many of this past season's shows, the ones that didn't completely tank in the ratings. All of the above is but an "educated" guess.