Paul Maibaum ASC

My understanding is that writers recieve 4 cents for every dvd sold and that they are asking for 8 cents in the new contract. The 4 cent residual was concieved back in 1985.

Unless there is either a last minute resolution or both parties decide to go back to the bargining table there wil be a strike commencing 12:01am on Monday, Nov. 5. L.A. Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa has become involved in the labor dispute and my understanding is that both sides are meeting tomorrow (Sunday) in a last ditch effort to keep the talks between the parties afloat.

We are starting our 11th and, due to the pending WGA strike, quite possibly our last episode of the season on Monday next. The writers are continuing to polish the script until the last minute and if a strike is indeed called for Monday, it will be the last that we see of them for a while. On episodic TV almost all the writers are also producers. There are always one or two on the set at all times to facilitate last minute changes in dialogue and/or staging. The actors and the directors depend upon their input to adjust and fix the above because often after a scene is rehearsed a flaw in the logic of the dialogue is revealed or an actor feels that his or her character wouldn?t do what is written on the page because of the subtext of the scene. The potential work stoppage is a blow to both cast and crew because ?Samantha Who?? has turned out to be the breakaway comedy hit of the current TV season and we just learned this past week that the show had been picked up for another 9 episodes. Here?s hoping for a speedy resolution to the current labor situation. Halloween on the set:

from dailies

If I were shooting film I would not be using the net behind the lens and I am sure the level of diffusion would be different. One advantage to shooting HD with the Genesis is that I can clearly see on the 20"CRT/HD monitor the effect the diffusion is having on the image. We also have a NTSC monitor integrated into the engineering cart so I can tell what effect all the schmutz on the lens is going to create downstream.

Wrapped episode 11, on hiatus for one week, then return for two more episodes (barring WGA strike).I thought I would mention lighting, specifically lighting our ?#1 on the call sheet?. She is, in my opinion, a beautiful young woman in her late 30?s. However, like all human beings she has certain aspects of her facial features that show that she is no longer a teenager. Having no degree in cosmetic surgery, I still have to do what I can to keep our star (and, by the way, the singular reason that the show is in the top 10 and considered to be the number one new comedy of the current TV season) looking her best. I employ a led ring light manufactured by LITEPANELS on the cameras at all times, both indoors and out, except on the rare occasion where I must use one of the zooms which are too large for the ringlite. It really helps to fill the eyes and smooth out faces in addition to providing a very sharp ?ping? in actor?s pupils. The ?ping? is there even when the ringlite is dimmed so the eyes show even in low-key lighting. I generally try to light the women on the show from directly over the camera with either a small chimera through a frame of bleached muslin or in certain situations we use 4x4 kino-flos with diva-light shower caps. Usually the lights are just high enough to achieve some modeling of the face. By keeping the lights over the camera any ?weariness? under the eyes is mitigated. The muslin and diva shower caps reduce the highlights in raised areas on the face, i.e. cheekbones, forehead, nose, etc. where other types of diffusion reflect in those areas and create excess shine. I use a fair amount of filtration, starting with a net behind the lens which we use at all times except for night exteriors and sets where there are light sources such as twinkle lights where one can see the net pattern. I usually use a ¼ or ½ BFX filter at all times and then add either a Classic Black Soft filter (in grades of either 1/2, 1 or 2, depending on the focal length of the lens, the lighting, and how tired #1 looks at that given time of the shoot day) and / or a Glimmer Glass filter in grades of either 1/2 or 1. Stills from dailies:

We have completed 8 episodes of ?Samantha Who??, start #9 on Monday. The Genesis is proving to be quite a workhorse on the show although it is not without it?s quirks. We had the deck on the A camera snap a tape the week before last. Fotokem had no problem extracting the tape from the cassette so no material was lost. There were some dropped frames from some off-speed material (48fps) which still remains a mystery, Panavision reps chalk it up to a bad deck, which we obviously replaced. Interestingly enough, it was the same deck that broke the tape later that same day. I must credit everyone at Panavision with their quick responses to any of our issues. We are in talks to try to utilize Panavision?s new digital recorder on the show. I believe our line producer will be meeting with Panavison reps this coming week. My ?A? camera/Steadicam operator bailed on me this past Friday. After a long and grueling week topped off with an all-night location shoot Thursday night/Friday morning in San Dimas I get a phone call 5 minutes before call time (3pm) from the operator on Friday telling me that this will be his last day as he is moving on to replace an operator on a feature where he will get more money and a better career opportunity. I have nothing against people going after the financial incentive and the feature credits but to leave me hanging at the last minute without even a suggestion for a replacement operator tweaked me to no end. Apparently the negotiations between the operator?s agent and the company had been going on for a few days therefore I could have been given some warning so I wouldn?t have had to scramble in order to find a qualified operator on such short notice. A few details on the night shoot in San Dimas: 3 Genisis cameras, 2 4:1 zoom lenses, 1 LW zoom lens, 50?Technocrane, BeeBee Night Light, 3 cars dunked in the lake, about 4 pages of dialogue and a 2nd unit for run-bys, all accomplished in 12 hours. Kudos to the entire crew. Some recent stills from dailies:

My wife and I were vacationing in Europe this past winter and one of our destinations was Venice, Italy. I arose early one morning to walk around the Plaza San Marcos where I encountered an Italian film crew in support of an Indian Director of Photography who were setting up to film beauty shots of the square as the sun came up over the Grand Canal. We drank espressos together and I took pictures of them with one of the crew's still cameras, the ARRI 435 in the background. We communicated in broken English (them) and destroyed Italian (me). It was a wonderful way to spend part of the morning.

Completion of episode #5. Location work at hotel this last Friday staging a wedding scene (most of which shot on stage). Kept the A camera on Steadicam rig for the entire day, when necessary used B camera on dolly. Not too many A and B camera set-ups due to lighting restrictions. 7:30 am call, tail-lights at 10:00pm, no extension possible. We were due to finish shooting at 8:30 which would have given all departments ample time to wrap out except there were two unforeseen (one not so unforeseen) occurrences which delayed wrap by about a half hour, and to the credit of the entire crew, did not impact the company moving out of the location at the necessary time. The first occurrence, unforeseen, was the shutting down of three of the HMI?s we were using to recreate daylight through the windows at the location. A 4Kpar, 6K par and 18 K fresnel all went out at nearly the same time just as we were about to shoot our last shot. The electrical department hustled and replaced the lights, ballasts and head-feeders in record time. I would say there was no more than 10 minutes downtime. There was no real explanation for this other than HMI?s can be finicky and when one lamp suddenly shuts down and loads are not balanced coming out of the genny?? The second occurrence that delayed production, and which was known by locations, but how it would impact us was not known, was that this past Friday night was Yom Kippur, one of the most important days in the Jewish Calender and the hotel had rented out one of the ballrooms on the floor we were shooting to a Jewish Congregation for their evening Yom Kippur services. Jewish law and tradition dictates that Jewish Holidays begin at sundown and services must commence prior to that. The room where the service was taking place was directly in the background of our shot. We could have turned around and shot the sequence in the other direction but since we were lighting the interior as if it were night for day so we could control the light, (the aforementioned HMI?s through 1000H tracing paper placed on the windows which were for the most part off to one side) it would have meant dragging all the HMI?s down to the other side of the hotel exterior, in hindsight something we probably should have done but everyone from the director to the AD and UPM and myself thought that shooting the sequence taking advantage of the already lit background was the way to go. So as the sun was going down participants in the Yom Kippur service were held from going to the ballroom while we attempted to grind out a take, then let a few people through. The people were very cordial but as it was getting closer to sunset everyone realized that one cannot slow the turning of the earth on it?s axis to get another take, so we had to stand down for 10 minutes or so to ensure that everyone going to the service could get to the room in time. There were a few late comers which delayed us a bit more, and the occasional restless child who would walk out the doors into our shot before one of the AD?s could step in. All in all we did not interrupt anyone?s holiday and we wrapped in the allotted time and before the rains came on Friday night. A still from location:

The bridal veil is tule net, not fabric.

I use a light black bridal veil net (tule fabric) behind the lens except on night exteriors or in situations where there are very specular highlights due to the star pattern created by the net in the highlights. I use the net (or not) in combination with either a Tiffen 1/2 or 1 Black FX filter. On occaision I will add a 1 or 2 glimmer glass to that and on close-ups of the actresses in the show I will add a 1 or a 2 Schneider Classic Black Soft Filter. I might go with a lighter grade glimmer or black fx when I add the classic black soft. A lot depends on how contrasty the lighting is, or if there are hot windows, or how tight the close-up is in my detirmination of filtration. The Genesis is it's own animal and responds differently to filtration then a film camera or the F900. The sets are purposely designed on the dark side so the show looks less like a comedy, even though it is one. I personally prefer darker stuff, it's easier to add a highlight or pump the light up a bit then spend a lot of time doing grip working taking the light off of light colored walls and furniture.

Same set DAY-INT. 27mm Primo f2.8 Panavision Genesis Camera

Managed to reduce file size of one of the stills. Night-Int. Apartment set on stage. 21mm Primo Lens f.2.8 / Panavision Genesis Camera.

Completion of 4th episode and first week with Genesis. Essentially, this is a great camera. The 35mm format makes an incredible difference. The LUT box generates files which we send off to the dailies colorist giving him a reference on how to set up for dailies. However, we are on our third ?A? camera body in 5 days. There was some kind of RF hit on two takes earlier in the week which looked like horizontal banding over the course of approximately 5 frames traveling from the bottom of the frame to the top with a kind of fluttering effect. The folks at Panavision don?t quite know what it is. There is a lot of wireless communication at the studio not to mention the local CBS broadcast center located on the lot where news video is sent from remote trucks to the center. Any of this could be the potential cause of the anomaly but no one knows for sure. We received the second body but I was unhappy with the color generated by the camera, it was very magenta and the difference between the ?A? camera and ?B? camera was significant. We received a 3rd body yesterday and it matches much better. The technical support and service from Panavision has been great and I thank them for their quick responses to all of our issues. No stills this post: files too large.

Finishing our ?hiatus? week?.. scouted snazzy hotel in Marina Del Rey today for the episode that begins the week after next. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we prep two shows at once, which is called ?cross-boarding?. The notion being since one director shoots two back to back episodes we can conceivably pull up a scene from the next episode or hold a scene and shoot it during the subsequent episode. It sounds like a great idea but it can get very confusing at times during prep. The sequences to be shot at the hotel take place during a daytime wedding. We will have a spiffy view of boats in the Marina which is supposed to be a marina on Lake Michigan since the show takes place in Chicago. The art department will be wrapping the bases of a couple of palm trees that are right outside the window to disguise them and we will have to careful with camera placement not to include the palm trees visible from the windows at the location. We will have to be prepared to continue shooting after dark, recreating daylight through the numerous windows. This means bringing along some additional large HMI units. The camera crew is presently prepping the two Genesis camera packages. We will be shooting a simple test tomorrow to insure that there is proper interface at the lab to read and input the LUTS we generate on set. The LUTS only affect the 20?CRT/DIT monitor so we will be calibrating the ?video village? HD flatscreens by eye to emulate the look that we achieve via the LUTS on the 20?. We resume shooting next Monday. Some stills from last week:

The networks themselves are not necessarily the union signatories for productions that they broadcast. The studios and production companies that actually make the shows are the ones who may or may not sign union contracts. A producer can hire SAG and DGA personnel (or not) and also hire a non-union behind the camera production team. The short answer is that if the producer has not signed a contract with the I.A. you will not have to join any union for the producer to hire you.

An IA member is "allowed" to work non-union only when the Union averts its gaze because the by-laws of Local 600 clearly state: ARTICLE 13 SECTION 10 of Local 600 by-laws states: A member of this Guild may not accept an engagement to accomplish work over which this Guild has jurisdiction for lower wages and/or benefits than those provided for in the applicable working rules and conditions of this Guild. A violation of this Section shall subject the member to fine or other disciplinary action. ARTICLE 13 SECTION 15 of Local 600 by-laws states: No member, after having been notified that an employer or a production has been declared unfair, shall work for said employer or on said production. Any member who violates this Section shall be fined $500.00 and the loss in wages caused the membership of this Guild by the member working for said employer. I cannot speak for what the other locals do but Local 600 allows its' members to sign on to non-union productions in order to get those shows organized. If the organizing fails to get the producers to sign a contract, Local 600 members are told in no uncertain terms to leave the production. True, there may be productions with such small budgets that the Union has little interest in organizing them, but if that is the case then I am sure the Local 600 members are in violation of Article 13, Section 10 as described above. I do know, for a fact, that on such shows the Union will usually turn its back and let a Local 600 member work so he/she can earn whatever they can, but it is by no means the stated policy of the Union.

Since when??

End of week three: production "hiatus" next week. Monday is Labor Day, a holiday for all, the rest of the week will be spent prepping the next two episodes. I will have the opportunity to prep with the director and go on location scouts which is not normally the case for Directors of Photography on episodic television unless there are two cinematographers (a la David Mullen and Bill Wages on "Big Love"). Normally the grip and electric best boys go on location scouts and they stand around with the director, production designer and transpo and try to figure out where to park trucks and generator. Usually no thought is given to where the sun will be at a given hour in the day and it is often too early for the director to know what his or her angles will really be. We spent one day last week on location and I took it upon myself to visit the three locations (all within a cart pushing two block radius) with my key grip and the 1st AD last Sunday. I was able to let the 1st AD know the best order to shoot the day's work to take advantage of available shade and back-light. On our location day things were going well as we were making shade with the 20x20 bleached muslin on an 80' condor at our first location when the key grip discovered that there was a leak in the hydrolic system and the condor's basket was dropping all on it's own, an obviously unsafe situation so we had to finish the sequence with the 20x20 frame on two stands and tied off to a street light. It was a bit wanky and the edge of the muslin frame is visible on the ground behind the actress which always bothers me. We didn't have time to wrap the edge of the frame with duvatine before sending it up, something that is always done to the frame when it is on the condor. When the 20x20 is on the condor it is framed with irrigation pipe for stability but on the ground the way it was rigged last week in a hurry it was framed with the normal lightweight aluminium speedrail. We are switching to the Genesis for the duration of the show. The studio is ponying up the extra $ to make this happen. The camera crew will be spending four days next week wrapping the F900 cameras and prepping the Genesis cameras. I will be shooting a quick LUT test on Friday to make sure that the telecine lut box can read the lut files we generate on set. I have used this lab in the past when I used the Genesis and I am not anticipating any glitches, but I feel it is necessary to run the test as insurance. The Genesis package will consist of two cameras, 11:1 and 4:1 zoom lenses, primo primes from 14mm to 150mm, 20" HD monitor, and all the usual engineering gack and cables. When we use the steadicam we will separate the HDSR deck from the camera which will be in a spiffy new REI back-pack the the dolly grip will carry. Some still stores from dailies:

This scene began shooting during the last hour of daylight with the sun going down behind the actors and filtered through some large trees. I used a 20x20 light grid in a frame mounted on the end of an 80' condor to diffuse the light even more. As the sun completely disappeared it was essentially "replaced" by a 50K softsun mounted on another condor and a 12x12 ultra bounce with an HMI of some kind (I was too busy trying to finish shooting before complete darkness to notice exactly what kind of light my gaffer utilized) as the souce into the bounce as the fill light. Alas, the sun did completely set before we finished the scene so the rest of the coverage including the still of the actor in front of the garage was shot at night. Whenever possible I suggest ways to stage scenes with the masters shot in backlight or shade. I can create a large working shady area with the 20x20 frame mounted on a condor. I oftimes use bleached muslin on the frame to create the "open shade" that I find most desirable when shooting digitally.

End of week two/episode 2: Kudos to the entire crew of ?Samantha Who??. Everyone is busting their asses to keep production moving. Key Grip and Gaffer are invaluable. A Camera/Steadicam operator doing a superlative job. We often shoot rehersals and he rarely misses a shot. Same goes for the focus pullers. B Camera Operator always at the ready looking for opportujnities to enhance the coverage. One day last week we started a sequence on the lot, Day-Ext, and lost the light after shooting the master. Thankfully we carry a 50K Softsun from Lightning Strikes. We mount it on a 60? articulating condor. We used it to simulate back-light shooting in one direction, then softened it with light grid and used it to simulate direct sun when we turned around. The tape to tape colorist will have his work cut out for him to help match the real day to the night for day, but the dailies colorist felt that we were very close and the final grading would not be problematic. The Genesis issue is progressing. We will definitely be switching to a 35mm aperture HD camera. We may be testing the ARRI D20. I have used the Genesis in the past and am very comfortable with the work flow and I feel the effective ASA and dynamic range of the camera will suit our needs. I was extremely pleased with the results I obtained with the Genesis on a pilot I shot earlier this year. I have never worked with the ARRI D20 and I understand that the over-exposure range may not be as great as that of the Genesis. I also understand that the effective film speed of the D20 may not be as high as that of the Genesis. The optical finder of the D20 would definitely be a plus since I often find myself waiting for the camera to be powered up before I can start lining up the shot. (This occurs when the camera is re-located and fiber cable are re-routed to accommodate a new set-up.) The decision on this will be made this coming week. Some still stores from dailies:

End of week one/episode 1: One quirky thing about this show is that the directors are hired to do two back to back episodes so I have been shooting the first episode and attempting to prep the next two at the same time. It can get confusing when I am approached about equipment needs or location issues and I have to quite often ask which of the next two episodes the A.D. is referring to. The pilot was ?digitally acquired? with the Panavision Genesis and the producers are really hot for the 35mm look (based on 35mm optics) of that camera. We are presently using Sony f900/3 cameras and the producers are noticing the lack of fall-off in the background or the increased depth of field. Consequently they are lobbying the studio to allow us to switch over to the Genesis. Some still stores from dailies

Finishing up 1st full prep week. Interesting thing about shooting at CBS Radford is that all the stages are wired to allow a video and sound feed of all productions to be sent to any TV on the lot. The writers and producers can be in their offices and watch and listen to all proceedings on stage. (Must make note to self to make sure the mixer turns the mics off while we are lighting, sometimes comments are made by crew that one might not want the ?higher-ups? to hear) We will have two days to hook up all the monitors, one on each stage for the dimmer board op, two sets of two stacked monitors (A & B cameras) on each stage for interested parties to keep the director?s monitors clear of lookie-loos, a monitor in the wardrobe gold room, a monitor in the make-up and hair trailer, and then there is the 20? HD crt monitor that the DIT will be working from. The pre-laid video cable will allow all the ancillary monitors to be patched in to a box on the wall of each stage where the picture (down-converted) and sound will be fed from the DIT rack (engineering station). We have recently added a dedicated crew member whose main responsibilty will be monitors and cable. Pre-lighting and grip rigging is progressing according to schedule. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I will soon post examples of the lighting plots.

Two weeks out from principle photography. Today picked backings with Production Designer. Translights, day and night. One backing will be a day painted backing for one scene in a building lobby. Production Designer has to take the existing office set and turn it into the ground floor lobby of the building that the office set is supposed to be in. Short scene, about ¾ of a page which is why we are doing it on stage instead of going to a practical location. It will be a lot of work for the set decorators because we start in this space, having built a hospital room set trying to use as many elements as possible from the office set. That will shoot on a Friday. Then the following Monday it will be shot as the revamped ground floor space, then the following Wednesday it needs to look like the office set it originally started out to be. Confused? Our motto, ?Don?t worry, we?ll make it work?. Recieved the ?network? copy of the first script. Read it twice then walked the sets (still under construction) to try to get a feel for the scenes in the actual shooting space. I will continue to do this throughout prep, trying to previsualize what the scene might be like. No director on board yet, she starts Friday. Went through sets with Production Designer, Key Grip and Gaffer. We raised any concerns we had about space, what walls were wild and how they are constructed to facilitate pulling them. If there are issues or potential problems I want them addressed by my crew sooner than later. Budgets for electric and grip equipment seem to have been approved. Stay tuned.

First day of official prep today. Production moved up my start date since we are re-shooting a few (no one knows for sure how many) scenes from the pilot. Performance/make-up-hair issues are apparently responsible for the re-shoots. At any rate, re-shoot day is an additional day of production, not one less day of prep, thus starting on payroll today instead of Monday. Turned in electrical equipment list for the two stages which includes all lamps and accessories, stands, rigging gak, cable, dimmer boards, truck package (HMI) for location work with cable, a few odds and ends and we are slightly over-budget. While productiojn looks for the additional money my gaffer and I will be looking for some stuff to cut and hopefully we will meet in the middle somewhere.