under 2"

oao · June 14, 2006

Hi, i was wondering what is the technics and psychological tips to handle that kind of situation:

you are under 2'' D.O.F the subject is moving quikly and freely and you have time pressure and you don't have any 2nd AC.

Brad Grimmett · June 15, 2006

Ask for as many takes as you can get until you feel comfortable. Make sure you feel really confident in two or three takes before you move on. If they'll only give you a couple takes, make sure you let the director and DP know that you're not completely confident that the shot is in focus. If they still move on then it's on their heads.

Chris Keth · June 16, 2006

Ask for as many takes as you can get until you feel comfortable. Make sure you feel really confident in two or three takes before you move on. If they'll only give you a couple takes, make sure you let the director and DP know that you're not completely confident that the shot is in focus. If they still move on then it's on their heads.

Bingo. If you don't have enough takes to be confident, pass the buck to someone higher. If it's f-ed up, it's not your fault, pretty much because you told 'em so.

Sam Wells · June 16, 2006

I used to pull focus on (snorkel camera) tabletop.

You go into Zen mode.

Detachment is Bliss.

(then again, Bliss is a kind of Potato..... )

-Sam (with more seriousness than you might imagine)

Brad Grimmett · June 16, 2006

Bingo. If you don't have enough takes to be confident, pass the buck to someone higher. If it's f-ed up, it's not your fault, pretty much because you told 'em so.

It's not really passing the buck if you did everything you could to make sure you had the shot. It's no longer you're responsibility if you've made everyone aware of the situation. That doesn't mean that they won't still try to blame you, but at least you can remind them of the conversation you had on the day.

oao · June 16, 2006

Yes i know you 're right but to me it's a shame cause this kind of shot need some time to be made ,it's only about 5 minutes. Sometime i get the time but at last minute every thing have been changed and i hear motor! Our job is not all about tech the talking is very important but sometime the talking thing is much harder for me than the technic.

Chris Keth · June 21, 2006

It's not really passing the buck if you did everything you could to make sure you had the shot. It's no longer you're responsibility if you've made everyone aware of the situation. That doesn't mean that they won't still try to blame you, but at least you can remind them of the conversation you had on the day.

Poor words, perhaps. I just mean let thm know if they move on at that point, it may be out of focus. It sort of covers your ass, though the blame will probably come back on you, like you say.

Brad Grimmett · June 21, 2006

Yes i know you 're right but to me it's a shame cause this kind of shot need some time to be made ,it's only about 5 minutes. Sometime i get the time but at last minute every thing have been changed and i hear motor! Our job is not all about tech the talking is very important but sometime the talking thing is much harder for me than the technic.

Isn't this pretty much standard? Things constantly change on set. Half the job is dealing with things constantly changing, but in my opinion that's half the fun too.

Bob Hayes · June 21, 2006

Just Zen into it. After a while it will become second nature. Like meditation. It's a lot easier then hitting a 90 MPH fast ball.

But, if you can hit a 90 MPH fast ball 30% of the time you are a super star. As an AC they expect you to hit it every time. :-)

oao · June 22, 2006

Isn't this pretty much standard? Things constantly change on set. Half the job is dealing with things constantly changing, but in my opinion that's half the fun too.

It's not quite standard, it's like a special effect shot their is some care to take. I'm not talking about usual shot i'm talking about 1 inch deph of field, handled cam and a wild free actor sometime the feeling is a good .

Sam Wells · June 23, 2006

Yes i know you 're right but to me it's a shame cause this kind of shot need some time to be made ,it's only about 5 minutes. Sometime i get the time but at last minute every thing have been changed and i hear motor! Our job is not all about tech the talking is very important but sometime the talking thing is much harder for me than the technic.

I did one snorkel job where the director would have us start going in a different move on some spontaneous whim !

At that point, you nail what you can but I don't think I ever put "mind reader" on a resume :blink:

...Worse, even though he saw almost *every take played back on a 19" Ikegami monitor* (this was a video / 1" C shoot)... he called the next day to complain about some of my focus pulls :o

Check cleared, I lived...

-Sam

Brad Grimmett · June 23, 2006

i'm talking about 1 inch deph of field, handled cam and a wild free actor

Yeah, that's pretty standard. Everybody wishes that this wasn't the case as often as it is, but the fact is it happens a lot. You do your best, and when you nail it it's a nice high five moment. We may as well bask in the glory when we get it right, and try not to hang our heads in shame when things don't work out when our hands were tied.