SleepWalkers Shoot

This weekend I was a PA (production assistant) with the G&E (grip and electric) department for the first days of shooting for "SleepWalkers" a pilot episode for a TV show. This was an incredible learning experience and an awesome way to meet some really cool people to know. I worked closely with a freelance DP and Gaffer, who taught me so much about how a set works and how to be an efficient and effective grip/electrician and PA. I also worked with two amazing guys, our DP and Director. They do those roles professionally with collegehumor.com! I think they liked my work attitude, and I hope to do some more PA work with them this summer, and maybe in the future.

In leu of describing every detail of the many hours of production, I will say a few words, then break down a picture from the weekend.

First off, we started shooting on location in an apartment near Wall Street. Our major challenge (here and in the future) was fitting all of the gear into a Manhattan apartment! Moving everything up from the street and fitting it, along with a 12 person crew into a small place was challenging (and hot and sweaty). We shot at this location all of friday night, and some of the next day. Then we packed it all up, moved 40 blocks north, and did it all again at another apartment.

Now, here is a shot I took on my phone during a shot at the first location (out in the apartments hallway).

The shot taking place here is of two actors coming up in an elevator (camera and sound captured in the elevator) coming out of the elevator and walking down the hallway. In the elevator there was the DP, the AC, the Sound Guy, and the two actors (making out). Everyone then came out of the elevator. The DP moved out and continued his shot of the actors, the sound guy jumped out and kept his boom in position, the AC quickly stayed with the DP and the camera to rack focus as the actors walked away.

In this moment:

Director: watching the monitor on the RED camera to see the shot and performance.

DP (Director of Photography): capturing the shot on the camera.

AC (Assistant Camera Operator): Trying to get his hand on the focus ring on the camera to rack focus ASAP.

Sound Guy: trying to keep his boom at a consistent distance from the actors.

Actors: walking down the hall making out.   

PA (me): standing back waiting for some to need something.

Out of frame people: 

Script Super: writing notes about each shot given by DP, Director, Sound, ect

D.I.T. / 2nd AC: (Digital Imaging Technician is a new job charged with making sound and the massive 4K footage coming out of the camera function properly together, along with handling the footage through post) 2nd AC (same guy) was standing by with the clapper ready for a tail slate.  

Grip/Electric: standing back making sure lights and rigging are functioning properly. OR setting up the lights and rigging for the next shot (2 guys were setting up a dolly elsewhere).

Week two

Week, two of my internship is done. Thats a full 52 hours of work at Duart now! It really doesn't feel that long. I know I am in a good place and I have picked the right career because the days at Duart go by so fast! I work from 9am-5:30pm. I usually arrive a bit early, and leave a little late. But still the day seems to fly by! I start working and before I know it, its lunch time. I end up going to lunch late a lot, like 2pm, just because I'm having fun and don't want to stop.

Recently I have started working on editing together reels of previous work that Duart has done. This involves capturing footage from previous work, editing it together, adding copy (text) describing what work they did, setting up and recording shots around the studio of work actually happening, and putting all this together to make a one minute piece. To do this work I am given use of a Final Cut room. This is a pretty large office room, that has everything you could want to edit. An extremely powerful Mac Pro, with unbelievable RAM and a special drive to increase its processing speed. A (roughly) 40in LCD to screen tapes (played back through a different room), dual large LCD screens connected to the computer (this gives a massive amount of real-estate to view and have all of the windows and what not that I need to use during editing)  another TV monitor that shows the preview that Final Cut produces of the project I am working on. Also, the room comes equipped with a Final Cut specific keyboard, one that has all of the short cuts for editing printed on the keys. It is so useful! I'm learning so many more short cuts by using it.

Using this room may be spoiling me, but I'm loving every second of it! Another great part of doing this project is the people checking my work. Two of the high ranking people at Duart (guys who have been around this stuff for their whole careers) are critiquing my work. I created a first rough rough cut that I thought was pretty good. They came over, gave me their notes, and I basically started over. What I came up with after that is way better! I never would have gotten there without their critical evaluation. By the time I finish editing, this could end up being one of the best edited things I have ever created!

Yesterday I was pulled for this reel project to help put the ceiling up in a new sound proof recording studio that is being built at Duart. Without the ceiling I could see the outer part of the room that really makes it sound proof. There were hanging sheets of a thick, soft board stuff that must deaden any outside sound. The ceiling we put up was made out of a special paneling that does not reflect sound. When this room is done it will add another studio for Duart to record audiobooks in. It will be larger and more comfortable then other recording rooms in the building, so actors and engineers doing audio books will not get claustrophobic during the long hours involved in recording audio books.

In other related news, I am am a PA for a shoot coming up next weekend! I met an actor at Duart who asked if I was interested in being a PA for her shoot. She is creating a pilot for a TV show called "Dreamwalkers" which, I believe, she hopes to sell to one of the big studios! She said I will be a grip, and we will (hopefully) be using the RED camera! I can't wait for this experience and all of the contacts it will bring for later on!

 

First day at DuArt and NYC

I have been in New York City for 3 days now, I arrived here on Monday. Since then I have (most notably) seen Times Square, Central Park,  and a fantastic, unbelievable and amazing Broadway show called La Cage aux Folles and staring Kelsey Grammar!

This morning I started my first day at the post-production house called DuArt in Midtown Manhattan! The first thing that stuck me (floored me!) when I walked in was the Academy Award sitting in a glass case in the lobby!! That was humbling. I started the day with a quick tour of the 11 floor facility. Then started into some typical intern-ee stuff organizing boxes. The project was sorting all of the boxes of all the original Pokemon tapes/clones/dubs/masters and all of the other random tapes they have from doing (and still doing) all the english dubing for Pokemon. After a nice lunch I came back and started working with actual editing using Pro Tools. I was taught (by a great teacher) how to use Pro Tools and I started working by myself in the edit suite. What I was doing was this:

 DuArt is working on english dubing for an italian cartoon show. Each episode is 3 minutes long, and entirely in Italian. I was given the english scripts with precise time-code for when each character starts and stops speaking each line. I watched the second half of the season (about 12 episodes) and made sure that the time-code matched up with the lines, and making sure that mistakes had not been made in the accuracy of the script (like a missed line or incorrect time code). This makes sure that when the actor come in to record the english the producer know what to capture from which actor. Doing that for all of the episodes I was given took about 3 hours. After that I was given the first half of the season (another 12 episodes). These had already had the english put over them, however the theme song for the open and close of the short had yet to be added. My task was to write down the IN and OUT time-code for each song so that an editor can put it in its place. That is where I got at the end of the day, so it's where I will start tomorrow!

(Pictured above is the edit suite I used while working with ProTools. The Suite also included a one person recording room where an actor can sit and we can record them, while they look at a screen with what we see in the edit screen)

All in all I am very pleased with DuArt and what I am doing there! More posts to come!