dino g
12-14-2007, 12:02 AM
Production CO: FLF Films
Client : Wild Planet (toys)
Director/DoP: Jerry Dugan (Very Famous Snowboard Film Maker) http://www.planetpoint.com/flffilms/bio.html
1st A.C.: John Baker
Red Camera: #0031
Red Tech/DIT: Dino Georgopoulos (kosmos3d)
Location: Carson City, NV.
Avg Temp for day: 23.9 F (-4.5 C) (Source: http://www.carsonweather.com/archive.htm)
Low for day: 16.9 F (-8.3 C) at 11:58 PM
Call Time: 6:45 AM
Red #0031 Spent 12/9 in sunny Orlando shooting a Midway games Spot featuring an NBA Star (to be named later), then we flew to Reno and shot a commercial for Wild Planet games in a house in Sparks Nevada on 12/11. It was cold that day, but lucky RED #0031 spent the night at the Grand Sierra Resort and then in a nice heated Camera Truck on the way to set and then after a very brief walk in the cold to the house, red #0031 got to sit in a cozy bedroom by a fireplace while the grips and electrical (studs, thanks guys) dept. froze outside setting lights all day.....but, there was the prospect of Wednesdays shoot outside around a house in Carson City, NV.
Again, RED #0031 slept soundly in the hotel room the night before, staying nice and warm, actually all of the gear we bring on set (red accessories, hard drives, computers, monitors, CF Cards...) were carried in from the camera truck and stayed in the warm room overnight.
before the meat and potatoes we want to give credit where credit is due....The A.D., a seasoned vet, Garrett Freberg out of S.F. and the A.C. John Baker and I had dinner the night before the outdoor shoot discussing strategies to keep Red#0031 warm. Garrett made the suggestion of grabbing the Hair Dryer from the room before we left for set, and we were all glad he did....
So we wake at 5:45 and prepare for the 15 minute drive to set, we load all of the camera gear into the bed of the camera cube, except for the body, which we bring inside the heated cab. (lenses stayed inside the truck over night, maybe next time we will bring them in too, to avoid getting them cold too).
7:00 AM 17 F -8.33 C
We get to location which is a classic suburban development with two story homes, built with a modified craftsman theme. all of the houses in the neighborhood have 6+ inches of snow on the lawn and on the roof, except for our Hero house, which for the past 3 days has been de-iced & de-Snowed, as the spot is supposed to take place in the spring or fall. the lawn is painted green and the whole property looks like it was dropped in from a catalog complete with fake leaves conveniently taped to the barren tree limbs on the property.
The home owners have a outdoor thermometer in their back yard, so i spend some time throughout the day noting the time & temp so i can later write this report for all of you and the folks at red.
7:30 AM 18F -7.77 C
We off load the equipment and we immediately bring all of the RED related gear into the garage that has a dual Bunsen burner heat lamp keeping the craft service and breakfast croissants warm. We park the camera cart in front of the burners and proceed to build up the camera, it is 18 F (-7.77 C) outside of the garage, probably 25F (-3.88 C) inside the garage by the heater. We put the arri 15mm base plate on (a rental from indierents in LA, those damn ninjas bought the last one a couple of days before, so we had to rent one), the rods, the battery, a lens, the ff, matte box, the lcd, two monitors an 7" astro from clairmont - (for focus) and a 9" panny (for the dir/dop) from the sound guy. We fire up the camera in the hope that the internal temp will keep the camera hot enough to shoot without any problems. (the night before i called stuart from red and asked for suggestions, he said, " put the fan on varispeed", i said O.K., but forgot to tell him that i was on build 9, which does not have a varispeed fan setting.)
Camera fan is set to Quiet. we are rockin build #9
8:00AM 18 F -7.77 C
once the camera is built up, we take it outside to the street and put it on the dolly which is on a track that goes from the street into the yard toward the house. the camera sits there for about an hour while final setup takes place.
9:25 AM 19F -7.22C - seems like we are ready to roll, so i replace the battery with a freshy, reboot and we are ready to roll
9:28 AM 19F -7.22C
we are finally ready to shoot
CF Card 01
001- 9:28 sync camera with clockit (push the record just to get the sync to jam.)
002- 9:38:10.04 first take - a push in dolly shot of a 11yr old boy outside of a window (cant tell you more about it other than that)
003- 9:40:01.15 2nd take
004- 9:41:29.16 3rd take
005- 9:42:18.19 4th take
006- 9:43:42.22 5th take
007- 9:44:36.23 6th take
008- 9:45:11.03 7th take
009- 9:45:55.16 8th take
010- 9:49 roll camera to start take, but have to stop for some reason, but the camera will not stop recording, camera stays in record mode, until the card runs out.
all of the buttons are locked up.
calmly we take out the hair dryer and the packaged hand warmers. we place about 6 little hotties hand warmers (http://www.LittleHottiesWarmers.com/product_p/lhw3-40.htm) on the top of the camera and tape a couple on the sides, we get our volunteer PA - nathan garofalos (reduser - tenshredd7) to use the hair dryer on the camera by blowing hot air on the back of the body, the top and the smart side (ports). we also mount a small light on the side of the dolly about 8 inches away from the camera (also an A.D. suggestion) and push the light/heat right onto the camera and block the light from leaking into the shot or the directors eye with black roll and a small clip on barn door.
(about 4 minutes later)
we reboot the camera and everything works perfectly
CF CArd 02
9:53:49.19 take 9
the rest of the day the camera performed flawlessly and we continued with our formula of the light mounted close to the camera, the hair dryer between takes and the 8 hour little hotties hand warmers taped to the body.
we shot outside like that until about 12:24:47.20 (2 1/2 more hours)
then we moved into the house and stopped the dryer, and light and got our first shot off inside the house at 12:44:29.00
by the time we returned outside after lunch it was 34F 1.11C
and we did not need the dryer or the light to continue, but the warmers stayed on the body and it was not until just now doing research for this post that i realized the warmers work for 8 hours, so they may have been helping all day even in the 34F weather.
in the future i will mount those hand warmers and a light next to the camera as soon as we bring it outside.
i am sure that if i was rockin build #11 and had the fan on vari it would have helped. but even so, i think the hand warmers and the light coupled with the dryer is a perfect solution for professional crew based outdoor shoots. if it is colder, add more dryer time, more warmers and a bigger light.
see pictures below of the set up, condor shot was close to the end of the day which was about 4pm.
thanks jerry and lisa secher (the producer) for hiring kosmos and red#0031.
finally, Jerry is a future red owner and because he has shot so many snowboard films all over the world and in very nasty conditions he was patient with us and the issues at hand, your director/ DOP may not be as patient, so please warn them before hand that there may be a problem, but that you have a solution.
good luck and stay warm.
Client : Wild Planet (toys)
Director/DoP: Jerry Dugan (Very Famous Snowboard Film Maker) http://www.planetpoint.com/flffilms/bio.html
1st A.C.: John Baker
Red Camera: #0031
Red Tech/DIT: Dino Georgopoulos (kosmos3d)
Location: Carson City, NV.
Avg Temp for day: 23.9 F (-4.5 C) (Source: http://www.carsonweather.com/archive.htm)
Low for day: 16.9 F (-8.3 C) at 11:58 PM
Call Time: 6:45 AM
Red #0031 Spent 12/9 in sunny Orlando shooting a Midway games Spot featuring an NBA Star (to be named later), then we flew to Reno and shot a commercial for Wild Planet games in a house in Sparks Nevada on 12/11. It was cold that day, but lucky RED #0031 spent the night at the Grand Sierra Resort and then in a nice heated Camera Truck on the way to set and then after a very brief walk in the cold to the house, red #0031 got to sit in a cozy bedroom by a fireplace while the grips and electrical (studs, thanks guys) dept. froze outside setting lights all day.....but, there was the prospect of Wednesdays shoot outside around a house in Carson City, NV.
Again, RED #0031 slept soundly in the hotel room the night before, staying nice and warm, actually all of the gear we bring on set (red accessories, hard drives, computers, monitors, CF Cards...) were carried in from the camera truck and stayed in the warm room overnight.
before the meat and potatoes we want to give credit where credit is due....The A.D., a seasoned vet, Garrett Freberg out of S.F. and the A.C. John Baker and I had dinner the night before the outdoor shoot discussing strategies to keep Red#0031 warm. Garrett made the suggestion of grabbing the Hair Dryer from the room before we left for set, and we were all glad he did....
So we wake at 5:45 and prepare for the 15 minute drive to set, we load all of the camera gear into the bed of the camera cube, except for the body, which we bring inside the heated cab. (lenses stayed inside the truck over night, maybe next time we will bring them in too, to avoid getting them cold too).
7:00 AM 17 F -8.33 C
We get to location which is a classic suburban development with two story homes, built with a modified craftsman theme. all of the houses in the neighborhood have 6+ inches of snow on the lawn and on the roof, except for our Hero house, which for the past 3 days has been de-iced & de-Snowed, as the spot is supposed to take place in the spring or fall. the lawn is painted green and the whole property looks like it was dropped in from a catalog complete with fake leaves conveniently taped to the barren tree limbs on the property.
The home owners have a outdoor thermometer in their back yard, so i spend some time throughout the day noting the time & temp so i can later write this report for all of you and the folks at red.
7:30 AM 18F -7.77 C
We off load the equipment and we immediately bring all of the RED related gear into the garage that has a dual Bunsen burner heat lamp keeping the craft service and breakfast croissants warm. We park the camera cart in front of the burners and proceed to build up the camera, it is 18 F (-7.77 C) outside of the garage, probably 25F (-3.88 C) inside the garage by the heater. We put the arri 15mm base plate on (a rental from indierents in LA, those damn ninjas bought the last one a couple of days before, so we had to rent one), the rods, the battery, a lens, the ff, matte box, the lcd, two monitors an 7" astro from clairmont - (for focus) and a 9" panny (for the dir/dop) from the sound guy. We fire up the camera in the hope that the internal temp will keep the camera hot enough to shoot without any problems. (the night before i called stuart from red and asked for suggestions, he said, " put the fan on varispeed", i said O.K., but forgot to tell him that i was on build 9, which does not have a varispeed fan setting.)
Camera fan is set to Quiet. we are rockin build #9
8:00AM 18 F -7.77 C
once the camera is built up, we take it outside to the street and put it on the dolly which is on a track that goes from the street into the yard toward the house. the camera sits there for about an hour while final setup takes place.
9:25 AM 19F -7.22C - seems like we are ready to roll, so i replace the battery with a freshy, reboot and we are ready to roll
9:28 AM 19F -7.22C
we are finally ready to shoot
CF Card 01
001- 9:28 sync camera with clockit (push the record just to get the sync to jam.)
002- 9:38:10.04 first take - a push in dolly shot of a 11yr old boy outside of a window (cant tell you more about it other than that)
003- 9:40:01.15 2nd take
004- 9:41:29.16 3rd take
005- 9:42:18.19 4th take
006- 9:43:42.22 5th take
007- 9:44:36.23 6th take
008- 9:45:11.03 7th take
009- 9:45:55.16 8th take
010- 9:49 roll camera to start take, but have to stop for some reason, but the camera will not stop recording, camera stays in record mode, until the card runs out.
all of the buttons are locked up.
calmly we take out the hair dryer and the packaged hand warmers. we place about 6 little hotties hand warmers (http://www.LittleHottiesWarmers.com/product_p/lhw3-40.htm) on the top of the camera and tape a couple on the sides, we get our volunteer PA - nathan garofalos (reduser - tenshredd7) to use the hair dryer on the camera by blowing hot air on the back of the body, the top and the smart side (ports). we also mount a small light on the side of the dolly about 8 inches away from the camera (also an A.D. suggestion) and push the light/heat right onto the camera and block the light from leaking into the shot or the directors eye with black roll and a small clip on barn door.
(about 4 minutes later)
we reboot the camera and everything works perfectly
CF CArd 02
9:53:49.19 take 9
the rest of the day the camera performed flawlessly and we continued with our formula of the light mounted close to the camera, the hair dryer between takes and the 8 hour little hotties hand warmers taped to the body.
we shot outside like that until about 12:24:47.20 (2 1/2 more hours)
then we moved into the house and stopped the dryer, and light and got our first shot off inside the house at 12:44:29.00
by the time we returned outside after lunch it was 34F 1.11C
and we did not need the dryer or the light to continue, but the warmers stayed on the body and it was not until just now doing research for this post that i realized the warmers work for 8 hours, so they may have been helping all day even in the 34F weather.
in the future i will mount those hand warmers and a light next to the camera as soon as we bring it outside.
i am sure that if i was rockin build #11 and had the fan on vari it would have helped. but even so, i think the hand warmers and the light coupled with the dryer is a perfect solution for professional crew based outdoor shoots. if it is colder, add more dryer time, more warmers and a bigger light.
see pictures below of the set up, condor shot was close to the end of the day which was about 4pm.
thanks jerry and lisa secher (the producer) for hiring kosmos and red#0031.
finally, Jerry is a future red owner and because he has shot so many snowboard films all over the world and in very nasty conditions he was patient with us and the issues at hand, your director/ DOP may not be as patient, so please warn them before hand that there may be a problem, but that you have a solution.
good luck and stay warm.