Digital Video - February 2008 - (Page 29) Opposite: Ward with a Navy SWCC team. Right, from top: a helmetcam, using an Iconix RH1 and shooting a launch. they are leaning more on the production to come up with the concepts and capture storylines. You can’t just join a Navy SWCC [Special Warfare Combat Crewman] team and direct them — they are doing a live exercise. The critical thing with that Navy shoot was we got there early and embedded with them. It’s a trust thing. The key to making that work is that you have to be real people. For example, on that Navy piece, our camera assistant was also a pilot, so he could talk shop with these guys. I like crewmembers who aren’t just crewmembers. If you want something different out of what you’re doing, the key is to have something going on other than being a filmmaker. Working on boats for the Navy SWCC project, how did you mount the various cameras? We put one of those Canon HV20 palmcorders on an extendable swimming pool pole. We had a 12foot jib arm with a Filmotechnic Flight Head. We own a Sony XDCAM. It’s a good tool and intercuts nicely with the F900. We shot hi-def tape but also had Panasonic HVX200s — one on a Steadicam working through the woods, and the others handheld. Shooting under such rigorous conditions, are you better off moving to solid-state recording devices? More and more that’s the route we’ll be going. I just did something for Mitsubishi documenting their effort at the recent Baja 1000. I used a portable DVR with four cameras in a truck with switchers, but this 160-gig hard drive was getting hammered. I had it mounted in foam yet still had dropouts and lost quite a bit of footage because of the dust, the heat and the vibration harmonics. We could have put a solid-state drive in it, but the cost, at least for now, was insane. Also, I still haven’t found a digital camera that I can hard mount to anything because of the harmonics — motorcycles, race cars or snowmobiles. They always go soft. You’ve often capture action footage with some simple techniques. What are some examples? One of my favorites I did on the show Epic Rides for Speed for 13 episodes — packing double. I literally sit www.dv.com backward on the motorcycle with a kidney belt strapped around both the rider and me. I held the camera and got fantastic stuff. I put pegs on the swing arm so I could stand up — even across the desert on rough terrain! Sometimes, I’d put a Canon HV20 on a hockey stick and lean out there. When I’m trying to get aggressive stuff, another favorite is to lay out a course, a giant circle with foreground elements like bushes, and as a cameraman you stand in the middle and track with them [like the old Western horse riding trick]. The light is changing because they are coming into backlight and then frontlight, getting kicks. Speaking of light, how do you handle ever-changing exterior lighting conditions? If we’re totally backlit, instead of trying to save it by opening up but blowing out the sky in doing so, I’ll just let stuff go silhouette. People are concerned with always seeing the actor or the product at all times. We already saw them. We know who they are and if they are in silhouette, big deal. It’s a cool, artistic decision. I go with the raw look because it’s real. It’s not a lazy man’s way of doing it. Rather, it’s looking at the situation and figuring out what’s the proper tool. Now, if someone gives me a day to light a steaming cup of coffee and a biscuit, I can do that! I love to light, but, most of the time, I have to capture the action. The grab-and-go filmmaking approach seems to fit these kinds of projects. Is that an extension of your “form follows function” mantra? A lot of what I do is handheld. I feel like now I can do camera movement handheld almost as good as I can on sticks. That frees me up because I don’t have to lug around a tripod, a head, et cetera. For Mitsubishi in Baja, we rode motorcycles with HVXs and monopods in backpacks. We chased down the race truck then rode ahead hard for about 10 minutes. We put lead shot in the bottom of the monopods so that they became kind of a Steadicam, and we’d shoot the race truck splashing through a creek. Then we’d chase him down and do it again. When the director, the DP and the camera assistant know as much about driving, riding or flying as the talent does, I think it shows in the end product. DV dv february 2008 29 http://www.dv.com
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