Day Four, Englewood Medical Center

We returned to Englewood Hospital today for the fourth of five planned shoot days.

It’s possible that we could have produced most of the footage required for our two films using up fewer days, but the surgeons are always on call and emergencies are a very real possibility.  So, to make things move more smoothly, we scheduled our production days to allow flexibility for the many doctors, administrators and technicians we had to film.  So far, we’ve been really lucky permitting Devin, our contact at the hospital to fill each production day from top to bottom.

Any extra minutes have been spent filming additional B-Roll, (background footage) in whatever area we happen to be in.  Later, during the edit process, this extra footage will prove invaluable.  As an Irish director I’ve worked with used to say. “ I’d rather be looking at a shot than looking for it.”

Today, we captured several interviews using environmental settings around the medical center.  Although we have scouted these locations in advance and chose them for their seclusion and relative calm, it is another rule of production that as soon as you start your camera, someone will roll a noisy cart down a nearby hallway, a fire truck will wail down the street or a backhoe will begin beeping just outside the window.   My personal favorite is the gas-powered leaf blower that can kill any shot from nearly a half-mile away.

We logged all of those issues at some point today, but fortunately, our interviews fell comfortably in between the distractions and the end result were far better than being locked away in a sterile conference room.

The soft background was created using a Letus depth of field adaptor on the EX1.  The Letus attaches to my existing lens allowing me use lenses from my 35mm camera.   Using this type of adaptor narrows the depth of field and creates a more selective plane of focus, permitting me to have a sharp focus on my primary subject while throwing the background into a beautiful softness. 

The results are astounding.  Ordinary backgrounds blur and return an image with a much higher production value. 

Unfortunately, this type of accessory is a bit of a pain to set up.  You have to mount and balance the unit, calibrate the internal ground glass, focus your 35mm lens and most importantly, remember to turn it on.   It also limits how much you can zoom your lens.  So, I usually bring two cameras if I intend to use the adaptor, so that one of them is dedicated strictly to this purpose.  Finally, I’ve assigned the task of remembering to turn the Letus on to my assistant, Arion.  Forgetting that could blow a great take.

The Manfrotto 536 tripod has become a regular part of my location kit.  Aside from its height and reduced weight, it also allows me to clamp a small HD monitor on the legs of the tripod, rather than attaching it onto the camera.  I find this arrangement to be less cumbersome, especially when I have to change locations often and rather quickly.   It also makes it easy to spin the monitor in another direction if a client wants to see the composition.

Another small part of our script required some product shots of some very small bottles.  For this, we brought along a compact, electric turntable to give some life to a very inanimate object.  We also brought along a Nikon macro lens that, combined with the Letus adaptor, allowed us to get extremely close and made our subject really pop from the background.   It also made it more fun to shoot.

A good shoot is when we come home with tons of great footage and the client is pleased with the results.  A great shoot is all that, plus experiencing something new and unique. 

That new experience makes our production day much more rewarding.

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