Green Screen, P2 Cards, and Wireless Monitors, Oh my!

So the the last couple weeks for me have been getting into the groove of regular business of what the go to team does. Yes, there are a lot of really cool shoots to go on but many are at different scales of production.

I happened to be the media manager for a video that talked about the results for some type of pharmaceutical drug trial. We were to film a doctor in front of a green screen who was reading off of a teleprompter about the results of a certain drug testing. We set up a 20X10ft green screen in a conference room at the Marriott in Charleston, SC.

It was basically an all day shoot in this conference room, the doctor was reading off a teleprompter for about 5min to 30 min at time. The first time he started talking I though ok, this could be interesting, but after a few sentences, I couldn’t understand a word he was saying. It was english, but in a vocabulary that was way, way off of what I know.

The camera we were using recorded the video onto P2 data cards, not tape. Those P2 cards held about 64 GB and lasted about an hour. When one would fill up, it was given to me, and my job was to take the video that was recorded on that card and transfer it off to a hard drive.

I used a little device made by Nexto, which dumped the video off the card and onto it’s own internal hard drive. IT was neat because once the video was on the Nexto, you could view it on a little screen to make sure it transferred correctly and then erase the P2 card and give it back to the Camera guy to keep on recording. Transferring that video does take a while, like maybe 1/2hr or something, but then the client needs that data. So you have to transfer it from the Nexto drive to a external hard drive or something that the client can use.

The client gave me a little portable hared drive and I would transfer the video footage to. At the end of the day we pack up and the client gets the hard drive with all the video on it. Seems neat and easy, but to be honest it’s a bit unnerving erasing over original footage and the video only lived on the hard drive. We still like shooting on tape because you know its there, its proven. And once you have filled up a tape you can just give it to the client right then and there, to transferring time required. I guess if you don't have a media manager on set, you would have spend hours after the shoot is done just transferring the media over, or if you shot on tape, give them the tape and be done. I guess it just depends on what the client has set up in the editing room. They may not have a deck to play back the tape, but they still would probably have to convert the video on that hard drive into something their editing program can use.

 

The Quarterback Kid

The next shoot I went on was to do a small piece on the High School Senior Quarterback who as a freshman severely hurt his knee and tore his ACL. Years later he is playing football as a senior and is doing so well that he might even get to play in college.

This was a fun shoot in that we got to do a little more creative stuff. We interviewed The kid and his father first, then went out onto the football field to get shots of them throwing the football together and stuff like that.

 

I was really happy with the audio on this one, That’s my department now I was able to successfully hide the mic on both interview subjects and it sounded great. Nick did a pretty awesome job on the lighting and we got a chance to talk about certain looks and things like that. Once we were done with the interviews, it was time to get some extra shots of the Kid. No audio was needed as this point so I acted as a grip for Nick. At one point I went over to move the monitor, which was on a stand, and I couldn’t find the cable connecting it to the camera, but there still was a picture on the monitor!  I was dumbfounded for a second until Nick told me that there was a wireless system that sent the video from the camera to the monitor for the client to see. Pretty Cool!! It made getting the shots on the football field easier to approve from the client, because she could stand on the sidelines, while nick was on the field.

Fox Sports Interview Video Clip

Just in case you missed it last week. Here is the Finished interview. With Terry Bradshaw and Matt Ryan.

 

Audio Bag

Wednesday, I ran audio for a corporate client that was doing a training video. It was a short video about a new method of changing the oil on a big rig truck. Nick Modisett was camera and we shot on a Panasonic HVX200.

We did a couple interviews and then shot appropriate B-roll of the actual step by step process of the oil change. I basically mic’d up the talent for the interviews, and then ran the boom for  some of the b-roll for extra audio. I’m starting to get used this audio bag. The principles of audio are the same as I used to know them, I just carry everything with me.

 

I carry a SoundDevices 442 - 4 channel Field Mixer, and 3 sets of Lectrosonics wireless transmitters and receivers, and a Sennheiser Shotgun Mic mounted on a boom pole. As well as lavaliere mics, batteries, Moleskin, clips, etc…  

 

Ha Ha, Don’t Laugh Too hard

From the mixer, a 7 pin cable runs to a pigtail on the camera that converts it to a left and right channel and then also runs a return so I can head what the camera is recording.

What’s cool too is that if I’m running around with the camera guy, I can opt to go wireless to the camera with a  2 channel transmitter/receiver. This method also lets me feed Audio to other cameras if they tune in to my frequency. So we can do a multicamera shoot with one audio guy feeding the same audio to all of them, wireless. Should come in handy when NASCAR starts. 

The SteadyCam:

Back to the truck shoot. If was pretty straight foreword and the client also hired a Steadycam operator to do some walking and driving shots. The operator built a pretty awesome rig to fit on the back of a hatched vehicle to get follow shots of vehicles and such.

   

Those shots came out pretty awesome, as you can imagine.

First Shoot–Fox Sports interview with Falcons Quarterback

Yesterday was my first shoot with the go to team. It took place in Atlanta, GA at the Atlanta Falcons training facility. I rode alon g with Nick Modisett and met up with Tom Wells (DP) and Kevin Juston (Audio Op). We were to set up an interview with Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan and Fox Analyst Terry Bradshaw. The location was an old locke room that the team wasn’t using anymore, but it was used often for media interviews and such. Tom Wells was the DP and had brought some extra things to spice up the old looking locker room. We arrived at 8am or so and had about 4 hours to set up for a half hour interview. First on the order was to figure out talent placement and where the cameras were going. Nick brought his camera and gear to make this a two camera shoot, one camera on each person. We were shooting in HD using a Panasonic AJ-HDX900 and a Panasonic Varicam. We also had a Panasonic HVX to be the third camera, getting a wide shot of the set.

I was basically a fourth person on set, acting as a grip and sitting in the talent chairs so that Tom could adjust the lights. He gave me the job of putting small recessed lights that he had bought at a hardware store in each one of the lockers. The light would be pointed up to illuminate the inside of the lockers themselves. I put halogen bulbs into the lights, and after wiring them together I would hide the white power cable from each light using black gaffing tape. The fluorescent room lights were shut off and the lockers really glowed. They really didn’t look like lockers anymore. We only had two lights on each talent.  And the rest of the time was spent tweaking the background behind each talent position.

Along with the recessed lights he bought at the hardware store, Tom bought a lot of chain, and chicken wire. The chains were hung in the background of the talent, hanging down and around in different ways. Lights with different colors were added to the chains to add some color. The cameras were zoomed in and the iris was opened up to throw the background out of focus making the chain behind the talents head not appear as clearly, but with the colors thrown on them, you almost couldn't tell they were chains, and definitely not a locker room. All of the sudden the images we saw in the monitor of the cameras looked awesome and just what you would see on TV. Duh, that what were were doing.

Often times I had the chance to observe this and when I wasn’t working on a little project I was sitting in as talent for lighting tweaks.

Finally Terry Bradshaw shows up and we all say hello. It was strange for me because this guy I never met before walks in and somehow I think to myself, “I’ve seen this guy before” It just took a moment to register. Terry got ready and sat in his chair. Tom did a few more lighting tweaks and so I sat in for Matt Ryan sitting across from Terry. All I could do was stare at Terry while he thumbed through some notes. After awhile he looked up at me, and asked me “So Matt how is this year coming along”, I say,” Good”  Then after a few questions he asked ”So do you get into some of this S&M chain stuff we got going on here?”

The Fox producer had seen we had a fourth guy and asked if maybe we could get some roaming creative shots with the third little camera. We had originally were going to use it as a stationary wide shot, but I guess he wanted to get extra footage during the interview to use as cutaways and promos. Since I was around Tom gave me the opportunity to run that camera. I was stoked because I had not expected to run a camera for awhile, I was really going to focus on Audio. Tom gave me some direction on what shots to get and what they would be looking for and I was set.

Finally Matt Ryan walked in and we were ready to start. We got started really soon so I started rolling. The interview lasted about 29 min and I got a bunch of wide shots and then some creative ones for the editor to cut to in between the headshots of the interview.

At the end I couldn't believe I had the opportunity to run a camera for such a high end client. The Interview looked pretty awesome, I guess Fox is one of those networks that allows a lot of creativity in their stuff. What was amazing it that we really didn’t use as many lights as I thought we would have and the materials for the background was basically just chains hanging. It was a great lesson in making the most out of a otherwise bland space.

This was definitely one of the cooler shoots I’ve been on and I know that not all of them will be like this. It’s always cool to be able to see what goes into high end projects like this.     

First Day At The Go To Team

I drove to Charleston, SC  from Charlotte, NC last night to beat some crazy winter weather that is hitting the southeast today. Didn’t want to get stuck on the roads on my first day to work. I arrived in the evening with enough stuff to last me a week or more, wasn’t sure how long I was going to stay here. The weather closed down all the bridges in Charleston for half the day today. So in the mean time I went out to lunch with Shawn Moffat (Operations Manager) who got me up to speed on the some of the bigger picture stuff of what the Go To Team does and is all about. Coming from a more local level, it was incredible for me to hear about all the shoots he sends his crews on, everything from NASCAR to Super Bowl, live shots for NBC, and even the World Series. I just couldn’t believe that I get to work with such a great group of professionals. I was thrilled!
Later that day after the temperature warmed up and some of the ice melted away, the bridges around Charleston opened up and I drove up to Summerville, SC to meet with Cameraman Dave Baker. Dave had a whole set of equipment with him, and he introduced me to my audio bag.
Skip Clark. If I am the apprentice, then he is my mentor, but I have not met in person him yet. He lives in Los Angeles and I probably wont get to work with him until the NASCAR Hangar shoot in Daytona. Everyone that I have met speaks very highly of him. They say he is really a great guy and an amazing teacher. A guy you bring you’re A-game for, not because you don’t want to mess up, but because you don’t want to disappoint. 
He chose me because he saw something in me, so I am happy to be part of his team and I will definitely work hard to bring my best everyday.

Some Pictures and Passes from around the Go To Team Office: