"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
Archives for category: The Crunch
His eyes widened with interest as I described the music for the short film I am making—of which its working title is The Connivance—should be like.
“I like music that lifts you,” I said. “Like those electric guitar chords you heard a moment ago, or strings, or whatever. Music with moments that make the hair on your skin stand, and take you to some place else.”
He nodded in earnest and added, haltingly, in English laced with dashes of his Burmese accent, that he’d love to write the music for the short film, echoing two similar pledges made to me by two other facilities.
“You have our support,” they had all simply said.
I had decided, long ago, the editor who I want to be cutting the story, the director of photography lensing the film, the line producers running the production, the production designer breathing character into the sets, and another musician painting the soundscape of the film. To have heard this composer volunteer himself touched me deeply, because his gesture implied the trust he has in me as a peer.
Funnily, the musician had added ‘If you don’t mind…” before his pledge.
Of course I do not mind. Having the blessings of so many gifted individuals in the industry to collaborate on this personal project of mine, I can only be grateful for their enthusiasm, and look forward with baited breath to the alchemy that I am sure will happen, come October or so.
After what seems to be an interminable amount of time, I have finally hit on a story I want to make into a short film. The last time I felt I had something to work with was six years ago, but I was unable to due to a lack of funding.
It is about time.
It has been a really bad week both on the work front and and the personal front. Like a slap in the face, the events that had unfolded earlier this week only served as a hard and sobering reminder that I am far from what I want to be.
Then, there is you.
You, who I have yet to be all that I can be. I wish I could extricate myself from this rut. But every time I try to do so, I get sucked back into the vortex of fears and doubts, and I become only half the man I am.
What if I am utimately lesser than all that you think I can be? What then?
This blog has turned five years old. In all that time, I had maintained a policy of anonymity save for the few times I had gone for blogger meet-ups, most of which happened mostly in 2004 and 2005. Unless you had met me then, it is very unlikely you would know what my name is, what I look like or know my circle of industry or personal friends.
Now, as the lines between online life and real life are beginning to blur, I am wondering if it would be less of a headache if I simply revealed myself.
Even as I am typing this, I am agonizing over the decision of whether to submit for a call-for-entry my photography works as Tetanus or as myself. The Catch-22 is that, if I submit these works as myself, any one who has seen them on this blog will know who I am. But if I use my real name, it will not be difficult for the people who know me in real life and from whom I have kept my online identity a secret to discover my blog, and I will lose a fair bit of liberty to speak freely.
Decisions, decisions…
In the field of architectural photography, a building should usually be presented such that its vertical lines are parallel. To achieve this, you have two options:
First, you can use a specialized lens such as Canon’s TS-E 24mm f/3.5 L that gives true perspective correction in-camera, meaning the lines of the building are already straight when you look thru the viewfinder.
Or you can use any wide-angle lens and correct the perspective later in Photoshop. But to do that, you have to be careful in how you frame your shot, making sure you leave enough breathing space around the building since you will be left with diagonal edges after you have straightened the perspective. Also, you are well-advised to not go with this option unless absolutely necessary, since cropping means you have to throw away valuable pixels.
Remember what I posted about regarding wide-angle lenses? Well, I had to eat my words yesterday.
The building I had been commissioned to shoot stood 15 floors high and was sandwiched left and right by other buildings making up the concrete valley otherwise known as Robinson Road. The good thing was that there was only one facade to capture. The only spot to capture this one facade was from across the four-lane road. The bad thing was the row of skyscrapers behind me. The proximity of the two rows of buildings did not allow me the luxury of taking another two steps back; my back was literally pressed to the wall of the building behind me.
Also, since the best angle of the facade was an almost frontal one, I had to tilt my lens skyward more in order to frame the entire building, which translated into an even sharper perspective.
Which further translated into more drastic perspective correction cropping. While I was able to get the entire building and its surroundings amply into the shot with my EF 17-40mm, too much had to be cropped from both left and right sides of the image after perspective correction in Photoshop.
After an hour in which I spent shooting just about every variation in framing to allow for better crops, and trying out each crop on-location, it became clear there was no way I was going to get a shot wide enough to accommodate perspective correction. Quite simply, I needed to go wider. The TS-E 24mm mentioned above would not have helped here; I would not have been able to get the entire building into the shot in the first place, even if it would have given me true perspective.
But every problem has a solution, no? But of course; it only comes down to how much one is be willing to pay for it.
Out of sheer frustration, compounding which was the fact that it was my fifth trip back to this site due to flaky weather, I made a call to my usual camera store and asked for the price of The Solution.
In Canon’s catalog of lenses, the widest of the wide-angle lenses of interest to the architectural photographer is the EF 14mm f/2.8 L. With a point-of-view at 114 degrees, the angle that this lens can capture is astounding. Its price tag is just as astounding; coming in at the amount I am due to receive for three ongoing jobs, getting this lens effectively negates the income.
But I had a client to please.
I bit the bullet. The difference between 17mm and 14mm is hugely visible. In the end, I got the shots I needed with the new lens. I guess, in photography, size—even three minuscular millimeters—does matter. Appropriately, I have decided, upon seeing the lens for the first time, to nickname it ‘The Clit’.
Looks like one, no?
For every commissioned job I have done for an architectural firm—which shall remain unnamed—I have met with rain every time I arrive at a site intending to shoot. Every time. The average of the number of trips I have to make for each project is approximately four.
I think this alliance has all the luck of a camel cursed with a thousand fleas.
The only consolation is that I get to have good coffee at my cafe of choice in this area while I wait the rain out.
“Hey, Tet,” said the producer over the phone. “Your online edit session is 8pm to 6am. Tonight and tomorrow.”
Man…
Any one up for an IM chat marathon?
It’s been a long time since I last went out and shot for the whole day…
One of the perks of the job is that I get my exclusive “eskie” [industry-speak for the cooler box] armed with iced coffee at all times…
If there is but one constant in the business of filmmaking, it is that, at some point, you are bound to run into idiots who quite simply do not get it. And to compound the frustration, these idiots are almost always the ones possessing the power to sign off on the completion of a job.
I run the risk of coming off as esoteric in saying this, but, really; if you aren’t the creative sort, please leave the decisions regarding creative matters to someone who gets it. Even if he or she is one of your subordinates.
May 2, 2008. A video for a shopping mall. One setup, three talents. Wrapped a record two hours ahead of schedule, to the delight of my producers, probably in large parts due to the fact that there was no agency to contend with (I came up with the concept board).
April 21 to 23, 2008. Long, long shoot hours. Constantly in a rush against time. Overran 11 hours due to the huge amount of shots to be completed. In the end, when the notoriously-difficult client applauded after watching the first cut for the first time, it was all worth it. My next shoot with this agency is all but guaranteed.
March 20, 2008. One-day shoot. 10 talents of all races and across a wide demographic range. Overran, as expected. ‘You really gave all your talent directing’s worth to this,’ producer said, which was a compliment considering she once said this was the one area in my craft I needed to finesse. Big, painful misstep in postproduction, which, while was reversed in the end, left a blemish on the otherwise smooth production.
Each frame a result of unseen sweat and tears, laughters and smiles. Battles won, battles lost. Pride bruised and egos massaged. In each frame a behind-the-scenes story that will reside in my heart for many, many years to come…
Filmmaking is a highly collaborative effort. The relationship between the director and his or her various key players in the chain plays a crucial part in the success of a production. A typical list of these personnel includes:
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the producer
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the director of photography/cinematographer
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the production designer
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the stylist
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the actors
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the editor
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the colorist
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the music composer
At each stage of a production, whether it is on the set shooting or in postproduction, the director needs the support and the input of each of these personnel—who brings to the table his or her cumulative years of experience, skills and talents—to achieve his aims and vision. The director’s vision has to be one that is shared by every player.
Before the start of any shoot, the one relationship that can pre-determine the outcome of a shoot is that between the agency folks and their director. The trust and confidence the agency folks have in their director goes a long way in selling a final artistic and creative goal to the client. These folks have to stand by the director and defend him should the need arises.
Then, there is the relationship between the director and his producer. The budget of any production is always finite. A good producer, whose primary concern is to keep an eye on the tills, will give, to the best of his abilities, all that the director needs to fulfill his artistic pursuit, whether it is a piece of specialized equipment for a particular camera move or more money for the art department to achieve lavishness in production design.
On a set, the relationship between the director and the director of photography is the most important. These two persons are responsible for the visual aspect of the production; what is happening in this shot? What do we show and what do we hide? Questions such as ‘Where should the focus point be in this two-shot?’ or ‘What is the best camera move we need to contain this scene?’ would have been discussed at length with the director prior to the shoot. Through his or her interpretation of the material, the DOP contributes to the production with his lighting style and sense of framing.
In my personal experience, the kind of DOP I work best with are the ones who are keenly learned in literature, for they are the ones who will be sensitive to words, and can thus interpret scenes and emotions as described in the script and storyboard. Many times I have faced hurdles in getting DOPs to understand what the context of a scene is simply because, lacking literate sensitivity to the material, they could only interpret the concept in vague, sweeping simplification. This results in a lack of shorthand with which a director can communicate to his DOP, and which will often result in time wasted on the set due to misunderstandings.
The next circle of key players on the set are the stylist, the production designer, and the actors, contributing in the areas of wardrobe, art direction, and acting, respectively. With the exception of the latter, the rest of the personnel are the ones whose eyes, along with the director’s, are constantly glued to the monitor, looking out for the smallest of opportunities to adjust what has gone into the frame.
Past principal photography, it is the task of the editor to whittle the footage into the story to be told. Scenes and takes, shot out of order and signifying nothing in their disparate bits, have no meaning until they are strung into a narrative. How well sight and sound is married together for maximum impact depends on the instincts and skills of the editor. Thus, in postproduction, the director’s best friend is the good offline editor, who can add context, subtext and implications to a story.
Upon the completion of an edit, the footage is passed on to a colorist who, through his skills and critical eye, will remold the lighting in each shot to look its best. This corner of the frame needs to be darkened; we need to fill in more light on this actor’s face here… Such polishing is done shot by shot under the guidance of both the director and the DOP.
Finally, music is one area that can make or break an edit. If the budget allows for it, original music is scored to the picture. Otherwise—and most of the time–the audio guys will find library music containing a mood suitable for the story. The infinitesimal tweaks and enhancements made across a soundtrack by the audio guys are, if done right, invisible but indispensable. Any one can tell when something just doesn’t sound right, but a seamless mix will sound like the most natural thing to the ears. Audio post guys are truly the underdogs in the field of postproduction.
After so many years in the industry, I can safely say that I have almost a complete list of who’s-who to fill the various roles in a production, unique individuals whom I can count on to deliver beyond what I need for my spots, people on whose shoulders I can stand on so that I can surpass my own standards one production at a time. These are the people I will call upon when the journey of my career delves into the area of feature films.
Stand by your cell phones. Almost there, and any day now…
Trying to figure out the shoot order so we can maximize setup efficiency…
About
34, male and very Cancerian. Often irascible, even if he is prescient to his emotions. Lives for the resonance of beautiful passages, cinematic magic and aural bliss. Dabbles in fiction writing, photography, sketching and daydreaming in his free time, even though he is paid to do just those in a professional capacity.
He is, in other words, quite a geek.
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