Making the Feature: Week 2
Here it is, my first blog post. Jesus that sounds strange. Get past it. Here goes nothing:
So far all we’ve done in class is read the script and discuss the film’s concept and the script itself with Taz. I read the script Wednesday morning and as I write this post Thursday night/ Friday morning, it’s still setting in. I’ll try to get my thoughts down on paper for Taz and Garrett in the morning.
I’ve been assigned to the Camera department under Will Adeshak, or at least that’s who Taz and Garrett said will be the DP. I never had him as a professor when he was here, but he came to speak to Martha’s Post-Production class last semester to talk to us about color grading and correction. He was the DP on some music video that we watched in that class and last week in this class and I’ve got to admire the colors he was able to pull out of the landscape and sky. Can’t remember the name of the music video though lol.
I’m glad it’s the camera department. I just barely know how to operate the FS7s, and I’d like to immerse myself as much as possible over the next couple of months. I did a lot of sound last year and I’m happy to help out the first year John in any way that I can, but I find sound recording so boring. I didn’t at first, I actually really enjoyed recording sound and holding the boom, but there’s only so much you can do with levels. There’s SO much more that you can fuck around with when it comes to a camera. Truth be told I really enjoyed what little sound mixing I did when it came time to do it for post-production, but, and this is probably because of my novice status, the job of sound recordist felt limited. Not to shit on the sound department, there’s definitely a lot to learn that I would like to learn, but it feels so abstract to me at this moment, and I could probably learn more right now about the camera than I could about sound.
I’m tasked with researching the roles and descriptions of AC (first assistant) and DIT (Digital Imaging Technician). Should be simple enough to through something together. I DITed last semester a bunch of times, but it’d be cool to learn about how they do it on actual sets (I’m sure there’s more to it than showing up at the end of a shoot with a laptop and hard drive). When I worked at HQ this summer, I had to go down to Philly with Mitchell for a promo for one of his clients. I was a PA and was taking stills, but the AC showed me how he was pulling focus. I don’t know if I could do it without the camera assist on with the shadow turned WAY, WAY up.
I just texted Mason and Matt about meeting up next week to play with the FS7s down at the Wright Center. Maybe 1AM is too late for my fellow brothers in arms. Kids these days. SMH
-CP