Archive article, originally written July 28, 2009
On the 19th of July we wrapped photography of Ben Sandlin's as yet untitled film which we named "Rock Climbing" for the purposes of production. A film about two formerly outdoorsy brothers taking one last trip to climb together before parting ways for good, "Rock Climbing" took us from Los Angeles for the urban book ends of the film to Big Bear and Idyllwild for the meat of the characters' journey. Our rugged location work climaxed at Suicide Rock in Idyllwild, where a hike that would account for 1000 feet of vertical climb stood between the crew & the day's photography. The show's hard drives are now in Nate Orloff's hands, and we'll see how it comes together!
From our first conversations Ben was set on RED as our acquisition format; while the production didn't have the budget to shoot 35mm, capturing the majesty of our locations with a wide field of view through lenses which still had emotional depth of field was a requisite. While I'm typically inclined to give rental contracts to friends whenever possible I had recently witnessed horror stories develop with rentals via private RED owners and was planning to head to one of the rental houses when I got a call from Eric Ulbrich of Evolution Image Group. Eric detailed to me his incredibly comprehensive RED package, and I booked the camera for our shoot by the end of the week.
To say a RED package from Evolution Image Group is a comprehensive rental is to understate: traveling on a senior camera cart, EIG's collection of cases contain all the typical camera necessities (with ARRI accessories, wherever possible) and quite a few pleasant surprises: after lengthy discussion with DITs, ACs, and DPs, Eric has tailored EIG's RED package to be a camera department's best friend. For the DIT, CF & SD readers with a full set of Firewire 800 & 400 protocol cables cover the connection from camera to DIT station and from camera to camera for painting; for the AC hex keys, a sensor loupe, and a selection of 640 gig RED Drives & 16 gig CF cards for acquisition; the DP stays in touch with the operator via a director's viewfinder & 7 inch RED Monitor, whether the operator is using the
included handheld handles & pad or the O'Connor 2060 head, which has been geared with 2575 weights & springs for cinema use. Then there's the 17 inch Panasonic production monitor for video village; it sounds like I've pulled copy from EIG's website, but he doesn't have one and he hasn't written any. The fact is that the camera package has few flaws (camera dept. will always find SOMETHING to complain about) and certainly nothing to work on; if we'd have additionally rented EIG's DIT package (including a RED streamlined MacBook Pro, RAID Arrays, and E-Sata connections for quickly developing on-set dailies) we'd have been running smooth as butter.
Of course, suggesting that production might have run more smoothly implies that there were difficulties; working far away from the common electric grid & in locations inhospitable for even a Honda or likewise carryable generator, we found ourselves in an endless struggle to keep our technology alive. While the difficulty in setting up a digital loading station with enough power to run the hard drives within a proximity to be logistically feasible was largely avoided through the use of RED Drives, (careful use; we'd unmount the drives during any significant moves to avoid damage to the spinning hard disks) the RED eats through its RED Bricks quite fast and would require a runner making the ten minute to half hour trip down the mountain nearly every hour and a half of production.
It certainly didn't help that the RED offers only electronic viewfinding; without an optical viewfinder, the RED must be powered on to position camera, check frame, and rehearse. The RED chargers were also a hassle; I was surprised to learn that they are designed to charge only one RED Brick at a time despite having two mounts per charger. And it hardly needs to be said, but 90 seconds to power up? It takes four for the Varicam!
RED's quirks are not limited to its electronics, unfortunately; the camera physically suits its adolescent place in the industry, persistently awkward despite its adaptability. I divided the worlds of the two brothers visually with a commitment to standard fluid head support for the brother in med school and handheld work for the brother who insists on going climbing; therefore the entirety of the outdoors photography would be handheld. Despite having a full selection of parts and accessories in EIG's package to build up the camera,
the RED's design makes handheld troublesome. We solved the camera's front-heaviness by tossing the brick plate far off the back of the camera on the long iris rods, but found no solution for the dangerous position of ports on the back of the camera; the butt of a camera is usually a great place to grab or put weight for extra control or support, but with the RED you're liable to put damaging tension on the power or drive cables or else change vital settings by accident. In the end none of our difficulties were insurmountable, and Eric's taken great strides with EIG's package to mitigate the peculiarities of the RED system with first-class accessories. With the state of the industry I expect to be shooting RED via EIG again soon. (in fact, I already have; more on that soon)
Our climbing at Suicide Rock in Idyllwild was rigged and supervised by
Bob Gaines &
Erik Kramer-Webb of
Vertical Adventures, whose vast experience found us precisely the spots to deliver the sense that our reasonably climbing-savvy talent were only a slip away from the plummet. Despite some harrowing camera positions operator Michael Nie felt quite secure in the harness.
1:2.39
RED ONE
Zeiss Standard Speed Primes
4K Acquisition, Redcode 36
Rentals from Evolution Image Group,
Otto Nemenz International, Digital Film Studios,
Wooden Nickel LightingDir Ben Sandlin
Cam Op
Michael Nie1st AC
Katy Echols &
Jenny Hou2nd AC Christa Watkins
Gaffers Andre Herrera & Kyle Bjordahl
Production Designer Chelsea Pickens
Makeup Artist
Jenny HouPhotos courtesy of
Kyle Bjordahl, myself
Just wrapped shooting in Pheonix, Arizona with 
Just got back from a weekend of hard-and-fast music video photography with director Trevor Durtschi and producer Geoffrey Leatham in Ridgecrest, CA. That's another couple hours north of Palmdale, which is my typical measure for "out there a bit." The town was a great place to shoot, though; Geoffrey sourced PAs and extras locally and found all of our locations at no charge. It's always a relief to get out of Los Angeles and remember how psyched most people are about what we do for a living.
Just finished shooting with 
I spent this past month working with director Ben Wong on “The Old Samurai,” a contemplative piece about a Samurai at the end of his life coming to terms with his past. The film takes its context and rhythm from the Japanese Iaito practice: a single attack that begins with the sword sheathed and ends with the sword sheathed. An ideal Iaito battle ends in an instant; in “The Old Samurai,” that moment between combatants stretches as we are given a look into how the old swordsman has reached this point in his life. To stretch that moment, locked in battle, we looked to 
July saw my crew and I wrapping up with Summer Campbell, a story of teen revenge and young love. We shot around Los Angeles and Orange County with one night on Dockweiler beach, photographing on a Red MX courtesy of 
I'll soon be going into Lustre color correction for Jen Graham's "Beverly," a story about the disenchantment of a child's doll as she comes to terms with her inability to learn and develop as long as she stays at the dream house. Photography for the project wrapped at the end of November; editor Alex Fortunato is now working hard to develop the comedy of blissful ignorance.
