When Brian told me there was a possibility he would be shooting a feature in the fall, I agreed to do anything I could to help. At that time, my only film experience was working on student films and my own small projects. I did have still photography experience, but working on a feature was going to be a completely new experience for me.
I got word the day I got back from a trip to New England that everyone was going to meet at Brian’s house for a production meeting. I arrived a little late due to a flat tire, but I made it. Once there, Brett and Brian pitched the whole story to the future crew. I was excited from the get go. At the end of the meeting, they told me I would be the first AC and that I would be working directly with Robb Hanks, the DP. I could not believe they gave me the first AC job — I knew right then I couldn’t screw it up. (I still can’t believe they gave me the AC job.)
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Within six days of the meeting, I was loading up equipment with Brett and Brian for the long drive out to Tuscon, Arizona. This was indeed a long drive since the truck I was driving was fully loaded with all the lighting equipment and the truck could only go about 55mph. The next day, I met the rest of the crew which included producers, location managers, actors, grips, and my boss…Robb Hanks. That night Robb and I devised a work flow and system of organization that would be perfected as the shoot went on. My personal responsibilities were charging batteries for all the camera equipment, dumping P2 cards (these were a dream come true. See earlier articles), cleaning lenses, changing lenses, helping with the lighting set-ups, moving equipment, and last, but not least, pulling focus.
Pulling focus on a feature film that used mostly shoulder mount camera work and natural lighting was fun and difficult at times — especially when we shot at night with the apeture wide open. Action scenes were challenging as well. I remember something Robb said to me early on in the shoot: "Stay sharp on the eyes." This was one thing I always tried to do — not only to keep Robb happy, but to keep my job as well.
Because we shot a majority of the action scenes in the first days of production, I began to master (although I’m still perfecting) the skill of pulling focus. In those first days we shot from the back of cars, on the freeway, running, and in lots of low-light material. It was a real demonstration of the "sink or swim principle" — in which swim was the only option. I learned to pull focus by noticing slight movements that indicated larger movements. For example, when a person is about to turn their head or start walking each person indicates the start of this movement by a slight turn of the shoulders or a shift in body weight. This helped me know when I needed to be ready to pull focus. Each person is different so this is why rehearsals are so important, but - this being an independent film — we didn’t have the luxury of many rehearsals…so we shot every take. One of my favorite shots in the film is a long 60fps rack-focus shot where J. (played by Brett Spackman) turns his head to talk to Steve. It may seem simple, but that was one of the first difficult shots we did and it was a big confidence builder for me.
What also helped in pulling focus was the fact that we had a small lens package (three Nikon 35mm lenses) that I became familiar with very quickly. As I became more accustomed to using each lens I could more easily determine the focus distance and the minimum focus distance. This helped during scenes that involved lots of action since we were running a shoulder mount camera. We were moving most of the time.
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Throughout the shoot I picked up from Robb how to run the camera as well as setup various lighting schemes. This came in handy later when I was needed to do some re-shoots. A month of principle photography along side Robb helped train me for when I ran camera with Brett and Brian in Tucson, San Diego, and Tijuana for some pick-ups. I remember shooting at the Tijuana/San Diego Border and in Tucson and really putting to good use the skills I learned during principle — skills like lighting and composition. I was really happy with the stuff I shot.
I can’t really put into words all the great things I learned on this film. For my first feature film experience I can’t thank the whole Coyote crew enough for the great experience I had. I also can’t thank them enough for taking a chance on me. And thanks again to Robb for teaching me how to shoot movies. This was an amazing experience indeed.
One Response to “First Feature for the First AC”
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Dan
Posted: Oct 29th, 2007 at 10:51 pm1Reply to this comment.One of my favorite shots in the film is a long 60fps rack-focus shot where J. (played by Brett Spackman) turns his head to talk to Steve. It may seem simple, but that was one of the first difficult shots we did and it was a big confidence builder for me.
This is really amazing because it’s scenes like these that you think are just shot easily and you never realize how much really goes into a quality film production. But I guess that’s what makes it a quality film.
