New Commercials for the UMC Children's Hospital

It has been a busy two months since we first conceptualized these spots in early March, but the first three commercials (of six total) are going out for broadcast today. I'm really happy with how these have come out, and I'm anxious to get the other three edited next week.

You wanna get nuts...let's get nuts

This will be quite a week. Today I'm trying to finish three content cuts of the commercials I'm scheduled to have out for broadcast this week. This morning was full of meetings and a quick interview shoot, and I've given myself an hour to complete each cut this afternoon. I'm also completing two other video projects this week in addition to editing the 90 second online videos that accompany each narrative commercial.

In short, this will be a busy week. But as I've always told anyone who will listen...in this job, even my most stressful days are still a blast. I love doing this.

Well, that's the end of my break. One more content cut to finish, then I'm done for the day.

Quick Letus repair in the field

Anatomy of a heart attack: This is not where a piece of a sclerotic plaque formation in one of the coronary arteries breaks off, flows downstream, and causes ischemic damage to the cardiac musculature. No, this is where you come back from your lunch break 10 minutes before your talent is scheduled to arrive, flip on your pre-set lighting, power up your camera, turn on your Letus 35mm adapter, look in your viewfinder, and find that the ground glass in your adapter is not spinning, and that you are looking at an unusable shot covered with horrible glass grain.

On first instinct, I pick up my phone and call Letus. Of course, I get a machine. I leave a message that I have an emergency...I am on set (hoping that sounds very official) and my Letus Ultimate is turning on but the glass is not spinning...click...or I guess it's "beep" now. So, now I have five minutes before my prima donna physician shows up with 20 minutes to spare me for the shots I need. So, it was time for surgery. I break out my allen wrench set, and crack open the Letus' chest.

Removing the four allen screws that secure the lens mount housing to the body of the Letus, I was able to remove the housing and expose the spinning (non-spinning) glass. I gave it a little push, and whala...it spun! Problem solved. Apparently the silicon band that attaches the drive wheel to the spinning glass has two small kinks, and when these stop in just the right spot, the motor does not have enough torque to spin.

With the glass now spinning, I was able to reassemble the Letus and be ready for our shot. So, when in doubt, don't be afraid of a little field surgery on your equipment while in the heat of battle.

Don't tell the police...I poisoned my lights

As any of you who have shot in a corporate or industrial setting can attest, as soon as you try to add light to any interior scene, overhead flourescents become the bane of your existence. Most standard flourescent bulbs have a green color cast that we don't see normally, but our good friend the CCD or CMOS picks it up quite nicely. You can color balance to flourescents, but as soon as you start adding tungsten or daylight lamps, you've got a manage a trois of pain on your hands.

The way I've usually handled this in the past, is to not handle it. Guiltily, I'd just light my subject, and if I had time, I'd add the same colored light (usually tungsten) to the background to try and drown out the flourescents. Sometimes this works, but usually I'm left with a background that has a slight green color cast.

The ways to fix the problem are pretty logical. Basically, unite your color casts...either gel all of your flourescents to match your lights, or vice versa. Depending on your location, it may be completely impractical to gel every overhead light to match your subject lighting, which brings us to the subject of "poisoning" your lights.

When I first heard this term on Creative Cow, I had to be the idiot in the forum who asked, "what's that?", but I got my answer. Whether you're on set or color correcting in post, if you want to remove a color cast, you remove the predominant color by adding its opposite color on the color wheel. If you look at the color wheel, green and magenta sit directly opposite. When dealing with flourescents and a green color cast, you either add a magenta gel (minus green gels) to the flourescent, or "poison" your lights with green (plus green gels).

For our shoot on Thursday, we shot in a hallway in pediatrics. I had neither enough gels, nor enough time, to gel all of the overheads, so I decided to finally experiment with poisoning my key light. Last year I bought a good assortment of large Lee gels in a roll-up pack from Film Tools that included minus and plus green gels in a variety of strengths (1/8, 1/4, 1/2, full). I lit our subject with my usual two layers of diffusion, and poisoned my Rifa 55 with a 1/8 plus green inside the softbox. We filled him with reflected light and used a Litepanels Micro with a full CTO gel as a kicker. For background lighting, I used a single Lowel Omni light for the screen-right wall and put two Tota lights 6' down on either side of the perpendicular hall in the distance. I white balanced to a combination of the key and overhead light; this gave my subject and foreground hallway a neutral color cast, and let the background and kicker go slightly warm (gold-red from the color of the ungelled tungsten lights). I've been using a similar combination in daylight settings by lighting my subject with soft daylight and using ungelled tungsten lights for warm accents. Sometimes the tungstens can go too warm, but I'm still playing with it.

Comment with your thoughts on this setup or your own experiences with mixed color temperatures...or blame me for wasting your time by forcing you to read an uber-boring blog about lighting. Thanks for reading, anyway.

That's a Wrap...

Well, this has been quite a week of shooting. Even with other projects and busy schedules most of the team has been able to help out during this week, but my constant crew through the whole shoot have been our intern and photographer Alexander Cobos and Linda Schilberg. Thanks, guys!

The above shots were from our last two days. On Thursday we did pickup shooting from our first scene on Monday, one physician interview from our second narrative spot that we shot last month, and officially finished shooting all of the first Children's Hospital general spot footage. We finally did some experimentation with key light color that I'd been meaning to do (discussed in an upcoming post) and had a bit of a technical heart attack (also in an upcoming post), but everything worked out.

Today we shot in a room in the Family Birth Center with a couple who had just welcomed their first baby to the world. Our little star for this shoot was one-day-old Gabriella Gutierrez. This family was extremely gracious in letting us come in and spend all morning with them. I let them know that we would keep the shots to a minimum with minimal lighting, but they were willing to do anything I asked. I got some great macro shots of Gabriella's hands/fingers/face with our 100mm Zeiss Macro. The family looked great, and it should make a nice bookend for the spot.

So that's it for this week's shoot. My planning was much more last minute than I usually like, but if that's the price for attending NAB, I'll pay it. More boring technical posts to come this weekend.

NICU Shoot and Telly Awards

A good day of shooting today, and an interesting area in which to shoot. The staff in the NICU care for some of our most delicate and vulnerable patients. The area is relatively small, with infants, equipment, and a large amount of staff all needing to move in and out while procedures are going on and rounds are taking place. It made for an interesting challenge to get the shots we needed with minimal lighting and grip, while trying not to get in the staff's way or impede care. We had some happy accidents and got some impromptu shots of the staff working with their patients.

We also got some great news at the office today. Our first two commercials that we released in January were selected for 2010 Telly Awards. Our UMC Team Spot 1 won a bronze Telly, and Team Spot 2 won a silver Telly (their highest award). The Telly Awards honor the very best local, regional, and cable television commercials and programs, as well as the finest video and film productions, and work created for the web. We're excited to receive this honor, and it feels good to have recognition outside of our little circle. We also have some non-broadcast pieces up for awards, so we'll see how those fare.

We'll be at it again tomorrow with some Children's Hospital signage shots and more scenes in the Emergency Center. More production shots to come.

UMC Children's Hospital Shoot - Day 1

Yesterday we shot our first scene for two of UMC's new commercials for the Children's Hospital. These are being produced along with four other spots set to air next month. Everything went well, but I forgot how tiring it can be to wrangle kids on a set (even when one is your own) with a minimal crew...especially when you're trying to direct and work the camera. All in all, everything came out well and I got the shots I was looking for, with one small issue.

Once again, as with every shoot, I'm either learning or relearning a valuable lesson. Yesterday's lesson: make sure to have a script supervisor on set...or at least keep a good checklist/shot list. I usually do this, but neglected to because it was a minimal amount of copy, and as a result I forgot to get our main talent (the kind and generous Hallie Graves from UMC's Child Life Specialist Department) to say her tagline for the end of the commercial. Luckily, this was a minimal lighting setup and today is just as hazy outside as it was yesterday. The lighting should be pretty identical, and I can just get her tag on a tight shot without the kids in the background. I'll get it today while I'm in the same area prepping for our shoot in the NICU.

While this is an easy fix, it could just have easily have been a nightmare. So, "Matt's Latest Cautionary Tale" is...make sure you have someone monitoring your script, or at least keep a dedicated checklist where you physically mark off each shot/line as you shoot. I know I won't be forgetting that for a while.

We're off this afternoon to get our tag from yesterday and do some shooting in the NICU.

NAB 2010 Wrapup

This was my fourth year at NAB, and I have to say that this has been the best year yet. For me it was two-fold: it was a great show with excellent classes from production/post-production gurus (such as Jeff Greenberg, Abba Shapiro, Robbie Carman), but it was also highly beneficial for where I currently am in my career. I was able to meet some of the guys from Abel Cine Tech, Kino Flo, and PortaJib/Losmandy that we bought gear from this year, and discuss some issues/questions about the equipment; I was able to fully test out all of the RED knowledge I crammed into my head in four days of reading, by attending multiple classes on RED workflow and production and attending RED Day Vegas last night; and I was able to talk and ask questions of pros and vendors on an industry level regarding subjects from cinematography to post-production. I'm leaving NAB this year excited about the new production and workflow techniques I've picked up, and I'm looking forward to the next step in my growth (i.e. the never ending process of learning and, to put it simply, RED).

I thought I'd run down a few of my favorite moments, classes, and general finds from the show:


RED Day Vegas 2010

This was definitely one of the big highlights of the show. RED fully unveiled EPIC, their 5K cinema camera, with production updates, new M-X reel footage, great presentations from Ted Schilowitz and Michael Cioni at LightIron, a live set with for new product demos, Scarlet in the flesh, and a raffle in which I won a portable 2TB RAID!
























NAB Post-Production World Classes

Once again, great classes on Final Cut, Color, After Effects, documentary script writing, music video production/post-production, VFX, Camera movement, and location scouting to name a few.

I was even able to contribute to one class. I explained to the editor leading the music video workflow class yesterday about using overcranked framerates with the newer Panasonic cameras. He had thought that the only cameras that could do true overcranked/slomo shots were film and the RED, and was surprised to hear about not only the Varicam's overcranking capabilities, but Panasonic's other pro/prosumer models, the HPX170 and 300(370).


Panascout

If you're like me, you're constantly using your iPhone for location scouting. It's great...you can take perspective shots for general camera placement and even take video and record audio for location notes and possible camera movements. I didn't think that there was a way to make this much better, but leave it to the guys at Panavision to do just that.

Panascout is an iPhone app that still leverages the iPhone's ability to take photos and video, but gives you GPS coordinates of your location, your current heading, sunrise/sunset times, choice of aspect ratio, and an extremely robust organization system for recording notes, audio, video, and location stills. You can also easily share entire batches of your scouting shots via email with producers/clients. Well worth $10 at the app store.



The LAFCPUG Supermeet

Every year, the Los Angeles Final Cut Pro User Group puts on the Supermeet. About 1500 FCP users attend to see presentations from Apple, Adobe, etc, in addition to vendors and another great raffle. Didn't win anything here, but met and talked with lots of guys from the industry. I even got to meet and thank Noah Kadner, who wrote the RED book that I read while on the way up to NAB.


The Venetian

It's always interesting to stay in the different hotels in Vegas, but the Venetian blew me away. The room was a split-level suite with three flat screens...yes, there was one in the bathroom, and I'm proud to say I watched Shrek 2 while I showered one day. The gym was huge and you can see the shot of the lobby. Good food too. Breakfast at Bouchon was a favorite.

Unless they will be offering the same rates next year, I might not get to stay here again, but it was something else. Hands down, the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in. The only thing that could have made it better would be Robin being with me next time.


3D

OK, I'll be honest. When I first heard last year that 3D was going to be all the rage in 2010 production, I did a big inner eye roll and sigh. Not because I thought people were wrong, but because I remembered 3D being annoying. There was never a 3D experience, beginning with Jaws 3D (yes, I remember this as it was my first movie theater experience ever) and ending with probably something I saw at Disney World, left my head dizzy and every muscle above my eyebrows aching. Why would anyone want to bring back 3D?

Well, having not yet seen any feature in 3D, I thought I'd at least give it a try at Panasonic's booth/estate this year. Now I get it. This is not your granddad's/older uncle's 3D. It's crystal clear, high resolution, and fascinating to watch. I looked like an idiot with my polarizing glasses, swaying from side-to-side in front of one of their 3D screens.

Then I walked over to Panasonic's 3D booth where they were demonstrating the Final Cut edit workflow with their new 3D camera, the AG-3DA1. I spent a while talking with Alex from Dashwood Cinema Solutions, and after our conversation, I feel like I could shoot and edit a 3D project if a client asked for it. If you have rig/camera that's standardized (like the AG-3DA1), then it's really a matter of following a few rules during shooting, getting the right plug-ins, and having a 3D screen for monitoring. The rest is pretty much the same. I'm sure I'd be doing quite a bit of emailing with Dashwood if I did get a 3D job, but that's the great thing about networking at NAB...if you don't know how to do it, you find someone who does, pick their brain, and contact them when you need to know more.


Well, there was a lot more, but I think I've written enough for now. I'm in Albuquerque, waiting to get on my flight to Lubbock, and I can't wait to get home.

Maybe I'm Finally Growing...

No, I haven't hit that 33 year growth spurt...finally breaking through to a full 5'8"...but I can dream.

I took some great classes today, and while I was enjoying some information on visual effects compositing that was over my head, I realized something. To explain this, let me step back a bit...

I've had no formal training in video production. What I'm doing now is by the grace of God, and years of playing with video, then getting more serious and reading/watching everything I could. If I needed to learn how to shoot, I read about it and just did it. If I needed to learn a new edit system or piece of software, I read about it and just did it. If I needed to learn a new camera...you get the idea. I've gone to conferences, attended all of the classes I could, bugged people who know more than me (which is just about everyone) and learned more from them. Essentially, if I know it now, it's because I went out to find it.

This is not to say I'm boasting about being a self-made video guy...quite the opposite. This background has ingrained a significant inferiority complex and a never-dying sense of doubt in my own abilities. Granted this has ebbed over the years, but I can guarantee you that it's still quite healthy and formidable. No matter how many successful shoots/projects or happy clients I have, I seem to have it in my head that I'm going to come up against a situation that I can't handle. Of course, here's where the irony police pull up with sirens blaring and say, "Hey Matt, didn't you just start this by saying that you started from knowing nothing and just learned what you needed to when a new situation presented itself?". Yes, I'm aware...I'm just letting you inside a bit of my mania. Welcome to Robin's world.

If you're still reading this, you're probably wondering when I'll get back to what I started writing about...here it is.

This morning I was sitting in a class on VFX by a great instructor, Alex Lindsay. I had walked out of two other courses, and while this course was mainly aimed at 3D modeling and compositing pros, I was getting some insights into how to set up and prepare shots that I might want to hand off for VFX.

About halfway through this course, I realized that I had attended it last year, and that's when it hit me. I remembered the feeling I had last year as I was listening to the same information. In short, I was sick to my stomach. I thought, "I don't understand any of this. Well, I better start listening to what programs they're talking about so I can start learning them. I don't think I really want to be a 3D modeler or compositor, but I might have to use that in a shot one day. Man, just when I think I'm starting to move ahead in one skill set, they throw another one in front of me! I don't know anything...".

I realized that just in the past year, I've started to hone-in on what I really like doing. I love conceptualizing, visualizing, lighting, shooting, and editing. It thrills me when I take a shot or commercial that I've visualized in a certain way and make it come to life just like I pictured...doesn't happen all of the time, but it's nice when it does. Some might say that this doesn't sound like honing-in, but most folks in this industry are Jacks and Jills of all trades, and I still really like all of those trades (it keeps my ADD in check).

That being said, it's not just honing-in on what I like to do, but I've finally realized that I DON'T HAVE TO DO IT ALL. In fact, the end product is usually better when I'm part of a TEAM...and I enjoy the project a lot more, as well. I don't want to do 3D modeling or digital matte painting, and now I can relax in that knowledge and know that I can partner with other professionals to make the best product possible. Now I take information that is over my head and I try to see where my skill set and interests dove tail.

In short (haha), I think I'm growing in this profession, and bit by bit, I'm starting to shed some of that doubt and fear. Thanks to great books, courses, websites, mentors, instructors, friends, and my biggest cheerleader, Robin (love you, baby).

First Day of Classes at NAB

Just finished my first day of classes at NAB 2010.

My first one was the best. This makes the third consecutive class that I've taken on Apple Color, and I finally feel good about roundtripping from Final Cut and really using the primary and secondary rooms. Great class from Robbie Carman.

I'm off to workout, grab some dinner, read about RED, and plan the shot list and shooting schedule for UMC's next commercial shoot.

More tomorrow.

NAB 2010

I'm currently in Las Vegas for NAB 2010. Other than reading and on-the-job learning, this is my big educational event of each year. The convention floor is a sight to behold, but I really come for the five days of classes ranging from everything from lighting to legal issues. Classes start today, and I'm looking forward to the new information I'll bring home.

I'm also looking forward RED's RED Day coming up this Wednesday. I have my eye set on RED as my next camera platform and I'm currently devouring Noah Kadner's definitive book on the RED One. Should be a big day with lots of surprises from the mad scientists at RED. I should write RED one more time...RED.

More to come from NAB.

Getting Started

I've been doing video production, of one kind or another, since I was 11.  It has always been a passion and joy of mine, and for a while it was only a hobby.

In 2002, when my son was born, I started producing wedding and corporate videos "professionally", which basically meant that I was at least getting paid for my efforts.

I continued working as a Physical Therapist at University Medical Center until 2007, when the hospital offered me a media director position.  In one year, this position turned into exclusive internal and broadcast production for UMC's newly created in-house marketing department.

Now, I have my dream job.  Working with medical professionals and other staff members to produce educational and often humorous internal video, while being in charge of conceptualizing, writing, lighting, shooting, and editing our broadcast commercial campaigns along with our incredible marketing team.

I'm always kicking myself for my lack of initiative in documenting my productions for both the hospital and my side business, so I figured it was time to start a blog.

I'm starting this as my own record of where I've been and where I'm going in this profession, as I continue to learn and grow...which happens every single day.