The Producer Is Pissed Off. I say screw 'em.

The Producer Is Pissed Off. I say screw 'em.

  • YES, you should have re-focused for the iPod before each take.

    Votes: 11 42.3%

  • NO, leave the focus on what's most important: The Shot.

    Votes: 10 38.5%

  • Hand me a beer and leave me alone.

    Votes: 7 26.9%
  • Total voters
    26
O

orangesaybananas

Active member
So the idea was to use a Video iPod as a "TimeCode Slate" for a music video and play the audio from the iPod into the sound system. The producer / editor is now pissed after reviewing the footage he says the time code is too small to see in about half the shots. He spent over 4 hours making the iPod Video TimeCode and putting it on his iPod and really wanted to do it this way. He is mad because I wasn't interested in shooting the iPod as a close up, then refocusing for the actual shot before each take (there was less than 8 seconds of "pre-roll" on the iPod before the song started). His idea was to focus for the iPod, then re-focus in less than 8 seconds for the actual shot, before the music rolled. Is this really a wise idea with a 35mm lens adapter? I think not. The real rub was that he insulted me by saying, "if you don't think you can do YOUR job (i.e. - pull my own damn focus on a 35mm job with a poo pooING iPod slate for poo pooS sake. then blah blah blah) implying I was unfit for this position. The fact of the matter is that I synced up all six angles in less than 20 minutes without the slate on my own edit, so now he feels intimidated too? He must really feel I wasn't responsive to HIS needs and insulted him. What do you think??
 
First voter. woohoo.
If he was inslutling me I might have said something like "Your using an ipod for a slate" and just left it at that.

//And possibly "...any beer left?"
 
Err, why use an Ipod in the first place? and isn't a real timecode slate much much bigger (i.e. much easier to focus on?)
 
Well, if you had agreed to use an ipod as a slate beforehand, you should have forseen the problem of refocusing and brought it up then, before the shoot. You can't expect the producer to forsee those kind of problems, so it's kind of on you. However, if all of the sudden on the day of the shoot he said, "Guess what, we're using an ipod as a slate!", then it's his fault for not informing you.
 
Batutta said:
Well, if you had agreed to use an ipod as a slate beforehand, you should have forseen the problem of refocusing and brought it up then, before the shoot. You can't expect the producer to forsee those kind of problems, so it's kind of on you. However, if all of the sudden on the day of the shoot he said, "Guess what, we're using an ipod as a slate!", then it's his fault for not informing you.
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Agreed. We talked about it like 4 months ago in pre production. Then again the night before the shoot. I offered to let him use my iPod Touch with a 2x big screen as the iPod. He declined. In the end, would a 4" screen have been much better than a 2" screen? Hard to say, but it wouldn't have hurt. The issue here is really should the cinematographer refocus a shot just seconds before shooting or leave it alone? I felt my highest priority was picture quality and focus, not his time code slate. But I'm probably wrong about this.
 
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The producer is your boss. You do what your boss wants done. It's the boss's fault if it all goes south. Try to do what he wants, if you can do it then you're both getting what you need. If you can't do it because it's not possible, you point that out to him -- but try first. He's the boss, he hired you to do a job, you should do the job.
 
Was he paying you? If so, he's the boss. If not, he had no right to say those things.

EDIT: Barry typed what I typed at the same time. weird.
 
kyle.presley said:
Was he paying you? If so, he's the boss. If not, he had no right to say those things.
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Yes. It was a paid shoot. About half as much as my normal rate for this type of service, but yes there was payment involved. What surprises me is my reaction to all of this. Normally, I am so chill. But on this production they (Producer friend of 6 years, director friend of 2 years) didn't even have the courtesy to include me in the location scout the week before, producer did not call rental house and lock in order we talked about, got too busy with work, told me the day before the shoot that I needed to pick up the rental order and buy expendables myself (on previous shoots, he did this) and the director has started color correcting without me, so maybe I am just miffed.

Barry Green said:
The producer is your boss. You do what your boss wants done. It's the boss's fault if it all goes south. Try to do what he wants, if you can do it then you're both getting what you need. If you can't do it because it's not possible, you point that out to him -- but try first. He's the boss, he hired you to do a job, you should do the job.
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Thanks Barry. That's EXACTLY the advice I wanted (erm, needed) to hear. I had a feeling I had the wrong attitude. As much as I HATE the idea of changing focus right before rolling, in this case it would have been better to follow his directions.
 
I agree with you that it sounds silly, and it sounds like it would very well possibly imperil the shot. But you have to at least try, and if (in the trying) it becomes obvious that what he's asking for is ruining his production, at least he gets to make the call to quit trying, so he can save some face and realize that you were a good soldier and he was making a bad call...
 
Some of this stuff is common sense. In the sense that if someone is paying you to do something, and you agree, then you do it. Giving your opinions along the way ofcourse if something does not seem right.

For me that's a given. My earlier comment still stands, assuming & understanding the aforementioned.

My niece is going through the same thing at work. And I explained the same thing to her. What I said in the first paragraph, and what Barry is saying in your case.
 
I agree with everyone's sentiments re: job responsibility but it sounds like your friends are taking advantage of you.

Cut rate, paying for your own expendables, no prep/location scout/color correction. They relegated you to "button pusher".

There were probably a few missteps on each side but it sounds like the director and producer created a slightly hostile work atmosphere for you.

Best to cash the check and move on.
 
The quality of people voting "YES" and the comments above confirm that I made a mistake. I respect several of the members of this forum who have responded (you know who you are). In retrospect, I should have been more willing to move the slate closer to the camera so it would be in focus. That is what the producer hired me to do and I did him wrong by not providing it to him. Any success I've ever had has been from providing solutions to people's needs. I really do see that now.

Thanks for all the responses...
 
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orangesaybananas said:
The quality of people voting "YES" and the comments above confirm that I made a mistake. I respect several of the members of this forum who have responded (you know who you are). In retrospect, I should have been more willing to move the slate closer to the camera so it would be in focus. That is what the producer hired me to do and I did him wrong by not providing it to him. Any success I've ever had has been from providing solutions to people's needs. I really do see that now.
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That is truly a erudite response to the situation and you should be commended for coming to it.

It would be very easy to just continue on with your rant but as Barry suggested and you recognized, the Producer is the boss.
 
thats what a follow focus is for. you mark your FF disc with correct focus for the shot, then your rollbakc, catch the preroll TC, then rack out . it takes 3 seconds.

What you should have done was make a VIDEO of the song, that just filled the whole screen with big timecode numbers, and had the audio track undr it. MAkes life easier in that circumstance. is this what you did?
 
orangesaybananas said:
The quality of people voting "YES" and the comments above confirm that I made a mistake. I respect several of the members of this forum who have responded (you know who you are). In retrospect, I should have been more willing to move the slate closer to the camera so it would be in focus. That is what the producer hired me to do and I did him wrong by not providing it to him. Any success I've ever had has been from providing solutions to people's needs. I really do see that now.

Thanks for all the responses...
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Well said! Though now you've got me wondering who the 'respected' members of the forum are. Since they 'know who [they] are', I guess that means I ain't one of 'em. :cry: :cheesy:
 
TimurCivan said:
thats what a follow focus is for. you mark your FF disc with correct focus for the shot, then your rollbakc, catch the preroll TC, then rack out . it takes 3 seconds.
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There are several reasons why I was uncomfortable with doing it that way, though. First, I had never used a 35mm adapter on a project before. The equipment has been trickling in for weeks, but I had just built the camera the day before the shoot. They knew this going into it. Every purchase I made went towards having the highest level of precision and focusing ability available in this price range. To this end, my kit includes a complete set of Zeiss ZF's (25, 35, 50, 85) with 0.8 Gears from Zacuto.com and a Chrosziel DV Studio Rig to ensure follow focusing with the least amount of play (still 1-2mm in the follow focus though). However, the first setup of the day was with a rented Nikon 18mm auto focus still lens of questionable mechanical quality. There was not enough time to allow for any tests with this particular lens. Even with a Chrosziel follow focus (which I own and was using at the time) I was not 100% confident that the marks on my follow focus would be accurate. So that's why I was resistant to the idea. Compounding this issue was that my camera (Canon XH-A1) does not allow me to "Zoom IN" on the shot using the "Focus Assist" feature once than the camera has started rolling. In retrospect, we should have done it anyway and I could have just zoomed in with the Canon's zoom lens to verify focus. But I didn't think of it at the time. So, Lesson learned.

TimurCivan said:
What you should have done was make a VIDEO of the song, that just filled the whole screen with big timecode numbers, and had the audio track undr it. MAkes life easier in that circumstance. is this what you did?
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Sorry if it wasn't clear before.. Yes, that's what we did.
 
That's who I'm referring to, whenever I say anything like that.

Something that does come up, altogether too frequently in television especially, is drawing producers who are more hung up on getting a thing done *their* way, than actually getting it done, at all.

After the last few years' worth (of ABC projects in particular), I've reached the conclusion that ultimately my responsibility is to the production company, not any individual producer with stoopid ideas to try out on company time. Which in practice means lip-service and the appearance of interest to the producer in question, with the proper solution quietly set up on the side and ready to roll when it finally becomes obvious to all that the producer's BS notions aren't going to cut it.
 
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