Just did a HS play gig for free, Fog machine woes

[robertwerden]

So I did it for my kids drama teacher, so she could let the kids watch it later as a tool to evaluate their performance.

I set up in the back of the lunch room and basically put the camera on auto and let it roll. Figured it was not going to be for money and only used for them internally, so no need to get fancy with pans and zooms and manual focus.

Boy was I wrong. The play was about an airplane crash, and through out the whole play they were supposed to be in scottland and at the crash site. So I start rolling and the lights are real low to simulate darkness, then the fog machine starts blowing tons of fog onto the stage.

I look at the LCD to see how the fog looks and boom, the auto focus starts going crazy. The fog which is now infront of the actors is throwing the focus off. So I now jump up in a panic and click to manual as quite as possible and get the manual focus going.

So now what was supposed to be a free let it roll on auto gig, is now 41 min of constant focusing. What a nightmare.
But other than the first auto focus freak out, it came out ok.

 

[Jarek Zabczynski]

Never use autofocus...

 

[TedRR]

Goes to show, those free gigs can cause the most problems!
I know, I've done plenty for my kids in the day and a few for family and friends that turned out to be more work than a paid gig.

I did a free wedding for a friend including hours of editing. After they got back from the honeymoon the wife wanted all sorts of additional editing including versions with all the footage from other cameras that were rolling.
I said no! rogar-Love(DBG):

 

[twocik23]

Never use autofocus...


He's right, for some reason it's really bad on this camera.

 

[ullanta]

Hmmm... 41 minutes of focusing?

The beauty of a 1/3" CCD camera is that, for situations like these (theatrical productions), if you're at the back of the seating space, usually you can manual focus on the center of the stage and pretty much be in focus for everything without adjustment, especially if you're just leaving it in a steady wide shot. Certainly works for me in most cases...

 

[Noel Evans]

Never do free gigs.

 

[Nexis]

No good deed goes unpunished.

 

[Jokerswild]

I guess we all need to give back sometimes. Bravo for you. Now for the folks that said "Never Autofocus" I just did a factory shoot where I was flying in and out of the scene with my jib crane. There is no way on earth I could have done those particular scenes on manual focus. Moving in from close to further away, all the time flying the camera higher and higher. Manual focus does not work in some situations.