Hi there,
I'm not sure if this is the right place to post...
As a little experienced film maker who has nevertheless done a 52' documentary 8 years ago, studied - a lot- theory of cinema, have been assistant on a handfull of shootings, and as a Dvxuser reader enthusiast, I 'm hoping to find good advices here for the shooting of a spot on the 13th december. The spot is for an association with little money. I accepted to do it for a minimal fee looking for the oportunity to show my work. That's why I did go ahead of the project and proposed shooting the material of three spots on this shooting day, firstly because the original idea of the guy from the association is very simple and rapid to shoot. Let me explain the ideas. The 3 spots's purposes are to convince people of Catalanya (here in Spain) to go in Bruxelles ( headquarters of the UE) to revendicate for their rights of independence. This is the quick way to explain it, I don't have time to enter into the specifics of the situation here...
So the original idea is: Voice over on black screen " Can you imagine 10.000 catalans in Bruxelles ?" A first guy appears, a wellknown actor here, saying " one". Then a second person succeeds : "two". The first ten persons to appear are wellknown persons. On the same screen as the persons, numbers in red appears on the bottom right. All the intervenants are cut mi-torso. Then the whole movement accelerate itself, faces are succeding very rapidly, voices are not understandable any more, and then we reach "10.000". Then we cut to a title : 10.000 Catalans in Bruxelles the 03.07.09. Will you be there ?" ( I've just added this "will you be there ?", originaly there is nothing). Then, as a coda, a little girl in front of the camera say : "come !". But I've retain this little girl for the second idea.
The second idea is a variation on the original. So : Written on the screen, with a little music, like a riddle : "Do you know how much people speaks catalan in Bruxelles ?". Appears the first guy. He begins to explain, a little pedantic and with force gestures , but then the screen divides itself in two. The first guy does not KNOW that but he can FEEL something weird happening, like he's not alone anymore, looking a little toward his left. The new person explains in his/her way the same things as the first but then the screen divides itself in four. Same game as before, everyone is looking around a little. With the sound we can isolate one person or another when we feel the need for it. I predict a lot of work with the audio mix in post... Of course this goes on and on. Sometimes guys are doing absurd things like put an old vinyl on, using a megaphone, doing bubles with soap etc. In the end it's just a big clamour, everyone being in his tiny space of screen, and then sound stops.
The image follows and fades. We're back to the first guy interviewed. He says, showing the air around : "Did... Did you hear that ?". Reverse shot on the crew, the sound ingenior is taking off his headphones from one ear : with gestures they signals that no, they didn't hear anything. Back to the guy, looking around naïvely, and then suspiscious toward the camera : " Hmm, well...". Black screen. Title : "On the 7th of march 2009, 10.000 catalans in Bruxelles, (other screen) You're gonna hear about it !"
Then coda with a little girl who can barely reach the height of the camera, murmuring to the audience, her hands around her lips : "Come !". Then she puts her index on her lips and does : "Shush !"... Fades to black.
Third idea. This one is more distant from the original, but retains the concept of a fixed camera ( but with different lenses - or zooming positions), and I think it's possible to shoot it with approximately the same lighting and everything as the first and second spot. So here it goes :
Title : " The association "10.000 catalans in Bruxelles" presents ,,," Other title, flashing on and off : " Fiction" Then : " If you don't go to the mountain..."
A guy, cut mi-torso. He 's going to say something but then a hand enters the shot from the left, tapping him lightly on the shoulder with a finger. The guy turn his head, then the hand gives him the end of a rope. Surprised, and perhaps apologising with a gesture to the camera, he's beginning to pull on the rope. The whole spot is thought with the idea of jump cuts. So jump cut to the guy plus 2 others, medium-wide shot, pulling the rope, very tensed. Then close up on a guy visibly suffering from the effort. Then wide shot with 7 persons pulling in a very anarchic manner, the first guy only conducting with the hands. Etc.
In the end, as they definitely can't pull "the thing", they're murmuring to each others ears and seems to agree on something. They're leaving the frame on the right for 3 sec. then they're coming back, are crossing the whole frame with a sort of big blue flag on their shoulders. Off frame for 3 sec on the left, and then they reappears, joyfull, congratuling each others, hugging, kissing, etc. They then leave on the right of the frame. Then the camera pans to the left, revealing a donkey in front of the European Union flag ( stars in circle - the donkey appears in the center- on a blue background). The donkey is the symbol of Catalans people, btw...
Of course we will not use a real donkey, but a cartoonish one made in post from a photo, with a rope pending around his neck. Maybe he makes a noise here. Titles ( end of the sentence) : " If you don't go to the mountain... Then the mounain will come to you". The title " End of fiction" is flashing again and a " NOT" appears in the middle of the previous sentence : " ...Then the mountain will NOT come to you !". Titles : 10.000 catalans on the 03.07.09, we'll need to go there !!" . End, or maybe as a coda a shot of the donkey doing a sound.
Ok. Woooo. Know I wonder who will read this... And this was only to explain the ideas ! Know I'm going to list what are my main concerns, but perhaps you'll find more !
- My DP left me, BUT I have a friend who will take care of the lighting. So now I need a cameraman ( or a DP), available on the 13th in the Barcelona area.
- The project is for local tvs an youtube mainly, perhaps bigger tvs but not sure. Here tv is still 4/3. But I know youtube just switched to 16/9. I have a dvx100a and a canon hv20 with a sgpro rev3 on it. I'm not sure about the camera I have to shoot with. I'm also thinking about borrowing or renting another cam ( like z1 or or pd150...) Would it be better to shoot dvcam or hdcam ( as oposed to mini dv or hdv) ?
- My sound guy is a friend working in the sound area but he's not a sound ingenior specificaly. I think he can do it, but I'm still a little worried. We're shooting in a local with a lot of reverberation and a huge sound of heating that most probably we will have to shut down. There will be a lot of people around. I own a tascam hdp2, a boom, a blimp, and four mics : two AKG cK91, one ck93, and one Audio technica stereo shotgun mic : AT815st. My friend for the sound is saying to me that a shotgun mic is what we need for the situation, and, although I don't know much about sound, I'm almost sure that I've read entire threads here on sound saying that these kind of mics should not be utilised in interior because of reverberation. Basicaly what I've read is, in most semi-pro situation type like this indoor, the AKG ck93 is the mic to go.
Any help about this would be greatly apreciated !
- About the planning and timing. I'm thinking around 50-60 persons could be filmed from 9h in the morning to 15-16h in the afternoon. . It's about 8 persons an hour, plus little pauses. 7 to 8 " per person. We have to shoot each time :
*10 sec with the person doing nothing, just looking at the camera, and saying a number ( 1 to 15 and then it doesn't has a lot of importance)
* 1'20", with the person speaking, answering basicaly to the question : " how many people are speaking catalan in Bruxelles ?" If the person runs out of ideas, we will prepare some big speech written they will be able to read ( different ones). Sometimes it will be a little different, the person doing "something totally different" as said the Monthy Python... Bubles with soap, listening to a vinyl etc. So I'll need more time to explain. Of course there will be little sheets of papper for every participant explaining evrything and what they're supposed to do, in order to be able to go quicker. Did I mentioned that my spanish is average to say the most and my catalan almost inexistent ? So I asked for someone to translate my words from english or french to catalan... This is not the simpliest but I think this is the most secure...
Then from 16h30 to 22h-22h30 : shooting of the third spot with about 15 persons.
What do you think of this schedule ? ( I forgot to say that the lights for the morning will be positionned -as the camera and everything- the day before the shooting).
- The main guy from the 2nd and third spot may be a well known actor here and I have no idea about his schedual. I'm trying to know this right now but I know nothing for sure. If he can't do it on the 13th, do you think I should reschedual for another day ?
- I have to find a lot of accessories. The main one would be a big rope. I'm not sure also as to how it will hold. For the moment I'm thinking 4 or 5 strong men... But perhaps if there's a possibility of fixing the rope on a big weight... i really have no idea...
- Ok. I din't speak about the background. We will probably shoot this on a cyclorama. I think it's 2,7 meters x 10 ( or more, doesn't matter for me) . My question is : 2.7 meters, isn't it going to be too little for my large shots of 7 or 8 people pulling the rope in scenario nº3 ? Otherwise I can count on a bigger black background, but in black I don't see it this well. I thought about green screen but an editor friend of mine told me it's not necessary to complicate this shooting... I think I agree with him ! On the same flow of ideas, I'm not sure about the background when the cam pans to the donkey...
- Also, is there anything I should be aware of in terms of elctricity, power, etc. ? i think my friend will take care of that anyway but... just to check things out.
- As I said I'm in the possession of a mini35 sgpro rev3, with the following lenses : 20mm sigma 1.8, 35mm leica 2.0 ( or more), 50 mm nikon 1.8, 85mm Nikon 1.8. What do you think about the use of the mini35 on this shooting ?
Ok, I got a little carried away there ! Anyway this is good work for me to try to remember everything like this. Perhaps for more specific informations I should copy-paste parts of this in dedicated sections of the forum. I'm not so sure as to where I should post this one though...
I'll try some place, hoping that a modo will change it if it's not the right one.
Thanks a bunch if you've read all that, and even if you've not !
Any expertise welcome.
Bye !:cheesy:
I'm not sure if this is the right place to post...
As a little experienced film maker who has nevertheless done a 52' documentary 8 years ago, studied - a lot- theory of cinema, have been assistant on a handfull of shootings, and as a Dvxuser reader enthusiast, I 'm hoping to find good advices here for the shooting of a spot on the 13th december. The spot is for an association with little money. I accepted to do it for a minimal fee looking for the oportunity to show my work. That's why I did go ahead of the project and proposed shooting the material of three spots on this shooting day, firstly because the original idea of the guy from the association is very simple and rapid to shoot. Let me explain the ideas. The 3 spots's purposes are to convince people of Catalanya (here in Spain) to go in Bruxelles ( headquarters of the UE) to revendicate for their rights of independence. This is the quick way to explain it, I don't have time to enter into the specifics of the situation here...
So the original idea is: Voice over on black screen " Can you imagine 10.000 catalans in Bruxelles ?" A first guy appears, a wellknown actor here, saying " one". Then a second person succeeds : "two". The first ten persons to appear are wellknown persons. On the same screen as the persons, numbers in red appears on the bottom right. All the intervenants are cut mi-torso. Then the whole movement accelerate itself, faces are succeding very rapidly, voices are not understandable any more, and then we reach "10.000". Then we cut to a title : 10.000 Catalans in Bruxelles the 03.07.09. Will you be there ?" ( I've just added this "will you be there ?", originaly there is nothing). Then, as a coda, a little girl in front of the camera say : "come !". But I've retain this little girl for the second idea.
The second idea is a variation on the original. So : Written on the screen, with a little music, like a riddle : "Do you know how much people speaks catalan in Bruxelles ?". Appears the first guy. He begins to explain, a little pedantic and with force gestures , but then the screen divides itself in two. The first guy does not KNOW that but he can FEEL something weird happening, like he's not alone anymore, looking a little toward his left. The new person explains in his/her way the same things as the first but then the screen divides itself in four. Same game as before, everyone is looking around a little. With the sound we can isolate one person or another when we feel the need for it. I predict a lot of work with the audio mix in post... Of course this goes on and on. Sometimes guys are doing absurd things like put an old vinyl on, using a megaphone, doing bubles with soap etc. In the end it's just a big clamour, everyone being in his tiny space of screen, and then sound stops.
The image follows and fades. We're back to the first guy interviewed. He says, showing the air around : "Did... Did you hear that ?". Reverse shot on the crew, the sound ingenior is taking off his headphones from one ear : with gestures they signals that no, they didn't hear anything. Back to the guy, looking around naïvely, and then suspiscious toward the camera : " Hmm, well...". Black screen. Title : "On the 7th of march 2009, 10.000 catalans in Bruxelles, (other screen) You're gonna hear about it !"
Then coda with a little girl who can barely reach the height of the camera, murmuring to the audience, her hands around her lips : "Come !". Then she puts her index on her lips and does : "Shush !"... Fades to black.
Third idea. This one is more distant from the original, but retains the concept of a fixed camera ( but with different lenses - or zooming positions), and I think it's possible to shoot it with approximately the same lighting and everything as the first and second spot. So here it goes :
Title : " The association "10.000 catalans in Bruxelles" presents ,,," Other title, flashing on and off : " Fiction" Then : " If you don't go to the mountain..."
A guy, cut mi-torso. He 's going to say something but then a hand enters the shot from the left, tapping him lightly on the shoulder with a finger. The guy turn his head, then the hand gives him the end of a rope. Surprised, and perhaps apologising with a gesture to the camera, he's beginning to pull on the rope. The whole spot is thought with the idea of jump cuts. So jump cut to the guy plus 2 others, medium-wide shot, pulling the rope, very tensed. Then close up on a guy visibly suffering from the effort. Then wide shot with 7 persons pulling in a very anarchic manner, the first guy only conducting with the hands. Etc.
In the end, as they definitely can't pull "the thing", they're murmuring to each others ears and seems to agree on something. They're leaving the frame on the right for 3 sec. then they're coming back, are crossing the whole frame with a sort of big blue flag on their shoulders. Off frame for 3 sec on the left, and then they reappears, joyfull, congratuling each others, hugging, kissing, etc. They then leave on the right of the frame. Then the camera pans to the left, revealing a donkey in front of the European Union flag ( stars in circle - the donkey appears in the center- on a blue background). The donkey is the symbol of Catalans people, btw...
Of course we will not use a real donkey, but a cartoonish one made in post from a photo, with a rope pending around his neck. Maybe he makes a noise here. Titles ( end of the sentence) : " If you don't go to the mountain... Then the mounain will come to you". The title " End of fiction" is flashing again and a " NOT" appears in the middle of the previous sentence : " ...Then the mountain will NOT come to you !". Titles : 10.000 catalans on the 03.07.09, we'll need to go there !!" . End, or maybe as a coda a shot of the donkey doing a sound.
Ok. Woooo. Know I wonder who will read this... And this was only to explain the ideas ! Know I'm going to list what are my main concerns, but perhaps you'll find more !
- My DP left me, BUT I have a friend who will take care of the lighting. So now I need a cameraman ( or a DP), available on the 13th in the Barcelona area.
- The project is for local tvs an youtube mainly, perhaps bigger tvs but not sure. Here tv is still 4/3. But I know youtube just switched to 16/9. I have a dvx100a and a canon hv20 with a sgpro rev3 on it. I'm not sure about the camera I have to shoot with. I'm also thinking about borrowing or renting another cam ( like z1 or or pd150...) Would it be better to shoot dvcam or hdcam ( as oposed to mini dv or hdv) ?
- My sound guy is a friend working in the sound area but he's not a sound ingenior specificaly. I think he can do it, but I'm still a little worried. We're shooting in a local with a lot of reverberation and a huge sound of heating that most probably we will have to shut down. There will be a lot of people around. I own a tascam hdp2, a boom, a blimp, and four mics : two AKG cK91, one ck93, and one Audio technica stereo shotgun mic : AT815st. My friend for the sound is saying to me that a shotgun mic is what we need for the situation, and, although I don't know much about sound, I'm almost sure that I've read entire threads here on sound saying that these kind of mics should not be utilised in interior because of reverberation. Basicaly what I've read is, in most semi-pro situation type like this indoor, the AKG ck93 is the mic to go.
Any help about this would be greatly apreciated !
- About the planning and timing. I'm thinking around 50-60 persons could be filmed from 9h in the morning to 15-16h in the afternoon. . It's about 8 persons an hour, plus little pauses. 7 to 8 " per person. We have to shoot each time :
*10 sec with the person doing nothing, just looking at the camera, and saying a number ( 1 to 15 and then it doesn't has a lot of importance)
* 1'20", with the person speaking, answering basicaly to the question : " how many people are speaking catalan in Bruxelles ?" If the person runs out of ideas, we will prepare some big speech written they will be able to read ( different ones). Sometimes it will be a little different, the person doing "something totally different" as said the Monthy Python... Bubles with soap, listening to a vinyl etc. So I'll need more time to explain. Of course there will be little sheets of papper for every participant explaining evrything and what they're supposed to do, in order to be able to go quicker. Did I mentioned that my spanish is average to say the most and my catalan almost inexistent ? So I asked for someone to translate my words from english or french to catalan... This is not the simpliest but I think this is the most secure...
Then from 16h30 to 22h-22h30 : shooting of the third spot with about 15 persons.
What do you think of this schedule ? ( I forgot to say that the lights for the morning will be positionned -as the camera and everything- the day before the shooting).
- The main guy from the 2nd and third spot may be a well known actor here and I have no idea about his schedual. I'm trying to know this right now but I know nothing for sure. If he can't do it on the 13th, do you think I should reschedual for another day ?
- I have to find a lot of accessories. The main one would be a big rope. I'm not sure also as to how it will hold. For the moment I'm thinking 4 or 5 strong men... But perhaps if there's a possibility of fixing the rope on a big weight... i really have no idea...
- Ok. I din't speak about the background. We will probably shoot this on a cyclorama. I think it's 2,7 meters x 10 ( or more, doesn't matter for me) . My question is : 2.7 meters, isn't it going to be too little for my large shots of 7 or 8 people pulling the rope in scenario nº3 ? Otherwise I can count on a bigger black background, but in black I don't see it this well. I thought about green screen but an editor friend of mine told me it's not necessary to complicate this shooting... I think I agree with him ! On the same flow of ideas, I'm not sure about the background when the cam pans to the donkey...
- Also, is there anything I should be aware of in terms of elctricity, power, etc. ? i think my friend will take care of that anyway but... just to check things out.
- As I said I'm in the possession of a mini35 sgpro rev3, with the following lenses : 20mm sigma 1.8, 35mm leica 2.0 ( or more), 50 mm nikon 1.8, 85mm Nikon 1.8. What do you think about the use of the mini35 on this shooting ?
Ok, I got a little carried away there ! Anyway this is good work for me to try to remember everything like this. Perhaps for more specific informations I should copy-paste parts of this in dedicated sections of the forum. I'm not so sure as to where I should post this one though...
I'll try some place, hoping that a modo will change it if it's not the right one.
Thanks a bunch if you've read all that, and even if you've not !
Any expertise welcome.
Bye !:cheesy:
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