Elena Goddard - "Energy"

"Hello again. The song we've already done a video to, has another part to it - the non-ballad version, that will be released back to back. If you're around in the next month or so, I'd love to shoot something for this with a very dark dramatic theme (opposite of our ballady beach shoot)." - Elena Goddard 8/20/2019

The fact that these things ever even see the light of day still amazes me. I know I'd read someone else mention something similar about putting out personal work, but good lord the time, effort, and resources going into this kind of nonsense is mind-blowing. This is the third music video I've done with [Elena Goddard][1] now and by far my favorite, but unquestionably the most difficult one to pull off. Literally to the VERY last minute before she had her YouTube channel premiere we were running into problems.

WRITTEN & PERFORMED BY: Elena Goddard
DIRECTOR/DP/EDIT: me
CAMERA ASSISTANT: Kyle Vines
MAKEOUT BUDDY: Elias Abraham
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT: Lillian Maslen

Originally we'd talked about shooting something much more simple in a graffitied bathroom we'd found in a bar on our side of Brooklyn. It'd probably have been easier to go in that direction, but nooooo... I figured we should go for something more.

Her song is about loving someone but knowing the time wasn't right and that she'd need to let them go. I had her find a makeout buddy and figured we could film with the two of them a bit, get some singles of her in the places they used to frequent, and then land some takes of her performing the song. That was the plan at least. Here's the lookbook/treatment if you're up to check it out.

The first reference Elena sent over was the Break My Broken Heart video by Winona Oak and she liked the idea of colored lighting. I knew we'd be short on time, crew, and we'd not have access to power at our locations, so for sure we'd need battery-powered lights. This past year I've had a few chances to work with the Astera Titans and knew they'd work for the colors we'd want plus they're battery-powered.

Elena isn't signed to a label so she's footing the bill for these projects. We had my camera and lens package and a $400 budget. I rented a car that doubled as our picture car and a means to get gear around, two 4' Astera Titans and some misc. grip from Lightbulb Grip & Electric, plus a couple of Gold Mount batteries and a Smoque filter from a buddy of mine named Dave Adams. I was also able to snag Kyle Vines again to AC on the project at a crazy discounted rate. I swear one day I'll be able to have him pull focus so I don't embarrass myself with soft footage making the edit.

Originally we'd talked about shooting something much more simple in a graffitied bathroom we'd found in a bar on our side of Brooklyn. It'd probably have been easier to go in that direction, but nooooo... I figured we should go for something more.

Her song is about loving someone but knowing the time wasn't right and that she'd need to let them go. I had her find a makeout buddy and figured we could film with the two of them a bit, get some singles of her in the places they used to frequent, and then land some takes of her performing the song. That was the plan at least. Here's the lookbook/treatment if you're up to check it out.

The first reference Elena sent over was the Break My Broken Heart video by Winona Oak and she liked the idea of colored lighting. I knew we'd be short on time, crew, and we'd not have access to power at our locations, so for sure we'd need battery-powered lights. This past year I've had a few chances to work with the Astera Titans and knew they'd work for the colors we'd want plus they're battery-powered.

Elena isn't signed to a label so she's footing the bill for these projects. We had my camera and lens package and a $400 budget. I rented a car that'd double as our picture car and a means to get gear around, two 4' Astera Titan LED tubes and some misc. grip from Lightbulb Grip & Electric, plus a couple of Gold Mount batteries and a Smoque filter from a buddy of mine named Dave Adams. I was also able to snag Kyle Vines again to AC on the project at a crazy discounted rate. I swear one day I'll be able to have him pull focus so I don't embarrass myself with soft footage making the edit.

There were a few happy accidents too. By far my favorite shot is Elena singing in the backseat of the car. I'd picked the spot in advance knowing the existing lighting would get us pretty far. I'd just need to add the red accent on camera right and augment the levels coming in on camera left. We were shooting near the base of an above-ground section of the subway and during our first take we had a train come by. The interior lights of the train made some great-looking reflections on the car windows. We also lucked out with some cars driving by during one of the make-out shots and a couple of her performance takes near the wall. Honestly, we didn't have the resources to add much intentional motion to our footage so the happy accidents adding some subtle on-screen movement were by all means welcomed.

One Year Later

Last year around this time a goal of mine was to write a weekly blog post. It's not like I had something to say, but more the idea of setting up false deadlines each week forcing myself into making stuff. It's been a full year now and thankfully I've stuck to the plan – for the most part.

2018 had me shooting some of my favorite images and pushing myself with personal work, but good grief it was f**king tough personally and professionally. Uprooting and moving to New York City is unquestionably the hardest thing I've ever done. No amount of planning and prep would've been enough but we followed through and did the thing. We're all in New York now and floored at the possibilities ahead. Still, I'm not sleeping well considering all the unknowns.

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A sickly and slightly overweight version of me has followed me around the last year or so whispering "Hey dummy, how are you going to pay for all this?" He's stinking up and stretching out my clothes while also shooting footage with my name on it that's just bad enough for people to not hire me again. On top of that I've somehow started following this waste of time – and his friends – on Instagram and can't look away. I'm constantly reminded that he's on much better projects than I am and people are lining up to work with this turd fest only to have him flake out for another project in some other exotic location. I'm not too upset with his success though – he's still sick and overweight plus his footage is out of focus and not framed well. Oh, and all his stuff looks like everyone else's.

By no means am I the day to this dumbass's night: I'm not the hero my dog thinks I am, I for sure need to be running more, and good grief I'm ready to be spending more time on ideas rather than trying to "move to New York City." I've mentioned it before, but I met with a director not long ago who asked me something along the lines of "What are your goals? What do you want to do?" I just remember the ocean of sheer panic I fell into while trying to even mumble something intelligent. Even my desk stapler would've known I was failing at being a person at that moment.

"Screw you stapler. What have you done with your life?" - Me

I'm a fan of routines and the false deadline of a weekly blog post has been good for me; it'll not see the chopping block anytime soon. I'm also a fan of Chuck Close's idea about inspiration being for amateurs.

"Inspiration is for amateurs — the rest of us just show up and get to work. And the belief that things will grow out of the activity itself and that you will — through work — bump into other possibilities and kick open other doors that you would never have dreamt of if you were just sitting around looking for a great ‘art idea.’ And the belief that process, in a sense, is liberating and that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every day. Today, you know what you’ll do, you could be doing what you were doing yesterday, and tomorrow you are gonna do what you did today, and at least for a certain period of time you can just work. If you hang in there, you will get somewhere." - Chuck Close

See you next week...

"Happy Xmas" - VEVO & Contrast Films

"Hey dude! Wanted to see if you’re available to cam op on a multi-cam thing this Wednesday in NYC. Should be a fun one!" - Jordy Wax, Contrast Films

Anne the Wife and I have been super quiet about our decision to move to New York City. That being said, I've been hustling behind the scenes the last year or so in reaching out to other creatives. Turns out freelancing without connections is called "unemployed."

One of those cold emails, direct messages via Instagram, and/or bat signals was to Micah Bickham at VEVO. That led to a phone call while I was in Las Vegas for NAB which led to an introduction and quick face-to-face with Jordy Wax at Contrast Films – he was in Vegas for NAB too. All that nonsense plus plenty more along the way gets us to the other day.

Jordy shot me an email late Saturday night about cam op'ing on a "multi-cam shoot in NYC" on Wednesday morning; not much detail outside that. If you've been following along for any period the obvious answer was a polite and collected "Yea man! I'm in" while FREAKING OUT ON THE INSIDE AND HOPING THEY DON'T FIND OUT YOU'RE A FAKE. A few emails, a call sheet, and a Google search later it turns out to be a shoot at Electric Lady Studios with with Miley Cyrus, Mark Ronson, and a special guest.

"Good job team. Looks like our work here is done and we can pack it up. No need to try and do anything else to professionally top what I got to do a month into moving to New York." - Me

There's no need to try and explain how big a deal Electric Lady Studios is – just know we've all heard music recorded there. There's no way I was going to be late so I figured being thirty minutes early was a solid balance between "professional" and "Oh God, who is this guy?" The space was buzzing with an army of people who all seemed to know what they were doing. Then there was me, the nervous mid-semester transfer student trying hard to "play it cool" while simultaneously fighting back the urge to projectile vomit out of excitement.

There were five or six Alexa Minis with Vantage Hawk anamorphic lenses on various tripods, sliders, and one prepped for a Movi Pro. I straight up stood next to the camera with the biggest lens because it was the most out of the way when Micah Bickham – who was directing all this nonsense – walked up and assigned me to it. "So you're going to be on Camera 1. 85% of your shots will be following Miley with some slow zooms. You've shot live music performance stuff, right?"

I’ve had shoots and editing work with existing clients since I’ve been in New York, but shooting on this project was technically my first paid gig after moving to the city. Honestly, I couldn’t have asked for a better situation and I’m incredibly thankful. It's not like I've never worked on big sets with high-profile celebrities and high-end gear. More than anything this just felt like a door opening after patiently knocking for more than a decade.

There's no shame in admitting how floored I was to be in the same room and work with creatives I've followed online for years. There were also plenty of others I got to meet and now follow. There's also no shame in admitting I had no idea who the long-haired guitar player was they were all tripping out about – my bad.

Fun bonus fact about the scheduling of this shoot: I'd already been booked for a project in Phoenix the next day and thankfully I'd booked a flight out of NYC later Wednesday afternoon. Scheduling somehow threaded the needle on this one with the morning VEVO shoot in Greenwich Village giving me enough time to get back to Brooklyn, get Clara the dog to the pet boarding place, and me to the airport with my gear in time to catch the direct flight to Phoenix. Thanks science.

Phoenix and Red-Eye Flights

This week had me booked again with Running Robot to shoot out on their home turf in Phoenix, AZ. Being used to flying out of Oklahoma City all these years, it was a bit of a hike from New York to that part of the country. Flying out Wednesday afternoon got me there in time to get to sleep that night, pick up rental gear the next morning, the actual shoot, return rental gear, and then race back to the airport for a red-eye flight back to NYC Thursday night.

Big fan of LensRentals and how easy they make shipping across the country. For this trip, it was easier to rent and ship a similar tripod to a local FedEx vs. me traveling with mine. For grip and electric, I connected with MP&E Equipment Rental out in Scottsdale. They're 30-40 minutes outside of Phoenix but the scenery was worth the drive.

Speaking of Scottsdale, Chris Fenner – a solid Instagram follow and car enthusiast – introduced me to Four Coffee and their rubber stamps. Have I mentioned I've got a mild obsession with collecting rubber stamps from coffee shops? It's a thing and filling up my notebooks...

Once again, we were rocking the two-camera interview setup: Canon 5D Mark III with a 70-200 lens for the tight; Canon 7D with a 24-70 for the wide. They also had me shoot a third camera through the interview to act as additional B-roll for the edit. The Running Robot guys booked a conference room in a downtown Phoenix co-working space. Three of the four walls were floor-to-ceiling glass so reflections were a real issue.

Slowly but surely I too am preaching the good news of working with these 4' Quasar Crossfades. The slim profile let me get the backlight in a tight spot between the talent and the glass wall. The skimpy dimmers from the rental house were unusable trash, so instead I used some gaffe tape on the fixture to make a small skirt on the light cutting back some of the output. Oh, and the baby pin mounting option and rubber bumpers on each end of the tubes – so rad. The hodgepodge of color temps flooding the glass room from everywhere was a hot mess. I still feel like the color on these fixtures is a bit more red than I'm used to, but it's an easy fix in camera or post. My iPhone Xs was having issues too in getting the color temps correct for these BTS photos. Side note: we had to rig the audio boom pole to a light stand via spring clamps because we felt like it (and didn't have the proper mount anyway).

Can we talk for a moment about red-eye flights? They're pretty awful – but still have their place. By all means it was my choice in scheduling because I wanted "the experience." Plus I knew it would help budget-wise seeing as how expensive all this is. Plus (plus) I'd already scheduled a couple meetings back in NYC knowing I'd be back in time thanks to flying through the night. The air travel part isn't that bad. Yes, it sucks trying to sleep on a plane, especially on a rough flight and next to a seatmate who isn't into "personal space", "boundaries", or "jackets without massive shoulder pads." Some solid red-eye flight tips are only a Google search away and I know what I'll be doing next time – i.e. neck pillow, window seat, glasses instead of contact lenses, etc...

For me, the rough part of flights back to NYC is actually getting from the airport back to my place in Brooklyn. There's a tipping point between the financial benefits of public transit ($15-20 and 60-90 minutes) and the time and comfort of just hiring a car from the airport ($50+ and 30-40 minutes). It was seriously a trip stumbling into my now regular coffee shop knowing only a few hours earlier I was standing on the other side of the country (Phoenix to San Francisco to Newark). I was fried for my 11am meeting in Manhattan, but it still went well. I was two coffees in before my 1:30p back in Brooklyn, but again, it went well too.

Philadelphia for a Night and Day

Just before moving to New York a client I've worked with the last few years reached out about a quick shoot in Philadelphia. No question – let's go. I knew I'd already be in Brooklyn by then, so I did the normal thing and looked for flights, this time out of New York City. Google Maps made fun of me and let me know Philadelphia is a two-hour drive from the city.

"Don't be dumb, get a rental car." - Google Maps (pretty much).

Booking a car and picking it up in my neighborhood – easy. Driving in and around NYC and trying to park – I'd rather lose a fingertip in a fight with a table saw.

Not having to fly my gear on this shoot allowed a bit of wiggle room with my grip and electric budget. All the cool kids on the internet shoot with those fancy Quasar LED tubes but it's tough getting your hands on those Jedi laser swords in Oklahoma City. This is where Lightbulb Grip & Electric comes in. By far they were more than accommodating in my small order and made sure I had what I needed and knew how to use it. They set me up with two 4' Quasar Crossfades, dimmers, clamps, and c-stands.

After more than an hour trying to drive the four or so miles from Park Slope to the other side of Brooklyn to pick up the gear at Lightbulb, I was off to Philadelphia and working up fresh 'Yo Momma' jokes for the next table saw I came across. Good lord it was weird being out of the city after not being more than six to eight miles from my apartment for nearly a month.

It was dark when I got to my hotel in downtown Philadelphia and paid the $30 for overnight parking. I bundled up and headed out with a camera instead of camping out in my room because, again, that's what the cool kids do (I'm told). Word to the wise, the National Park Service Rangers – or at least the hired overnight security guards – will yell at you if you're walking too close to the chain railing on the street next to Independence Hall. Also, make sure your headphones aren't up too loud so you can hear them yell at you the first time. Oh, and they're not up for jokes if you're trying to lighten the mood and get them to stop yelling at you.

The shoot the next morning and the reason I was in Philadelphia went very well. We were shooting another two-camera interview for a series of client videos. It's not like these things come with a built-in location scout, so I showed up with my normal Rock-N-Roller cart full of gear. Thank goodness for carts. We had to park in a garage a couple blocks away and then use a service elevator to get where we needed to be in another building. Luckily I was able to get all my nonsense from the car to where it needed to be in one trip.

So those Quasars... I'm a fan. We were shooting in a white room with plenty of daylight bouncing around. If I'd just had my trusty tungsten ARRI kit (650/300/150) I'd be freaking out knowing the gel and diffusion death march I'd be putting it through in getting the color and softness I wanted while praying it still had enough horsepower to overcome the ambient light coming through the windows. Those Quasar Crossfades were soft and bright, and I was able to quickly dial in the color temperature to what I wanted. They also weren't hot so the talent wasn't melting and I didn't have to wait for them to cool off before packing up. They felt a bit more magenta than I was used to, but that could've been how my monitor was set up. I've heard the color temp warms up a bit as they're dimmed down, but I had them at full blast. Seemingly the only butt-pain in using these lights in a travel kit would be hauling around c-stands; surely there's an easy solution to that.

Clara the dog is up here with me in NYC and needed to be boarded overnight while I was gone. That was a whole thing too, but it was a great experience with both the neighborhood vet's office and the actual boarding facility. I'm assuming you're not here to read about my dog, but I will say she had a good time riding the subway. You're not supposed to have a dog on the train without them being in some kind of carrier – which again is a whole thing – but she immediately made friends on the train and surely made it on at least one more Instagram account.

Film+Music 2018: Everything Else

Jumped the gun a couple weeks ago in thinking I'd have a good deal of content to share from the 2018 Film+Music Conference. Absolutely worth the price of admission and then some in hearing from solid speakers and connecting with such a hotbed of creatives from around the world, but looking through the rest of my notes from the event I figured I'd give a single shotgun blast of what I'm holding near and dear.

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GENERAL NOTES

I kept a running list of general notes throughout the conference; Rough ideas, discarded gum wrappers, and random tidbits all got thrown into the pile. Here's the condensed version:

Write another story

Following the experience with my 2015 short film Nora I'd kinda given up on the idea of seriously leading another narrative short film. Considering the amount of money and resources I'd dumped into that short, the return on investment just wasn't there. "Boo-hoo" and "woe-is-me," but I learned quite a bit in the process and had a great time making something with good friends. But again, I spent too much of my own money. 2016 brought an opportunity to direct a 48 Hour Film Project in Oklahoma City. That short, Illustrator's Anonymous, – again alongside Producer Amanda Hyden – was a much better experience, WAY the hell cheaper, and garnered a much better reception.

All that being said, being around such incredible creatives who're out making stuff and pushing forward was the prodding I needed to not give up on story. It's about time I get my nonsense together and move towards another narrative project with my name somewhere on it.

Connect with production companies

Surely to those in the know, this is a given. Oklahoma is a small market and production companies hiring out freelancers isn't a thriving thing here – at least in my experience. The majority of my DP, Director, and/or Production work comes directly through ad agencies, PR firms, and directly from businesses and non-profits. I get the random contact from out of state production companies for work now and then, but those are the outliers. More often than not those groups are phoning in their direction and I'm a "one-man-band" or simply running a 2-3 person crew.

Moving forward, I plan to keep the work and take the phone calls I'm already getting, but I absolutely see the value and built in infrastructure associated with production companies that are more than one or two people who got a bank loan for some gear and became a "Production Company" – i.e. Tanner Herriott Productions, LLC.

Fake it till you make it

This goes without saying. I was on a shoot not long ago where the client asked me directly if I'd "worked with (insert specific thing)." I'd literally worked with (insert specific thing) for the first time the day before so I wasn't "technically" lying, but I was for sure sewing the parachute together after jumping out of the plane on that project. Looking back at it now, that was exactly what needed to have been said and the project turned out well.

SPEAKER NOTES

Robert Legato was the opening speaker and is a VFX Supervisory wizard. He's been on major films like Jungle Book, Hugo, and Titanic. He pulled back the curtain on some of the technology used in those major motion pictures. He also talked about how "making something that's meaningful to you [being] at the heart of what we do" and "doing your thing and hoping someone likes it." In the end, "If they don't, well...that sucks." There was also the well-earned wisdom of "figuring out your 'work around' to get to the level you're wanting to reach. If something's on a high shelf, you build a ladder."

DP Laura Merians Goncalves's first of two breakout sessions focused on the creative- and career-oriented side of cinematography. Everything seemed to focus on being patient and kind to yourself throughout the process. Please keep in mind that anything that'll last is not built overnight. Looking again through my notes I highlighted "Just keep shooting" and "Rest well and keep going." There's also the point of "You've got to get out there and make connections and maintain those relationships," an important fact with which I'm constantly struggling. There's more in my notes below if you're up to check them out.

The breakout session from the Evolve Studios leadership further pushed the importance of a production company. They spoke about growing slowly and having the "infrastructure in place to further your career and get bigger opportunities." They also stressed how as a professional creative, you're in the service industry. "Protect your clients' interests and they'll keep hiring you."

Franklin Leonard of The Black List fame basically did his own thing and blew up any idea of what we expected to hear from a speaker at an event like this. You don't need me to tell you, but America is in an unusual time in its history with all that's going on politically, racially, socially, etc, and in no way was Franklin Leonard there to make us feel comfortable with what's going on. You could hear a pin drop as he spoke the truth in love to a roomful of creatives who're able to contribute to the needed change in the industry and otherwise.

"If I keep talking about how dirty [the world] is out here, someone is going to clean it up." - Tupac Shakur

Q: "As a white male filmmaker, how can I contribute to change?"
A: "Step out of the circle of people who look like you and invest in other people... Talent isn't concentrated among the people who are just like you."

Q: "Should someone from a majority race approach telling stories of minorities?"
A: "It's important to 'write what you know,' but equally as important to 'write what you research.'"

Again, seriously a solid event that I hope continues to grow and help shape this generation of filmmakers and creatives. Already looking forward to next year's conference.

Could've Been Bike Shorts...

"You could always make bike shorts if your idea doesn't work out."

To the nice Hobby Lobby lady who sold me a couple yards of Spandex: Thanks for not tripping out when I showed you some weird reference images on Pinterest and then asked me to come back later show what I ended up making.

So yea, this one went super dark and ghostly. Like the way these things normally start off, I'd been sitting on a handful of reference images and used them as a starting point to make something; I'm suuuper interested in selective focus and in-camera effects.

Footage from this film is available for licensing over at Filmsupply.

The internet told me I'd need to shoot through some kind of transparent layer so I started experimenting with different types of plastic diffusion and fabrics. I was looking for something translucent and would look interesting on camera when you touched it. A trip to an arts and crafts store had me finding a couple different types of Spandex that were on sale. Figured I'd need a frame to stretch the fabric to keep it taught, so it was off to Home Depot to spend like $3 on two 1" x .5" x 8' pieces of cheap lumber. I used screws to keep the pieces together and attached the Spandex using spring clips.

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Once I got the framed fabric and my camera setup, it took a bit of experimenting before I finally landed on a look. I'd bought both white and black versions of Spandex and tried out each one individually as well as layering them. The white looked more interesting with the lighting and shadows; Having the black layered behind the white kept the setup from being translucent.

Initially I had the lighting setup on camera right with no diffusion and in front of the fabric. That made for some interesting looking long shadows on camera as I touched the Spandex screen, but wasn't the look I wanted. With how I pictured the edit and knowing I'd never be able to reproduce the light to dark gradient across the screen, I moved the light above the frame but still frontlighting the fabric. Most of the reference images I had were backlit, but I wasn't able to reproduce that look with how small a space I was using. Moving the overhead light just behind the fabric worked for the space I had and gave me the look I wanted. I didn't use any of the footage with my hands in front of the backlit fabric, but it still made for some interesting looking imagery as the light interacted with the fabric stretching the other direction.

A monitor tethered to the camera allowed me to see what I was doing as I was interacting with the fabric. The initial imagery I was getting looked super dark and ghostly and reminded me of a Nine Inch Nails track I'd heard from an interview with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross on the Song Exploder podcast – I'd highly recommend checking it out if you've not heard it already.

The initial test footage was shot at 48 frames/second, but was still too fast for the look I wanted. 60 frames/second didn't work either, so I lowered my camera resolution from 8k to 6k widescreen so I could get to 99.9 frames/second on my RED Weapon Helium. The movement speed looked right, but I ran into flicker issues with the lighting and my shutter set to 180°. The FLICKERfree iPhone app fixed that by letting me know I needed a 299.7° shutter angle. Thanks internet...

Another unexpected result from the testing was how flexible the look was once I got it into post; Obviously though working with a high-end camera and raw .r3d files doesn't hurt. My reference images were black and white, but after experimenting with different color temperatures I again fell in love with shooting with tungsten lighting on a white background at 4500k. Neither the blacks nor whites were being clipped in the raw .r3d files so there was still all the color information to use in post. I kept the in camera dark and ghostly look for this edit and didn't do any color correction or grading, but can easily imagine other possibilities with this footage.

After 8pm

Anne the Wife and I gots the two kids: one is 5 years old, the other is 11 months. Turns out neither of them can be trusted to cook, bathe, and/or get themselves ready for bed on their own, so we pretty much close up shop after 6pm for family stuff. By the time we get those two tiny humans fed, cleaned up, and to sleep, Anne and I basically collapse from the day only to get up the next morning to start all over.

A couple weeks ago Anne and The Boys were out of town a few days and I made it a point to be out after 8pm. That's a freakin' double rainbow covered in unicorns around here so I lined up a shoot with an absolute BEAST of a dancer I met through Instagram named Emmett Prince. He's a dance student at the University of Central Oklahoma and was up to shoot around downtown Oklahoma City after dark with a couple complete strangers.

Somehow I also wrangled another two filmmaker buddies of mine to help out on our shoot: John Dewberry is a saint and a kick arse AC; Steve Mathis's last real jobs were gaffing Black Panther and Thor: Ragnarok, so he basically just puts up with me. As per usual, the footage from this film is available for licensing over at Filmsupply.

In getting all this nonsense together, I had a couple key reference images and videos plus I was listening to a ton of Frank Ocean and Anderson .Paak. There wasn't a proper storyline, but I had the locations in mind and I wanted to work with a black male dancer in his early 20s. If you're up for it, here's the link to download the look book as well as the music playlist we used during the shoot.

All the nervousness kicked in right before our 8pm call time and I was ready to puke in the parking lot just to get it over with. The three guys on the project were donating their time and I made sure to keep the shoot under two-ish hours total with a round of drinks on me afterwards. I'd scouted earlier in the week and lucked out with all of the locations being pretty close to each other. The look at the first location didn't end up working and we only made it to three of the other five locations I had in mind. The footage we were getting felt right and I had no problem nixing the other two spots so we could keep within the promised time frame. Crazy thanks to John the AC for snapping some behind the scenes pics at our last location.

There's always the urge to just throw money at a project and this one was no different. That being said, I didn't have the money to throw at it. And two, I know through personal experience that throwing money at a thing isn't always the best solution. The goal was to shoot this project in a way where I was participating with the talent vs. simply observing them at a distance. This could've been a great situation to break out my Steadicam setup, but I knew I'd need to rent out a wireless follow focus and monitor package for my AC. An EasyRig would've been IDEAL to balance out a handheld look and not straight up kill my back, but again I'd need to rent one of those. "No self-respecting Director/DP would go into creative battle without the proper tools," right?

I'd packed my Steadicam but ended up not using it after only a few minutes – the camera angles just weren't right; Thank goodness I didn't drop the money on a wireless follow focus and monitor kit rental. I'm not going to say an EasyRig wouldn't have been helpful, but not shooting with one actually freed me up to try camera angles and movements that I wouldn't have otherwise.

One key piece of additional gear was a battery powered Bluetooth speaker. I've done shoots with music sputtering out through my iPhone, but the sound quality and volume is passable at best. We used a JBL Flip 4 connected to my phone and it worked like a champ. The burrito sized speaker was loud enough, sounded great, and the setup was dummy-proof. Either John the AC was holding it or I had it clipped to the small messenger bag I had on me throughout the shoot.

For the gear-heads, we shot with my RED Weapon Helium at 8k widescreen and ether 60 or 48 frames/second depending on the light levels. In terms of lensing, my 25mm Zeiss CP.2 emphasized the on-screen talent and his performance, but didn't separate him from the locations like a tighter lens would. I swear if I were forced to choose between a 25mm lens or food and water, I'd still pick food and water but I'd have to think about it for a minute.

We were shooting with existing light at each location so we tested to make sure we weren't getting a flicker fight between shutter speeds and the light fixtures. The first two locations had no beef with a typical 180° shutter, but at one point we had to break out John's FLICKERfree Calculator app and adjust accordingly.

Knowing that we'd be dealing with lower light levels, I evicted the Standard OLPF that's set up camp in my RED for the Low Light version. It’s the first time I'd used it so I made sure to check out test footage online beforehand – which for the most part ended up being a waste of time. There's very few situations where I'd use the Skin Tone-Highlight OLPF, but I feel like the Low Light optimized version helped to give me just a bit more light, especially with my T2.1 lens and shooting around ISO 1600-2000 on the high end. All of this footage is straight out of camera BTW using RED's RedGamma 4 / Dragon Color 2 look – which I absolutely dig. Given the opportunity, I'd love to see what a qualified colorist could do with the raw .r3d files.

DIRECTOR, CAMERA, & EDITOR - me
FEATURING - Emmett Prince
CAMERA ASSISTANT - John Dewberry
GAFFER - Steve Mathis
MUSIC - "White" by tiedy ky

Shooting with Penny Pitchlynn

Meet Penny Pitchlynn. She's a badass. She's the Norman, OK, based musician behind LABRYS plus she's the bass player in the indie rock band BRONCHO. I also remember her Low Litas days awhile back. She reached out a few weeks ago through a buddy of mine and we finally got to work on something together. Have I mentioned I'm always down to make stuff with other creatives? 'Cause I am.

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When she reached out I immediately knew I didn't want to shoot something with her playing or an interview about her music projects – there's plenty of solid stuff out there already. I did want to try and play with contrasts though. I'm always a fan of the idea of who we are vs. the person we sometimes need to be. In setting up the shoot, I sent Penny some reference images and an idea of a person being in two different worlds; Kinda like how I feel about being on LinkedIn. Footage from this film is available for licensing over at Filmsupply.

This was also a bit of a shotgun blast in the dark with hopes of hitting something. "Hey, let's try a book light." "Oh I know! Let's shoot white on black and black on white!" "Man, that Vaseline on a clear flat would be cool." "What about shooting through a curved piece of glass to distort the image?" If you're up for it, here's a link to download the look book I put together for the shoot.

Penny had an interesting comment while we were shooting and trying out different techniques and ideas. She mentioned it was kinda like her time in the recording studio and recording with different microphones. There's not always one right way to do something and there's creative value in trying different approaches.

CRAZY thanks again to Cynthia Dreier for coming on again to be part of a personal project. Seriously, she's one of my favorite people to work with on set. Obviously she kills it with the hair and makeup, but more than that I trust her and the ideas she brings to keep things looking great on camera.

For wardrobe, I had Penny bring a couple different options but stuck with solid white and black. I knew I was going for a Polished vs. Rough look and wanted contrasting white-on-black and black-on-white, but wasn't set on which was which personality beforehand.

I did the whole "convert-your-bedroom-into-a-simple-studio" thing again with a white paper backdrop for one setup and a black piece of fabric for the other. I knew I wanted to feature Penny and especially her facial expressions, so I didn't try to go all dark and moody" with the lighting. Again, I used my styrofoam bust to rough in the lighting setups before having the talent sit in.

For the black background, I setup a book light to camera left using an ARRI 650 bounced off some white paper I'd taped to the wall and pushed through a roll of diffusion hanging from a C-stand. I also used a small ARRI 150 through diffusion as a backlight on camera right to help separate her from the background.

For the white background, I'd originally planned to stay with the book light on camera left as the key, but having such a large light source made the white background too bright and distracting. Having the background brighter than Penny's face wasn't working and I didn't have a way – or the space – to cut the background spill from the book light. I swapped the lighting setup so the key light was a smaller source and coming from above. Now that the source was smaller, I was able to use a solid flag to cut even more of the spill from making its way to the white background.

For the in-camera effects, I used a thin coat of Vaseline on a clear flat in the matte box for some shots as well as shooting through a curved lens. Shooting through the Vaseline made for softer edges and a cloudy image if you use too much. Yes, I know... I used too much of it in some of the shots and it's distracting – fight me. I also used the curved lens of a pair of plastic safety glasses held right in front of the lens to make the double image distortion. I've also tried shooting through curved glass like wine glasses and vases, but keep coming back to the smaller lenses on safety glasses. Shooting through the curved lens changes the path of the light as it gets to the image sensor.

Fashion Films with Tony Li

Have you guys met Tony Li? You should.

"TONY LI is an American Photographer and Creative with an emphasis in fashion, commercial, editorial, and model development. He is a design graduate of The Art Institute of Dallas with an 11+ year background in the apparel industry ranging from management to visual merchandising." - via thetonyliproject.com

I first caught Tony's work something like 15+ years ago while I was still in school. Luckily we've been able to start working together the last few years. This short fashion film for the Kim Dawson Modeling Agency is probably our biggest collaboration at this point.

We'd been looking for something to work on together – i.e., me constantly pestering him about shooting something till he wore down. He does a ton of work for the Kim Dawson Agency and they'd reached out about doing a fashion film featuring Cassius Simpson for their 2017 Model Search; That's where I come in. Tony did the heavy-lifting with the concept, styling, and putting the team together then leaned on me and my narrative storytelling experience. I also shot and cut the piece, but we don't have to get into that.

One thing I will mentioned is how freakin' awesome it is working with on-camera talent who know what they're doing on camera. No disrespect for those I've worked with over the years, but there's an ocean between the talking head pieces with corporate-types running major organizations vs. professional models whose livelihood depends on their look and how they deliver on camera. Good lord just look at these beautiful people...

Tony killed it with the location and wardrobe. Seeing as how I wear a limited rotation of hiking pants, t-shirts, and running shoes, there's no need for my fashion input. We'd planned to shoot a few hours in Tulsa and then head out the the Tall Prairie Reserve outside Pawhuska, OK. The shoot somewhat felt cursed seeing as how our main talent's flight got pushed three times and cut our crazy long day in half. We had to nix the Tulsa part of the shoot and just make it up as we went outside civilization in Pawhuska.

When I can, I try to be crazy intentional in the gear and creative choices made. We shot with my RED Weapon Helium and Zeiss CP.2 lens set (25/35/50/85) – mostly at 8k widescreen at 60 frames/second. Widescreen was a good fit visually for the flat, wide-open location vs. a narrower frame. Going handheld (with a rented EasyRig/Serene Arm setup) let me move quickly from shot to shot and setup to setup vs. the time it would've taken to shuffle around with a tripod and/or dolly setup. Shooting at 60 frames per second gave me the grace to fake smooth-ish looking camera moves too. We had a couple PAs on set, but anything camera related was on me. Shoutout to PA Hans for making sweet haze love by stirring up gravel road dust via gas powered leaf blower. It made everything look like heaven, but I'm still cleaning that nonsense out of my camera innards.

I will say I beefed it with the polarized filter I was using. I knew we’d be out with big skies filling a good deal of the frame and I was primarily focused on using a polarizer to help deepen the blues. They're basically useless if you're shooting into the sun, but we did get a few shots where it was helpful. The problem though is that I ended up needing to direct a good part of the shoot and move quick to make sure we got what we needed before we lost our light. That being said, making sure my polarizer was in the correct position for each shot was honestly the first ball to drop in the additional responsibilities I was juggling. In some of the pre-dusk frame grabs you can see the darker blues in one corner of the frame thanks to the polarizer not being set properly vs. the more consistent sky color once I stoped using it closer to dusk. My bad…

Post-wise, those freakin' 8k files at a 12:1 compression were monsters. In total, we shot just over a terabyte of footage during the 2-3 hours on set and this back before my "oh hey, lets edit with proxy files" days. Thank goodness I've started cutting with proxies so the full-resolution files aren't bogging down my computer as bad. I hate not being able to edit as fast as I can think because I'm waiting on my computer to catch up. Plus I'm not having to pray my shots are in focus because proxies let me watch the clips at a higher playback resolution on my editing timeline. I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize again to my MacPro and Premiere setup; Glad I've matured and seen the light.

CREATIVE DIRECTOR & PRODUCER - Tony Li
DP & EDITOR - me
MODELS - Cassius Simpson & Marisa Harbert
HAIR & MAKEUP - LB Rosser
STYLIST - Tony Li
STYLIST ASSISTANT - Sarah Eliza Roberts
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT - Hans Kleinschmidt
MUSIC - "Longing" Max LL

SPECIAL THANKS - Kim Dawson Agency, Musicbed, East + West Tulsa, My Mod Mess