Yesterday Jim had the Red fan club globally hanging on expectantly for a major announcement.

What came was probably slightly disappointing for many… the beta release of Redcine-X, which is awesome in it’s own right, and I’ve already begun to play with it.

Downloads are here: http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?62838-REDCINE-X-Professional…

What was expected was probably something Scarlet related, or perhaps playback to be enabled on the EPIC.

However, better late than never, I found Jim made another important announcement a couple days ago that I came across only minutes ago. That news is the first EPIC-X bodies are expected to start shipping this week.

http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?62730-EPIC-X-production…

So what’s the difference between the EPIC-M and EPIC-X?

Not much, nothing to be too concerned about. Components on the M are machined, and hand assembled, while the X components are cast, and come off a production line. Still, if you want a EPIC right now, the more expensive EPIC-M is your best bet to avoid a wait.

Finally I am ready to publish my first article in a series comparing my recent battlefield experiences with three of the worlds best digital cinema cameras. My gratitude and thanks goes out to all at Media Film Service, Cape Town (www.mediafilmservice.com) for their support and for fantastic gear, and also Jacques Mulder of Mudville Production and Post, Dubai (www.mvdubai.com) for the Red EPIC.

At this stage in the game I am purposely avoiding talk of image “quality”, resolution, even latitude. All of these cameras are capable of capturing breathtaking imagery. What I want to focus on is how these cameras performed in a cut down, bare bones, guerilla warfare style of shooting with few accessories, and few hands on set.

I believe I broke some rules, stretched some boundaries and pushed some comfort zones in my recent shoots. Far from “traditional” at all on films that would normally be shot with this level of equipment, I purposely ditched focus pullers, camera assistants and DIT’s for a streamlined multi-hyphenated skeleton crew instead.

By skeleton crew, on “INSIDE” I mean my D.P. Warrick McLeod, who operated, built up, tore down and pulled focus, my director Christo Crafford, myself, and my cast (of two; Leon Laubscher and Pascale Neuschaffer).

We shot three locations, day and night, mostly exteriors with no grip and lighting gear. Our camera kit consisted of the Red One MX for two days, Alexa for one day, a set of Arri Master Primes, a Angenieux HR 25-250mm, a Zeiss 10mm, O’Connor 2575 head, short legs, Arri FF-3 follow focus, MB-14 matte box, and filters; ND’s (IRND’s on the Red), ND grads and a pola.

It was actually a lot of cases to shove into a single vehicle (a Mahindra 4×4) with all four grown men as well, but we managed.

Actually we did better than manage, we made a great movie with some outstanding pictures.

On Murder at the Manor we shot with the Red EPIC with Ultra Primes, a Zeiss 10mm, the same FF-3 follow focus but a 4×4 clip on matte box and many, many less camera related flight cases. We did have grips and lighting gear though, and a smoke machine, which filled the Mahindra and an additional long wheelbase Land Rover.

Murder at the Manor had a cast of nine and a crew of seven, but two of the crew were also cast members. Warrick Mcleod again was D.P. but was allowed this time to concentrate totally on lighting as Jacques Mulder operated and pulled focus, with someone else occasionally manning the follow focus and carefully pulling to marks when necessary.

The rest of the crew were pretty multi-hyphenated, it was really just a case of having as many hands on deck as possible. There really was no pecking order or specialists outside of Jacques and Warrick, Leon Laubscher the director and myself, producing. There were no units, there were no departments, but roles were carefully defined where necessary.

The resulting chaos worked brilliantly well for us, we all had fun and we shot 31 pages in four days. Keep in mind this was a period piece, and very drama/dialogue intensive.

I think there is little argument that these two productions, as test cases, can be considered “bare bones”.

You can check out some ungraded frame grabs from the EPIC on Murder at the Manor here – http://www.flickr.com//photos/richlackey/sets/72157627408410955/show/

So how did the cameras compare?

CRITICAL MASS

1. First place without a doubt goes to EPIC… the camera is very compact, and with all the accessories including the addition of a 17″ HD field monitor that we didn’t bring on “INSIDE” we had the fewest and smallest flight cases with the EPIC. It made a big difference to the shoot, in terms of space in vehicles, time spent lugging equipment around, and in terms of keeping track of where everything was at all times. Absolutely fantastic… closest thing to being as compact as shooting with a DSLR and still shooting “real” digital cinema. The total camera weight built up was also a fraction of either the Alexa or Red One. I think we’d have gotten away with perching the EPIC on a Manfrotto 501 fluid head. The O’Connor 2575 was a bit overkill but silky smooth so no complaints really.

2. Second place goes to the Alexa, but only because for some reason we had one less case to carry around. If I remember correctly we had four batteries in the Alexa’s camera case, instead of in their own separate case, and of course we were shooting to SxS cards, not hard drives. This aside, it’s a heavy camera, and a lot for a tiny crew to carry around. Still, we made it work.

3. Third place goes to the Red One MX… let’s face it, it’s a big camera and those batteries and hard drives and all the cables and bits and pieces can get a bit much for a one or two man show. It’s heavy when built up, and Warrick did have it on his shoulder a lot of the time.

ENERGY

1. EPIC again takes first place. Jacques had not received his EPIC batteries yet, so we had a separate V-lock system and used standard Red Bricks. They lasted substantially longer powering the EPIC than they did powering the Red One, or the Anton Bauer batteries that powered the Alexa. On a real guerilla style shoot, battery life is very important because down-time is minimal. We did keep the batteries on a constant charging rotation, but when few people are charged with multiple responsibilities, it’s easy for charging to take a back seat.

2. Red One MX lasted slightly longer on a charged battery than the Alexa. In both cases the on board monitor was powered by the same battery.

3. Alexa didn’t last too long on a single battery, I was a bit dissapointed about that really, especially since it wasn’t spinning hard drives but writing to solid state cards.

MEDIA

1. Red One MX takes first place here, the hard drives are great, we shot for a whole day on one drive shooting Redcode36. Brilliant.

2. ALEXA is second place, the Sony 32GB SxSPro cards were filled quick, but not as quick as the 128GB SSD RedMags!

3. EPIC in HDRx fills up those SSD’s damn quick! We went through four / five cards in a day not even shooting HDR and could have shot more without too much effort. We used just over 2TB in four days of shooting! Note however, this is not necessarily a bad thing! High bitrates mean lower compression, and that means a kick ass image (sorry… not getting into image quality just yet), but be aware that you need a good system of keeping track of what cards are full and need to be transferred, which can be formatted, and which are formatted.

OVERALL INDIE GUERILLA FRIENDLINESS

1. EPIC for the win! It wins hands down when all things are taken into account.

2. Alexa is number two, this will become even more apparent in the next article when I tackle the camera’s ridiculously easy and slick menus and setup procedures. You can’t go wrong, the camera is idiot proof.

3. Red One MX comes last, but certainly not least! It’s a fantastic camera and I’m not knocking it. It is however heavy, lots of cables of all different sorts that can get confusing under pressure, and it’s just not that easy with a really small crew, or for a single camera operator/D.P. that doesn’t have support crew. Plus it takes a while to boot up

That’s it for now. I’m keeping this particular comparison at that, but none of these cameras are what I would call hard to use, or particularly complex, and they can all be used on a cut-down shoot, just be aware of what you can expect in terms of physical space in transport, setup and tear down, battery life, media cycling, and plan accordingly beforehand!

Next up I’m going to look at the physical camera bodies themselves, dive into ergonomics and menus/setup procedures.

Awesome stuff… if you’ve found any of this useful, please consider subscribing to my blog via RSS. The link should be at the top of the page.

“There is, unfortunately, no better time to raise money than when you are shooting a film. When a film is in production, there’s magic in the air. You can feel the energy. It’s the “crack-high”.” – Tom Malloy, Bankroll

First of all, I want to thank again our four cash backers that really made the shoot possible. They get executive producer credits for their support. The shoot could go ahead thanks to Dapo Osinaike, Jesse Gamble, Lisa Bobrowicz and Gavin ap’ Morrygan.

I posted in this blog on Saturday 13th August the need for a cash injection in order to go ahead, and by mid-week I still hadn’t moved on it, and the need was staring me right in the face. It threatened to bring everything to a grinding halt.

Somehow I needed to raise $1000 in 24hrs in addition to the longer term Kickstarter campaign, which is still in preparation and will be launched soon.

I’m not sure why I didn’t get on the fund raising bandwagon before, I think it was partly denial, partly fear (those two factors are tightly integrated), and partly a inner voice that said “wait… it’s gonna be okay”.

There’s something to be said for raising funds during production. Tom Malloy in his fantastic book Bankroll, called it “The Dangerous Approach”, and in many ways I agree.

The pre-requisites are the same as for any form of financing beforehand, you must have a killer product on your hands, you must have a large and influential network, and you must have total and utter confidence in yourself and your team.

You MUST be able to sell yourself.

In the end, YOU are the product you are selling more than your film.

I know this, because I know that in every Kickstarter campaign I have backed, I have backed the film maker, not the film.

I could write a lot about crowd-sourcing funds for a film, I think about it a lot, along with all kinds of more traditional financing avenues. I have witnessed many fantastic Kickstarter campaigns succeed, and I know what they all had in common. I know why 99 out of 100 people that want to raise funds online (I’m referring here to using Twitter as your primary networking and communication foundation) don’t stand a chance.

Most of my film maker friends that I speak to face to face in the “real” world will fail online for one reason, the reason is because I don’t know who they are in the online world. They don’t exist… okay maybe they registered for twitter at some point, but they simply don’t exist in the online arena that matters most… Twitter.

When I try to explain that they need presence… and that means 20 tweets a day, it means constant engagement with others, with influential others… growing a network, actively and strategically selling themselves (carefully and unselfishly) to everyone they come across, I get a glazed expression of confusion as if I’m speaking some foreign language.

Here’s some of my most fundamental thoughts on the matter, and they apply regardless of when or how you raise funds.

1. You should be selling yourself, not your film.

2. Selling yourself requires confidence (not arrogance).

3. Selling yourself requires doing, not just talking. Show what you’re busy with, photos, videos, blogs, utilize facebook and Google+ to showcase your work, your passion, your dedication.

4. Trust and respect is earned not deserved.

5. Building relationships takes time… months, years before you should ask anything from anyone.

6. Honesty and transparency are key.

7. Every tweet, no matter what it is, says something about you, make sure it’s painting the right picture.

8. Be respectful and encouraging to others, take a active interest in others, in their projects.

9. Give yourself away, if you have a niche area of expertise… give it away, become a resource.

10. Humility will get you far with people.

Actually (and I’m giving away a secret here), every principle you need to apply online, and really in all of your real world relationships is in a book written long before the computer or the internet. “How to Win Friends and Influence People” – Dale Carnegie. This book will change your relationships for the better online and offline. Get it. Read it. Read it again.

How to Win Friends and Influence People is one of the first bestselling self-help books ever published. Written by Dale Carnegie and first published in 1936, it has sold 15 million copies world-wide. – Wikipedia

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Originally posted on Digital Cinema Demystified

As my regular readers know, I’m busy writing up a tech series on the Red One MX, Arri Alexa, and now I’m adding the Red EPIC into the mix.

I’ve had the privilege of shooting with all three cameras over the past month and a half and I’ve certainly got my favourite now.

I also want to take the opportunity to thank Media Film Service (www.mediafilmservice.com) for the Master Primes on INSIDE, and the Ultra Primes on Murder at the Manor, as well as accessories, grips and lighting, and EPIC owner and friend Jacques Mulder of Muddville Production and Post, Dubai (www.mvdubai.com).

Alexa impressed me with it’s ridiculously easy menus and setup, and it’s latitude was a noticeable few stops greater than the Red One MX, but nothing could have prepared me for the EPIC. It certainly lives up to it’s name, and has latitude to spare even without shooting HDR.

The EPIC’s small form factor also places it in a league of it’s own compared to the other two top end digital cinema cameras. Built up, it is substantially more compact and lighter than any of it’s competitors.

I love the high data rate of the 5K Redcode, I’ve never been a fan of compression, no matter how clever it is, and although compressed, the new heavier flavours of Redcode RAW are fantastic for image detail, latitude and leave nothing else to be desired as far as I am concerned.

Post is easy, just as easy as shooting Prores 4444 straight to edit with Alexa, and a million times better as you have a 5K image and tons more image data than Prores could ever hope to provide. I can import the Redcode straight into Premiere CS5.5, drop it on the timeline, adjust the “playback resolution” dropdown to a figure acceptable to the performance of the hardware and play, what could be simpler? It’s flawless.

I’ll get into HDR a bit later, but for me, a celluloid lover, the EPIC has knocked the last nail in the coffin for 35mm acquisition.

More detailed reviews are coming, please subscribe to my blog to make sure you get them, but for now below are some frame grabs from my latest project “Murder at the Manor”, shot on the Red EPIC.

As my regular readers know, I’m busy writing up a tech series on the Red One MX, Arri Alexa, and now I’m adding the Red EPIC into the mix.

I’ve had the privilege of shooting with all three cameras over the past month and a half and I’ve certainly got my favourite now.

I also want to take the opportunity to thank Media Film Service (www.mediafilmservice.com) for the Master Primes on INSIDE, and the Ultra Primes on Murder at the Manor, as well as accessories, grips and lighting, and EPIC owner and friend Jacques Mulder of Muddville Production and Post, Dubai (www.mvdubai.com).

Alexa impressed me with it’s ridiculously easy menus and setup, and it’s latitude was a noticeable few stops greater than the Red One MX, but nothing could have prepared me for the EPIC. It certainly lives up to it’s name, and has latitude to spare even without shooting HDR.

The EPIC’s small form factor also places it in a league of it’s own compared to the other two top end digital cinema cameras. Built up, it is substantially more compact and lighter than any of it’s competitors.

I love the high data rate of the 5K Redcode, I’ve never been a fan of compression, no matter how clever it is, and although compressed, the new heavier flavours of Redcode RAW are fantastic for image detail, latitude and leave nothing else to be desired as far as I am concerned.

Post is easy, just as easy as shooting Prores 4444 straight to edit with Alexa, and a million times better as you have a 5K image and tons more image data than Prores could ever hope to provide. I can import the Redcode straight into Premiere CS5.5, drop it on the timeline, adjust the “playback resolution” dropdown to a figure acceptable to the performance of the hardware and play, what could be simpler? It’s flawless.

I’ll get into HDR a bit later, but for me, a celluloid lover, the EPIC has knocked the last nail in the coffin for 35mm acquisition.

More detailed reviews are coming, please subscribe to my blog to make sure you get them, but for now below are some frame grabs from my latest project “Murder at the Manor”, shot on the Red EPIC.

UPDATE – We actually raised $1210 in 24hrs!

A quick update that we reached our goal thanks to four amazing backers; Dapo Osinaike, Jesse Gamble, Lisa Bobrowicz and Gavin Ap’ Morrygan!

Awesome stuff!

Now let’s go make some magic!

I want to personally thank Jesse Gamble, Dapo Osinaike and Lisa Bobrowicz for responding to my call for help yesterday! They each get a Executive Producer credit on Murder at the Manor plus all the goodies that will be announced on the launch of our official kickstarter campaign.

We still need $490 to reach our $1000 goal by tomorrow, please contact me if you are able to assist in return for a valuable credit and some fun goodies.

Be a part of a great independent web series and a short film that we expect to bring in some awards!

Send me a email at: rich@sentinel-entertainment.co.za if you are able to assist us in making this happen!

The vision for Murder at the Manor, in terms of style and visual aesthetic, is more of a glossy re-interpretation of the 1930′s than a 100% re-creation. It’s glamour, gloss, wow factor.

We did fit the men this morning, but didn’t get to do full hair and styling today, you’ll have to wait until Friday to see their transformations!

You can certainly see that our leading ladies are looking the part!

Carin Bowman plays "Ceedee Pinotage"

All our girls, "Ceedee Pinotage" (top) played by Carin Bowman, "Summer" (bottom left) played by Tarryn Saunders, and "Diemie Pinotage" (bottom right) played by Pascale Neauschafer. This photo is sadly missing the wonderful lady of the manor "Shiraz" played by Delaney Carpenter who will be styled on Friday morning but will look just as fabulous!

Pascale Neuschafer plays "Diemie Pinotage"

Another shot of Pascale in the part! Watch out for this one!

Tarryn Saunders plays "Summer"

"Summer"

With our kickstarter campaign for Murder at the Manor about to launch, and the shoot in two days, I have hit a small financial hurdle. Our wardrobe is not going to be quite as free as I thought, and I need to be able to put some cash down before they will let us take the garments with us.

I have also hit a hurdle with the vintage Mercedes we intended to have on set for a few hours. The car is available but for a price.

So, because the notice is so short, and I have only a 10 – 24 hour period in which to raise about $1000 total (or half that amount at the very least… we can then get the clothes but we lose the car from the film), you have a opportunity to get an executive producer credit by committing to contribute within the next day (preferably via paypal… but if not possible, please talk to me).

Within minutes of my first post on twitter I had my first backer… which is fantastic, bringing me to $200 (GPB100) of the total goal.

So with $800 (GBP 400) please get in touch if you are able to commit in the next day to helping make this film happen. On offer are executive producer credits (we will be IMDB qualifying), and other goodies I don’t really want to reveal until the kickstarter campaign is launched this week!

Everything else is ready… from Red EPIC to lenses, to lighting to cast and crew, locations and we are rehearsed.

Please consider helping!

Email me at: rich@sentinel-entertainment.co.za

The script is written, ready and reads fantastically!

The characters are wonderfully cast, locations set and ready, wardrobe and make-up to be finalized on Monday with styling tests Wednesday, the RED Epic has landed in Cape Town and the camera and gear check is scheduled on Monday.

Crew is almost complete… pending confirmation of two of the best stylists in the country and a evasive location sound mixer. I am confident we’ll sort that out this week.

Shot lists, storyboards and schedules will be finalised.

Early Friday morning we will begin to turn the clock back 75 years on the Manor House and surrounding grounds at Diemersfontein Wine estate. Lights will be rigged, cast will be transformed into their characters, and cameras will roll.

However, all is not without hiccups.

Almost everything has been volunteered on this production but some critical cash expenses have remained.

Our vintage Mercedes 170S, to be used for three hours of shooting is a rental from a Museum, and our lenses, camera accessories, grips, and lighting equipment, while generously discounted will leave me with a invoice that must be settled.

So I’m going to turn to Kickstarter, and have begun to engineer a fun and creative fund raising campaign in which I will (have to) raise $4000 USD. So far approximately $70,000 worth of everything else has been given to this production, and $4000 is the cash amount remaining that we can’t avoid.

With five days remaining, the last thing a producer needs on his mind is cashflow… yet that’s what is on my mind.

I look forward to your support!

There’s going to be some fun perks, and even if you can’t give, I hope that you will spread the word!

Production of our pitch video is taking place this week, so stay tuned for the launch of the campaign!

I’ve wanted to write this for a while. I’m not sure if it’s overlooked in a lot of indie productions, or if there is just limited access to emotive locations without having some money.

Notice I said emotive. There are good locations, and there are emotive locations. For me, choosing the right locations is as important as casting the right actors for the lead roles. A location says an awful lot more than most give credit for… it is a character in it’s own right and surrounds everything else that you put into it.

Here’s some of mine over the past two films.

Tribeca Bakery (Daydream, 2010)

Tribeca Bakery (Daydream, 2010)

Witsands (Daydream, 2010)

Witsands (Daydream, 2010)

Tokai Arboretum (Daydream, 2010)

Abandoned Structure, Grabouw (INSIDE, 2011)

Ungraded Redcode RAW frame grab, Abandoned Structure, Grabouw (INSIDE, 2011)

Ungraded Redcode RAW frame grab (INSIDE, 2011)

Railroad Tracks, Grabouw (INSIDE, 2011)

Railroad Tracks, Grabouw (INSIDE, 2011)

Ungraded Alexa frame grab, Railroad Tracks (INSIDE, 2011)

Railroad Bridge, Grabouw (INSIDE, 2011)

Ungraded Alexa frame grab, Railroad Bridge (INSIDE, 2011)

Eikenhof Dam, MTO Forestry, Grabouw (INSIDE, 2011)

Ungraded Redcode RAW frame grab, Eikenhof Dam, MTO Forestry, Grabouw (INSIDE, 2011)

This post is being written in a whirlwind… the digital cinema revolution continues!

My short film INSIDE wraps production tomorrow night (Wed 3rd August) and has been a fantastic experience. We shot two days with the Red One MX and the final day with Arri Alexa, Master Primes on both cameras.

I’ve started the tech write-ups that I promised for the Red-MX side, but will only publish them once I can add the Alexa content alongside.

To add to the mix, my upcoming web series / short period murder mystery “Murder at the Manor” will be shot on the Red EPIC, so you’ll be hearing my thoughts on Red Digital Cinema’s new flagship camera platform as well.

I’m no Philip Bloom or Vincent LaForet, but if you want some real-life down to earth opinions and experiences from a grass roots indie production on the high-end digital cine cameras, this is a good place to keep an eye on!

This post is re-published from my other blog, Digital Cinema Demystified, make sure you subscribe to future technical posts by email or in your RSS reader. You can also get the feedburner feed here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DigitalCinemaDemystified

This post is being written in a whirlwind… the digital cinema revolution continues!

My short film INSIDE wraps production tomorrow night (Wed 3rd August) and has been a fantastic experience. We shot two days with the Red One MX and the final day with Arri Alexa, Master Primes on both cameras.

I’ve started the tech write-ups that I promised for the Red-MX side, but will only publish them once I can add the Alexa content alongside.

To add to the mix, my upcoming web series / short period murder mystery “Murder at the Manor” will be shot on the Red EPIC, so you’ll be hearing my thoughts on Red Digital Cinema’s new flagship camera platform as well.

I’m no Philip Bloom or Vincent LaForet, but if you want some real-life down to earth opinions and experiences from a grass roots indie production on the high-end digital cine cameras, this is a good place to keep an eye on!

Click on the subscribe icon and make sure you subscribe to future posts by email or in your RSS reader. You can also get the feedburner feed here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DigitalCinemaDemystified

My leading man Leon Laubscher in the back, my director Christo Crafford front left, and D.P. Warrick McLeod.

It’s been a week now that I’ve settled down since the first two days shooting my psychological thriller short film INSIDE. I’ve purposely avoided writing too much about it, or even thinking too much about it, as it’s really still in a somewhat pliable stage with one more shoot day to go.

I will however say a few things that stand out for me from the whole experience… things that will likely become standalone blog posts soon, and then I will continue to share my thoughts once we’ve wrapped the final shoot day.

Back to School.

I really feel like I’m in film school. I’ve never been to film school, I studied to be an engineer.

But this experience has highlighted how much I am learning, and how much I am absorbing that I will need to process for months before it is assimilated fully into my approach to future projects.

– from Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe

Last year I shot Daydream… on three 400ft cans of 35mm film with a borrowed camera. I didn’t have to sneak into the lab because I worked there… but you get the jist. I basically followed Werner Herzog’s recipe.

“Daydream” doesn’t quite flow for me yet, it’s all beginning and middle with a weak payoff at the end, but it is a good little story. I will end up re-cutting it until I am happy, and then I will tag it onto the end of INSIDE as a little extra feature. At that point it may only be 30 seconds long. I was focused on creating visuals, not directing and it shows. I was D.P. and I am proud of my shots. End of story, lessons were learned.

Daydream – Lesson 1: Don’t spread yourself too thin… don’t think you can D.P. and direct, one will suffer and you can’t afford that.

Daydream – Lesson 2: This one is subjective to me, but I learned that I can confidently handle a camera… any camera, film or digital, even a 35mm motion picture camera. Technically I understand optics, I understand the physics of light. I understand the chemistry of celluloid (and what’s going on with a digital imager)… I know what’s going on inside the camera, why and how to control it to produce the results I see in my mind’s eye. I also learned I can translate the shots I see in my mind onto film. I can choose lenses, I can pull my own focus, I can achieve a perfect exposure every time.

Yeah... it's my film, I carried a typewriter.

Those two lessons had a huge impact on how I approached INSIDE.

Firstly, I wasn’t going to do everything myself (although I was tempted… it was originally the plan). As soon as I had opportunity to bring a D.P. and a director on board, I stepped back into a producer role and let go of the technicalities to others. I knew I could shoot if I wanted to, and had nothing to prove to anyone.

I jumped at the chance to work with Christo Crafford as he is co-writing and will be directing “The Investigator”, but I don’t feel he really had the opportunity to shine… you can’t bring a director on board at the last minute who doesn’t know the story, has had no input, and no storyboard. Maybe that can be my lesson number one from this shoot. Still, his input was absolutely invaluable and I wouldn’t trade having him part of the team for anything.

My hands full... um, not.

On the shoot, I didn’t do much. I was concerned mostly with risk mitigation, time keeping and doing everything I could to make sure we’d end up with a film at the end of it all. Most of these stills are mine. I wanted to make sure my team had what they needed, I wanted to encourage and facilitate. I was a runner, I fetched lenses and ran back and forth from the car to set. I enjoyed this immensely. It was still my film, my script, my vision but I could trust professionals to do a better job than I could. I wanted them to be happy and have fun.

D.P. Warrick basking in the sun on a mid-winter's day, and director Christo.

I enjoyed seeing Warrick McCleod, my fantastically capable D.P. enjoying what he was doing. I enjoyed the shots I was seeing, and I found that what I wanted was simple, good solid cinematography… and that for the most part he could shoot off the script with no shotlist or storyboard (not an approach I would recommend normally… I will get to this on it’s own later). I am not sure how his normal experiences are, but I imagine I was pretty easy to please compared to some people he has worked with. I decided early on that I wanted his signature in the shots, so I gave it totally to him… here’s the story buddy, you’ve got a blank canvas.

Structure vs Organic Co-Creation

What happens when you have a script… and a fairly loose one at that, locations that are not the original locations envisioned in the script, no shot list (actually that’s not true, we just didn’t use it), no storyboard, and a “blind” director and D.P. brought on at the last minute?

You either have a recipe for disaster… or in our case a recipe for fantastically fluid co-creation. I loved it! and we all had fun, but this really is a very risky approach. I will not take this route again on any more demanding type of film, especially where time is more of a pressure than it was for us. Maybe we just got lucky… the small team and mutual respect for each other combined in our favour. This time, it worked.

Here’s some more photos from the shoot – http://www.flickr.com//photos/richlackey/sets/72157627256092182/show/

“I think students of cinematography should have a solid understanding of the elements of graphic design, such as composition, color, tone & scale, and their deep psychological effects. Technologies come & go, but the underpinnings of good image-making remain.” - Hiro Narita, ASC

Some of you who follow me on twitter and facebook have probably noticed that I’m quite busy at the moment. It’s safe to say that a fire has been lit under me and I’m on a mission to produce as much quality content as I can.

So, here’s a breakdown of what’s cooking.

Above: The new locations for INSIDE

INSIDE – Shooting 14th & 15th July

Murder at the Manor – Web Series – Shooting August (TBC)

The Investigator – Shooting Autumn/Winter 2012 (TBC)

Plague – Feature (in development)

I’m pushing myself to meet self imposed deadlines and actually realise my goals with these projects. The result is that fantastic progress is being made on all fronts.

My next updates will be after INSIDE wraps and also following the casting process for Murder at the Manor!

Stay tuned! This is going to be a fun few months ahead!

Sometimes the best laid plans fail and there is simply nothing within your power to change it.

My heart was set on shooting my first proper short film ‘Inside’ last weekend, and everything was ready. On Friday morning we packed the car and were heading towards Media Film Service to pick up the camera gear when news came through that our location was totally inaccessible by any means other than helicopter.

You can imagine I was less than pleased.

Still, planning a shoot in mid winter at a remote location in the Cedarberg mountains is asking for trouble. I knew this, and to be honest the news was not a big surprise. I had just pinned all my plans on the chance that we’d get good weather preceding the weekend shoot allowing the river level to subside.

There’s a few things you can do when something like this happens. You can hire a helicopter… which is what a Hollywood producer with money would have planned from the beginning, you can throw a tantrum and quit, or you can get over it with the intent (in a very active sense of the word) to let it settle and make another plan.

Inside is a great little story, full of suspense and full of meaning for myself and our lead actor Leon. I also have an opportunity which will not present itself again, of shooting with two of the best digital cinema cameras in existence. I have planned to write a technical blog series on both the Red One MX and the Arri Alexa (although I see Philip Bloom has beat me to it Philip Bloom goes solo with ALEXA). That’s okay though, I’m not Philip Bloom.

So, I’ve taken the setback as a challenge to up the game. I’m working on securing a new location, much closer to town which will change the flavour of the film but not the core of the story. It means I can return the gear sooner to the rental house, which is important as I am borrowing not hiring, and it reduces the cost of insurance which I do have to cover.

It also means I can invite more people to help out on the shoot, and that represents quite an opportunity for some who may not normally get much chance to be on a film shoot of any kind or around this technology.

The location is a bit more challenging. We may need a small lighting kit as much of the film is shot at night, but there is power on site and I am planning on taking advantage of the full moon on Friday July 15th.

I cannot publish much more detail until I have locked down the location. My plans hinge on getting that green light.

The key with setbacks like this is in the attitude you take the second after bad news hits. Don’t let it floor you, if it does you may not be cut out to produce films at all. Actively DECIDE with INTENT that this is not the end, it’s simply a hairpin turn that if you are honest with yourself, you may have been expecting.

Slow down, negotiate the bend and accelerate in a new direction.

In the words of Leon Laubscher ”We were supposed to shoot ‘Inside’ this weekend and we went away… unfortunately the weather said “NO!”… so when life throws you a lemon I say pass me the salt and tequila! “

My second short film “Inside” starts principle photography on Saturday 18th June. I am excited to share that thanks to Media Film Service in Cape Town, I’ll have hands on, up close and personal experience with both the Red One MX and the Arri Alexa on this shoot.

I’ll be writing up a technical series on each camera platform from a typical indie filmmakers perspective, from shoot all the way through post. What’s a indie filmmakers perspective you ask? Well, basically I’ll be my entire crew on this shoot, and so the information and experiences I will share will be very useful to low budget, bare bones crew working with these cameras under a number of challenging conditions.

I intend to produce images that will have anyone fooled about the number of people that were present behind the scenes, to show that it can be done, and to help out those kindred spirits who want to do it themselves.

What makes this different to some camera shoot-outs or comparison tests is that images from both will be cut into the same film.

What makes post interesting is that I’ll be using a Adobe CS5 workflow with a Assimilate SCRATCH grade and finish, to date most of the information I have encountered on Alexa specifically has been Final Cut Pro and Avid oriented.

Oh, I guess I should also mention that the final scene wraps on June 25th, and a preview copy of the film needs to be received in Berne, Switzerland at the Shnit International Short Film Festival by July 1st.

Join me on this roller coaster ride! Now would be a good time to subscribe to my blog!

You can also like the INSIDE facebook page for access to behind the scenes photos and more info as it happens, and follow my other blog Indiewood for more production specific posts.

It’s now a three day countdown until principle photography for my second short film (or my first proper one) “INSIDE”.

I received the fantastic news only a few hours ago that I won’t only be shooting Arri Alexa, but Red One MX as well! I cannot thank Gideon Furst and the team at Media Film Service enough for making this particular dream come true. I am confident in my eye and ability to see outstanding shots, my vision for the story is strong and the location is breathtaking but now I have total confidence that I can actually capture the images that are already in my mind.

For a few weeks now I’ve felt that I didn’t really have much to blog about. Lots in the pipeline, lots of maybe’s and what if’s but I’ve been waiting for concrete answers before I make a big song and dance about it.

What’s significant to me this time around is that I have a solid story and I know beyond any doubt I can get the shots. This means that I can put my role as D.P. second to directing.

I’m also not shooting neg this time, so I can get it right and get lots of coverage and B roll without running out of film stock. With Daydream I over-compensated and still had stock left over. I also only have one location, Daydream had three and it was a challenge to get between three locations, get set up and move on all in one day.

What I have done with Inside, in common with Daydream is that there is no location sound. There are no speaking roles in this short. I’m not taking any audio gear, neither do have a sound technician, and to be honest I don’t want one. I also don’t want my actor to be concerned with delivering lines. It is a psychological thriller, very intimate to what he’s experiencing in his own mind, it borders on horror and so the visuals and performance will speak louder than any superfluous dialogue. Mood will be carried with music and sound design. What I want to see is believable performance, I want to see fear personified, to capture it and deliver it to the audience.

Daydream was an experiment in technicalities, the story was somewhat insignificant to me then. I will still finish Daydream properly, it needs a online and grade but now I’m moving on, the technicalities don’t worry me and I can concentrate on directing.

I want to point out some specific challenges to this project.

Remote Location – We are shooting in the Cedarberg mountains, at a riverside location 5kms from anywhere. I am hoping for clear skies, but the weather doesn’t really matter as long as it’s not raining. What it does mean is that we don’t have power, and we won’t be taking a generator, so I’ll be operating on batteries alone, that means no big fancy monitors and no lights.

Low Light – we will definitely be shooting at night by the light of candles, a campfire and a kerosene lamp. For these shots I am taking 21mm and 50mm Arri Master Primes at T1.3 and will be shooting wide open, hand-held. These are challenging conditions for both exposure and focus.

Festival Submission Deadline – Inside will be submitted to the Shnit International Film Festival. It’s already entered and the deadline for receipt of the preview copy is July 1st in Berne, Switzerland. We wrap the last scene on Sat June 25th, however the bulk of the film will be shot the 19th and 20th. This leaves the week between to get the bulk of the offline edit and sound design done. I plan to cut the final scene in on Sunday 26th, grade on Monday 27th and get it couriered the morning of Tuesday 28th June.

However you look at it, it’s going to be tight!

Needless to say, I am very very excited.

Check out my first blog post for Film Courage!

Going Solo | Film Courage.