Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Another BDDL Shoot



Almost all DPs in the world will say this, I cannot say it any better. A good gaffer is hard to come by. And great gaffers, are almost impossible to find.

Anyways, my last gaffer was brutally assaulted (thats right) by some thugs who stole his cell phone and broke off his legs in doing so. This is no lie...

I spent the next few projects with some so-called gaffers, aimlessly trying to figure out why the key light I set is always above the 45 degree angle. Finally, my production manager got me a real gaffer. And my god, was he good. All I did was point out the places the lights needed to be and in about 30 mins.....perfect lighting. Needless, to say, unless my first gaffer recovers, this guy will be the man.

So began another BDDL shoot. This is the first time my own script got selected, so I was happy shooting it. It turned out OK, but could have been better. The entire script required clever lens blocks and pans so the transitions would be easy to stopgate. All in all, for a day's worth of work and with some great company in terms of gaffers, directors, actors and the like.....a good shoot.