[Konvas] OFF topic... and how was YOUR day?

Thu Aug 7 19:55:17 CDT 2008

Oh man, T2, 
Your description is funny though very sorry for the trouble.  Same storm then hit us in Atlanta.  We (6 guys) had just lifted and pulled out a new tank target for some marketing pictures / video before we shipped it off to a customer.  Its about 200 lbs heavier than a Fischer 10, but no nice handles.  This device is really a very ugly dolly looking device that runs down a track and raises and lowers a tank target behind a berm.  So we struggled in the same triple digit heat to get it on the track.  Set up the target on top of it, and hooked up the batteries to get it rolling.  Brought out the cameras and WHAM the same storm hit us.  HUGE lightning bolts!
So we fled with the cameras and scrambled to get the target off the device.  Ran inside the building pretty wet, but glad we weren't fried by lightning.  Rain finally slowed enough for us to carry the huge device back inside the building and try again tomorrow.
Thankfully, I didn't have a lot of MY equipment laying around like you.
Funny thing is that we tried this same thing two weeks ago, got almost to the same point, and a storm blew in and shorted out some electrical fittings.  
I guess this means it will rain again tomorrow.  You reshooting too?  Maybe its your fault.
lael

________________________________

From: cinema-bounces at konvas.org on behalf of fauxfilm at aol.com
Sent: Thu 8/7/2008 6:56 PM
To: cinema at konvas.org
Subject: [Konvas] OFF topic... and how was YOUR day?

Just thought I'd share a bit about my day, maybe it will make others feel good in comparison....

Location shoot today... in typical Alabama August fashion, the weather is usually unpredictible and almost always unbearable....

We were shooting a :30 political commercial for a Mayoral candidate. The scene was a staged ribbon-cutting, as if for a new business.

We set up in almost triple-digit heat at our exterior location... at the party are myself and two crew members, camera, lenses, sticks, mic boom, Porta-Jib, dolly, track, computer, teleprompter, 1200w Arrisun HMI, 1200w Strand HMI, one 800w Joker-Bug, the ballasts for all the HMIs, 4x4 bounce, 6x6 butterfly, 4x4 Hollywood frame, miles of cable and gobs of C-stands..... and a variety of other equipment just laying around in haphazard fashion since we were trying to throw the setup together very quickly. I'm usually neat, but in this instance it looked like a grip truck exploded in Fred Sanford's junkyard.

Add to that the talent (the principal, the candidate) and about 15 extras... props that included signage, a potted plant, a broom, window washing stuff, ribbon, and giant scissors. 

It's a single-shot spot, all without edits in one complicated dolly/crane camera move.

We block it all... choreograph all the extras (two of which unexpectedly brought small children). Get all the bugs worked out (did I mention the 100-degree heat on an asphalt parking-lot location?). Rehearse the talent. Rehearse the dolly and crane moves. Rehearse the focus-puller. Check the sound. Do a couple of full-camera rehearsals. Pull trigger on a couple of takes, both bad. Bust one take (my fault). Am just about to pull trigger on the third take when......

I feel a raindrop. Out of a clear blue sky.

Within 45 seconds the sky went from blue to black, and the one raindrop turned into torrents. Plus instant 35 knot winds that blew my quarter-stop Matthews rag away... I chase it at full-tilt run before it finally landed plastered against the side of a Burger King window 300 yards down the street.

And you've never seen three guys strike a set so fast in your life.

Shoot busted, rescheduled for tomorrow. 

So that was my day... hope yours was better.

T2

_______________________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
http://fantasticplastic.com

________________________________

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