Cam Op

This weekend I was cam op on the Red Scarlet X. It was my first time officially being cam op on the Scarlet, but the scarlet was the least of my worries. Almost everything we shot was in low light. My aperture was always wide open, therefore focusing was a nightmare. The director would frequently want both talent and camera to move and it just wasn't happening because of the focus issues. We would have to shoot the shot wide because of focus problems. Maybe I could have done a better job, I'm not sure. I think we got some really good shots, and I think the film will look beautiful.

Small School Perks

I think that I tend to take HU for granted sometimes, and I'd like to use this blog post as a way to praise HU and especially our film department. I looked at a few other colleges that offered film or broadcast programs, but being here at HU for almost a full semester, I know I'm at the right place. I was talking to a guy that is in the photography program at IPFW. He said their equipment center consisted of 2 Canon 50D's. They had some old sony camcorders, but nothing more. IPFW is much larger than HU. He went on to talk about how IPFW's media program was on the upswing and that it was a good time to attend IPFW. I disagree with that. HU is the place to go for DMA studies. Our equipment center consists of HMC150's, Canon 7D's, a new Canon 5D, and of course the Red Scarlet X. Our school is tiny, yet we have all this great equipment. I could walk to becker right now and take out a Canon 7D and shoot anything I can dream of. Not every school is like that. HU is also just a great community. I really haven't met anyone that was rude or mean yet. Many of us leave our doors unlocked all the time, and we just all hang out together. I think the HU film program is attracting some really talented people. Everything one needs to make a film is here at HU. Keep it up Huntington University. Here is Professor Clark unwrapping the 5D Mark ii.

Cameraman Pride

I was recently cam op for a music video. I love being cam op because that is what I'm best at. I know camera settings like the back of my hand. I find myself being proud at composing a shot to keep my iso at only 400 for example. When the director says he wants two characters in focus I can do that. I know to change my aperture from say 1.4 to 2.8 so I can have more subjects in focus. One of my favorite shots in the music video was shot was of two characters singing. Devin Dale was one of the characters. He wanted me to mention this. I was shooting on the 7D. The lens I was using was the Zeiss 85 prime. I was stopped all the way down to 1.4 or 1.8 I believe. The shot looked beautiful. I had some really nice rack focuses. I know they were nice because when you watch it, you can't really tell it's a rack focus, the focus just directs your eyes from one subject to the other. That's the way focusing is supposed to be used, to direct your eye to a subject. Just another moment of my cameraman pride.

Class Recap

I wasn't extremely excited to take this class, I'll admit that. Looking back on the class now though, I really have learned a lot. I now see that this class isn't about teaching us how to make films. This class is more about story, and how our pictures can move people around the world. This class shows us that films are more than just edited videos. Films are works of art, that tell us a story, and that tell us something about the filmmaker themselves. I think I've learned a bunch from this class. Some of the videos that we have watched have really blown my mind. The music video for "Come into my world" really moved me, I thought it was so awesome they way they did it. I would love to try and recreate that music video sometime. I think this class will really push me to make better films.

Money Money

Money is hard to come by these days. Unfortunately, the internet makes it all too easy to look up filmmaking tools I would love to buy but can't afford. Such as these Canon cinema lenses, this set costs around $15,000. I try my best to only spend money on what is most useful, but I like to dream. I am getting to be camera operator on the Red Scarlet X tomorrow night though, that's a dream come true for me. I will always be extremely interested in the technical aspects of filmmaking.

Nothing Ever Goes As Planned

Problems sometimes arise that are unexpected. I live in Fairmount, the home of James Dean (pictured above). Every year there is a festival hosted in remembrance of James Dean. It's been my job the past few years to film this event. It can be a hassle, just like all other live events really. Lighting and sound can always be a problem. I felt like I did pretty well on this year's film though. Every year there is a dinner held to sort of "premiere" the Dean Fest Film that I make. Well last night was that dinner. I had everything ready to go. I had my laptop charged, I had the ProRes High Quality file ready to be played on the screen. I had my VGA adapter for the projector. I got to the venue a little early. I set things up. The projector was being difficult at first, but I just sat down with everyone else and dinner proceeded. Then it came my time to present the film. I approached the mic after being introduced. I began talking about the film and changes that we had made, at the same time I was attempting to trouble shoot the projector setup. It didn't work. I apologized to the guests, rambled more about the film and other films i was working on. I texted the Tech guy, he came, couldn't figure it out. We tried different cables, adapters, everything. Finally someone was going to the bathroom and tripped over the cord, and suddenly it worked. We figured out the problem was in the wall outlet. Who knew. Of course I was the one who looked bad, but I played it off nicely. The moral of this story is, technology isn't always dependable, and always show up early to set up. Don't start the show until you are confident your equipment will work. 



Matt Shouse

Filmmaking is a Gamble

The picture above is of me with the director of the film Cairo 67, Mohamed Diab. Cairo 678 was the award winning feature narrative film at this years 2012 Heartland Film Festival. He won the best narrative feature film award, as well as a cash prize of $100,000. I talked a little bit about this in class, but I'm just now getting a chance to blog about it. Diab is from Egypt and his film is almost a crossover narrative documentary film. I didn't actually get a chance to see his film, I just saw clips of it and talked to him about it. He said that he and his family literally only had $20 dollars with them on their way to the Heartland Film Festival. They had no idea that they would win. They were going to have to sell their house if they had not won the cash prize. His film really addresses the sexual harassment problems in his home country of Egypt. He wanted to direct the film because he thought it would give his film more creditability coming from a male director. He was a really good guy to talk to, and I really need to watch his film.


Matt Shouse

Tree of Life

I watched the movie Tree of Life tonight, and it wasn't horrible I guess. It was visually one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen. The whole movie was very confusing to me. I felt like the director just wanted to play with my mind and never really give me a defined story. I like thought provoking movies, but this movie was just too much for me. I couldn't understand it. The entire movie I was just trying to figure out what was going on. I just couldn't quite handle this movie. I respect the movie, and really loved the camerawork though.


Matt Shouse

Cameraman Dreams

I've had some experience being camera operator for a few films, and I find it to be just about the most satisfying job for me. My friends asked me today what I wanted to do in film. They immediately just assumed that I would want to be a director. Everyone wants to be a director, it seems like that is just the position of choice. I guess I can see why, all the glory and fame, everyone knows your name. I personally am learning more toward cameraman though, you may wonder why, and I'll explain. There is nothing more fulfilling for me than watching a film and knowing that I was controlling the camera for the beautiful shots on the screen. There's less pressure on the cameraman compared to the director. The director has to have everything planned on and tell everyone where to be. Cameraman has less pressure. As long as I make the image look pretty and in focus, the DP and director will take care of the rest. You all probably now think that I'm lazy, but I really just strive to be a camera man. 

HuntingtonWood?

I don't know a lot about Hollywood, but I kinda picture Hollywood as the HU film department. Obviously hollywood is huge, but I think HU has some of the same concepts as hollywood. In hollywood there are a lot of people that wanna make movies, there's a few people at HU that wanna make movies. There's competition to get on set, and to get films funded. Some people specialize in camera operation, such as Dave Pankuk, pictured above with the Red camera on a steadicam. There are some that do makeup, lighting, and sound. We all have things we are known and good at it. And we all like to make films. HU is similar to a tiny Hollywood. I'm sure Leeper will cringe when he reads this, but this is just how I feel. I realize that I don't understand Hollywood, but it seems that we have some similar concepts here in comparison to Hollywood.  Above are just some pictures from shoots I've been on. Enjoy.



Matt Shouse

Headed in a New Direction

Every set has a different feel. This feel can be due to that genre of film, and the people on set. The biggest factor of how the set feels though I believe is due to the director. The director makes things happen, they give the set a distinct feel. Some sets I've been on have been very relaxed, some very stressful, and others have been the perfect blend of both. The music video shoot I was on was directed by Joe Baughman from Remedy Live. It was pretty relaxed and not the most professional. When I was on set of "The Last Healer" Anthony Frederick was directing. The feel was totally different from the music video. Frederick has a commanding presence and knows how to get things done. Frederick, pictured above, knows when to joke around, and when to be serious. His set was pretty organized and most people knew their roles. I learn so much from every director I work for, I strive to be a well organized concentrated director myself someday.

George Lucas in Love

I had never seen this film until today, and I must say I loved it. The comedy was so clever. Almost all the star wars references I understood right of the bat, and I haven't even seen star wars for a while. I also really liked the actor that played Lucas, I thought he resembled Lucas pretty well. I will have to start looking up more fan comedies like this, because I really enjoyed this one. This will be a film I could see myself looking up and watching again multiple times.

Never Stop Learning

When I attended the Heartland Film Festival I met many filmmakers. One of those filmmakers (pictured above) was Cameron Ford. Cameron had a short film that was an official selection in the festival. He is from Australia. His film Ali 707 was about 12 minutes long, and was focuses on a character that escapes from prison or jail. We talked a lot about his film and he said said some very interesting things. His girlfriend wrote and directed the film, and Cameron served as Director of Photography and camera operator. Cameron told me they shot the film on the Arri Alexa, the same camera that was used to shoot the new 007 movie Skyfall. He chose this camera after watching a documentary comparing cameras called "The Great Camera Shootout." I watched the film and found it very interesting. He told me what camera supports they used to shoot it, and some problems that arose. There's nothing better than watching a short film on the big screen while sitting next to the filmmaker asking questions.

Short Documentary

http://vimeo.com/49435110

Here is a link to a short documentary I did sound for. I thought the video came out very well. I really like the style that Anthony chose here. Most documentaries that I see have the sound synced with the person's mouth, but Anthony doesn't. I think it works perfectly and really stylizes the piece. All the BRoll shots look gorgeous. The pull focuses and rack focuses really add to the film. When we shot the film I had my own ideas as to how I thought the film would turn out, and it didn't turn out even close to how I had I imagined. I like it even better than I imagined. This just goes to show that even with the same footage, editing can drastically change a film. I was talking to Anthony the other day and he was saying that if he or I got the dailies to a movie like Prometheus and we were the editors, a drastically different film would be created compared to the one that was released in theaters. Drop a comment and let me know what you think of this short documentary.   



Matt Shouse

Music Video

Some of you may have heard that HU had a hand in the making of this music video, but for those who don't know much about it, I'll give you some insight. Remedy Live a company based in Fort Wayne was planning on producing a music video for the christian band Everyday Sunday. They wanted to shoot the video on a nice camera, and so that's where HU comes in. As most of you know, we have a Red Scarlet camera in the cage. Anthony Frederick served as Camera operator for the film and I was the first AC. We shot just about everything you see in the video except for the Airplane sequence, but we did shoot the hanger scene. Also, the camera on the car and the luggage was not Red footage, that was shot on Remedy Live's 5D MK ii. It was a blast to work on and I won't bore you with any more details. Check it out, and leave a comment telling me what you think.



Matt Shouse

Baffling

The music video of the song "Come into My World" really blows my mind. I actually really enjoy the song, but also the technicalities of the song are crazy. I'm somewhat of a technical guy, and I think this video was pulled off flawlessly. I have some ideas of how they made her appear multiple times, but I'm really not exactly sure how they did it. Every time I watch this video it makes me want to go out and try to shoot something similar to this. My idea for how I would try and pull it off is this, If the camera runs the exact same path multiple times, someone could theoretically just overlap the images in post and transpose them. That may be way off, but for now that's the only way I'd know how to try it. Kudos to the makers of this video. You've got me baffled.



Matt Shouse

Skyfall

I recently went to see the new 007 movie Skyfall. I thought it was very entertaining. It had some very good classic 007 action. I've also started to really like Daniel Craig as James Bond. One scene I felt was too similar to other movies though. There's a scene where Bond and his friendlies are hiding out in a very secluded house in the middle of nowhere, and then the enemies show up. Of course a battle occurs and Bond survives. I felt like the abandoned house fight had been done many times. It reminded me of "The Book of Eli" and also a little bit of "I am Legend." I like how the movie was very emotional. At the end you actually see Bond shed a tear. It really explored the emotional side of James Bond, and I liked that. Skyfall is not my favorite Bond movie, I prefer Casino Royale, but it is definitely worth going to see.


Matt Shouse

Get On Set

I've been on some film shoots this semester, and I want to encourage all of you to get involved with being on set. I don't want to act like I have everything figured out, but I do have a few tips that I use myself to get on set.
The first thing I would encourage you all to do is to get to know film majors here. I've been on many shoots because I became good friends with a senior film student that lives on my floor. He has helped me get onto multiple sets. So get out there and network with people and tell them you want to help out on set. This leads into my next point. Do whatever you can. I personally am interested in Camera Operation and being Director of Photography but the past few sets I've been on I have done sound. The reason I have done sound is because anyone can run a camera, even if I'm talented at running camera, they won't want a freshman to be camera operator. The Directors I've talked to always seem to need a sound guy, and I tell them I will do it. It gets me on set and opens doors. I meet people, and talk to the camera operators, to get tips and observe what they do. You can line up other jobs just by being on set. Just because I do sound now doesn't mean I cant be a director of photography on the next shoot. So try everything, and do anything to get you on set. There is no experience like on set experience. Trust me.



Matt Shouse

Foregin Films

I recently attended the Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis. I watched some of the films. Plenty of the films were foreign films, there were films from Australia, Brazil, and Egypt to name a few. Some of the foreign films I watched really touched me. I fell in love with some of the films. One of the foreign films I would recommend is "A Bottle in the Gaza Sea." I would greatly recommend this story. It consists of two individuals that live in disagreeing countries. A girl throws a bottle into the sea, and a boy finds it, and they begin to email. Authorities find out and they both get in trouble. It is a great story that shows how we are all people, and that we could all potentially be friends. The real reason for this post however is not to rant about that film though, it's to talk more about foreign films. Some foreign films are great, but some foreign films I think are accepted and liked simply because they are foreign. Some films at the Heartland Film Fest I just thought to myself, if this film was made in America, nobody would want to watch it, but because it was made in Egypt, everyone loves it. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think it isn't good to accept a film into a festival, just because it is a foreign film. Festivals should accept good moving films, not a film just because it was made over seas.

Stay on Schedule

I've been on a few film shoots this semester, and if there's one thing I've learned, it's that things don't always happen on time. Every time I've been on a shoot we have gotten behind. The director starts adding shots, or makeup is running late. Yesterday our shoot got behind off the get go because of day light savings time. Some people got there late, some got there early. The DP, who also had the key to get all the equipment, didn't wake up on time. We had everyone present at Becker by 6:45 am, except the guy with access to the equipment. There was nothing we could do. He got there about a half an hour late, but the damage had already been done, we were behind schedule. I'm trying to soak up everything about movie sets and making films, and looking forward, I know that I will schedule all my shoots to allow room for falling behind schedule, because it will happen. Trust me.

Matt Shouse