Of Emerald Lake and Job Offers

July was a magical month.

Not only did I turn 30 (oh, boy!), but on 25 July, I also received a message asking me whether I would be up for working in the camera department on a feature film called Emerald Lake.

The Lowdown

I’ve already worked with the director and producer of that feature film previously (Girl Fight), so it was a no-brainer for me to thank yes to the opportunity. The fact that I was offered a profit share contract was just the cherry on top – I was and still am out for the experience. And having worked on the camera department of a feature film not only sounded like a tremendous challenge for me, but also like the perfect learning opportunity.

A couple of months forward – it is now late September – and I received a call where I was informed that I would indeed be put in the camera department, however, not as a camera trainee as I thought, but indeed as a camera assistant. As THE camera assistant. With all responsibilities, including focus pulling. I was so buzzing that I recommended Hannah and Chloe as runners for the production, which was well received since production was indeed looking for two runners. Getting both gals on-board with this project as well just made the day even better.

My Research

Excited by these brilliant news (and a bit intimidated by the aspect of focus pulling), I immediately conducted research into the specifics of the role as a focus puller/1st AC/camera assistant and borrowed David E. Elkins The Camera Assistant’s Manual.

I can only recommend this book (especially for non-native speakers!) as it is not only incredibly detailed in regard to the required tasks, use of equipment and responsibilities, but also because it introduces the lingo for both the US-American as well as UK film industry.

Having read the relevant chapters in the manual above, I then ventured into one of our technician’s lessons and took the opportunity to practice focus pulling on a camera test that we performed for green screen. Since this camera test required a lot of timing between the three actors and me, it served as a good practice run in order to get the feel for the timing down.

Since it was already the end of September and the first block of the film shoot was scheduled between the 8th and 16th of October, I contacted the 1st AD and asked whom I needed to contact in order to participate on the prep day for the camera department.

After a short while, I was informed by both the 1st AD and the DoP that the participation of a prep day for me was not necessary since the equipment was already set and pretty straightforward to use. After I learned that the camera we would be filming with was a Sony FS7, I was already buzzing – after all, I had already worked on a FS7 on Girl Fight and had a working knowledge of the camera, it’s setup and the menu. With this information, I was looking forward to my first day on set.

Tuesday, 8th October

That Tuesday was our first day on set on location at Greatham. After a quick round of introductions, I finally met the DoP with whom I would be working with throughout the entirety of the shoot. Being a lovely lad just a couple of years older, we immediately set about getting the equipment ready and I was not only introduced to his setup of the Sony FS7 with its monitors, focus ring, etc., but also to his kit of Sigma lenses, speedboosters from Viltrox and Metabones, and his latest acquisition – a Sachtler Flowtech tripod.

During the morning of that day, we commenced filming a lot of car scenes in Greatham and I was quickly learning how to focus pull. This was pretty straightforward and although I had been warned that the focus ring was a bit wobbly, I felt that it was the perfect fit and executed every single one of my turns with precision.

After lunch, we managed to quickly progress through the scenes of that location and even finished 15min ahead of time. Since a location change was scheduled that day, Chloe, Hannah and I jumped into the car and drove off to the second location – which was Sweethorpe Adventure north of Newcastle – a highly frequented place for anglers and divers.

However, due to lack of a movement order and a lot of traffic jams due to car accidents, we did not manage to arrive at the second location at all. After being stuck in traffic for too long, I called the 1st AD and informed the production that we were not progressing. It turns out that all the other drivers were facing the same problem and only the camera van managed to arrive at the location just shortly before sunset. We were released and returned back home three hours after we set off from our first location. This meant that the two scenes we were meant to be filming had to be rescheduled to the next day.

Wednesday, 9th October

On Wednesday, our day started at 8.00 at Sweethorpe Adventure were we were scheduled to shoot some more car scenes – this time including a car suction mount for the camera. After collectively mounting it onto the car for the first time and securing both car mount and camera, we drove off to film a couple of scenes, which took us most of the morning.

The afternoon then was scheduled to shoot additional scenes at a lake, with a lovely little camp-side rigged up. Since the weather was cold and windy, it was paramount that we worked as quickly and efficiently as possible to ensure that no one had to stand around waiting in the cold. Here, I got to learn that our production not only had access to one, but two Sony FS7! And why? Because the second camera – camera B – was to be used and rigged on a Ronin I gimbal!

I believe I fainted a little upon these news.

Thursday, 10th October

Today was the day. After getting up at 4.00 am and arriving at the set on 7.00, I was finally introduced to the Ronin I gimbal and was shown as how to set it up and balance it properly.

After we spent the morning capturing a couple of cutaways – incidentals – and filming some shots with a Canon 70-200mm tele-focal lens, it was finally time to set up the roaming camera.

Here, since balancing the camera on the gimbal was a delicate endeavour, I was informed that the gimbal – for the purpose of this shoot – was purely equipped with a 35mm Sigma prime lens in order to reduce the amount of time balancing the camera.

Since our DoP had already prepped the gimbal, he showed me how to assemble and secure it – with the screws and brand name all pointing forwards (good indicator!), with the way the battery is screwed in, how to test the balance of the camera on all three axes, how to set the intensity of the motor (output) and how to fine-tune the balance. It would be an overstatement to say that I would now be able to confidently set it up yet since I usually need a couple of practical practice runs first to get a good feel of it – I was at least left with a good guideline of how to go about the setup of a gimbal in the future.

With this lovely piece of equipment finally set up, we proceeded to further film at the lake and the surrounding forest, this time round using the Ronin I gimbal alongside with the Sachtler Flowtech legs.

Friday, 11th October

On Friday, we pursued a couple of more shots in the forest, both using the gimbal as well as the legs in order to capture the best footage possible. However, before we were able to do this, I assisted the DoP the director in discussing the shots planned that day. For there was a big scene with about 15 different actors planned that needed to be pinned down meticulously.

Not that I had anything to say about the type of shots being captured – that was not my place to do so – but I attended in order to learn what type of shots and hence, what type of equipment would be required for each and every shot and to be able to prep it within the shortest amount of time.

After about 45min of discussions, I set about prepping the equipment to have it on standby whenever required – with the lens bag not further away from me than 3m on average. With Chloe and Hannah helping out with logging, slating and swapping the lenses as well as securing the camera equipment (it was really windy and at time we would need all hands available), we were able to set up rather quickly and managed to save some time in the process.

After capturing the scene, we further proceeded to pick up some shots that we missed and after a long day of filming, Hannah, Chloe and I returned at home safely and well exhausted.

Saturday, 12th October

Next day started with a surprise on my end. Expecting another full four days of shooting, we were being informed that this block of filming was to end prematurely due to unexpected changes in the production department. With this, production has come to the decision to use the entire footage filmed hitherto as a teaser for the sales pack in order to attract more financiers, money, and thus manpower to the project.

With this outlook and some of the pressure taken out, the production was now considered to be geared more towards learning the craft on our end and to perfect the imagery captured. However, since only very little footage was missing in order to complete the teaser, we ended up filming the rest of the required footage before 11 am and wrapped up the first block of principal photography before the second one that was initially scheduled to be continued in January 2020.

The Aftermath – A Standing Job Offer

Despite the extremely cold and windy (and sometimes even wet) weather, despite getting up at 4 am and not returning before 9pm every single day and despite the project being put on a hiatus, Emerald Lake was a brilliant experience that I will gladly return to once it recommences. I’ve not only learned a lot and met great people with whom I managed to work, laugh, and network, I was also granted a lovely bonus that I would never have expected in the first place:

While wrapping and prepping all the kit to be returned to the van in its previous condition, I was asked by the DoP whether I would be interested in working with him and his company. I would initially start out as his camera assistant on various projects and then ultimately progress to become an independent second camera unit. Receiving his business card, and with a couple of minutes to think about the offer and get over the initial shock, I gladly accepted!

Now, the only thing I’m waiting for is the paperwork to arrive to make it truly official.

I cannot wait to start!

References:

Digitalfire (2019) Homepage [online] Available at: https://digitalfire.co.uk [Accessed on 13 October 2019]

Elkins, D. E. (2013) The Camera Assistant’s Manual Sixth Edition. New York and London: Focal Press. Image taken from: https://bit.ly/33FimM7 [Accessed on 13 October 2019]