8 Things I’ve Learned From Shooting Long Form Drama on the 5D That I didn’t Know Before I Started

August 23, 2010 by El Skid Featured, Guest Post, Ladies and Gentlemen, Series, Tips Share on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit

Yeah yeah, long title for a blog entry but this is an important one. I consider myself pretty savvy about shooting on DSLRs and have made a monstrous heap of mistakes over the last eight months, enough to have learned some things. Having now wrapped production on Ladies and Gentlemen I think it’s only fair that I share a few things that I’ve learned that I simply wouldn’t have learned any other way. I’m not talking about moiré or rolling shutter, we all know about those already, more about the consequences of working with DSLRs over a protracted period on a big project.

1. Shooting handheld is nothing to be scared of

We all worry about the rolling shutter issue, and shooting handheld is a sure way to get that monstrous CMOS sensor jiggling like a jelly in a hurricane. Hurlbut shoots handheld all the time, he shot a bunch of marines (hoohah) running around and got away with it. If you’re properly kitted out (we had a fully featured Redrock setup) then those no reason to be scared of it. Oh but what about focus? – I hear you say. True that, focus is a problem, but only if you’re not ready for it. Don’t go shooting on an 85mm, wide open … Continue Reading

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: THE FINAL DAY

August 18, 2010 by El Skid Featured, Guest Post, Ladies and Gentlemen, Series Share on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN – WEEK 7 DAILIES from Robin Schmidt on Vimeo.

We’ve wrapped, and I’m sad. Ladies and Gentlemen has become a big part of my life over the last couple of months, frustrating at times, infuriating at others, but what a thrilling journey. The unique challenges thrown up by shooting drama on a budget, coupled with the camera’s ability to deliver time and time again, have made this easily the most rewarding production experience of my career.

. . . . plenty of lessons have been learned which I’ll share in a future post, but if an opportunity like this falls in your lap, just say yes [and] get hold of a 5D . . . . We’ve shot a one hour drama pilot for $6,000.

Our final day was a night shoot, starting in a toilet and moving outside for the big climax to the show, a fight and a car crash that brings many of the cast together for the first time. As always, having no money means we … Continue Reading

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: WEEK 6 – SWEAT, SOHO and GOING LIVE

July 27, 2010 by El Skid News Share on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit

The insane rollercoaster that is Ladies and Gentlemen is coming to a close and man it has been a crazy ass ride. It looks great, then it looks ass, then half the crew don’t show up, then there’s no food and we can’t get to set because London’s transport system devolves to the dark ages at weekend. Sometimes you just have to hold your hands up and say ‘We’re just going to get $%&ed and there’s nothing we can do about it, then suddenly you’re shooting something astonishing and it all makes sense again.

This weekend, more than any other, we were under hideous time pressure, which meant seriously compromising the quality of what we were shooting in order to just get it in the can

When we’re good we’re very good and when we’re bad we’re awful. Awful in terms of the whole production, things just not going the way we expect them to and being helpless to stop it. This weekend, more than any other, … Continue Reading

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN WEEK 6 DAILIES

July 27, 2010 by El Skid Guest Post, Ladies and Gentlemen, Series Share on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN – WEEK 6 DAILIES from Robin Schmidt on Vimeo.

Week 6 dailies from Disclosure Productions (disclosureproductions.co.uk/) forthcoming one hour drama pilot ‘Ladies and Gentlemen’. Shot on the Canon 5D using L series primes supplied by Canon. Directed by Robin Schmidt (elskid), Produced by Robert Lucas, Jo Defendi and Linda Taimre, written by Robert Lucas. Full blog writeups can be found on photocinenews.com, more info about canon DSLR filmmaking on the el skid blog: elskid.com/blog

Music: Bloc Party – ‘On’

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN WEEK 5: OH YES!

July 20, 2010 by El Skid Guest Post, Ladies and Gentlemen, Series Share on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit

Praise be, a good day, no, a very good day. After the debacle of the week five weekend that was only a day with everything going wrong we really needed this weekend to be a monster but things didn’t start too well with our gaffer finding paid work that took him off the shoot, and the permissions we needed to shoot in Soho for our grand finale being denied at the last minute… Nonetheless Saturday dawned bright and sunny, and since we were … Continue Reading

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN WEEK 4: OH DEAR

July 13, 2010 by El Skid Guest Post, Ladies and Gentlemen, Series Share on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit

Weekend four of this shoot and we just had one of those days where our luck ran out. Our main location was a bar and the big idea was that several disparate storylines would come together here, linking characters and creating a more unified piece. Problem number one: time and money are against us. The schedule for the weekend involved 13 scenes, and nearly 80 setups. Well-oiled tv crews can absolutely blitz setups, but they have the bodies and the experience to do that. We don’t. It was always going to be a big ask, but then other problems just exacerbated the problem.

You have to be creative when you have no money so it’s a challenge