suprised by oxford phone dump
Having recently been ‘assistant grip’ on the small to medium feature ‘Suprised by Oxford’ my wandering phone snapped a bunch of pics of the technicals of making a film. For those not to familiar with a slightly more formal film set the images and captions may prove a learning experience.. or prove that I am a geek able to bore others to tears..
Ratchet Strap.. if you are not handy with these you will save face by buying one for home to fiddle with when watching the telly. Learning on set is not cool.
Day one was jibbing over a garden. I used my mechanical knowledge and bits to solve the problem of the Movi having a Moy plaate while the jib had a 100mm bowl
The Movi camera was quite capable of flying the Alexa Mini LF with the Cook Anamorphic lenses.. a suprise to me.. but you ma note the counterweights.. this rig took some prep and was not made the day befroe the shoot
I now think that scaling a shoot by lorries is a good thing knowing the size of the shoot can help you quote a price for your work. This was a five lorry shoot, no Tom Crurise but quite large enough to pay union rates and overtime.
The first of many ronford slider set ups. The apple box gets the operator a good height the ‘plank’ is stopping the monopod digging into the gravel and of course the monopods support the end of the slider
My trolley was an informal way of moving the grip and some camera stuff. Here you can see the 1/4 apple boxes keep ths slider stable
We had two trolleys of Apple Boxes - not cheap items - but really made the core of the camera support system. Well worth learning about use and the heights. Some nice videos on Matthews channel. To me thier use is somewhat challenging as the dont have three feet.. but usng them teaches one that 70 years of film makers are not wrong.
It has to be said that the Cooke anamorphics on a ‘large format’ make any shot look like it is from a movie.
This party shot was wonderful for the art department to have an Oxford quad to play with.
Oxford uni has a million antique floors. One thing I loved was the productions use of mats to protect them. When I got home from the shoot I ordered some mats for my little van
Another Ronford/Apple box setup. Here we see the full works. A protective mat. Flat apples to adjust height, and the upright (Manhattan?) apple is supported with a sandbag tucked in. Wedges on standby if the floor had not been flat. A serious point.. if a crew member is holding kit waiting an apple box, or three, fast accurate communication is critical to look after the crew member. With three languages across the two departments slang like ‘manhatten’ can be unhelpful. Linguistic agreement is important. Even the East Coast Americans had different slang from the West Coasters. Slang is not that cool IMO.
My trolley is small enough to fit in disabled lifts. Here its got a ronford slider, th ronford dolly an Ocon head and a box of wedges.. not something you;d want hand carry.
Track set on the roof terrace.. quite a lot of kit got up four stories while avoiding school party visitors.
A detail shot. The apple box allows the ronford sticks to float over the kerb and give a clean floor for the floor battery. A sand bag adds a little extra solid
Self and eyebrow enjoy bineg in the private areas of Oxford. A privilage only usually for the privilaged.
I must be getting old as I called for the yellow jackets from the AD department. The grip job is keeping the camera safe so I stood facing away from the action as there was a string of mopeds diving onto the set uninvited. The fact the DOP and Bcam were more safe is a bonus.
DOP fashion.. operating in bad weather. If you are kitting up a department ask yourself the question.. can I handle rain? You dont have to be able to roll in the rain but you must be able to keep your kit safe.. We had a cheeky trip to B+Q to get a few more tarps. Im impressed by tarps not cooke lenses.
Jib checking the fancy Oxford roof. Safe strap and Moy->100mm plate by SMM.
The super hard working AD has 20 at lunch. Radio is on.
Far from perfect but much better than a person carry. My trolley loaded to go grab a little Broll, ronford setup, some levelling wedges and a tarp to hide in bad weather.
At least the Teradeck describes the problem. But the monitors were often hit by the 16th century walls. An sdi drum option could have been considered.
These monitors were mainly used by make up and art departments. It looks like the trolley is doubling for spare camera batteries and chargers too.
L-R scripty, boom op, b2/ac, bts stills, dit, star, producer, costumes