Maelstrom Home Page   1   2   3   4 Page 4 But sometimes it’s not possible. In one take, we expect to start on the rear deck beside a chair, and wander around a bit, so Rob is on the Glasstron. We have wireless lavs on three actors, plus a boom. As the scene progresses, we rise up from seated eye-level and wander over to the railing, looking out over Mill Valley, when one actor grabs another’s arm and takes off at a dead run. I follow right behind them, and feel a slight jerk on my cables: remember, I’ve got a sound guy attached to me with dual XLRs, and a blind man on a leash! Somehow both Aaron (on sound) and Rob (on a Glasstron leash) manage to follow without utter catastrophe, and 13 minutes later, the take is in the can. At about the 10-minute mark, Rob’s Glasstrons became disconnected, but the take was a success; we come back only for a couple of cutaways to cover various technical and artistic lapses (on-camera Litepanel Micro fill light reflected in glossy Olympic medal case; soundman caught on camera during another unexpected run). We finish up with two cameras shooting as the sun slips behind the ridge, the light fading on our actors as they watch the sunset. At the end of Day 3 (on a six-day shoot), the following truths have become self-evident: A DvRig Junior (or similar belt-pod device) makes an EX1 handholdable. Operating an EX1 handheld with an analog video cable connected is harmful to the thumb. The Sony wide-angle adaptor is a great bit of glass. It tends to be a bit flarey, but it’s been on the camera the whole time and the images are still crisp, clean, and sharp, even at wide apertures. Many of the fresh AA rechargeables didn’t fully charge the first time, so we wound up losing some time in the first two days to extra battery changes. Really, I should have bought them a day or two earlier and charge-cycled them to prep them; I simply ran out of time. Lectrosonics wireless mics are real delights, with good range, few hits, and strong outputs. But dang: they eat 9V batteries like popcorn! Trust the exposure readouts rather than the viewfinder picture. Nothing too surprising there, but I was surprised how differently the viewfinder pictures appeared when moving between indoor shade and outdoor sunlight. The BRT DISP function tuned out to be more valuable than the histogram and the zebras, though I used them as well. We’re way behind schedule. We’re never going to get it all in the can. We’re all gonna die. More to come... [1] Yeah, yeah: how about, "the 11-minute maximum take with a 400-foot mag on an Arri 16BL" ah, the good old days! Page   1   2   3   4