Charlie Sheen on 20/20

[Scott Davis]

What kind of support system did you use on the Blood Bank commercials with your DSLR? The movements in the spots where it was in the arches with the father/son and family (same location) were a little jerky. Having shot with DSLRs, what is the tripod of choice? The balance of them is what’s taken the biggest amount of getting used to. The tripods I’ve used, while I thought the moves were smooth, got back to look at the footage to be disappointed.

Scott

Scott
OSX 10.5.5
Quad 2.5Ghz
8.5 GB RAM
Final Cut Studio 6.0.4
HPX 2000

[Bill Davis]

Interesting story.

The art director and the client both wanted everything shot with an “organic” feel, so I was thinking initially that I’d do most of the shooting with an elaborate Zacuto hand held rails system we had in the field. However, after looking at the first results, the decision was made that with the heavy lenses and settings everyone preferred, we needed MORE stability in the shots. We did about half the shots (most of the moving ones) on a CamTram. It’s 100mm bowl let us switch between that and a Sachtler Caddy Tripod easiily. In our beach locations, we used just a set of simple Bogen Legs for the 5d.

One reason for the mildly “jerky” look is that virtually nothing was scripted and none of the talent was professional. We set out to simply document “slice of life” moments as they came up. The specific father and son shots you mention feature the art director and his son and a good friend of theirs who is playing the wife. (real wife had to work.)

The “star” spot for the client, (first one they wanted to run) is the :15 “Diego’s Apple” spot – and that was ENTIRELY a fluke. Nothing planned. I just saw Diego eating the apple, as as a snap decision,directed the two adults to join him and walk out – and his initial look at the camera – as well as his interim “look back” – neither of which was planned – charmed the pants off the whole client group. In fact, notice that two guys wandered right into the background of that first snap take that everyone loved for the beautiful, if unplanned real shot of Diego – so I had to garbage matte blur the background guys out since I didn’t have releases for them.

The :30 “family” spot, was also a couple of quick takes in between other setups.

That’s the freedom of DSLR shooting, you can get away with minimal setup and lighting and be REACTIVE rather than totally planned.

Yes, the spots are essentially rougher than perfectly planned commercials. Then again, we got 11 15’s and one “30” approved from 4 days of shooting, and so post shoot, instead of the clients debating the merits of one spot, they’re trying to figure out how to pick from 11 that they like. THAT’s a happy client.

This approach is NOT something I’d necessarily recommend for other projects. It requires a simple, clear creative idea (that the agency deserves ALL the credit for generating and getting the client so sign off on!) But that freedom to go out and simply see what develops in the real world rather than trying to shoot storyboards is a GREAT alternative to a crew of 25, a burn rate of $10,000 an hour in talent and location fees and all the stress of attempting to achieve a slice of perfection.

I’m all for that fully planned approach when the economics of the spot conform to that. But for a non-profit with a tight budget, that’s not an efficient approach. I’m jazzed at what the 5d let us do on these. And the client is deliriously happy as well. So much so that they’re bringing me back in two weeks to shoot another project. THAT is what it’s all about in this business.

Horses for courses. And used thoughtfully, for what it’s good for, the DSLR is one fabulous quick pony.

For what it’s worth.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Conner