Why You Always Need A Prep Day

“The shutter is just randomly engaging… maybe it’s the servo?”

Bob Frederickson, our 1st Assistant Camera Operator, looked frustrated.  Booked with almost no notice he was busy prepping our gear at a facility that resembled more of a water closet than a film equipment rental house.

It’s never a good sign when the equipment manager you booked gear with doesn’t show up to a prep day.  Nor is it a good sign when you’re emailed 4 pages worth of printed directions to find the rental facility that include instructions on how to drop off the gear at the owner’s house in case they aren’t in the office.

72 hours prior: Dallas, TX

No flights had been booked, no studio chosen.  The project wasn’t really even on my radar.  It had been mentioned in passing by our client – something that happens quite a lot.  Nine times out of ten projects like this are treated with a “fix it in post” mentality; once the budget has already dried up and all of the common production mistakes written into the bit and bytes on a hard drive.  This time proved an exception.

One of HiT Entertainment’s properties, Angelina Ballerina, has partnered with the Dizzy Feet Foundation to generate awareness about the health benefits of dancing.  We were tasked with producing several public service announcements featuring the founders of Dizzy Feet and characters from Angelina’s 3D animated world.  The challenge – due to prior commitments we would only have an hour on set with each celebrity.  Oh… and we only had 72 hours to gear up.  And the storyboards were not finished (started?).  Neither were the scripts.

Flash forward to prep day: Hollywood, CA

I’m not an AC; what exactly do you need the shutter for anyway?

One of the partners at the rental facility was trying to get us out the door without losing our business.  It seemed a bit ridiculous – the guy watches as our AC struggles with the most rudimentary functions on the camera.  We start asking about options… RED? Checked out… AJ-HPX 3000?  Nope… Sony shop.  Any shops we can sub-rent from?  They all close at 5pm (it’s 5:04pm).

By this point we decide we need to check and see if the record heads on the camera function.  If so, we’re just going to have to make due…

There’s the death rattle…

Two seconds after engaging record the warning light starts blaring…  We all look at each other.  I look down at the rental manifest as though it’s a do not resuscitate order.

The camera we had requested was a Sony F900R – a decent camera for chroma key work especially if you’re able to record the HD-SDI feed from the camera (it’s 4:2:2 instead of the tape recorded 3:1:1).  The most important part of the model number is the R – it stands for “Revised” but we generally refer to it as “Reborn” because of all of the updates focused on actual image quality.  The camera we were all staring at in the prep room looked like it had been pulled out of the dust bunnie’s closest.  It was a first generation F900 that was in serious need of maintenance.  Switches stuck, dials didn’t turn and most disturbingly there was no true HD-SDI output.  Good luck pulling a clean chroma key on this thing.

So… who do we know in town?

Bob and Josh (our DoP) start making phone calls.  I start the process of culling equipment we know we aren’t going to be able to use from the manifest.  Bob bursts through the door.

I’ve got a buddy with a RED… it’s an MX I shot on last week with build 30.  Super speeds… 2 drives.  He’ll do the whole kit for what you’re paying here.

Most producers would probably say “Go” and not look back but I couldn’t pull the trigger yet.  The deal sounds great but what about insurance?  I knew I couldn’t get a COI to the person in time (it was already 7:30pm in their neck of the woods and our shoot would start at 4am).  I also know that build 30 has some issues recording audio – our previous plan was to record audio direct into the F900R.  Also – how the hell do you pull a key on RED footage?  What are the tricks and nuances that will help your compositor not pull their hair out?  After all, I was booked to handle the compositing… I really want to keep my hair.

In the end we were able to lock down a Sound Designs 552 for our location audio and we only rented a set of sticks and an O’Connor head from the (bait and switch) rental company.  The funny this is they still required a certificate of insurance and seeing as I couldn’t have one reissued in time to lessen the amount of coverage I’m pretty sure that we just landed in the Guinness Book for over insuring a piece of gear ($85,000 on a $75 rental).

ON SET: Source Film Studios – Stage Two, Hollywood, CA

As crazy as the prep day went, the production day really doesn’t have very many stories to tell.  Or that we can tell.  Lighting and blocking went smoothly.  The guys at the studio we absolutely great.  The RED we rented looked amazing.  Talent and makeup showed up on time, genuinely cared about the project and were fun to work with.  Our day wrapped 5 hours early and everyone on the crew dug the way we operated.