October 21, 2007

Don setting up camera and lenses in Waikiki.

Don, Grace, the kids and I went to Waikiki today to set up the gear and test out the opening and closing shots for the film. It was fantastic! We wanted to see if we were going to get away with shooting the way I had in mind, which is to keep one subject ouf of focus while Jeremy was in focus and Don made it look superb! Many curious people gathered around asking us what we were doing, so I imagine when we go there to actually shoot, with reflectors, boom poles, 5 or 6 crew members, we'll attract many more. It made me think that we all have to be prepared to keep it cool, keep doing it as if no one were around, specially the actors, where more pressure will probably be on, sorta' speak.
We learned today that we're going to need a dolly and a track for this shot, due to the nature of the zoom we're looking for. We also saw that we're going to have to bring some kind of beach towel or a blanket to put all the equipment, tripods, etc on, due to all the sand. Speaking of which, when you just go to the beach to swim, you don't think of or sense that palpable saline-ness in the air. When you have expensive equipment, you do! So we'll have to find a way to protect all this stuff against the salt. What? Did you just say "just use the opposite of salt, which is sugar, to repel it!"? Oh, man, whatever!

Shooting Grace, as Jeremy. The shot came out beautiful.

Next up is the following week's schedule. I want to start rehearsing the lines with the actors so we have it down-mama-joe-brown.