I will be off the grid for the next 5 days to go under the Atlantic Ocean in an Ohio Class Nuclear Submarine. We are doing pick-ups on the Navy Seal film in Key West. So, please give me a few days to catch up on questions when I surface!
The Elite Team and I are shooting a SEAL op that starts with 2 little zodiacs barreling across the open ocean, when all of a sudden a Nuclear Sub breeches in front of them. The zodiacs surf the swell and land onto the sub, 2 SEALS deploy and head down the hatch. We are shooting this with a helmet cam, 4 cameras on boat to boat, a camera in a helicopter and then 2 cameras on the Sub once it breeches.
Then we go in the Sub and shoot 3 sequences of the film while the Navy goes through their op schedule. We will be shooting a briefing in the CON and a walk and talk sequence that travels through the ICBM missile silo tubes. Then, we will be filming the SEALS doing their recon mission where they get deployed out of the Nuclear Sub in a mini Sub called an SDV (SEAL Delivery Vehicle) with 3 underwater cameras and piecing together a sequence where the 2 SEALS suit up, head into the Nuclear Silo, they flood the tube with water, they swim four stories up to the DDS, (Dry Deck Shelter) where the mini Sub awaits.
They open up the huge door that reveals the ocean, the mini Sub slides out on rails and the two SEALS take off on the mini sub. Their mission is to gain intel on a meeting between two bad guys on a dry lake bed on the Horn of Africa. Once they get their info, they head back to the mini Sub and then to the Nuclear Sub where the mission ends.
I have just purchased 2 1D mark IV cameras and will be using the clean high ISO range of this new camera to capture the beautiful available light that exist in a Ohio Class Nuclear sub on a night mission op. We are bringing minimal lighting and a very small camera package with a crew of 5. One Director, one Cinematographer, one A.C., one sound mixer, and a gaffer.
Vincent LaForet recently announced an exiting video contest where he is collaborating with Canon and Vimeo. I am excited to be one of the judges because I know the creative product will be amazing!
Here is an excerpt from Vincent:
“There is A LOT OF POTENTIAL here for something very special to come out at the end… each video chapter will start with and end with a still image… you need to interpret the previous photographer/filmmaker’s still to start the (your) subsequent chapter (those are pretty much the ONLY rules/guidelines (outside of the obvious))… should make for a pretty unique series of chapters in the end!
So watch the video above and find out more! I’m on vacation with family and I’ll get rolling with regular updates and much much more information early next week! For now – start charging those batteries… it’s your turn!
I am frequently asked about picture style. There are so many internet sites making RAW picture styles, Flat picture styles, Panavision Genesis Picture Styles and all the picture styles in between for the Canon 5D, 7D, and the 1D. It is confusing to know which one to choose and I fell into a trap.
Coming from the world of film, I am used a lot of latitude and uncompressed 16 BIT color space. I want whatever will give me the most range so I have options when I get to the point of color correction. I like to bend it, shape it, stretch it, push it to have maximum flexibility and creativity.
So, I downloaded a RAW picture style from the Internet. It claimed to increase latitude in the highlights as well as digging into the shadow areas. I shot 9 shorts, 2 commercials and 25% of the Navy Seal movie on this. What a BIG, HUGE MISTAKE! It was fine for the controlled lighting set-ups that I had on the short films and the 2 commercials, but when it came to the big yacht take down in Key West it buried me.
Picture Style Menu
The Elite Team and I quickly learned that while shooting day exteriors, the downloaded RAW picture style made it impossible to gauge a correct exposure on the back LCD screen due to the light contamination. You could not tell whether it was overexposed or underexposed because it was so stretched to give you both ends. Consequently, we underexposed 25 or so shots trying to gain contrast. I will never repeat that mistake again!
After this error, we needed to rethink our approach. The Elite Team and I had a think tank session and came up with a new strategy. We designed a RAW file that I liked with the Canon computer software, that we called SEAL RAW. Our approach was to start with a neutral picture style with -1 saturation to expose our day exteriors and to light our day interiors, night interiors and night exteriors. Once the exposure was set on the day exteriors and the lighting was dialed in just before rolling, we switched from the neutral setting to SEAL RAW and then recorded on that picture style to give us the ultimate latitude. Our neutral picture style was equivalent to the final look of the film. In theory, it is similiar to a DIT superimposing a final picture look up table on the raw files of a RED One, Sony F35, Sony F23, Panavision Genesis, Arri D21 etc.
Neutral Picture Style
-1 Saturation to Desaturate the Reds
This is what works for my lighting and visual style. Which picture style fits your vision?
Tim was the second place winner for our “Where’s the 5D” online contest. He came to Bandito Brothers this week to meet me for lunch. It was an amazing experience for both of us! Tim is very bright with a vast knowledge of still photography.
Tim checking out the lights used on "Terminator:Salvation"
The day started out with Tim meeting Scotty Waugh, one of the directors of the untitled Navy SEAL movie. Then, Tim and I viewed a variety of scenes from the movie that have not yet been color corrected and we analyzed the shots for lighting and how well the Canon 5D held up to big screen projection. The footage held up very well!
Tim and Shane screen scenes from the movie
Then, we discussed the difference between the sensors in the Canon 5D and 7D cameras, as well as the depth of field. Tim is a huge fan of the 5D and I share his love of the big sensor.
Tim and Shane discussing the Canon 5D Mark II
Tim and I also discussed the nuances of lighting. He was shocked to learn that most of my films are practically lit with lights that come from Home Depot and Grainger.
Shane talks about the power of a 1500 watt metal hallide fixture from Grainger
The day ended with Tim examining our Hurlbut Visuals “Movie Maker in a Pelican” that will be available for rent in early 2010. He was there when our equipment came back from a Marine commercial and helped with the checking in process and organizing. Tim even offered to do lens testing over the holidays!
Tim checking out the pelican
Shane and Tim discuss lens choice
Thank-you Tim for spending the day with us and for your valuable contribution.
In the world of HDSLR technology, media management is a very important position. Every Elite Team member has held this position at some point during the untitled Navy Seal Movie to gain an understanding of HD image capture in a small footprint work-flow system and they all have jumped in head first!
The unique skill set that my Elite Team brings is that they all have a film background and are comfortable with certain rituals that accompany being a motion picture film loader and 2nd assistant cameraman. These include: managing the truck; keeping track of the gear and specialty pieces of equipment; creating an inventory and log; assessing how many magazines you have to load and color coding it according to the stock; labeling the magazines with the date, job, film stock and amount loaded on the magazine itself; and writing a camera report with the same information.
The system we designed for the untitled Navy Seal Movie is a mixture of the traditional film loader combined with the DIT job in the digital world. On our movie, Mike McCarthy who is a brilliant post production guy at Bandito Brothers with an IQ that I swear is above 180, set up our media manager work-flow system. The Media Manager station is very simple and compact. Sticking with the small footprint approach we employ a Mac Book Pro Laptop, a 24” HD Cinema Display monitor, and 4 External 500GB hard drives.
MacBook Pro
We shoot 10 to 15 minutes on a 8GB card. I like using the 8GB cards the best because the counter on the top of the camera kicks in depending on jpeg settings at approximately 15 minutes of media recorded. This is a great gauge. Once the counter starts to come off of 999 we re-load the card. Just like a 1000 foot magazine on a film camera.
Card Reader with 8GB Card
There are three important reasons to do it this way:
We can get that to the media manager and he can check the focus on his big monitor. We all know how critical the focus is with these cameras.
The cards tend to heat up and when that happens the noise factor goes up. So keeping a fresh card in there is very good way to keep the image as clean as possible.
It promotes a steady pace of backing up cards, so if for any reason something happened to the camera or the card you are not losing a whole day worth of footage.
In our work-flow system, the 8GB card from the 5D camera goes to the media manager. He downloads the media into the computer and simultaneously sends it to the 4 external hard drives. After the download is complete, he checks for focus and exposure and labels each set-up for the assistant editor with as much detail and description as possible. Then, he formats each card before sending it back to the cameras in the field. When the cards go back to the field to be reused, the camera assistant knows to double check that each card is coming back empty.
2 of 4 Hard Drives
Next, one hard drive is shipped to the editor to start logging the footage; one is a back up if the original one gets lost in shipping. A third is for the director to view on his laptop. The last one is a “cloned master “of what we sent to the editor, which is held in post. This system has been successful in delivering the entire equivalent of 1.8 million feet of film safely into the edit room.
How do you manage media? What successes have you had? I would love to hear your formula.
Click here to view the 720p & 1080p versions of Navy Swimmer: Mountain Rescue & Sea Rescue Sequences
Here is the breakdown for the Mountain Rescue portion of Navy Swimmer.
1-camera in deep water housing which captures underwater and split level shots
1-camera mounted on the Navy Swimmers helmet to capture him exiting the helicopter and being lowered down in between the rocks, and then lifting back off of the rocks and back into the helicopter
1- camera mounted on a Cine flex gyro mount on an A-star helicopter giving us helicopter to helicopter shots; our scope. The Navy swimmer helicopter leaving the tarmac, heading to mountain rescue location, hovering at a scene, and then heading back to base. Mission accomplished
1- camera in the Navy Swimmer helicopter capturing pilots communications, Navy Swimmer & Corpsman getting ready, jumping out of helicopter and retrieving climber
4- cameras on the mountain terrain with 4 different focal lengths lensing the action from a distance. 1-300mm Canon, 1-600mm Canon, 1-70-200mm Canon Zoom, and 1-100-400mm Canon Zoom
3-cameras hand held underneath the choppers prop washing getting more intimate coverage, seeing the Corpsman lower down, then Navy Swimmer comes down with the backboard, hand held as they help climber, and then document him getting pulled up to the helicopter
1-camera on tarmac in a mini-van as Navy Swimmers get the call
1- camera hand held following the swimmers to the helicopter and preparing before lift-off
1-camera on wide shot as helicopter lifts off
Here is the breakdown for the Sea Rescue portion of Navy Swimmer.
1-camera in deep water housing which captures underwater and split level shots
1-camera mounted on the Navy Swimmers helmet in a surf housing so that it can take on water
1- camera mounted on a Cine flex gyro mount on an A-star helicopter giving us helicopter to helicopter shots, our scope
1- camera in the Navy Swimmer helicopter capturing pilots communications, Navy Swimmer & Corpsman getting ready, jumping out of Helicopter and retrieving pilot
4- cameras on a boat back away from the prop wash and with 4 different focal lengths. 1-300mm Canon, 1-600mm Canon, 1-70-200mm Canon Zoom, and 1-100-400mm Canon Zoom
1-camera on tarmac in a mini-van as Navy Swimmers get the call
1- camera hand held following the swimmers to the helicopter and preparing before lift-off
1-camera on wide shot as the helicopter lifts off
My Elite Team makes me shine everyday and the visuals that you see are a collaborative effort!
The Bandito Brothers Production Company has a very unique work flow. I have adopted the Bandito Brothers “Real Time” shooting module and combined it with “traditional” filming. Here is how we made it work for the Navy Swimmer commercial.
Imagine prepping, shot listing and then letting the action play out in real time like a play. We put the cameras in and around the Navy SEALS action to document it without interrupting to get amazing moments of serendipity that would not have happened it they were broken down into individual shots. We shot in real time.
First, we set up “cover sets,” a concept coined by director Michael “Mouse “ McCoy. We then discuss the operation and where to best set up our cameras to cover it. The Elite Team is put in place and we run the image capture live as it happens. No stopping the action and breaking it down into pieces; we run the whole thing again until we get all of the necessary coverage.
Here is the breakdown for the Pool Training Sequence for Navy Swimmer.
1-camera in deep water housing which captures underwater and split level shots
1- camera on a dolly tracking profile with swimmers that moves at water level and then submerges to see them swim underwater
1-camera on 300mm Canon lensing medium shots of the recruits as they pop out of the water and sit at the pools edge
1-camera on 600mm Canon lensing extreme close-up shots of the recruits as they pop out of the water and sit at the pools edge
1-camera on a high overhead shot as the swimmers head at camera to take in the scope.
1-camera high speed on a dolly tracking at water level with the swimmers
1- camera hand held on 70-200mm Canon Zoom going rogue and capturing little bits
Navy Swimmer 720p & 1080p
The serendipity moments are real; you feel like you are experiencing it as if you are the Navy Swimmer, Diver, or SEAL. We are able to lens these 3 minute spots for the Navy in 3-4 hours with our small footprint shooting module. Now, there are moments while we are shooting that have Blue on Blue filming, which is a military term that means you are shooting yourself. For the few seconds where the other cameras are seen, we then go to Brett the magician in the After Effects room at Bandito Brothers to deliver his artistry. He has painted me out of several shots, the most obvious one was on the swim deck of the yacht on the “Where’s the 5D MIO SEAL operation.”
This is groundbreaking filming which is unique in its style and execution and has only been possible since the invention of the Canon 5D, 7D and 1D cameras.
I am in Cambodia for the next 2 weeks to film the explosive opening of “The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday” for Legendary Pictures and Bandito Brothers about the undercover operations of the Navy SEALS. It is the final segment that we need to shoot before wrapping the project.
Street scene in Cambodia
Great visual, this is the main form of transportation
On this last leg of the movie, I have only two members of the Elite Team with us, so we are in super stealth crew mode. I thought it might be interesting to describe our unique small footprint work flow. Starting with my Elite Team, here are the 2 most important elements when I interview and choose co-collaborators.
1. Hand pick a few team members who have the expertise and ability to simultaneously handle more than one job. Be certain they do it well without getting flustered.
2. Trust the eye of each member you choose. I can give a camera to my Elite Team members and send them to capture images without having to constantly check up. They have the eye and the instinct for what is important on this project and what looks phenomenal.
The 5D Mark II camera fits perfectly with the small footprint work flow because it requires a smaller crew size due to its size and versatility. On this movie we had access to a Nuclear Sub, an Amphibious Assault Destroyer, Blackhawk helicopters, Mark IV helicopters, SOC-R jet boats. With the tight quarters in most of those locations and the spontaneous action of the SEALS, the small, nimble 5D with our Elite Crew was the perfect fit to go anywhere and capture the action. The spontaneous action of the Navy SEALS was then able to play out in real time because we were observers and not the focal point.
This is the wave of the future. Small footprint, small crew, small truck, small camera package, small lighting package, less waste, fewer resources and power being consumed. Financially responsible film making equals HUGE VISION!!!
One final side note, please be patient if I do not immediately respond to blog posts as my access to the internet is spotty and we have long shooting days. I value your input on the blog and know that when I have a minute I will get back to you personally.
What a fun time it was last week at Emerson College! Professor Bosmajian’s advanced cinematography class was fantastic! I showed footage from the undercover Navy SEAL movie to have the students take each shot apart to analyze both the lighting and photography. We talked about the new Canon 5D and 7D cameras and how they are changing the game; shifting the paradigm. We reviewed the basics of lighting and practiced those skills on a three wall set that the students put together. We reviewed color temperature, how its use can give you more of a three dimensional image, and discussed how to use a monitor to light from in the field or a studio to light. I showed the students the use of a fill light and they decided what level they liked while seeing it real time on the Hurlbut Visuals lighting monitor.
Shane explaining the benefits of the 5D and 7D for student projects
Students, Faculty and Alumni listening to Shane's experience shooting with the 5D
Shane explaining the paradigm shift and when to choose an HDSLR camera for a project
I value your input from the blog post “What Do You Think Film Students Need To Know?” Here is how I incorporated your thoughts into my presentation at Emerson.
The students
Heard that studying the history of film is important
Heard that the story is KING
Heard that experiencing everything is important so they have the ability to appreciate each co-collaborator and understand their unique talent
Practiced composition and discussed how to expose film
I also addressed the Emerson Faculty and Alumni to explain the paradigm shift with HDSLR technology and pointed out that Emerson could position themselves as a leader in embracing this new technology.
Shane meeting with Faculty and Alumni at Emerson College
Thank-you to everyone at Emerson for their enthusiasm, participation and expertise in pulling off a wonderful event. Emerson’s facilities were in one word:IMPRESSIVE. They are giving the students everything possible to dream!
Josh came down to San Diego on Wednesday to join the me and the Elite Team for a 5am call. He stayed at the Indigo Hotel with us (my treat) the night before because I didn’t want him to have to drive all night for such an early shoot.
Josh behind the camera making movie magic.
In the morning, we lit a late afternoon day interior and talked about the different lighting options. Then, we moved to the cemetery to set up 9 cameras for the funeral shot. Josh operated a 5D with a 70-200 Canon zoom for the close-up shots of the Navy SEALS at a funeral. He also stayed on the same camera with the zoom to shoot a profile shot of the F18 flyover.
Josh in the zone feeling the shot.
Setting up for the next shot.
Josh and one of the Elite Team getting ready.
Josh surveying the next shot.
Making magic happen!
It was great to have Josh on the set with us and to get to know him better. Josh sent me a thank-you note which sums it all up in his words.
“Hi Shane,
I just wanted to say thanks again for having me on the set yesterday. I had
a great time, and it was cool to see a movie making such innovative use of
affordable new technology. I didn’t get to see that new 5d sizzle reel you
mentioned, but I’m sure I will be seeing it soon on your blog. I look
forward to seeing the film in the theater and trying to spot any footage
that came from the camera I was operating. Anyway, good luck with the rest
of the shoot, and let me know if you ever need anyone to help out again on
anything you do. I’m pretty much up for anything. Thanks again.”
Sincerely,
Josh
Tags: 
What Do You Think Film Students Need To Know?
We Have A Winner To Our “Where’s the 5D” Contest
What Happens When You Mix A BMW M3, A Beautiful Woman and HDSLR Cameras?
WOW, ALL OF YOU ROCK!
Where’s the 5D?
“A Dark Fairy Tale”
The Canon 5D Mark II vs. Extreme Heat
Camera Configurations: Your Best Ally
Find The Time To Boost Your Creativity
Nikon Lenses: Sharp and Soft