Louis C.K.'s new show "Louie"

[Paul Koestner]

Clint is dead on here. And again, different scenarios call for different strategies. There is, for instance, no tape measure hologram floating in the space that exists between an actress's eyes and the focal plane. She might tape out to six feet two inches when she's reclining against the banquette, but where she ends up as she stares Louie down for her big line is anybody's guess. And to hold at five feet three because that's where she taped out when you asked her to show her forward position (if you're lucky enough to have that conversation) is a fool's game if she's soft in the monitor. No, this is primarily a lag problem, and maybe a bit of a 3D problem (if you're there in the space with her, you might guess the move better than keeping your head glued to the monitor). I have to say, if I believed my monitor was giving me real time images I'd be hard pressed as the AC to pull my face away even if I were standing right next to the camera. In our real world scenario, knowing what I know now, I'd be ping-ponging between my monitor and the world directly in front of the camera.

One of these days focus will be handled by servos receiving info from sensors tracking the iris of the AC as he stares at the talent. That's my future shock fantasy, anyway. In the mean time, yeah, it's a practiced art form, no question about it.

Keep this stuff coming, guys, while I have time to ruminate on solutions. This hiatus wont last forever.

Paul

 

[Nick Gardner]

I do a lot of steadicam which has the same inherent problem of both the talent and the camera moving. One thing that can be very helpful is reference marks on the ground. Not marks that anyone is supposed to hit, just marks that let you know how far away things are from a given point. Also, a good focus puller will often put them self in the best position to see the relationship between the talent and the camera, often this is not right next to the camera but somewhere else. Really, it comes down to the fact that once you hit a certain size close up, at a certain stop, it just gets really fucking hard.

Some ACs are better than others. I have been on jobs where they fired the first and brought in another guy to pull focus because they buzzed a couple of closeups. You guys could bring in a ringer focus puller, see if he had any better luck than your regular guy. If not, then you are probably at the limits of what to realistically be able to pull off. On the other hand, if the ringer nails it, maybe send your focus puller to focus boot camp ;-)

BTW are you guys using a cinetape? - Edit, I reread Clint's post and saw he mentioned the cinetape. I always kind of half suspected that the Cinetape was mainly a thing for the AC to rent to production rather than an actual tool ;-) They can be useful, but they have to be set up right and you have to know how to interpret the info, you can't just dial in what it says on the cine tape, it's just another reference. I would love to figure out how to sync the laser on a hilti or something similar with the shutter so you could paint the target with the laser while shooting. Would be a great job for the second. You could have a read out on the camera (or wherever), and the second keeps the red dot on the talent. I think panavison has an apparatus like that for rent. I recall reading about it one one of those running movies or horse movies where you have somebody running right at you full tilt on a 600mm lens ;-)



Nick