Jun 30

Bert Hinchman, Corey James, and Don Scribner

Just posted a new microsode of the “Leonard Who?” show. This one is called Under Construction and it was another great improvisational piece by Don Scribner and Bert Hinchman. This one was really fun to shoot. We set up a few concepts for each of the three areas within a small construction site and let the action happen as it did naturally. Went did one pickup shot — the alternate angle of Leonard shooting the slingshot, but other than that it was one continuous take I just edited in a moderately logical order.

Mark Englert (our composer and lead guitarist for the band Dramarama) really came through with a great musical piece for this microsode. I got an email from him saying “I just got an idea from watching a cat litterbox commercial.” Now if that doesn’t sum up the random wackiness of the “Leonard Who?” show I don’t know what does!

Gear list:

  • Two Canon HV20 cameras
  • Sennheiser ME-66 shotgun microphone with zeppelin (handheld by camera operator)
  • Beachtek DXA-2S XLR to 1/8?adapter
  • A bunch of hardware store clip lights (those silver aluminum shop lights) with 200 watt clear bulbs to light the rooms

We love music
This post written while listening to the Taken By Trees album Open Field. Thanks to MattO of Ink tattoo & piercing shop in Superior, WI for the music recommendation.

Jun 23

This weekend we shot another microsode of the “Leonard Who?” show. What made this production unique was the introduction of a second Canon HV20 camera and a pair of wireless microphones to our shooting arsenal. Since the inception of the show, we have always had a single director/camera operator/sound guy (me).

I’ve shot a ton of corporate/industrial video as a one-man crew with multiple cameras, so I was determined to keep things lean on this production and do everything myself. To add an additional challenge I set out to shoot, edit and post online within 48 hours. How did things work out? Well, some good things and some lessons learned…

Lesson 1 - Auto White Balance = Bad Choice

Chalk this one up to the “doh!” category. I arrived at the location on a wonderfully sunny day with a limited time frame in which to shoot. I know better, but because of the time limitation and great natural light pouring in from huge windows, I opted to set both cameras on auto white balance to save time between shots. My normal workflow is to shoot a slate, chip chart, and set white balance for each camera at least every scene/camera position change. Those few minutes between each shot might add a half hour to production time but can save many hours on color correction in post.

Lesson 2 - If using two mics, check the adapter setting for stereo

No excuse for this one. I use a Beachtek adapter to step XLR cables down to 1/8″ for the HV20 camera and generally shoot with a single shotgun mic. When shooting with a single mic I set the adapter to mono. Makes sense that since I was shooting with two wireless mics I should set the adapter to stereo so I could have two isolated audio tracks (one per actor) to work with when editing. Yeah, about that…woops.

Lesson 3 - Check focus on B camera between each take

I locked off the B camera for some over the shoulder (OTS) shots while I roamed with camera A to follow any actor movement. The OTS shots looked really beautiful compositionally, but as the actors shifted within the frame they threw off the focus which I not set to manual. In the future I’ll be sure to make composition decisions not just on framing but also on focus and depth of field, even on a quick run & gun shoot.

Lesson 4 - Work on blocking with your actors

This one is related to Lesson 3 when it comes to locked camera composition, but needs to be taken a step further. We usually shoot the “Leonard Who?” show with a great deal of freedom in movement & dialog with the actors. As we try to improve the production qualtiy we’re working hard to find a balance between those freedoms, quick shooting, and a high quality production. One of the first places we are focusing is on actor blocking — setting marks for movement and running quick rehersals with cameras rolling so we can all watch a quick playback so the actors know their marks and how they relate to dialog.

Lesson 5 - Work from a checklist

I’m developing a checklist for two-camera, one-operator video production that should help maintain the quality of production. All the areas above, plus a couple more will be covered on a single, laminated notecard. More to come on this one.

Lesson 6 - Sometimes it’s best to lock off the cameras and just direct

One of our actors, Ridge Tolbert, reminded me that sometimes a scene can just play itself out without camera movement. Ridge made me realize that I sometimes I overthink the technical aspects of the production instead of setting the cameras, calling “action”, and paying attention to the actors.

Bonus Lesson - Gaffer tape is your friend

Canon HV20 with wireless microphone receivers

This photo is of camera B. I love the fact that the HV20 camera is almost the same size as the two wireless mic packs. Good thing for gaffer tape!

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Overall, it was a fun weekend and we’re all generally pleased with the resulting video. We shot the first frame on Saturday morning around 9:00 a.m. and uploaded the final footage to the web distribution sites by 9:00 p.m. on Sunday. 36 hours. Not much sleep but a great exercise in indie filmmaking.

See the final product at: http://leonardwho.com/season-2-microsode-7-ghosts-and-waffles/

The complete production gear list for this production:

We love music!
This post written while listening to Great Northern on the Morning Becomes Eclectic show from KCRW radio

May 27

This weekend I built a simple wooden camera dolly for filming stop motion animation (photos of the dolly in upcoming posts). Also began painting the residential street set. Many details remain to be added.

The below video is shot on a Canon HV20 with a wide angle lens adapter. I didn’t to any lighting of the scene, its just a 75 watt household bulb directly above the scene. Threw a blue foamcore board behind the set for a quick “sky”. Anyhow, its fun to get the pace of the 12 frames per second (fps) recording and play with the depth of field a bit (camera was set at f1.8). Using iStopMotion on my MacBook Pro as usual.

May 24

The first set is 80% built for the stop-motion music video I’m doing for the band Cars & Trucks. This residential set will feature about a dozen cardstock houses, very simplistic and childlike in design. The majority of action will be accomplished by camera moves and the movement of Matchbox style toy vehicles.

I will post photos of the set under construction soon. Right now I’m debating on how to dress the backgrounds of the set. Blue sheet on the wall? Shoot on green screen stage?

May 17

Shot a quick test today to evaluate iStopMotion software from Boinx for use shooting a music video in June. Set up the following gear on the coffee table in the living room:

The only trick here was to make sure the HV20 was in DV mode. iStopMotion (as well as iChat) won’t recognize cameras running in HDV mode.

I kept the camera in a fixed position, adjusting focus manually as I moved the elements across the frame. I moved the LED light in a small arc as the CD cover became the focal point. These little LED lights seem like they’ll be pretty handy for stop motion animation work.

Next test will be with my RNG35 adapter with my 50mm/1.8 lens. Stay tuned.

Apr 14

A big THANK YOU goes out to all the folks that have made the Leonard Who?™ show possible this year. We started this little project in April 2007 and in one year have crested the 10,000 download mark for our shows! In fact, we’re on pace to hit closer 13,000 through all our distribution channels (YouTube and the other usual suspects).

I’d like to take a minute to mention everyone that’s helped get us this far:

  • Don Scribner - Actor, Executive Producer
  • Daniel “Skip” Petras - Writer
  • Mark Englert - Music Composer
  • Bert Hinchman - Actor
  • Lauren Crawford - Executive Producer

Our small team has done a great job of making a wacky little show about a guy named Leonard Carlson quite an interesting experience :)