MACOMBER PRODUCTIONS

CIRCLE OF TAPAWINGO

Rick Macomber — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 23:29:06 +0000

Circle of Tapawingo takes a look at how a bereavement camp in Maine helps heal the pain of young girls grieving the loss of a parent. Produced/edited by Rick Macomber, co-produced Julie Geer and beautifully shot by Chris Loughran, this story will pull at your heartstrings.

Artwork created by camper

HOW WE MADE THE ATC MUSIC VIDEO “READY OR NOT”

Rick Macomber — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:12:31 +0000

Air Traffic Controller NORDO Album

Here’s the latest Air Traffic Controller music video from their NORDO album titled “Ready or Not,” written by singer/songwriter Dave Munro. We shot the entire story with the Canon C300, both the narrative and the performance segments, using Kessler Cranes, Kessler Pocket Dolly, Kessler Stealth slider, Tilta rig, ikan D7w monitor and a Glidecam HD 4000 with the forearm support brace.

C300 handheld with Tilta rig. Photo by Sean Meehan

What I love about the Canon C300 EOS Cinema Camera is how it can be rigged up for handheld work, or stripped down compact and light for using handheld in tight spaces with the onboard hand grip and EVF. It’s also light enough stripped down for slider and Glidecam work. This was a personal project for me and the crew.

Canon C300 with 50mm f1.4 lens at sunset

Kessler Crane fun. Photo by Sean Meehan

Kessler slider shot

Explaining Tilta mattebox on C300 to Michael Murie. Photo by Sean Meehan

ikan D7w monitor and Torch BOLT LED. Photo by Sean Meehan

Glidecam in Harvard Square. Photo by Sean Meehan

This is how it all went down.

When I first heard Dave Munro perform a solo acoustic version of “Ready or Not” at Hugh O’Neill’s, our local open mic pub in Malden, MA, it touched me. It touched me because I knew it had personal meaning to Dave. And I knew right then and there I wanted to shoot a music video for that song. So when Dave’s band Air Traffic Controller put the finishing touches on their new album NORDO and I saw that “Ready or Not” was one of the tracks, I was ready! Dave gave me the green light and I started working on my concept for the story. I sent Dave a rough draft of my script and he dug my idea. I wanted the song to begin with a boy and a girl playing hide and seek in the woods.

Mickie counts it out

Addie peeks out from behind the tree

My vision was to have the boy searching for the girl throughout the song and then insert band performance shots during the chorus sections. Those band shots would be executed in a nice flat cornfield I scouted in western Massachusetts where there were no buildings, hills or trees so we could get a western sky behind the band at sunset. More on that later. After hashing out the script with Dave over a Guinness at a bar in Southie, we decided on creating two parallel stories for the song, one of the children playing hide and seek and their search during the game, and another story with two adults in the middle of a crumbling relationship where the woman bolts out the door, and the guy chases after her, creating a second search. There would also be flashbacks to happier times in their lives together.

A moment in time C300 screen grab

Happier times flashback on Weeks Footbridge in Cambridge, MA

I put out a casting call on Models Mayhem and got lucky. I found Eddie Nason for the part of the man and Andrea Lopez for the part of the woman. Since I wanted them to resemble the children in order to give the viewer the impression that the kids just might be a flashback, Andrea and Eddie were perfect for the roles.

Andrea and Eddie in the flashback dream scene

Addie on ikan D7w monitor taking direction. Photo by Sean Meehan

Addie POV of Mickie looking in closet

For the kids we cast Addison Earle as the girl and Mickie Munro as the boy. Addie is the daughter of my friend Kent Earle and Mickie is the son of ATC’s drummer, Rich Munro. The resemblance between Addie and Andrea was uncanny.

Addie hides behind cello

You’ll notice that throughout the video Addie is hiding in various locations behind a cello. The recurring visual of the cello represents the string arrangements you hear in the song and helps to create the dreamy story line over and over. I borrowed the cello from actress and model Heajee Leah Kim, who we used recently for a Canon C300 short film “Wonder No More” with fellow Boston filmmaker Paul Antico. I was hoping Heajee could have also been in this music video but her schedule did not permit her to participate.

Addie at Strawbeery Hill Farm with cello

Glidecam shot at Fort Hill Park. Photo by Sean Meehan

Mickie searching the mansion

I also wanted to use some cool locations, because well… cool locations help to create a look and feel for a film. Ultimately those spots would include Harold Parker State Forest in North Andover, MA, Fort Hill Park in Lowell, MA, a farm in Andover, MA and a beautiful old mansion on a hill located in Lowell, MA. The home was fantastic with a beautiful front and rear staircase and an attic with perfect morning sunlight shining through a gargoyle in the window that gave us spectacular rays of light once we added fog to the room.

Morning rays of light in the attic

Pigeon silhouette screen grab from POND5 stock footage

Some tricks were incorporated into the music video. There’s a natural break in the song where I wanted pigeons to suddenly fly in front of the lens when Addie first sneaks into the attic. Don Berube gave me the names of some local guys from Greater Boston Homing Pigeon Concourse. I contacted them but nobody wanted to release their pigeons indoors, especially in an attic where they could freak out and possibly get hurt. So when we did the scene, I shot a GS plate of the room with the fog machine going in case we could get someone later to release their birds outside in front of a green screen. But then Don’s brother Dan Berube, who runs the BOSCPUG events in Boston, sent me a link to POND5 HD stock footage. He found a fantastic clip of birds in flight in silhouette that I could effectively key over Addie’s silhouette just as she looks over her shoulder. I added a bit of wing flapping foley and it did the trick. The shot held just long enough to make it look realistic and the sudden moving imagery and sound fit into the the musical break very nicely.

Pigeons keyed over attic scene

Bedroom scene upside down. Photo by Sean Meehan

We did another trick with flip flopping images. Since the bed was jammed up against the wall at the headboard in the small spare bedroom where we shot the bedroon scene, instead of moving the bed away from the wall, we placed Andrea and Eddie’s heads at the foot of the bed and shot them upside down. Then we flipped the image in post. We used this same technique for some of the low angle shots of feet by flying the Glidecam upside down and flipping it in the edit.

Human car mount by “Any Means Necessary.” Photo by Sean Meehan

Moving shot of Eddie in car.

We did the shots from the hood of the car without using suction mounts. We had absolutely no budget for this video so I decided to try a hood shot like I had accomplished in my 3 minute short film challenge “Anniversary Day,” where I rode on the hood of a Jeep while holding on to some hooks and securely placing my feet on the large front bumper. Don’t worry. We were driving slow. But for this stunt we were using a sedan with no hooks or secure bumper. So Sean Meehan, who was shooting the BTS along with Adam Kerchman, suggested I try resting the camera in the recessed area where the wiper blades retract and walk along next to the car holding the camera in place. It actually fit into the recessed area quite nicely. I used my Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 with a polarizing filter to cut the glare off the windshield so we could see Eddie clearly inside the car. Again we were driving very slow but the reflection of the autumn colored leaves and tree limbs playing on the windshield made it look like Eddie was driving faster than he actually was. I wish we had a bean bag or the new Philip Bloom VBag to rest the C300 on. That would have been better than perfect!

ikan D7w in action. Photo by Adam Kerchman

Alison Shipton and Kiara Ana Perico

Sunset at Harold Parker State Forest

It was difficult to get all the band members together to shoot the performance parts. Everyone had schedule conflicts. So when the the string section was available, even though the band was not, we decided before it got any colder outside we’d shoot Alison Shipton and Kiara Ana Perico playing at Harold Parker State Forest with a breathtaking sunset in the trees behind them and worry about getting the rest of the band at a later time. When we wrapped the shoot, we saw that the sun was still hanging on the horizon, making some gorgeous color in the clouds. I threw the C300 back on the sticks and rolled on it until all the color was gone, figuring I could use the shot for a nice timelapse somewhere in the video. We left Harold Parker feeling good about the shoot.

Setting the studio lights

CU of Dave Munro and Casey Sullivan with projected studio backdrop and warm light

The final piece to this cinematography puzzle was to find a location in which to shoot the actual band segments. And now that we were into mid January in New England and the dead of winter, it made no sense to use a cornfield in the middle of nowhere now for those shots. It was too damn cold outside. So I asked Dave’s brother Jeff Munro, who runs the studio at Arlington Community Media, if we could shoot the band segments there. He made that happen. That’s when I remembered I had that long sunset clip I shot at Harold Parker. I decided I’d use a timelapse of that as a backdrop behind the band to give it a similar look and feel of the scene we had shot of the string section at Harold Parker. Jeff and I did a test at his studio using my old 4×3 SD projector mounted up in the lighting grid. That image was too small when projected on the wall to fit the entire band in front of it and the projector didn’t output enough brightness and contrast for the job, which gave the image a washed out look. So I checked online at B&H and found an awesome Vivitek D950 1080p HD projector with a 3,000:1 contrast ratio for short change. We lit the studio set with some CTO gels on nice rim and back light to give the band an orange glow that would emulate the sunset from the projected image behind them.

Jeff Munro mounts Vivitek projector. Photo by Sean Meehan

ATC in front of 1080p projected sunset timelapse

The video has two distinctive shooting styles. Most of the narrative scenes were either shot on a Miller Solo tripod, on the Kessler slider or the Kessler Crane, all donated for the entire length of the shoot by Mike Sutton and Paul Antico. The performance shots were all handheld except for one crane shot of Dave during a specific vocal moment where I thought it might look cool to move the camera up and away from him as he sang. I was going to bring along the Kessler Crane to the studio but Jeff said he had a crane there all set up. So we went with that crane. Turned out it needed a bit of work and we ended up using gaffer’s tape to make it work! But after multiple takes we got the shot!

Dave’s studio crane shot. Photo by Sean Meehan

Finally once in post production we decided to give the film a warm and slightly desaturated look for the color grade in keeping with the scenes we shot in the forest and in the studio. We used a combination of Magic Bullet Looks and a cool Instagram look plugin from Cineblur.

I won’t spoil the ending… but let’s just say it’s a bit unconventional and has lots to do with dreams, gargoyles and the magical possibilities that exist spiritually in life and death. Thanks to everyone involved in making this music video happen.

DIRECTOR/DP
Rick Macomber

LIGHTING
Kent Earle, Jeff Munro, Adam Kerchman

EDITOR
Rick Macomber

GLIDECAM/CRANE OPs
Rick Macomber, Jeff Munro

COLORISTS
Nora Raza’ai, Aaron Strader, Kevin Scanlon

LOCATION MANAGER
Kent Earle

STUDIO PROJECTION
Jeff Munro

BTS CINEMATOGRAPHY
Sean Meehan, Adam Kerchman

BTS STILLS
Sean Meehan, Jeff Munro

PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS
Mikayla Amoling, James Kent, Anthony Bisceglia, Bob Shepard Clapp

CAST
Boy – Mickie Munro
Girl – Addison Earle
Woman – Andrea Lopez
Man – Eddie Nason

THE BAND
Dave Munro – guitar, vocals
Steve Scott – guitar, vocals, keyboard
Casey Sullivan – bass guitar, vocals
Rich Munro – drums
Kiara Ana Perico – viola
Alison Shipton – violin

SPECIAL THANKS
Bridget Amoling, Mike Sutton, Kessler Crane, Paul Antico, Dan Berube, Katie Berube, Don Berube Michael Murie, Preston Kanak, Heajee Leah Kim, Peter Loosigian & Jason Pelletier – Strawberry Hill Farm, Andover, MA and Arlington Community Media, Inc.

Check this BTS video on the making of “Ready or Not” by Sean Meehan and Adam Kerchman

More from Air Traffic Controller: airtrafficcontrollermusic.com/

A WALK IN THE PARK

Rick Macomber — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 23:17:35 +0000

Washington Square Park scene

Waiting for the ball

Baby Soda Jazz Band CDs

While in NYC just a day before Sandy landed in lower Manhattan I took a stroll through Washington Square Park in the village with no intent on shooting a frame of video. But after listening to the Baby Soda jazz band in the square, I switched over to movie mode and produced this short film for them on a whim. Kick back and take a look at a slice of life in Greenwich Village.

Washington Square Park dancers

Card Players

Card players

Baby Soda Jazz Band player

Heart

Shot with a Canon 60D handheld with onboard mic. A few wide shots were supported by benches, walls or the ground.

For more music from Baby Soda: facebook.com/babysoda

TEAM TILTA CAMERA RIG REVIEW

Rick Macomber — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 13:50:03 +0000

Side view of Tilta rig

*** NEW INFO: I have been contacted by many of you about purchasing Tilta gear. I just got back from NAB Show 2013 and we spoke to Tilta about the problems contacting the US distributor. Team Tilta is no longer the US distributor for these rigs. The new US distributor is Intellytech.
Here’s their website: it-photovideo.com/

A Chinese company named Team Tilta has designed a new camera rig system that looks like something out of a Terminator film. On par with other top manufacturers in its build quality, its price point kills the competition. And it’s not just a flesh wound, its currently HALF the cost of many rivals! The manufacturer claims their quick release baseplate is made of aircraft grade aluminum. It is solid. It comes with a shoulder pad and a heavy duty VCT-14 compatible quick release shoe that works on standard broadcast ENG tripod plates. Quick locks mount the baseplate to the included 15mm front rails.

Tilta shoulder pad and ENG v-mount

If you want to remove the camera from the rig, it’s secured with a single knob that tightens a sliding plate.  You can add 15mm rails to the back of the rig so you can balance it out with weights when using a heavier camera. You can also easily attach a power solution like a v-mount plate for powering your camera and other support gear.

I have found the included camera plate to be adequately secure when mounting my Canon C300 to the baseplate. My friend Erik Naso came up with a better solution for mounting heavier cameras such as an F3 or Alexa. He replaced the smaller camera plate that mounts the camera to the baseplate with a longer beefier Manfrotto 357 QR plate which seems to lock in those bigger cameras more securely. Here is a link to Erik’s review.

Tilta mattebox

While I think this is a great rig I do want to mention one issue. If you use the Tilta baseplate when mounting regular non-height adjustable matteboxes to the rails with cameras like the Sony F3 or FS700 you will find that the lens center might be higher than the mattebox center. Therefore you may have to use a riser block for the rails in order to raise the mattebox to center correctly around the lens. I haven’t tried Tilta’s own mattebox yet so I have no way of knowing if their mattebox has the same problem. I’ve contacted Team Tilta and I’m awaiting a reply from them. Here’s a link to a good blog post by Alister Chapman that talks about the mattebox issue.

*UPDATE on using the Tilta mattebox with Canon C300. Even though the mattebox has a height adjustment, it’s still slightly low and off center of the lens. So you will have to purchase a 15mm rail riser block and two additional short 15mm rails in order to use it with an FS100, FS700 or C300. I have still not received a reply from Tilta about this issue.

Universal Handgrip system

Rosette and ratchet locking levers

The Universal Handgrip mounting system works with either 15mm or 19mm rods. I love how they easily clamp on to the rails. The grips are covered in solid rubber for non-slip grasping in cold weather. The handgrip arms adjust to any angle using a rosette locking system and ratchet style locking levers, which makes it easy to tighten or loosen the hand grip arms.

C300 LCD with Hoodman 450 shade

Using C300 LCD flipped on shoulder

I mounted my Canon C300 on this rig and used the camera’s on-board LCD monitor with a Hoodman HD450 sun shade – rotating the screen upside down and pressing the mirror button to flip the image. Tilta makes a replacement C300 top handle that I didn’t order as I am happy with the Canon supplied one. When I inquired about Tilta’s top handle I noticed it doesn’t have any holes for accessories. I would recommend that Tilta add some 1/4 20 tap holes to their top handle.

Tilta follow focus

Tilta follow focus hard stops

The Tilta follow focus hand wheel turns nice and smooth and has two adjustable hard stops for precision focus pulls – love that feature. The unit clamps onto the rails and tightens for a nice secure mount. The gear adjusts laterally by sliding toward the lens gear and locking the large thumb wheel knob. It’s constructed from solid aluminum. It looks and feels much more expensive than it actually is. You can also reverse the gear from front to back using a simple thumb screw – great for Nikon lens users. It comes with a variety of gear ring belts. My only wish is that it shipped with a few different size gears.

There is a catch though – Tilta gear is currently not available in US camera stores and until recently needed to be purchased online via sites like Ebay. Recently that changed because Team Tilta set up a direct sales referral program allowing a select number of users to purchase gear at discounted rates. If you wish to get these discounts you need to approach Tilta to become a Team Tilta member, or be invited by an existing member. Once you are a member you can invite friends to join and each time a friend purchases a Team Tilta product you receive a $20 credit. Team Tilta members are also able to get a one off 50% discount on a purchase if they make a brief (30 second to 1 minute) video providing feedback on a Tilta product they have purchased.

Basically this seems to be a viral marketing campaign where Tilta hopes they can raise the profile of their brand – don’t expect this kind of pricing to last forever.

Currently the promotional price for the Tilta QR Baseplate is $280 US, the Universal Handgrips $280 US and the Tilta Follow Focus $420 US. If you are using a DSLR rather than a large sensor video camera then Tilta also offers a rig called The Runner for $849.00.

The Runner DSLR rig

RIgged out

So yes I joined the Team Tilta program. But I did this gear review because I purchased the rig, loved it and wanted to impart my thoughts about it to the online community. I believe it’s a quality product for a currently unbelievable price. If you combine these individual kit components the total cost from the Team Tilta program is under $1000 US. Some well known brand name rigs cost more than that without including a follow focus. And if you added their price of a follow focus, it would bring the total price tag to almost $2000 US. This kit is currently a great deal if you are on a budget.

For more on how to become a Team Tilta member contact me here or on vimeo.

You can follow Team Tilta on twitter @teamtilta for more on their latest deals.

Soundtrack: Rock of Dawn by LynneMusic.  Available at www.neosounds.com

This review originally appeared on Dan Chung’s DSLR News Shooter website.

Please check out his informative site. Thanks to Dan for his support!

Switronix Torch LED BOLT Review

Rick Macomber — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 03:42:30 +0000

The new Torch LED BOLT

The BOLT is my cup of tea.

This is the newest member of the Switronix Torch LED family. It’s called the BOLT.
It’s 1/6th the size of a 12 inch LED Panel and it’s 2 times as bright. No kidding.

Side by side test with Litepanels Micro

Using the BOLT for daylight outdoor fill.

Dialing daylight with tungsten.

It has two dimmers – one for the 32K set of LEDS and one for the 56K LEDS. You can control them
separately or blend both the tungsten and daylight LEDs together to deliver a very bright light with a color temperature of around 41K.

Interview using the BOLT

Diffusion panel slides into place.

The BOLT draws 22 watts and has 200 watts of light output and a brightness throw of between 40 and 50 feet.
You can also slide the diffusion filter into the included filter tray to soften the light.

BOLT mounted on Canon C300
Photo by Donald Berube

BOLTS for interview an setup.

Interview using two BOLTS dialed to 56K.

Cold shoe mounting on camera.

It can be mounted on the included ¼ 20 swivel cold shoe mount or it can be configured with an articulating arm on standard 15mm rods. It can also be mounted on a light stand with an adapter for typical a interview setup or for outdoor use.

Using BOLTS to light Heajee

Heajee on the Boston Streets

Here’s a few screen grabs from a short film collaboration called “Wonder No More” in which we used two BOLTs on our actress Heajee Leah Kim to highlight her hair and fill shadows on her face. Being totally portable using the BOLT’s long lasting battery power made it easy to light Heajee as we shot around Boston at night.

Long lasting batteries.

Aaron Strader rim lights Heajee with a BOLT
Photo by Paul Antico

The BOLT battery.

The TL-F970 battery that was specifically designed for the BOLT is BIG. I’ve run the light on a recent job on a fully charged battery and it lasted a good 3 hours. And it still had juice left at the end of the gig.

BOLT power tap cable.

The unit also comes with a power tap output on the back so you can power the BOLT with a standard 14.4 volt DC brick battery by plugging in the included power tap cable.

Charge batteries on flat power strip.

Now the bad news. The battery is BIG. The battery is actually too heavy for the charger to stay plugged into a wall outlet. So plan on charging this battery on a flat power strip.

BOLT back view.

It can also be easily knocked off the back of the light. In my opinion the battery receiver was poorly designed and the battery does not really lock into place. However I will say that it never fell off while I was using it.

Contact Switronix or an authorized dealer for pricing.

Using the BOLT for nice outdoor fill.

Model: Taylor Macomber
Soundtrack: “AcidJazz” by Kevin MacLeod incompetech.com

Canon Cinema C300 Night Shoot Collaboration

Rick Macomber — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 06:10:50 +0000

Any time someone asks me to be DP on a shoot with a Canon Cinema EOS C300 I pretty much drop everything and acquiesce. Especially if that someone is my pal Paul Antico of Anticipate Media, who just happens to own one. Paul and I had been discussing doing another collaboration with his C300 after working together recently on the first Boston Under 3 Minute Film Challenge. We also wanted to shoot something that would showcase how beautifully the C300 performs in low light. We came up with “Wonder No More,” The story, written and directed by Paul, is about a young woman who basically gives her boyfriend (played by her real boyfriend Joe Cooke) an ultimatum via text while walking home after work one night in downtown Boston.

The Ultimatum.

Then, through a volley of poetic texts, he leads her through the city to places that were special to them both. Using beautiful city nightscapes as our backdrop, this would be a great way to exhibit the dynamic range of the C300 and weave a short story into the “test.” We found local actress Heajee Leah Kim, who recently had a minor role in the Hollywood film “TED,” WARNING! (uncensored trailer) which was also shot in Boston.

With her black hair against the evening street lights, Heajee was perfect for this role because we could really try to pull out the detail in her hair in post while trying maintaining her fair complexion without blowing it out. We were lucky to have my CBS colleague and friend Aaron Strader with us to assist as lighting director using my two small battery operated Switronix Torch LED BOLT lights. During this shoot we only used the LEDs to fill any shadows in Heajee’s face or to highlight her hair, keeping the BOLTs dialed way down to match the intensity of the city lights.

Aaron Makes it Pop with BOLT LED
Photo by Paul Antico

There were two scenes where we used the lights to accent on master wide shots as seen below. In the opening master shot you can see them cross lighting Heajee from the walls and in the wide shot of Heajee standing alone looking at the city skyline again we used the BOLTs, this time setting them on the ground.

Opening Master Shot.

Heajee lit by BOLT LEDs.

Using a Monopod on Master Shot
Photo by Paul Antico

One of my favorite shots in the film is the one below, which was shot wide open at f2.8 using the Canon 17-55mm IS lens. You can still see enough detail to make out the Zakim Bridge in the bokeh behind Heajee’s face.

Heajee After Texting Ultimatum.

For this shoot Paul wanted me to give it a handheld look. I’m a big advocate of the monopod vs handheld unless there’s constant moving around and bending down. I like the look of a monopod because you can get a slow fluid movement while stationary, but at the same time it takes that shake out of the shot. And I was able to pull off my favorite trick: collapsing the monopod leg and using it as a counterbalance which can add somewhat of a glidecam feel to a shot. Of course this will only work with light cameras like the C300 or DSLRs.

Walking in the North End

Texting on the Streets.

Handheld Storefront Wide Shot with 11-16mm Tokina Lens
Photo by Paul Antico

This was a real run and gun style shoot. Guerilla shooting at it’s best. Completely portable. When we hailed a cab for a driving shot, we asked the cabbie to just take us around the block so I could get a few images moving through the city.

Hailing a Taxi on Hanover Street.

The C300 form factor is so small and light, I was able to hang out the taxi window to capture this cool steady driving shot without holding up a taxi applying suction mounts for camera support. I’ve actually done this trick many times with a very heavy Sony XDCam 700, which balances nicely in one hand as long as you hold the handle tight and don’t drop it!

Hanging Out the Taxi Window

Another one of my favorite shots was the one of Tony from the North End smoking as Heajee strolls by. Actually I must give credit to Aaron for seeing this wonderful scene as my eyes were buried in the C300 EVF. Using my gift of gab to get Tony and the boys to play along… I was able to recreate the street scene and inject a slice of life Italian style into our film.

Tony Exhales on Cue.

This exercise in storytelling by night light was not only lots of fun to shoot, it was also a learning experience for me with the C300 in seeing just how far I could push its limits, and also to see how far I could push Heajee’s limits walking around the cobblestone streets of Boston in heels.

Heels Pound the Pavement

Starring the beautiful Heajee Leah Kim and her real boyfriend Joe Cooke.

Written, Directed, Edited, and Co-Produced by Paul Antico
Cinematography and Co-Produced by Rick Macomber
Production and Lighting Assistant: Aaron Strader
Sound Design by Paul Antico
Music: Waiting for the Ice to Melt by Sarah Schachner (on Vimeo’s Music Store)
Voice of Joe’s Text Messages: Paul Antico

Filmed in Boston MA one late summer night in August, 2012.
Special thanks to Switronix.

“Anniversary Day” 1st Boston 3 Minute Short Film Challenge

Rick Macomber — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 18:36:14 +0000

Nicole Trauffer as Emma Talbot

Matt Stapleton as Dan Talbot

Emma and Dan Talbot are celebrating their wedding anniversary. But sometimes love in the suburbs can get a bit messy.

Directing Matt and Nicole Photo by Paul Antico

Below is one of my shots I borrowed from my favorite film Pulp Fiction. You can hear subtle references to Tarantino’s work in some of the dialogue I wrote for this script.

My ode to Tarantino

So here it is. The first “Under 3 Minute Film Challenge” sponsored by Anticipate Media and Macomber Productions. For this challenge each cinematographer, using a pen as a prop, had to produce a narrative script and shoot it in a few hours on location at The Willows Park in Salem, MA. In addition the phrase “This isn’t going to be easy” also had to be used in the story. It was my first attempt at producing a narrative short. And under tight time constraints. Each of our films were shot within a 3 hour window of time. To be fair we drew names from a hat to see who would shoot first. Not the perfect conditions for filming a short, but the crew bonded and each filmmaker took turns assisting on other shorts. Below Matt Stapleton, Brandon Vincent, Adam Kerchman, Chris Conti and me assist at the park bench.”

Sean Meehan shooting Paul Antico’s “Timing” Photo by Todd Mahoney

Paul Antico had the first crack at it, directing his short film, “Timing,” while Sean Meehan and Matt Stapleton traded off as DP. The weather was overcast during most of Paul’s shoot so the light was flat. We add some reflector light on the actors. But first, while his actors were practicing their lines and he was blocking shots, I took the C300 and knocked off my driving scene with Matt Stapleton in his Jeep, who in addition to his shooting skills, also turned out to be a pretty good actor.

Setting up in Matt’s Jeep. Photo by Aaron Strader

Filming from the back seat. Photo by Todd Mahoney

In the open Jeep, we had some difficulty with wind noise getting into Matt’s mic during his cellphone call dialogue, so we tried some better sheltered side roads, where we found bad potholes, which created too much shake. But we didn’t give up and after many attempts, finally we nailed it.

Will Madden and Nicole Trauffer.
Photo by Aaron Strader

When I returned from shooting my driving scene Paul was ready to roll. His actors, Nicole Trauffer and Will Madden, had just finished rehearsing their lines under a huge elm tree and were ready.

Paul checks his monitor as Adam, Todd and Matt look on.
Photo by Aaron Strader

After Paul shot his scenes I did my opening scene with Nicole Trauffer playing the role of the young wife Emma Talbot in front of a private home I had scouted out the day before. Below Chris Conti adds negative fill with a black reflector to shade Nicole from the bright sun.

Emma Talbot opens anniversary cards on her steps. Photo by Todd Mahoney

Then our crew rushed back to the huge elm tree which faced Beverly Harbor and the warm late afternoon sun. This was the location of the final scene of my short. I was planning on shooting some extreme wide shots with my Tokina 11-16mm lens, but when got to the tree, Paul informed me that Sean was waiting to begin shooting the third and final short film. So I had to knock off my dialogue scene very quickly with only enough time for two shots with reversals and the final shot where Emma’s husband Dan receives the surprise of his life. Matt’s voice over was done later on an H4n digital recorder. Taylor Macomber did the cellphone voice of Margo appropriately on the cellphone!

Dan gets a surprise.

Finally Sean Meehan took control of the C300 for his short film. Aaron Strader helped shoot the opening scene of Sean’s short, “You’re Not Safe Here,” starring Nicole Trauffer, Timothy J. Cox and Todd Mahoney. Adam Kerchman helped shoot the last scene where Nicole is alone in the car. As I said my time was cut a bit short because the light was fading and Sean needed to have continuity in his edit. But even with the changing light conditions, Sean managed to finish shooting enough footage for his story at around 10:30pm at which time we wrapped.

Sean Meehan having fun with the C300.
Photo by Aaron Strader

Todd Mahoney posing as a stranger on a park bench.

Sean had what I consider to be the best light – the magic hour – for his story, as you will see below. I thought he dealt with the changes in the afternoon/evening light very well in the time he had to finish. The C300 also performs very well in low light conditions. The only lights we used on Sean’s short were one Litepanels Micro LED and one Switronix Torch LED BOLT.

Nicole’s character at magic hour.

Tim Cox and Nicole Trauffer in the car scene.

The actors did an amazing job performing on such short notice. Thanks to all of the crew and special thanks to The City of Salem and to Florence and George Ahmed of Salem Willows.

Love is forever!

Here’s Paul Antico’s short titled “Timing.”

Here’s yet another one to watch by Sean Meehan titled “You’re Not Safe Here.” To make it a little easier to understand, this short was made as a continuation of a series of short films from a vimeo contest held a few years ago called “The Story Beyond the Still” which was about a teddy bear, a secret key and a kidnapped girl. Sean came in 2nd place in one of those episodes.

Check out this cool BTS by Aaron Strader right here: 3 Minute Short Film Challenge BTS

Finally Michael Murie did a great blog on the entire day in Filmmaker Magazine

We also had some great assistants who gave up their day to help out on this challenge:

Jesse Sherman, Mykim Dang, Selima-Dell-Smith, Jordan Jennings

Soundtrack Artists

“Sad Trio” by Kevin MacLeod

“Runnin Down a Dream” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

“Rock Me” by Steppenwolf

Canon C300 at The Willows. Photo by Aaron Strader

All of the shorts in this challenge were filmed on the Canon Cinema EOS C300 with various prime lenses.

The Willows

Rick Macomber — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 03:48:13 +0000

Salem Willows Sign

Salem, Massachusetts is one of those coastal towns on the north shore of Boston that has lots of character. I’ve shot many films in Salem since moving here. It’s an historical and colorful place with the tales of the Salem witches and the Mardi Gras atmosphere of Halloween (see my short: Halloween Carnival vimeo.com/16388984)

The Arcade

But when all the tourists have left and summer arrives, locals flock to The Willows, a honky tonk picnic area with beautiful aging willow trees, arcades, a long pier for fishing, a small beach and gorgeous sunsets over Beverly Harbor.

Sunset Over Beverly Harbor

I was lucky enough to borrow a Canon C300 from Dan Berube of BOSCPUG so I could really familiarize myself with it in order to use it to shoot the Boston premiere of Zacuto USA’s Revenge of the Great Camera Shootout 2012 last week. It was my 3rd time with the camera. The first time I only had it briefly to shoot HUSTLE, a BOSCPUG collaboration we did a few months ago using Kessler Crane gear special thanks to Mike Sutton (vimeo.com/37154329). And one more brief collaboration with Paul Antico and Michael Murie on a short called The Cost: vimeo.com/37151341

Low Tide in Beverly Harbor

So thanks to Dan and Canon for putting the C300 in my hands for a few days. Enjoy the film.

Soundtrack: “Schmidt at the Wedding” by Rolfe Kent
Please purchase it on itunes: itunes.apple.com/us/album/about-schmidt-score-from-original/id363026172

Couple Enjoys Sunset

Demo Reel 2012 from Macomber Productions

Rick Macomber — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 15:11:52 +0000

This is my new reel from Macomber Productions. Some of this work was shot for clients. Some just for my own personal projects. I used a Canon 60D for most of the gigs. The exception was a really fun collaboration shoot I did with the Boston Creative Pro User Group with a Canon C300 for the short film called “HUSTLE.” The shots I used in my demo were some of the ones in which I was the DP. You can see the entire film here. Learn more about how HUSTLE was created by visiting my website for this cool BTS.

Directing Master Wide Shot for Hustle

The other exception was the more serious Canon C300 collaboration I did with Paul Antico and Michael Murie from the short film called “The Cost.” The clips I included here are also shots in which I was the DP. You can watch “The Cost” here.

Slider Shot of Murie for The Cost

Singapore Skyline Timelapse Work

The Singapore timelapse work was shot with both a 60D and a GoPro Hero 2.

Even though I’m a strong believer in the phrase: “it’s not about the gear… it’s about the story…” you can really see a big difference between the 60D and the C300 in how the clips hold up after compression and uploading to vimeo.

Fifties on Pool Table from Hustle

I want to thank Mike Sutton, Kessler Crane, Dan Chung, Preston Kanak, Chris Loughran, Dan Berube, Paul Antico and Michael Murie for supporting my work and for helping me to move forward from my many years as TV photojournalist to the possibilities that lay ahead in this exciting digital age.

How a BOSCPUG Canon C300 test film became “HUSTLE”

Rick Macomber — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 17:05:52 +0000

Baylee Wide Shot Screen Grab

Dan and Baylee at the Table

It all began innocently enough as a 3 hour test shoot using Canon’s new Cinema EOS C300 digital cinema camera. Boston Creative Pro User Group (BOSCPUG) Founder/Producer and buddy Dan Berube received a C300 loaner on short notice from Canon to carry with him so he could have it on hand at the San Francisco SuperMeet which Dan produces. Realizing the opportunity, Dan dialed up Boston based cinematographers Chris Loughran, Ben Eckstein and myself to see if we were interested in collaborating on an impromptu shoot for BOSCPUG with Dan and his brother, cinematographer Donald Berube. Working together collaboratively has been something Dan had been talking about doing and this seemed like the perfect opportunity for a BOSCPUG collaboration. Michael Murie from Notes On Video was also invited to do a BTS on the shoot.

Dan Oversees the Action

Dan pulled it together rather quickly. We gave a shout out to my friend Baylee Ricci who does some acting to see if she would be willing to model for the shoot. Then Dan called Felt Boston, a popular bar and pool hall located next to The Paramount Center at Emerson College in Boston to arrange the utilization of their space. They agreed. Suddenly with very little planning we were on the set of what would become the BOSCPUG collaborative short “Hustle.” At the time, however, we had no title for the film. Film? It was just a camera test! Nor did we actually have a story! We had a few lights, a Kessler Crane Lite, a Kessler Pocket Dolly – even a Glidecam.

Screen Grab from Michael Murie

Don and Dan Berube had just been trained on the C300 at Canon and were already familiar with shooting with the camera. Don set up the C300 and its C-Log camera profile for filming and we were ready to go . We lit the set and started shooting establishing shots of Baylee at the pool tables with a few guys who came along to assist. Ben Ekstein brought along a big Panasonic 17″ LCD monitor, an Arri 1K with a Chimera soft box, an Arri 650 and a couple of 300 fresnels. Chris Loughran added his Glidecam, Dan and Don had a nice assortment of Canon “L” Series lenses: 16mm – 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, 70 – 200mm IS and some smalI LED lights. Dan also arranged with LensProToGo to provide two additional “L” Series lenses, a 14mm and 35mm, of which LensProToGo provided great service. I brought the Kessler Pocket Dolly and the Kessler Crane Lite (thanks to Mike Sutton and Kessler Crane).

Don Sets Up Profile (Screen Grab from Michael Murie)

Ben Rocks the Pocket Dolly

Chris, Ben and I took turns setting up various shots. Don was invaluable working with us by showing us where all the buttons were located and the easiest way to change ISO and f stops. After about an hour the C300 became very easy to operate. Ben got some really smooth slider shots on the Kessler Pocket Dolly. Towards the end of the shoot Don and I set up the Kessler Crane and shot the crane moves and Chris rocked his Glidecam around Baylee and the pool table at which she was “hustling.”

Chris on Glidecam

Our time to shoot at Felt Boston was limited, so in order to save time we disconnected Ben’s 17 inch monitor so we could be more mobile. But we didn’t notice an orange ac power cord between the tables during one of the high shots with the crane. That cord was later removed in post by Autodesk Smoke artist Tim Montgomery and the film was then graded by DiVinci Resolve Colorist Rob Bessette at Finish Post of Boston. See what both Tim and Rob did here.

Dan originally wanted this camera test to develop into a story, but because of the short notice in receiving the C300 loaner and the limited time we had to shoot at Felt Boston, the best we could do was to film these various scenes. It wasn’t until the shoot was nearing the end and I was taking a quick bathroom break…

Cue the Angelic Voices

when I had an “epissany” in the stall. I suddenly remembered the Scorsese film “The Color of Money” and decided right there in the men’s room that Baylee could become the pool hall hustler, beating all the guys for money at the end of the film. I ran back upstairs, threw the idea at Dan, who okayed and we immediately started shooting closeups of sinking balls in all the pockets, mostly handheld because the clock was ticking. Then we did a few more closeups of money changing hands.

My Epissany Comes to Life

Then Chris mounted the C300 to the Glidecam for a couple of interior shots of Baylee at the tables. We then moved outside of Felt where Chris followed Baylee with the Glidecam as she strolled down the rain soaked street past the Paramount Center with a knowing smile. Those became the closing shots of the film.

Baylee’s Knowing Smile

Our time was up at Felt that night so we wrapped. Dan was flying out to the San Francisco to produce the San Francisco SuperMeet so he asked Chris to piece together a rough cut while he was away. Dan imported the C300 footage into Final Cut Pro and handed both the project and the footage on a hard drive to Chris.

Pablo Strikes a Pose

Pablo Outtake Screen Grab

When Dan returned from the SuperMeet he really took the reins on the edit to build what is now the story of “Hustle.” Dan found a good outtake of Pablo, the actor with the long hair, in which he seems disgusted and walks out after realizing he’d been hustled by Baylee, which further developed his character. “Hustle” was finally starting to take shape. But after Dan worked towards a final cut, we thought “Hustle” still needed a few more pickup shots to really make it cohesive. Dan felt that it needed an establishing shot of Baylee walking into Felt Boston right after the opening crane shot of the Paramount Theater to make it clear to the viewer that Balyee was in fact going into Felt and not the Paramount. In addition, we wanted to get a nice overhead closeup of pool balls breaking to be inserted with a smash cut edit so we could bring the viewer inside Felt; a closeup shot of Pablo’s hand slamming money on the table right before he walks away; a closeup of Baylee’s grinning face after she sinks a ball to seal the deal that she was in fact the hustler; and finally, we needed to re-shoot the opening crane shot of the theater marquee with the C300 (I had shot the original scene myself one night with my 60D on spec). So Dan booked Felt Boston again for a quick shoot to get 6 more shots that would be added to Dan’s final cut. Both Dan, Don and Baylee met me outside Felt where we wasted no time. The 6 pickup shots were as follows:

Don Adjusts Kessler Crane

Don and Me Working the Crane

1. @ :00 Don and I set up the Kessler Crane for the new C300 crane shot of the Paramount marquee

Baylee Walks In Screen Grab

Wetting the Sidewalk Screen Grab

2. @ :08 Baylee walking into Felt Boston. Here we had to wet down the sidewalk with buckets of water to match the rain soaked street from the first shoot.

Lining Up Cue Ball Shot

CU Cue Ball Screen Grab

3. @ :18 closeup of the stick on the cue ball

Dan and Me Setting Up Overhead Break

Overhead Crane Screen Grab

4. @ :20 overhead crane shot of balls breaking for the smash cut

Throwing Down Money Screen Grab

5. @ 1:46 closeup of Pablo’s hand slamming $50 bills onto the table (we actually used Dan’s hand for the shot)

They’ve Been Hustled Screen Grab

6. @ 2:00 closeup of Baylee’s winning smiling

Now we needed a soundtrack. We were looking for a real raunchy jukebox sound. We used Led Zeppelin’s “When the Levee Breaks” as a proxy for Dan to edit to because of the nasty harmonica and of course Plant’s searing vocals. But because of copyright issues we knew we would have to replace it for the final BOSCPUG short. Chris offered to help record an original track since he’s is no slouch on guitar (he’s actually scored some stuff himself including the open to this TV show “The Vanity Project” on which he was also the DP).

Green Bullet Harp Mic

Harp Soaks Next to Fender Strat

And I have been known to grab a guitar and blow a few blues riffs on the harmonica now and then. So we all decided that Chris and I could create our own soundtrack that would somewhat resemble an instrumental similar to Levee Breaks, but instead of doing a cover of the tune… we would make it our own. So Dan, Chris and I got together for a fun day of recording this original soundtrack. We rocked out on a couple of guitar tracks, some keyboards and blues harmonica using Logic Pro. Dan also brought “Hustle” to Soundtrack Studios where Brian McKeever did an excellent job on adding all of the foley you hear in the short.

Chris Adds Keyboards

Dan and Chris Listening to Soundtrack

There you have it. That’s the skinny on how a short test with the C300 became “HUSTLE.” It was a great experience collaborating with some very talented folks from BOSCPUG and within the city of Boston. The good news is… there’s already more collaboration in the works.

Check out Rob Bessette’s excellent work as a Colorist (Rob graded “Hustle”) with before and after shots here.

Scott Simmons has just posted more insight into the making of “Hustle” with “The C300 short Hustle and some before and after images” over at ProVideoCoalition.com

Check out Michael Murie’s cool “Hustle” BTS shoot from Notes On Video

Also check out another collaborative effort by Paul Antico, Rick Macomber and Michael Murie with “The Cost” – again shot on the Canon C300.

Thanks to Dan and BOSCPUG for the opportunity, and to Ben, Chris, Don and to Baylee our lovely star! Also thanks to Norman Lang, Todd Mahoney for helping as part of the crew.

Special thanks to Mike Sutton and Kessler Crane for use of the Kessler KC-Lite Crane and Pocket Dolly; and to LensProToGo for their great support; and to our “other” star of the short – FELT BOSTON

All footage was captured using Canon C-Log Gamma mode.

Lenses used were Canon “L” Series glass: 14mm, 35mm, 16-35mm, 50mm, 85mm, 70-200mm.

Glidecam 4000HD was used for stabilizer shots.

Kessler KC-Lite Crane was used for crane shots.

Kessler Pocket Dolly was used for dolly shots.

Edited in Final Cut Pro 7 just prior to Canon releasing their XF Plugin for Final Cut Pro X.

Graded in DaVinci Resolve by Rob Bessette at Finish Post to test the dynamics of the Canon C300′s XF codec, which held up beautifully with no issues through finishing.

Tim Montgomery of Finish Post used Smoke to remove an orange AC cable from three shots in the background and to show how well Canon’s C300 XF codec stood up in post.

Original music recorded in Logic Pro by Chris Loughran with Chris on guitars and keyboards and Rick Macomber on harmonica.

Foley for “HUSTLE” by Soundtrack Studios

Still photography by Don Berube and Rick Macomber

BOSCPUG. Be a Part of It. boscpug.org

TWITTER: twitter.com/#!/bosfcpug

SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Baylee Ricci: facebook.com/pages/Baylee-Ricci/186673944729344
Canon USA: cinemaeos.usa.canon.com
FELT BOSTON: feltboston.com
LensProToGo: lensprotogo.com
Finish Boston: finishedit.com
Soundtrack Studios: soundtrackgroup.com
Rick Macomber: macomberproductions.com
Ben Eckstein: benjamineckstein.com
Chris Loughran: chrisloughran.tumblr.com
Donald Bérubé: donaldberube.mobi
Rob Bessette: finishedit.com
Terry Frechette
Brian McKeever: soundtrackgroup.com
Tim Montgomery: finishedit.com
Michael Sutton: twitter.com/#!/MNS1974
Kessler Crane: kesslercrane.com
Blackmagic Design: blackmagic-design.com

Baylee does The Hustle

The Getaway