Dear Backers’ Club Members,
Here Comes the Sun…
I have to be a bit careful about spoilers here, but today we hit the streets to shoot some walk-and-talk scenes along a sidewalk on 13th St. in Regina. It focused mainly on two outdoor scenes – one between Fred (“Hank”) and our guest star Don Lake, and another with Fred and Lorne (“Davis”).
So what would you see if you were here? Sunshine! It’s a gorgeous sunny day, and there’s just a little wind. You would probably have said, “Nice day, eh!” 10 or 20 times before finally making it to the craft truck for that morning coffee and bowl of cashew nuts. It’s an ideal situation to be out and about on location, watching them shoot. Unfortunately, and somewhat surprisingly, it might not be ideal for filming.
Scenes are built form many different takes. What looks like one shot on screen might be a combination for 5 or 6 different attempts at the scene on set to capture different performances and different angles. Of course, to make it look like one scene, you have to do your best to match the lighting of the shot from one take to the next. This is where a sunny day with a few clouds can be a bit of a headache. If the sun ducks behind a cloud, that can ruin a take. No problem, though. We simply turn to Peter, our Gaffer (film-speak for the person in charge of lighting). Peter has what looks like a welding helmet (and might actually be just a welding helmet). He pops it on a looks up at the sun. That way, he can call out to our director and tell him how much time they have either in sunlight or in the shade before the conditions change so that we can match conditions from one take to the next. Thanks, Peter!
Well Hello, Dolly!
The next big thing you would notice is what appears to be a short railroad track laid down beside the sidewalk and running the length of the block. This is a dolly track. The camera operator sits on a small kart or sled that rides along this track so that they can get smooth shots of the camera following the actors as they walk down the sidewalk. It’s one of the most common sights on a movie set, especially if you are outside like we are today. If you look closely as a dolly track, you’ll see a number of wooden wedges. These are used to level off the track so that everything, including the camera (and any coffee cups resting on the kart), are nice and level with a horizontal plane.
If you watched the mini feature called “Gearing Up” in the Backers’ Club then you’ll see how much equipment we carry around in those big white trucks. When you see a film crew shooting on a dolly, it’s easier to understand where we use all of that gear.
OK Backers, that’s it for today! Don’t forget to watch our video blog for a lot more from set, and look forward to our next blog where I get the low-down on what all the “assistant directors” do and who they are.
Davin and the Digital Team