[ 00:00:20 ] I think the idea of the D.I.T. being underappreciated were under noticed that there are a few different things that feed into this part of what you’ve got to take a look at is the evolution of the position. Where did it begin.
[ 00:00:35 ] It began clear back in right after that like 2002 and F 900 cameras and bringing these cameras onto the set and sets didn’t know what to do with them. And there was the whole idea of being able to paint inside the camera which was a brand new thing and that skill set did not exist. And that’s where the eyeteeth started. That’s where people started to think of oh this is what it does. But what it actually does is that the IP they know the technology they know the nature of the lenses they know the nature of the cameras.
[ 00:01:19 ] They are shepherding the electronic image all the way from the time that the electronic image is conceived. Talking about it in prep with with the DP all the way into post and they are the conduit for the deeper vision. And helping the DP catch their vision. Helping capture it.
[ 00:01:42 ] Helping make sure that the meditator exists to forward that vision on into post-production. So that so a RAW file isn’t going into post and people are just starting from scratch because there was all this creative talent there was all this time spent on the set. So to go back to the question why is that the unappreciated the deity’s strength is that the position has.
[ 00:02:09 ] Continually evolved. You know it started off being able to tweak inside a camera. Well we don’t like cameras anymore. You know we we work with lots. We work with really sophisticated software at this point to be able to deal with these things we’re painting from outside the camera where they’re calibrating monitors. They are masters of what are we seeing in high dynamic range. And what is it going to look like. They are the people who are going to make sure that the images are are good and clean the onset. They’re going to be active in prep testing lenses and understanding what the lenses are going to do and what are the flare characteristics of the lenses going to be they’re working with post-production on the workflow so that the things that are created onset when they get into post-production. Everybody knows how to utilize those assets you know in other words the image has become data. And the the the chief asset of the production is this data. Without this data what did you do you know. And so so it is being able to shepherd that from from the inception of the data through the creation of the data to handing that data off to post-production is the data realm. And it’s changed significantly across the last. You know for the 15 years that the position has existed mittened data is like the DDT in extremely under appreciated asset. There’s there’s part of that is because. Meditate is a new element and it takes production a while to start to appreciate how to use a new tool. It’s just like on the camera side lens the data. Well we’re still working out what are the standard formats going to be for ones meta data. How do we handle this meditated gets tossed out. And it gets tossed out too often because when you toss it out you tossed out the work that happened during the set. The idea of the metadata is never right. Image are-I image can be an incredible scope of things. Now the director director of photography they had something in mind when they were shooting that footage the meditator captures what it is that they had in mind. To take data. To expand it even to a further and it’s almost easier to understand the value of money data when you understand to take a look at even some older stuff formatted. And it’s I was talking to a guy who does a lot of restoration. And he was talking about. Showing an image of a print. It was black and white film and it was a nitrate print. And they he showed it to the studio who was having this film remastered in the studio was like. Well what happened. Where’s the contrast Where’s that this.
[ 00:05:41 ] And his point was that when this film was created the director and director of photography were shooting for the nitrate print. They had looked at that print. That is how they had conceived of the image. That’s how they were telling the story. That’s how they approved the story. And and we owe it to them. To continue to appreciate the story in the way that they had told it. You know and you almost get into the question of philosophically what right you have to change the creative work. It was sculpted this way. Now to take it from that big level on down to a much more smaller practical level. The skills of the director and the DP go into crafting the image those skills should be carried forward into post-production. They shouldn’t be wiped out. They shouldn’t be tossed aside. There was this this metadata can give you an immense amount of information see in going into post. It can compress your time frames because you’re not. Having to go back and start everything all over again. You’ve got a starting point. A lot of times if we look at the data is carefully done on set onset all of a sudden you get into your timing you can go straight to power windows you know your base grade already exists. All of those things are there all of those conversations that don’t have to happen anymore and you can start to say OK this is where we’re starting. Let’s finish it out. Let me bring down that window.
[ 00:07:21 ] Let’s do this go straight to that step which saves an immense amount of time in post-production. And a lot of money and despite his.
[ 00:07:41 ] In managing the increased complexity of shooting with a B R A R M R of the different formats of cameras Reade’s new way of shooting that is going to create extra dimensionality to the picture. DHT is different the items are specializing in this work. And what we’re starting to see in the guild is these little groups where where this group of people they know V.R. you know this group of people they know 3D and the multi-dimensional capturing and the whole idea that the key is to make the. Technology transparent to the creative experience. Again all of this stuff is in the service of the director. It’s all in the service of the creative image. And so. This technology changes so quickly it’s so new. How many people really have a chance to dig into it. This is what the job is is to understand it. Be able to work with it. I know that our idea is that or they’ll be out of town on a film. And the folks that don’t live in Los Angeles they get off the end of the film they’ll come into L.A. and they’re going to spend a couple weeks with the camera houses and the post houses just learning what has changed in the six months. That they’ve been out. And this is part of what they bring to the set. And if there’s where and when you get into. VR. When you get into you know particularly. Choices in VR rigs etc. This is where the IP is going. They turn into gold. You know you start to look at vr shooters going out and they’re going out with four or five different camera rigs and they’re go out for them for really specific reasons and part of what a deity is going to understand is. Well this rig is going to be good for this but oh hold it you need a wide shot. Well if we’re going to be doing tonight’s Shot this rigs you really want to go over here for that one and and use this one. And IPs are going to understand that and they’re going to bring it in. They save they eliminate the experimentation onset and they help eliminate the surprises and post the panel we did at any yse was really focusing on the idea of what.
[ 00:10:28 ] Does the director of photography in delight delight he team.
[ 00:10:34 ] How did they help shape the creative experience on set. One of the things my background you know I was a camera operator as director of photography. I also was a creative director an agency creative director and I had a production company and one of the things that I was very very sensitive to from both of those is that part of what makes or breaks a production company is the quality of the creative experience that they can provide the agency. And so the idea behind this panel was to start to dig into Instead of thinking about the technology you know because it’s in certain respects.
[ 00:11:17 ] Well there didn’t do this and this and they have this software and these tools and calibrate screens.
[ 00:11:24 ] Let’s get that mind to all of that and let’s get really into the bedrock work here of what was a creative experience. How much happened in prep. What happened during the production. How do you make the production process rewarding and successful for the agency. Because the agency they’re the they are the conduit back to the brand. They know what’s going on. You need them to be involved. You need them to feel secure. One of the things that happens in branded content production is you get focused on my new show. And you can burn a lot of valuable shoot time on my new show. I remember a commercial that I did where we were doing and had to do with a brand of golf balls and there were flame effects and all of these things going on. Everybody agreed on set. It ended up going back to the agency in a couple of the senior creatives. They weren’t on the show shot didn’t like a couple of the highlights and the golf ball dimples. And so we came back. We did an entire reshoot. You know the idea of all of these tools on set is to avoid stuff like that so that they are seeing exactly what it’s going to be on the screen and if they need to take a shot at that and shoot it to somebody in some distant city to check off on it that they can come back that they can do it. You know. There are brands have colors. And the idea of this was back in the days when commercials were shown on films. But know I was doing Mizuno tennis shoe shop. And the color of the there are particular color on the sole of their shoe was so important that the president of Mizuno flew to the United States from Japan to be able to be the color transfer session. Now we can do things much more efficiently than that. And part of the idea of having the DP the IP team is to be able to give those efficiencies so that the production and via other production the agency can give their clients that level of service.
Thought Gallery Channel:
Backstage Conversations
Backstage Conversation Season: 2017