I spent most this week on set for a TV production. Three overnight shoots in a row. Cold, tired and inspired. Shooting and editing TV commercials and web videos is the best part of my “day job.” Contrary to my photographic work, this kind of shooting entails the work of many people. Collaboration and team work are key. And although most of the game plan is set ahead of shoot day, there is always risk involved. Thankfully not the kind of risk and repercussions on a recent production up in Santa Fe; but often times, we don’t know how things are gonna go. Time is always against you on set. There is crew, talent, the weather, random “bogies” and all sorts of variables to contend with. Most of the projects I work on start with an idea in my mind. It is still a wondrous thing to see it come to life on set, and more fully in the post-production edit. That small nugget of thought becomes a real thing. A short story many people will view and critique. Everyone on set is there to manifest that original idea. It is an amazing thing to participate in.
Did we get the shot? Who knows?
Even though things are scripted, storyboarded, planned, blocked out, rehearsed… you never really know what you’re going to get. Is the talent scared or nervous? Is the director tired? Is that cloud overhead starting to drizzle rain on us? Throw into the mix the randomness of a technical challenge. In the photo above, we rigged a camera into a round, metal casing. The camera was turned on to record, and then the rig was launched from a moving vehicle. The idea was to replicate the view of a tumbling car, in the midst of a crash. We had no way to monitor the camera. We had no idea what the footage would look like. We had no idea if the camera itself would survive the tumble. On a set where thousands of dollars was invested, where 40 plus crew members, each with a specific skill and role, were on hand… we were at the mercy of the randomness of hurling an expensive camera down the road in a metal device. The best laid plans… as they say. Sometime you just gotta trust and try and surrender to the unknown. A good lesson learned at 5am on a Friday morning.
p.s……The footage actually looked great, as we all took a deep sigh of relief.