How to block a scene

Tonight we had rehearsal for the movie. I want everything to go smoothly when actual on location in Vegas, so we are planning out camera moves now to see what might give us trouble later. When scouting the room in Vegas, I measured the dimensions and wrote them down in my handy-dandy notebook. When we started rehearsing back here in San Diego, I took some gaffer tape and taped out the layout of the room on the floor of my house. This way the actors can get a feel for the scale of the room, and develop a sense of spatial awareness.

The first thing we planned out was a continuous shot with the camera following behind Aldo as he enters Jennifer's suite from the hallway. The move covers a distance of about 20 feet. We are using the FigRig for this shot, with Geoff pulling focus via an 18" whip. What we did first run through it with the actors. I saw what their natural way of doing the scene was (where they stood, how they moved, ect.) then we re-created it and tweaked various aspects.

To start with, Jennifer opens the door to her room and holds up a bottle of Jeff Daniels, she then moves aside and gestures for Aldo to enter, he does and she follows behind him. Aldo walks to the end of the room and stares out a big window overlooking Las Vegas, Jennifer stands about 8 feet behind and stares at him. Then Aldo turns around and asks what else she found in her mini-bar. The scene, if shot with a normal video camera, would be fairly simple to shoot handheld. I would simply use 2 hands to hold the camera, use mostly existing light with maybe a tota pointed at the ceiling to raise the base light level of the room, and leave the focus on the DVX at... pshh, I duno... let's say 87 (Just to throw a number out there.)

Shooting with a Micro35 adapter means however, that I can not do any of the above. To get this shot with the set-up we are using means a substantial amount of pre-planning and rehearsal. First, the scene must be blocked out very specificity. Each time an actor stops or pivots in the shot, their mark must be taped down for reference ("spiking" as it is called). They must hit these marks with machine-like precision each time. Once the actors have their marks, the First AC (Geoff) will take a tape-measure and measure the distance from the focal point of the camera (a metal handle on the Micro35 adapter) to the actor. I was told once that it is always best to focus on the actor's eyes when measuring for focus. So I had Geoff measure to the actors eyes, or if they were not facing the camera, the very back of their head. Once he measures a distance, he turns the lens to the corresponding focus distance and makes a mark on the follow focus' wheel. I suggested he number them in the order he will pull the focus. Once we have done that for all the actors marks (there are 5 marks, which, in this case, gives us 5 focus pulls) we are ready to light the scene.

For a rehearsal, I didn't waste a lot of time lighting the scene. I just pointed a 1k in the actors general direction, and shined a 300 watt Tota at the ceiling in the part of the room they end up. Then I turned the gain up to +12db (I don't care about the quality of the rehearsal footage). When we actualy set up this scene at the hotel, I will have to spend a lot more time on the lighting.

Once the lighting is done, we are ready to do the scene. Before anybody asks me about it, all the dialog in this shot will be picked up via a concealed wireless lav mic on Jarrod. We don't have the extra hands for a boom opp on the shoot, nor would we have a place to put him in this shot. So, I am ready to go, Jarrod is standing behind Rebecca, I'm standing behind Jarrod, and Geoff is standing behind me. As the actors move through the shot, I follow behind them and when they hit their marks, Geoff pulls focus. For the sake of my forearms, I only want to do this scene a few times. (The entire rig weighs about 17 pounds, fully loaded) So after a few takes, I am confident we are ready to move on to the next scene.





Here is an image of the scene we are working on next. I will tell you more about it tomorrow...