Camera Operator 2005 Fall/Winter

•

- Society of CameraOperators FALL-WINTER 2005

Volume 14, Number 2 Fall-Winter 200S

FEATURES

14 Bill Hines Camera Operators Workshop

by Michael Frediani SOC

DEPARTMENTS

2 President's Letter

by David J Frederick SOC

.J DPs, a lot of operators & some great equipment on a Saturday.

4 From the Editor's Desk 16 Falling Off the Crane: Wisdom from the Front Lines Dal'id Frederick SOC.~ ]ulj•e Newlin SOC~ Allen Daviau ASC, Ridley Scott, Mike Scott SOC, Tom May, Mike J'ltlay. Dan Gold SOC, Dati Turret OC, Craig Fiske SOC, Michael Barrett ASC.

20 Filming The Darwin Awards' 1

by Georgia Packard SOC 1\-'tlcky things happen when you're making afilm about the wacky ways people killthemseh•es. joseph Ficnnes and Winona Ryder star. Hiro Narita is cinematographer.

by Paul Babin SOC

S News &Notes letter from Eye Care Clinic, SOC Board Meeting, Next Bill Hines Camera Operators Workshop, Dinner honoring David Diona SOC, the BOG at CineGear.

10 CineGear 200S 28 Getting Started

by Jock Messitt SOC

Alook of the SOC's corporate sponsors' booths & some people who attended.

One mew's way of breaking into the industry and some useful ad1•ice.

S9 Advertisers' Index

31 My Disney Years

Now where did I see that?

by Rusty Geller SOC How special effects work at Disney led to a career in Steadicam.

38 Like Marriage, Sometimes it's the Little Things that Count byJeff Cree High definition cameras and how to get the most out of them.

43 Fired! ... a Career

by Paul Babin SOC How getting fired may not be the worst thing in the world.

47 Matthews Studio Equipment Celebrates 35th Anniversary

by Pauline Rogers Meet Ed Phillips, the man who started the company, and leam about its achievements and philosophy of doing business.

S2 Book Reviews

by Emme Headroom Andrew Laszlo's The Rat Pack; The lnvi ible Art: The Legends of Movie Matte Pa inting.

S8 Transitions Dick Fisher SOC:, jim Muro, Nicholas Nizich OC, jay Nefcy SOC. Plus farewells to Michael Scott and Michael Levine OC.

Photo by Marjolaine Tremblay-Silva

64 Roster of the SOC (Society of CameraOperators) as of 9/21/05.

In Son Francisco on the Pilot coiled "The Evidence" in April 2005 .

President's Letter It wa my great honor this spring to a ume the rein of President of the Society f 'amera perators. I will devote all my effort to taking this great organization forward. I have the plea ure of welcoming two new officer to the Board of Governor , lJan Kneece OC, our new 151 Vice Presiden t and 'hristoph r Tufty 0 路,Recording ecretary. I look forward to their input and upport in the endeavors of the Board. 1 am also excited about appointing the new editor of our magazine, Paul Babin C. Paul ha ri en to the call with a great slate of ideas for content and an exciting idea for future issues.

Thank you Paul for your willingne s to serve.

I intend to make my time as President of the So iety filled with opportunitie for training and networking within the member hip and the corporate affiliate .

By haring their experience and knowledge in training workshops and networking events, our Directors of Photography and A i tant a ocia te members can be a great asset to the ociety. The BiU Hines Camera Operator workshop that wa held at Panavi ion in May wa a great event. At the concl u ion of the workshop attendees asked for more. ln respon e, there wi ll be a fall work hop imilar to the Ia t with the empha is on the interaction between the Operator and the Dire tor of Photography. Once again, we will have several weU known and accompli hed DP to mentor and in pire our attendee in the art and craft of ci nematography.

2

The Governing Board has added a member in the effort to include the Ea t oast operator to a greater extent in the goings on of the ociety. I am pleased to announce that Larry McConkey SOC is the Ea t oa t Representative. He is also the winner of the AMMY Award for Hi torical hot at Ia t year' Award Banquet for hi work on the film Good Fellows. Larry and I will be working together to plan activitie and training events for 0 members on the East oa t. We encourage the voice of the members and the ubmi ion of sponored application for membership from this region as welJ. As someone who started member hip in the S in New York I know firsthand how it feel to have nearly aU of the activities of the Society happen in the We tern region.

We have been exploring new ideas within the Board of Governor this term.

One of the more exciting is the integration of communication technologies available to us. We are considering a plan to expand the content on our website.

Aligned with this would be a plan to distribute a DVD with each i ue of Operating Camera111a11 Magazine. The content of this DVD could feature 0 members' work and motion picture content related to the printed article .

Recently the Board gathered to celebrate and thank past president David Diana. He did a great job as pre ident and provided a clear vi ion for the ociety' future. He was presented with an inscribed am my and a beautiful 0 jacket. l wa h nored by the pre entation of a new gavel to signify my term a president The 0 notes the recent pa ing of two camera operator - Michael Levine ' and Michael tone. We end our heart-felt condolences to the families of both. Their contributions to the art of Ca mera Operating wiU be mi ed.

Thi look like a fa cinating magazine is ue, and lam ure that you will enjoy reading about our accomplishments a11d learn from the experiences of the member who ubmitted storie from their careers. To all of the contributors who have provided content in this is ue, thank for your commitment to our organization and the magazine. Please consider this magazine yours by contributing.

OPERATING CAMERAMAN: PRESIDENT' S lETTER

Don't hesitate to contact me on anything pertaining to our ociety. I welcome your feedback: Pres@soc.org.

Bet wishes,

Utwid J F~,

soc

'Pwikld Society of CameraOperators Officers Pre ident ......... David J Frederick I t Vice Pre ident. ...... Dan Kneece znd Vice President ....... Ernie Reed 3rd Vice President ..... Allan Lum Li ecretary .............. Chris Tufty Trea urer .............. Gary Ba um Sergeant-at-Arms..... Greg P Collier Past President .. . . .. ... David Diana Member hip ..... Michael Chambliss Corporate Liai on .. Georgia Packard Magazine Editor .......... PauJ Babin Webma ter. .......... Mark R Leins Admini trative A si tant Diana Pen ilia

Board of Governors Jonathan Abrams Larry McConkey AJdo Antonelli Jack Messitt Denis Moran Bonnie Blake Tom Fraser }ens Piotrow ki Michael Frediani Philip Schwartz Buddy Frie George B Stephen on Douglas Knapp Ron Vidor Ben Wolf

ision, the esse11tial ingredient hat wens Camera Operators use in our work, illtrinsicnfly bonds liS to chi/dre11 with vision problems.

Our orgn11izntio11 co11tributes its full support to the Eye Care Clinic of hilrlrells Hospital Los Angeles.

~路

i a regi tered trademark.

All rights reserved.

Dave Frederick SOC with Joe Dunton BSC who was misidentified in the last issue. The photo was taken by Gregory P Collier SOC, olso misidentified in a photo in the last issue. Apologies to all.

Camera Operator/ Steadicam

SANDY HAYS

Cinematographer

Cinematographer

FREDERICK ELMES, ASC

RODRIGO PRIETO, ASC, AMC Camera Operator/ Steadicam

PETER WUNSTORF DAMON MOREAU ALIC CHEHADE

BILL MUR'RA Y

First Assistant

First Assistant

CARLOS GUERRA ANGELA BELLISIO

TREVOR HOLBROOK KIRK CHISWELL CHRIS HASSEN

Loader

Second Assistant

LIZA BAMBENEK

GARTH LONGMORE CHRIS BANG BRETT MANYLUK

Second Assistant

Camera Operator/ Steadicam

ALASTAIR RAE DIEGO QUEMADA-DIEZ

Cinematographer

Cinematographer

CESAR CHARLONE, ABC

ROMAN OSIN

Camera Operator/ Steadicam

TOMTOWNEND SIMON BAKER

Focus Pullers

First Assistant

TELFER BARNES OLLY TELLETT

DOUG LAVENDER IVAN MEAGHER

Loader

PETER BYRNE CHRIS SUMMERS

Second Assistant

ANDY GARDNER

The Operating Cameraman Magazine

From the Editor's Desk

Fall-\ inter 2005

Society of Camera Operators ... why bother?

Editor Paul Babin

Associate Editor Lynn Lanning

Assistant Editors Georgia Pa kard OC David Frederick

Post-Production Manager Dougla Knapp 0

Design Paul Babin 0

Layout Lynn Lanning

Cover Design Mark R Lein

Cover Photos David M Moir (main photo & far left)

Production Coordinators The Ingle Group, Brentwo d

Advertising Director Dan Dodd

Contributors Paul Babin 0

Jeff ree David rrcderick Michael Frediani ·o Ru ty Geller 0 Lynn Lanning jack Me sitt 0 rcorgia Packard SO P.JUiine Roger

Photography PJul Babin David Frederi k Mike Frediani 0 David M Moir Denis Moran !errick Morton MP P Ralph cl n MP P Georgia Packard Marjolaine Tremblay- ilva Copyright © 2005 by the ociety of CameraOperators Tile Opcrnti11g Cnmcrnmn11 Mngnzi11c i publi hed semiannually by the ciety of amera perator .

Subsuiption Rates U A 20/year Out ide U A 28/year (U .. Fund Only)

For article submissions, please contact: SO Attn Maga7ine PO Box 2006 Tolu a Lake, A 91610 Phone (8 18) 382-7070

For display advertising information, contact: D,m D dd

(818) 556-6300 dondodd@pocbell .net

Visit the SOC web site WWW.SO(.org 4

orne look back 26 year ago t the and ee a bun h of male founding of camera operators who got together to form a club be au e they needed to feel good about them elves. When I joined in the mid '80 , l wanted to rub houlder with the elect few who did what I did. I wanted three letter after my cr dit, ju t like the big boys in A . I wanted to go to meetings and t II "no hit" torie and roll around in the ego-glory of my profe ion.

Over time, llo t intere tin 0 . Work and family was alway a good excu e. But there wa omething mi · ing. The techni cal pre entation didn't do it for me. I wanted to talk about the job, the ocial ob tacle cour e of being an operator: H w do you handle a dire tor of photography who decide on a whim that he wants to operate the camera that day? What i it like for you to take order from a director who is ociaiJy runted and lacking in talent? Why do actor behave like they do?

How do I best erve my 1st a sistant?

What do I need to under tand from reading a cript that will make me a better operator? What are the pre ure on my director of photography? What i the role of the production manager and 1 hy i my rate like a per onal affront to him?

Becoming the editor give me a chance to inve tigate the e kinds of stories from the world we call "work." I would like to open the magazine up to a wide variety of topic within the art of cinematography, filmmaking, drama, torytelling, and information technology. l would like to get away from issues that con i t of snap of member itting around card table and trade how equipment. I want to encourage the till photographers in our ranks to ubmit their photograph for publication. Let's . ee the camera operator , as i tants, dolly grip , director of photography and gaffers at work. Then there i a world of men and women out ide our border u ing electronic camera t bring image f war, poverty and the vidorie of human spirit.

There i a generation of teenager who are making film in their computer . r want to tell their torie .

If it's do-able in this organization, I'd

OPERATING CAMERAMAN : FROM THE EDITOR' S DESK

like to ee us peddling fewer handbag , jacket , hat and pin and di seminating moving image~ to make money for Children I Io pi tal. Moving image Let' exploit what we do be t. Financial hurdles aside for the moment, including a OVD with each i ue make en e. On it yo u would see the equence from film talked about in the article . On it could appear your reel, member hip directory and hyperlink to film related web ite , audio files of the complete interview excerpted in the magazine and adverti ing from the ven lor and companie which serve u..

It' huge and none of it will happen without greater involvement from members. I'm going to repeat that: none of thi will happen without greater involvement from you.

Over the year , when I've told other operator~ that 1 wa a member of 0 , they've a ked cynically, "Why bother?"

The founders of 0 managed to uceed brilliantly in creating two ·traordinary thing , thing that bring a kind f ymmetrical poetry to the organization.

The fir tis our charity, hildrens llospital in Lo Angele , alifornia. The focus of our donati n to hildren Ho ·pi tal i their specialized eye care linic erving infant · and children.

The e ond i the annual award pre entation eremony, in which craft men and women who have given the best years of their live to the entertainment indu try and related field · are pre en ted with lifetime achievement award . Where el e i a focu puller or dolly grip going to be honored by a room full of pe pie in tuxedo ? ociety of ameraOperator : extending a hand to tho e beginning their lives, then bringing hands together to applaud those who have e tabli hed the tandard by whi h we all do our craft. In between we fo ter ki1o\ l~dg~: and an under tanding of the passion we have for thi job. It is the b st job on the set.

Why b ther? That' why.

Dear Member of the OC,

Ar

My name is on Zamora and I am writing to exp provided Dr Mat umoto.

reciation for the financial support you have

I was born with a on geni tal ca taract, which wa remo was ility ee could range from normal eye • 1nut1 • tely after urgery, r Matsumoto began treatin&me

ically, people take their ability to ee for gra nted; I d ye so that the ~eye could come a trong a mor <Jifficult for me than for other children. Over tim the len you funded allowed me to eliminate the pate I am indebte to Dr Matsumoto d yo ur organization beca e a a result of imm con tinuing trea ent with the le es yo u pon or, I ha nearly normal vision in m atrected eye. of your orga nization nd it continued upport, 1 have reaped in1mediate and long I ting benefi excellence in ed ucation now, an later, 11ook forward to eeing children excel in ta k I foundd" cult in my own childhood, due to my di abled eyesight.

On many occasion I have heard Dr Matsumoto mention the Society of Cameramen as one of her key upporters. During my office vi its, I ee that Dr Matsumoto has a large clientele. I am sure that many of them mu t al o have benefited from the ociety' philanthropy.

I am plea ed to inform yo u that 1 have grad uated antiago High chool as a valedictorian and am planning on attend ing Columbia University in New York City in the faU of 2005. I trongly attribute my capability to excel to my ability to ee normally, which i a dire t result of the support you provide Dr Matswnoto. As one of Dr Matsumoto's oldest patients, l have seen the results of your combined efforts to provide children with the abili ty to improve their visio n, and for thi , I am forever grateful. incerely, Alison Zamora Dr Ellen Matsumoto is head of the Eye Care Clinic at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, the charity supported SOC , whose vision statement points out the affinity between camera operators and children with vision problems . The background logo belongs to Childrens Hospital.

6

THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN: lETTER FROM EYE CARE RECIPIENT

David Diano Honored David Diano' term a pre ident of the 0 was celebrated with a dinner in his honor at the Smokehou e Re taurant in Burbank CA on Augu t 13, 2005.

Organized by Bonnie Blake 0 , the runner wa attended by board member , family and friend .

Diano received his Cammy Award and other token of appreciation for hi ervice to the organization.

Dave Frederick, the new pre ident, ~ de cribed the chaJJenge of managing an ~ organization with volunteer . He wondered if hair lo s from the stre s was o inevitable. Past pre ident in the audience ........,,.............__ ___,.,. ~ a ured him it wa and gave him a gavel.

SOC board members Ron Vidor and The food wa fabulou . Hat off to the mokehou e!

Aldo Antonelli at the Smokehouse.

j

2nd William EHines

Camera Operators Workshop November 2005 Focus : Interacti on between Camera O perator and Director of Photography To sign up, call Diana at 818-382-7070.

Free to SOC members; $50 for non-members .

The BOG crowd at the SOC booth, CineGear 2005 . Gregory P Collier SOC, Sgt at Arms; Jack Messitt SOC, Board Member; David J Frederick SOC, President; Gary Bourn SOC, Treasurer; Jens Piotrowski SOC, Board Member.

www.soc.org for info

Mike Frediani, President Dave Frederick, Magazine editor Paul Babin, Jonathan 1st VP Dan Kneece, and Jens Piotrowski.

Abrams, and Sgt at Arms Greg Collier.

Not all board members present are shown in these photos.

Buddy Fries, Sec Chris Tufty, Corp Liaison Georgia Packard, Treasurer Gary Gao Bourn , Past President David Diano. ~

8

THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN: NEWS & NOTES

10932 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood, CA 91601 â&#x20AC;˘ Phone: 818 752 7009

Bill Hines Camera Operators Workshop 2005

By Michael Frediani SOC " hawing up is 90% of success." - Woody Allen

A

healthy turnout of 0 member and gue t at Panavi ion' tage One in Woodland Hill opened our fir t Bill Hine amera Operators Workshop on May 71h 2005. ewly elected pre ident David Frederick rna terfully coordinated the event. He introduced gue t , volunteer and the vendor who uppljed a variety of profe ional equipment: the 30'

14

THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN: BILL HINES WORKSHOP

operating

s111 H1nes

camera operator and pa ionate educator a well a co-founder of the ociety of ameraOperator .

The Instructors

Techno rane with the newe t backpan + com pen a tor, a teadicam PRO rig, JL Fi her dollie with the new low mode eat and low mode off: et head and jib arm, Panavi ion and Arriflex camera and ONY HDV camera .

Bill Hine ' widow Zee wa unable to attend but sent her be t wi he - Bill mo t certainly wa there in pirit. A moving video tribute created by Dave Frederick honored Bill Hine a a devoted

Four DP talked and worked with participant .

John Fleckenstein de cribed hi career a an a i tant and camera operator on uch production a jaws II and ET the Extra-Terrestrial.

After Q&A, john moved to the JL Fi her dolly mounted with a 4' jib arm to demon trate movement of the arm u ing an ARRl 435 on the artoni Lambda head (provided by Panavi ion).

Robbie Greenberg ASC worked with the Technocrane creating cenario for operator and novices to practice their move . He al o had a Q&A e ion.

Bob Primes ASC made a bee-line for the new 30' Technocrane featuring BackPan+, a compensation feature that can affect boom, wing, pan, tilt and tete cope. Prime queried Phil Hallford of Panavi ion Remote y tem on thi newe t generation device and it capabilitie . Prime then de igned a hot for operator to perform and refine.

Bonnie Blake, David Frederick, Dave a perek and Deni Moran coached attendee on complex dolly move . For tho e

wanting to try the teadicam rig, David Allen Grove wa avai lable to help.

Bob Primes ASC and Director of Photography Eric Van Haren Noman ASC led a roundtable di cu sion, told torie and bared their per onal experiences related to the art and craft of amera perating.

Roll Credits Jordan Iovin handled regi tration; Deni Moran wa the official tiU photographer for the , although other took numerou photo a weU. Our dedicated tand-in were HoiJy Beavan, Brent Mason, Brenda hiavarini and DanjeiJe Vernengo. The camera were profe ionally a i ted by Gary U hino, cott Birnkrant and Marcu Lopez. A pecial thanks goe to as i tant Marcu Lopez, Jordan Iovin and Andy idney for their help etting up aiJ the equipment on Friday.

Video equipment including an HD Pana onic 42" Pia rna creen, a harp Video Projector on a 7.5' x 10' Da-Lite Front Projection creen, 2 JBL 15" peaker , a Pioneer Pro DVD player and 2 NY HDV camera for hand on u e wa provided by Doug Kamm and cott Dale ofVER (Video Equipment Rental ) ba ed in Glendale CA. Raffle prize were donated by JL Fisher. DP who erved a in tructor received cap and ve t .

Everyone pre ent walked away with a black T- hirt featuring the 0 25 1h anniver ary pin Eric Van Haren Noman ASC was the main camera operator on John Huston's The Man Who Would Be King . One day he struggled to frame a shot that hod a massive crowd with Michael Caine and Sean Connery riding into it on horseback. Fearing the horse riders were too spread in his anamorphic frame, he told Huston when the shot finished that he wasn't happy with the composition. This happened several times, until finally Connery came off his horse, took the hapless operator by the collar and said, "You can have all the rehearsals you want but when we are rolling film you had bloody well get it right or get on the bus out of here! " The remark had great resonance for Eric. To this day, when the camera crew says "ready to go" it better be just that, ready to roll and get it right.

16

d ign and "Bill Hines amera perator Workshop." everal recipient pronounced them "cool! " The event wa pon ored by the William E Hine 0 Memorial holar hip Fund. Admini tered by Zee Hine to carry out BiiJ' wi he , the fund provide educational opportunitie for camera operator .

We are grateful to di tingui hed inematographer John Fl cken tein, Robbie Greenberg A , Robert Prime A and Eric Van Haren oman A who hared their time and experience with u .

Thank you to the member of the who helped make the event a ucce .

The staff at Panavision upplied u with their typical can do attitude: Admini trator David Dod on, tage Manager hri orolla and Mike D. A huge hand t eorge tevez from Panavi ion hipping for pending the day with u and making ure everything went moothly.

The workshop brought together pro , novice , and tate of the art equipment. Everyone learned omething. Get involved in the next work hop by volunteering your time and experti e. r imply" how up."

AC Scott Birnkrant standing at left; David Gasperek SOC sitting; AC Gary Ushino pushing the low slung Fisher 10 dolly on the green screen floor.

THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN : BILl HINES WORKSHOP

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Falling Off the Crane Wisdom from the Front Lines hat I learned on my dream TV eries in Hawaii: Forget about permanence. ever a ume the job you are on will lead to a long term gig, e pecially when the money's decent, the place i beautiful and you're having a great time.

The ummer and Fall of 2004 l was on a series for NB fuming on Oah' u. ure that we were doing something everyone wa going to watch , we had a bla t capturing the beauty of Hawaii We were certain viewers would tune in .

Well , they didn't. lt eem the audience wa more enticed by the premi e of a crashed jetliner on a remote i land. o we were told how won derful our work wa , now get back on the plane to LA. erie cancelled.

We aU hate when the drean1 end and you wake up, unemployed -David Frederick OC and wondering...

W

ake ure your Field Producer have actually been out in the field before. If they haven't been, make ure you bring a sense of humor; it will be the one tool that you will really need.

-julye ewlin 0 , julye ewlin Productions Inc

M

ou can use a digital camera and make very nice picture .

However if you are going to ultimately make print for a motion picture theater, you'd be wi e to shoot 35mm negative and from that create a digital intermediate.

-Allen Daviau A

Y

on't pre-judge a movie by script and cast. The last one I took becau e it wa only nine weeks and a paycheck. My attitude wa : 'I'll get in, do it and forget about it. Maybe no one will know I worked on it.'

It turned out to be a huge urpri e. It wa witty; it was fun; we laughed all the time. The lead actor was professional, showed up on time, hit hi marks, and gave hi performance I 00%.

-Mike cott,

D

18

OPERATING CAMERAMAN: FAWNG OFF THE CRANE

tamina i about 90% of it. Filming is about stamina. And -RjdJey Scott stamina is abou t staying fit.

S I

t's give and take. You win ome and you lo e ome.

-Tom May, Grip for 46 years, recently retired from the movie bu ine

f and when I move up, I'll miss being an operator. Facing the challenge of a shot that seem impo ible at fir t, figuring it out and then doing it bring a satisfaction that is hard to match in any job.

-Mike May, camera operator, son of Tom

I

learned thi one a while ago, but it wa a good one: Thi DP wa a real stickler for opening and ending frame .

On one hot he had me doing a left to right pan. At the end of the pan, he wanted the right frame line to top on thi critical pot on a building fa~ade. Becau e I was panning left to right, the crucial place on the building wa entering frame with no warning. I kept missing it, over hooting it, topping too oon .

That' when the DP, who wa a great teacher, pointed out that noting where the left frame line was in the end position would -Dan Gold 0 make it a lot ea ier to hit the mark.

I

worked with a Director of Photography, Brian We t B . He told me, 'Never put blood in the water? Blood being indeciion, vaguene , when responding to a que tion from a Director or DP. If you don't put blood in the water, the sharks won't -Dan Turret OC gather.

I

n the Ia t project, I realized that being the amera Operator was going to be a lot different from the amera Operator 1 wa on the previous how. The balance between attention to creative details and politics had shifted in a big way.

-Craig Fikse 0

O

e free-lancer can count on the fact that sooner than later, the great jobs will end; o too, the really painful one won't last forever.

-Michael Barrett A

W

W hat have you learned on and about the job? Share words of wisdom in this ongoing column . Email to: soceditor@gmail.com

1995 Darwin Awards Winner Confirmed Bogus by Darwin http:// dorwinawords.com/ art/ zeeborf/ The Arizona Highway Patrol were mystified when they come upon o pile of smoldering wreckage embedded in the side of a cliff rising above the road at the apex of a curve. The metal debris resembled the site of an airplane crash, but it turned out to be the vaporized remains of an automobile. The make of the vehicle was unidentifiable at the scene.

The folks in the lab finally figured out what it was,

and pieced together the events that led up to its demise.

It seems that a former Air Force sergeant had somehow got hold of a JATO ~et Assisted Take-Off) unit. JATO units are solid fuel rockets used to give heavy military transport airplanes an extra push for take-off from short airfields.

Dried desert lakebeds are the location of choice for breaking the world ground vehicle speed record. The sergeant look the JATO unit into the Arizona desert and found a long straight stretch of road. He attached the JATO unit to his car, jumped in, accelerated to a high speed and fired off the rocket.

The facts, as best as could be determined, are as follows:

ADarwinian Production

by Georgia Packard SOC PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAVID M MOIR

The operator was driving a 1967 Chevy Impala . He ignited the JATO unit approxi mately 3 .9 miles from the crash site. Th is was establ ished by the location of a prominently scorched and melted stri p of asphalt. The veh icle quickly reached a speed of between 250 and 300 mph and continued at that speed under full power for an additional 20- 25 seconds . The soan-to-be pilot experienced G-forces usually reserved for dog-fighting F-14 jocks under full afterburners.

The Chevy remained on the straight highway for approximately 2 .6 miles (15-20 seconds) before the driver applied the brakes, completely melting them, blowing the

速

inematographer Hiro Narita A C watche director Finn Taylor rehearse actor Jo eph Fienne and Winona Ryder in a maU cafe for The Darwin Awards. Rain i coming down pretty hard. The cafe has wi ndows alo ng two entire waUs

tires and leaving thick rubber marks an the road surface.

The vehicle then become airborne for on additional 1.3 miles, impacted the cliff face at a height of 125 feet, and left a blackened crater 3 feet deep in the rock.

Most of the driver's remains were not recovered ; however, small fragments of bone, teeth and hair were extracted from the crater, and fingernail and bone shards were removed from a piece of debris believed to be a portion of the steering wheel.

Ironically a still~egible bumper sticker was found , reading " How do you like my driving? Dial 1-800-EAT-SHIT_N

Winona Ryder and Joseph Fiennes star in

The Darwin Awards.

and a mirror cover mo t of the third interior wall. Hiro walk along tile dolly' intended narrow path between tile counter and a tring of booths. As the show's operator, I shadow his movement , noting dialogue cues and Looking for place to hide crew and equipment.

The original cript i a black comedy written by director Taylor aJld includes a film -wiiliin-a-film. This production encounters a few of our own unnatural and magnificent mi adventure in tl1e filmmaking proce . Today in Alruneda alifornia the weather laugh and offer a great imitation of British changeable skies. Our crew simply rises to tile challenge.

"Shooting the documentary camera footage in uper 16mm within the 35mm feature give u the most latitude to create our looks," ay arita. "The uper 16 footage will have a more immediate, iJlteractive feeling to it. You will see bits and piece

22

THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN: DARWIN AWARDS

of the operator, usually as a refJection or a body piece. The actors look directly into the camera and the camera interact with them - i t becomes a character in the film. We have to keep good li t for the hooting chedule to remind our elves of tl1e changes back and forth between uper l6mm and 35mm. Each 'film' hould have its own di tinct style."

Mostly hand-held, the operating challenge here is to keep moving "like they do in tl1e BBC's The Office." 1 rented the show's last season on DVD before arriving on the et o I have orne idea what Finn mean : "Only don't tand too till or make the operating look too good." This sound trange since I know Hiro's outstrulding documentary cinematography (a well a hi feature work), including orne of the best hand-held.

"Hiro, you don't move around like an amateur making home movies, bringing attention to the camera work," 1 prate t, " o you are asking me to forget about everything I've learned about holding tl1e camera teady?" He laugh and nod hi head. This become our private joke a to exactly how much "beginner camera 101" movement the fum character u e . It al o becomes a new art in it elf a we place a mall shot bag on top of the tripod to provide the right blend of un teadines for the documentary.

Hiro u e a pole-cam rig for ome of the long walk-and-talk equences to give them a distinctive feel. The documentary character plant another camera in the scene to give us licen e to u e a econd angle. "These cene need to look organic with some movement. !look for omething unique to include in the frame. ot in every scene, but omething to give a little special flavor;' says Narita. Like revealing Jo epb's shadow on the wall in a motel scene. And outside the desolate ga station the camera come around the car to show David Arquette holding his rifle. Delivery of little in ight to the character as their storie unfold.

Our camera crew includes Paul S Marbury, camera technician, who maintain optimal performance for both et of equipment; econd camera a i tant Anne Lee, who keep track of camera, len , upport, and look for each scene; and loader Jeph Folkins, who keeps magazines fully loaded . Camera intern Kri Butler and Emily Goodwin work on a rotating basis while close to home. Fir t a si tant Patrick Riley jump in expertly on B camera as well as A camera when schedule conflicts arise. In all, a tlawless crew and great traveling companion .

The 35mm recreations of the Darwin event employ action equences sometimes enhanced with vi ual effect . Dolly moves,

The Darwin Awards crew: Anne lee (2nd AC), Robert K Ruiz (2nd Unit 1st AC), Mickey Freeman (2nd Unit DP), Hiro Nirita ASC (Cinematographer), Georgia Packard (A camera Operator), Paul S Marbury (Camera Technician) and Jeph Felkins (loader) out on deserted road location with third insert car and rocket car in tow.

Technocrane, motorcycle cha es and in ert car keep the energy flowing. Marjolaine Tremblay- ilva i the visual effects supervior working do ely with the camera crew. We u e green screen for rna t of the background element . Ma rjolaine and I confer once the hot i et to guarantee her nece ary marker are included in the frame. And he take detailed notes with Hiro on lighting. Lukas Haa and Judah Friedlander attempt to cale a high wall for quick concert acce when hilarity en ue . A crane hot tie the two location together until the character hit a nag, and their de cent become inevitable. Hiro create the other ide of the night exterior wall on tage for dialogue and afety rea on . ften the amera pu he right into thi Ia t ga p, and then we pan over to our main hero completing the tale for hi insurance report.

For tho e craving the sight of blood, there will be plentye pecially when the erial killer hit the laundromat. The film employ many great gue t tar and hot pot . There i a ma sive amount of local Bay Area cooperation and upport. It i one of the few time finding a parking pia e around the city i no trouble. One rooftop give u uch a breath-taking view of the city at night that viewer may believe it to be a perfect translight.

We had one technical nightmare Ia t week: out of focu footage uper 16mm. Unfortunately we don't creen dailie (alway great to have everyone on the production working on the arne page with immediate feedback) and the inematographer get

Charles Darwin ( 1809-1 882) once said " I love fools ' experiments, I am always making them ." Apparen tly the human race has an unlimited number of people who also make them ...

The Darwin Awards commemorate individuals who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it in a sublimely idiotic fashion . Creator of www.DarwinAwords .com Wendy Northcutt notes 2005 's top contender :

"When his 38-ca/iber revolver failed to fire at his intended victim d11ring a hold-up in Long Beach, California, would-be robber James Elliot did something that can only inspire wonder. He peered down the barrel and tried the trigger again.

This time it worked!"

The film by the same name, written and directed by Finn Taylor, recreates several Darwinian situations and places Joseph Fiennes as a character investigating insurance cla ims, although not quite like this inspector:

"The chef at a hotel in witzerland lost a finger in a meat Clltting machine and, after a little hopping around, submitted a claim to his insurance company. The company, expecting negligence, sent out one of its men to have a look for himself He tried the rnachine and lost a finger. The chef's claim was approved."

Joseph's character is much too conscious of danger to try that- and the film follows him on the hilarious path of proving what really happens when young men grapple with a chance of fame, folly and fortune .

THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN: DARWIN AWARDS

23

Joseph rappels a building to reach the Serial Killer's apartment, trying to find evidence to tie the bloody boot to the killer.

dailie on DVD. Hiro speaks to Monaco Labs frequently but omehow thi didn't come to the et until it hit cri i proportion . Hiro hand me the DVD and I borrow our loader' laptop while they are lighting the next airplane set. I watch the dailie but the tran fer i poor and both the 35mm and the 16mm look oft. I walk back over to the airplane to que tion Hiro about thi . He ay the lab ha checked the negative on the uper 16mm confirming the focus problem. The equipment wa lated for complete maintenance by the camera rental hou e during our week off and no problem were reported. I grab Paul Marbury to crutinize the footage again for operator and a i tant errors: the film is only holding harp focu at do e di tance . But not everything i out of focu . He goe back to the camera with Anne Lee and run thoroughly through every po ibility. I think it i the len adapter and mount collimation throwing off the plane of focus but don't know why it' inconi tent. I am called back to the et for the 35mm rehear al and Paul join me with our 16mm len . It ound like an internal crew ha worked it way loo e. We shoot the 35mm scene and the camera crew huddles. The documentary footage will have to lip later into our day' hooting chedule. Turn out that the len indeed had an interior crew come loo e and the adaptermount hifted, and the gear didn't get its spec checked Ia t week. We'll have to plan are hoot (do e-up ) and equipment replacement and determine which wide-angle zoom can be alvaged. ow we jump over to the next et to re ume our 35mm filming.

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THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN: DARWIN AWARDS

Extreme cold i one element to re kon with, a well a the continual rain. The now i a favorite challenge. The cript ca ll for a frozen lake. Our production' locati n manager cout and confer with weather chart and local town people in Lake Tahoe only to have too mu h now- o many inche of now falling in a hort time lay down an insulating layer that keep the ice from becoming thick enough to upport our film crew' combined weight. The rew packs for another location and we wait fori e thickne reports. hooting ontinue in an Alameda park. Winona Ryder and jo eph Fienne plan their work trategy while Hiro plot hi own again t a foggy background.

Eyepi ce wanner aren't keeping the conden ation cl ar for the very long take o I employ a diving trick to help. Real now would be welcome to rai e the outdoor temperature, but in tead Yve Debona, jonn Herzberger and Kenny orrell dre the area imulating pocket of the icy tuff and moker for creating depth and texture.

There are a lot of car driving equence . Try to queeze into the back eat with the camera while wearing all of your bulky extreme old weather gear. Paul i very quick to get the uper 16mm camera into the cold car to avoid conden ation problem . Be t Boy ean Prichard set me up with an apple box strapped in behind the driver' eat with a furniture pad while I take off my outer layer of clothe and boot to climb in ide.

Add two actor , ound gear only ( orry, Bob itzen, our great oundman ) and a director in the backseat with me and we are offl Although I am urc jo eph could drive the car ju t fine, there are time I enjoy being towed far away from the econd AD' megaphone. ometime Hiro empl y additional light on the e equence but mo tly not, becau e the footage bel ng to the do umentary. Then we all jump out at the end f the road, re-dre for tl1e cold and repo ition tl1e car. I peak with Hiro who wat he the tak on hi own mall video monitor. We

Juliette Lewis plays David Arquette's wife in

The Darwin Awards.

make any adjustments necessary, go back to one and jump in the car to do it all over again.

Transporting from this Reno location to another deserted road location (the lake still wears too much snow for safety's sake) puts Paul, the Super 16mrn and me in a car traveling south while the director and the cinematographer fly there more quickly. The znd unit assignment: to shoot traveling shots for the documentary sections where the characters drive through snowy mountains to non-snowy deserts. But on our time chedule we quickly run out of daylight while snow we have a-plenty. Paul drives expertly as 1 ride with the camera in my lap ready for scenic locales and check the light meter on a fickle sun. Around the next comer we expect the scenic outlook and I ask to stop.

There is spectacular Mono Lake totally enveloped in a white fog with mountaintops peaking around the edges. It is ab olutely breathtaking. One of our camera crew's cars has stopped to help a car that was so entranced with this view that he hit the guardrail and popped a tire. Fortunately znd AD Jeff Kramer didn't decide to leave the gene pool- we needed him for the rest of the movie.

We continue traveling southeast and trade all of our expensive

Strange news flash: insert car arrives on location and catches on lire. cold weather gear for t-shirts. We are out on another deserted road location to film the rocket car sequences where David Arquette's character gets the bright idea to strap a rocket engine to the back of his car. znd Unit cameraman Mickey Freeman, assistant Robert K Ruiz and a brand new insert car join u . Why is it brand new? A few weeks earlier in the Bay Area they had a call for drive-bys and filming off of an insert car in the East Bay while first unit was shooting on stage in Alameda. Strange news flashes come in from znd unit: 1) they are behind chedule because the camera car hasn't shown up yet; 2) the insert car arrives at location before the camera crew, but blows up; 3) the truth: insert car arrives on location and catches on fire. A producer and her cell phone arrive. The fire department says that the car's gas tank will not explode and it certainly looks beautiful burning on her camera phone. Then the camera crew arrives, so no film has rolled on this "Darwin Award flunky."

Fortunately it doesn't qualify for an award because the driver is alive and well, and is able to drive a new insert car down to our crew for the desert Rocket Car sequences.

We arrive on location in our shuttle vans to another tale of mishap: a painful kidney stone demands an early morning ambulance and our znd unit DP' flight to hospital. Cell phones and Hiro's little black book gather together for culling potential crew numbers. I make calls while the assistant directors confer with Hiro. I report that despite my very best efforts, a replacement isn't flying in. Hiro puts his light meter forward and asks me how I feel about shooting the additional unit. He doe n't have to ask me twice! Robert picks up the additional 35mm camera and joins me in the 60-foot scissor lift. Mighty winds blow for us as we ascend. Grips Gerardo Merino and Marc D Anderson provide level ground for each of our de erted road

Hiro Narila, cinematographer for The Darwin Awards.

locations. We chase a high speed Rocket Car, driven by stuntman Dick Ziker from a motorcycle side platform to get a better vantage point of the car's intense flames.

Lake Tahoe and the not nearly thick enough ice provide another challenge for our location manager Cathryn "Catbird" Blum. Winter Wonderland will have to be totally created somewhere else, and the winner is joaquin Miller Park in Oakland where their parking lot becomes covered in winter effects.

There's no busines like Snow Business Hollywood. I love the fact that the snow is mostly biodegradable paper that is not harmful to animals or the environment. Rich Baum's and Matt Kutcher's rubber and paraffin ice needs a big hole for when Christopher Penn's and Max Perlich's characters deal with water and a sinking SUV. Not even the howling wind could defeat our snow effects. Fortunately the crack visual effects work of Marjolaine will help mooth over rough edges as well as take away safety wires, marry green creen footage with its appropriate background, replace glass reflection and enhance visual effects throughout the movie. What is trickier is the changing weather during the e cenes. Matching the lighting on the actor , the dog and the tunts for the lake sequence is brutal.

Perhaps a favorite sequence of mine i the rope work. Joseph Fiennes rappel down a building to gather important evidence.

Hiro Light the nighttime alley beautifully. We use several different cranes and lift to put the camera into the right places "on the ropes," even simulating Joseph's character peering into a window with a camera on his shoulder. I meet a new crew THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN: DARWIN AWARDS

25

per on on the next tunt, Wilmer Valderrama. He grab onto the other end of Fienne ' rope and come down along ide ]o eph/me with the camera. Wilmer play the real documentary cameraman in the movie, only we don't meet him face to face until page 99. I enjoy the challenge of playing hi character behind the camera, having the actor often talk right at me, addre me with one of their fond pet name , or even get into a phy ical fight together. ew actor join the movie for a few day and I have to explain that it i aU right for them to look directly at the "do urnentary camera len ." Occasionally I ilently re pond with the camera, but rna tly I ju t watch and take good picture.

There really are too many wonderful cene and character to choose just one from thi ambitious movie. We put aU we have up on the creen, a eamle ly a po ible. ound, editing, vi ual effect , mu ic tie it all together beautifully. The ecret ingredient i a good crew to really pull together as a team. Thank you, Debbie Brubaker, our UPM/ a-Producer. Thank you for the in pi ration, Wendy orthcutt, creator of www.DarwinAwards .com for "bringing together a fresh collection of magnificent misadventure , honoring tho e who continue to improve our gene pool by removing them elve from it in a ublimely idiotic fa hion." Thank you all ca t and crew.

David ArqueHe gives character insights when he appears with the rifle over his shoulder. He plays a Darwin Award winner.

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THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN: DARWIN AWARDS

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tough. It means scraping for shaky employment, most likely on low-budget non-union projects as you learn lighting, grip and camera skills. You will most likely have to work for free for a while before graduating to an extremely low day rate. This work will lead to more work and better income. But it can be a long slow road to a successful career.

A graduate film school program might be the better choice.

There you can learn bow to take your accumulated learning and apply it to moviemaking.

Making student films means access to equipment. Having hands-on experience with this equipment is very important as you enter the workplace. Some people emerge from fum school with a semblance of a reel, also helpful as you start a career.

Also, you will build relationships with other filmmakers in ~ school. These relationships may turn out to be invaluable as you ~ both advance in your careers. ~ But school will end and you will have to enter the workplace eventually. I have a Masters in Cinematography, but that alone has never gotten me a job. School gives you have an edge in the "T o get started in this business, your best bet is to marry a wealthy producer." ways I just described, but entering the workplace is the same Sadly, this i probably the sounde t advice I received with a college degree as it is without. Everyone "pays their dues;' when I was looking to get started. works for free and comes to appreciate the meaning of experiThe reality of the dilemma facing people as they enter the ence by confronting inexperience in themselves and others. industry has not really changed since I started almost fifteen Tough choices ... No concrete answers ...

If you do decide to jump into this career, keep in mind that years ago. As many will tell you, there are countless ways to reach your goal. I could tell you how I started, but that is only it is a very long road. You have to resign yourself to the fact that my path. I wound up where I am due to some lucky breaks and many less talented people will pass you by, becoming much specific circumstances. That is really what makes it so difficult- more successful than you. But as they do, never forget that

Give yourself a basis ol knowledge and experience to draw from.

In Hollywood, having a story to tell is the ticket to advancement. we don't all get the same lucky breaks.

My advice to those graduating from high school is to go to college. While there are many fine undergraduate film programs, I suggest that you study something else. Psychology, Sociology, History, Cultural Studies, Art, Creative Writinga rigorous program of tudy in any of these areas will make you a better artist and filmmaker.

The fundamental reality i that filmmaking is about storytelling. Knowing what goes into a well-told story, what makes people respond the way tl1ey do, is crucial to good movie-making.

As you major in another area of study, help out on student film productions. They are always looking for extra hands. Then you get the best of both worlds. And if you can't put off film studies, I recommend that you at least minor in another subject.

Most importantly, live. Travel if you can. Visit other cultures.

Give yourself a basi of knowledge and experience to draw from. In Hollywood, having a story to tell is the ticket to advancement.

With your undergraduate degree in hand, you must deal with the question of going to film school v entering the workplace.

Faced with this choice fifteen years ago, 1 sent out letters to Directors of Photography I admired. I asked for tl1eir advice and received a myriad of response , but they were split about fiftyfifty between my two choices. Looking back, I understand why.

Entering the workplace without any previous training can be

plenty of people with a lot more talent than you will give up and change careers. It's not easy.

Today, young filmmakers have an edge that I never had at their age-cheap cameras and non-linear editing in their laptops. For a fraction of the co t of film schools, you can make your own movies. If you think you can make a movie-do it.

Learn by doing. Learn by making films that fail miserably. Learn from your mistakes.

But the job market is consistent: tough to enter, tough to stay after you do.

Contacts are the key to this business. The people I've worked with, those that hire me or refer me for projects are crucial to any of the success I have attained. Nurture friendships and partnerships in your career. You never know where they may lead.

I will leave you with an excerpt from one of the many responses I received from my own letter writing campaign almost fifteen years ago.

"In the end, it is a real roil of the dice -luck and timing, [together with] the endurance to wait and the patience to overcome. If you make it, great! The vast majority do not.

"I don't want to paint a bleak picture- but jobs are scarce and difficult to maintain once you get them. There are no miracles- only yourself and that may be (and hopefully is) enough." ~ Good Luck -1 hope you persevere.

THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN: GEmNG STARTED

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Rusty Geller SOC operating the Disney twin-65mm 3D camero system in gear-head mode on Captain EO.

Career Develo ment

My Disney Years

By Rusty Geller SOC

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THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN : RUSTY GEWR

I

worked in the Walt Di ney tudjo pecial photographic effect department from 1981 to 1985. It wa an intere ting time in the company's history, a the old Di ney culture was pha ed into the new Hollywood reality.

In the early '80 , Di ney tudjo wa being run by a corporate committee who hadn't come to grip with the fact that Walt was gone and wasn't coming back. They believed in the tatus quo and not rocking the boat. Within three year all had been replaced. Likewi e, mo t of my co-worker had pent their entire career at Di ney. They'd come up through the mail room or machjne shop, had run animation camera hooting cell for a decade, then had progre ed up to the " Proce Lab" run by the legendary Art ruik hank. Though competent technician , they only knew Di ney' in-hou e equipment, technique and procedures. My boss was Bob Broughton, who'd started in 1937 as an office boy on now White nnd the 7 Dwarfs and retired 47 year later as the head of the optical effect department. ¢

In 1981 Disney special photo effects wa gearing up to post a eries of large format films for their new Epcot (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) park in Florida, the opening of which wa le than a year away.

I'd been brought in to help modernize the department. By then I'd been working for 4 years at variou visual effects facilities, doing optical line-up and hooting motion control miillatures. I'd never intended to go into photographic effects. I'd planned to get into camera the traditional way, tarring as a loader and progre sing up through the ranks, but at that time just about the only way to get into the Camera Union was to be born into it, or by entering though a pecialty. My route was "optical."

While still in cinema school I got a job delivering film for a

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THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN: RUSTY GEWR

Union optical effects house, Freeze Frame Ltd. After a year I wrangled an apprenticeshlp and eventually an AC card in Local 659. After 2 years winding through 1000' rolls of negative and interpo itive, playing mental che s with images and mattes, and orgaruzing them for the optical printers, it was time to move on.

I got a job at Universal' Hartland facility programming a motion-control computer, shooting spaceshlps for the Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica TV shows, assisting my old cinematography teacher Peter Gibbons and working with the likes of future effect wizards Alex Funke and Eric Brevig. It wasn't "live action" but at least I was out on a stage with lights and a real camera. When Buck wrapped, we were laid off, and I went out to work a a 2nd AC, just in time for the 1980 Actors Strike. After a dreadful year of unemployment, I reluctantly went back into effects.

I was hlred by Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope Studios, to do opticals on One From the Heart and to help restore the 3-screen Triptych on Abel Gance's 1927 silent epic Napoleon. When that ended I was hlred by my old boss from Universal Hartland, Peter Anderson, who'd been employed at Disney Studios to modernize equipment and procedures and supervise post-production on the Epcot films. Considered "outsiders:' we met resistance at every turn, though in a ruce "Disneyfied" kind of way.

Disney's equipment was built in the studio machine shop by second generation Disney employees. The equipment was good but slow, and required a lot hands to operate. My first job at Disney was assisting on optical printers.

Most of the optical printers being used in the Industry had 2 heads, some were one-headed. Disney had these too, but they were the only outfit in the industry runrung 3-headed printers, with the third head projecting into a prism mounted between the 2 inline heads. The third head had its own lamphou e.

Oxberry and Acme Producers Service, the two major printer manufacturers, had long since abandoned the 3-headed design as being unwieldy and impractical. Disney ran their two home-made three-headers for 30 years.

Why three heads? Disney shot their color cartoons on 3 separate black-and-white records of the colors, just like 3-strip Technicolor. But Disney used only one strip of film, shooting each frame 3 times sequentially onto black-and-white highgrain negative, with a filter wheel (bluegreen-red) changing with each frame. It produced 3 frames in succession, plus a backlit silhouette matte. They needed a 3

POV travel-through . The underwater land cape wa the mo t elaborate, at 25 feet wide and 40 feet long. A gantry panned it, u pended on twin tower which ran on tracks, driven by stepper motor controlled by the 3565 computer.

The camera, a 4-perf 35mm Mitchell mounting the ettman Pitching Len , could go ide-to- ide aero the gantry, go up-and-down on a vertical rack, and roll. While the tower crept down the tracks, the peri cope len "flew" though submarine canyon and over ridge , pa t mine , oil well , hipwrecks, fi h and diver , ending up at a floating city.

We hot it dry, and created an underwater atrno phere with moke. Each filming pa would take over an hour, and the moke had to be kept at a contant level throughout. A smoke room .-uwa curtained off next to the land cape.

Rusty Geller SOC operated the Disney twin-65mm 3D camera system on Captain EO like a huge Steadicam underslung from a Chapman Nike.

Infrared en or read the den ity of the moke over the et. When it thinned, a black curtain would be opened and moke-pre-mixed to the headed printer o they could more ea ily compo ite effect . The proper den ity-would be relea ed, keeping the atrno phere 3- trip black-and-white sy tern made for uperior quality color reproduction, ince the color would never blend or fade, and con tant. provided excellent torage life.

Motion Control Di ney al o had a motion control y tern called ACE . (Automatic amera Effect y tern). Mo t motion control y tern u e tepper motor which turn a et amount (a tep) for each pul e from a dedicated computer. A motor i mounted on each ax:i of movement of the camera, head and dolly. Each motor is run by a eparate channel, and motion rate can be varied during the hot. The system repeats exactly on multiple pa e , to create element to be compo ited on an optical printer. tepper y tern are interchangeable and can be u ed on different camera , head , dollies, etc.

But Di ney ignored tepper technology and built a unique do ed-loop ervo y tern ba ed on Anin1atronic from Disneyland ride . It wa ambitiou and overly complex, and the oftware wa incomplete. Operating it wa a con tant fight between operator and machine.

ACE had a dedicated camera with two interchangeable movement : 4-perf 35mm and 8-perf 35mm (Vi taVi ion). The latter, with a half- queeze lens, produced Technirama, which had the arne image size a tandard 5-perf 65mm. We used re-worked ikkor len e and occa ionally the ettman Pitching Len , a periscope ystem which gave incredible depth of field and could be lowered into mall place . A E wa permanently in tailed on tage 3 and wa u ed for mo t miniature work. everal huge miniature land cape were built for Epcot and were too large for the A ES tage. For the eneral Electric Pavilion we shot Choose Your Tomorrow. Peter Ander on wa DP, Richard Mo ier programmed the computer. Disney rented a hanger at Burbank Airport and built everalland capes to create THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN: RUSTY GEWR

33

Francis Ford Coppola , Michael Jackson and George lucas collaborated on The Walt Disney Company's Captain EO, a unique 3-dimensional narrative musical film presented by Kodak premiering September 19, 1986 at Disneyland and Walt Disney World .

A musical space fantasy starring Michael Jackson and with original songs wriHen , produced and sung by Jackson, Captain EO was directed by Coppola and executive produced by lucas. Photo Š1986 The Walt Disney Company. All rights reserved .

Multiple Camera Systems There were everallarge-format film for Epcot. CircleVi ion 360 u ed nine 4-perf 35mm camera mounted on a round ba eplate. Identical 38mm len e made a complete 360-degree view.

The y tern wa huge, but went out with a mall crew: director/ cameraman, production manager, camera tech, and grip. They'd hire laborer locally. The y tern wa hauled to the mountaintop temple of Tibet, to the Mayan pyramid of Mexico, into the Forbidden ity of China, and through the fore t of Canada. ircleVi ion flew under helicopter , dived the Barrier Reef in a elf-propelled underwater hou ing, and rode atop a fire truck through downtown Lo Angeles.

The 3- amera 65mm y tern wa more u er-friendly, and gave a 270-degree view which filled the audience' peripheral vi ion .

It wa built for the Epcot Energy Pavilion , and it too traveled the world. For my favorite hot it wa lower don a hydraulic arm from in ide the bomb-bay of a B-25 in mid-flight, filming a low-level run through remote mountain following the Ala ka il Pipeline. The hot, when viewed on the three huge creen , twi ted your stomach. A the camera cleared the pa s and the ground fell away, you felt like you were falling a thou and feet.

I wa part of a crew that carried the y tem-in piece , including a dolly and 500 lb of hot-bags-to the rooftop of

34

THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN: RUSTY GEWR

the ne Wil hire building in downtown Lo Angeles to photograph the unri e over the city kyline. A week later we hauled up an infrared-imager y tern and et it on the exact pot. We built a black tent with a Mitchell camera in ide and filmed the imager' monitor, which bowed a different color repre enting each degree of heat. A the un came up, we ftlmed infrared image of heat reflecting off ection of the a me building we'd hot with the 65mm 3-camera y tem. The 35mm infrared panel were then optically placed over the ame object on the 65mm image . The final compo ite howed the city panorama at unri e, in et with infrared panel , illu trating the effect of heat on cement, tee!, glas , tile and brick.

The Sodium Camera For a few effect on the feature omething Wicked This Way omes, we hot with the Disney-Rank odium Proce y tern.

It had been used on Mary Poppins and Alfred Hitchcock' The Birds. It wa a elf-generating matte y tern and produced finer detail than traditional blue creen proce e . A lot of detail in a blue creen hot i lo t becau e the blue that i dropped out i a broad part of the spectrum. odium light is a very narrow band of the pectrum, o more information i retained . During photography, a backing i flo ded with odium light, while the

foreground light are filtered to eliminate that yellow part of the pectrum. Di ney utilized a converted Technicolor 3- trip camera, running one trip of color negative and one of B+ W Plu -X. A didymium ftlter in a pri m plit off ju t the odium light, o 99o/o of the color remained on the color negative, while the odium Light made a perfect matte on the Plu -X. It wa later compo ited on an optical printer with a background element.

On omething Wicked ... we u ed it for a hot of an old woman partially blocking a mirror, looking at a younger ver ion of her elf. In the ftnal composite you can e every hair on her head, whiJe eeing the matted background image behind. onventional blue creen would have produced blotchy matte , and we would have had to hoot the actre tanding away from the mirror. The odium y tern wa n't widely u ed becau e it wa quite cumber orne, requiring the huge camera and a pit full of odium light .

The Twin 6Smm 3-D System Captain EO wa my Ia t project at Di ney. Thi wa 1985, the old Di ney committee wa gone, Michael Ei ner wa running the tudio, and MTV wa the late t rage. Captain EO wa a 15 minute 3D mu ic video tarring Michael Jackson that wa hown at the Disney Parks in its own venue. At I million per minute of creentime, it wa the mo t expen ive fUm ever made. Be ide Jackson, Ei ner brought in George Luca to produce it, Franci Ford oppola to direct it, and Vittorio toraro to hoot it.

We u ed the Disney 3D sy tern which had been built two year before for an Epcot fiJm, Magic journey. The camera coni ted of 2 65mm camera mounted on an L- haped ba e. One camera pointed traight ahead hooting through a 50o/o mirror, the other mounted directJy over it, hooting down into the reflection off the mirror. Thi was owe could get the len patJ1 (interocuJar) do e enough together (3 .25N) to mimic human depth perception.

The other criticaJ adju tment in 3D i convergence. onvergence is where the optical path cro when you toe-in the camera . Object in front of tJ1e point-of-convergence appear to be in front of the creen, while the area behind the point-ofconvergence create a "bay-window" 3D background. For shot where you want the foreground in1age to appear to be floating out over the audience, we'd shoot eparate elements: a baywindow background, and a foreground object against a blue creen with the convergence exaggerated. We'd combine them on the optical printer, where we couJd pull the foreground image farther apart a needed. The image would appear to float over the audience, while tiJI howing depth behind it.

The two camera , each fully loaded with 1000' of 65mm fiJm and mounting Ha leblad len e , fitted on the mirrored L-ba e, itting on top of a 1940 Technicolor gear head, made for a 450 lb y tern.

Luca , oppola and toraro hot Jack on' enes over a two week period. ext our Di ney crew wa a igned the j b hooting the miniature of the paceship, insert and pick- ups. Then we did orne dancing cene with Michael.

By that time I'd been promoted to camera operator and my fir t job u ing the "wheel "wa a cha!Jenge: while Jackson danced rapidJy back and forth aero the tage, I had to follow him with clle giant camera on tJ1e 40-year-old gear head. The camera had a

ftxed finder, o for tJ1e low hot I had to operate itting on clle floor crouched over clle eyepiece. The Technicolor head, with all cllat weight, bumped when rlle pan changed directions. ince we were u ing a 2 camera y tern, I could only ee rllrough one finder at a time, and would gue what clle other camera, off- et horiwntally, wa eeing. DP Peter Ander on would watch the ocller eye in a monitor to make sure I didn't hoot off clle set. The fir t A teve locomb had to keep both camera in focu and in ync. It wa like doing urgery with a bulldozer.

For anocller hot, we animated Fuzzball, aptain E ' flying orange ma cot. Thi wa a blue screen element, compo ited into a hot of Michael and hi entourage exiting the pace hip.

Fuzzball wa uppo ed to fly rapidly from the hip dire tJy at clle camera, coming off the creen to hover above the audience.

Then it would turn and da h back to Michael.

For clli element we u ed all of Di ney' tage 4, bare except for a sma ll blue creen at one end. We under- lung the 3D camera on a pecially built Y- haped fluid head u pended from the end of a hapman Apollo crane arm. The camera hung cro cha i off one ide of the truck. I operated it running along ide, like it wa a giant teadicam. Fuzzball wa a hand-puppet worn by a puppeteer wearing a blue- creen leeve, pu hed in a wheelchair following a lazy " " pacll toward clle camera. To create the illu ion tJ1at clle puppet wa flying, we ran tJ1e crane at him a fa t a we could, keeping the puppet again t clle blue creen in both camera . The puppeteer turned "Fuzzball" and we ran rlle camera back to clle tart. We did 25 take . They u ed take 3.

Productions Inc Every independent filmmaker ahould know about

THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN: RUSTY GEWR

35

Rusty Geller SOC wearing the Steadicam with the Arri SR-3 in Perth , Australia while shooting a commercial.

For the film's climax, we flew Michael on wires. We used Di ney's huge back-lit fluore cent blue screen, and made a mirrored floor out of Mylar to reflect the blue screen, so the camera could be above Michael while he "flew" and still have blue creen below him.

We mounted the 3D camera and gear head on top of the Chapman crane. The move was straight in and ended slightly above Michael. To get enough run, we had to open the big stage door and drive the crane in from the alley, topping with Michael full frame, o in the final compo ite he'd be flying over the audience. I did a one-handed bar-dip on the tilt wheel to keep the heavy camera from bouncing on the top.

wa probably one of the fu t CGI equence ever attempted. In 1984, CGI was in its infancy, and the equence wa n't delivered in time to make the relea e date. The Di ney effects team had to quickly create the sequence with miniature . They hung both the camera and a miniature carnival up ide down. DP Phil Meador hot ingle-frame in rever e, pulling the miniature apart one piece at a time. It wa a thankle s, pain taking process, it wasn't all that dramatic, and omething Wicked This Way Comes that way went.

Almost a year after the film was released, the original CGI sequence unexpectedly showed up at the lab. keptically, we creened it at dailies-and were blown away. We saw a dozen dark sinister shots: close-ups of the train cars transforming into arcades, tents billowing into shape, and the Ferris wheel erecting it elf. It's a pity it didn't make it into the film, it would have been an entirely different movie. A a creative piece it worked, but more importantly, it was a harbinger of thing to come: optical printing and motion-control miniature were on borrowed time; CGI wa the future.

For me, the handwriting wa on the wall. If I was to continue in effects, I'd spend the rest of my career sitting at a computer keyboard, taring into a monitor. I was too young and full of a need for adventure for uch a fate. In tead I took a teadicam workshop, put together a rig and practiced until Disney began laying off my department. In 1985 I became a full-time teadicam operator, which i about a far from vi ual effects a I could get and till be in camera. But that's entirely another story.

My brief time at Disney was a window into the pa t and door into the future. It was a time when men and women u ed toys and tricks to create illu ions on film. And it laid the groundwork for the incredible CGI effect being done today.

~

Rusty Geller is still a Steadicam operator. He now lives in Perth, Western Australia and is writing a book about his filmmaking adventures.

Early CGI Toward the end of my 4 years at Disney, I saw a piece of film that changed everything. It was on the feature omething Wicked This Way Comes.

The premi e of the film i that a carnival run by the devil come to a mall town where he offers people their dreams in exchange for their ou.ls. ee-ing the devil's circus train spontaneou ly tran form it elf into a carnival tart the tory, and without that equence looking piau ible, the Rusty Geller Steadicaming the Sony HD900, with Don Rickles and Bernie Mac, film wouldn't work. on The Bernie Mac Show in 2003 .

For that key cene, production ordered what

36

THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN: RUSTY GEUER

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t tarted with electronic new gathering and documentarie .

Multi-camera epi odic production began making the move.

Even ingle camera drama thought they would give it a try.

This year director Robert Altman joined forerunners like eorge Luca , Jim ameron, Michael Mann and Robert Rodriguez to hoot feature using the newe t of the HD formats-HDCAM- R. An Engli h production took that one tep further by completing the fir t totally digital feature, hot with Viper cameras and arl Zei DigiPrime len e using 4:4:4, totally uncompre ed.

Let's face it: High definition ha become a formidable element in the ar enal of tool available to the cinematographer for televi ion and film production, and it i here to tay.

Tho e miling the tran ition to high definition have di covered the learning curve can be very teep. The typical high definition recording y tern ha become the convergence point for what wa in film very separate d partment . The video, audio, genlock and time code all terminate at a ingle point for mo t pr duction . Learning to marry the e ignal together ucce fully take con iderable effort from tho e u ing the y tern. The camera department i used to being a kjnd of stand-alone entity. ow they are required to interface with the other department to make the camera or camcorder work a a com pi te sy tem.

Local 600' recent two day Advanced HD eminar at Band Pro in Burbank ucce fully introduced orne 20 guild member to the wonder of the ony HDW- F900 and HD production.

Information overload i the norm in the e workshops, but it i always intere ting that, although HD is new to mo t people, they don't have trouble under tanding the video part of the y tern. It i alway the genlock, time code, audio, and camera file torage that are the topic with the mo tis ues.

I

Who will post?

There are a lot of tip that u er need to know - if thi marriage i going to be ucce sful. One of the mo t important i sue for people wh are doing independent features, for example, i

38

THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN: HI-DEF

By JeH Cree that they have to do their leg work at the beginning. Knowing who will po t and complete the ftlm out of the project prior to production i very imp rtant.

By di cu ing thi in advance, you will get key element of the information that are required to etup the camera properly.

Each p t facility ha their preference a how to handle time code and audio. Following their guideline will usually reduce cost for the ervice provided.

Even though most of the video to fum conver ion are completed by u ing an Arrila er film printer, every facility u e a different device to drive the unit. Each of the e device require it own variation in camera etup to achieve maximum performance. Without interaction between the facilitie completing the project and doing te ting prior to production, you are open to potential errors and additional co t .

Activate the status switch to verily the frame rate or format. That switch is an operator's life jacket.

Thi concept can be applied to any project u ing high definition. The stake are normally high on a feature project. ln hope of hortening your learning curve on the care and feeding of an HD project, 1 have put together ome of the more common error and omi ion from pa t project . Plea e think of them a a tutorial o the e i ue are not repeated in your u e of the HD formats.

Frame Rates The ony HDW-F900 and mo t other HD camera and camcorder will record in 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, and 30P fa well a 50, 59.94, and 60L The market hould be u ing the frame rate referenced to our current video y tem. The ea ie t way to

remember thi i : if you are u ing an even number that is not 25Psf or 50 I, you are probably wrong. Even feature film uch a ollateral u e 23.98P f becau e they employ electronic editing y tern ba ed on our current video sy tern. ot following thi guideline can co t you dearly on thing a simple a down convert and dailie . It take much more than the

Most post facilities would like 5 to 7 seconds of pre-roll as it simplifies the digitizing process. built in down-converter in the tudio decks to do a timeline hift from 24 to 23.98. You al o have time code conver ion i ue with thi process. Adding a simple 3:2 pull down will change the frame rate to 29.97 (59.941) o down conver ion can be completed.

There i a little idio yncra y that I alway mention when I am providing the initial orientation on a ony F900. People are till learning about the F900 and want to look at the variou frame rate . They find the page in the menu and tart exploring. The frame rate doe not change until the power i cycled and that i wh re the problem lie . If the "next" value is not changed back to the original po ition, on the next power cycle, the camera will move to the "next" value. Thi an be a real problem if you tart recording at the wrong frame rate. That' why, if 1 have to go away from the camera, 1 alway activate the tatu witch to verify the frame rate or format. That witch is an op rator' life jacket- con cience- whatever you want to call it. Anyone that operates an F900 hould know the location of thi switch.

Time Code The e word emanate either fear r contempt when di cu ed on mo t ets. Mo t hort form program u e Record Run time code and, if u ing a eparate audio recording device, u e a mart late to ync audio and video. Mo t long form multi-camera how u e time-of-day time code with the camera running 23.98, while the audio device run 29.97 D code. Thi may change ba ed on the facility that you are po ting with, so it i be t to a k and not a sume. A recent feature project I was supporting received orders from po t to u e "record run" for the camera , 23.98 on the Diva and mart late for audio.

We had a project the other day that was running 29:97 D time code to a camera that wa running 23:98. I received a call from the eta king how to fix the time code problem with the camera. You can record the 29.97 D time code u ing an audio track for future reference but the camera mu t ee time code matching the frame rate if u ing external time code. o much audio is going to Divas or similar device and unlike DAT machine they will run at 23.98 or 29.97. The e device give you a choice of u ing 23.98 or 29.97 D time code for tl1e tandard 23.98 project. Thi hould be determined by p t, becau e the be t process should be selected ba ed n the p int and method u ed for audio layback.

A good tip that ould ave time and money when using timeof-day time code i providing ufficient pre-roll. Mo t po t facilitie would like 5 to 7 se ond of pre-roll a it implifie the digi-

tizing proces . Thi i u ually n t a problem ince mo t of the e project are u ing a mart late. By the time you late and clear the hot you have more than enough pre-roll time.

1 recently had a project where they refu ed to do the pre-roll.

When a ked to provide the nece ary pre-r ll they aid, " I don't do tl1at in film. I don't need to do that now." It co t the production about I 4 grand extra to get their dailie and digitizing done becau e an edjtor had to be involved. lt i al o recommended that if you are planning to use time-of-day time code, you u e ome type of external device to be the ource of the code.

Most camcorder and recorder will lip with omething a imple a a change of battery. By u ing an external generator whether hardwired or jammed u ing Lock-it or simi lar device this become a non-i ue.

Genlock All of the HD recorder , amera and camcorder require that a trilevel sync signal running at the operating format of the device be provided to lock the ource . If feeding to a witcher or a compo iting device you mu t time the ource u ing the H Pha e adju tment upply with each device. It ounds very imple but the econd tep of thi proce ha generated a nun1ber of call over the year .

When u ing an Ambient L ck-it or similar device in a multi-camera ituation it may not be nece ary to u e the genlock ignal to provide a common tim code. It i only required when timing the camera to a y tern.

I could go to La Vega for a nice weekend if I got a dollar for every call tating that "I changed frame rate and now the camera will not go into record." If genlocked, the camera locking ignal mu t be of the a me rate. The recorder will not record if locked to the wrong reference.

If u ing AE audio, the genlock ignal mu t include a word clock for the audio source to lock properly. ot including thi word will re ult in unusable audio. In add ition this i a ituation where all camera , recorder , and audio device mu t be locked.

Audio Major deci ion have to be made concerning the audio. Are you u ing a ingle or double y tern? If a double y tern, i the audio recorder a DAT or a Diva like device? ne more i ue has been added to the mix ince the addition of the RW-1 THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN: HI-OEF

39

HD AM- R recorder and its twelve channel of 24 bit audio.

Do I u e an external recorder? The e deci ion affect how time code and the di tribution of audio are approached.

Even ingle y tern audio has additional choice now that Evertz and Miranda provide camera adapter that allow A.ES audio to be upplied to the recorder . AE ha advantage over analog audio but it generate another et of problem . The audio source, video recorder and cameras mu t be locked with a device that provide a word clock for the y tern to operate properly.

Double y tern or a hybrid of a double y tern i till the norm for mo t epi odic hows. ince many of the how u e camcorder , audio i fed to the camcorder in addition to a DAT. Thi implifie down-converts, dailies and the editing proce a each tape already ync ound. Even if the DATi the primary audio, I will alway provide an audio feed to the camcorder a a cratch track for dailie . It al o provide a way to confirm audio ync.

The addition of the RW-1 ha changed many of the feature project that have moved to the format for the improvement in picture quality. The ability to record twelve channel of analog or AE audio at 24 bit ha moved many of the e project to recording the primary audio to the recorder.

Thi require orne collaboration between Audio and the Video Recordist to determine who is re pon ible to connect and di connect the input and output with each company move. Ju t do not forget the genlo k i ue if you choo e AE a your audio source!

Camera Setup The fir t que tion that mu t be answered is, how much correction do I perform at the camera or do I depend on po t production? As in mo t topi in the world of production, there i no one correct an wer. It depend on your kill or tho e working with you a to how deep you want to get into etup of the camera. It also depend on where the product i going and what control are available in po t production. orne low budget project require more work be done in the camera etup a the project will ee little or no DaVinci time before completion.

My per onal preference i to adju tat lea t the non-linear function (black gamma, gamma, knee point, knee lope) in the camera. Internally these function are proce ed at more than double the bit depth than i available to me after recording to an 8 or 10 bit tape format. Thi give me better control over the fini hed product.

Most Common Mistakes The mo t common ony F900 mistake are procedural error in handling the data ftle . The ftle tructure provide a Reference

40

THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN:

HI-DEF

File which i trimmed by the cene File and the Operator' File.

The Operator' File only handle etup of the viewfinder and other operator preference and does not affect picture quality or etup.

The Reference and cene file have everything to do with picture quality. Thi i why it i o important to tore or u e the Reference and cene files together. If l u e a cene ftle without

How much correction do Iperform ot the comero or do I depend on post p-oduction? the proper Reference I may not get the look that l am expecting.

Remember, when copying a ene ftle, alway tore the companion Reference file. The arne hold true for reading the file .

The number-one operator error with the ony F900 happen when u ing cene ftle stored on a Memory tick. The operator fail to recall the proper cene file after reading file into the camera. cene file are tored in group of five on an F900, and the camera ha no way of knowing which to u e unle you select the ftle.

It i alway the little thing that create the bigge t pr blem m omething a complex a a high definition production.

Hopefully this group of tip and guides will make your day much Je tre ful. Good Luck.

In 2004, jeff Cree joined Band Pro Film & Digital as the company's first Manager of High Definition Development. Formerly the HDV. Acquisition ystems pecialist for ony, ree is recognized as one of the world's experts in HD technology. Also an accomplished Director of Photography, ree is a sought-after speaker and instructor in the field of HD cinematography.

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I came to realize the DP couldn't operate wheel . I felt a naive and fooli h en e of superiority. Sunday morning h called me at home and a ked me to tand down, and not having the ball to fire me outright claimed he wa going to "try omeone el e out;' leaving open the po ibility I might be invited to return.

I wa deva tated, sure that a career in cinematography wa hi tory. The world wa pa ing me by. I had a hole in my bank account, a kid in diaper , and a fabulou stereo sy tern we could all pend time Listening to.

But, a the joke goe , I wa available.

Let' jump forward to the pring of 2004. Over the pa t few year my career ha been filled with harmony and great filmmaker , mutual respect and gratitude. In other word , I'm due for a bad one. And I've got it on a feature, I've been paired with a Director of Photography who i at one moment charming, clever, funny and the next paranoid, viciou , ungrateful and adi tic. It' a truggle to get through each day. o my wife, the poor soul who hare my ang t, whip a book on meThe Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. hHp:/ /www.miguelruiz.com/teachings/ fouragreemenls.html

"Whenever 1 climb 1 a111 followed by a dog called Ego." - Friedrich Nietszche he tidal wave of que tion , the poi onou feeling of inadequacy and self-doubt when you get acked bring on a na ty brand of pain. It can paralyze the mo t hardened of u .

La t year, 2004, I wa fired from my job a the camera operator on a movie. I wa hocked and up et; till, I aw it coming, and it didn't deva tate me a it did the Ia t time I'd been fired19 year ago. Back then a now, the firing wa not about my ability to pan and tilt. It wa about the chemi try between the Director of Photography and me.

How imple if being a camera operator was only about flawle compo ition and camera movement. We all know the tougher job i the interper ona1 dance we mu t do with the Director of Photography, Director, and other .

In the ummer of 1986, my daughter and my operator' card were in their infancy. I wa hired to operate on a new televi i n erie ingle camera, treet of LA, hot young actor , hardball torie . It wa going to be great! I was so intoxicated with the pro pect of even month of work that I purcha ed a very expenive tereo y tern the weekend before we began hooting. My youthful enthusia m grew during the fir t week (a quality I've learned to keep i11 check). The only point of contention aro e when I a ked for a gear head and the DP reluctantly acceded. He wa a fairly new Director of Photography, having been a gaffer to e tor Almendro . He sugge ted that the fluid head wa a more organic tool in the creation of cinema, and a far a he wa concerned, all otl1er panning and tilting device were inferior. l tried to hang with that philosophy w1ti1 we arrived at a long complicated FA T dolly move with an abrupt top. Even locking the pan an in tant before the end of the move created ub tandard result in my opinion, an opinion I'm afraid I hared in some ubtle or noto- ubtle manner. On Friday, the gear head arrived.

T

I have a natural aver ion to elf-help Literature; a ide from royal tie to the author, mo t of the e glitzy tome provide too little for too few for too hort a time. However the lim volume and simplicity of Ruiz' Four Agreements appealed to me. Opening to any page, I fow1d word of wi dom and solace.

The premi e Ruiz ay i that we've all made agreement , usually on an u11con ciou level, with our elve that convey the me age - we're bad, we're wrong, we're unworthy, we're unde erving, etc, aU bad juju, negative hit.

Ruiz ay we have to make new agreements with our elve , and there are four of them: First Agreement: Be impeccable with your word.

Impeccable meaning "without in." Our word are more powerful than we acknowledge. Word can create unity and good will.

They can ju t as ea ily de troy omeone. The choice is our .

Think before engaging mouth. ext time you're on the et, Li ten to the word floating around. It' fa cinating to recognize tho e that are creating good thing and tho e that are divi ive or intended to harm.

Second Agreement: Don't take anything personally. The director of photography i telling the producer that the quality of your work ucks and will cau e him per onal ruin. As you run to IMDB to reche k your credits it occurs to you that maybe, ju t maybe thi has nothing to do with you and is a product of hi neuro i .

Third Agreement: Don't Make Assumptions. One week on a film et will introduce you to the de tructive and costly con equence of a umption . If every member of a film crew made this agreement, run away production would cea e becau e filmmaking costs wou ld plummet.

Fourth Agreement: Always Do Your Best. ot o ea y when you're ignoring Agreement 2 and 3, and landering the Director of Photography at every opp rtunity.

The e imple but profound tatement had a remarkably paLLiative effect by helping me maintain a clear en e of who I THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN: FIRED! •••A CAREER

43

wa in the hail torm of crazy coming from the DP. Rather than feeling of hate and vengeance, pity emerged a the most sensible reaction to his behavior. o with The Four Agreements in my uitca e, I left town for a month of location work, and confronted the one thing I couldn't bring my elf to do.

This Director of Photography had a em bled about him key crewmembers who he treated ju t a badly as me. They however had the remarkable ability to bounce back and engage in arm-punching, humor-the-bo , machi mo banter every morning. It occurred to me that this ritual wa Like the guy buying in urance for the day- humor him early in the hope that today I'm not the one on the receiving end of a new orifice. mall talk ha never been my trength, and the be t I could mu ter wa a re pect-

Film Production Rule 8 : La t day on location i traditionally a good day to fire p ople, and on our Ia t day I was.

Meanwhile, back in the ummer of '86, still marting from the TV show firing, I accepted extra camera work on an HBO movie. The production coordinator from that project called me a month later to work on another HBO film with a Danish Director of Photography. Within a year, this extraordinarily talented DP was filming The Abyss, and then a pielberg picture, Always. I went with him on both of tho e important project , urvived, and emerged with credit that launched my career a an operator.

I con ider my elf ble ed and fortunate to have traveled my career path.

A huge part of that gratitude is based

I consider myself blessed and fortunate to have traveled my career path.

A huge part of that gratitude is based on having been fired in 1986. ful and incere smile and "good morning." At the end of the day or week, I couldn't bring my elf to dine or shoot pool with the DP a the other key did. Undoubtedly it was my lack of homage that led to my relea e.

So much of the camera operator's job is linked to confidence . When you have it, you can't fail. As soon as someone above you starts to question your ability, your confidence can become the victim .

When that happens, the quality of your work is in jeopardy.

I had one director fire me real early in the day.

Unfortunately we were on a boat, in the middle of Puget Sound . He was stuck with me and I with him .

I shook it off the best I could and continued to do my job . The rest of the day went fine and at the end of it, I said "goodbye " and asked if he needed me to help him find my replacement .

Annoyed , he snapped , " No no no, you ' re not fired! " and walked away.

The absurdity is always there .

-Dan Gold SOC It was never about the work . And after the pain went away, I realized that it was a bad situation to begin with , and a sane individual would have quit. But it's not in our nature as camera operators to walk away.

-Dan Turrett SOC

44

THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN: fiRED! •••A CAREER

on havi11g been fired in 1986. If I had11't, I might never have broken into feature . Of cour e, not getting fired might have brought an equally ati fying career in TV- becoming a Director of Photography or Director could have been my tory; it' all speculation.

Let' come forward again to that Ia t day on location. In the quiet a ide that wa my mo t recent firing, the Director of Photography opened up to me in a way he never had. He wa as genuine and clearheaded a I had ever een him. He remarked on my "lack of malice" - I'Ll never forget the phra e. He aid I ju t had lo t the pirit and energy he needed from hi operator. l admitted to that and asked for the chance to filld it again, but it was too late. We parted with a hand hake.

I would be a fool not to confront my role in all thi . None of u i free from re pon ibility. My inability to implement the econd Agreement handicapped me, kept me from being there for the Director of Photography in a way he needed me to be.

And that's what it really boil down t for camera operator .

There are going to be time when we either reinvent our elves, swallow pride and adapt, or get marching orders.! admire the other crew member who urvived becau e they were re ilient enough to forge ahead, giving their all and not uccumbing to the daily on !aught of character a a sination.

As !look to the next job I realize my work is cut out for me.

Oh by the way, the gaffer-turned-DP from 1986 called me not long ago, nearly 20 year after the fact, to apologize! I wa o tun ned I failed to thank him for my career. That' a phone call I need to make.

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T E C H N I C 0 L 0 R.

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"w hen

I fir t joined the company, it wa like a little clubhou e," recall Ed Phillip , President and EO of Matthew tudio Equipment.

"Legendary grips would hang around the hop discu ing the different projects they were working on and the tool they needed to accompli h their job ."

At that time, grip equipment wa built by each of the major tudio to their own individual need and de ign.lt wa often heavy, cumber orne and not intended for location work. Although orne individual companie were beginning to manufacture a few pie e , for the most part grips were left to their own devices. d Phillip , who began hi career in the indu try pulling cable all over the back lot of Univer al (on a mall project called Beau Geste), aw change happening.

Aero s town at Paramount tudio , Roy I aia wa in the canva room ewing backing , overhead , crim and flag .

Eventually l aia moved into production working on how , gripping for Bonanza, I py and other . rip like Art Brooker, Kenny Adam , tl1e Deat brother , the Records, the Rez family, Gaylan chultz and other were thinking about lighter more portable gear. With a little encouragement from hi friend I aia ventured out to tart hi own company, and tudio out- ourcing wa born. till, knowing change was in the wind, Phillip moved to MGM and Fox, CB and Paramount/Desilu, working with heavy light and burden orne lighting tands, till pulling cable. Gaffers like Earl Gilbert, Goldie Garnell and Buck Cannel were looking for lighter more portable lighting in trument . With a little encouragement from hi friend , Phillips tarted hi own company.

WAYN 0 Manufacturing specialized in the de ign and manufacture of the lightweight "Golden Eagle" Arc Light. The Arc (as it wa referred to ) produced 225 amps of Brute power. Brute wa it other nickname and it weighed in at 250 pound a brute to lift. In 1971, Phillip old WAY to inemobile y tern , a Taft Broadca ting ompany. l aia' bu ine wa beginning to develop, a wa hi family. When hi fir t on Matthew wa born, I aia tarted Matthew tudio Equipment. oon two mind came Ed Phillips in the beginning .

THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN: MATTHEWS 35TH ANNMRSARY

47

together: Ed Phillips quit pulling cable and joined Roy Isaia and Matthews.

"When I joined Matthews, Roy was in the proce s of expanding the product line to include hardware;' Phillip explain .

"Back then there wa no real or defmed tandard to the equipment. Grip wa l inch and electric 1 and l/8th inch. To complicate matter even further, the fact

I wanted to service the industry, not the investors. that o many of the major studios built their own gear created even more confuion." But the team plodded on -li tening to the crewmembers who dropped by witb needs and suggestions. oon Matthews manufactured their first stand- a welded ba e 40" Century stand with a 5/8" male pin and two aluminum castings. The die was set, o to speak, and Matthews oon became known as a u er friendly equipment house for both grip and electric, a revolutionary concept at that time. ln 1974, Roy I aia old Matthews to Phillips and hi then-partner Carlos DeMattos. They continued to "grow" the company and take it public. But corporate and MATT on the A DAC took the fun out of the busine and Phillips took the company back by pinning it out from the public arena. "I wanted to ervice the industry, not the inve tors," he says adan1antly.

Over the years Matthews has been re pon ible for the introduction and production of many other industry mainstay products such as the first spri ng loaded Century Stand, the Heavy Duty Combo Stand, Folding Roller Stand , the Combination 4W' Grip Head and the U A introduction of scissor type folding dolly track.

"Today the bu ine is far different;' Phillips says omewhat adly. "Grip don't have time to hang around our clubhou e.

They are working in Hollywood, China, Europe, Rus ia, outh America, Mexico and many otl1er new 'production center : Grips have become, for lack of a better word, the on ite engineer . At a moment's

Ed Phillips today.

48

THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN:

notice, a director will turn to him/her and ay ' Do omething.' "lf we are the ource of upply, they will often turn to us for an answer. Even though we are a tep or two away from the productions of today, Matthews is till known for being there when our customers are in need. So in a way things really haven't changed," Phillip ays proudly. "The clubhou e has just gotten a little larger.

"A the clubhou e has grown , o have our market ," he add . "Year ago we relied solely on tbe motion picture and televi ion production industrie . But now we have a very large presence in the profe sional photo markets. These highJy skilled photographers recognize that product designed for other creative disciplines are readily adaptable to the creation of quaJity image in aJI fields.

"We're still manufacturing grip equipment that i implistic, proven to be rugged, reliable, durable and portable.

And we're still designing to fit tl1e need.

"Take one of our newe t tool , something that we caiJ MAX, a an example;' Phillips says. "MAX has a persona of his own;' he laughs. "He carries his own weight a a member of the crew. He never caiJs in ick and he doe n't spend a lot of time around the crafts service table. But he ure fill a need.

"MAX wa brought to life a a resuJt of

MAX at work outdoors. He'll put the light right where you want it, and keep it there.

conver ations with prominent key grip Richard MaJJ. For years grips have made 'on et' menace arms to position a light onto an area of a et where tl1e POV does not aiJow a stand to be used. These anns were often as embled on set, were time con uming and not built to any standards - like the grip equipment of 35 years ago. Enter MAX, built to a standard of

MAX at work indoors. He's incredibly versatile and never calls in sick.

use, fast, reliable and now a world traveler. Since he was 'born' MAX has erviced production in Europe, Asia, Mexico, Atlanta, New York and Hollywood."

MAX is just one example of how Matthew has been able to keep that clubhouse ensibility, even with production going global. Over the pa t thirty-five years Matthews has been there 24/7 for their clients, be it the individuaJ grip or the high end supplier. That commitment and reliability ha been recognized by the indu try-twice-with awards for technical achievement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and from the Academy of Televi ion Art and ciences for two products that pioneered new developments: TuJip Crane- The first commercially produced camera crane that folded up for compact transport and included extension accessorie for remote camera heads.

Cam Remote- developed in conjunction witl1 Bob Nettmann, the Cam Remote was the first commercially produced remote can1era head.

Today there are dozens of companies manufacturing cranes and remote camera heads which have aiJ grown out of these innovation .

Nothing will top Matthews from fillfilling their client's need . Recently, they pulled together a huge compliment of

THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN: MATTHEWS 35TH ANNIVERSARY

49

equipment for the Japa nese rentaJ company upplying Dreamworks'location work on Memoirs of a Geisha. They worked through the Thanksgiving holiday weekend to fill the need of another off- hore production that wa backed up

We think fhontls onf is still the best.

The Matthews Crank-o-vator will support anything up to an 18K.

again t the wall. When a local &0 grip needed a leveling ystem for hi Matthew doorway dolly, Matthew created the ystem and even named it after him - "The Lenny Levelers." And the company even finds time to continue developing new and improved products that wiJl be relea ed to the internationaJ production indu trie during thi anniver ary year.

"We may be bigger than we were 35 year ago. We may be upplying tools to different market all over the world. But we are stiJl of the mind that ' hand on' i till the be t:' Phillips ay proudJy. "We are LOOo/o independently owned and

operated, owe have no one to an wer to except for our elve and our client . We elJ into 51 different countrie and we ervice the internationaJ motion picture, televi ion, photographic and theatricaJ market with innovative, high quaJity equipment- manufactured right here in Burbank California.

"We are extremely excited about celebrating thi , our 35th year in the bu ine ,"Phillip add . " ew product are ju t a part of what we at Matthew have in tore for our loyal client in Hollywood and all over the world. We have just relea ed the newe t ver ion of the Matthew catalogue, Volume #35 and added product training video to our web ite. With the continued supp rt of our clients and the indu try we expect to keep upplying the international and dome tic production indu trie with indu try pecialized hardware and lighting modification devices for many more year."

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The Rat Catcher, by Andrew Laszlo, ASC Publi hed Dan River Pre 2004.

A erial killer i on the loo e with over 20 bodie left behind. Each victim i an unpunished perpetrator of the Holocaust.

Andrew La zlo' novel The Rat Catcher is delightfully fa t paced, weaving a complex tory of revenge and ju tice.

A ew York City police detective joins a female Hungarian uper leuth on the trail of The Rat. In hot pur uit over three continents, they reopen old wound and uncover the truth behind protected sources in outh American wild , Budape t and the United tate . It i dangerous to leave the pa t unfini hed, for honor never dies while it live burning in the heart of one person. The killer's identity remains invi ible until the net i ca tat the tory's very end.

The Invisible Art: The Legends of Movie Matte Painting

by Craig Barron & Mark Cotta Vaz The Invisible Art i extremely well de igned uncovered and photographed by Ba reproductions and interview Richard Edlund, Michael re ear h and ri

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An extraordinary tory that draw on recent history and its impact on the pre ent, Lazlo' The Rat Catcher i a novel not to mi s.

Other title by Lazlo include: It's a Wrap, anecdote from the cinematography trade

Every Frame a Rembrandt: Art and Practice of Cinematography, "an impa sioned exploration of the technical and arti tic creation of the cinematic image."

Foot11ote to History, La zlo' autobiographical tale of survival in WWII Europe The even Graces of God, "the tory of a boy who arrive in America with nothing, and make a great life for himself" For more information: www.andrewlaszlo.com http:/ /www.amazon.com/exec/obidos /search-hand le-url/i ndex= books&fieldauthor-exact=Andrew%20laszlo/ 103211 8609-0566234 N.~

the hi tory of matte painting are rare behind-the- cene photographs showing the arti t creating on gla . Matte painting ha often been referred to as painted illu ions, conjured up with bru h, oil and a heet of gla to tran port the audience into any place at any point in time. Being able to how the et, added element , models and painting eparately, then compo iting them together give the reader an in ightful look at "the invi ible art" of movie matte painting.

The book detail the arti t at work, from ilent films to the pre ent, tricks of the trade and the magic they create.

Top quality production till , per onal photograph , working "on the et," and completed original negative take the reader tep by step with the arti t through their creation .

Wonderful storie of how they literally pulled the rabbit out of the hat are told by dozen of arti t and filmmaker .

They are very generou in haring their arti tic vi ion, peronal career and master le son . orman Dawn' technique for extending et with gla hot is amazing. Layering of gla pane later help to create illu ion of depth around a top motion Kong puppet through a dangerou fore t. â&#x20AC;˘ Linwood G Dunn a ace at RKO e tabli hed an independent operation Effect of Hollywood. He advanced optical a a f creating matte-painting compo ite . Dunn in hi al o involved in developing digital technology.

Evan , the fir t matte painter to cro over to the mputer realm, aid: " I came to realize the matte painting we did at Luca film wa e entially building imaginary et -not with hammer and nail and wood, but with paint and bru h on a heet of gla ."

A rare Paradine Case matte painting by pen er Bagatopoulo urvive from the man ion tour equence and reveal the painted detail he u ed to enhance the

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et, including painted sunligh t reflected dramatically on the painted walls. • Robert tromberg of Illu ion Arts created the last traditional matte painting in 1993 for Martin cor e e' The Age of Innocence and continued creati ng digital painting for such film a Castaway (2000) and more. • Yu ei Ue ugi updated the landing platform from The Empire Strikes Back Access amazon .com thru www.soc .org to buy these books and money will go to Ch ildrens Hospital Eye Care Clinic.

for The Phantom Menace. Pioneering digital matte painter Ue ugi point out "making a movie will always be an act of illu ion ... Everything on a computer is a simulation. Tt will never truly imulate nature. If done well, it' cheating wisely."

The final compo ite from The Great Train Robbery (1903) has one of the first in-camera matte effects ever used. orne example from Robin Hood (1922) plu many patented technique are shown.

And who wouldn't appreciate Chesley Bonestell' establi hin g matte painting of Xanadu for Citizen Kane, Percy Day' matte-painting magic fo r The Thief of Bagdad, Jack Co grove' painting for Gone With the Wind, Warren ewcombe's matte department for The Wizard of Oz, Syd Dutton's Giedi Prim e for Dune, or Bill Mather's Gotham City for Batman Returns. You can follow along with the technological advan ce in the movie and leap forward into the age of digital creation.

Faces from behind the camera (and in the studio) are connected to a mall portion of their work, fro m Albert Whitlock' concept painting for The Lost World to two staffer fro m Whitlock' hi toric matte department yd Dutton & Bill Taylor who went on to fo rm Illusion Art .

Kodak opened Cine ite in 1992, a digital scanning and recording ervice who e first project was to create a pristine digital negative of the Technicolor RGB rna ter from Di ney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. An incredible bonus is tl1e

accompanying CD-ROM which follow the book's historical overview and allow you to play out sample matte painted cene in Quick Tin1e movie clips a they transform into the final moving picture image. So don't let "the end" credit fool you! This magical tour will keep you enjoying the art for a long time to come.

Author Craig Barron began a a matte painting photographer. He i an alumnu of George Lucas' Industrial Light+ Magic, a camera operator, visual effect supervi or and co-founder of Matte World Digital.

Recently he joined tl1e Academy of Motion Picture Arts & cience 'Board repre enting Vi ua1 Effects; he i a fine arti t.

Mark Cotta Vaz has authored 14 books, is a senior contributor to Cinefex magazine and ha recently fini hed hi ftr t novel.

Chronicle Books, an Franci co © 2002 hardback. ow available in paperback.

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THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN: BOOK REVIEWS

From the beg inn ing, the art has allowed filmmakers to mag ically transport their audiences to other times and other places. Matte pa intings g ive us the visual means to travel back into history, to voyage into futuristic worlds: to experience previously unimag ined places of fanta sy .. . Matte pa inting is pure cinema magic . There is no better way to show worlds that existed long ago or galaxies that exist far away.

-George Lucas, forward The most prim itive films were shot against a painted backcloth . Nobody minded even when the backcloth flapped in the w ind . Aud iences suspended their disbelief, as they were accustomed to do in the theatre .

-Kevin Brownlow, preface The beauty of a motte shot is that you can become God. - Alfred Hitchcock Young people at the Inner City Arts classroom gave their own review of the CD-ROM: "Coolness!"

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Building a Studio the TV Pro Gear Way

By Pauline Rogers PHOTOS COURTESY OF

TV PRO GEAR

Andrew Meisner. Right: GTeVe console.

ight year ago, Andrew Maisner was directing America's Durnbest Criminals. After the fourth year, the how had fini hed it run and the producer asked Maisner to help him liquidate the tudio that wa built to produce the how. "l sent faxe to five thou and production and po t production companies with ali t of gear we had for ale," Maisner ay . "I wa hocked at how many call l got and how fast the equipment old. " on companie that were in imilar ituation began to call me. Would I be willing to buy their cameras, VfRs, Lighting, control

E

56

THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN: TV

PRO GEAR

room or location equipment? Almo t by accident, l found myself in the 'used audio/video equipment' business. Lease companie contacted me to see if I could di pose of equipment they had repo d or had gotten back at the end of a lease. I got calls from owner of mall production companies that were behind in payments and on the verge of bankruptcy. uddenly, I found myself with a teady tream of good used equipment to ell," he explain .

"That' how I started TV Pro Gear. At our Lo Angele and ew York offi e , we start with top-quality u ed equipment that is no longer of u e to a facility. We run it through our ervice center to make ure it i performing to factory pecification .

Then we offer everything from camera to a complete tudio at thirty to fifty percent below new co t."

Mai ner' olution to mart hopping has paid off for major companie throughout the United tate . When The Di covery hannel decided to liquidate their tandard Definition gear to go HD, TV Pro Gear purcha ed the inventory.

When Comca t's G4 etwork

acquired an

omcast moved all produ tion to Lo Angele . TV Pro Gear bought the entire an Franci o tudio and uninstalled aU the equipment for later re ale. Thi ummer, a major financial new network completed building a new hi definition production center.

TV Pro Gear removed over six thou and piece of broadca t equipment for resale.

"That wa a big one for u ," ay Mai ner. "We emptied six floor of their ew York office building in even day . Imagine the rent alone that the company aved. And the perfectly good equipment i now available to other user ."

During the Ia t year, Mai ner' company ha old over ix million dollars' worth of u ed equipment to Warner Bro , Paramount, Disney, B and B , as well as many maller boutique production and po t production hou e .

Altl1ough Maisner is proud of hi company's ability to liquidate a et at a good price and get them ready for u e by other , it is also important to him that TV Pro Gear not be cataloged as a company that imply huffle equipment from one ource to another.

"We are not broker ,"he say adamantly. "A big part of our bu ine is de igning and building system for production and po t pr duction companie . Each job is unique. Each client ha a different t of requirement ."

In 2003, for example, Palm pring -ba ed All-Star Entertainment made a deal to hoot football game in the Coachella Valley area for arne-day broadca t. They needed a mobile video truck almo t immediately. Within a very short time, TV Pro ear was able to deliver. All- tar wa o taken with the company' performance that they had TV Pro Gear build a 4-camera flypak for their live boxing contract.

And the repurpo ing po ibilitie keep coming. With TV Pro ear's help, Los Angele -ba ed torm Media built five new editing bay tied to an Avid Unity for centralized data torage in their new facility. A anta Monica boutique, Jacobsrahi, which pecialize in how packaging and program law1ehe for BC, B , Fox, E P , Di ney, AB and VHJ (Nip/Tuck promos and main title for The To11ight how with Jay Leno), had them de ign a turnkey hi-definition editing and compo iring y tern. And recently an Atlanta-ba ed producer who wanted to build a Hispanic televi ion network on a tight budget found Maisner. Georgia TeVe wa up and running in ninety days.

"When a company like that come to u , we sit down to create a whole package," Mai ner explain . "We work with the client to define their need and requirement . The plan include drawings and a detailed li t of equipment they will need.

"In the sy tern de ign pha e, detailed AD wiring plan are created that will accommodate future expan ion or changing technology.

"We then acquire and assemble the component needed, and te t them. Only the highe t quality materials are u ed. Every wire is labeled at both end to conform to the CAD drawing .

You'll never ee paghetti in our jobs. Every cable i properly routed and dre ed.

"Finally, we train our client' taff so that they can u e all the features of tl1e new ystem."

For TV Pro Gear, finding the be t equipment olution for each individual client i paramount, whether it' a single camera, a tlypak, or a full tudio.

THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN: TV PRo GEAR

57

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59

The SOC Editor talked with Lori Stone 8/29/05 .

Ed . What support are you getting, emotionally?

Lori : Michael's sister-in-law has been out here helping with the baby. That's about it.

Ed . How old is the baby?

Lori : 22 months. You've got to keep going. You can't stop and be upset.

Ed .: Michael was held in high regard by many people.

Lori : He was always a gentleman and spoke so highly of everyone. I mean, don't get me wrong, if you crossed Michael, he'd probably never speak to you again, because his feelings would be really hurt. He always cared for everybody.

Ed .: Tell me what happened .

Lori : He hadn't worked in five months, so when this [job call] came it was like, OK; it's work, even though it's a night shoot. He went and did the first night and came home at 5 :30 in the morning; he was tired . That day his kids were coming in from Virginia . I went to the airport to get them . By the time we got back, he was up and cooking and getting ready for them. I really think he hardly slept at all. His call was a 10:30 [PM] call. By the time he left the house at eight o'clock, he was already tired .

He went, worked overnight, and he must have been really tired . It was just a bad accident, you know. I don't see any fault anywhere . I don't know; it's real ly sad . They didn 't have him there an excessive amount of hours. I don't think it's worth it, these jobs, doing all these late shoots. He always felt rewarded by his job, but then he'd sit around here for five months [unemployed] feeling very discouraged and unwanted and unloved. It's a hard job for you guys.

Ed .: If you could speak to camera operators across the country or the spouses of camera operators, is there anything you'd want to say?

Lori : Just love them every day. You never know when.

A fund has been established on behalf of M ichael Stone's baby daughter, Cassidy. If you wish to donate, the information is as follows : Make check payable to: Smith Barney On the MEMO LINE of your check, write: Cassidy Stone

I

Scholar's Choice

Moil to: Sm ith Barney, 601 Union St. Suite 5200. Seattle, WA 98101 Gihs in any amount ore greatly appreciated . All funds w ill be held in trust until they ore disbursed to finance Cassidy's education .

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-PANAV/6/0N

Letter from Yehua Levine to the SOC President, 8/28/05 Dear David , Thank you for calling and thinking about him.

Michael was known as a joker and he did have a good sense of humor, often made people laugh, though he was an extreme shy and private person inside, quite different from what he appeared to be . He loved his work and enjoyed working so much that even when sometimes he was so tired coming home from work late at night, I was still able to tell the satisfaction of the accomplishment from his heart.

The photo means so much to me and it is the best ever of all his pictures; please remember to send it back.

Thanks again .

Best regards, Yehua

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