RNF: Missed Opportunities Due To Hubris… A Day On A Film Set.
Preface:
Recently 100 Men In Black Male Chorus Ensemble, bass/baritone and occasional bass/baritone/tenor soloist here, was invited to be a part of a film project. The director was Cameron Clay and he created a great environment. The film crew, support crew, and cast were all very friendly. A great vibe overall.
Cameron had reached out to our director, Marlon West, and asked us to be the choir for a closing scene. We were all on deck.
Day of.
It went well. We were there at 2pm and left about 7:30pm or so. They fed us so that was nice. Interesting process. As mentioned it was the final scene of the movie. We get up to sing after a preacher finishes to close it out. Filmed the same scene several times from different angles and between set ups the lighting and camera would be moved. They mix the scenes into one later.
The process was interesting. As I have stated in this space I am a video novice at best so I found the process fascinating. Different but also the same compared to photos. They had these massive lights with diffusion screens they would put in front of them at varying distances depending on how they wanted the light to look. They had massive blockers to control where the light went and to block ambient light. They used a lightmeter for each set up to make sure we were lit correctly. Knowing I take pictures I was asked questions about the goings on by the choir. It was similar enough to photography where I could answer all of their questions. Since the movie was set in the 70s what I should have done is bring my Leica so my picture taking would be era correct. Using my TTArtisans 28mm f/5.6 or TTArtisans 21mm f/1.5 would have been perfect. I am pretty sure the digital camera’s lack of a light window for the viewfinder would not have been noticed. One crew member had a Leica Q. Another had a film Leica M on a tripod with a shutter release cable and he was also shooting small video clips with film also. All very cool to watch. The level of detail was impressive. For example since the scene took place in the morning they set up a massive light outside to shine through the stained glass to fake an early morning sun at the same location while we shot the scene throughout the day. All of this was quite fascinating to me.
Hubris.
Yeah. The pics inside the church were a dark, grainy mess. One pic of a young actor at the church is all that I have shared so far. My success with the Pentax 17 earlier in the week gave me a false sense of confidence.
Trying to use it at ISO 3200 (Ilford Delta 3200 was in the camera) in such a low light situation was pushing things too far. The camera needed flash, which was a no go on set, or I should have used the film at ISO 1250… Had also brought the GF1 w/ the 20mm f/1.7…
…which would have been the better choice. This would be what I would usually use.
But I really wanted to use the Pentax 17. And this was clearly a mistake. Let me be clear. This was not the camera’s fault at all. This was complete user error… arrogance?… let’s stick with hubris.
Why did this happen? I am glad I imagined you asked.
I have this weird thing about me. An aversion to modern gear combined with an odd pride in getting good results under self imposed limitations. Hence my that will do series during the pandemic and my most recent vintage digital series. But…
There are times when I just want the shot.
This would usually apply to “real” work, like recent photo sessions.
Would have also been nice to have 100 Men In Black pics to add to my series.
This movie set should have been elevated to “I have to get the shot.” status. What happened is that my wires were crossed by new gear. So many other options would have been better suited for the day. I have a number of options far better suited to candid moments and low light settings. With a clear head there is no way I would have chosen a half frame camera and the (Although wonderful, atmospheric, and whatnot.) grainiest film I have ever used. Now that I say that out loud it sounds crazy. But there were bright spots, figuratively.
Although grainy as heck I could tell that:
- I did not miss focus on a single pic.
- My shoot from the hip framing was spot on.
- Given the movie set setting flash was not on the table, but this film would have likely worked if light was added.
All good news for future reference but this does nothing to salvage the images from this day. I should try to chalk this up to a recent mood piece during a funeral where I stated that I was meant to experience the scenes, not capture them that day. But this may just be a coping mechanism to deal with losing images. I would have almost preferred not being able to see any images at all instead of enough of an image to know that they would have been pretty awesome.
Ok, enough of that sad sack nonsense. The positive takeaways from the day.
- We had a great time. I always enjoy spending time with the choir.
- I learned quite a bit about the filming process.
- I got to meet Cameron briefly and some of the other crew members. One young man was also a film camera fan.
- And now that I think about we got to be in a film. That is pretty cool all by itself.
Another perk is that while I was looking over the photo once again I noticed two frames that were not as bad as I had thought they were. Not optimal, but better than the remaining images. I think I was using the night mode for them. A note for future self.
Ok, the images.
Pains me to think of what I would have captured had I made a more sensible choice of tool for the day. But I need to let it go.
So, my takeaways?
- The Pentax 17 is great but not a miracle worker. Will use a tool better suited to the task next time.
- Sad sack film nut self put aside I had a really good time and meyt some really cool folks.
- I am glad I wrote this post. I feel much better about the day than I did when I began.
- There will be more opportunities to capture images.
Happy capturing.
-ELW
Eric L. Woods 
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