Film Set photography

I'm going to be shooting on set for a short film in two months, and the director wants to get a

casing that goes over my camera that sound proofs the camera so you dont hear the shutter. He

wants me to be shooting while the camera is rolling obviously and the mics might pick up my

shutter snapping. I and the director have both seen this type of casing on behind the scene

stuff.....but I can not find anything on it. Not at all. So, if anyone could help me out, that would be

amazing! and hopefully that was coherent enough for you to understand and possible help.

This is pretty standard stuff: http://www.soundblimp.com. There's a lot of home made stuff, but I can't say how well it works, and I don't think the studios are going to like you shooting with crappy equipment. There's too much money at stake.

Search for "blimp" both here and in the web in general.

Michael Axel posted the right link and the right reason ( too much money at stake).

 

. Buy it and then charge a special items rental fee to the production company to defray the cost.

 

I've tried other solutions but from my experience , for shooting on movie and television production sets as well as orchestral performances (with audiences present) the Jacobson Sound Blimp is the best tool for the job.

Ditto. Get the proper sound blimp.

 

I've used homemade blimps for local theater shoots. Effective but looks like absolute hell. Nobody there cared what it looked like, but no money was involved.

Thank you! The production company is taking care of any expenses of additional

equipment i need to buy for the shooting. I just needed to find the proper name for it.

So, thanks again!

You should be aware that the blimps from the above website are only available for "pro" cameras and and a very limited range of lenses. They run about 800 dollars.

 

A couple of other things to note. That thing about crappy equipment is not necessarily true. On a film project, one is expected to be able to adapt, create, think on your feet, and make things happen. With a few exceptions, if what you have works, nobody will really care. Those exceptions are high budget commercial crews, where throwing money around is expected. I'm guessing this isn't a high-budget or other union project, or they would have to have a member of Local 600 camera operators union to do the stills.

 

An option to consider would be using a non-slr camera with good optics and a silent shutter.

 

Something else to consider is that motion picture interiors are really hard to shoot in, because they shoot in very low light.

They don't have to worry about motion blur. You do.

For an interior scene, wIth my 50mm 1.8, I'm shooting at 640 iso and getting a shutter speed of not more than 60 and often much slower.

If you're shooting inside, you will need very fast glass, or a d300 (or equivalent Canon, etc) for the high-iso performance these cameras deliver.

 

Damon

With all the Advancements we have made in Life , we still do not have a quite camera from the major players of DSLR's camera:

the film cameras where loud but you could get a Zeiss or lieca camera who were quite compared to others:

I made my journalistic bones with a Leica. Leica's are not quite (quiet) enough for movie set photos. The click, whir and bounce of the shutter is distinctive enough to identify the shutter speed used. Using the film wind lever ends with a distinctive click.

 

Jacobson blimps are probably the gold standard for movie set use (http://www.soundblimp.com/what.htm).

Some P&S and compact digicams are much quieter than any dSLR, SLR or rangefinder of any make. No flip-flop mirror, very quiet shutters or, in some cases, no mechanical shutter at all.

 

But I don't know of any that might be considered appropriate for a typical film set. Even if it was capable of producing the same quality photos, using a P&S compact digicam might convey the wrong impression. For a low budget indie set, maybe. The tricky bit would be finding one responsive enough - no shutter release lag, able to AF in low light (or offer true manual focus override), low noise at ISO 400 or above, fast lens, etc.

I tried to shoot my first movie set shots with a Leica M4-2 (back when it was the newbie), they wouldn't go for it unless they weren't shooting with sound. Blimps make the camera absolutely silent.

> > But I don't know of any that might be considered appropriate for a typical film set....For a low budget indie set, maybe.

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I can imagine a big budget film project where the director or producer decides to bring in a non-union camera operator, gets them in the union, and puts them on the show. But I can't imagine one where the key players don't know what a blimp is called.

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On big budget shows, stills photographers are hired by unit publicists. Unit publicists, by the way, are also members of IATSE Local 600 camera operators union. So, I think it's safe to say this is a low budget project.

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In the low budget world, many of these shows are shot using Panasonic video cameras that cost less than a Nikon D3.

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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nohodamon/2479032697/" title="20080509-DSC_1761 by NoHoDamon, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3275/2479032697_7de253b69a.jpg" width="329" height="500" alt="20080509-DSC_1761" /></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nohodamon/2515869276/" title="Matt and Toshi 2 by NoHoDamon, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2174/2515869276_8a6a6a5489.jpg" width="400" height="500" alt="Matt and Toshi 2" /></a>

"But I can't imagine one where the key players don't know what a blimp is called."

 

Welcome to the not-so-new world of shoestring budget film making, Damon.

 

I was on several sets during the late '80s-early '90s here in Texas, including a couple of Oliver Stone shoots. He'd bring competent union folks for the major stuff, including a still photographer with an actual blimp, but the main reason for choosing Texas for some stuff was access to unpaid extras eager to be in a movie.

 

I've known several folks who, inspired by the novelty of films made in Texas, would rent some gear, borrow friends to do makeup, props, etc., mostly with experience only in community theater or school, and anyone who knew how to operate a camera. A lot of it was a notch below Ed Wood in quality and competence but that didn't discourage anyone.

 

Indie work has accelerated tremendously since then and it ain't likely to slow down. Embarrassment over stuff like not knowing what a blimp is won't discourage anyone anxious to get busy.

 

Everybody has to start somewhere and nobody was born knowing all this stuff, tho' some like to give that impression.

>> Everybody has to start somewhere and nobody was born knowing all this stuff...

 

Hey Lex,

 

Boy, I sure hope I didn't sound like one of those guys on the wedding forum! Definitely not trying to embarrass anyone. Just explaining my logic as far as what their budget might be.

 

I also wanted to make sure Ashley knew that, unless she has a high-end camera, there won't be a blimp available, and that using a Jacobson may cost more than the price of the blimp itself.

 

Even making something, like the Pelican case blimp project that's out there on the web, won't really get you there unless your camera has the ability to use a two-step remote to trigger focus. For Nikon, that's at least a D-70S (the one thing I regret not knowing when I bought my non-s D-70.) Not sure about a D-80.

 

With all the talk about Jacobson blimps, I wanted to suggest to Ashley or future readers that if the producers can't afford to go that route, they shouldn't be afraid to try whatever works. On a low budget movie, half of everything there is non-standard, or even home built. Take a look at the average sound cart!

 

Damon

I called Jacobson, and there's a waiting list. I made my own--details on my blog, here:

http://www.picturedujour.com/?p=67

Nah, Damon, your info confirms everything I've seen and experienced in Texas on low budget stuff and indies, and in NYC as a kid. (My stepdad was a producer of PSAs, documentaries, industrials, etc., and actually let me shoot stills for a couple of small projects.) If I seemed grumpy it's 'cause I have a hitch in my gitalong.

Outstanding illustration and explanation of your homebrewed blimp, Jim. Looks a helluva lot better than my gawdawful cardboard contraptions.

 

Try some closed cell foam in place of the standard foam that comes with the Pelican. In my homebrews it does a better job of damping sound and vibration. You can buy rolls of the stuff as padding for use under sleeping bags, or from suppliers in other dimensions and variations in rebound from compression.

Thanks Lex. I'll keep an eye out for the closed cell foam. I'm thinking about making another blimp, possibly with interchangeable tubes, so maybe I can use the cc foam then.

 

- Jim