New show. I’m now First Assistant Camera (1AC). Above in the photo is Matt, my second. The first day is done and we have one roll to download, Matt’s first full on downloading experience.

Of course I’ve told him all about my previous experience, and tried to give every pointer to avoid spooling, but I must bring bad spooling karma.

“Joey, I think I might need your help.” I hear the crinkle of a pile of film in the tent. I tried to talk him through it but he couldn’t get the center back in. He wanted me to go in.

So I threw a sound blanket over our hands and made the swap. It was the same exact problem, though maybe slightly better. A pile of film had spooled out the center. I tried to wind it back in the center, but this time I discovered a trick. Slowly, but surely, I was able to wind all the film back in.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, I seem to be getting better at this.

by Geniusdv.com

You can make your audio more dynamic in Final Cut Pro by panning sound effects from the left speaker to the right from within the Viewer Window.

A sound effect, such as a passing car panning from the left speaker to the right, can add another dimension to your project and lessen the flatness of canned sound effects.

Before you try this, keep in mind that you only need a mono clip to perform this effect, so if you have a stereo pair, unlink the two and delete one of the tracks.

1 Double click on the audio clip to load it into the viewer.
2 Click on the channel tab in the Viewer Window.
3 Option click on the purple audio spread overlay in order to get the pen tool to create keyframes and drag the points of the line so that it looks like the diagram below. When you begin to move the purple overly you will see a pink line underneath it. It helps if you think of it in this way: think of anything above the pink line as being the right channel and anything below as being the left channel.

Now the audio in this clip will pass from the left speak through the right when played.

Charles’ F3, the one that I redeemed myself on, went pretty well last Sunday and Monday. The house we shot at was amazing, all ten cast members arrived on time and were great, and even Goodwood went off without a hitch. Of course a show can’t be perfect, which is why we had a little snag at the end of the day.

Just to give a little background on film, we shoot Super 16. It comes in rolls of 400 feet which must be loaded into a magazine in a light tight tent that your hands fit into. If you took a photography class in the pre-digital days it’s quite similar. The roll is threaded through the mag, loaded on the take up side and snapped onto the camera. Once shot the mag is taken back into the bag with a film can and downloaded, or moved from the mag into the light tight can. While we have, or should have, a workshop covering this with dummy rolls (small short ends or rolls that were flashed), nothing compares to loading a fresh, full roll. Or downloading it.

Downloading is obviously much more important and nerve wracking, as you are handling everyone’s time and hard work. It’s also slightly trickier. While a new roll has a core that snaps on, an exposed role must be removed without a core. If you’re not careful, the film can spool out, meaning the inside begins to unwind, which is exactly what happened.

Camera was wrapped, I was cleaning up, getting ready to move out when Justin, the First Assistant Camera, comes to me. “I think we might have a problem downloading.” I go inside to find the Second AC with hands in the tent, fortunately only downloading a 100ft roll. Charles and I try to diagnose the problem. He says the inside has come undone, which means it spooled. Typically the fix for this is to slowly wind the inside back in the center. It doesn’t have to be tight, just flat for transport.

The AC couldn’t do it. So I offered to go in the bag. We went into a bathroom, where it was fairly darker, and switched places. I felt around and got my bearings. I tried to wind the center up, but so much had spooled out I couldn’t wind it tight enough and get everything in.

My only solution was to take the other end and load the film backwards, winding it back on the mag and using that to keep it tight. I started doing this and it worked for a while, until the film started to wrap around itself and become one giant, tangled mess. Of course I couldn’t see it, but I’m pretty sure it creased a few times, which could put some light spectacles on the film. And just handling the film so much is not good.

Eventually the film tangled so much it could not go into the mag. It was late, we were still at the location, keeping the owner up, and the darkroom at school was locked. So I had to tear the film, untangle the mess, and start a second roll.

At 1 AM, two and a half hours after going into the tent, the tangle was undone and the entire roll was safely in two cans. I wrote a nice, long essay to the lab and I’m hoping they can splice the two halves together after they’ve been processed. The bigger issue might be creases and over handling. We’ll find out Wednesday.

During this ordeal, Charles and I were talking about how this wouldn’t happen with digital and it’s insane that our original footage is subjected to this with no backup. I love film, but it’s experiences like these that make me want this.

I caught some flack this summer when I was complaining about all the sequels and remakes in theaters. The folks that were most frustrated with me almost seemed to be asking, “Okay, fine, smarty pants. What would YOU rather see?”

One easy answer to that question would be Billy The Kid, Jennifer Vendetti’s superb new documentary, which opens for a limited engagement tomorrow at the IFC Center in New York (more theatrical screenings are soon to follow nationwide). Don’t miss this one. It’s easily one of my favorite films — fiction or non-fiction — of the year, and probably the best film about growing up that I’ve seen since Spellbound.

The film is a portrait of a Maine teenager, an awkward, troubled, and wise kid named Billy. What happens? Just life. Billy meets a girl. He deals with kids that don’t like him. His mother loves him and talks straight with him.

As far as plot is concerned, that’s “it.” But to explain the appeal of this movie, I would have to relay specific scenes from it. And the last thing I want to do is spoil the moments of discovery that Vendetti captures. All I can say is that the film does an uncommonly good job of capturing the raw awkwardness, pain, anger and tenderness of life at 15. The moments of Billy’s I-don’t-know-what-to-do-with-myself reactions to first love, and his mother’s sensitivity to his plight, are especially priceless.

Since Billy’s thoughts and feelings are so close to the surface, throughout I kept fearing that Vendetti’s might teeter into the realm of exploitation. For me, it didn’t. Billy’s an outsider, and while there are undoubtedly some very funny moments in the film, whenever I was laughing at Billy it was because there was a shock of recollection of some similar moment (like his scene of electric guitar heroics) from my own childhood. And even in these moments, I was cheering for him, admiring his combination of guts and innocence.

Billy The Kid opens today at the IFC Center. Theatrical screenings in Chicago, Seattle, and elsewhere are upcoming. Check the Billy The Kid website for details. It’s worth seeking out.