Camera Assisting

A little late to this one, but this overview of the Light Ranger 2 from Chris Silano (“A” Cam 1st AC on Uncut Gems) from the Gods of Focus series in Jon Fauer’s Film and Digital Times is worth the delay:

… I don’t care how good you think you are. You can get marks, you can use laser beams, run your 200-foot tape measure, do whatever you want. The precision that the Light Ranger brings really lets you choose which eyelashes to keep sharp. It’s a really phenomenal tool. People might say, “Just press the Autofocus button.” I don’t use it a lot, but sometimes it’s really handy when everything’s moving, people wobble when they walk, and if you can get in sync with it, that’s great, but it’s just as easy to go the wrong way and get out of sync.

Silano later provides an example:

We had a good chuckle one morning. It was 2 am. We were in an enchanted, psychedelic forest. In this fantasy land, Jim McConkey was pushing an ALEXA 65 with the Betz Wave horizon stabilizer on his Steadicam. That’s a beast of a payload, but Jim’s a workhorse. He just won the SOC camera operator of the year award, well deserved.

I heard director Pablo Larraín say, “Jimmy, instead of stopping, can you just continue in?” Jim looked over at me. I was 20 feet away, pulling focus, guided by the video overlay bars of the Light Ranger.

The actors in the scene must have been startled when Jim shouted out to me, “Chris, I’m not going to stop. I’m going to continue in. I’m going to keep going in at the end.” They all looked at me and I just answered, “Always got to ruin the surprise, don’t you, Jim?” Everybody laughed, but really, it gives everyone enormous freedom on set. Now I don’t have to say, “Well, let me get marks first.”

More and more, pulling focus feels like playing a video game.

In the age of COVID-19, as work slowly trickles back into the industry, remote monitoring of a camera’s feed is becoming increasingly important. There are several options to achieve this, but if you have the right Teradek model lying around, you can take advantage of their built-in capability to be seen as a webcam on a computer:

Here are the compatible Teradek models:

• 2nd generation Bolt 300
• 2nd generation Bolt 600 / 2000
• 3rd generation Bolt 500
• 3rd generation Bolt 1000 / 3000

Or, more simply, any of the models that have a USB 3.0 output on their receivers.

To set it up, you simply plug your Bolt receiver into a computer via the USB 3.0 port and it should show up as a webcam option in popular software like Zoom or VLC.

Here are more specific instructions.

I recently did this on a shoot last week to allow the director in Los Angeles and the agency at their homes on the East Coast to all monitor our on-set feed and collaborate via Zoom.

One note: I ran into issues getting my Mac to recognize the Teradek when using a USB 3.0 to USB-C converter, so if you can go directly into a regular old square USB 3.0 port or get the proper USB-C cable, you can avoid those problems.

Cinematographer Rob Ruscher, who I had the pleasure of meeting at NAB, interviewed me on his blog for his “Cool Production Peeps” series. Most of the questions cover topics I’ve discussed here on The Black and Blue, but I was happy to nail down an answer to this one I get asked a lot:

RR: What advice would you give someone that wants to be an AC [Camera Assistant]?

Learn the basics of cinematography – both digital and film – so that you understand the fundamentals of how cameras work and can have an educated conversation about it with the cinematographer. You don’t need to be a master of lens optics, but you should know things like how aperture affects depth-of-field or standards for frame rates and shutter speed.

Read Doug Hart’s The Camera Assistant: A Complete Professional Handbook and then read David Elkins’ The Camera Assistant’s Manual. They are similar in scope, but each cover various aspects of the job. In terms of education you can do away from set, those are the gold standard.

Finally, get on a set – ideally in the camera department as a trainee or PA, but really any position that puts you on set – and watch the AC’s work. Ask them questions when they aren’t busy like at lunch or at wrap when they’re breaking everything down. Offer to help them on future projects and hope they call.

There is, of course, much more to becoming a camera assistant, but cinematography basics, reading the AC manuals, and getting on set is the best general advice I can give. Further, as you delve into each of those things, you’ll find yourself branching off to learn more and build your skills.

One more thing: check out my free ebook Becoming the Reel Deal which focuses on starting your filmmaking career in the camera department. Thanks to Rob for the interview!