Rollin!

As I'm writing this, we've published and submitted the ACE spec commercial to CBS.  There was a lot to get done and all the people that contributed made a huge impact on it!



Nick contacted me a couple of weeks ago about doing a commercial shoot for ACE train as part of a contest with CBS.  If you missed the info on the pre-production, check out my previous blog entry: Aces & Trains!  Meanwhile I've been busy with the McClure Sessions collaborating with Troy, and recording a couple other local artists.

Anticipation was growing  as we headed toward production day. Troy and I have been in editing phase of post-production the last couple of weeks as we wrapped the recording phase up for the McClure  Sessions.

Production started at 5 am for Nick, Yuki, Drew, and myself in Stockton to get some footage of the Train coming up to and leaving the station. Nick Yuki and Drew all came up from LA literally the night before the shoot, which meant operating on little to no sleep.  Crazy guys.

We then had to wait for our train to arrive, and dashed to hop on board as quickly as we could with our gear, and meet up with the extras and crew in Lathrop.

It was a quick rush to help get all the extra equipment in along with all the extras and situated in the car to prep for shooting.

 

The first part of the train ride I sat down below with all the gear on watch and awaiting data management duties, while Nick and Yuki and the crew began setting up to start shooting with the Red Scarlet-X.  

I ran BTS and 2nd camera (not needed) with a T2i thanks to Troy.

Once I got to switch duties with some of the extras to allow me to come up and roll some BTS and help with lighting and camera assist for Yuki, Drew kept me in line on what to do.

Each shot featured either an extra or the train in a way, as Nick called them "Hero" shots.  To convey the purpose of the commercial.   

Yuki has a very good eye and Nick is very clear about the particular shots he wants.  During Pre-production we went over his initial storyboard which was a series of photos he had found that conveyed the message he wanted.  He then updated the storyboard for production with some of the shots I had taken during pre-production scouting the train the week before.

 

 

Yuki executed the cinematography perfectly, and Drew being first camera assistant and lighting was a very big help as i picked up the learning curve.  Once we arrived at the station we had from late morning until noon to get a couple more station shots and scenic shots before we had a lunch break.

While I can't exactly go into detail on the process of how Yuki worked pitcure in-camera, the raw playback was pretty amazing on its own.  I don't believe he even used the HDRx capabilities of the camera. 

 Break went fairly slow as it was a lot of waiting around but still fun none-the-less!  We resumed after lunch break to get a couple more shots both inside and then outside the train station before our train arrived to take us en route to our home desitations of Lathrop and Stockton.

There were several more shots we tried to get on the ride back home, including the relaxing book shot, and the bike rack below.   Sunlight was starting to fade quickly by the end, and we also had to consolidate and unload at the Lathrop station so that the crew that started there could depart there without missing a beat.  Nick, Yuki, Drew, and I ended at the stockton station packed and ready to head back to his place to shoot the final shot which is a visual effects shot to add into the ipad scene.

After that wrapped, we had dinner, and I left them about 7:30 pm to come set up my recording gear and prep for the V.O. session.

We wrapped recording at about 9:30 pm (roughly), and I proceeded to start treatment, de-noising and editing, and some minor pre-processing to get levels decent to send each take to a dropbox folder to house our miscellaneous project content we set up to collaborate via the internet.

Then, on Friday I took the time away from editing the McClure Sessions to compose a short cue for it, and sent it off to the dropbox for Nick to drop to picture.  While they finished rough and fine cut, I waited to receive the VO track back to start mixing the audio together.  And finally, a day before the commercial is due, Nick was in final VFX and coloring as I talked with Nick online getting final mix edits done for broadcast master.

As I sit here and write, I just received word from Nick that the submission was successfully received, just in time!