Fin de Siecle (23 images)
Some frame grabs from "Fin de Siecle" ("The Sag" was the working title). Jeremy, Alex, and Megan were the principals, Jeremy and Alex wrote it, and I shot it. We've wrapped photography, and it's currently in editing.
Click a picture to see a larger view.
We had a DVX100, M2 35mm adapter, Lenses from 16mm to 200mm, and the most uncooperative weather I have yet experienced. Bright summery sunshine on Saturday, overcast and raining Sunday, so dark that I often couldn't get an exposure outside with my fastest (and also softest) lens.
This was only my second piece with the M2, and my inexperience cost us. Most of the problems I had with it I have since learned to mitigate. Not letting Red Rock off the hook entirely, the rig is flimsy, and requires extraordinary precision from the operator, and sometimes enforces no-win compromises between sharpness, vignetting, and exposure. I still think it makes beautiful images when handled correctly.
On the first day I was a good cinematographer and very bad director, shooting too many beautiful MCUs with the 135mm and not covering the scenes properly. I would have gotten away with it, had the weather been even close to a match on the second day, but after some beautiful pre-dawn light, the sun came up behind flat clouds and it only got worse.
The script was what made this worth doing, and while editing is the proof, the performances looked just about perfect. Megan looks beautiful, and I can't wait to see Alex and Thaddeus's scene. Jeremy makes you want to reach out and smack him, which was what we were after (and also pretty much the way the cast felt about me as my personality deteriorated under the stress of too many takes for camera problems).