So I thought for a few post I would talk a little bit about the technology being utilized on Claire. But then decided that I would talk about some of my ultimate craft services fantasies. Maybe there's a happy compromise here...
One of the best investments I've made in the last couple of years was the purchase of the Panasonic HVX-200 Pro-sumer video camera. One of the unique features of the camera, and the penultimate reason I made the purchase, is the great P2 digital memory cards that capture the video footage. The P2 card contains a bunch of little solid state memory chips, much like the ones you would insert in your PDA or digital camera. This enables the user to shoot footage to a card instead of traditional tape or film which means fewer moving parts and no camera noise when filming. Pretty cool eh? No?
Well I did have a pretty cool lunch with some friends from Sony at Gyenari Korean BBQ in Culver City, California. They have a great $15 lunch special that includes all the little Banchan, three choices of meats and a side of rice. They also happen to have my favorite scotch available at the bar! It would be awesome on set, but the built in fans at each table rid you of that smokey, greasy smell and give Gyenari more of a wrap party feel than casual on-set snack.
I love digital junk. But even more than digital junk, I love digital audio junk. So for Claire, I wanted to make sure than instead of a traditional Nagra or a newer Tascam DAP1, we have the Tascam HD-P2. Similar in concept with our camera, the HD-P2 recorder records the audio to solid state compact flash memory cards so you loose all the moving parts and help keep on-set transport noise at zero. It has a nice option to record high quality audio at 192 kHz at 24-bits. So potentially, we could release Claire on Blu-Ray with the same quality audio that was captured on the set! But I digest..
On the other side of town, there's a great little spot that takes about a month to get a table on the weekends. Osteria Mozza is the brain child of mega chefs Nancy Silverton, Joseph Bastianich and Mario Batali. I had one of my top 5 meals ever there... twice! The first time there, my wife and I went all out... got cocktails to start with, wine with dinner, digestives afterward, seven courses of pure culinary sex mixed with awesome 70s punk rock music and awesome service... we seriously laughed between each course. Not sure how the laughing would play out on-set as a craft services option, but check it out if you have some cash to burn. They're also opening a Take-Out version of the joint later this year, so check it out if you want to snack at home.
The workflow on Claire no longer deals with film loading tents, 1 light transfers, dailies, and 35mm negatives. We've moved into the digital world. Ones and Zeroes... sounds easy and less mysterious than film, right? Well, the capacity of the P2 memory cards means that we still load the camera with a fresh memory card as a loaded card fills up with footage. As the cards come off the camera, the digital image technician pulls the footage off the card using a MacBook Pro and a RAID hard drive array. From there, the drives are backed up, footage logged and sent to the editor. Sound is also transfered on-set to a RAID hard drive array, backed up, logged and sent off to editorial. Our editorial systems of choice for this project are Apple's Final Cut Pro for video and Digidesign's ProTools for the audio side. We'll talk a little more about post production after we get through a couple weeks of production. For now, my stomach is grumbling...
George Lucas and Steven Spielberg's fourth installment of the Indiana Jones series of films shot a couple days on the Sony Pictures Studios lot in Culver City, CA. I had the unique experience of walking by their stage with a friend of mine during a meal break. We rounded the corner of Stage 30 to see several Russian soldier extras walking to craft services and Mr. Spielberg standing there talking to his mom. As my friend tripped in bullet-time, no doubt in a last ditch effort to catch Steven's attention, I caught a whiff of the most perfectly done steak. And while Terry Lee Painovich and Nick Mestrandrea no doubt did a marvelous job whipping up steaks on the Indy 4 set, I want my craft services "happy meat day" run by Joachim Splichal of Patina Restaurant Groups incredible steakhouse, Nick + Stef's Steakhouse. Two words - Rib Eye; three more words - Muscovy Duck Breast. Break down and do it... at least once. Enough said.
For my next post: I'll throw in some of my favorite on-set trainers after we all gain 20 pounds just from reading this post. Stay tuned for more Claire news and thank you for your support!
Indy 4 Photograph by Annie Leibovitz
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