"MARY": EPILOGUE
The movie finished on schedule despite a one day delay due to Hurricane Nate.
Though I was excited to hear the comforting whir of a film camera again, in retrospect I’m not sure that a film system was the best choice for our shoot. The images are beautiful but the cameras and lenses are large and reloading takes time and is a buzz kill for the actors concentration and momentum. You might think that a 65 foot sailboat is large but add two Panavision Cameras plus camera crew, a sound guy and at least two grips and oh yeh, at least two to four actors and our estimable director, Michael Goi and we were flat out of room. Because it was a private vessel, our options for rigging were limited as well, made more problematic by the sheer size of our cameras.
Necessity was the mother of invention in every way on this project.
A fairly typical rig on deck of the "Mary". Nothing aboard is either square or level.
A digital platform with light weight, super high quality DSLR sized cameras for specialty shots may have broadened our visual canvas and certainly would have saved rigging time. I figure that we spent one entire day on reloading, camera jams, rigging and other associated film camera issues. One day is a lot out of an 18 day schedule.
All that aside, I commend DP/Director Michael Goi, ASC. ISC for insisting on film and making the best of a very difficult shoot. I hope the movie meets his expectations and is on to the next one with a larger budget, longer schedule and more prep time.
Moving equipment on a barge to another barge for a storm sequence.
We spent a lot of time in splashbags and they worked as designed.
We were fortunate to have the hydroscope for three days.
I’m not bailing on film in any way and I’m convinced that it is a viable production option for years to come.
There was a little time to take some pictures. This cloud was the beginning a huge thunderstorm that somehow managed to miss us.
Hurricane Nate made landfall 10 hours after I took this photo.
Coast Guard to the rescue!
My sincere thanks to “A” camera focus puller, Bryan DeLorenzo, “B” camera focus pullers, Toby White and Charlie Nauman, “B” camera/ Steadicam operator, Remi Tournois and a special shout out to 2nd AC, Cody Gautreau for his hustle, calmness and grit. A big round of applause for our grip and electric crews led by Gaffer John Magallon and Key Grip Bud Scott. They have stories too!
