I returned to NAB in April, working as a demo artist for
Cineform again. It was easier the second
time around, and less stressful since I knew what to expect. Cineform’s target customers were my ideal
consulting clients, so it was a valuable networking opportunity. Between my website and my involvement on
certain technical forums, I was beginning to get a bit of a reputation within
the independent post-production community, as an innovative problem solver. Once word got around that I was available in
person at Cineform’s booth, some people sought us out just to ask me
questions. Since most of my proposed
solutions involved Cineform’s software tools in some form, they were more than
happy to give me a lot of leeway in how I executed my role as “demo artist.” I referred the software development questions
to the Cineform staff members, and they directed the people with more complex
workflow questions to me. It was a
pretty good relationship, and it was nice to be part of a team, going to meals
and events with them in the off hours.
As soon as I got back from Vegas, Bandito was gearing up for
the first major shoot for the Navy SEAL movie.
The movie was currently titled “I Am That Man,” and we had been talking
about it for a year and a half, but now it was finally happening. I had been kept fairly out of the loop on the
creative side, but was very involved with the technical plan, to shoot the
first major motion picture recorded on video DSLRs. Siobhan and I had been hashing out the
details of file formats and naming conventions for months, and Ben had written
us a web database to sort the files and accompanying metadata. But now it was time to test out all of those
theories and preparations on a real movie shoot.
Bandito doesn’t start small, so our first day of shooting
was on a boat, with a fleet of other boats and helicopters to coordinate. I flew to Key West with two laptops and a handful of
hard drives, to support two long days of intense shooting. We had 8 cameras, and only about 12 cards to
record on, so I didn’t have much leeway for mistakes, having to backup the
cards for immediate reuse. We were
operating from a $20 million yacht, and I was given a spot in the dining room
to set up my laptops. The dining room
was in the front of the boat, directly below the bridge, and gave me a 270
degree view of the Florida Keys. It overlooked the main deck, and they had
positioned bikini clad models in the windows for the external shots. So it fit every stereotype of how perfect
life must be to make movies for a living. It was amusing to have a handful of
super-models on the boat with a platoon of SEALS. They both idolized and were intimidated by each
other.
The basic plan was for teams of SEALS to assault the yacht,
leaping on board from Seahawk helicopters and inflatable boats. We had camera teams on the yacht and various
support boats, as well as our own camera helicopter. They ran the whole exercise start to finish
multiple times, while we recorded it from various angles. There were a lot of logistics to handle, and
between all the various radio frequencies involved, even just turning the fleet
in a different direction was a complicated task. And with a new shooting crew, many of whom
had never worked together, there were many challenges to overcome. It was amusing to later learn that certain
people on the boat thought that I was in charge of the overall operation, from
my commanding position at the main table, and based on the number of people
hurrying to and from my desk. (Actually delivering media cards for me to
backup.)
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