ABOUT TARGET

Around the first of the year, an actor friend, John Macurdy,  approached me about helping him with a presentation he wanted to shoot for a proposed action/drama series about a government agent (John) who is thought to be a traitor, and hunted by his former organization. Of course John had no money to spend, but he did have an enthusiastic group of fellow actors ready to participate.

I, on the other hand, also had no money to spend, but had a Sony PD150 DV camcorder that I was anxious to experiment with in various environments. Surely, we could find someone who had a "barn" to put on our show? The only serious interior location in the script was a "boardroom" where the evil "Triumverate" was plotting our hero's demise. I found the idea of a "boardroom" visually boring, and approached another friend, Tom Schurke, who does 24 frame work in the motion picture business through his business, Action Video. He has a modest facility which includes a wall of monitors and switching devices, which I reasoned could be part of a "communications/warroom" setting instead of the boardroom. Tom agreed to help out, and we had our barn.

The exterior locations were pretty generic: the outlaw agent, "Sean Pyke," is chased by the baddies after he is discovered hacking an Agency computer. So I needed to create a chase and an escape. I found a very new industrial park near my house that was largely still unoccupied. This could provide an exterior building for the chase to begin, and had a good stretch of pavement where we could fake some car pursuit shots. I needed a way for Pyke to escape that had some punch, and next to the industrial park was a set of railroad tracks that got some good train traffic. A few blocks west, I found an abandoned rail station of the most rudimentary type. It simply consisted of a long slab of concrete that was the platform for the passengers before the stop was eliminated in favor of a new facility. With its large deserted parking lot, this would work for a couple of set-ups, and I figured a speeding train would provide a climax to the chase.

The script called for another exterior where Pyke has an encounter with a homeless man, which leads into a fight with a couple baddies. Again, a short block east of the industrial park, I found a vacant lot which had the partial beginnings of some sort of commercial building that had been abandonded. One part of the site really intrigued me; it offered the only interior which was just some block walls with openings for future doors and windows. What I was excited about, was the late afternoon sun came pouring into the structure, bounced around, and made this great light that could be shot almost 360 with no need for any additional lighting, which was out of the question. The only problem was, this was all private property and I had to squeeze through a locked gate to get in for my survey. As I thought about the shoot, I had visions of the local police receiving reports of armed men trying to rub out some guy in the construction site and pulling up with guns drawn. But hey. Columbus took a chance.

So now I had three locations that were minutes away from each other, that would make it easy to schedule all our exterior set ups. I even got a schedule from Amtrak to help with the planning. I needed a passenger train for the speed, and I had an idea for the conclusion of the chase that I could shoot on another day with just John and me. We would shoot the exteriors first, and then do the interiors another day at Action Video. This proved to be a good call.

THE FIRST SHOOT
On the appointed day we all met at the abandonded train stop. Fortunately we were away from the busy street, and would hopefully not draw attention to ourselves. My friend, Tom, was gracious to volunteer his Sony 537 camera with its DSR1 back, so everything would be DV, although his camera could handle the bigger cassettes, if needed. (Tape stock would be one of the few cash outlays on this shoot, and did add up because I choose to shoot with the Sony PDVM-40 tapes. I believe we ended up using six tapes all together, over the course of the shoot.) With the extra camera, I needed an extra operator, (Tom would be the boom/audio) and I was lucky to get another friend, Bruce Pasternak, who is a highly regarded film operator, to shoot with us. We had no grip truck, no lights, no warm bodies other than the participants. I had decided early on to shoot this like someone who is far from the rental houses of Hollywood, with no money, just a few friends and a lot of enthusiasm.

For the first set-up, I layed out a shot where we could lead Pyke, running in close-up, shooting from the back of my Ford Explorer, on what was the old passenger platform. A couple passes and we had it.  

Next, we set up another chase scene where Pyke is running and we see the baddies in their car tracking alongside him, threatening him with guns. A couple takes and we had that. We were doing great, except for one serious problem; our star pulled a groin muscle from all the exertion. Well, stuff happens, and John insisted we continue. Next I set for a moving shot from the car exterior shooting into the car to see the two agents yelling at Pyke. This would be a "hostess tray" shot normally in film, but I had something better; Manfrotto part #3292 is a device that clamps to a partially open window and allows the camera to be mounted on top. Along with the Sony wide angle converter, I was able to frame up a nice two shot of the boys in the front seat, and flipping the lcd screen to face them, they could adjust their position. I took the second camera, the 537, and got into the back seat to shoot an over the shoulder two shot looking out the front window. I didn't quite know what I was going to do with this footage, but since I had the extra camera, I wasn't going to waste an opportunity to shoot something. And the beginnings of an idea were taking shape that would pay off later.

A couple passes and we had the driving shot down. We did it at a couple different directions in case the light was better in one versus the other. But now it was time, according to my new train schedule, to set up for the money shot; we see the train zoom past the agents, and they react to being stymied as Pyke has escaped. Again, since I had a second camera, I set up a second angle across the tracks that would see the train exit frame and the boys get out of the car to scan for Pyke. I planned on doing this shot without the train, but the extra camera allowed my to tie the action together much tighter.

Bruce replaced me in the back seat with the 537, shooting the boys in the car facing the tracks. We rehearsed the scene a few times, with me yelling, "Train," to cue the boys reaction. Tom locked off his mic in place, and then grabbed a white card to help bounce a little light into the car. He would have to disappear before the train cleared to be out of my shot across the traks. I instructed the boys what to do after the train exited frame, and we were set.

As I saw the train approaching in the distance, I yelled, "roll!" and got back "Speed!" from Bruce, confirming the roll. Always a good idea. My frame was set on a very loose shot of the car, which would momentarily become just a blur of passenger train. The engineer blared a warning to us, but he could see what we were up to, and that no one was in any danger, and I gave him a friendly wave, as if to say, "Its okay, just us jerks making movies," and the train came hurtling through frame, and when it exited there were the two agents standing alongside the car, looking very pissed, even in the long shot. They did a dialogue exchange, got back in the car, and drove off. Perfect for me. Now I checked with Bruce. "Perfect." Great, move in to pick up the dialogue exchange, and wrap this location. 

One of the many reasons I was so pleased with this location was, the February sun at two in the afternoon was still reasonably low in the sky, and made it easy to shoot without the benefit of artificial light or heavy bounce boards. So the boys looked quite good in the close-ups we shot for their dialogue after Pyke's escape. Knowing where you can shoot, and where you should not try to shoot are extremely important in this type of "guerilla" filmmaking. I am not an adherent of Dogme 95, but you do have to have your act together to make your exteriors look decent.

If I am making this sound rather "off the cuff," it was not. Everything we did was from a shot list I created for the shoot, and John's wife, Michelle, was checking them off to be certain I didn't miss anything. There was one more item I had in my shooting notes: Get the sound of tires screeching to a stop to play over the interior of the car shot. But as long as we were setting up to get audio, might as well shoot some footage. So I just ad libed a couple tight shots of the tires coming to a stop, and of course one of them made the final cut, and was very important. When tape is turning, there is nothing worse than just pointing the camera at the ground, because its "only sound."

So, now it was a "company move" to the next location, which was the industrial park. In the opening exterior scene of the chase, I envisioned Pyke running from the HQ building, being persued by a couple of baddies. The building I liked in the park had a teriffic contemporary feel that would be perfect. There was only one problem; this was one of the few buildings that was occupied, and there was a guard in the lobby. So we all got together out of his sight, and I went over the action: Pyke runs from the entrance (which is blocked by a column so he does not have to start inside the building), and two guards follow briefly. Seeing Pyke has a good head start, they turn away, and when we see them next, they'll be in a car. I would cover the action in a wide shot, and Bruce would cover tighter. I trusted his instincts to give me something good that would cut with what I was doing.

Once we felt we were all on the same page, we set up the cameras, got everything ready, then approached the guard and told him what we were planning, and would he mind? Of course he objected, but we rolled cameras, and I yelled, "Action," and the chase was on. It went pretty well, but now the guard was outside and he was pissed. He went over to our cars and started writing down license plate numbers while I gave notes, and we rolled for take two. We got in our second take while he was still writing, then we thanked him as we jumped into the cars and drove off. I don't know who he called, if anyone, but no one ever showed up. That was the shot I needed from this location, the other chase shots we could fake elsewhere, but I wanted that building. 

So, we took a chance that no one was coming to bust us, and just moved down the road a little farther in the park. Here we set up two cameras to get a shot of Pyke running toward us, as the baddies whip around a corner in a car in hot pursuit. Then we did another pass where Pyke, still running toward us, suddenly makes a hard left out of camera, followed by the baddies. Even with a couple of busted takes, this still went very quickly, and safely, I should add. Nothing crazy in what we were doing. We were on schedule and I decided to pick up another of those window shots in the car on the two agents.  Again, I mounted the PD150 on the Manfrotto window mount, and climbed into the back seat with Tom's camera to shoot over the shoulder of the agents, but this time Pyke would be seen running in front of us. Now the idea was really taking hold in my mind; I would use this footage ala Highway Patrol cameras, and play this footage back at the HQ shoot on a monitor for everyone to interact with. Thanks to Tom offering the extra camera, my horizons had opened up considerably. I was a happy camper.

We wrapped the industrial park, and headed over to the construction site, just a stone's throw away. But it seems since my last visit, security had tightened and we all had to climb a fence and pass over the gear. Fortunately, everyone was a good sport. Then came the big disappointment; the little room I was looking forward to shooting in, had been boarded up and was now a graffitti wall. Damn. So, we had to improvise, and ended up shooting the scene outside in the not so friendly late afternoon sun. In the scene, Pyke stops to rest, and discovers a homeless man who has been snoozing under a pile of trash. Pyke, in his well-founded paranoia, rousts the poor guy and scares hell out of him. While he is talking to the man, two agents have snuck up behind Pyke, which leads to a fight, which Pyke naturally wins, and he walks off with his new best friend.

All of the above would have been fine in the little space I had planned to shoot in, but out here we were very visible to passing motorists, and more important for me, the sun was murder. One direction it created hard shadows, another it was big time lens flare, another it was all back light. Suffice it to say this was not my finest hour.  When you are doing gags with flying bodies, you don't want to have to worry about which way the light is falling. So we simplified the fight, and I stripped my coverage to bare bones. Or, we could have all stood around and talked about it while the sun set. 

But even with our final scene difficulties, it was a good day that went well due to good pre-planning, and working with professional people who all pitched in to make whatever needed to happen, happen. That, and you have to be ready to swing at the curves that life pitches you in these situations. And I'm afraid that only experience can prepare you for those unexpected moments. Anyway, TARGET was on its way.

With this first shoot in the can, a couple items were established; the train would be travelling left to right in the "jump" shot, and that meant East to West. A minor aggravation is that Amtraks travelling this route actually go backwards East to West, that is to say, the locomotive is at the end of the train. The front is what looks more like a passenger car with lights on it. Not a major problem, but not the "classic" engine comin' down the tracks. Deal with it, Wayne. I went back to the traks at the abandoned passenger stop and shot some footage of an approaching train. Also picked up some whistle sounds and passing train sounds. And, I was planning in my mind for the big "jump." What I envisioned was Pyke escaping by leaping in front of an on-coming train at the last moment. It never for an instance entered my mind to ask John to actually do such a stupid thing, so I knew it had to be a process shot. Fortunately, with my experiece, and a good sense for these things, I was able to plan something that would be safe and visually exciting.

THE TRAIN ESCAPE
When last we saw Pyke, he was breaking out of frame, followed by the baddies. We will have been clued that somehow a train is involved by a cutaway to the approaching train with its warning whistle. But we don't expect what happens next; we see Pyke somewhat in the distance running toward us. Suddenly, he leaps in the air, flying toward us, and lands just as the speeding train enters frame and crosses behind Pyke as he exits frame, apparently missing death by inches. To pull this off, I needed a lock off frame that I could have John jump through a couple of times, till we got one we liked, and then, still keeping the camera locked off, wait for a train to come through that same shot. Later in post, in After Effects, I would pull up time and create a travelling matte that would allow the train to be in the frame at the same time as Pyke, creating a seamless illusion of Pyke just avoiding the train. If you look carefully at the still frame of Pyke jumping, you will notice the tracks in the bottom frame. I tried to frame the shot so Pyke would be able to do this heroic leap and land so that he quickly exited frame, or else I'm into a very complicated matte. After I set up the low angle with the camera, and composed the shot, we laid down marks for John to run from, where to leap, and where to land. After only two takes, I had one I liked. Unfortunately, while we were doing this, along came this big white, semi, which parks right in our shot. We had an earlier take without the semi, but if we use it I am into a compositing nightmare.

Anyway, we just waited for the next passenger train (still had my train schedule), while the camera remained locked-off alongside the tracks. Then it was a simple matter of rolling and waving as the train passed by. After the shoot, its just a matter of comping the elements in After Effects. But the real success of the chase scene is the combination of all the elements, not the jump alone. I am as pleased with the chase scenes displayed on the phony wide screen monitor in HQ as I am with the jump.

PREPARING THE HEADQUARTERS SHOOT
As I mentioned earlier, although the script called for a boardroom type setting for the triumverate to discuss eliminating Pyke, I wanted something darker and even "hipper." So I got this idea that it should be more of a warroom setting, with monitors and tech gear. Then it could be dark, and more foreboding. Another friend mentions that here you have the difference between a writer and a director. One sees the script in terms of the story and the other layers on the visuals that bring it to life for the screen. At any rate, we would shoot at Action Video, in a room that was about twenty feet long by about fourteen wide. The "tech wall" of monitors, tape machines, swithching devices, and such was about ten feet long against the long wall, with a large desk to the right with a computer on it. Around the corner was another desk with another computer and various items on the desk. This wall of tech goodies and the desks with the computers provide the background setting for the scenes. Across from this background, I would place a table for the actors to sit around. I figured two members of the triumverate would sit next to each other with the monitors behind, and the third member would be at the head of the table with desk number two in his background. Seated across from the two triumverate men would be two new agents who are being briefed on the Sean Pyke situation. In the master shots they have their backs to us. For their coverage for their limited dialogue and many reaction shots, I would "cheat" their poisitions, and bring them around to the triumverate side of the table and use another part of the tech wall. (In their "real" positions, there was nothing behind them, and I would position them so my camera could shoot past them from a doorway which led to a small reception room.) Seating was tight around the small table, but hopefully that is not noticable to the viewer. For obvious reasons, there is never a shot which includes the table top.

The final member of the cast was "the girl," agent Jana Steele (Laurie). She would sit opposite the head of the table, and her background was all black, which I would have to "dress" someway. My plan was to keep this table, which was quite small, as far away from the "tech wall" as possible, to make the room seem larger. In fact, there was less than six feet between someone seated at the tech wall and someone at the table. I expected that it would be impossible to make the backgrounds at the tech wall go out of focus on a tight shot, given the dvcamera's large depth of field. But I would not worry about this; at least I would try to keep the light on the actors and off the tech wall. To this end, I devised a plan to use the table to bounce the light to the actors' faces and allow them to move into hard light and out of it. I promised myself not to use any professional instruments, and to this end, what I devised for the table lighting was to use an old piece of trak lighting with three instruments on it. They were the "can" variety that will accept many different bulbs. I wanted something "sourcey," that would provide a little punch to be able to make a bounce effect. A settled on halogen bulbs, E26 variety in a couple different wattages, around 50-75w. Putting these inside the cans would be similar to "flagging" the lights to keep them from spilling light into other areas. I would put white art cards on the table to make the bounce as effecient as possible. 

I would also bring three flourescent lights with me. These, again, were Home Deopt specials, no exotic Kino Flo's. I have about a dozen "Deluxe Warm White" lamps that are not longer manufactured, that I long ago measured at about 2800 Kelvin that I use on occasion, and this was just such an occasion. I took along various gels with me, my one concession to using professional gear. I had sheets of ND that I would use to knock down the flourescents, since my plan was not to use the flourescents to light with, but rather to create background elements where I was afraid the black background was too empty. I decided the color motif would be blue, to complement the light from the numerous monitors. When shooting monitors you have a couple of choices. You can put CTO color correction gel on every monitor to match them to 3200 Kelvin light. Or, you can white balance your camera, and then color correct every light you use with blue. Or, you can ignore the monitors and let them go blue, which is what I chose to do. My reasoning was they were a scenic element rather than an important plot item. Another point to address is the exposure of the monitors. What I did was use the monitors to determine my overall exposure. In other words, set an exposure to give a good picture on the monitors, and let that be the exposure you light to. What I discovered was that a good exposure on the monitors was 2.8, and that was fine for me to light everything else to. 

But back to the blue motif. Taking a cue from the blue monitors, I added Roscoe 69 (a blue "party color") to the flourescents, and two additional layers of ND 6 to knock them down to an acceptable level to just glow in the background. In hindsight, I wish I had taken the time to see what they looked like with one or two additional layers. But I was pretty much a one-man band and was definitely making compromises. About flourescents, some people are nervous shooting with them because they "may" flicker in the camera and create buzz in the audio. Both concerns are true, and both are readily apparent in the camera and with a headset. I, personally, have never had a problem with flourescents and think they are wonderfully versatile.

Other lamps I used that you can find at Home Depot are the mushroom shaped globes that are used in ceiling fixtures. Get the larger sized bulbs (in various wattages up to 250) and place them in work light fixtures that have the heavy duty spring clamp. They are great to stick up anywhere, but you need a way to direct the light. They actually make cans that attach to the bulbs, but they are only available through professional stores like Studio Depot. But you can acheive the same effect using black wrap, which is available for about thirty dollars a roll. It has a million uses and should be part of everyone's kit. Simply wrap a cone around the light to direct it where you want it. I used one of these lights for a back light, and in hindsight, I should have used one or two more. It's a good idea to have dimmers available to use with these types of lights to just "squeeze" them down a bit as needed. Buy the 300w dimmer and make a male and female pigtail for them so you can quickly put them in line as needed.

The other additional item I bought from Home Depot was a roll of black plastic sheeting, the type you can cover your leaky roof with when you can't afford a new one because you spent all your money on your dv camera. My plan was to hang sheets of this from the ceiling at Action Video to cover the gray walls where the desks were located. The plastic would allow the background to go black so I wouldn't have to "do" something with it. Because it is shiny plastic, you can hit it with colored light and make it a scenic element. I recently shot an interview using it just that way. Bring lots of clothes pins, what are called "C-47's in the industry, to use to help hang this from tile ceiling frames.

THE HEADQUARTERS SHOOT
I arrived early in the morning at Action Video to prepare for the shoot. I probably should have asked for some "help," but often it is more troble to explain to people what you want them to do than just do it yourself. Plus, this was really John's project, and I didn't want to use up any of my chits with my friends on someone else's projects. Things went very easy as I had a good battle plan, and Tom helped me move a little furniture around while he prepared some of the playback material. I had edited a few of the car interior clips to be shown on monitors in playback, and that was Tom's forte.

I hung the black plastic, and roughed in my lighting. I suspended the trak light over the table with a cord at either end so I could adjust the height, which would be much lower than normal trak lighting. I covered the table with the white art cards to be used for the bounce. I placed one of the flourescents on a C-stand so it could be placed as needed. The other two would go in the background as needed.

About this time, as I was finishing up, the actors began arriving, and with them the excuses. 
"This won't take too long will it, cause I have an audition later today?" Our lovely agent, Jana Steele asked if we could shoot all her scenes first, since she had another engagement. Good thing she was so pretty. But this is all part of low budget, or, in this case, no budget filmmaking. People are helping you, so you try to help them. Sure, we could do the Jana Steele scenes first.

After everyone arrived, I gathered the actors together and we talked briefly about the scenes and evryone's character, and read the lines a few times, and as expected, some people were totally prepared and others, were, less prepared. But all in all the day went very well and everyone had a good time and we got everything we needed. I won't go on with a blow-by-blow, but touch on a few highlights.

The trak lighting device worked reasonably well. I twisted and tweaked the lights for each actor as needed, and tried to set exposure for them with their elbows on the table. If they would lean back they would go out of the key, and I let that happen, with varying results. As I indicated, I wish I had added a back or kicker for the 3 triumverate members. Number one, Ed, was very pale. Number two, David, was ruddy. And number three, Charles, was African American. Each had its own problem, but in general I feel I needed that extra light. Notice on Charles I added a flourscent off camera that makes a nice blue effect on the camera right side of his face. I think a small kicker on the camera left side would have helped to seperate him from the black background.

As I indicated, we cheated the two young agents' positions for their coverage. But the screen directions for their looks were established in the earlier coverage on the triumverate. When you honor the screen directions, the audience should not be aware of your cheat. I think this coverage worked very well. Again, a flourescent was added to the background and another was placed off camera right that you see in the forehead of the camera right agent. I shot the single coverage on the boys, panning left and right to catch each other's lines, while the other camera stayed locked off on the two shot. I was not aware how nice the two shot looked until I viewed the footage, and I was quite taken with it. Basically, I lit for the head on shots, and the two shot was a bit of luck.

The PD150 was faster than Tom's camera and it hurt me in some set-ups where we added 3db of gain to the 537. I didn't notice any problem as we were shooting, but in post the extra gain made for a considerable difference in the two shots. Remember that adding gain will show up most in dark areas, and in a piece like Target, where there is so much dark, that can be a real problem.

The tape playbacks all worked well, and I don't think there is any mystery about how this was done. Each playback was preceeded by five seconds of black, and Tom would cue the roll based on dialogue in the scene. If you see Target, you will note I added "video break-up" to some of the playbacks, to give a little "live" feel to the scenes. There is even a "digital zoom" in one shot. The singles on the "tech" at the monitors were the last thing we shot in the day, so everyone else had left by then. I could have done a little better lighting the Tech, but I was getting pretty tired by then and I think my standards slipped a little.

The composite of the "big screen" worked out well. Obviously, the actors were looking at an open space in the black wall and reacting to directions I was shouting out to them that corresponded to what I knew I would use. I downloaded a picture of a big screen television off a manufacturer's site, and took it into Photoshop where I "massaged" it and then brought it into After Effects for compositing. I color corrected all the big screen playbacks toward blue to match the other monitor shots.