All language subtitles for 29-TheHaircutGettingTheShot.mp4

Last bit, we set up the scrimmer, we
block the light.

I want to touch on a couple more
editions that we've made to the

lighting setup, since

one of the first of those is we
actually added a second scrimp.

And the reason for this is it just gave
us a little bit more real estate to

work with

the guys being in the position that
they're going to be, and also with the

light planning to move.

And so it was really just

one extra precaution of giving
ourselves a little bit more

preparedness for how the light's going
to change throughout the day.

That's why that secondary scrim is there

for the actual lighting.

I'm using a five foot octabox.

This is positioned pretty high and
downward.

It's supposed to more or less imitate a
cloudy day.

That is what we're trying to achieve
here.

So I'm using a big soft light source
for this.

My go to light source

for creating, big soft light is usually
like a large origin, extra large soft

umbrella with diffusion, or a really
large squim with a soft box behind it

or an umbrella behind it.

But when shooting on location, when
there's a little bit of a breeze, an

umbrella is usually a terrible thing to
use, it's going to fly away.

The five foot octa tends to create a
nice, big, soft light source, but it's

a little bit more practical to have in
a situation like this.

As for using a scrim to the front, I
absolutely could have done it, but I

felt like it was a little bit more
valuable to me behind.

And so the entire point of the lighting
here is it's the total polar opposite

of the theater chute in that it's a
whole lot simpler to achieve we have

one light source and we have a scrim.

And you can achieve this in a much
simpler way.

For example,

maybe you have a friend hold a
diffusion, reflector behind your

subject.

If you're not needing to light a big
set, or if you're just lucky enough to

actually have a cloudy day, you don't
need them at all.

And so you can kind of get that effect
with a very minimal set of equipment.

And that's the entire point of the
lighting.

Then we get to the dressing of the set.

So initially, I just had the chair in
place to kind of gauge where everything

was going to be set up, but then we had
to add in the actual props.

And so I'm a big fan of the details and
authenticity

in the photograph.

So we look for all of these little
details or things that at least

stylistically will look very similar.

So we found a relatively similar
pattern to

the cloth that goes around the neck.

It's a similar

look, feel,

somewhat similar color palette.

We've got the pipe, we've got the
splash of color for the barber tools,

which are on the ground.

So it was a yellow wrap.

And to achieve this, we actually are
just using an old navy life vest.

That's kind of given the effect.

We've added some tools on top instead
of the book.

In the back room.

We've got a bluetool box, but, again,
it's giving us a color palette that works

for the book.

Actually found the same book that's in
the photograph,

it's an oak from the 1940s.

This particular version was printed in
the 1940s.

And my version actually came in in a
little bit of better condition than the

one that was in the photograph.

And because I'm a little bit of a
stickler for detail,

ripping it up and trying to make it
look as close to the original as

possible, because this is what I'm
using the book for, it's not really a

collector's piece for me.

So I really wanted to make sure that
detail was

appropriate to the image.

So that being said, let's bring in
Brendan and Casey our talent and go

ahead and get them in position and

take some pictures.

You're sitting down here is your book.

Here is your pipe,

and let's go ahead and wrap you up with
this a little bit.

Ok?

So this

going to go under this arm.

Here you go.

Kind of like that.

We have a clamp.

Maybe we can, kind of

that's going to go.

Thank you very much.

Yeah.

So we're just trying to.

It looks like there's a couple
different pieces of it, which we don't

really have.

Let's make this easy.

I'm going to take this from you for
just a second.

Ok?

I mean, that looks pretty close.

I don't have to make it exact.

You can bring that arm out.

Let's let's switch.

The legs

good.

This one's going to hold the book and
the lap,

which looks pretty good.

And then

only they both kind of hold it, but
they're both

there.

That looks good.

That foot can come out a little bit more

good.

And then where's that pipe going.

Good.

Work.

All right.

These are going to be yours

so you're going to left hand the comb,
or you write it, or lefty, right?

So, like, my whole thing is the detail.

I think that when you're doing period
stuff,

it can regularly

fall into costume and kind of

cliche a little bit.

And so I'm a big believer in trying to
find as many of the true to life

details as you can to make it seem a
little bit more believable.

And that's kind of a big

pressure point for me when it comes to
the work.

So I always tend to really put a lot
more effort into finding just the right

pieces, just because I think it just
elevates the image

one more step.

And I also don't hate the light being a
little bit more dramatic either.

That's nice.

All right,

that's good.

The leg's better there.

If anything, we could probably bring
that foot down a little bit further.

Yeah, it's good.

Casey, bring your head a little bit
closer,

almost.

Yeah.

Lean and even more, if you can.

There you go.

Good.

And we'd probably get that fan on as
well.

Brennan tilt that book down just a
little bit.

For me.

Please, just tilt it forward.

There you go.

That's great.

You lift your head up just a little
bit, turn your head a little more.

To me, it's perfect.

Casey, lift

your

left

elbow up the other.

You go, yeah, yeah, exactly exactly.

Beautiful.

That's great.

Super nice.

Good.

Brennan, turn your head a little more,
this way, there you go.

Nice,

nice head up a little bit.

Good.

Now, Brendan to your head just a little
bit, this other way,

there.

Yeah.

Good.

Good.

Now, turn it to me a little bit more,

to me, to me, to me,

they're perfect.

Yeah, yeah, good.

Good.

Casey.

Turn your face to me a little bit.

The angle is great.

That's great, right there?

That's perfect.

Yeah, it's real.

Good.

Lower the light a little bit and see if
I like it any better.

Now, I just lowered the power of scotch.

I brought it down about half a sot.

So I'm just giving myself a couple of
options in terms of the lighting.

So when I have the lighting up a little
bit higher, it gives me a bit more

contrast between the highlight and
shadows.

So it looks a little bit more dramatic,
a little bit more lit.

Whereas if I turn the power down, it
gives me something a little bit closer

to natural.

And so I can, just,

since I'm working in a very specific
pose, I can get multiple variations of

the light, and decide later which one I
ultimately like.

All right.

Now, you guys can move around a little
bit.

You go,

nice, nice.

Nice,

branny look off to the side a little
bit for me.

Oh, nice.

That's great.

Tilt the book down a little bit more.

Yeah, that's perfect.

Perfect.

That's really good.

So usually when I set out to recreate a
photo like this, I always

aim to get the recreation first.

So I spend a lot of time being very
precise and specific with the posing

and the expression and all that other
kinds of stuff.

Once I'm fairly confident that I have
that, I will go in and i'll start to

play around, and i'll have them move
around.

I have to move the head around, give me
some different expressions as if it

were actually happening.

And I think, from my perspective,

giving them that foundation of what the
real image was, at least put some in a

closer headspace to what I'm hoping to

get in terms of any deviations on it.

And so that's kind of my mentality

for that.

And I know I at least have the original
if I want it.

But then again, if I want to get
something that's a little bit more of

an improvisation on it.

I have that as a backup too.

You can go to the pipe.

That's really nice.

Good.

Now, look off.

Take the pipe out of your mouth, and
kind of look off.

Now to the other side.

Bring it a little bit closer to the
face.

There you go.

Now, look off to the other side.

Good.

Bring the pipe off the face a little
bit.

I'm getting light on the hair again.

I'm losing him again.

This looks awesome.

Guys.

Spot on.

All right.

So just to kind of put this up one more
time, this is what that shot looked

like.

And I know that like, it didn't seem
like we were getting a whole lot of

variety in this particular

shot.

And there wasn't necessarily meant to
be a huge amount of body.

But how would you expand this?

Well, another idea I had was you could
also put shaving green on.

Bring out the straight, razor,

it's a different take on it.

Or you can actually have them in the
varying

stages of what that haircut would have
looked like.

How many get you whipping the cape out?

There's a whole story there that you
can build shots around.

We just went in with a very specific
idea, and we created that very specific

idea.

And it was a little bit more efficient
in terms of shooting.

So it's why the actual shooting portion
didn't actually seem that long, it wasn't?

It wasn't that long.

So

i'll show you a little bit, if we can
peek over to

the computer.

Here we go.

So this is basically what I would have
narrowed the shots down, just going

through and say, all right, well, what
are the variations on these look like?

And so it was just a few different head
positions, hand positions

like that.

The one that I really liked was this
one, which wasn't as true to the original.

The early shots were much closer to the
straight on.

Just hymn, looking down, reading the
book.

I actually like this one where the
wind's catching a little bit.

I mean, it gives a little bit more of
an action

to the frame.

And so this would have been, probably,
this is the one that I ended up picking

as the final.

But I at least have all of those other
other versions, just in case,

just in case I want them.

And so this shot isn't done yet.

Obviously, this looks relatively close
to what the original vertical frame

would have been.

But my plan for this

was to turn it into a wide shot, do a
cinematic

frame of do a sixteen by nine.

And so I still have to

shoot the plates for it and combine
them together.

But before I show you that video, if
you happen to have any questions about

the shooting process,

we can

address those.

So I notice you look at the back of the
camera, and I saw that there was a

tethered computer over there.

When you're setting up your camera for
these shots, are you

calibrating the monitor in terms of
that little gradient on the back that

you often get, and say, ok, this is the
right brightness?

I don't know what I'm on location.

I mean, you definitely can.

And you can go through the whole
trouble of it.

I know what the flexibility of my files
are, and I can read the histogram.

It's kind of how I

deal with it.

But

what I will say is very, very helpful.

When shooting outside, you may have saw
it was the tent, that pop up tent that

goes over the computer?

Man, that makes a huge difference.

Either you're doing that, or you get a
big cloth and you throw it over your

head so you can see it without the
daylight messing with the screen.

But that tent is awesome.

They collapse, they're

tremendously

when you're shooting on location,

this kind of thing, it would be very
difficult to know if I got that just on

the back of the screen of the camera.

And so the tethering is really
beneficial when you're doing this kind

of work.

Because I'm shooting at 28

to wait on a medium, formats, probably
close to,

I mean, two on a full frame, more or
less ish with

depth of field.

It's tough to focus that.

I don't trust myself to do that on a
regular basis, but it's what I wanted

these shots to look like.

So I really had to make sure that

I was getting the focus

on a big screen, so I had someone and

both, I could check it as well check
the focus on the big screen.

Also, because, like, I've got two
people in this frame.

I'm shooting at app to eight, and I
want both of them to be in focus.

I've got to make sure they are on that
same plane.

And I had that conversation, wasn't the
video, but I had the conversation

with them.

I'm like, ally guys, when you're
posing, I know you're behind him, but I

need your face to lean forward.

So it's about the same plane
photographically, to make sure you're

in focus.

And that's something that I made sure
to address to them ahead of time,

and that's kind of why he's leaning
over a little bit.

Follow up,

is your monitor on your laptop?

Is that

color correct in, or whatever it is?

Yeah, when I'm in studio, when I'm
shooting to you, I'm tethered to an

external monitor.

I'll bring the laptop in, I plug into
the laptop, but it's hooked up to an

external model,

usually like an iso in studio,

which is

very color corrected and it's bigger.

And so it makes everything a lot easier

when I'm out on location, just for
sheer portability, unless it is a huge

production.

I'm tethered to a laptop versus a whole
tethering station,

but that's certainly commonly used as
huge stations with screens, so you can

have ten people crowd around the back.

But, you know, this

portability,

I have the little stand with the table.

I plug into it, tent pops out.

The whole thing is surprisingly
portable.

I mean, my backpack houses all of my
camera gear, plus my laptop.

And then I can carry a tripod that

that brings most of it.

And then the stand, and

it's not very much gear to set up a
tether, believe it or not,

in a situation like this, the way,
worst part of the scrimps.

Can you go on?

Yeah, yeah.

Can you explain again?

You shoved the lighting diagram.

Can you walk us through that?

Pop it up it more, and just explain how
you're recreating that, that light,

and why you put the script sort of
behind, yes, at him in front.

So

I wanted to make the light look

cloudy.

That was my goal.

I wanted it to look like traditional

English weather.

And so that was my goal for the image.

But it was a sunny day.

We anticipated it being sunny, like it
was supposed to be sunny and hot,

which, by the way, 85, sunny and hot
here in Seattle is way, way more

pleasant in most places when it's 85.

And Sunday.

It was really nice, actually,

so good for you guys.

there were there's a lot of haze in the
sky

from

believe, there are fires in Canada.

And so that actually put

almost a diffusion layer across

the day for the first half of it.

Not the second.

Now, the second half, it cleared up a
little bit more.

But the early part of the day actually
wasn't as

sunny as it could have been.

Which helped us a little bit in terms
of the quality of light.

Obviously not good in the grand scheme
of things.

But in this very specific

instance,

it was visually beneficial to us.

And so I knew when we wheeled the
planes out, and you saw me wheeling

both of them out at the same time, that
was kind of us orchestrating where they

were going to be for the second shot,
because I wanted to make it as easy as

possible for everybody.

I didn't want to have to move planes
around in between shots.

So I aimed the second shot first, and
then I repositioned myself to the side

of the other.

So

I'm shooting the plane straight on here,

but then I move all the way to the side

to shoot the first shot.

So the bomber isn't in the first,

the bomber isn't anywhere in the shot
that you saw, even though nothing has changed.

So

I just went to the opposite side.

And because of the relatively small
area that we were able to shoot in,

because it's the end of an active
runway,

I didn't want to shoot into the
building with the building behind it.

And you can see it a little bit in some
of the plates, which I will eventually

take out because it's too modern of a
building.

I didn't want to shoot with the
building as the backdrop,

so I wanted to shoot with the trees as
the backdrop.

That limited

what I could use is the backdrop.

And then also,

the reason I scremmed it from that side
is because that was where the sun was,

and I had to hide the sun.

And so the scrim goes up to block the
sun.

And then I brought that light around
just a little bit more to slightly

overpower it,

so it feels like the light is all
coming from one side, even though it's

just kind of a little bit more to the
front than it was.

And that's kind of my

reason for putting the lights.

How I did.

Yes,

really windy.

And you can use your scrambles out at
all, although it was a little windy at

certain points.

Could you accomplish that just with the
end filter?

I would suggest

blocking the light in some way.

You could wait for a cloudy day, which
is an option

you could also,

I don't know which brand makes it, but
it's a giant transparent umbrella, and

it's relatively inexpensive,

but one of those really big transparent
umbrellas.

And you just have someone hold it, just
out of frame.

And they work really well as a scribb,
believe it or not.

That can also be an option, and it's a
little bit

requires someone, but it's a little bit
easier to put up in and down.

So that's a secondary option.

It does make a difference.

Because what ends up happening when you
don't have that scrim in this

particular day?

Because it's a hard light.

That rim light would show up on the hair

pretty aggressively.

And I didn't want that, because I felt
like it would look like two different

light sources.

And I wanted it to look natural.

I wanted it to look motivated by the
sun.

So I had to kind of change what the sun
looked like

so that I could overpower it.

And

all the shadows

basically come from the same direction,
which helps.

So the light kind of comes from the top
right hand corner.

To the left

that's the direction of the light.

And that was important for me to think
about when I was positioning the lights.

I think one from online, sure Devon,
asked Chris.

When you're shooting the overpower of
the sun, how many stops would you

recommend to retain the detail in the
sky?

I feel like I'm under exposing

too much to keep the sky what's your
recommendation.

Yeah.

So it depends on your style.

When it comes to underexposing.

Under exposing

daylight,

at about one stop, you're going to get
a little bit of

a little bit of shadow definition from

what you are shaping with your key
light.

That tends to look pretty natural.

But when you're under exposing ambient
by about one sop, it looks very

natural.

If you've ever seen

you watch TV shows and

people

were in a cafe outside, it's meant to
look like just natural light, that's

basically what they are working with.

When you start getting into two it's a
little bit more dramatic.

Three

is quite a bit more dramatic, for you
start to lose detail.

So I would recommend somewhere in the
two to four stop spectrum if you're

looking for something dramatic.

Now

I ended up underexposing ambient by
about three to four stops in this image.

And the reason I did it a little bit
more was because it was such a bright

sunny day.

By underexposing it a little bit more
than normal, you're making it look

darker and dimmer and less lit.

And so I needed to go a little bit more
than I probably would under normal circumstances,

to just change what that environment
looked like.

That was really my first,

like the theater, make the environment
look how you want it first, because

it's the thing you can't change.

Then bring in the other lights to
figure out what that needs to look like.

And so it's a totally different

lighting theory than how I normally
would shoot.

When I'm working in an environment with
environment, I think about that usually

first, what I need that to look like,
and then I balance the light to it.

Whereas when I'm in the studio, it's
like, I start with a key, and then I

add in the fill light, and then I do
everything else.

And so it's just the opposite,

and it's just not.

Neither one is right or wrong, there's
a different ways of which.

And someone will tell you, hey, I go
the other way with it.

This is how

I approach something like this.

I address the thing that is the most
difficult for me to change first, get

that right, and then

put everything else together.

Ok.

Yeah.

Question about powering the thing.

Did you have short power?

Are we remote?

That's a good question.

Especially you're like, well, we're out
pretty far.

Right?

That was absolutely a concern of mine
putting this together.

So

we we address this in two different
ways.

I said, well, we can either go battery.

We can use the bee ones.

We can use a cordless blower that's
battery powered,

because there really wasn't a whole lot
of power other than that.

And this can run on battery.

What we ended up doing

was

logistically

some things out with the location.

So we talked to them, had a time.

They're like, hey, we regularly run
power to the planes out there.

So we have really long extension cords.

I'm like, great,

sounds good.

And

when we get there, they said, but we
have no power in the middle of the building,

so you have to position yourself

so that the cords are running

down the side of the building.

And so the way I'm actually shooting

facing the plane as I'm in the grass
behind where the runway ends, which is

on the side of the building.

So everything's just a straight shot
down to the plugs on the side.

So it was definitely a consideration.

The added benefit of

plugging in, versus not in this
particular case, is I can get 1000 Watt

head, or even more powerful, if I'm
using a power pack, and I can plug a

fan in, so I didn't have to buy a
battery operated blower for it,

so they had extension cords.

It worked out for us.

Fortunately, we didn't need a whole lot
of power

to make this work.

And so we could pull up.

It was absolutely a consideration and
something we thought about ahead of time.

So we just opted to go with plugging.

Inclus we could.

You can also run stuff on generators,
but that gets loud.

And when you need to film for video it's

problematic.

So

that was kind of our solution.