A Good Day at the Office

Well, all elements conspired to produce a good shoot today. The "dolly" wheels that Maggie talked about below are awesome. I have a problem with a lot of microbudget productions that rely on the "poor man's steadicam" to heavily, because it often looks like shit. I love moving the frame through space, but there's honestly a reason that steadicams cost thirty grand: shots on them don't look handheld! I'd much rather throw the camera up on sticks than run around with it if it's gonna be distracting to the audience. But these little wheels and Maggie's hardwood floors let us get a steadicam-like shot without looking like crap.

There were a couple of shots that felt food and I was anxious to check them out when I got home. One in particular was done so well that I'm at a quandry as to how it should be cut - or, rather, whether it should be. Take a look at the shots below. The continuous shot is really good and the danger of cutting it at all is disturbing the emotionality of the scene. The most important cut in the way the shot was conceived was the close-up shot of Archie (me) screaming at Oatmeal (Eric). So I did a sequence with a couple of close-up cuts in the beginning of the scene; but I didn't do any other cuts. The CU's at the other side of the room just didn't match the take and I feel no need to cut for cutting' sake. I am slightly torn between the continuous take and the scene with cuts at the beginning.







Anyhow, much credit and thanks go to everybody involved today. Everything clicked, it was a very easygoing shoot, and the results were awesome.