FiveSix Chills with the Canadian Michael Jordan
Last week, FiveSix Productions did a little audio mixing and provided some grip gear to a friendly (of course) group of Canadians on a shoot with the one, the only, Wayne Gretzky. If you don't know who the Gretz is, that's okay guy, weird, but okay. Wayne Gretzky is one of the greatest hockey players in history, and along with Maple Syrup, Ryan Reynolds, and their border with us, is a national treasure. The voice of the biscuit master and purported Moose Whisperer was strong and pure, and our grip gear kept the lights and green screen in place, buddy. All in all, life was good, and we made a whole bunch of new fwiends, okay guy. So soorry, time to get back on set, L.A. waits for no one. Until next time, keep your edges sharp, eh? God save the Queen.
New Light Panels
We here at FiveSix Productions aren't so fancy that we can't appreciate the simple things in life. For example, we have acquired some new 1'x1' light panels that have us pretty stoked about life. Sure, a one-by LED light panel might seem like small potatoes compared to some lights, but for some of our jobs, it's just what the doctor ordered. Our old light panels worked fine for a while, but now they're mostly for weight lifting and staying fit; our new panels are light-weight, versatile, and captivating. The Genaray SpectroLED Essential 360 Bi-Color LED Light (that's a mouthful) fulfills all our light panel needs, in a compact, and easy to use package that has us with cards out, ready to buy more. These lights have a dial-in range of 3200-5600, wide-range dimmer, and you can use a battery or plug it in. No cto, tape, heavy lifting, sinking feeling of regrets, etc. have us all about this new panel, and we invite you to come aboard.
Untether Your Production
High end film production demands consistent results, from both crew and equipment. I recently wrapped up a 5 week feature film shooting at various desert locations around southern Nevada. The production took place mostly out doors, so we experienced high temperatures during the day and low, near freezing temperatures during the night. It was a challenging shoot due to a low budget and a rather short schedule, shooting mostly available daylight during the short winter months.
F11 rentals supplied the production with a brand spanking new Sound Devices 633, with Sennheiser wireless Microphones. This mixer/recorder allowed us to record in a double system setup, thus keeping the sound department from having to be tethered to camera. As a DP, my camera usually ends up having so many accessories and cables hanging off of it, so the less things that have to be plugged in to my camera the better! The whole production was very fast paced, and most of the film is shot hand held. Not having to have a mixer plugged in to the camera really helps to keep the set moving. The equipment and service provided by F11 was second to none, the gear was well maintained and we never experienced any downtime due to the equipment.
Whats the one thing a director always wants more of? Time. During a typical day on set, saving a little time here and there can add up to an extra take, or an extra moment to get the lighting and blocking just right, or even an additional setup you might otherwise have missed. One of the easiest ways of saving time on set is making sure you have good quality equipment. With F11 there’s never a question that you will have the latest and greatest at your fingertips!
-Clayton Moore (www.ClaytonMooreDP.com)