New work premiering in early June - a piece on holocaust survivor Adam, told through the lens of his art. Some jobs stick with you well after they’re wrapped; this is one for sure.
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Repost • @jamie.michaels World Premiere on June 8th.
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In 1944 Germany invaded Hungary. Adam, a young Jewish-Hungarian boy was taken across the street to the house of his neighbours who agreed to hide him from the Nazis. After being denounced and discovered he embarked on an incredible journey of survival.
I Draw Them the Best I Can not only tells Adam’s story surviving the Holocaust, but also how his experiences have rippled through his family, and how the process of making art—particularly comics—has allowed Adam to reimagine, grapple with, and process the events of his childhood.
Created by @jamie.michaels & @karpaliam
Presented in partnership with @tjffgrams@torontocomics@thethmuseum
& The Consulate General of Hungary in Toronto.
Lighting / Rig Breakdown: Uber Eats Spec (Part 2)
Dir: @jonflahr
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It’s not on screen for long (so little, in fact, that I had to loop it three times just to show you) but this shot from our @ubereats spec was one of the bigger challenges of the day.
Director @jonflahr wanted a close up, wide shot of @kiaramcilravey ’s fingers typing into the phone - no worries there, classic @laowa.cine probe territory - but crucially he wanted both the phone to be moving on screen and the whole shot to be fluid at the same time.
I came up with this rig that worked pretty well on the day: a @sonycine #FX3, suspended by a couple of noga arms, above a smallrig 15mm baseplate. Into that plate slid two greased up long rods attached to a cheeseplate that held the phone. Shored it all up with a bit of lens support, and annoyed the fam by parading it around the living room.
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#cinematography #dop #lighting
Lighting Breakdown - Uber Eats Spec (Part 1)
Dir: @jonflahr
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I don’t do spec jobs very often any more, but every once in a while the perfect storm of timing, talent and location come together and makes it very hard to say no. This spec for @ubereats with director @jonflahr and @kiaramcilravey hit the sweet spot.
We leant into the great brick-walled space we had, and shot wide the whole time - from what I remember we just had a couple of @cookeoptics SP3 lenses - maybe the 25mm and 32mm - on the @sonycine #FX3s, and handheld the most of time for a kinetic look that oozed energy.
Lighting-wise, we pushed some strong warm light through the back windows for consistent sunlight, then keyed with a big 8x8’ crated source for a soft wrap on Kiara. Other than that I pushed in a little cooler rim for some separation, pinged a few practicals around the edges and let ‘er rip.
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#lighting #cinematography #dop
Lighting Breakdown: Cocaine Godmother (Part 1)
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Shooting VIPs always brings an extra dose of stress into an already sometimes tricky situation, but getting the opportunity to create promos for @catherinezetajones ’ “Cocaine Godmother” was another level.
It’s always a similar story - we had a maximum of 45 minutes with her over the course of two days, at the end of her regular shooting hours and had to bag 5 or 6 different setups in that time. Breakneck pace that was only possible with meticulous planning and rehearsal for the 8 or 9 hours before first team was on set.
For this first setup, we layered in some foreground on tables to give a bit of depth, but the problem was they blocked the dolly path so needed co-ordinated scooching to not break the illusion.
Zero fill from the front to silhouette the extras, side key for Catherine so her brilliant performance had some bite, top light for separation and a flood of colour from the great set build we were working on.
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Shot on @reddigitalcinema with @cookeoptions S4s from @rawcamera
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#dop #cinematography #lighting
In war, what separates us is often clear. What connects us is quieter.
A photograph of someone left behind. A symbol of faith carried close. In a moment where two enemies face each other, those details begin to matter more than the uniforms.
BREAKTHROUGH explores how humanity can still exist, even in the middle of conflict.
#BreakthroughFilm #WWIIFilm #FilmFestival #IndieFilm
Lighting Breakdown: Foster Martin: Have You Heard The Call?
For this extended commercial we needed to sell a mysterious siren figure, and @liissober was just the talent to pull it off.
Shooting in the day in the middle of summer meant building a day-for-night tent over an outdoor pool with a collection of duves, lining the walls and floor with more black, then firing a couple of M18s to simulate a hard hit of sunlight.
The water had a great murk to it (from a previous shoot there a day before), which really sold the open water look & feel - perfect for matching to Liis’ eventual surfacing out in the real ocean.
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#dop #cinematography #lighting
Lighting Breakdown: Dialog - “Share Minds” (Part 3)
Dir: @jonflahr
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The big finale needed some big camera moves and a hectic whirlwind of emotion to really sell things - we set up a 360 degree dolly track and dolly grip @krystal.chn got a workout pushing that the Fisher round and around until none of us could see straight. Lighting in the round wasn’t giving us the shape we really needed, so we cheated it with a couple of contra-rotations, keyed how we wanted and let the edit cover the cracks.
Final scene: ten minute panic setup as it was 4am and all of us needed to go home. Backlight toplight shoot it print it wrap it out.
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Creative and Production: @noraveravisuals
Director: @jonflahr
Producer:@ninaweiss
DOP: @danbarham
PC: @sharenmak
1st AC: @xcolamarco
2nd AC: @ni_cine
Gaffer: @seawolfollie
Dolly Grip: @krystal.chn
Wardrobe: @sgriffiths13
Wardrobe Asst.: @brigodard
HMUA: @yukinasanada_
PA: @realxbe
BTS: @kristina_captures
Editor: @adamg.creative
Colourist: @clintonhomuth / @artjail
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Starring @brennametz
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#dop #cinematography #lighting
Ever tried digging frozen ground at -25°C?
We have. And thankfully, not by hand.
Bringing the winter of 1944 to life meant working through conditions that don’t make anything easy. Even with a mini excavator, the ground fought back.
No shortcuts. Just a commitment to doing it right.
#BreakthroughFilm #WWIIFilm #FilmFestival #IndieFilm
Lighting Breakdown: Dialog - “Share Minds” (Part 1)
Dir: @jonflahr
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For this commercial, we drew inspiration from some of the great dance-themed ads and music videos - Margaret Qualley’s “Kenzo World”, Fat Boy Slim’s “Weapon of Choice” and an Apple HomePod ad, and pushed the world from cosy apartment evening into surreal madness with the flick of a switch.
Shooting things on a dolly kept the camera smooth and precise, and motivating the lighting to be natural in this initial “normal world” was important to really sell the craziness to come.
Tubes hidden above the windows out of frame / leaning on the practicals for keys & fill / little hits from punchy lights hidden in the roof - we kept the floor as clear as possible to let @brennametz do her thing.
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Creative and Production: @noraveravisuals
Director: @jonflahr
Producer:@ninaweiss
DOP: @danbarham
PC: @sharenmak
1st AC: @xcolamarco
2nd AC: @ni_cine
Gaffer: @seawolfollie
Dolly Grip: @krystal.chn
Wardrobe: @sgriffiths13
Wardrobe Asst.: @brigodard
HMUA: @yukinasanada_
PA: @realxbe
BTS: @kristina_captures
Editor: @adamg.creative
Colourist: @clintonhomuth / @artjail
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Starring @brennametz
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#dop #cinematography #lighting
Lighting Breakdown: Tiger By The Tail (Part 3) Dir: @thelastunitard — The scene called for a warm West Virginia summer day, but the reality was British Columbia in April. Torrential rain, and we were shooting at night.
We were all freezing, but with a 12x12 overhead, some warmed backlight, and a few carefully closed curtains, it plays like sunlight.
Pushing through @aputure.lighting P300Cs with CTS helped sell the sun, and a gelled 600D skip-bounced inside the trailer gave us soft, natural fill.
We kept the same approach for the morning-after, just shifting to cooler colour temperatures for a different feel.
Same setup, different result, and no one questions it.
Bonus pics: from our tech scout, and the shoot day BTS
— Starring @juanriedinger@tasyateles@thejbeau — #dop #cinematography #lighting
Lighting Breakdown: Tiger By The Tail (Part 2)
Dir: @thelastunitard
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Not every day you build a scene around a 4-foot disco ball, but that was the brief. A little foreshadowing baked right into PEARL, CADENCE, and REX’s first meeting.
Leant into a touch of old-school Hollywood glamour for @hannahlevienofficial : strong backlight for that halo, softened off (pretty sure with a @tiffencompany BPM 1/8) just to take the edge off and let it bloom.
Then pulled things back for the two-shot with @nhitendo - less stylised, more grounded - so the shift feels intentional rather than flashy.
Finished it off with a quick special on the mirror ball for a bit of movement and texture… then got out of the way and let the cast do their thing.
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Starrring @hannahlevienofficial / @tasyateles / @nhitendo
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#dop #cinematography #lighting
