Si gn
Original Music: Writing The Perfect Track
Spotlight on the West: Incentives – more than money September/October 2013 • V.28|No.5
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up w w fo w rF .m ar ke a RE em t E eN ag az ew in s e. co m
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LED Lighting From handhelds to daylight fixtures
DIE IN NEW ORLEANS - A music video Artist: Richard Julian Director/Cinematographer: Rick Kaplan
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September / October 2013 Volume 28, Number 5
contents w w w. m a r k e e m a g a z i n e . c o m
22 16
features 8
Original Music
Writing The Perfect Track By Mark R. Smith
16
Lighting
LED Lighting 8
Once revolutionary, LEDs now are vital to productions. By Christine Bunish
22
Spotlight
The West: Incentives – More than Money By Tom Inglesby
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September/October 2013
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
Markee2.0
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
7 Markee 2.0 is a results-driven magazine that has been published since December 1985. A nationwide survey of film and video industry professionals revealed that Markee 2.0 is at the top of their must-read list.
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Editorially, Markee 2.0 offers a wide range of content tailored for its diverse readership. Features span film and video production and postproduction topics to include must-read interviews with leaders in the creative community, the latest equipment and technology news, perspectives on innovative independent filmmaking, and in-the-trenches reports on shooters, editors, animators and audio pros – plus regularly-scheduled specialty supplements. Markee 2.0’s seasoned writers know the industry inside-out. That’s what makes Markee 2.0 compelling, informative and timely reading.
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columns & departments 4 From the editor 6 Making TV – Shooting Lawyers The Good Wife turns talking lawyers into visual, emotional, suspenseful drama. By Michael Fickes
7 Making Commercials – Luxury Made From The Land In a spot called “Details,” Lucky Post animates the details behind the western spirit of RAM’s Laramie Longhorn Truck. By Michael Fickes
34 Digital Discussions – Why Where? KGB Productions By Tom Inglesby
[On The Cover] DP Todd Dos Reis holds Litepanels’ MiniPlus, which he dubs “a brick,” for a desk scene in Agency V3 on USA Network’s Necessary Roughness.
36 Inside View – Warner/Chappell Production Music Randy Wachtler, president & CEO By Christine Bunish
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September/October 2013
| Markee 2.0
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from the editor
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
| By Cory Sekine-Pettite
The ‘Walking Dead’ Returns It’s October, which means (in my world) that AMC’s The Walking Dead returns for another season of compelling programming. Specifically, the show returns October 13 for Season 4, which promises to be just as good as the last three seasons. This unexpectedly successful show about a zombie apocalypse has become a pop culture phenomenon, spawning a talk show (AMC’s Talking Dead), video games and board games, a webonly series, a fan-produced podcast, and a convention. One need not be a fan of the zombie genre to enjoy this show. In fact, I was not a fan of zombie movies prior to this series. However, the appeal of this show lies in the living characters and their relationships with each other as they try to survive. The show’s visual effects and makeup artistry also are quite appealing and are a big draw for many viewers. In 2011, Markee spoke with KNB EFX and Stargate Studios about their work for the show. (You can read this article on our website at http://bit.ly/1gzdMnT.) As we reported, Greg Nicotero, a KNB EFX founding partner and executive producer, director, and special effects makeup artist on the show, calls the interplay of digital VFX and practical effects “a delicate ballet” but says “when people understand how to use each to maximum effect, you get the best results – a perfect blend of the two art forms.” To me, this show is a perfect blend of feature film-quality effects and dramatic storytelling that only a lengthy TV series with the full support of a network could provide. There’s nothing else like it on television – that is, until this team (including show creator Robert Kirkman) reveal The Walking Dead spin-off series, which is scheduled to air on AMC sometime in 2015. (Details are scarce right now.) “The biggest challenge for us was bringing such an ambitious world view to the TV audience,” Stargate Studios’ Jason Sperling told us in 2011. “Frank [Darabont] did an incredible storyboard for the pilot. We were able to give him mock-ups of what his shots might look like; that gained his trust and built our artistic relationship. Tonally and image-wise, the pilot really set the look and feel for the rest of the [first] season and, we hope, the rest of the series.” Are you a fan of The Walking Dead? Let me know why you tune in each week and what you expect from Season 4.
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making TV
Fred Murphy, ASC | By Michael Fickes
Shooting Lawyers The Good Wife turns talking lawyers into visual, emotional, suspenseful drama. Some television shows want you to forget about the camera and focus on the emotional contact among the characters. The Good Wife is a show like that. The quiet camera of the CBS drama, managed by Director of Photography Fred Murphy, ASC, has helped the show garner 30 Emmy nominations over five seasons – including one in 2011 for Outstanding Cinematography For A Single-camera Series.
Shooting style The Good Wife is a series about characters, with a politician’s wife at the center. Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) stands by her politician husband even when he is disgraced by an affair, accused of a crime, and sent to jail. After his fall, Alicia returns to work as an attorney to take care of her two children, while trying, and mostly succeeding, to remain loyal to her husband – as the good wife of the title. The cinematography features lawyers “lawyering” by talking. “Lawyers play a mental game, not a physical one,” says Murphy. “For the first five seasons, we have shot their conversations simply, without too much camera movement, often without the people moving. That is the nature of the lawyer business. It is all about the mental game.” In a change for the current sixth season, the camera will be on the move a bit more. The moves, however, remain simple and quiet. Murphy shoots with an ARRI Alexa with Panavision zoom lenses and Primo prime lenses. He selects something between 60mm and 100mm for close up scenes. While he does use zooms, he doesn’t zoom across the set. “For close-ups, we move the camera physically closer,” he said. He doesn’t shoot much with wideangle lenses. “For a wide shot of a small 6
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[Above] Fred Murphy, ASC, director of photography on The Good Wife, uses his viewfinder to set up a scene. Fries Engineering, the manufacturer, put Fred’s initials on the device.
location, you need a wide-angle lens, but we try to use longer lenses – 25mm is wide-angle for us,” he said.
Lighting “We want the lighting to provide soft, polished realism,” Murphy said. “Then we place large sources, such as 12x12s or 8x8s – rarely anything smaller than 6x6 – close to people and bounce the light. Except for effects like the sun coming through the window, we always bounce large light sources to diffuse and soften the light. Most of the scenes are shot on stages set up to do this.” Murphy refines the big source lights with a little back lighting and a little edge lighting. He has balanced the lighting for all of the sets for a 2.8 F-Stop camera setting. “So you shoot at the same stop – 2.8 at 800 ASA – all the time. “It can be awkward to set up large sources like this, but once you start shooting, you don’t need to re-light for close-ups,” he said. “The large source crosses the set and bathes everyone in beautiful light. When you go close, you simply adjust the fill ratio.”
September/October 2013
Action “The basic shooting style is modified 1940s movies, which focused on making people look dramatic and beautiful,” Murphy said. “We decided early on to make the show elegant. We want Julianna Margulies [Alicia Florrick] to look elegant. We stay away from wide lenses, and rarely use anything under 50mm if she is close to the camera. And we position the large light sources as close to her as physically possible. We also use a small Schneider filter – very weak, but it helps smooth out the shots. “She is a wonderful actress,” Murphy continued. “She can invest small gestures with a lot of meaning.” That is the key to the drama of The Good Wife. Most of the cast has the same kind of talent, the ability to communicate in subtle, understated ways – a phrase, a raised eyebrow, a cold stare – perfectly timed to build the tension and drama. Murphy’s lighting and camera work delivers all of that – the mental game that lawyers play – to the audience. And it is riveting.
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
making Commercials
Lucky Post | By Michael Fickes
Luxury Made From The Land In a spot called “Details,” Lucky Post animates the details behind the western spirit of RAM’s Laramie Longhorn Truck. A recent spot for RAM’s Laramie Longhorn Truck pretends not to tell a story. It is a series of animated iconic images from 19th century Texas juxtaposed with the RAM truck. No voice over tells you what is going on. Instead, a surprisingly (because it could be found at all) fitting needle drop track of music combined with subtly presented sound design creates a Western aura. Four wrought iron signs tell you what you need to know. Everything – all the images and sounds – emerge from a sepia-toned map of Texas.
The assignment “Everyone knows that RAM trucks are rough and tough,” says Sai Selvarajan, editor/designer with Dallas-based Lucky Post, the post house that produced the commercial. “This commercial is about the brand’s high-end, luxury model with interior finishes done in wood grain, chrome accents and leather stitching.” In short, the assignment was to make a point about Western-style RAM luxury by associating it with iconic, historical Western tools and a historical map. Lucky Post got the nod from The Richards Group, RAM’s advertising agency, which provided references from an earlier print campaign that embodied the desired aesthetic. Lucky Post Animator Seth Olson and Selvarajan then collaborated with the agency creatives to develop the concept. “The previous campaign developed a visual style related to the historic West,” Olson said. “The agency wanted to continue that theme, and we liked a sepia map from that work.”
The spot The commercial begins as a virtual camera pans west across the map from the Gulf of Mexico into Texas. The camwww.markeemagazine.com
era pulls back and dotted lines denoting original cattle trails shoot north on the map. “Those are the actual cattle trails,” said Selvarajan. “All the details we used are accurate.” The RAM truck drives into the scene from the direction of the Gulf. It appears as a sepia sketch. Almost instantly, it develops layer upon layer of crosshatched lines. Eventually, the crosshatching fills in and turns the image into a photo of the truck. The effect looks like ink or paint washing across the sketch, creating a photograph. “Old maps were drawn with ink and painted with watercolors,” Selvarajan continued. “That led to the idea for ink and watercolor reveals. Maps from this era also have crosshatched detailing done in ink. We used layers of crosshatching to turn the sketch into a photo.” “We made the cut-outs of the truck and other photographic images in Photoshop,” Olson added, “then we animated with After Effects.” Back to the spot: The Laramie Longhorn logo materializes above the truck using the layered crosshatching paint. A pickaxe and sledgehammer modeled after 19th century versions of the tools appear. The music and sound design effects begin with the first scene. You can hear the Gulf lapping the Texas shoreline and the sound of the truck’s tires on gravel. Selvarajan roughed in the sound design using Final Cut, and Scottie Richardson, Lucky Post’s sound designer/mixer, handled the final track and finish. Another pan to the southeast draws the scene across typed paragraphs – if
you pause and read, you’ll see advertising copy about the truck. On the bottom right of this scene is a historical fencepost with barbed wire set before an heirloom platter.
The point Copy points come up as signs: “WOOD: That’s felt the bite of barbed wire.” The words are arranged on an ornamental iron sign. A photo of the interior with its wood accents paints itself into the northeastern part of the frame. The camera pans north, following a cattle trail past an image of an old lantern, and arrives at another sign: “CHROME: Etched with the pride of an heirloom.” A chrome-plated revolver materializes. The camera keeps moving, and a stitched leather belt with a buckle materializes followed by a third sign: “LEATHER: Sewn with the soul of the West.” Then comes the fourth sign and the whole point: “Luxury born from the land.” From the land represented by this Texas map. That’s a clever story.
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WRITING
THE PERFECT TRACK Scoring in today’s music market
BY MARK R. SMITH
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L
ike the rest of the production and post world, the market for original music has turned with the tides, has ebbed and flowed, and has shifted here and there – now possi-
bly to a point where clients again see the value of expanding [Above]
a budget to include that perfect, signature score. Talk to any veteran of the music scene and you might hear
In the studio of Santa Monica, Calif.-based Endless Noise.
that business is not as good as it once was, that it’s steady or that a new (or even old) market is re-opening, perhaps to become a significant segment of a company’s target market again.
[Clockwise from Left] Endless Noise engineers recording unique sounds for a Craftsman Tools campaign.
Stephen Arnold Music President, Stephen Arnold, in his studio with one of his many guitars. Producing original music is a significant portion of the workload at the Dallas-based company.
Aircast Creative Services Director, Randy Hart (standing), with engineer Bob Bullock. The pair is mixing a track for a client in Aircast’s Nashville studio.
Endless Noise produced a track with up-and-coming artist Kevin Olusola. Photo: Mary Catherine Finney
Endless Noise putting together a sound remix for client Hyundai.
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September/October 2013
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Original Music
Audio view, anew
[Above] Aircast Creative Services Director, Randy Hart, working on a composition at his piano.
[Below] Carlos Chafin and engineer/ foley artist Andrea Stefl at In Your Ear Studio A, Richmond, Va. Recently, IYE has scored TV spots for numerous clients around the country.
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Custom music is a product of its writer’s imagination, but often with a little influence. That’s the take of Randy Hart, creative services director with Aircast Custom Music (www.aircastmusic.com), the Nashville-based division of Megatrax, a North Hollywood music library. “Stylistically, the usual references I get from clients concern what’s hot. So, you write something in that vein,” Hart said, citing popular artists such as Katy Perry and Mumford & Sons. “They ask for certain types of tracks, but we obviously don’t copy anything; what we do is extrapolate something unique that’s akin to a genre and is also popular with a target demographic.” What’s extrapolated by Aircast accentuates spots, and sonically brands TV news packages and show opens for clients such as the Fox O&O’s, as well as cablenets. Aircast also just updated one of its news packages for the NBC affiliate in Albany, N.Y., WNYT, which may be syndicated to other network stations. Local affiliate promos and image pieces “are another leg of what we do, but they are a completely different animal from a local news package,” said Hart, noting promos for the Sinclair Broadcast Group’s program blocks in various categories, such as court programs and talk shows. Other projects, which are cut on the house’s Pro Tools 10 with Nuendo 5.5 DAWS, range from scoring spots that feature the yodeling cow for the California Dairy Council to an orchestral Spanish radio network ID package. Projects begin with Hart, a keyboardist by trade, working with a team of up to 15 musicians, composers and arrangers to create a product from a talent pool that includes some of Nashville’s finest, as well as crack players from New York, L.A. and Chicago; Aircast garners the various instrumental tracks via file transfer sites, then often records and mixes at various Music City studios.
‘A Real Fine Day’ Call co-owner Carlos Chafin at Richmond, Va.-based In Your Ear (IYE) and he might tell you that he and the staff are having “A Real Fine Day.” Music fans may recognize those words as the title of the new album by Chafin’s writing and business partner, and one of Virginia’s favorite sons, Robbin Thompson. However, they might also be used to describe a rising current in an original music market that plummeted at the house years ago. Spot work had “been the way” at IYE (www.lobe.com) up until 9-11, which marked the start of what Chafin termed “a dark period” for original music, when budgets were slashed and advertisers began opting for less expensive sounds from libraries or from a lesser known (thus more affordable) artist’s tracks. That sharp decline, coupled with the rise of desktop audio, meant dwindling demand. “It was a double-whammy,” he said, “and it’s been that way for most of the past 12 years.” However, during the past 18 months, IYE has scored spots for Boone Oakley Advertising (Bojangle’s), Charlotte; Peter Mayer Advertising (Centurylink), New Orleans; and Adworks (Total Wine) Washington, as well as The Martin Agency (Cool Whip), which is
September/October 2013
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
located across Shockoe Bottom, in Richmond. “Seeing that geographic diversity is much more encouraging than just getting one project – and that’s encouraging about where this part of the industry is headed,” Chafin said. All of the aforementioned ad shops are creatively driven, he said. “And they’re being tapped to use more resources. That means calling music houses like ours. And that means demand is rising.” Today, there’s another bonus in the equation. During the downturn, IYE, which offers a technical mix featuring Pro Tools and Cubase with Nuendo, returned to traditional music recording. The house has produced about two dozen albums (including releases for the likes of Grammy winners Chris Brown and Wale) “and made new alliances, while working with old friends,” said Chafin. “That not only re-ignited our fire, but it has led to us creating more original music.”
Still an original Also based in Virginia’s capital city, John Keltonic, president of Richmond’s JDK Music (www.jdkmusic.com), says his clientele still prefers original scores to library tracks. He offered ample reason as to what that personal touch means when tailoring a perfect soundtrack. “Many clients can still hear and appreciate the difference between library music and original tracks. That also means clients don’t necessarily accept pre-recorded music that isn’t quite right for a project,” Keltonic said, though he offered an opposing point of view. “I do wonder if the some of the younger audience cares quite as much, though” he said. “I think fewer people care about using original music these days, or the quality of either the music or the format. Many younger viewers actually prefer compressed audio (i.e., MP3s), as opposed to higher quality audio. Maybe they don’t know what they’re missing.”
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September/October 2013
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Original Music
[Above] JDK Music President, John Keltonic, conducting an orchestra at Omega Recording Studios in suburban Washington D.C. The Richmond, Va.-based JDK’s scores can be heard in three upcoming projects for PBS.
[Below] Stephen Arnold Music President, Stephen Arnold, in his studio with one of his many guitars. Producing original music is a significant portion of the workload at the Dallasbased company.
Keltonic works virtually and produces his sessions at such facilities as Bias Recording or Omega Recording Studios in suburban Washington, and Quad Studios and 615 Productions in Nashville. Digital Perfomer is his main composing tool, and he also uses ProTools 10 and “a ton of music sample libraries,” plug-ins, etc. “Digital Performer is always the go-to composition tool,” he said, because of features such as Chunks, which makes modifying cues “a breeze;” flawless integration with MIDI, and live audio. Still, he’s more interested in being a composer than an engineer or a businessman, so compose, he does. These days, Keltonic is scoring three films for PBS that will premiere in 2014. “Most of my work is film scoring, but different types of production companies still hire me,” he said, also pointing to work for Tom Brokaw’s special during NBC Sports’ coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics, plus music for national TV spots for CBS Sports (coverage of the PGA at Hilton Head, S.C.), Nomads Agency (Amsterdam) for Emirates Airlines and The Production Line (Alexandria, Va.) for Marriott Corp. Still, even with the industry’s shifts, people are still calling, Keltonic said. “I’m still able to make a living doing what I love to do.”
Up close ’n’ personal Producing original music is the significant portion of the workload at Stephen Arnold Music (www.stephenarnoldmusic.com), the Dallas-based music house that has made its name by remaining small enough to offer cablenets and network affiliates a personal touch. “Here, you’re just talking to me and a couple of other composers,” said Stephen Arnold, president, who also offers several audio libraries through a sister company, The Vault. “At other houses, you’re talking to a sales rep, then a creative liaison who might sub the project out. But we’re a boutique studio.” At Arnold’s house, the approach to writing depends on how a network or show is branded. For instance, for CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront,” Arnold imagined an edgy guitar would appeal to its young demo; but for CCTV China, strong world music-styled percussion and orchestration were the order of the day. Arnold also recently crafted music for the ABC affiliate WGNO in New Orleans, “using all top local talent to capture a true New Orleans flavor.” The point, Arnold noted, is that all shows and networks require “an immediately identifiable sound” that’s all their own. “We create a sonic brand,” he said, “with the ultimate challenge always being to come up with that memorable set of notes.” 12
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September/October 2013
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
Original Music
Regarding recording, the house works with artists worldwide who often record their part and FTP it back to Dallas, where Arnold employs the iZ Radar, Nuendo, the Pro Tools HD interface and Digital Performer, all running on a Mac. Other recent clients include Golf Channel, Top Rank Boxing and Fox Business Channel. Noting that the original music business has become more fragmented, thus more financially challenging, as it has become harder to get real players to play on tracks (rather than using samples), Arnold said that creating original music “can be as much science as art. So, what we have to do is be careful not to suck the life out of the art.”
Under the covers
[Below Left] Endless Noise in the recording studio for client Norfolk Southern. Photo: Donna Schoch-Spana
[Below Right] YouTube sensation Pentatonix in the Endless Noise studios, Santa Monica, Calif. Photo: Mary Catherine Finney
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At the marvelously named Endless Noise (www.endlessnoise.com), president Jeff Elmassian and company write for film, TV, record production (more on that later) and “an enormous amount of spot work, which is 70 percent” of what dots the house’s production dossier. The client list at the Santa Monica, Calif.-based house includes the likes of The Henson Co., Disney, Nike, Volkswagen, Hyundai and their agencies, which include Saatchi & Saatchi (S&S), TBWA\Chiat\Day and Deutsch. Elmassian offered two examples of industry trends. The first can be explained via a spot project for Norfolk Southern and agency RP3, which required the licensing of the beloved kiddie tune, “Conjunction Junction,” but called for an updated version. “So we reworked the lyrics using various beats (including reggae) before clearing a final version through Disney,” which owns the series that featured the original, “Schoolhouse Rock.” Such projects are part of a huge new wave, he said. “During the first craze in licensing hit songs, it was expensive and the artist felt like he was selling out. But it became cool in the late ’90s and most of the early ’00’s.” But more recently, updating famous songs has become the favored avenue. “People want to license the song, but no one wants to edit the original,” Elmassian says. “That way, advertisers like the song’s cache with boomers and GenXers, while millennials get something new.” Affordability is still an issue, “though a client like Norfolk Southern can afford it, but still wants its own version,” he said. The other trend, Elmassian continued, concerns record production work that is fed to the masses via the Internet. “We work with S&S on all of their cereal brands, and those spots often are animated and fun. They’ll target kids – and older ‘kids,’ in their 20s – who still eat Lucky Charms,” he said, noting a tech roster that features Pro Tools and Logic 10, with Ableton products. “So the advertiser looks for acts with large audiences, and millions of hits on YouTube, like Pentatonix.
September/October 2013
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
“The agencies have us try to connect with bands that have more viral followings than the mainstream bands, like Vampire Weekend,” Elmassian said. “Pentatonix, for instance, gained traction through YouTube and starting touring based on that introduction to their fan base.”
[Above] Paul Robb, HiFi Project creative director, in the company’s studios in Santa Monica, Calif. Robb said electronica is coming back into favor with clients looking for original music.
Living in synth Another performer who embraced the creative outlet that is scoring production music, Paul Robb, writer/drummer for the ’80s synth-poppers Information Society (remember “What’s On Your Mind (Pure Energy)”?), now spends his days serving as creative director for the Santa Monica, Calif.-based HiFi Project (www.hifiproject.com). He creates “music for pictures,” with 85 percent directed to the spot market, be it broadcast or interactive. Robb also is still at work “in what was once called the record business” and can talk all about advertisers chasing the viral trend. “But what we do at HiFi Project is pretty consistent,” he said, “regardless of the ultimate medium.” Having such a big spot base often can mean plenty of auto work, and last summer HiFi scored a Chevy campaign (Commonwealth/Detroit) and Jaguar spots (Spark 44/L.A.). The house, which used the Cubase system with several plug-ins, also licensed tracks for Target and worked as supervisors while searching for tracks via demos, networking, live performances for the client via the agency, Mono (Minneapolis), for unsigned bands. Like Chafin, Robb feels like he’s seeing good things on the horizon. “I’ve also noticed is that original music is coming back. Agencies were spending huge amounts – well north of $1 million in some cases – for well-known hit songs, and others they believed to be hip or groovy in alternative circles,” he said. And though he’s still seeing plenty of younger creatives with “an iTunes search mentality” who may simply check their music libraries for tracks, he says, “more people are understanding the value of original music.” Another trend Robb noted, which isn’t a surprise given his pop pedigree, is that “After a decade of folk rock, indie or Americana” being the general music of the day, electronica is coming back into original music circles. “That’s great for us, because electronica is kind of my home territory,” he said – even hinting at a possible new release from Information Society. www.markeemagazine.com
September/October 2013
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LED LIGHTING Once revolutionary, LEDs now are vital to productions
[Above] Director Curt Pair of Picture This Productions adjusts the barn doors on the Dracast 1000 for The Golf Channel’s Road to the PGA Championship. Photo: Ian Tetzner
LED lighting was a revolution in the industry when it made its debut, and it has taken all types of production by storm since then. LED fixtures are important components of most lighting packages today, meeting the needs of episodic TV, sports programming, independent films and entertainment specials. How did we ever manage without them?
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Versatile Litepanels LEDs go everywhere with DP Todd Dos Reis Cinematographer Todd A. Dos Reis is a longtime Litepanels user (www.litepanels.com). He began employing the LEDs about five years ago on HBO’s Entourage for actor eye lights and fill. “They’re really good for that hard-to-get sparkle in the eyes,” he says. “Put an LED on a car dashboard or in front of a computer and they make the character’s eyes sparkle.” The more Dos Reis used Litepanels the more applications he discovered for them. “I saw how many different things I could use them for: key lights, fill lights, backlights. Before they yelled, ‘Action!’ I could throw one in for an eye light. They worked great if I planned to use them, or if I added them as an afterthought.” Today, Litepanels 1x1s and MiniPlus units, which he calls “bricks,” form part of his basic lighting package. “Wherever I go, I take them with me,” he reports. “I can use them anywhere.” His key grip, Chuck Smallwood, built a square snoot out of Coroplast for the 1x1 panels, which extends the light without spill for a concentrated soft source. “He also made a slot in the snoot for more diffusion,” the DP said. “As soft as the 1x1 is, I can put in Opal 216 or 250 to make it ultra-soft – almost as if you were dropping in a scrim. I do it all the time for the women on Necessary Roughness [USA] and Suburgatory [ABC].” Now that USA Network’s Necessary Roughness has changed its storyline so its main character, therapist Dani Santino (Callie Thorne) works for one of the world’s biggest talent agencies, Dos Reis has more opportunity to use Litepanels as beauty lights than he did when the therapist was treating pro football players. “The creators wanted season three to look more glamorous with pretty people walking the halls of Agency V3,” Dos Reis said. A&E’s rugged mystery western series, Longmire, doesn’t call for a lot of beauty lighting, Dos Reis admitted. But he found uses for Litepanels in an episode last season. He positioned a brick behind a computer and on the sheriff’s truck dashboard for eye pop; he also placed two bricks in the back of the vehicle, with red gels, to simulate brake lights during a train-to-car chase sequence at night. Additionally, Dos Reis selected about two dozen Ohm Lighting LEDs to give the effect of a skylight on Necessary Roughness. “It was a twostory set, a penthouse with a skylight,” he said. “The Ohm lights created a volume of daylight that filled both floors of the agency; we added PAR cans for a sunny day effect.” The DP likes the ability to “go from tungsten to daylight on the Litepanels – it’s so great. I plan to buy a 1x1 and a MiniPlus for myself.” He’d like to see the next development in LED lighting yield “bigger and more focusable lights. Otherwise, LEDs are so versatile that you can use them for everything.” www.markeemagazine.com
[Above] DP Todd Dos Reis holds Litepanels’ MiniPlus, which he dubs “a brick,” for a desk scene in Agency V3 on USA Network’s Necessary Roughness.
[Top Left] Litepanels’ 1x1 LED fixture.
[Left] Litepanels’ versatile MiniPlus LED lights small or hard-to-reach spaces.
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Gatto scores with AAdynTech LEDs for sports
[Top Right] AAdynTech’s ECO Punch Plus LED fixture.
[Bottom Left] The pre-game show for MLB’s All Star Game featured AAdynTech JAB Daylight units running economically on batteries.
[Bottom Right] JAB Daylight LED fixture from AAdynTech.
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Boca Raton, Fla.-based lighting director Frank Gatto of Frank Gatto & Associates (www.frankgattolighting.com) specializes in location lighting, primarily for sports. His credits include college football Bowl games; Major League Baseball’s All Star Game and the World Series; ESPN’s College Game Day; Showtime boxing; NBC Sports’ MMA competition, the World Series of Fighting; and the Ultimate Fighting Championships on Pay Per View. Gatto owns a complement of AAdynTech LEDs (www.aadyntech.com), a combination of ECO Punch Plus, JAB and ECO Space fixtures, along with some Litepanels LEDs. “I used to use HMIs for outdoors,” he said. “When LEDs came out, they weren’t really strong enough for me. The first time I felt I could use LEDs was when I did comparison tests between the AAdyn fixtures and HMIs and found AAdyn LEDs were equal to or better than HMIs. They really did compare side by side.” Now, Gatto employs “nothing but” LEDs for his outdoor work. “Starting last year, I got rid of HMIs on College Game Day and went all-AAdyn,” he said. “That cut down power consumption about 70 percent. Plus, they give off no heat and you can plug them into a wall socket instead of worrying about providing special power, as we did for the HMIs. I don’t have to worry about lamp replacement and ballast repairs either.” Gatto opted for AAdyn’s new ECO Space LEDs for the World Series of Fighting. “I’ve been doing MMA fighting for a long time, and it usually takes place in a cage instead of a ring. When you try to light the cage like a boxing ring you get huge cage shadows,” he said. “I’ve had to find ways around that through light placement and focusing. “I discovered that when I put four ECO Space lights right overhead on the cage they blew out all the shadows,” Gatto continued. “They were mounted on truss and shooting straight down; their more powerful light blew out all the unwanted shadows.” This year’s MLB All Star Game at Citi Field in New York threatened to rack up high power charges, so Gatto selected battery-operated JABs for the interview set in the pre-game show airing on MLB Network. “Instead of needing generators parked out-
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side the stadium and costly cable runs, we were able to save thousands of dollars,” he said. He also took along JABs for a tour of MLB spring training camps for the MLB Network. “I did the whole show with JABs, traveling from one stadium to another, and saved a lot of money,” Gatto recalled. JABs also were the ideal choice for the MGM Grand Hotel poolside set where celebrities were interviewed before the recent Mayweather-Canelo boxing match and earlier for the Mayweather-Alvarez fight. Gatto says battery-powered LEDs are becoming more and more useful to his work. “I’ve been working with batteries for the AAdyn lights in places were there’s no power, and I’ve done an entire show with four JABs and two batteries. I can run a JAB light close to five hours at full power on a DC battery.” The lighting director is pleased with the speed at which LEDs have been adopted for many applications. He’s encouraging AAdyn to develop a smaller LED equivalent to a 300w fixture. “Sometimes I need something handheld for backlights,” he said. “An AAdyn LED that size would be great.”
[Left] JAB Daylight LED fixture from AAdynTech.
Picture This Productions puts Dracast LEDs in the frame Curt Pair, president of full-service production company Picture This Productions in Phoenix (www.picturethisproductions.net) and a DP by trade, first saw Dracast’s Pro Series LED panels (www.dracast.com) at NAB 2012. Since then, he has invested in two, 1000 1x1 panels – which are equivalent to 1000w – and a “half-size” 500 panel, equivalent to 500w. He recalls being amazed at NAB when a gaffer he knew metered 120 foot-candles at 10 feet for the Dracast fixtures. “Seriously? A lot of the competition was measuring something like 37 foot-candles at 10 feet, so Dracast was triple that. I was sold! And they’ve been awesome,” Pair said. Pair said LEDs “won’t replace every light on our truck, but I’ve said they will replace my conventional tungsten inventory in the next two years. I do a lot of traveling, and LEDs are smaller, lighter, don’t get hot and run on batteries, even though that means I have to buy more batteries and chargers. Lighting technology had not evolved for a long time, and LEDs were the revolution we’d been waiting for.” Once, Pair arrived in a small Arizona town to capture an exterior interview for the Golf Channel with less than an hour of sunlight left. “We were going to lose the light, so we put the Dracast LEDs on stands and we shot the interview with cactus in the background. The producer asked if the lights were HMIs. I said, no but they’re strong enough to replace HMIs at twilight.” Working on the humorous independent short film, The Princess of Ahwatukee, Pair found himself pinning the Dracast LEDs to the low ceilings of the apartment in which they were shooting. “They looked like overhead lighting in the rooms and helped keep the set looking honest and real,” he said. “When the older lady sat at her vanity and saw herself as the beauty queen she once was, I lit the greenscreen in the mirror with a Dedolight and framing shutters and the rest of the room with Dracasts for key lights and hair lights. We tried to use HMIs one night and the overall temperature of the room rose about 40 degrees!” Pair used the Dracast 500 in low-light clubs when he was shooting Fox’s Take Me Out datwww.markeemagazine.com
[Below] Picture This Productions’ director Curt Pair plugs in AC power to the Dracast 500 on a shoot for The Golf Channel’s Road to the PGA Championship. Photo: Ian Tetzner
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[Top Right] Dracast LED 500 video light.
[Bottom Right] Dracast LED 1000 video light.
[Below] Lighting designer Lee Rose of Design Partners used MagicPanel 602 LEDs to pixel map content during Austin Mahone’s set for the MDA Show of Strength Telethon. Photo: ©Design Partners, Inc.
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ing reality show. And he has deployed the LED panels with suction mounts for car shoots and for athlete news interviews on the PGA Tour and at NASCAR events. “As we see how hard we can push them, we use them more and more,” he said. In Pair’s opinion, a favorite feature of the Dracast panels is “four banks of switches, like a Kino Flo ballast, so you can turn off individual banks of light when you need to knock it down.” And to Dracast, user opinions matter. Listening to his feedback about the original yoke with rubber grommets, Pair said Dracast “revisited” the design and now offers a yoke with ridged rosettes, “like a tripod,” which enables the fixture to “stay exactly where you put it.” He has made additional modifications to his own panels, extending the power supply cable with 25-50 foot XLR connectors and pinning honeycomb grids in barn doors to simulate egg crates. One area that Pair steers clear of, however, is bi-color LEDs. “I’ll buy all-daylight or all-tungsten, but what two colors effectively do is knock down the light to one-half the intensity of each color. You never get 100 percent of the power of the LEDs.” He’s impressed with the progress LEDs have made so quickly and is eager to try AAdynTech and Nila fixtures, which he understands pack a lot of “punch.” Pair also is looking forward to production models of 4x4 panel prototypes he’s seen. “We’ll be buying more LEDs for sure,” he predicted.
New MagicPanel LEDs turn Lee Rose’s head The annual Labor Day MDA telethon has changed dramatically since the heyday of Jerry Lewis’s epic telecasts. Today, the MDA Show of Strength Telethon is a two-hour pre-recorded entertainment special. Lee Rose of Design Partners, Los Angeles (www.dpi-ld.com) is its lighting designer; he’s filled that role since 2007 as the show evolved from its traditional 21-hour marathon to its new format. The format is not the only change, he noted. The venue has migrated from a hotel in Las Vegas to Stage 46 in CBS Television City. “We do sound checks and rehearsals with the acts, take a dinner break, then the audience of sponsors, MDA patients, their families and former child ambassadors comes in for the taping,” Rose said. The show is a “combination of performances and ancillary pieces like profiles, appeals and previous telethon clips,” he explained. “Automated lighting is a critical part of the design process.” For this year’s telethon, Rose used French-made Ayrton MagicPanel 602 moving-head LEDs equipped with continuous rotation in pan and tilt directions. The fixtures also can display media via Arkaos KlingNet protocol or DMX RDM control. MagicPanels are
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exclusively distributed in the U.S. by Morpheus Lights (www.morpheuslights.com). “MagicPanels are new to the market and to the U.S.,” Rose said. “They seemed an excellent specialty light to add pizzazz to the show.” Since the set design included a number of portrait-oriented LED screens, Rose decided to mount eight MagicPanels on each of four vertical towers on the edges of the screens. “We could use them as more traditional lighting fixtures and also map video across them for a low-resolution extension of the video screens,” he said. Rose liked their power and brightness and continuous pan and tilt capabilities. “Most moving lights are limited in their degree of pan and tilt, but with MagicPanels you can spin units and offset parameters for random spin effects.” He liked the LEDs so much that he’s reserved 48 to light the prerecorded music performances in Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve; this year marks the 29th time that Rose has lit the iconic New Year’s Eve special. Rose also “went 90 percent LED” for the stage lighting for the Chelsea Lately talk show, deploying MacTech LEDs and Prism Projection’s RevEAL Studio 3 LEDs for a lot of key lighting along with ETC Source Four tungsten LEDs and Source Four color-changing Luster LEDs. “LEDs just keep getting better and better,” he said. Since Rose’s bailiwick is entertainment lighting, the lower power consumption, consistency of performance and reduced maintenance of LEDs appeal to him. He particularly likes MagicPanel’s dual role as both lighting instrument and video source – “that’s different from any other LED available. I had originally designed the telethon with (Martin) MAC Auras on the vertical towers then the MagicPanels came out with video mapping and the ability to program lighting effects, including the continuous spin option that no other LED has,” Rose said. Jenny Bloom was the lighting director for the telethon and Paul Lennon and Michael Updegraff the lighting programmers. What is Rose still looking for in LEDs? “The extremely high-lumen outputs, the high-power sources above the 2Kw tungsten equivalent range. LEDs aren’t there yet,” he said. www.markeemagazine.com
[Above] The Back Street Boys perform on the MDA Show of Strength Telethon, which features MagicPanel 602 LEDs selected by lighting designer Lee Rose of Design Partners. Photo: ©Design Partners, Inc.
[Left] The French-made Ayrton MagicPanel 602 moving-head LED is new to the U.S.
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The West Incentives – more than money
The western states, as a whole, are filled with more scenery than people. There are, of course, pockets of population that skew that logic – Los Angeles, Phoenix, San
[Above] Sailing Alaska’s Inside Passage. Alaska Film Office / Alaska Travel Industry Assn.
[Top Right] Big Sur, Calif.
Diego, Las Vegas, and a few other cities – and they tend to be very urban areas, filled with views that can be found in cities east or west, But the grandeur of the land away from the cities is what attracts film makers from all over the world. Until they find a Grand Canyon in Pennsylvania, Arizona will have a unique claim to being the place to shoot…well, grand films in canyons. What Arizona lacks, at this time, is a place to turn to for production assistance and financial incentives. Ah, the “I” word. Incentives have become the backbone of film and video production. In the immortal words of Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.) in Jerry McGuire: Show me the money. Or the rebate, refund, tax break, whatever can make the production easier or less costly. But now it has become a competition among states – and in several cases, among cities within a state – to find ways to entice without spending because, quite simply, there is no money to show.
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No help wanted available Arizona is an example. According to Lee McMichael, tourism director for the City of Page, Arizona – gateway to the Glenn Canyon Dam and Lake Powell recreation area – the state has given up on trying to lure film and video projects. “With the Governor’s stance on the film industry, it’s hard to get crews in here, but we’re making our voices heard to her office to reinstate incentives. Gov. Brewer’s shutting off film industry incentives has hurt all of the state. The last film shot here was the recently released Gravity, but the Lake Powell portion was probably shot a few years ago before she was elected.” As McMichael says, the state has decided to ignore the value and impact of entertainment projects. Several cities and areas have indicated a desire to step into that void, Page being one. “Just today we’ve been approached by a documentary company to shoot at Horseshoe Bend, which is on city property so we can accommodate that,” said McMichael. He’s also working with the Northern Arizona Council of Governments, NACOG, seeking ways, and probably funding sources, to work with producers without the state getting involved. In some cases, any help would be welcomed. Flagstaff, another northern location with abundant scenic resources – one of the gateways to the Grand Canyon, for example – is limiting involvement. “Right now with Arizona having no incentives and no state film office, we have only been responsive to inquiries, not advertising the area,” Heather Ainardi said. Ainardi is the marketing and public relations manager for the Flagstaff Convention and Visitors Bureau. Flagstaff does have one unspoken benefit for indie productions and those on a limited budget (aren’t they all?), and that is Northern Arizona University. As Ainardi claims, “NAU’s production courses are gaining more notoriety.” Can you say, “interns”? Going south a ways, Prescott’s filming projects, according to Wendy Bridges of the city’s administration, are primarily television commercials and clothing catalogs. And further down that road we come to the local elephant in the room, Phoenix. Or more accurately, the Phoenix metro area, also known as the Valley of the Sun.
www.markeemagazine.com
[Below] Lost Dog Wash Preserve outside Phoenix, Ariz. Photo: Visit Phoenix
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[Above] Phoenix is the urban heart of Arizona and the fifth-largest city in the United States. Its downtown core is located just minutes away from mountain parks, resorts, golf courses and one of the nation's 10 busiest airports. Photo: Visit Phoenix
[Bottom] Oregon - Arch Cape
Phil Bradstock, program manager for the Phoenix Film Office, understands the fragmented nature of the state’s production environment. “We find that, with the lack of a state film office, people go to the city that they know the best and they’re most familiar with. That tends to be Phoenix just because of the name recognition. So we do get a lot of calls, but I know Tucson also gets calls because people associate Tucson with the Old West of Arizona.” The Valley of the Sun covers more than 20 cities and towns, many with familiar names such as Scottsdale, Mesa, Tempe, and of course, Phoenix. That creates a number of what might be considered fiefdoms, each with its own rules. Bradstock explained, “It really depends upon what city you want to shoot in. That dictates which entity you need to go through to get a film permit, for example. I oversee the defined boundaries of the City of Phoenix. In Greater Phoenix, the many different cities don’t have film offices; they have special event permitting offices. I can direct people to the exact person they need to talk to if they’re going to be in a particular city.” While states such as New Mexico, Washington and Nevada have extensive online resources to help producers find crews, facilities and contacts, Arizona has been slow to adopt, especially since the film commission closed in 2011. What they did have was a production directory, on paper, that listed resources. But Bradstock indicates that is going online in a big way. “We’re really finding that these books that we were publishing are becoming a thing of the past. Most people are calling in looking for things on their iPads and their iPhones and they really don’t want to carry something around that’s extra weight. They want to just to go to the website. So we should have shortly an incredibly enhanced website that will work perfectly on the smartphones and all the tablet computers.” Right now, Bradstock’s website (www. filmphoenix.com) is where you can go for the most information, at least on what is going on in Phoenix proper. “I only publish things on there that have an actual Phoenix film permit. So if they’re shooting entirely in Scottsdale and don’t have a Phoenix permit, then they’re not going to be listed.”
Wild in the woods If you want desert scenes, Arizona comes to mind. If you want wilderness, rainforests, and mountains, perhaps Oregon comes to mind first. It did at Fox Searchlight Pictures. They announced in October that director Jean-Marc Vallée
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began principal photography in Oregon on Wild. The film stars Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon with screenplay adapted by Oscar-nominated writer Nick Hornby from author Cheryl Strayed’s best seller “Wild.” The filmmakers are aided by the State of Oregon and the Pacific Crest Trail Association (www.pcta.org) to safely and responsibly capture the wild trail experience for film audiences. Unlike Arizona, Oregon does offer some interesting incentives on their website (oregonfilm.org). As a result of legislation passed in 2013, Oregon’s Department of Revenue will be conducting tax credit auctions to help finance the Oregon Production Investment Fund (OPIF). In October 2013, the total amount of tax credits to be auctioned was $4 million. Businesses and individuals with an Oregon income tax liability may bid on the certificates. Using this tax auction to raise funds for production incentives is a novel idea, one that might catch on with states looking to improve their programs to bring new film and video projects to their locations. [Above]
Northern lights Among the states with a wide variety of locations but only a few well known among producers and, equally important, filmgoers, is Nevada. Everyone knows Las Vegas. Not everyone knows Reno. Billed as the “Biggest Little City in the World,” Reno and nearby Lake Tahoe, offer some of the more diverse visual resources in the state. Unlike Las Vegas, there is actually some history left in the Reno area. And weather. And rocks. Deep Roots Media and SkyPoint Visuals are producing a series of rock climbing shorts based around the Tahoe basin’s hard but classic boulder challenges. Over the past few years, a select group of hard climbing Tahoe locals have been scouring the area and secretly picking off world-class granite problems (the term used to describe any given climb). This series is to honor their hard work. Sean Haverstock of SkyPoint Visuals had his hand-held stabilized gimbal on location. “We stuck it on the end of our fifteen-foot jib with the ability to control and view the camera axis wirelessly. Although we only got a few takes, because of time constraints, we were really psyched about the potential shots this combination can have.” Reno, Tahoe and Washoe County not only offer production information, they are offering facilities. Film Reno Tahoe (filmrenotahoe.com), a division of the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority, is the liaison for film and television production in Northern Nevada. The agency is focused on building a sophisticated and comprehensive infrastructure to help producers and filmmakers take full advantage of the many assets and cost advantages the area has to offer. Film Reno Tahoe offers free production services along with studio space (three stages with sizes up to 70,000 sq. ft.) at very competitive rates. They also have forged alliances with the most experienced local and regional firms to create strategic partnerships that are better able to meet the needs of filmmakers. In the area of monetary incentives, Nevada’s Film Office makes the following offers: Up to 19 percent on purchases www.markeemagazine.com
The city of Portland, Ore. The state uses a unique tax auction to raise funds for production incentives. Photo: Travel Portland.
[Below] Reno, Nev.: Film Reno Tahoe offers free production services along with studio space at competitive rates.
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[Above] Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. The state not only offers enticing scenery, but some enticing incentives.
[Below] Bryan Cranston as Walter White from the recent, final season of AMC's Breaking Bad, which shot all five seasons in New Mexico. Photo: Ursula Coyote/AMC
from qualified Nevada vendors; up to 19 percent on Nevada resident wages, taxes and benefits; and up to 16 percent on above the line wages, taxes and benefits. There also are incentive rates of up to 16 percent for non-resident below the line wages, taxes and benefits. Naturally, there are limitations: An annual cap of $20 million, maximum incentive per production of $6 million, wages and benefits per employee limited to $750,000; Nevada producers’ compensation limited to 10 percent of overall budget, and out-of-state producers’ compensation limited to 5 percent of overall budget. At the other end, minimum qualified Nevada expenditures of $500,000, and minimum of 60 percent of overall production/post-production spend incurred in Nevada for eligibility. Still, a very intriguing package.
Shot where? If you pick up the phone and call some state’s film commissions, the first thing they’ll tell you is their website address. Most states – at least the ones that still have film commissions – invest heavily in an online presence. There you’ll find info and hype in equal proportions. For example, the New Mexico site (www.nmfilm.com/) boasts about attracting Breaking Bad, one of the sleeping giants of TV for the past five years. Sleepy Albuquerque has come alive along with this AMC show. Indeed, the Tourism Department is creating New Mexico True Adventures based on films shot in the state. New Mexico businesses that offer a tourist attraction related to a film can be included in one of these adventures. The current adventure theme is based on Breaking Bad and local vendors with some affiliation with this production that have services or attractions that relate to tourism, are being contacted to join the party. Among film bureaus and commissions, the goal often seems to be what productions they can capture away from another state, a state that would seem like a natural fit for the film. New Mexico loves to play that game. When a new NBC show was announced, the synopsis read: “The Night Shift is an ensemble medical show about a group of ex-Army doctors who work the night shift at a hospital in San Antonio, Texas and do whatever it takes to help their patients.” What wasn’t said was that this San Antonio hospital will be shot in Albuquerque. Or take the famous slogan of Montana – Big Sky Country. You’d naturally expect a film titled Big Sky to be shot in – wait for it – New Mexico, right? Of course! New Mexico Film Office Director Nick Maniatis announced that the independent feature Big Sky, starring Kyra Sedgwick, Bella Thorne, Frank Grillo, and Aaron Tveit would film in Albuquerque and the surrounding areas. The production will employ 40 New Mexico crewmembers and 10 New Mexico actors and background talent.
Rain and more When it comes to aggressive recruiting of film productions, few states can compare with Washington. Again, like New 26
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QHYDGDÀOP FRP
Spotlight
West
[Above] Washington offers more than monetary incentives, it has visual appeal too as this quaint streetscape in Ellensburg shows.
[Below] Every visitor to Ellensburg, Wash., will recognize this character.
Mexico, their website (www.washingtonfilmworks.org) is extensive and filled with valuable information and resources. There you’ll find that Laggies filmed key scenes in several Puget Sound cities, including Seattle, Shoreline, Kenmore, Lynwood, Mill Creek, Renton, Bellevue and Bothell. The bulk of production took place in Seattle. Laggies is a feature film directed by Seattle-based Lynn Shelton and written by Andrea Seigel. The project stars Chloë Grace Moretz, Keira Knightley, and Sam Rockwell. Earlier in 2013, 7 Minutes wrapped principal photography after shooting in Everett, Wash. Written and directed by Jay Martin, the action-drama stars a mix of up-and-coming talent, such as Luke Mitchell, with seasoned pros such as Kris Kristofferson. The film tells the story of a oncepromising college athlete, his drug dealing brother and their ex-con friend who embark on an ill-fated heist. This production is the second feature film that Whitewater Films has brought to Washington in the last two years and is one of 89 projects Washington Filmworks (WF) has approved through a standard funding assistance program. These productions represent an estimated $213 million economic impact statewide since the Washington Legislature created Washington Filmworks in 2007. New legislation supporting film programs went into effect on June 7, 2013. Washington Filmworks accepts applications for projects that meet in-state spending thresholds of $500,000 for motion pictures, $300,000 for episodic series (per episode) and $150,000 for commercials. “We have $3.5 million annually to allocate towards production in Washington State,” said Amy Lillard, WF’s executive director. “WF offers cash back in 30 days for qualified in-state expenditures.” Washington also works to honor and assist local projects though the Filmworks Innovation Lab. The program, which is part of a long-term economic development strategy, is designed to invest in the future of film by tapping into Washington’s creative community and encouraging original storytelling that capitalizes on new forms of production and technology. The Board of Directors may allocate up to $350,000 per year in funding assistance to support the motion picture production components of multifaceted, groundbreaking projects that apply to the Innovation Lab.
Nobody home Hollywood casts a long shadow over film production in the West. Discussing film usually means discussing LA and Hollywood. Although there is more to California than those centers of entertainment production, due to economic and political problems, other areas go unnoticed. Like Arizona, the second city of California, San Diego, has lost its film commission, but not its desire to attract productions tired of fighting the LA traffic (and worse). While there has been no official replacement for the San Diego Film Commission, there are volunteers working to make the area receptive to new productions. According to the San Diego Film Consortium, the most active group, the Film Commission was essentially a middle man. “They went to entities such as the City of San Diego, the County of San Diego and the Port of San Diego and did the legwork to help people obtain permits. Despite them closing, you still need to obtain permits, but there will just be a different process to follow. The Film Commission also made recommendations based on your script and locations that included hiring police officers, medical staff, etc. It is 28
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Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
unclear at this point how the different entities plan to address this component.” Unless the Film Commission reopens, there is no designated office that has the exclusive right to help filmmakers obtain permits. In the meanwhile, others may try to offer that service, but you are not obligated to go through any particular agency or business to obtain permits. San Diego remains a film-friendly city for large or small features, TV series and movies, music videos and commercials. It has a deep pool of union and non-union crew, talent and creative professionals. The county has canyons, valleys, mesas, forest, lakes, ranches, mountains, dunes, and marshes. There are deserts to the east, beaches to the west, and aquatic parks to the North. Speaking of the north, North San Diego County has seen a new sound stage open in 2013, North County Media Center in Vista. According to Jefferson Drexler, the general manager, “We offer a 1,750 square-foot soundstage, and 900 square-foot, three-walled cyclorama infinity background, plus a spacious green room with fully equipped dressing/guest facilities. Our goal is to provide a full array of lighting equipment for all productions, including ARRI, KinoFlo and much more. There is a wide array of sets and backgrounds, including a green screen cyclorama for virtual sets and a white Infinity Screen background.” Even without a formal film commission, San Diego is moving forward from the Mexican border to the fringes of Orange County to the north. One of the northern most cities, Oceanside, is drumming up film business with a local feel. Leslee Gaul, president of the city’s visitor bureau, Visit Oceanside (www.visitoceanside.org) noted, “The most common film locations include the Oceanside Pier, beaches and outdoor amphitheater, and the Oceanside Small Craft Harbor and Cape Cod-style Harbor Village, with unlimited water sports and recreation. Other unique locations are the Mission San Luis Rey, California Surf Museum, and the historic Oceanside Heritage Park Village and Museum, which includes a gazebo and replicas of historic downtown Oceanside. From French Normandy architecture to beach bungalow-style homes, Oceanside is home to beautiful vacation rental homes that can provide a unique back drop as well housing for the talent and crew.” In east Oceanside, there are agriculture areas that include wineries and flower fields. Shaper’s Alley is home to more than 20 surfboard manufactures and surfrelated businesses. “We have Tsunami Skydiving that has worked with Craig O’Brien, photographer and videographer on commercials and videos,” Gaul recalled. “The Aero Coastal Biplane also operates out of our airport. The historic 101 café, the oldest continuously operating restaurant on Route 101, is also a fun and unique venue and was used in Sister Wives and Getting Away Together.” Recent activity includes Car Rescue and American Pickers, but the film most remembered that was shot in Oceanside was Top Gun. The “Top Gun House” is still an attraction. Although not open to the public, crowds can often be seen lined up outside, shooting their own video of the property.
[Above] The longest wooden pier in California, in Oceanside, can make a good background at sunset.
Go (further) north Johnny Horton sang it in 1960: “North to Alaska, They go north, the rush is on.” Maybe the rush isn’t quite as dramatic as the gold rush, but certainly the state is bringing in film gold. And it’s almost done in stealth mode. A reorganization of the film promotion activity in Alaska moved the incentive program from the Department of Commerce to the Department of Revenue, which has strict privacy rules. What’s being filmed and what is coming are almost state secrets. That can be both a benefit and a problem for production companies. www.markeemagazine.com
September/October 2013
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Spotlight
West
[Above Top] Summer Dog Sledding on Alaska’s Glaciers. Photo: Alaska Film Office / Alaska Travel Industry Assn.
[Above] Farm near Palmer, Alaska – Pioneer Peak in the background. Palmer is about 40 miles north east of Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city. In the 1930’s the federal government enlisted farmers from the upper Midwest to settle the Palmer area and establish farms, many of which still operate. The area has many of the characteristics of small town, farm country – in an amazing setting. Photo © 2011 Dave Worrell
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Dave Worrell, director of the Alaska Film Production Promotion Program (www.film.alaska.gov), part of the Department of Commerce, explained, “I’m still tasked with talking to productions and giving them location advice and helping them locate who to talk to about permits and all of those things. I just don’t have any hard data on the incentive program anymore.” What he does have is an extensive website for production. “Besides a good locations database there are three other categories – crew listings, which are for individuals; support service listings, which are for businesses; and talent listings,” Worrell added. “The Alaska Film Group, and their website at alaskafilmgroup.org, also has listings of their membership. They are a member-based organization, so my listings will probably be more comprehensive, but perhaps a little less screened.” He continued, “What we do is work with productions to make sure they’re getting in touch with the right organization. Alaska, more than most other states, is a patchwork of state, federal and Alaskan native, but very little private land. So, certainly negotiating the maze of agencies to figure out exactly whom you need to get permits from is where we can help. A lot of times, because a production doesn’t know exactly where they’re going to film until they’re here and starting, often the location scout will actually work with them on that process.” If you aren’t interested in snow sculptures for a background, why go north to Alaska in the first place? “We’ve got mountains and glaciers and wildlife and absolutely amazing shorelines and seacoasts and fishing communities and just the amazing things that people associate with Alaska,” Worrell responded. “So I think that’s the numberone thing. But we are a little bit further away from the centers of the film universe, and so we do also have a very aggressive incentive program that can make shooting those amazing locations a practical reality for productions.”
Back in the lower 48 When you talk about filming in the West, you naturally think of filming Westerns. As anyone who has been to Phoenix, LA, San Diego or Las Vegas can tell you, there are western locations that do not look Western. Still, there are states that push the Old West aspects – often with a twist. We mentioned New Mexico as the home of the film Big Sky; what about the “real” Big Sky Country, Montana? The Montana Film Office (www.montanafilm.com) offers competitive cash incentives and generous soft incentives for production efforts in the state through the Big Sky Film Grant. Targeting feature-length films and television series
September/October 2013
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
shooting at least 50 percent in Montana, the grant awards a total of $1 million cash per fiscal year to eligible projects. Selected productions receive funds 30 to 60 days after principal photography wraps. Combined with Montana’s tax incentives, which provide 14 percent back on Montana crew and talent salaries and 9 percent back on production-related expenditures made in Montana, the grant offers qualifying productions up to 20 percent in cash enhancements. Qualified film-related expenditures incurred in the state, including all talent and crew salaries, are eligible. Productions find additional savings through the state’s sales tax-free status and the accommodations tax reimbursement after 30 consecutive days. “We make sure that we’re there through every step of the grant process, so we can help maximize the returns productions are getting,” said Montana Film Commissioner Deny Staggs. “Our goal is to make sure that Montana’s great locations, talent and crew remain available and affordable for every production.” The Montana Film Office also offers producers complimentary script breakdowns and location services, helping them find that rushing river, Old West town, mountain and prairie vista, Main Street and much more. During production, the staff acts as liaisons with producers and state and federal agencies to assist
www.markeemagazine.com
[Above] Filming Suberranea in Montana’s Glacier National Park. Photo: Josh Redmond, © Birdman Films, LLC
September/October 2013
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Spotlight
West productions in obtaining the necessary permits and access. Through the Film Office’s database of in-state crew and support services, productions can keep expenses down as well by utilizing local crew and service providers.
Not an outlier
[Above] Brain Farm crew and snowboarder Curtis Morgan filming for The Art of Flight in Jackson Hole, Wyo. Photo: Danny Zapalac/Red Bull Content Pool
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Another state that offers that Old West vibe is Wyoming. A recent shoot there was for the film Druid Peak. Taking advantage of the area’s unique features, it is set against the backdrop of the wolf reintroduction program in Yellowstone National Park, Druid Peak is a coming-of-age story about a troubled teenage boy who finds a home tracking wolves in the wild lands of the Wyoming. Shot on location in West Virginia, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana and Utah, Druid Peak stars Andrew Wilson, Spencer Treat Clark, Rachel Korine, and the wolves of Wasatch Rocky Mountain Wildlife. Wolves may be a Wyoming plus, but so is snow. A local film company, Brain Farm Digital Cinema in Jackson, packs a lot into a snow day. Chad Jackson, EP at Brain Farm noted, “We have assembled an arsenal of specialty cameras, unique cinema vehicles, camera support systems, as well as state-of-the-art production facilities allowing us to create powerful digital cinema from concept to finished product.” One of those finished products is The Art of Flight 3D, which is a 3D version of a film originally shown in IMAX theaters. Shot with multiple aerial vehicles, it shows the snowboard flying of world champion Travis Rice. Born in Jackson Hole, Wyo., and son of a ski patroller, it is said that Travis Rice has snow in his blood. He is hailed by critics as the best all-round snowboarder in the world and is one of the most globally renowned riders to date with more than 12 years of elite competition experience and more than 30 grand slam titles in his possession, Filmed in his native haunts of Wyoming, The Art of Flight combines aerial footage and exciting snowboarding and is the highest grossing snowboarding film ever. The 3D version will only add to these numbers. Although off the beaten path, Wyoming isn’t a stranger to the incentive wars. Like other states, they use a sliding scale. Rebate percentages range between 12 percent and 15 percent based on the specific criteria. A storyline that is set in Wyoming gets the full 15-percent rebate. Providing additional Wyoming behindthe-scenes footage highlighting locations used in the project gets you up to a14precent rebate. Using Wyoming props and product placement provides up to a 13-percent rebate, while providing a clear statement in the credits that the product was filmed in Wyoming means a minimum 12-percent rebate. The West is much more than Westerns, LA and Las Vegas neon, deserts and space aliens. It’s the great outdoors and glamorous indoors, wolves in wolf skin and sheepskin – or tuxedos. It’s where Breaking Bad broke loose and wild horses get broken every day. It’s the West, try it, you’ll like it.
September/October 2013
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
Digital Discussions
KGB Productions | By Tom Inglesby
Why Where? Why do you shoot a film or video project in a certain location? Naturally, if the subject is a Las Vegas casino heist, there might be a strong reason to shoot in Las Vegas. But many outdoor-focused films can literally be shot in any state where they have…well, where they have outdoors. We asked Sam Pope, cofounder/producer/director at KGB Productions in Jackson, Wyo., why he prefers to do his work in his home state. A little background to set the stage: Based in Jackson, KGB was founded in 2004, by college friends Chris Kitchen and Sam Pope, who after several years of freelancing and working to support their filming and travel habits, quit their jobs to make KGB a reality. Nine years later, KGB has produced four awardwinning feature films and commercial content for a diverse clientele. While KGB has changed a lot in the last decade, their commitment to storytelling and beautiful imagery remains the same. So, Sam, why Wyoming? “What makes us unique is that we shoot mostly outside of anything that could even remotely be considered a studio environment. Our specialty is bringing studioquality production, to non-traditional locations: mountains, rivers, deserts, et cetera. And Wyoming has plenty of those.” He quickly added, “In the context of the action sports world/outdoor industry, this is a little tougher question. There’s a lot of really impressive, beautiful imagery and high-end content coming from that world. Some of it comes from right here in Jackson where we have Brain Farm Digital Cinema [See Spotlight: The West in this issue.] and Teton Gravity Research. In this world, I think our niche is still the story. You hear this all the time these days, people want more story, more narrative, and I think a lot of companies in the action sports world respond with a pretty half34
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hearted attempt. They shoot the movie first and put the story in during the edit. For us, the story precedes the production. For example, with our movie Freedom Riders (2009), Chris and I were both mountain bikers in the area and decided that the story would make a really compelling movie. In some ways, it sort of [Above] found us.” KGB Productions Co-Founder Sam Pope filming Freedom Riders in 2009. Action sports and Photo: Gabe Rogel outdoor adventures have been a staple in films for generaworking on ways that this camera can tions. What could be new about that help to expand our business. No feagenre today? “In the world of action tures in the works, but we’re always sports, the most notable trend to me open to new ideas.” has been the dramatic increase in proBesides scenery and snow, does duction value,” explained Pope. “It wasWyoming offer you a lot of incentives? n’t that long ago that most action sports “To be perfectly honest, we don’t get movies were pretty homegrown, lowa lot of help from the city or the budget affairs. Today, the cream of the state, which is unfortunate,” Pope crop is really pushing the limits of prosaid. “Jackson has a pretty tight-knit duction, of any genre, within any budget. production community and we all They use the same cameras, do their help each other out, but the town color correction and motion graphics in doesn’t have anything in place, that I the LA-based post houses, just like big know of, to facilitate production in budget, Hollywood features. … Bottom the community. On the state level, you can get 15 percent back in midline is that the movies have gotten betand high-budget productions, if you ter, which is of course a good thing. The can show that the money was spent danger, in my opinion … is that they will in state, but that’s peanuts compared become too focused on high production to what a lot of other states offer.” and lose their soul in the process. And at What impact have you seen from least in the beginning, soul was the that lack of incentives? “I feel really whole point.” strongly that this is a huge missed Is there much work in Wyoming? opportunity on the part of the state. All “We’re working on a bunch of stuff,” you have to do is turn on your TV and Pope acknowledged. “We do the bulk notice how many shows are shot in the of commercial production for Jackson state of Alaska. One reason is, of course, Hole Mountain Resort and so we’re that Alaska is an amazing location, but gearing up for the winter with them. the other reason is that the state offers We also just invested in a new camreally good incentives. This could easily era, the Red Epic, so we’re working be Wyoming as well.” on dialing in that work flow and
September/October 2013
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Inside View
Warner/Chappell Production Music | by Christine Bunish
Randy Wachtler President & CEO – Warner/Chappell Production Music Nashville, Tenn. • www.warnerchappellpm.com Markee: What’s the state of production music today? Mr. Wachtler: “I’m very positive about the business itself, especially worldwide. Many productions utilize production music: corporate, broadcast, cable, advertising, film and now digital. Digital has become a big thing for us with ‘webisodes’ and other online content. I’m very bullish about the industry.” Markee: So the pool of customers is growing? Mr. Wachtler: “A wide variety of industries are recognizing the important role that music plays in their projects, and companies such as Warner/Chappell Production Music are able to provide the high-quality music they need. “Worldwide, our customer base is increasing. We do music very well in the U.S. – the world seems to like it. China, South America, India – we’re seeing growth in those areas. “Even consumers are downloading production music for their personal use – Christmas songs, mood music in different genres and styles. We make tracks available through iTunes, Amazon and other downloading services. It’s a legal way for consumers to get great music at a very affordable cost.” Markee: With the quality of production music so high these days, is there any stigma still associated with using it? Mr. Wachtler: “Some people still think of it as ‘stock music.’ But we like to think of it as great music! The quality level is higher than it has ever been – that’s why it’s used in Super Bowl ads and attracting rising artists and bands. We take great care in finding the right composers and in mixing and mastering 36
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so our production music rivals what you hear on the radio. The Production Music Association has also done a lot to advocate for our business.” Markee: What are the current trends? Mr. Wachtler: “Pop and rock are still extremely popular, and alternative pop and rock is very popular right now. Country music has become more and more rock-oriented. There’s still some traditional country, but a lot of great new artists out there have more of a rock edge to them. “Music is always changing – that’s what makes it so interesting. So we keep our eyes open for new talent. Dubstep is a style of music that came out of the U.K. a few years ago, and we have several releases in that style. We want to be on the cutting-edge of new styles and genres of music. With the explosion of reality TV, we’re also doing more ‘swamp’ music. All the outdoor shows, like Duck Dynasty, have that sound. We just released ‘Swampy Beats’ in that genre.” Markee: What makes Warner/ Chappell stand out? Mr. Wachtler: “We have some really passionate people at Warner/Chappell Production Music. We’re made up of brands that customers love: 615 Music, Non-Stop Music, Groove Addicts, V – The Production Library and more. We have a great history of recorded music with artists that people want to hear.” Markee: What are some of your latest releases? Mr. Wachtler: “We have a new release from Scoring Stage Music, ‘Rising Hope.’ That library tends to have more live orchestral recordings, which cus-
September/October 2013
tomers love. If you’re editing a TV show and see this title you know the tracks will have a positive mood and come to a nice build. We’ve also been getting a lot of requests from our sales team for romantic comedy music – customers have been saying they need it. So the Non-Stop Premiere library released ‘Romantic Comedy 2’ in that genre.” Markee: How is Warner/Chappell music being used? Mr. Wachtler: “The theatrical trailer for Ender’s Game, starring Harrison Ford, features ‘Rebirth’ from the Full Tilt End Game disc; Disney Infinity’s Dream Big game trailer used our Frameworks and Amphibious Zoo catalogs throughout. And the theatrical trailer for Escape Plan, starring Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, features The Company (remix) from Alchemy Music. “Our news music packages are branding local television stations and networks across the country and internationally. And our Custom Music division is busier every day composing and creating music to suit our clients’ needs and tastes. It’s an exciting part of our business!” Markee: You were named to your present position in August so you’re still new at the job, but what do you see ahead? Mr. Wachtler: “We’re always trying to serve our customers better. We want to make their online experience even easier than it is today, whether they use a laptop, tablet or mobile device. We’re continually asking how we can improve and simplify their experience from doing an online search for music to licensing a track anywhere in the world.”
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