2 Easy to Use Camera Report Templates

Camera Assisting 2 Comments

Dirty Film Production Camera Reports and Logs On SetCreative Commons License photo credit: jai MANSSON

If you think that because film is a visual medium there isn’t much paperwork involved in a production, you’d be dead wrong. From call sheets to contact lists to strip boards to screenplays — whether it’s given out in person or digitally emailed — there are tons of papers passed between crew members.

Within the camera department there are camera reports and camera logs — documents where you track details such as lenses, filters, and other camera settings for each shot.

These reports are useful in a variety of scenarios like in post-production when an editor needs to replicate a lens for a digital effect or when you are shooting the reverse angle of a shot and need to match the look of the original closeup.

But the reports are useless if they aren’t readable or well-organized and that’s why a great easy-to-use template is valuable to have.

Click to continue reading

12 Do-It-Yourself Projects for Camera Assistants

Toolkit 2 Comments

Do It Yourself Projects and ToolsCreative Commons License photo credit: geoftheref

Do-it-yourself isn’t always about pinching pennies and saving a few bucks, sometimes it’s about making good use of your free time and building a custom tool.

As a camera assistant, you know the value in being resourceful and there’s nothing more emblematic of that attitude than a solid do-it-yourself project.

So with the summer heat just inviting you to whip out those power tools and build something great, here are 12 projects designed to make your life easier on set.

Click to continue reading

Useful Cinematography iPhone Apps to Have on Set (Part 3)

Toolkit 4 Comments

It’s not an uncommon occurrence on set to find yourself, another camera assistant, and even the director of photography all keeping busy on an iPhone during downtime. Take this as a warning of good or bad things to come, but regardless the iPhone can still be an incredibly versatile and useful tool to have in a kit.

So here are five more apps to help make life on set easier…
Click to continue reading

Tookit DIY: How to Build a Tag Board for a Slate/Clapperboard

Toolkit 7 Comments

There are a few things to have on or near you as a 2nd Assistant Camera that are essential: paper tape for marking, camera reports, and of course, the slate. Sometimes it can get cumbersome lugging these three things around even if you have a ditty bag to carry them. A giant tape roll can be useful, but also get in the way and you don’t always need every roll of tape. Camera reports should be easily accessible so they can be modified quickly before the information is lost in the on set hustle. A common mistake new 2nd’s usually make is to never put the slate down, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t always be close by. Many AC’s solve these problems by making what is called a tag board or a slate board or a mark board. Whatever name you want to apply, the principles are the same: it’s a book-like piece of Plexiglas you slap on the back of the slate that holds camera reports, can have pre-made marks and even hold other essentials like filter, MOS and various Velcro tags. So where do you get one? You don’t. You make it and here’s how.

Click to continue reading

RED ONE Camera Reports Download

Toolkit 12 Comments

When I was doing prep-work as 1st AC on “Red Herring,” shot on the RED ONE, I went ahead and created Red specific camera reports. The document was created out of a variety of different types of camera reports I had seen. Many of them were either for film or for video, but neither tailored to the specific settings of the Red One. The result was a template that enabled easy marking of traditional notes (lens, f-stop, etc.) as well as Red-specific meta-data.

Click to continue reading