Your facepalm moments during filmmaking

Apieron Co. said:
My friend wanted to do a fight scene for a college project recently, I volunteered to act in it.

During the fight I was fueled with adrenaline, when the guy was meant to throw me I properly launched myself, missed the door, I flew across the bonnet, clearing the car, Oh how we laughed :)
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Only hurt when you laughed, huh? OUCH! Over the BONNET? Wow.....:lol:


Did you use the footage incidently?
 
Well it happened, my audio equipment didn't arrive :(

I've scrounge some gear from friends so I will at least get something recorded. May need to a bit of ADR later but the lion share will be covered.

I also bought a lav mic, by far not the best but good enough over 20feet that I can use it remotely (plus it is XLR which is good for later).

Ah well my next movie will sound awesome!
 
Graeme said:
Well it happened, my audio equipment didn't arrive :(

I've scrounge some gear from friends so I will at least get something recorded. May need to a bit of ADR later but the lion share will be covered.

I also bought a lav mic, by far not the best but good enough over 20feet that I can use it remotely (plus it is XLR which is good for later).

Ah well my next movie will sound awesome!
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What a bummer!!
 
Tinalera said:
Only hurt when you laughed, huh? OUCH! Over the BONNET? Wow.....:lol:


Did you use the footage incidently?
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No he didn't use that shot otherwise he'd to re-write the whole scene (As I then have to get in the car afterwards), I think he recorded it though, I'll ask him when we go back to college if I could take the tape and put the blooper on youtube or something.

It didn't hurt much to be honest, a slight bruise but nothing that had me groaning all day
 
Graeme said:
Well it happened, my audio equipment didn't arrive :(

I've scrounge some gear from friends so I will at least get something recorded. May need to a bit of ADR later but the lion share will be covered.

I also bought a lav mic, by far not the best but good enough over 20feet that I can use it remotely (plus it is XLR which is good for later).

Ah well my next movie will sound awesome!
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Man that's just crummy.....:(
 
I was on a shoot last year that was the first time I had assembled a steadi-cam rig. I did get a day of prep, put it together and wore it myself. Everything hung right, camera balanced, although the vest seemed strangely uncomfortable.

Come time for the shoot day I rig it up just like I did in prep, and suit up the DP. After several takes he's getting really uncomfortable and pulling at the vest where it is up very high against the front of his neck.

The producer/director (who's company owned all the gear) comes along and starts helping me to get the gear adjusted better so that the DP would be more comfortable. Turns out I suited him up with the vest on backwards. The padding that would normally be between his shoulder blades was pressing against his throat the whole time. Whoops.

The funniest part is that none of the tech crew noticed, nor did the DP. Even the prod/dir who owned the rig took several minutes to figure out what was wrong. Incredibly embarrassing.

________________


Then there was this feature I worked (not in the camera dept, as prod coord). We were shooting several days of elementary school scenes, and our teacher was a fairly well known (TV) actress. I had been out problem solving while shooting was occuring in the class room. There's a short break and folks come out into the hall. The line producer walks over with the actress and introduces her to me. I stupidly ask her (thinking she is either crew or another PA because she looks very young) what she'll be doing on set. She just dead-pans "I'm the teacher," then laughs it off. I wonder if she thought it was a nice change from all the sycophants she normally meets.

The real funny part about that is that everyone on the crew knew who she was, the sound guy had this crazy crush on her from watching the show she is on and nearly lost his mind when he had to mic her up. :lol: Me, I had no clue at all. Typical. :D
 
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Dreadylocks said:
What a bummer!!
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Tinalera said:
Man that's just crummy.....:(
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Yeah I'm not happy about it, I made due but the equipment still hasn't arrived!

USPS Express Shipping = Not as express as USPS ground apparently...
Its been well over a week now and it was suppose to take two/three days. Tomorrow I'm going to contact them and see what they can do (or if they have lost the package, tracking stopped last Thursday so either it stuck at the boarder or they have lost it).

That said I'd order some other items (less important) and got USPS ground shipping and it got here in plenty of time (I think 3 or 4 days in transit).

Ah well, live and learn.
 
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My god, what a thread. I could write volumes about my stupidity over the decades. :)

Most recent feature: first day of shooting with a brand new camera, night shoot, full crew, lighting on location, generators, etc. I was amazed - astounded - by the low-light capabilities of the XH-A1! Got the scene shot and gear packed up, feelin' good...

...except the !@#$%^&* AGC was on the whole time!!! No wonder it was performing so well in low light! Looked fine on the 9" SD monitor on location, but dump the HD footage into FCP and it looks like...well, complete garbage. Sailors within earshot were blushing that night. Had to re-shoot every last frame.
 
2001 Productions said:
My god, what a thread. I could write volumes about my stupidity over the decades. :)

Most recent feature: first day of shooting with a brand new camera, night shoot, full crew, lighting on location, generators, etc. I was amazed - astounded - by the low-light capabilities of the XH-A1! Got the scene shot and gear packed up, feelin' good...

...except the !@#$%^&* AGC was on the whole time!!! No wonder it was performing so well in low light! Looked fine on the 9" SD monitor on location, but dump the HD footage into FCP and it looks like...well, complete garbage. Sailors within earshot were blushing that night. Had to re-shoot every last frame.
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Wow. Just, Ouch. Reading that causes physical pain.

AGC is the freaking devil.

So is the setting on the EX-1 that allows you to change the gain without using the physical switch on the side. Switch can be in the low setting (for us -3) and the camera can be at +9 through the wheel menu. Ask me how I know :(
 
2001 Productions said:
Indeed. That and digital zoom should be outlawed on any camera costing more than $300.
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Oh gods/goddesses don't get me started on AGC!


My most recent clip actually (it's in the "Free Idea" thread-the one with the nut in the mask ;)). I had a back light, but wanted the mask to be visible. I did it through the camera, looked at it, great stuff! I dumped it on the computer, and the screen was almost completely black! Had to reshoot it again. I don't have an "off" setting that I can find, but it IS down to "0" now. It clicked how much other footage I shot looked so good and then shows up as little to poor light. Now I'll grant my camera is under 300, so I can't complain, but you can be darn sure my next camera that sucker gets switched off first thing!!


BTW: How many people here who have worked in the tv or film industries have actually heard someone, while talking to another department say "Don't worry about it, We'll fix it in post", and how much did you have to restrain yourself from gettin violent? ;)


Yea, definite facepalm! :lol:


BTW-what's that function on my camera that it "follows" my every movement, even to down head shakes, and you get the "rocking" back and forth motion? Is there anyway to turn it off? Nothing like watching a dramatic closeup and get the impression the camera person had too much coffee....
 
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Tinalera said:
"Don't worry about it, We'll fix it in post"
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That was my line about the audio in my last movie, although what I meant was use the separately recorded audio and try to reduce the "hiss" as much as possible. Going to overlay a lot of sounds.

Had my sound guy say for one scene that it was pretty bad, I replied "Don't worry, its a war zone, so I'll just add more war." Its going to be an interesting (and frustrating) time when I do the sound post for the short film. But next Time I'll be using my new and significantly improved audio equipment.
 
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