Last week, Russell Riggins and his crew from Deep Wade Entertainment filmed a music video for the artist Eowyn at  the NFI campus. Students of class 0712 were invited to be on the premises to observe and help in a PA capacity. One of the candidates for class October 2012, Caleb Watson, also volunteered for the set. This was his experience on the shoot:

“This was my first taste of the whole experience. It was much more work than it looks like from the outside. The shoot was scheduled for Saturday, but prep-work started weeks before. Russell Riggins had actually had most of the framing set up when I came to help finish/and load for transport Thursday night. That night we finished the frame work, and loaded it together with the tiles (which were painted before installation). That night was a 2 am wrap. I grabbed about 3 hours sleep and got ready for the build.

The build was first thing on Friday morning. We had to reassemble everything, hang the wall/ceiling tiles, and spray them with polyurethane (for shine). The building of the boxes and framing wasn’t so bad; it was just a matter of putting the pieces back together. The challenge was the tiles. The vision was to put them in a diamond pattern. So that meant that pieces on the bottom and top had to be cut to fit, as well as every tile in the corner. We found out that we would have to take down the ceiling framing to install the upper tall tiles because it was in the way. We couldn’t secure the tiles with it on. The ceiling after reinstallation was not square, which was causing us problems with hanging the ceiling tiles so we had to adjust the tiles so that when on camera they would be straight even though the ceiling wasn’t, and you would not be able to see the flaw (which we were successful at). This all wrapped about 12:30 -1:00 Saturday morning. After they were all hung the Eowyn Music wanted a high shine on the tiles so we called in a painter, James Serino (I feel he deserves name credit because he had been there for hours waiting on us because he knew we had to do it the night before). But we had another problem: How to spray the Poly on the set without ruining the room around it. We had to completely cover the set  with plastic and tarps to seal it from the room around it. All these work wrapped around 2 – 2:30 am. Then we headed home for another quick 3 hours nap because the shoot started in a few hours. 

When I arrived on set there were more problems. The set looked amazing, however, it was not the most conducive to the lighting that would need to be done to get the desired look. So we had to improvise some supports around the set to hang/run lights in/around the set. After that it was smooth sailing. We got the lighting sets that looked gorgeous.

Then they shot every sequence, I would say 3-4 times, because you never get everything perfect, but you can take the perfect parts and make it a perfect collaboration. The next challenge was the mime sequences. The makeup was great, it all looked sharp and clean. But we had several sequences to shoot and on the set we had the lights which were making it very warm. When our performers got hot, they sweated; and when they sweated the beautiful make-up ran, so we had to dry and touched up every break to combat the heat. The boxes were big and tough to get on set, and with surprisingly difficult shooting angles. They weren’t as straight forward as you would think, at least not to get the look that they wanted. The shoot wrapped about 8 pm, so the shoot took about 12 hours. Then we destroyed the beautiful set we had worked so hard for clean-up, and that was that.

Eowyn edits her own videos so I won’t be able to be as involved in that, but I am anxious to see what makes the cut. There was so much new to me on this shoot, almost everything infact. It was so much work, but it was worth it. I will be excited to find out what the artist’s vision is so that I know what to work with for my music video shoot when I start at NFI. The first thing I learned from this shoot is that you can make it happen if you are willing to sacrifice and work it out. It also helps to have a great client like Eowyn and her band, and and incredibly informative crew to shadow like Ricky and the guys from B4 Entertainment. Even being exhausted and pushed to the limits a little, if I was told we start again tomorrow I would be ready to go. The high level of work was directly proportion to the amount of fun and satisfaction.”

Inni Winberry, student of class 0712, sitting next to Director Ricky B to observe the monitor

Grip & Gaffing class was led by instructor Tommy Golden: “After one day of theory, you guys will have fun playing around, testing the equipment, and painting with lights. Having fun is how I want to teach in my class.”

And so, we had fun!

Tommy showed us a collection of lamps and light kits as paint brushes to paint a scene. Our first mission was deceptively hard: to set up Rembrandt lighting. We struggled awhile to create the proper shadows on the character and had to get help from Tommy himself in order to make it work.

Things got more exciting when we were challenged to light a scene portraying two opposite characters: an angel and a demon. “This is not an easy task at all. Surprise me!” said Tommy. We had about one hour playing around with lights and shadows and the mood they set on characters. It was fascinating to explore the magic of color gels; we used blue for the angel and orange for the demon. We especially enjoyed experimenting the different effects color gels and lights can create, such as a bonfire, an ocean, a flash of lightning, a moving ceiling fan, a police car light, etc. as we had seen in the movies.

To pass the Skills Test, we had to set up lighting to illustrate one of the 7 deadly sins. The class was divided into 2 teams; each team included a director, a director of photography and a gaffer. We were both shocked and amused to find out later that Tommy had created the group intentionally based on the observed personalities of the students. One team was comprised of calm “internal directors”. The other of vocal “external directors.” Predictably, it took the second team a while to actually settle down; everyone had ideas to contribute and there was an ambiguous understanding of how to suggest ideas in a film set. Later on we found that crew members could suggest ideas to a director three times; if that director still said “no” then we have to drop it. So we learned an important lesson of how to collaborate on a real film set and the roles each crew member plays. Another insight from Tommy was that “there is no right or wrong about having strong personalities as each director has their own style. At the end of the day, you have to be who you are.”

In the end, we all passed the test and here are the results of our assignments:

The “Wrath” picture was praised on the high fashion lighting it created.

The “Gluttony” picture was praised on the complexity of the vision.

www.thenfi.com – 230 Franklin Rd. Building 14, Franklin TN 37065 – (877) 627 3456

“I have always loved and used Canon cameras but have never had a chance to ask questions in person and have them answered so quickly and well. Many of my “why” questions that, on the internet, had vague or just plain wrong answers were given answers that finally made sense to me! Goes to show that there is always more to learn.” – Kappel Cloninger, NFI student

Students and Alumni attended the recent Canon workshop at the Nashville Film Institute last Thursday, July 19, 2012. Our special guest was Canon Representative Mark Karwisch. Mark displayed a selection of models, including the 7D, 5D Mark II and III, the XF-305, the XF-100, the T3i, the fantastic C300 and many prime lenses. Using live camera monitoring, he showcased each camera’s capabilities. Convincingly, Mark turned off the lights to demonstrate the ISO sensitivity (up to 20,000) of the C300. Students actively participated by moving around the room to test cool features such as Facial Recognition.

Many student questions were raised and answered. We were all amused to learn why the video cameras stop recording at 12 minutes . After the Q&A session, students were allowed to go hands-on with the cameras and test them out.

www.thenfi.com – 230 Franklin Rd. Building 14, Franklin TN 37065 – (877) 627 3456

- Ricky Cassetty, Senior at Page High School

“On June 24, I had the privilege to be inside the Nashville Film Institute building, and watched them film a scene. There  was only a limited number of invitees to the film set, so I got a more personal look at what went into creating a movie. The way they filmed this scene was new to me. It shocked me to see how they used DSLR video cameras for this particular scene. However it made sense in the end because the camera was very easy to maneuver around, and was easier to set up. Through this shoot I learned how to properly slate a movie, how to create better lighting, how to deliver lines in a scene, and how to rehearse the scene.

I was able to talk with the cast and crew about filming this scene. I also hung out with some of the students who were alumnus, and even an attending student around the NFI building. One big surprise for me was that I met with Tommy Wooldridge, the guy who has recently been so popular with his “Blink 182 pick up lines” video. I didn’t know he was a graduate of the Nashville Film Institute and joined the school soon after graduating high school . One of the students even showed me some of his projects from the school which was a silent film. I also got a chance to show the guys the work I’ve created.

I also got to talk with Prema Thiagarajah, the CEO of NFI and she recommended me an internship on the Steve Jobs movie, where a NFI graduate is working for!! Sadly, I had to turn this opportunity down because I still have one more year of High School left.

As a rising filmmaker with a dream of being in the film industry, to be on a filmset is pretty awesome for me. Thank You so much Nashville Film Institute for inviting me to this event, and I can’t wait to be invited back again.”