If you’re new to filmmaking you may not know that prior to shooting,
the technical crew always attends a gear check to carefully go through all of the
equipment that will be used to shoot a film.
In this video I’ll explain why this is done, then take you through the entire process of how
a cinema camera is gear checked, so that you can do it the same way as the pros on your next shoot.
This video is sponsored by Squarespace. From websites,
analytics, online stores and beyond, Squarespace is the all-in-one platform
that you can use to create an online presence for your business.
While smaller corporate, documentary or solo shooter jobs may be done by
cinematographers who own, rent and operate their own gear,
most industry level jobs are shot with high end equipment which is rented from gear houses.
For commercials or short form content, crew is usually booked and paid for
a half day to do a gear check at the rental house a day prior to shooting.
While long form crew on features or series may be booked to do a few days,
or even a week long, gear check that requires a greater degree of technical prep.
There are three main reasons why industry productions do gear checks.
The first and most important reason for a gear check is to ensure that
all the equipment that is being rented is in proper working order and that the
crew has all the necessary bits and pieces to make the gear package work.
For example, you never want to just grab the gear the night before a
shoot only to find out as you’re setting up to do the sunrise shot
that you’re missing a cable that you need to power the focus motor.
I’ve even seen, with my own eyes, an extra Alexa Mini LF, that wasn’t gear checked,
brought straight onto a job only to find out that it was missing a sliding
dovetail plate and couldn’t be rigged onto a car mount to do a sunrise driving shot.
The second reason to perform a gear check is to prevent accepting faulty or broken gear from the
rental house. It’s much easier to immediately flag an issue with gear as you are testing it,
than to report faulty gear to the rental house on set and then go through the blame
game of when exactly the gear broke and who is responsible for fixing or replacing it.
The final reason is a bit of a rarity, but occasionally, in the event of an insurance
claim related to faulty equipment, such as dead pixels on the sensor that spoil the footage,
or problems from a film stock, the camera tests that were shot during
the gear check may be reviewed by the insurance company or assessor.
So, now that we know why it is so important to do a gear check prior to shooting,
let’s go over how industry level crew perform a gear check from start to finish.
The easiest way to make sure that a cinema camera is working
properly and that all the necessary accessories are there is to build the
camera into the same configuration that it will be built into on set.
The focus puller will assemble the camera and attach all of the accessories,
such as a lens, a mattebox, a focus motor, a monitor and a transmitter.
They will build the camera into a neat form factor and make sure that all of
the necessary accessories are getting power and are functioning properly.
Crew may need to get the floor workers at the gear house to get small bits and pieces of gear to
make their build work, such as finding the right mattebox back or reduction ring for a unique lens,
getting extra backup cables, or changing out the gear on a follow focus to a different pitch.
The VT operator will test to make sure that they are receiving a video feed to their station,
and check that the focus puller is receiving a transmitted signal
to the sidekick receiver that is going into their monitor.
If audio will be recorded on the job then the sound recordist will also check that
their gear is working and that there is a transmitted audio feed which they can
send to the director or clients. They may also rig something like a tentacle onto
the camera which will keep the timecode in sync with their external recorder.
Over in another section of the gear house,
the grips and electrical department will make sure their equipment is
also in working order using the same idea of setting up, powering and testing the gear.
Before we get further into the technical process of the gear check, let’s take a
break to thank Squarespace for sponsoring this video.
Being a filmmaker means that you are your own business and every business
needs a website so that clients and collaborators can get in touch with you.
Squarespace is an all-in-one platform that you can use to design a stylish website
using their templates. This makes it easy to control how you want your site to look.
Squarespace has lots of useful tools for creators such as being
able to set up your own online store, or display a portfolio of your images
or videos using galleries - which is a must for any filmmaker nowadays.
So to set up your website be sure to head to Squarespace.com for a free trial,
and when you’re ready to launch, go to squarespace.com/indepthcine to save 10%
off your first purchase of a website or domain.
Now that the camera has been built into its shooting configuration,
it’s time to start programming or marking up the lenses. The specifics
of this will change depending on the kind of wireless focus handset the focus puller has,
although the concept is the same - it even applies to old manual follow focus units.
Each cinema lens has markings on the barrel which indicate at what distance
the lens will render sharp focus. The 1st AC will now sit and transcribe these
markings from the barrel of the lens to the focus ring on their wireless unit.
Some lenses, such as the LDS Ultra Primes or the Cooke S8/i series,
come with an LDS strip that sends metadata from the lens, including focus distance, to the camera.
This means that when using these lenses with certain compatible focus handsets, they don’t need
to be manually programmed as the focus distance will automatically display on the handset.
However, for most vintage lenses or incompatible handsets, the focus puller will need to manually
program them. This is done by first calibrating the lens, so that the focus motors find an end
stopping point for infinity and close focus. The focus puller will then systematically align each
distance marking with the centre indicator mark. For example, it may start at infinity.
This distance can then be programmed into the handset so that the handset knows that
for this lens, at this position on the focus motor, the reading is at infinity.
This same method can also be done by manually marking old focus rings with a pen.
Once each lens in the set has been marked up, the 1st AC is now ready to shoot camera
tests. A slate will be marked up with the name of the production, the date,
the camera’s serial number, the lens’ focal distance and its serial number, as well as
any other info that may be requested such as the stop, white balance or the focus distance.
The camera will be positioned in front of a focus chart. The 1st will measure
the distance between the chart and the film plane of the camera and
set the distance marking on the lens to that same measurement.
They will check that the image is sharp - which it should be. If it’s not sharp
then the lens may need to be sent off to the lens technician at the rental company for adjustment.
Before shooting the DIT will dial in the correct specs, such as resolution and codec, and any
other settings specified by the cinematographer - such as a LUT or framelines for the aspect ratio.
They will then put in the slate with the relevant info and shoot
a short clip for a couple of seconds to record that the lens was indeed sharp.
They will repeat this process for every lens that will be used on the production.
These tests are also a good way of checking that each lens will cover the full sensor and
that there will be no vignetting, especially at wider focal lengths.
Sometimes, jobs that require VFX work will also ask for lens grids
or distortion charts to be shot. These are especially necessary for anamorphic lenses
or wider focal lengths that have a lot of curvature to how the image is captured.
Distortion charts have a straight black and white checker block pattern
that can be used to measure the degree of distortion a lens has in post production,
and then straighten, or unwarp, the image to make 3D tracking easier.
When shooting these tests it’s important to line up the camera
to the centre of the chart and make sure that the chart is straight on all axes.
Like with the focus tests, a front slate should be
used to denote which lens is being shot as even the same brand and focal length
lens in a different set may have minor differences in distortion.
Once all the tests have been shot, the card can be handed over to the
DIT who will copy over the footage onto the prepared hard drives and
examine the integrity of the tests to make sure that there aren’t any issues.
If there are specialised rigs on the job like a Steadicam, gimbal or remote head, then the camera
needs to be built and tested for these setups. It’s important to ensure that the camera will be
able to balance on these rigs. This might involve stripping the camera into a smaller form factor.
While all of this is going on, the 2nd AC will usually be working on labelling gear
and organising it into cases. They will apply long strips of coloured gaffer tape onto the
outside of the lens box and use a permanent marker to write down each focal length inside the box,
its stop and its minimum focus distance. This makes it easy to identify the lenses you have
and give quick information on the stop and MOD to the focus puller or cinematographer.
Long form jobs may involve a lot of labelling and organising of various other gear, such as filters,
into the easiest manageable workflow. It’s a loader's job to be able to know
and pull out every piece of gear that is on the job at a moment’s notice.
Finally, the camera may get packed into what’s called a coffin, or a standby box, that allows
the camera to easily and safely be packed away without deconstructing the whole build.
Hopefully you learnt something new about how to gear check for your next shoot.
Thanks everyone for watching, liking or otherwise engaging with the video and a
special thanks to all the Patrons who continue to support the channel and get these YouTube
videos early and ad free. Otherwise until next time, thanks for watching and goodbye.