Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Strange Days on Planet Earth Host Shoot


Well it finally happened...we filmed our host, Edward Norton in LA. We would have filmed him earlier in the month, but a freak storm put an end to that plan.

The second planned shoot went very smoothly. Our line producer, Brook Holston spent weeks working on the pre-production plans. We only had two days, but we managed to film all of the scenes starring Edward Norton for both new episodes of "Strange Days on Planet Earth". "Dirty Secrets" and "Dangerous Catch" will be premiering on PBS in April 2008 (the day after Earth Day).

This shoot was especially exciting for me because I was brought on as the still photographer. This was the first time I had been on a crew where it was my sole responsibility to take photos. Normally, I am a PA (production assistant), so my job usually consists of doing whatever anyone tells me. Plus, I always take photos anyway. But this time I had the pleasure of focusing on just the photography. Also, someone hooked me up with a headset so I could listen in to all the production-speak. I am a scientist and a photographer by background, so the whole LA film scene was new to me. We had a 40 person + film crew this time. There were assistants for the assistants! Everything had to be perfectly choreographed so that we could film Edward Norton at all of the correct locations in the perfect light. We shot at a pier, a culvert, a fish market, a parking lot, a beach, and a water treatment plant.





Imagine getting that many people set up, tore down, and moved around in just two days. Kudos Brook!

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