16Oct
By Theo Marchetti- Set Notes
- 3 Min Read
Shooting In The Wind
Two days on the dunes at Montauk for Salt Road, a wind that never dropped below twenty knots and two coats that had to move the same way in every take. The forecast said it would ease on the second afternoon. It did not.
We planned the day around the light and let the wind choose the order of the shots. Wide shots went first, while the sand still lay flat; close-ups went last, with the camera low and the coat tied to a fishing line we could pull out of frame.
The wind is the third actor. You do not direct it; you put the camera where it is going to be.
Theo Marchetti
What We Rigged
Everything that could catch the wind was weighted twice. The cinema camera sat on a dolly with sandbags on the track ends, and the flags came down to four-by-fours after the first one sailed.
- Camera
- The large-format body on the dolly, a 2x anamorphic 50 mm for the walk, the 100 mm for the coat
- Frame Rate
- 48 frames for the walk, 120 for the coat turning, played back at 24
- Light
- The sun, a 12 x 12 silk on two combo stands and a bounce we lost twice
By the second evening we had the shot the board had promised: two figures leaning into the wind at the top of the dune, the coats flying the same way, the sun two fingers above the sea. The take is fourteen seconds long and the commercial uses six of them.
Theo Marchetti
Director of photography at Kinora since 2014. Anamorphic, natural light and long takes, on fifty-eight films.
The fishing line under the coat is a lovely trick. Did it show up in the 120 frames shot?
ReplyTwice, and Noor painted it out in the grade both times. Worth it.
ReplySandbags on the track ends saved our last beach shoot too. Great write-up.
Reply