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For the next several posts I’ll be posting frames from a documentary proof of concept we shot back in October of last year.
Here’s the problem facing most filmmakers and organizations: “big swing” projects like feature films and streaming series are the sort of plays that reach audiences and capture cultural attention. But those are also the projects that carry the biggest sense of financial risk for funding organizations.
So over the last two years @distantmoonhq has been building out a structural model for carrying out big swing media plays across multiple stages. We call this the apogee model. I’ll talk more about it over the coming weeks, but in the meantime, here are a few frames from the proof of concept/development film we produced with @globalspeaks.
These shots were filmed with the red raptor and t1.5 lenses, using flashlights to light the scene. I wanted it to feel natural as they walked to the Napo riverside in rural Ecuador to tell stories of life and death in the Amazon. With talent shining flashlights into a beadboard off camera, the talent was essentially lighting themselves with the led flashlights they were holding.
@distantmoonhq is on a quest to change the world through film.
Our mission is outrageous: to become the most impactful film studio of the 21st-century by helping audiences wrestle with life’s deepest questions, to understand the world around them more deeply, and to come in contact with the Creator who made that world through every film we make.
If that sounds exciting to you, check out the positions we currently have open! We’re hiring for both Production and post Production departments!
I often hear people conflate cinematography and videography, and that’s always pointed to a misunderstanding (I think) about the difference between the two.
I’m a product of the Vimeo era of the early 2010s, where so many young people were working their butts off to learn the art of lighting and composition and good storytelling and all of the techniques and trappings of cinema.
And for many of those kids (many of whom are now filmmakers at the height of the industry), videography was “grab a camera and film what is there.” “Filmmaking” or “cinematography” was envisioning something different and making it come to life with lighting and as much production value as you could muster for each frame.
It’s always been a journey. Every year you get closer to how you envision it. It reminds me of Ira Glass’s famous discussion about taste building and how the life of the creative is about pursuing the skills to craft how you see it in your head.
These shots aren’t particularly unique but they do show how the final frame looks after lighting, lens choice, composition, set dressing, hmu etc. vs the iPhone shot of “how it looks” without all the other behind the scenes work.
With @thejonathanhay @julian_keene19 @distantmoonhq @ndufoundation
Interview set up for a shoot we did back in December for a series on film history.
The inspiration for this set up was that throughout the early 2000s and through much of modern cinema, filmmakers have leaned towards a color theory that balances orange and blue as complementary colors in the lighting and coloring of their movies. So we placed dozens of small hard “orange” sources throughout the deep background to contrast blue color washes to create the color contrast that has become so common throughout Hollywood filmmaking.
We wanted this shoot to feel like a polished behind the scenes on a film set, which was easy to pull off considering the sound stage we were filming and already had two complete sets that we could frame in the background to feel like we were talking about the history of Film on an active sound stage.
@contemplativedad standing in. Caleb Symons co-directing with me. @mikecurry_dp as DP. Props and all sorts of fun Easter eggs by @d_cool20 and @julian_keene19.
Throwback to an interview we shot a couple years ago for a documentary in Texas. First slide frames from the interview second slide the lighting set up.
An interview setup for a series about totalitarian novels. The concept for the set was to place the host in a decaying library. As if the world of totalitarian novels had come true and the very books we were exploring were banned. To study these books you’d have to find an abandoned place outside of normal society. That’s what inspired this set.
1. Finished frame 2. Straight from camera without color, with boom in shot, and without set extensions of the ceiling 3. BTS of set without lighting 4. BTS of set without dressing or flooring 5. Framing of set with no art
DP: Jordan Bogart PD: Daniel Cooley @d_cool20 Prod. Studio @distantmoonhq
“If you can light an interview, you can light anything.”
I think Roger Deakins was the one who said that in a bts clip years ago around the time he shot No Country for Old Men.
I don’t know if he still agrees with that premise, but it’s always stuck with me. And this scene, shot by my friend @jcarrington3 beautifully shows the overlap in hub that quite is talking about. Essentially a 2-person interview setup that transitions into a 3 person roundtable shot (but in the context of a movie scene).
Long story short: don’t despise the opportunity to shoot interviews or talking heads. Everything in practice and preparation. Keep pushing. W/ @distantmoonhq
An interview shot that’s set on a recreation of the second deck of the famous wailing ship the Essex.
A set built by our Production team at @distantmoonhq , we wanted to immerse viewers of an upcoming series about Moby Dick in the world of whaling and give them a sense of not just the sort of environment that the characters of the novel would have found themselves, but to help frame their thinking about all of the events that take place in Herman Melville’s unbelievable epic novel.
The entire set with the exception of practicals and the key light was lit from outside of the ship using large @aputure.lighting LED‘s to imitate the look of the sun cutting through peepholes and grates on the upper deck of the ship.
The first two slides are shots from the series. The next shots are behind the scenes videos and photos showing what the set and lighting set up looked like.
cinematography by the always amazing @mikecurry_dp and featuring a stand-in blocking video with my friend and producer @jeremiahreganhcoc
Anytime that I walk into a new location (especially for a documentary) I take reference photos for the shots that I envision in that space. This is a great example of a final shot as envisioned compared to the reference photo/what the space looked like without any lighting or talent in place.
Unlike many of the soundstage shoots we do where we build custom sets, this was a real war games room at National Defense University (@ndufoundation) with my friend @thejonathanhay.
With the fabulous crew @dehrenberg @taylorroesch @julian_keene19
One of the desires we had for “The Moment” was that it should feel like a fever dream for much of the party. Emily partly wants to be there, partly doesn’t. Her friends have ulterior motives. But on top of that, between drugs and alcohol consumption, she’s already under the influence by the beginning of the film.
We wanted the party to feel like something like the heightened form of what viewers experienced at a crazy high-school party. It had to feel exciting but dangerous. And viewers had to feel like even while they were making decisions, it was constantly at risk of spinning out of control.
@jcarrington3 @stuhaightvideo and the rest of the lighting team really crushed the intense and sometimes oppressive feeling of the constantly evolving lighting of the party. The entire party component of the film and all scenes at the house had to be filmed in something like 10 days, so it was a mad rush getting through the setups and our crew and cast crushed it.
Once production ended, the even harder challenge of post began. I’ll talk about how @nathanbittnerfilm and I tackled that in upcoming posts.
Connect
Social Proof
Real Impact. Real Results.
For the next several posts I’ll be posting frames from a documentary proof of concept we shot back in October of last year.
Here’s the problem facing most filmmakers and organizations: “big swing” projects like feature films and streaming series are the sort of plays that reach audiences and capture cultural attention. But those are also the projects that carry the biggest sense of financial risk for funding organizations.
So over the last two years @distantmoonhq has been building out a structural model for carrying out big swing media plays across multiple stages. We call this the apogee model. I’ll talk more about it over the coming weeks, but in the meantime, here are a few frames from the proof of concept/development film we produced with @globalspeaks.
These shots were filmed with the red raptor and t1.5 lenses, using flashlights to light the scene. I wanted it to feel natural as they walked to the Napo riverside in rural Ecuador to tell stories of life and death in the Amazon. With talent shining flashlights into a beadboard off camera, the talent was essentially lighting themselves with the led flashlights they were holding.
Killer team: @johndarnell3rd @jay_vida Allen thornburgh
@timhedberg_ @julian_keene19 @yettanother @nathanbittnerfilm @brandondetraglia @snjohnson1014
Anamorphic on Instagram. Just like Nolan intended. 😂
New trailer for our upcoming online course with @hillsdalecollege about Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey.”
This sort of projections possible without all the incredible people who poured their talents into it.
EP: @jeremiahreganhcoc
Director: 🙋♂️ and Caleb Symmons
Producer: @kacie.lynn_ @maktrob
Prod Designer: @d_cool20
DP: @mikecurry_dp
Everything: @julian_keene19
Sound: @_huntervickers_ and Andrew Pearl
Post supervisor: @brandondetraglia
Trailer Editor: @smgvideoeditor
Editors: @jongrahamcreative segarsj
VFX: @eli.ohearn
Motion/2.5d: @thumbsupman
Copyright: @mariahcormier
Admin/operations: @snjohnson1014
Join our team!
@distantmoonhq is on a quest to change the world through film.
Our mission is outrageous: to become the most impactful film studio of the 21st-century by helping audiences wrestle with life’s deepest questions, to understand the world around them more deeply, and to come in contact with the Creator who made that world through every film we make.
If that sounds exciting to you, check out the positions we currently have open! We’re hiring for both Production and post Production departments!
More information at distantmoon.com/careers!
Filmmaking vs iPhone.
I often hear people conflate cinematography and videography, and that’s always pointed to a misunderstanding (I think) about the difference between the two.
I’m a product of the Vimeo era of the early 2010s, where so many young people were working their butts off to learn the art of lighting and composition and good storytelling and all of the techniques and trappings of cinema.
And for many of those kids (many of whom are now filmmakers at the height of the industry), videography was “grab a camera and film what is there.” “Filmmaking” or “cinematography” was envisioning something different and making it come to life with lighting and as much production value as you could muster for each frame.
It’s always been a journey. Every year you get closer to how you envision it. It reminds me of Ira Glass’s famous discussion about taste building and how the life of the creative is about pursuing the skills to craft how you see it in your head.
These shots aren’t particularly unique but they do show how the final frame looks after lighting, lens choice, composition, set dressing, hmu etc. vs the iPhone shot of “how it looks” without all the other behind the scenes work.
With @thejonathanhay @julian_keene19 @distantmoonhq @ndufoundation
Interview set up for a shoot we did back in December for a series on film history.
The inspiration for this set up was that throughout the early 2000s and through much of modern cinema, filmmakers have leaned towards a color theory that balances orange and blue as complementary colors in the lighting and coloring of their movies. So we placed dozens of small hard “orange” sources throughout the deep background to contrast blue color washes to create the color contrast that has become so common throughout Hollywood filmmaking.
We wanted this shoot to feel like a polished behind the scenes on a film set, which was easy to pull off considering the sound stage we were filming and already had two complete sets that we could frame in the background to feel like we were talking about the history of Film on an active sound stage.
@contemplativedad standing in. Caleb Symons co-directing with me. @mikecurry_dp as DP. Props and all sorts of fun Easter eggs by @d_cool20 and @julian_keene19.
Post sup: @brandondetraglia
Abel. Dallas, 2023.
All natural light. Captured for a documentary. Playing with spaces and compositions.
@distantmoonhq
Throwback to an interview we shot a couple years ago for a documentary in Texas. First slide frames from the interview second slide the lighting set up.
@distantmoonhq #lighting #documentary #behindthescenes
An interview setup for a series about totalitarian novels.
The concept for the set was to place the host in a decaying library. As if the world of totalitarian novels had come true and the very books we were exploring were banned. To study these books you’d have to find an abandoned place outside of normal society. That’s what inspired this set.
1. Finished frame
2. Straight from camera without color, with boom in shot, and without set extensions of the ceiling
3. BTS of set without lighting
4. BTS of set without dressing or flooring
5. Framing of set with no art
DP: Jordan Bogart
PD: Daniel Cooley @d_cool20
Prod. Studio @distantmoonhq
“If you can light an interview, you can light anything.”
I think Roger Deakins was the one who said that in a bts clip years ago around the time he shot No Country for Old Men.
I don’t know if he still agrees with that premise, but it’s always stuck with me. And this scene, shot by my friend @jcarrington3 beautifully shows the overlap in hub that quite is talking about. Essentially a 2-person interview setup that transitions into a 3 person roundtable shot (but in the context of a movie scene).
Long story short: don’t despise the opportunity to shoot interviews or talking heads. Everything in practice and preparation. Keep pushing.
W/ @distantmoonhq
An interview shot that’s set on a recreation of the second deck of the famous wailing ship the Essex.
A set built by our Production team at @distantmoonhq , we wanted to immerse viewers of an upcoming series about Moby Dick in the world of whaling and give them a sense of not just the sort of environment that the characters of the novel would have found themselves, but to help frame their thinking about all of the events that take place in Herman Melville’s unbelievable epic novel.
The entire set with the exception of practicals and the key light was lit from outside of the ship using large @aputure.lighting LED‘s to imitate the look of the sun cutting through peepholes and grates on the upper deck of the ship.
The first two slides are shots from the series. The next shots are behind the scenes videos and photos showing what the set and lighting set up looked like.
cinematography by the always amazing @mikecurry_dp and featuring a stand-in blocking video with my friend and producer @jeremiahreganhcoc
Final shot vs location scout.
Anytime that I walk into a new location (especially for a documentary) I take reference photos for the shots that I envision in that space. This is a great example of a final shot as envisioned compared to the reference photo/what the space looked like without any lighting or talent in place.
Unlike many of the soundstage shoots we do where we build custom sets, this was a real war games room at National Defense University (@ndufoundation) with my friend @thejonathanhay.
With the fabulous crew @dehrenberg @taylorroesch @julian_keene19
One of the desires we had for “The Moment” was that it should feel like a fever dream for much of the party. Emily partly wants to be there, partly doesn’t. Her friends have ulterior motives. But on top of that, between drugs and alcohol consumption, she’s already under the influence by the beginning of the film.
We wanted the party to feel like something like the heightened form of what viewers experienced at a crazy high-school party. It had to feel exciting but dangerous. And viewers had to feel like even while they were making decisions, it was constantly at risk of spinning out of control.
@jcarrington3 @stuhaightvideo and the rest of the lighting team really crushed the intense and sometimes oppressive feeling of the constantly evolving lighting of the party. The entire party component of the film and all scenes at the house had to be filmed in something like 10 days, so it was a mad rush getting through the setups and our crew and cast crushed it.
Once production ended, the even harder challenge of post began. I’ll talk about how @nathanbittnerfilm and I tackled that in upcoming posts.
@piper.viper @brent_bentz_13 @taylorabigailactress @matt_perl @lisameyerovich @themagicswaggin @faithandtrust86 @snjohnson1014 @d_cool20 @brandondetraglia @nathanbittnerfilm