Frames, Ladder Pods, and Westerns On This Commercial
Cinematographer
Justin McWilliams
Lighting
Telehandler Rigging
Behind The Scenes
KEY GRIP
Brendan Riel
Overview
Industry:
Food
Location:
Los Angeles
Grip Package:
Phantom Grip 32' & Legacy Grip 5 Ton
Shoot Days:
3
the crew
Gaffer:
Mathias Peralta
Best Boy Grip:
Logan Alesso
Grips:
Jason Hodges, Steve Forbes, Kyle Sorvig, Adam Shambour, Will Gonzalez, Johnathan Gonzalez
Flyswatter & Telehandler Rig
Lots of fun on this 3 day commercial shoot with a couple of different locations for a well known popcorn brand. Our first location was at Air Hollywood. We shot both inside in an airplane buck and outside in the parking lot. For our first setup outside in the parking lot we built a Modulus-X 9” truss rig and secured it onto a 12054 telehandler to hang a hot air balloon basket. I wanted to get the pick point out a little further away from the carriage which is why we didn’t just pick it off the bottom hook of the carriage. We used Modulus-X 9” because I co-own Division and we have it readily available. When building a rig that sticks out further than the telehandler it’s generally good practice to integrate a vertical member into your rig. This distributes the force in the components (in this case a singular piece of truss) sticking out. We secured the vertical portion of the rig to the carriage as well with both a basketed 2” ratchet and SK clamps. The load rating of 9” ModX is insane, so it was never really a worry, but it’s good practice. A 6’ stick of the 9” boasts a roughly 15,000# uniform center load WLL just to give you an idea.
The hot air balloon company took care of attachment for the balloon to the telehandler - they have a special rig they use all the time with film productions.
It was overcast and drizzly but we set up so that if the sun did peak out it would be backlit. Popped a 20x20 chroma blue behind the basket for vfx as they were supposed to be way up in the sky. Whenever I’m worked with a 20x20 frame that doesn’t work tabled I like to put it on either black bird cranks or long johns. It makes it way more manageable to work with. We shaped in some negative fill with a 12x20 water solid and angled a 20x20 water solid swatter overhead. Gaffer Mathias Peralta key’d talent with an M90 thrown through some color and diffused through a 12x grid. He backlit with an 18k on a 60’ articulating boom and blasted through some color on that too.
After we got rained out we finished off a bit of the balloon basket inside still against blue screen and transitioned over to the airplane. We lit with more warm sun to match the hot air balloon look and injected some day blue ambience into the cockpit to simulate the clear sky.
Exterior frames work to control the ambiance
Setup Overview
Exterior basket against bluescreen
We worked quite a few things here - 20x20 solid backed blue screen on long johns, 12x20 solid for neg fill, 12x12 grid diffusion for the key, 20x20 overhead swatter, a lift point for set lighting, and a truss rig for the balloon basket.
Ladder Pod
I don’t really use ladder pods anymore and I hadn’t broken one out in the longest time. Was fun to get this thing up full height and pop off a few shots.
Blue dining room
Art department really made this one pop (how could they not, it was all blue). But I really loved how the look of this came together. We were really able to separate talent from their environment with the lighting.
Ladder Pod & Western Dolly
Our next day of shooting took place in the old LA Times building in downtown Los Angeles. We shot on 2 different floors and loaded up through the freight elevator.
Our office setup essentially just carried some natural light that was happening and brought up levels inside. We keyed with an M40 through a 1/2 grid T bone and shaped it up a bit. Filled in with a Vortex 8 through a 4x frame of diffusion and backlit with a Vortex 8 on a max menace.
We cleaned up in that room and moved downstairs. Art set up an interior living room set in the corner. Part of the gag was that one of the roommates in the commercial paints the room blue. We started with the blue room and then transitioned over to the white wall natural look. Art put in some white wall panels and swapped out some set dressing. At this point it was dark outside. Set lighting threw lite tile in one of the windows that appeared on frame and we diffused it to simulate daylight. We keyed with some units pushing through another t bone and shaped that up with some wag flag solids. We set some points on the drop ceiling for set lighting and got the scene.
Day 3 we shot at an exterior residential house. The sun came out this day and it was mainly a grip show. The boys threw around some 12x20 and 12x12 frames with diffusions, bounces, and solids. At one point we wrapped the backlit sun with an M90 through a 12x12 diffusion frame.
We rocked with the Fisher 10 on a western dolly. Still trying to decide if that was easier to maneuver around than just pushing it around solo on the grass, but hey. I think Westerns might only be useful on the beach or large moves across grass. We set up a JL Fisher ladder pod for some shots up high. I always like when we can break out the ladder pod, we don’t do it very often. Popped off some wides when the sun was just right and that finished off our day.
Throughout the shoot Justin McWilliams our DP really knew what he wanted. He leaned on us for our opinion when he wanted it and was open to suggestions. I always enjoy that sort of relationship. It makes a key feel valuable. Gaffer Mathias Peralta knocked it out of the park with lighting and he and his team executed flawlessly. Hopefully client was just as pleased!
Gear Used
the Most
12x12 square stock frames
American stands
J.L. Fisher model 10
Pitons
Specialty
gear
Modulus-X Mx|99| for the telehandler rig, J.L. Fisher ladder pod for some shots up high, western dolly.
Airplane cockpit lighting
Interior office setup
Dining room set build in an office
Exterior daytime setup
Built With
Modulus-X
American Grip
Los Angeles Rag House
J.L. Fisher
On set mvp
He won’t like me saying this, but Jason Hodges is an all around pro. Knows what he’s doing, keeps his head down, has taught me lots. Jason is one of those guys you can assign a task and not have to check in on it. He’s had decades of experience keying big TV shows, movies, commercials, you name it. I’m humbled that he will come out and join the grip team for my jobs. It’s not like he needs to.
by:
Brendan Riel
