TECHNIQUE VERTICAL DRAMA
a day. At Crew Studio, it’s more like 20 pages a day, working out at about two weeks of shooting for an hour-long film. At that speed, efficiency is key – especially in how you shoot for the cut. “You have to sort of force the edit, and with that comes challenges because you need to think about how the scene is going to cut while shooting it,” explains Caselton. “So it requires a director with a slightly different skill set.” Mostly it’ll be a multicam set- up, which enables speed but can compromise production values, given you’re lighting for more than one camera simultaneously. “What we’re trying to do is balance out the production value to make sure that, even if we are shooting with three cameras, it’s still got good cinematic qualities. “It’s a balancing act, but if we want this to – and I think it will – become popular in the UK, as a business we need to make sure that our portfolio of vertical drama isn't just ‘good enough’. It needs to be at the highest level it possibly can be for the time and budget.” £100k to £250k seems to be the average budget, though they can be made a lot more cheaply, says Caselton. Something that might take getting used to for anyone coming from a traditional production background is the lack of prep time. “You have got to be able to enter the room and go: I know how we’re going to do this,” emphasises Caselton. “It’s a case of: here’s the script, we can adjust things as we need. This is the rough blocking. Let’s make it work and get it in the can. So that ability to sort of just rock up and be creative and problem solve is a huge skill. You have also got to be open to changes. It’s challenging, but I think it’s quite fun because it’s incredibly rewarding.” Caselton describes the process through what he calls the director’s triangle – camera, blocking and performance – all of which must work in sync. In vertical drama, he explains, that relationship becomes even more finely tuned because every shot has to work harder within the narrower frame and faster rhythm. Rather than relying on traditional wides that capture a whole scene, directors have to think about how each camera can generate multiple usable
RING OF LIGHT amaran’s Halo 600x manages to balance 610W output with a truly tiny form factor
LIGHTING A VERTICAL DRAMA Maxwell Miranda from the team at amaran offers advice on effectively illuminating your 9:16 production
“V ertical drama productions demand lights that can keep up with aggressive schedules – sometimes 20+ pages a day,” says Maxwell Miranda, product marketing manager at amaran. “So, your top priorities in this fast lighting workflow need to be portability, simple control and output you can trust without extensive tweaking.” Given that you’ll often be lighting multicam set-ups: “Consistency is key. Colour accuracy and flicker-free output at any frame rate are non-negotiable when running multiple cameras simultaneously, potentially at different shutter angles.” Of the amaran range, Miranda recommends checking out the Halo series, a new studio-focused family of bicolour COB lights, and Ray, a family of full-colour COB lights made for creators in search of power in a smaller package. “The Ray and Halo series offer fast, intuitive control, broad compatibility with standard grip equipment and enough output to handle a variety of interior environments without lengthy set-up,” he explains. “Because they’re lightweight and compact, they fit naturally into the tight spaces that the close, character-focused framing of vertical formats tends to require. Less
time rigging means more time shooting – and with a true monolight design, set- ups take seconds.” This true monolight design and the absence of separate ballast or AC power supply means you’re putting up one unit, not managing a chain of components, which makes repositioning between set- ups fast. The onboard and app-based controls let you make adjustments without touching the fixture too. Plus, “both the Ray and Halo offer high SSI ratings that keep rendering predictable across all camera positions,” making them ideal for multicam work. amaran has a close eye on the vertical trend, which Miranda suggests has “moved well beyond social media – it’s now a legitimate production format with real budgets and creative ambition, and demand from that space is growing. Productions working in this format are looking for lights that are nimble enough for fast turnaround but still deliver the output quality expected on a professional drama set – and that balance directly informs how we develop the amaran line. Quick-set-up, lightweight, easy-to-control lights that get out of your way so you can focus on the rest of production.”
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