Pirate Radio
September 7th 2006
I flew to London to shoot part of a program about Pirate Radio in England around 1966. Pirate Radio or Radio London and Radio England was the americanization of rock music in Great Britain. This is a program produced by Greene HD Productions that had been going on since May. I was hired to shoot all of the reinactment scenes in B/W HD. Talk about a blast! We spent a week working with a bunch of young british actors in pubs, on rooftops and an old 1958 Lighthouse ship that was similar to the ships used by the pirates.
This 1958 Lighthouse Ship was actually the last working ship of its kind.
My job was to create the look and feel shooting Black and White High Definition footage that would take you back in time to share some of the experiences the DJs had while working on the ships. I had previously researched what little had been done with B/W HD for another project that fell through the cracks so I already had a little understanding of what had to be done and I was jazzed by the opportunity to experiment. Seems odd to you that so little has been done with B/W HD??? Well if you think about it, High Definition is not that old and everyone is still blown away by the detail, clarity and colors you get with HD. Why would you even want to shoot it in B/W? Well black and white will never die and the perfect opportunity dropped in our laps and we were excited to see what we could produce.
Me and Amy Greene working one of the longer days aboard the lighthouse ship.
What we realized was that it was so much easier to light our scenes for B/W than in color. Color is more distracting and you have more information in your frame to look at. You have to be very careful with color balance and mixed lighting which we had in most every scene. You have daylight blasting in from the windows or portholes and the lights we use are tungston. Big difference between the two. We would light the scene normally, white balance the camera and then dial the color out of the field monitor to see what we had. That usually got us close and then I would start working from there to get the look I wanted. We knew that we could still tweak our contrast and tone in post production, however as a Director of Photography I like to get as close as I possibly can in the field so the editor and colorist have less work to do. Post production is very expensive and you want to spend the least amount of time in the editing room. Also, the colorist like you much better.
The actors were Bloody Fantastic! Very professional and they made my job much easier. Thanks!
Amy Greene and the cast looking over photos of the original DJs.
Me filming on the bow of the ship while some of the actors hang out and do what most Brits do "Smoke".
Producer - Brian Greene was asked to stand in as the lead character since he looked most like the founder of Radio London & Radio England.
Our production schedule was great. Amy Greene - Producer/Director did a great job on this whole shoot. This was the best shoot I have ever worked on as far as schedule, script and shot list. Hats off to ya girl!
I did not have to much time to sight see but my evenings were usually spent down the street at the pub getting to know the locals. Larry, Pam, Jebes, Teddy and "Stella" became our good friends and pub guides. Cheers!
The Cast and Crew sitting in front of the original office.
I flew to London to shoot part of a program about Pirate Radio in England around 1966. Pirate Radio or Radio London and Radio England was the americanization of rock music in Great Britain. This is a program produced by Greene HD Productions that had been going on since May. I was hired to shoot all of the reinactment scenes in B/W HD. Talk about a blast! We spent a week working with a bunch of young british actors in pubs, on rooftops and an old 1958 Lighthouse ship that was similar to the ships used by the pirates.
This 1958 Lighthouse Ship was actually the last working ship of its kind.
My job was to create the look and feel shooting Black and White High Definition footage that would take you back in time to share some of the experiences the DJs had while working on the ships. I had previously researched what little had been done with B/W HD for another project that fell through the cracks so I already had a little understanding of what had to be done and I was jazzed by the opportunity to experiment. Seems odd to you that so little has been done with B/W HD??? Well if you think about it, High Definition is not that old and everyone is still blown away by the detail, clarity and colors you get with HD. Why would you even want to shoot it in B/W? Well black and white will never die and the perfect opportunity dropped in our laps and we were excited to see what we could produce.
Me and Amy Greene working one of the longer days aboard the lighthouse ship.
What we realized was that it was so much easier to light our scenes for B/W than in color. Color is more distracting and you have more information in your frame to look at. You have to be very careful with color balance and mixed lighting which we had in most every scene. You have daylight blasting in from the windows or portholes and the lights we use are tungston. Big difference between the two. We would light the scene normally, white balance the camera and then dial the color out of the field monitor to see what we had. That usually got us close and then I would start working from there to get the look I wanted. We knew that we could still tweak our contrast and tone in post production, however as a Director of Photography I like to get as close as I possibly can in the field so the editor and colorist have less work to do. Post production is very expensive and you want to spend the least amount of time in the editing room. Also, the colorist like you much better.
The actors were Bloody Fantastic! Very professional and they made my job much easier. Thanks!
Amy Greene and the cast looking over photos of the original DJs.
Me filming on the bow of the ship while some of the actors hang out and do what most Brits do "Smoke".
Producer - Brian Greene was asked to stand in as the lead character since he looked most like the founder of Radio London & Radio England.
Our production schedule was great. Amy Greene - Producer/Director did a great job on this whole shoot. This was the best shoot I have ever worked on as far as schedule, script and shot list. Hats off to ya girl!
I did not have to much time to sight see but my evenings were usually spent down the street at the pub getting to know the locals. Larry, Pam, Jebes, Teddy and "Stella" became our good friends and pub guides. Cheers!
The Cast and Crew sitting in front of the original office.
