Personal Time = A Chance to Test Gear & Process
- Devon Lyon
- Aug 12
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 14
At Rushlight, I know our team of creatives loves what they do professionally. For the past four years I’ve watched each person’s creativity and drive manifest in many ways, both for clients and in their respective personal lives. When possible, I also like to spend down time honing my craft, and I recently had the chance to do just that: test some gear and process on a small boat with a few long-time friends while they spent the morning crabbing at Waldport Bay, Oregon.
I’ve been friends with Ging Ma since I was five years old. His little brother, Foo, owns a small fishing boat and crabbing pots – not to mention his vast experience as a consummate outdoorsman. Each summer we get together, often with Ging’s kids (now grown up), and go crabbing. This year, I decided to forego hauling pots and cracking shells and instead hauled a camera setup down to Waldport and decided to shoot some video. Why? Well, I thought it would be fun to document our annual outing, but it was also a chance for me to test out a minimalist camera build and some new gear.
When we plan any video shoot for a client, we tap into our extensive experience producing to try and think through the best approach, the correct gear package and the right crew. We also do our best to identify any potential challenges and hiccups. Most of the time, thoughtful pre-production planning will avoid mistakes and hits to quality. However, nothing replaces experience, or “having done it” already.
As a producer and director, I need to understand at a solid level, what most of the crew on a video shoot do. This knowledge helps me not just pick the right team, but when we are on-set or on-location, I can give them meaningful – and technically correct – instructions. Of course, that includes the camera operator/cinematographer/director of photography. Luckily, I’ve always loved film photography and have, over the past two plus decades of filming, spent a fair amount of time behind the camera.
On this recent, cloudy morning crabbing at Waldport, I wanted to test getting some usable shots under less than ideal circumstances. What were the challenges? (1) I was by myself. Most film shoots, even small ones, are almost never single-person operations. (2) I was operating handheld. This is tricky for several reasons, not to mention it can be fatiguing. (3) I was using anamorphic cinema prime lenses. What that means is there is no autofocus, and the frame of video – being anamorphic “cinemascope” – is very narrow. (4) I had to nail my focus while trying to judge it on a small, camera-mounted monitor in bright daylight. (5) We were on water, so the boat was constantly rocking and moving. It’s hard to keep your frame steady and the horizon not too wonky. (6) There were five of us plus a dog on a small boat, so the ability to move around to frame shots was incredibly limited. And finally, (7) I was testing out a new wireless, handle-mounted follow focus wheel and motor.
Aside from being sore in weird places, overall, everything went fairly smooth. I was able to get a few cute shots, and my friends got a silly video to commemorate the day. But just as important, I was able to work through some challenges, identify some “best practices” for shoots in the future, should we run into anything that presents similar factors.
When you’re lucky enough to practice professionally what you also like to spend personal time doing, it makes it easy to put in the extra hours to get better. And hey, even though it wasn’t our best result crabbing, we did walk away with thirty-one delicious Dungeness crab.
At Rushlight Agency, we would love to work with you on your next creative project. The agency is a full-service integrated creative agency, but we definitely have a sweet spot for video production. Whether it be a simple documentary style run-and-gun type thing like this crabbing adventure, or a more traditional commercial or brand shoot, Rushlight has got your covered. Hit us up. Let’s make something fun together.
