Constructing the Barbie shoot *Ding!*

As I have mentioned several times in my blog, in person and telekinetically, it doesn't take the worlds most expensive equipment to make something decent :) This Thanksgiving brought many laughs, great food, over-eating said great food and experimenting with previously uncharted territory in photography (by me at least).  I posted this photo to my instagram and Facebook, and within minutes, I had several requests for behind the scenes photos. Luckily, I took a few for my own personal progress chart!

         The most dangerous way to eat toast...

           Photo by: Rick Craft    *Ding!*


Where to begin... 

Well, let's start with an idea. I've had this shoot idea in mind for quite some time. This was going to be a shoot with a live, real model and an electrified toaster! Minus the electricity. I have been actively searching for the perfect location for this for at least 6 months. It's a pretty specific look, and colorful bathrooms with victorian tubs aren't a cheap or common location to be had in LA. An idea pushed to the back of my mind, waiting to be re-inspired by the off chance of stumbling upon this imaginary bathroom, would soon fade away into the abyss of "ideas that have lost the spark".  This is dangerous territory for artists and we all know it well. Ideas that seem great in a moment, but we later talk ourselves out of it because of the difficulty or extensive pre-production necessary to bring it to life.

This is where we have to think outside of the box, or inside the box in this situation...

In general, I feel that if I can't find the certain thing I am looking for, I will make it. If I make it poorly, at least it will serve function until I can make a better one :) In most cases, if not all, I have been more content with self-made creations than anything I can buy at a store. Going back to my childhood, I had wrestling action figures. These wrestlers would battle it out on various counter-tops and carpeted floors, but it wouldn't be long before they demanded a ring (no, not like your girlfriend). Determined to end the strike, I constructed a wrestling ring from a pizza box, 4 popsicle sticks and yarn. It was amazing. Amazingly terrible.

omit picture due to lack of camera in 1996

The ring quickly broke down after a few pile-drivers and botched stage entrances. Time to rebuild. The next version of the ring was a beast, solid wood construction (thanks to my dad) with dowel rod posts and industrial strength rubber bands for the ropes (thanks to my mom's legal office supply). This new and improved ring was the entertainment center of attention for a few months (or 6 years in kid time). For christmas that year, I asked for the flashy cage match edition of the ring found at Toys R Us. Santa delivered, and I was ecstatic! For a moment... Not that I wasn't grateful, I was, but I found myself returning to the wooden version that we had built. Even though the scale was a little off, and it wasn't officially licensed, something about it was more satisfying even as a kid.
/end childhood diversion.

Bringing it back to the shoot you have already forgotten about, I mentioned this because it took going back to that childhood-like state of invention to materialize this project. I was in Virginia visiting family, and I didn't bring any of my gear or talented model friends, so shooting wasn't really an option. Until I made it one. I lightly brought the idea up to my sister (who had always been my partner in crime with these crazy building projects), and she laughed. Since we are in our 20's now, this wasn't far off from the reaction that I expected, but it didn't end with a "No". She said "you're twisted" which translated to me as "absolutely! Go out and buy the materials and let's do this thing!". I went out and purchased the following:

-1 project panel of cherry plywood from home depot    $9
-2 smaller sticks of square wood (for trim)                    $5
-2 Martha Stewart sized sample paint mixes                $5
-2 Barbie sets containing furniture and key pieces       $40
    (this was the most expensive part, but only bc it
     was so specific. So I don't entirely count this)
-1 Snickers bar                                                               $1.29

For less than $65, I was ready to help this barbie opt out! I set out all of the building supplies and explained the scene and setup to the best of my ability. After confusing everyone, I decided to just start building the room, I knew the rest would catch on when visualization was a factor. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the raw wood or process up until this photo :(

To get our room to this point:
- I cut the walls to size, matching our floor space.
- Jessica and I measured out the squares for the checkered floor, painted the entire board white, and
  then colored the black checker squares with a sharpie.
- Martha Stewart would be proud of her sample sized paints, even though the colors were chosen
  from another color crafting genius known as Sherwin Williams (sorry Martha). The walls were
  painted, taped off and two-toned.
- Window was cut out with a jig-saw, the "glass" was plastic that was cut off of the barbie packaging.
   (thanks dad!)
- The square sticks were painted white and cut to size for our chair railing.
- Furniture was moved in to start spacing out our room.

Jessica finishes off some milk, and creates the curtains from paper towels she had colored with a pink marker. (Thanks for the idea mom!)

Again, I skipped a bunch of process photo opportunities. But I can explain!

- The chair railing has been completed on all 3 walls
- Bath tub, toaster and toilet have been painted to fit the scene a little better
- I used some leftover plywood to make the armoire in the left corner. Again, cut out with a jig saw
   and painted to match. My sister glued ball screws from old jewelry she had to the doors to work
   as little door handles!
- A rug set was created from an old ski mask we found in our winter coat closet
- The flowers in the background were also made by my sister, they were taken from some existing
  faux foliage found in our house.
- Q-tip towel rack (self explanatory)
- Toaster gets some juice! The power cable was made from old headphones most likely acquired on a
   domestic flight. Judging by the cheap quality, probably Delta.

Prepping for lights! I have never done this, but due to lack of proper lighting and diffusion options, I had to get creative. I added a layer of wax paper to the top of our set for light diffusion. The background of this photo contains a (dual) VHS version of Titanic, Kate Winslet definitely helped out during this part of the process.

Titanic remains in the photo, but this time around it has less to do with the clouds than one would think. We needed a sky background to view through our dollhouse window. We approached this a few different ways before settling on a now obvious solution. Jessica sketched out and water colored a few variations of clouds on drawing paper. This looked great though the window, but the lighting didn't quite match up. We played around with lighting the drawing, but that left us without enough light for our set. Again, we are working with what we happened to have available. I was looking up photos of clouds on my sisters laptop when it clicked... Just set the laptop behind the window!

Final behind the scenes photo! We used 3 home depot silver dish light fixtures that my sister had leftover from old snake tank setups (yes, she is a crazy snake lady). I started with the overhead, somewhat of a hair light/back light first. Then we positioned the "Sun" light outside of the window, its only effect is the sunny side key coming through the window. Lastly we added the frontal fill light, which still came from overhead, but it added the room ambience we needed. We used my sisters Canon t3 camera with a 24-55 kit lens.

        Funny how things come full circle. Final shot, was also the first in this post. 

Additional items added to the room:
- Compact wall mirror provided by my sister, served as barbie vanity check, although Ken would
   hate this urination reminding shame reflection...
- Tiny magazines cut out and created by Jessica, mini-magazine rack made by Shannon (from q-tips)
- Blow dryer is a painted ear-bud, wall mounted by a folded soda pop-tab.
- The mini trash can is a medicine measuring cup with a plastic bag liner, filled with trash from our
  shoot, including some of barbies hand soap props (and possibly tampons, gross).

There you have it. A behind the scenes look of the *Ding!* photoshoot, and my childhood. This was an amazing project and I learned a lot from it. Not only did it challenge us to create something from nothing, but to get innovative with the items we had around the house. Creating a mini-world is a great way to kill the excuses for not being able to find locations. Even though my dad was 2 seconds away from disowning me as a son for buying barbies, he eventually came around and everyone got involved :) This was truly a great collaboration and it certainly won't be the last miniature barbie danger set!

Thank you mom, dad, Shannon Craft, Mike Kidd and Jessica Huerta, your creative contributions made this possible! 

Natural talent and it's mystery

I think I've figured it out! I don't believe in the phrase "natural talent". I feel like that comment is a cop-out said by people who give up on things easily. Anyone that knows how hard they have had to work at something to be on a certain level of quality will know that it isn't an easy road given by birth. I think someone's seemingly "natural talent" is determined by a few factors. I do believe a lot of these factors are developed as a child and by your surroundings, but it isn't a genetic circumstance. Starting with quality control: maybe you learned as a child that something was good enough as long as you tried. This mentality lets you feel comfortable with the bare minimum because "you tried". I'm not saying the opposite should be done as a child to rectify this, but instead of being passed off as praise and "at least you gave it a shot", it should be met with "keep working at it, you can be as good as you want at whatever it is you want to do".

Which brings me to the next point, You can be as good as you want to be at whatever it is you want to do. Ask anyone who is self-taught in any subject, trade or hobby, they will usually have a unique experience path that led them to the position they are in today. It generally starts with an idea of becoming great at something because they were inspired by someone else who made them feel a certain passion for the craft (... the Rick Craft). It wasn't an internal battle about how they should do it, which school they should go to and what their backup plan should be. There isn't an option for failing at it. People that are genuinely hungry to learn, do just that. They grasp any means necessary to find out as much information as possible.

In our generation, ignorance is unacceptable. We have every piece of historical, theoretical and inspirational piece of information at our fingertips. Some people will spend hours texting someone they have never met, use apps to put cats shooting lasers out of their eyes all over photos of them at the beach, but somehow they just don't have time to get better at something. The funny thing is, most of the people I know that are in school to do something, are the ones who spend the most time "relaxing" when out of class. This confuses me because you are spending the equivalent of a hefty down payment on a house to learn something that is supposedly going to earn you money for the rest of your life. In contrast to those who are learning on their own, they never stop researching or putting their trade into practice.

Back to quality control. Everyone starts somewhere, I get that. We all have things that we can look back on and laugh because of our inexperience (hopefully). Some people have a false sense of quality and status, I do believe this goes back to our childhood. Example being: some people create and post pictures, songs etc. and they feel it is at it's strongest point. Some people compare the current level of work to other people that are successful, and realize it isn't quite there yet and needs a lot of improvement through critiques and trial and error. The most important thing in my opinion, is to learn and be humble. If you aren't boasting about how great your work is, or how awesome you are, people can only judge your work by what it is. Another thing that most self-taught people will tell you about their journey is how other people they admired helped them along the way. But you are "self-taught" and you had a teacher?! Hold off for a second.. this isn't a classroom and money was not exchanged. The thing about learning from others is that if they can see your passion, they can see your eagerness to learn and possibly make an impact on the world. The simple fact is that people who are legitimately into what they are doing, want to share it with others. There isn't a better feeling than being able to watch someone else grow into a better person and possibly because you gave them a hand. Chances are, if someone has that mentality to begin with, they are going to learn regardless.
Would you rather be remembered as the person who shunned them because you couldn't "give away your trade secrets", or the person that didn't mind answering a few questions to help them along just like your peers did for you?

Which lands us on my last point. Selfishness. There is a great deal of sacrifice once you decide to head down this path. You will lose touch with old friends, find yourself in a weird middle ground that leaves you feeling like you are the only one doing this, and at times, defeated. All of these feelings are normal. You can't hold on to everything from your old life, these things will slow you down and find reasons why you should take the "safe route". This is another thing school doesn't teach you, how to be independent. Selfishness can come in many forms. Obviously there would be another blog post for all of that, but let's stick with this scenario. In most cases, I have found that someone paying for an education generally feels more entitled. There is a prestige that goes along with "I am in blank school to become a _____". In theory that sounds great! In some cases, school is definitely needed but this article is more geared toward artistic approaches. It might impress your parents, or people that aren't involved in your industry, but to people actually doing it, it means nothing without a strong portfolio. The first thing they would ask you upon a job interview would be examples of your work. If all you have to show them is an apple on a table lit with 5 different lighting setups to show shadowing, chances are you aren't getting called back. They have seen this apple 500 times today from your classmates resumes.

Back to selfishness, if you are the kind of person who wouldn't share your nintendo as a child and never learned that it was wrong, you are probably going to carry these traits into your adult life. This is going to make you feel like you have everything because you deserve it, not because you genuinely worked for it. Those who feel deserved, are usually the first ones to withhold information because its "theirs". In reality, we are all imitating something that has previously inspired us even if we aren't aware of it. It can be many things that lead to a certain style, but unless you are currently waiting on a patent for something, don't be a jerk.

The next time someone says "you are naturally talented", instead of taking offense, just realize that it is an accumulative compliment of all of your hard work and of how you were raised. It could have been the smallest most insignificant thing that you experienced earlier in life that will make you have a different view on things as others. It's not genetics, and it's never too late.

This was from my first photoshoot ever. Almost 4 years ago to the day.

Recent photo featured in Vogue Italia. (Model: Vanessa Curry)

Technology is an inhibitor if used correctly..

I am writing this as a reminder to people that a simple phrase such as "your camera takes great pictures!" or, "I wish I had lighting like you so I could make the same pictures..." are just excuses to convince yourself out of trying to learn something. I can't even tell you how many times a day I hear people comparing cameras on set and talking about how certain cameras are "useless" now because of a slightly newer camera that came out. I am not here to talk about specs because I don't really care that much anyway haha. How many captivating images do we see around us that aren't taken by someone in a 100k studio? With instagram and other visual networks, people are creating breathtaking images with their iphone and some pre-fabricated "photoshop" effects. I guarantee those people aren't saying, "my pictures would be so much better with the iphone8G when it comes out... just wait until that day, then I will be blowing you away". I have recently taken a few pictures without the use of studio lighting and substituted for more random approaches or natural light to see what I could come up with.

Natural lighting, no bounce, no silk diffusion, nowhere to go with that giant t.v. (Model: Rachele Lehner)

The only lighting in this shot, headlights from Jessica's car. So technically I used a $20k set of lights for this, but lets be real. (Model: Elizabeth Twaits)

Dancing in the dark, the only light used in this was my set flashlight, purchased a few years ago at home depot for $20. (Model: Molly Morris)

I'm not boasting about any of these pictures or saying that I did anything groundbreaking, but I found cheap creative ways to solve my darkness problem! I just want people to realize that they can be out in the world exploring ways to make something work vs. giving you 100 reasons why it won't work. Plus, the reaction from people walking up on a photoshoot with studio flashes is much less interesting than a girl smearing her lipstick up against a wall while a running car is pointed in her direction (we had to make sure the battery didn't die... the model, not as much death concern). It makes for interesting life experiences and thats what photography is about in the end, capturing a moment no matter what the emotion may be. Or landscape mood... or whatever else people take pictures of. Stop procrastinating while reading this and get out there!

Being a photographer is simple, look at my formula above! Ok, so most of you probably realize that isn't how it goes down for most people, but today I am here to explain my personal experience in working with models. There are many different types of models out there, the person you decide to use is very important to your project! I'm not saying that you have to use one specific look, size or gender, but make sure you cast the right person for the idea you have in mind. When we first start out with photography, its easy to jump on a website like model mayhem to start blast emailing every model you see, trying desperately to build your portfolio and have a quantity of pictures in a short amount of time. If you have this frantic urge, your should probably start off shooting something calm and peaceful like a zen garden landscape or take a cold shower. Once you have learned a little patience, you can start fresh and begin your career/hobby as a portrait/fashion photographer. Sites like model mayhem are great, I have actually met a lot of awesome people through there and learned a lot about my camera and photography in general by doing test shoots with models who were also just starting out. This is better than going straight for the top and asking your wish list models to shoot with you while you have no idea whats going on with your end of the camera. If they do agree to shoot with you for some reason, you are only going to frustrate them with your lack of knowledge, professionalism and quality in final print. Again, work your way up! Unless you have a mentor instructing you on camera settings, lighting and framing of course.

I also wanted to discuss the dynamic between the photographer and model that needs to be created for a shoot to work smoothly.  First, realize that the model who just showed up to your photoshoot is not someone to be intimidated by! He/she is not the IRS and you have paid your taxes (hypothetically). The mere fact that this person has agreed to shoot with you probably means that they have reviewed your portfolio and like something about it. As long as you can re-create that quality or hopefully do even better this time, you are good to go! Again, this is why you need to make sure your vision is clear before going into a shoot that you organize. Things will naturally evolve, a pose may inspire you in a different direction but thats ok, go with it if you are both feeling the idea! One thing you want to avoid though is having an idea in mind and springing it on the model half-way through the shoot. This mainly refers to shooting nudes or anything that would potentially be an uncomfortable situation between you and the model. I have heard horror stories just from talking to models over the past few years of these creepy situations they were put in, and at the time, the photographer probably got over-confident and thought it was like putting his coat over a puddle for his lady to safely cross. NO! Chances are if you are still reading this or part of *hopefully* what my target audience would be, you would never be that much of a creepster anyway. But I still have to put it out there because model/photographer relationships can make or break your photo-shoot. If one of you feels awkward, it is going to show in the image. Sometimes people just don't click, thats fine! It doesn't have to end up in a long lasting friendship where you go get mani/pedis together before your next shoot! But as long as you can have an understanding between the two of you and no one feels left in the dark (no lighting pun intended), you should be able to freely communicate to one another during the session for it to go smoothly.

If you are still somehow looking at the photos above and reading this, congratulations! That's impressive and disturbing all at once. But, lets re-direct our attention to the picture of Linda Chiriac setting up the lights for our most recent shoot. I obviously couldn't have placed the make-shift foil snoot as well as Linda, but it was a great bonding moment when she came in to take over. I explained to her why I was changing the lighting up a little, I needed a more focused beam of light vs. the wide spill I was getting from the standard reflector. After rummaging my cabinets for some tin foil, I started to construct my new cone (patent pending). Linda is a trooper anyway, so she jumped in and started helping, I could tell that she knew exactly what I was going for so it was great in two ways: first, she did it for me, secondly, it helped her understand where the light was coming from and what it was going to achieve if she stood in front of it correctly! We can direct our models all day long, and of course there will be some of that because they don't know what the camera is seeing exactly. But getting upset at them because they turn their head away from your precious 5 minute snoot isn't only counter-productive but its like calling action to an actor who hasn't received a script.

In conclusion, don't stress out over this. We chose photography because its more fun than whatever you used to do for a living, or its a great escape from your current full time job. The career part will evolve if you keep practicing, perfecting your lighting techniques and put some hours into your photoshop skills! I have personally made some great friends through this industry and can probably count the less than desirable instances on one hand. Be respectful, creative and go make some art!

Make sure to check out the extremely talented Linda Chiriac, she also does hair and makeup!
http://www.beautybylindachiriac.com/

Special thanks to Amelia Dinmore (Nightmare) as well for being colorfully amazing!
http://www.facebook.com/AmeliaNightmare

Follow us on instagram!
@rickcraft
@beautybylindachiriac
@demonpuff

*Please read before watching the video above!*

But why is there a map on the video now?!?! Don't worry, I will guide you through this ;) After receiving numerous emails and reading thousands of non-believer comments on youtube, I am here to explain how we did the one take music video with Max Schneider and Victoria Justice. 

This was no easy task! In fact, it may have been the most challenging shot I have come across in my time as a DP (director of photography). For those of you who do not know what that is, a DP works hand in hand with the director. The director calls action to a scene, they direct the actors around and have the overall vision. The DP's job is to select the framing of shots, make calls on the lighting and camera setups and make sure the movie looks good! Back to the video. When we showed up on set, out of the six person crew, only the director had seen the location. We had no idea how much of a setup this was about to be, but we had 30 minutes to figure it out. We walked through it about five times while the camera was being built and instruments were being placed around the house. I started to get the flow of how we were going to have to move through the house, but that was just me... we were about to have a camera op with a steadi-cam rig (which makes you significantly wider than a normal human being), myself behind camera making sure we were always in focus by using a remote follow focus and Daniel manning our only constant key light and audio playback. Everything was about to change, we now have three/four people huddling together behind the camera, plus our three actors that have to navigate safely around us to get into next position. I'm not sure about anyone else on the crew, but I've never studied the art of choreographed dance! A crash course and pioneering was about to take place haha. We got everyone that was going to be involved with the actual take to become part of the walk-throughs. After a few "well, this isn't going to work" traffic jams in tight hallways, we managed to make it through with everyone still in tact. 

Now, here goes the technical side of the shot. After walking through and watching everything on camera, I spotted a bunch of different lighting scenarios through-out the set. This is no good for a camera that has a manual aperture ring! Since we didn't have a fiz unit to make remote adjustments on the fly, I had to start placing lights in the darker areas. But guess what.. after all of that choreography, I was about to throw yet another curve ball at our steadi-cam op! I placed a few lights around the house to illuminate the really dark rooms along with some bounce and diffusion. In addition to not running into walls, we now have to make sure we never see one of our light stands. This part wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, we changed from a 25mm lens to a 35mm to tighten our shot just a little so entering rooms was a less risky task. After bouncing a few lights for ambience, we still needed an extra kick on our actors faces at certain points in the set. Enter Daniel! We used a hand-held battery powered LED panel light with some diffusion. Optimally I would have liked to place this on top of the camera with a remote dimmer so we could change the brightness as needed, but again this was not an option. Our two person camera operation became a three person team. Daniel wasn't simply following us blasting light on the actors at all times, he also had points where he had to either dim down or pan the light off to avoid over-exposure. I will also mention at this point, half way through the video we start back-pedaling with camera. On top of watching the camera to make sure everything is framed right and the lighting is decent, we have to watch out for things behind us because one little trip-up can result in one of the most expensive domino effects imaginable! 

Onto our actors! Max and Victoria are some of the coolest people I have worked with. They didn't complain once about anything that we put them through! On one take, I accidentally tripped Victoria while she was running past, but like a cat, she landed on her feet and regained balance before disaster! She also made it to her spot and jumped out in front of camera right on cue, professional! Kurt was the most prepared, he was the calm before the storm.. but the storm never came for him. He also directed the video, so he could see all of the paths he needed to take in his head before the camera even entered set. All three of them did an amazing job and worked well together, there was never a moment of tension on this set and we pulled it off in less than 9 takes! Which isn't bad considering all that could go wrong, and one little thing would ruin an entire take since we only had one shot without any cuts. 

This was an awesome experience and a memorable one! It was definitely a team effort where everyone had to be on top of their game. Even down to the coloring/grading done in post by the talented Chris Ripley. He had to fix the lighting problems that we couldn't get around and add his classic touch to the color! Now I release you from a super long explanation for a 3 minute video, but hopefully those of you who were curious or refuse to believe we did it in one take will have a better understanding :) Watch the compilation above to see the animated map of the location along with the paths we all had to take to make this happen. It is paired with the actual video so you can see where our actors were when they were off camera! Enjoy and make sure to bookmark my blog to see new breakdowns, explanations, behind the scenes and industry tips! 

Rick 

Welcome all!

Hello! My name is Rick Craft, I am a Director/Photographer/Cinematographer based out of Los Angeles. Here you will find advice, answers to your questions (email me with any questions you have about the film/photography industry) and maybe even some behind the scenes insights to various projects I work on. I do not claim to have the best answer to any question presented, it is only from my personal experience and should be taken as any other advice ;) I have always been into teaching others and helping someone learn an easier way to do something if they are truly trying. That being said, none of this will be of help to you if you aren't pushing yourself! Let's get this started!

Rick