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We’ve received many questions from film students and “interested bystanders” about the technical aspects of our movie Would You Cry if I Died? I submitted a few of them to Scott Pessoni, our DP on the film; below are his answers! —BP

SP: We used the Cannon XL-2 in 24P/16:9 anamorphic mode. This simulates the way film is shot (24 frames a second) helping to give the film look.

SP: We used a Manual 16X lens with Matte Box and Follow Focus. To help achieve the film look we used the longer end of the lens (IE: Telephoto Mode) to decrease depth of field (i.e., to make the background out of focus). This is a hard "trick" to achieve, but it really helps to simulate 35mm film.

SP: Most theatrical DVD's and movies (shot Panavision lens) are anamorphic. That means that they "squeeze" the widescreen playback on to a non-wide screen format. Your DVD player or theater projector lens do the "unsqueezing". A good explanation can be found at:

SP: A standard shotgun microphone mounted on a boom pole. It was then preamped before sending it to the camera.

SP: Using a SteadyCam can be very helpful to get certain shots. However, it can be difficult to learn and you usually must practice the scene over and over. The SteadyCam shooting can also be very fatiguing. It is especially heavy and can wear you out quickly!

SP: There were some bugs with the DVD authoring software. Some more difficult aspects in DVD authoring were getting video levels to match correctly with the anamorphic video. But, we got it fixed…and I think the movie looks awesome technically!

My name is Sean Dixon, and I am currently taking " Understanding Mass Media" with Dr. Pondillo at MTSU. Thank you for answering some questions I had. However I have some more questions for you. You said you used a standard shotgun microphone that was then preamped and sent to the camera. Exactly what is “preamped” and how do you actually send what is collected through the microphone to the camera? Is any specific camera required? I would also like to know about the SteadyCam. You said it was used for certain shots—for what shots exactly was the SteadyCam used, and how does a SteadyCam work? Thank you for your time.

Thanks for your interest in the production and photography of our movie. I'll try to answer your questions as completely as possible. If I leave anything out or confuse you, just let me know.

Generally, the audio output from a shotgun microphone is not very high. If you allow the camera to amplify the audio directly, you could introduce noise into your audio tracks. It will sound like a low hiss in the background. The point of a preamp (or "pre-amplifier") is to amplify the audio before it hits the camera. Usually preamps contain better electronics and offer other advantages as well. Some of the advantages are: Phantom power (i.e., no battery is needed for the microphone), a headphone amplifier (so the boom pole operator can hear what he is aiming the shotgun at), and an audio level meter (to make sure the sound is modulating within technical limits.) Using the preamp eliminates the audio hiss produced by the camera, too. There is no substitute for someone who knows how to use the boom pole correctly! Even with all this equipment, it's easy to make audio sound bad. As far as connecting it to the camera, we use XLR (special audio cable that reduces noise) from the shotgun to the preamp and then another XLR from the preamp to the camera. You can also replace some of the XLR with wireless packs so the audio crew can be more mobile. Most professional cameras have XLR Inputs. If we where shooting on film (16mm or 35mm) things would be more complicated. We would have to record on Digital Audio Tape (DAT) or a hard drive and use a time-coded slate because one cannot record audio directly to a film camera.

The SteadyCam allows for smoother hand-held camera moves. Normally, when you run with any camera the picture you get looks very shaky. A SteadyCam allows you to run up and down stairs for example without having the camera shake. There are different products that all work on the same principle. A SteadyCam is pretty much a camera mounted on top of a stick! At the bottom of the stick you have a counterbalance weight. In the middle of the stick you have what’s called a 3-axis gimble. It allows you to spin the camera on 3-axis’ (X-Y-Z, left-right, forward-back, and rotating in a circle). It takes a little bit of training to get the thing set up and balanced correctly. Once you perfectly balance the camera, it can be "flown" around with ease. Some really expensive ($80,000!) SteadyCams use gyroscopes to help lock the camera platform and spring arms to further reduce vibration. In our movie, “Would You Cry if I Died?”, the SteadyCam was used in all the walking shots between the kitchen and bedroom, and from the bedroom to the couch. If you’re really into this and want to try to build your own home-made SteadyCam, point your browser to: <www.homebuiltstabilizers.com>

Hope that helps! Other technical questions? E-mail Scott at

<spessoni@geminiproductiongroup.com>