The Most Important Role In The Camera Department | Camera Prepping 101

We are headed to Boca Rentals to meet up with my first AC so he can show you all what all goes into a camera prep day at a rental house and why that is so important to production. So as a first AC is your job to make sure that everything the day of production as far as camera equipment runs smoothly and so you want to make sure that before that day you've checked all of your gear out. So we're about to go and meet up with him at Boca Rentals so he can talk to you all about why that's important, all the things that he does at a camera rental house, what may Mark. We actually just had a shoot and I kind of like was a fly on the wall shooting him prep for it. So I wanted to bring you here to talk about like the role of a first AC and why camera prep is important for the overall production. So like give a little insight to the people. So what is a first thing? Well first introduce yourself and then go into what a first AC is. Okay my name is Mark. I'm an AC based out here in LA originally from San Diego. Shouts out. So a first AC is primarily responsible for pulling focus. Another name for them is a focus puller. So our main responsibility is to make sure that the subjects within the frame are in focus and make sure that they're sharp and they're not fuzzy or out of focus. What is a camera prep and why is it so important to production? A camera prep is pretty essential to production especially when there's a lot of gear and a larger set. It just really helps you get your hands on the equipment before you get to set. So anything that's wrong any piece of gear that may be faulty or isn't functioning properly can be addressed at a prep and you can speak with technician. You can get swap something out or they can repair it real quick and also if you don't know how specific piece of gear functions you can ask questions and the technicians can help you out with how to use that piece of equipment. Nice. So it really is pretty much like building up the camera in every aspect of that as if it was production day to make sure like your working the connection to that like your transmitter receivers the camera itself the batteries are you know like you go you charge all the batteries and pretty much every single piece of gear is like tip top the wires like the connectivity of it and then making sure that you have everything on the list of what like the DP asks for and like even with that like there's the whole process of it is like normally you know I'll get put on a job as a DP and when I get a chance to like pick my crew and it's like oh who do you want your first to be so I'll pick my first and I'll do an initial conversation with them to be like this is what we're shooting and then potentially send you to deck if we have one and then like you'll usually ask what kind of questions. Normally what questions I'll ask the first few questions I'll ask are like what camera are we shooting on or if there's multiple cameras lenses any sort of filters where we're going to be shooting if we're going to be exterior the whole time or if we're going to be interior are we doing handheld are we doing steady are we doing primarily sticks or studio mode so those are the like first few questions that I like to ask a DP if they were to reach out. So I know even one of the things you told me that you also like to do here is like do your marks on the lens like so explain that. Yeah so at a prep usually it lasts it's like a full day sort of thing and so with like building out all the cameras or the camera you really want to like test your lenses as well with these charts that help with kind of seeing how sharp a lens is and where the focus fall off where that is on the lens or on the frame because that's really important or it's very it's it's characteristics of the lens so you have to check those but you also want to it's important as a first to like mark your focal distance or not focal distance your focus distance some follow focus systems have pre-marked rings like the more high-end systems like the Preston or the Arri Hi5 or WCU4 but with the Nucleus because it's more budget-friendly they have discs but you have to manually mark them and so I'll do that typically at a prep since we have more time for that so I'll go one by one through each lens I'll look at the lens see where the focus distance is at and then on the follow focus ring I'll make a mark and say it's 30 feet is right here I'll spin the dial or the knob to focus a little bit closer get that distance mark 25 feet 20 feet 10 feet all the way down from infinity to whatever the close focus is like 10 inches or something like that last question real like rapid fire what are the top five things you should have in your first AC kit top five things you should definitely have at least some sort of bag or a tool bag or whatever it doesn't have to be expensive you can go to home depot and get one of those huffy tool bags just something that you can carry on set with all of your other miscellaneous items that you need a flathead screwdriver or a multi-tool those are really really handy when it comes to like and just like whether it's tying on or screwing on like bolts for the bottom of the camera or if you need like the pliers or whatever to tighten something down or loosen something so that's another one bongo ties bongo ties are really essential they're really helpful to just like help with cable management with the camera like keeping it clean yeah I've seen a lot of messy messy camera rigs and I've definitely built some really bad camera rigs that are pretty messy but any sort of cable ties like bongo ties or night eyes grip ties help last two if you can afford it you can swing it a cart is pretty essential as well it helps you just like you can move your entire camera package all at once instead of lugging around cases one by one if you're especially if you're like on location or if you're changing different locations that just helps a lot this is a twofer it's like a it's like a package so you definitely want some pankro and some chemtech wipes any sort of smudges that are on the lens is those things are like perfect for just cleaning your lenses and just making sure that there's no smudges and that the image looks clean I really put mark on the spot that's why I saw our friend yeah she she didn't tell me about that that question everything else I appreciate it and hopefully we can do a lot more projects together it was that project was super dope I'm super it was fun I had a good time it's really just about like finding a good crew that you're comfortable with that you can have fun with like being on set is already stressful so find a crew that you're comfortable with you can have fun with and like that everybody knows you know their job you're not like stressing and worrying about if somebody can like pull their weight in their particular position as a dp I'm like already like worried about everything else and running around so like to be able to have people that like can like step up is like super essential so yeah you got a lot on your plate already you know being ahead of three different departments camera grip and electric but you're also communicating with directors producers maybe production designers I mean you're being pulled in a lot of different directions and so as a first ac like I'd like to take as much off your plate as I can and let you worry about you know the bigger things that are going on or like more holistically like on the set and then you just tell me whatever you need and I can relay it down to the rest of the camera department first ac is the head of the camera department it's not they're not just the focus puller yeah so technically and I might get some get some comments about this so it's it is what it is but I like to say and someone's told me this is as well that the first ac is technically the head of the camera department because the dp is ahead of three different departments or they're overseeing three different departments and so the first ac is kind of that person who's really like managing the entire department crewing up people relaying whatever messages you have for the camera department and me communicating that to the rest of the camera department yep so if you guys didn't know now you know thank y'all if y'all like this video give it a like if you guys want to see more of this definitely uh leave it down in the comments below share with all your friends and thank you so much for watching love you