The article below is from the October 1991 issue of American Cinematographer magazine. It's been reproduced here in its entirety (except for photos, maybe later). It was reproduced by a crew of chimpanzees, and that amazing feat should take precedence over any copyright issues. In any event, I think it will be very interesting reading for the typical information-starved Bar None Rancher. Normally, I'd say support the magazine by buying a copy or subscribing to it. However, American Cinematographer is an industry journal clearly aimed at practicing cinematographers (DPs, camera operators, etc). If you're a layperson, and you understand everything in AC, then might I also recommend the Journal of Four-Barrel Carburators and Popular Deep Sea Submersible Marine Engineering. Here's a link to the American Society of Cinematographers (Yeah, that's the "A.S.C." you see after every U.S. director of photographer's name in the credits). As such, this article contains some very technical and esoteric terminology. To help you (and myself) understand it a little better, I've done some research and placed clarifying definitions along the sidebar. The defiinitions were lifted from the Cyber College web site titled Television Production: A Comprehensive On-line Cybertext in Studio and Field Production, by Ron Whittaker, Ph.D. Except for the last definition, which comes from Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary. Because the article is so obtuse, it may completely lose you. Recognizing this, I've created a summary list of "general interest" facts. Thanks to Peter Catalonotte from the Tucson Film Office for the heads up on this article.

On to the article... Hey Dude Wrangles for Realism By Brooke Comer American Cinematographer, October 1991 Hey Dude, Nickelodeon's new adventure/comedy series, breaks the most sacred rules of TV production. "They say 'never work with kids or animals, or outside, in the heat and dust,' and we're doing all those things," remarks Stephen Land, senior producer of Hey Dude and executive vice-president of Knoxville's Cinetel Productions. Cinetel is the series' producer and the largest independent production company in the southeast.
Hey Dude may be a kids' show, but the production ramifications are anything but kid stuff. The show doesn't sound complex: each half-hour installment follows the adventures of four teenagers working on an Arizona dude ranch. However, Dude is one of the few series on any network to be shot both indoors and outdoors on three Sony BVP-50s. The need to complete an episode in three days, using three cameras on a cable budget, is made even more challenging by the heat and dust of the show's Tucson location. In order to cope with some of the unique problems inherent in shooting in a sandy, sometimes windy desert, Hey Dude employs some innovative production techniques, including a mobile control room (dubbed "the Beta Bug") and the use of Geocam matte boxes to filter the harsh light and give the tape a softer, more cinematic look.	The Sony BVP-50 is a video camera matte box An adjustable square box, typically constructed with bellows, that goes on the front of a camera and acts as a lens shade, and filter and matte holder. filter A plastic or glass material placed over or behind a camera lens to alter the light in some way. Primarily used to change color temperature. Also, a device that allows certain parts of an electronic signal to pass while stopping others.
Most of these complications were initially avoidable; Cinetel owns enormous production stages in Knoxville, and the show could have been taped on a sound stage. "But we wanted to convey a sense of realism that a studio set would not allow," Land reveals. "We" includes Ross Bagwell Jr., president of Cinetel and one of the two directors on the series. Once the decision was made to shoot the series on location, a location had to be found. California, Colorado, Nevada and Texas also offer the desert environment Hey Dude required, "that look we all grew up thinking of as the Wild West," says Land. Why was Arizona singled out? "Tucson had the look we wanted, and it was close to L.A. and Phoenix and their talent and labor pools." Tucson's cooperative film commissioner, Tom Hilderbrand, "really sold us on Tucson," Land recalls. "I called him one night with questions about the weather and dude ranches, and within 48 hours, I had all the answers I needed. Besides, out of 65 episodes, which represent 195 days of production, we've only had two days of bad weather. Where else could you get that kind of dependability?" Hilderbrand calls Hey Dude "a natural," meaning the show was easy to service with Arizona's resources. "It was just a question of which dude ranch," he explains. The winner was the Tanque Verde ranch, a former Spanish land grant that sits 2,800 feet up in the foothills of three colorful mountain ranges: the Tanque Verde, Rincon, and Catalina. The ranch's east border is the rugged million-plus acre Coronado National Forest, with the Saguaro National Monument to the south. Not surprisingly, Tanque Verde has been a choice location for film projects. Owner Bob Cote even made his screen debut in an Uncle Ben's commercial filmed on the premises. "The guests enjoy having a TV series shot on the ranch," Cote observes. "It's an asset, so we don't charge a high location fee." Hilderbrand adds that film permits in Tucson are free, and location costs "are so affordable, most producers are amazed." Tucson, once a popular location for Hollywood westerns, is currently experiencing something of a renaissance as a moviemaking municipality. The film-savvy city comes complete with its own studio, Old Tucson, but once again Hey Dude producers spurned convenience in favor of local color. "We all felt strongly about shooting on a real dude ranch," Land notes. "We felt that element of the west would have more appeal to kids." The Tanque Verde proved to be an ideal location for the series. The Bar None Ranch, home of the Hey Dude gang, was built down the road from its main lodge and guest quarters. A lodge, guest quarters that double as dressing rooms, and bunkhouses for both boys and girls were also built, alongside pre-existing corrals and a Spanish-style building. "We try to use few interiors," Land explains. "We all came the way out here to show horses in the desert." Realism has its price; while the Hey Dude producers wanted "that big sky look of a remote location, and the golden hours, we didn't want hot video," says Land. Patrick Leigh Bell, a Cinetel executive, traveled to Tucson to help develop a method that employs filters and matte boxes to obtain a warmer, film look. Hot spots weren't that only potential problem, however; Tucson's perennial wind raises dust, and summer temperatures are high. "One day on the set, someone got a reading a 122 degrees, and under lights, the boom operator clocked it at 141," Land recalls. "Cameras will shut down under heat like that. We were afraid the heat and dust would give us dropout."	dropout A momentary loss of a picture signal during tape playback.
Necessity is the mother of invention, so the Beta Bug was born. The Bug is actually an 18'x10' air-conditioned trailer that houses the CCUs and tape decks, along with the video and audio engineers and the lighting director. The Bug's steel framing, sound insulation and uninterrupted power allows the equipment to be isolated while still enabling the director, producer and director of photography to be on the set. Three monitors and a bridging switcher are mounted on one side of the Bug; that's where the director makes rough cuts that serve as blueprints for use in postproduction, switching the cameras as needed to ensure that all angles have been sufficiently covered.	CCU (camera control unit electronic) controls for a camera where color correction, luminance, etc., are adjusted. CCUs for studio cameras are generally found in the video control room. monitor A TV set, normally without an RF tuner or audio circuitry, used for the checking of color,composition, etc., during a production. switcher The main production video control device capable of handling and manipulating numerous sources of video and selecting which video source is recorded or goes on the air.
At the end of every show, all of the tape, the script, continuity notes and the director's half-inch cut are quickly shipped back to Cinetel's post facility in Knoxville, "so they have a road map to go by," says Land. Speed and efficiency are of the essence—Hey Dude is a cable show, and as a result there is a heightened concern that the production tempo doesn't miss a beat. "Working with cable means we have limited resources, and we had to find ways to become highly efficient and also maintain a high quality," Land notes. The unique talents of senior camera operator/videographer Tim Doyle and video engineer John James help ease the load on Hey Dude. Doyle has learned to get around the hazards of shooting in the desert, while James has found himself turned into a human color lab—each of the BVWs can be individually shaded and color corrected.	BVW is a Sony video camera model specification, such as Sony BVW-D600 Digital Camera or BVW-50 Portable Betacam Recorder.
Other cameramen might be apprehensive about shooting a series set in the desert, but Doyle was intrigued when he hears Arizona was the chosen locale. "I was excited about coming here and doing a show like this; it seemed something that hadn't been done before," he declares. After he got used to such indigenous obstacles as horses, heat and rattlesnakes, it was business as usual for Doyle. He and his fellow crew learned to adapt to their new surrounding. "It was Tucson, after all," he points out. "You just can't run into town and pick up a new camera. We're always watching out for the cables, making sure they don't get run over by horses." When the temperatures are high, Doyle puts dry ice in oven mitts on the sides of the cameras to keep them cool. He has also managed to turn the harsh glare of the desert sun into an advantage. "You can't silk the whole landscape." The videographer points out, "and we like the crisp look we get out there. It's pretty, though sometimes we get a glare, in which case we'll use a net. We also use quite a few scrims."	?? I think "silk" refers to those big white boards that diffuse light. scrims Another way to control the intensity of light is with scrims, which resemble a frame of finely-woven screen wire.
Doyle loves the Panther dolly, "which really keeps the show moving. It allows us to use the camera to go in and out rather than relying on lenses or pans, and it gives a better feel to the show." Camera moves don't get terribly extensive, "though we do use the crane with the dolly," Doyle explains. "Sometimes we get it up to 15 feet." When the series was initiated, a Steadicam was used, "but the fact that there were cables attached to the camera limited the Steadicam operator's moves. If he were spinning around, it would get all tangled up and twisted. The dolly is a much better system." Doyle remembers a scene that required every piece of the track, 60 feet worth, in order to shoot the talent walking down a road. "We only did that once, and I enjoyed it," he recalls. James, the human color lab, was brought into Hey Dude because "They needed someone who could sit on the fence between video technology and film-style shooting," he explains. "We're using all video equipment and trying to get a film look, which is interesting because video technology is so good now. If we were using straight, flat cameras with the usual kind of setup, the show would look like a soap opera. We didn't want that harshness." Enter Leigh-Bell, with his formula for softening and warming that hardness. "It's my job," says James, "to maintain it." The Geocam matte boxes and filters on the cameras make for a consistent change of light coming into the cameras, "and everything in front of the camera, from the camera head on, is handled in a film style," James notes. He adds that cameras are run with shutters on "so we have a crisper image if there's fast motion."	Panther is a dolly manufacturer. dolly To move the camera on its mount in a straight line directly toward or away from a subject. A wheel-based camera mount. pan The movement of the camera horizontally from the pan head. Steadicam A brand-name for a body camera mounts which uses a system of counterbalanced springs to keep a camera reasonably steady, even when the camera operator is walking or running. talent Individuals who perform in front of a camera.
Lane Chiles is the lighting director, "and it's his job to give the show its film look," James explains. "But video is hard to light. You don't have the same latitude you have with film. You can't make mistakes, because it takes too much time to correct them." The lab process and the color correctors are part of the latitude film allows; James assumes that role himself. He uses his vectorscope and the waveform monitor to set the exposure based on Chiles' lighting, and adjusts the colors to the lights in front of the camera. "A flat camera is one that's put on a chip chart for reference," James explains. Without the standardization of a chip chart, he says, "I don't really know where I am. All video cameras are basically three black and white cameras; one for blue, one for red and one for green, and you blend those for an even quality. If one of those three cameras is amplified too much or not enough, you end up having a bad picture." James uses the chip charts and other gear to gauge relative color and brightness, but the human factor is ultimately the most important. "It's up to my eye," he explains. The Beta Bug is very dark, and the Arizona sun outside is very bright. "On one camera, someone's face is green, on one it's pink; no matter how good the equipment is, it all comes down to knowing the formula, and what they're trying to attain." On a one-camera shoot, James' job would be easier, "but I have to make all three cameras match colorwise, because we're switching instantaneously and you can tell if the color's off. It's really obvious."	lighting director An individual responsible for the planning, design and set-up of lights for a production. vectorscope A CRT instrument that displays the phase and saturation of the primary and secondary video colors. Use to align cameras and equipment. waveform monitor A type of oscilloscope or CRT that displays the amplitude of a video signal and its sync. chip chart A test chart consisting of shades of gray from TV white to TV black used for setting up cameras. flat lighting Soft, even lighting that produces minimal shadows and minimizes the depth or dimension in subject matter
As we speak, James is having a problem with greens and blacks. "When I look at the black, the vectorscope tells me it's black, but when the characters get in there, and move down, their faces are green. That tells me the problem isn't in the blacks, it's in my mid-range colors or my gammas." The cameras have different lenses, which also have effects on colors. "If someone gets real close to a wall, they get filled up with a lot of green light. Lane can'' help me there." James has to paint it out.	TV black The blackest part of a TV picture generally 3 percent reflectance. gamma correction A CCU control which can alter the progression of the black-to-white tonal range. Often used to open up shadow areas in a low-key picture or to hold picture detail in bright video areas.
James has actually changed color during a shot to maintain consistency as characters moved in and out of a green light. He doesn't like such changes, however, "because sometimes you go a little too far." Still, the CCDs are more forgiving when it comes to hot, contrasty situations. "They have all the bells and whistles, like the ability to compress lights, so you can get maybe an extra quarter or half-stop out of them." He can take some of the brightness out of the sky, for instance, but in doing so he's giving up a whole stop and losing resolution in the lights. Hey Dude cameras aren't heavily enhanced. "Enhancements are the electronic version of sharpening an image, and you can end up getting a real video look," James explains. "We just enhance it enough to get a nice strong image." James acknowledges the superiority of the CCD cameras, and of digital. "We couldn't do a lot of the things we do on this show with tube cameras," James explains. "We can shoot the CCDs right into the bright light, and it doesn't hurt them at all. We can do things film has always been able to get away with. CCDs also make it easy to set up lighting in such a way that things don't burn; you don't comet-tail. Sony's improvement to these CCDs makes all the difference in the world in terms of giving us even more of a film look."	CCD (charge coupled device) A solid-state camera imaging device that has a number of advantages over camera tubes. f-stop Lens aperture. The number attained by dividing the focal length of a lens by its aperture. Indicates the amount of light passing through the lens and, subsequently, exposure. resolution The ability of the camera system to distinguish and reproduce fine detail. comet tail A smear or black trailing image in video cameras used under certain conditions. Caused by subject matter in motion.
Even though analog technology is used on the show, James takes pains to ensure the best image quality possible next to digital. "Digital will always be better," he explains. "But the way we do it, the cameras send a signal down a basically digital triax cable, and we maintain the signal all the way down to tape as non-encoded RGB. This gives us excellent control and good image stability." James has another duty as well–he operates tape. Each camera has its own deck (all Beta SPs), and though the tapes are 30 minutes lone, he only tapes 25 minutes into each one, after having found that there's more chance of dropout in the last five minutes. "You can also get tape damage then, from the tight wind," he adds. Another advantage tot he 25 minute plan: "If I forget, I've got an extra five minutes to catch my mistake before I run out of tape in the middle of a shot." James' tape duties are lighter today that they'd have been only a few years ago. "Now you just load and run, not like the days of the two-inch tapes, where you had to constantly adjust the machines to get the best performance. Technology has come a long way." The three cameras are used to get the maximum number of shots in a minimum amount of time, but this strategy also poses a bigger challenge in terms of lighting. Each camera covers a 180-degree axis, which means that the backlight for a character will be fill light for another camera. As a result, it's difficult to maintain proper, source angle and direction. Then there's the equipment itself: in a one-camera shoot, the equipment moves with the camera. If a scene needs backlight for depth, as video often does, it can be hard to achieve. Even in the interiors, which are solid structures, the question of where to put light becomes a problem; in a studio, the walls could come down, and real sunlight is irrelevant.	analog As opposed to a digital signal, a signal that varies smoothly between certain ranges. An analog signal bears an exact, continuous relationship to the original information. digital In contrast to the analog process, the encoding of electronic information in the form of discrete "on" or "off" pulses. triax A coax-type video cable with three conductors. RGB (red, green and blue) The primary colors of light used to create a color TV image. RGB video A video (generally computer) viewing system that uses discrete red, green and blue signals in separate wires. Betacam A broadcast-quality format developed by Sony and used in several types of camcorders. back light Light directed from behind and above the subject used to separate and add dimension to a scene. Slightly stronger than front light. fill light A soft light used to partially fill in the shadows caused by the key light. Typically, one-half the intensity of the key light.
"We shoot everything daylight balanced," James explains. "Lane uses HMIs, and everything is set to 5600 degrees Kelvin, which is nice. If we're inside one of the lodges, and outside the windows you're deluged with bright Arizona sunlight, it makes my job so much easier if he's using HMI and daylight balanced lights inside. If there's any tungsten, he color corrects to daylight for me." HMI is also used as a blue source, which James will adjust to tungsten for night scenes. "It's flat and we see skin tones from the tungsten light correctly. That's a trick Lane taught me." The fence James sits on, between film-style shooting and video technology, is giving him a great advantage over both genres. Working on Hey Dude has given him considerable insight that he'll take into the field on his next job. "Most video shooters don't use filtration on the lens," he points out. "It's a very 'film' thing. We use a low contrast FLC filter, and on bright days, we put a neutral density in it. If we've got a hot sky, we think nothing of dropping a darkened grad in to bring the sky down. Many video shooters don't know they have that option." He admits to using a full range or corals, grads and polarizers. "The beauty of my job," James reflects, "is that if I do it right, nobody ever knows I was there. If I don't do it right, it's obvious."	HMI light A high-efficiency, discharge-type light source that has the same color temperature as sunlight. Kelvin scale Unit of measurement used in TV lighting which indicates the color temperature of a light source. tungsten-halogen light Quartz lights. The most-used type of studio and on-location light. They get their name from the tungsten element that is encased within a quartz filled with halogen gas. neutral density filter; ND filter A filter that reduces the light coming into a camera lens without altering its color. polarizing filter A filter (often adjustable) that reduces or eliminates reflections from glass, water and shiny surfaces. Also used to dramatically intensify contrast between the sky and clouds.
The next time James works on a video project, there's one tool he'll never leave behind: the matte box. "It gives you such power over your image," he observes. "Lighting is important, but sometimes you run into a situation where the only way you can control what the camera is seeing is with partial neutral density film-style filters." When James first started telling his video friends he was shooting a series using a matte box with four-by-four-inch filters, "they looked at me with blank faces. But now they're starting to say 'Hmmmm, maybe there's something there.'" As Hey Dude wrapped its 65th episode, cast and crew recalled some of the anecdotes and good-natured jokes that foster camaraderie among the group. "We've got one trick we'd play on newcomers," Doyle recalls. "We put a rubber snake on a fishing line, and bury it in the sand. Then just to break the ice, we'll pull it out fast and watch the person jump." Real creepy crawlers have their own way of getting attention. Doyle remembers a scene that took place in the lodge interior, when one of the grips was entertaining cast and crew by donning a sombrero and doing impersonations. "Then he took it off, and when he turned it over, a scorpion crawled out. It had been in there when he had it on his head. We learned then to check everything before we pick it up." Authenticity does have its risks.	scorpion Any of an order (Scorpionida) of arachnids that have an elongated body and a narrow segmented tail bearing a venomous sting at the tip.

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