Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/987068
30 Chartier continues, "We are deck operators and we always record everything on decks and that's for protection but it's also the fact that we are playback operators and we will play it back on stage, live, all in sync, using four to five projectors at once with five screens." They'll often get a call from a producer or a DP with a script that has car scenes and they are looking for a better alternative then a process trailer or just green screen. Robert explains, "They can manipulate the lighting, they have all the time in the world to do what they do as DPs. It's a controlled environment. Safe, visually accurate, with no location permits, police, process trailers, insert cars. This is still cheaper than doing it any other way." 24frame.com can go out and shoot custom plates for that project or the client can select from Chartier's vast library with thousands of hours of footage and multiple angles. Choosing the exact footage and location they want for live playback on stage. If the client needs specific plates, they'll go out in one of their three proprietary capture vehicles and Aashish Gandhi, a dual card holder of Local 695 & Local 600, their staff cameraperson, will man the cameras. They recently were in Seattle for the new Shonda Rhimes show Station 19 and captured images with seventeen cameras. The entire series is shot in Los Angeles. "All our footage is in sync, when we show up on the set, we get all the reflections, we get everything going for you," says Robert. "We become the DP's best friend with everything we offer. Our Video Engineers do full-color corrections on the fly. We have designed everything to capture an image that will size correctly when we project it. The capture vehicles are built for specific functions that mimic the picture car we are capturing for, whether it is a fire truck, ambulance, bus or passenger car. We come to the stage and all the math and all the physics are correct." Recently, Mr. Chartier got a call from an executive post producer at Disney who was about to start a film with a cast of young children with lots of driving sequences. She was concerned about using a large amount of green screen and then have to figure out later what angle the DP shot through the car to try to get that correct plate. They brought a busload of Disney executives to 24frame.com and Robert showed them the demo and, right then and there they said, "This is how we're doing it." When Steve Carell walked on the set, he said, "My God, now we're making movies. This is what movies are all about. On Little Miss Sunshine, we were stuck in the desert for three days filming the Volkswagen van and, God, did we, need this." The capture vehicles record to SSD drives but everything is backed up to multiple rotary drives. All of the footage is owned by 24frame.com and becomes part of their vast location library. Robert Chartier: "It's on a 100TB server and they can view through the web and access the actual files. Some of our plates are twenty-two-minutes long. They can choose the segment and then our coordinator will make sure that they have the plates requested on the set. We always have the shot before and the shot after, so, if the director or DP doesn't like the bus pass-by in the shot, we shift forward, they can queue up and re-queue and do anything they want, all live on the set. They can ask for a red Corvette, PCH, dusk, dawn, day or night and if we have it, it's gonna come up all on a searchable database." A commercial agency from Mexico brought the cast up to LA and shot it on their stage, instead of Mexico City. Chartier explains, "We provide motion lighting with LED panels in sync with the projected video to reflect onto the vehicle. Because it's live video, we can pump it into the car, onto the actor's face, if they go under trees, you see it, if it's under a bridge, etc." Aashish continues, "Because we start every scene from the top of the clip, when the camera turns around for coverage, you still have the same environment. The lighting is consistent from the left or the right, front or back. You have the same truck pass-bys, tree branches and shadows. It's perfect for any angle you shoot." The capture van and Aashish Gandhi of Locals 600 & 695 Matt Landry (695), Aashish Gandhi (695/600) and Jim McDonald (695) in Seattle for Station 19