PRODUCTION NOTES

WHEN THE PITBULL BITES
THIS BLOG ARTICLE now appearing on DSLR News Shooter
a production blog on the filming at the american top team headquarters
11-29-10
By: Kahleem Poole-Tejada (Director, Editor, Cinematographer)

First off I would like to thank my best buddy Jason Nurse for his support in chauffeuring me around Florida. He drove nearly 2hrs to pick me up from Ft Lauderdale and then another trip over to Coconut Creek for this small production. Needless to say, along with being the impromptu boom operator, he was a major player in this project.

The day was gorgeous out there, especially coming from the NY/NJ region in the same week. I’ve been to Florida plenty of times, but this was one experience where I was able to move around a bit more and take in the environment.  Many of the establishing shots were taken during the trip to the gym and the other pit stops along the way. Boca Raton’s sunset was gorgeous and it definitely had to play a part in the setting of the IHP (Institute of Human Performances) segment.

For the shoot, my main supplies were the H4N Zoom to capture richer sound for interviews between Seth Jordan (IHP operator) and Thiago Alves himself. Most of the general sound was captured with a basic Rode Video Mic, mounted on the hot shoe of the Canon 550d/T2i. Surprisingly, during Din Thomas’ dialogue, it came out very clear. Even dealing with the AGC troubles within the default body setup.

My lenses were a mix of old and new. One was the Olympus OM Zuiko 28mm prime from the 70’s (I believe), which was used to capture wide shots. Not enough can be said about this lens’ colour clarity and sharpness, easily on par with my counterpart L lens, the 24-105mm Canon. Special thanks to my bro Robert Billings of Fractured Minds for this equipment. He’s an excellent photographic artist, so it would serve well to check out his port, also done mostly with Canon equipment.

For any and all action based shots, I tend to love using zooms. It serves as provided more dramatic input and giving me freedom to catch wide shots for action based pacing and close ranged shots for more intricate, technical and emotional moments.

My original kit lens served me well in the past, but as I evolved in shooting, I started to see the flaws. Drastically. The images weren’t sharp and most of all, no constant aperture when zooming. This is a serious god send to have on a lens for filming, but can be compensated for with photos. Again, fortunate to have this L lens- it was a blessing to grade in post with its rich colours, contrast information and much more detail than I’ve dealt with in the past. The differences between my L and the original 18-55mm were like night and day.

Thiago was an awesome sport. For one, he checked out my original edited layout from all the collected footage of his career. Including some from his hospital visit (more details in the final release soon). The most mesmerizing thing positively had to be with him standing in front of the laptop, looking at the work I produced of him kicking ass. No a moment like that can be equaled, I believe- it was truly surreal. Beyond that, we just basically hung out for a few as I filmed, chatted about typical random stuff and I became acquainted with more members of the team, such as Gleison and reacquainted with Din and Gesias.

Half of the action with the American Top Team facility was organized by Boxing trainer, Howard Davis Jr. He had the guys go through some round robin sparring sessions, which included Gleison, Din and this unnamed badass kid in read headgear, who was probably, at most, 17yrs old. I haven’t seen Boxing technique like THAT in an MMA gym in well—ever, really.

Thiago’s part within the main gym in Coconut Creek was in a long warm up stretching session, for which I caught for establishing the brotherhood relationship of the entire ATT family. After that, it was catching the moments of these guys joking around, rolling (a jiujitsu term, meaning “sparring”) and tidbits of a Capoeira demonstration. Needless to say, it was VERY difficult trying to leave- almost immediately felt like I belonged there.

Later on at 6pm, we headed over to IHP in Boca Raton. This was another place that I nearly “marked out” in, as I follow a lot of their articles on fitness regimens. Especially for training fighters. This place is essentially the ATT members’ second home. Speaking of which, famed Light Heavyweight/Heavyweight fighter, Jeff “Snowman” Monson was just finishing up his training and leaving the facility when I arrived.

Thiago arrived shortly thereafter with members of his crew, including his Muay Thai trainer and Strength and Conditioning coach. This entire session would consist of 3x 5min. rounds of cardio, pad work, resistance training and other exercises. With respect to his training camp, I won’t reveal the exacting details of his session, but it WAS grueling. One of the workouts included a neck strengthening machine, which looked like something out of Star Wars. Lessons learned on that one- I need to get myself a neck/weight harness for home.

The entire shoot ended sometime around 8pm, which we then got some dialogue from Thiago. Mostly about his mindset during the training, what changes he’s done in his life to improve his performance and his goals toward retaining another title shot. In these types of “confessional” segments, I always try to capture the audio in a richer format. Namely with the H4N. Then afterwards, sync it up in post with the video and make any other appropriate edits later. The entire project came out well for that visit, so I’m happy Thiago was kind enough to invite us to his entire training day.

Unfortunately we didn’t get Friday’s sparring session with him, which I really wanted to capture. However, we caught more than enough for provide a 10min. hybrid- a Documentary Highlight short film, based around Alves himself and marquee members of the ATT family.

Hopefully I’ll be able to do it all over again, but with more time on my table. These guys are truly a welcoming family and I would definitely like to do a more detailed short film on American Top Team as a whole in the near future.

OSU!

-KahL-One
www.kahl-one.com
Kahleem@gmail.com