It’s long after sunset. The lights blaze overhead. Josh, the director of photography, calls for… a fern.
“You want us to put a WHAT on the C-Stand?!?”
As a grip, I get asked to use a lot of equipment, from lights to sandbags. But a fern is not something I ever expected to make the list, but it was asked for every day. Without fail.
This simple thing can be found all over the forest where we filmed.
“The light is too bright on the actor’s face.” Josh called out.
Put a fern in front of the light.
“There’s an empty area on the ground.”
Fern.
“We need a bit of depth in the shot.”
You guessed it. Fern in the foreground.
It got the point where I began to expect the request. Ferns are versatile objects and can be used to cut out some of the light without making it look staged.
Once we migrated from filming in the woods, however, ferns don’t really help, but the joke remains. Even, now, a year after principal photography, we make comments about putting fern in the foreground.
We still have more to do to finish the film. Help us get the rest of the way to get our movie to the community.
