The Latest Industry News for the Exciting World of Production.

The captivating film, Don't Tear Yourself Apart, proves that with ingenuity, friends and go-for-it attitude, anything is possible. Taking advantage of the Covid lull, co-executive producer and cinematographer JJ Osbun and screenwriter/director P. Tavares self-financed their first narrative feature. They shot for 10 days and completed the 97-minute film in 8 months time.

The camera package consisted of their personal iPhone 11 Pro and 12 Pro with 1:33 anamorphic adapters and cages that made creative rigging possible. With just himself on camera/grip/lighting Osbun kept his kit minimal and versatile, opting for color-LED lighting: two fresnels, a panel light, a few smaller fixtures and lots of tools from Matthews.

Osbun used a Go Kit, with 15mm Diff 1 and 2, 25mm Diff 2 and 3, 50mm Dif 3 and 4 C-Reflectors on nearly all setups."CRLS saved me time after time." Like when he needed to go low profile while shooting at a police station and a small 15cm C-Reflector sent a beam of sunlight 40 feet to hit an actor's face who would have otherwise fallen into shadow.

"The scene worked thanks to that C-Reflector fixed to a Babysitt'r, tucked far away." Later a single light mounted to a Matthews Monitor stand with both 25cm and 50cm C-reflectors pulled off double-duty lighting. "CRLS allows for multiple qualities of light from a single source."

It was his go-to for helping lights reach out over set. He used it to bounce a 1'x2' panel light onto the curved white ceiling for an effective makeshift cyc."I was able to set up scenes within 20-30 minutes by myself, he explains. "It was a sleeper hit -I knew I would use it, but I didn't realize how much."

Osbun used three Matthews 4.5" Vacuum Cups to mount the iPhone and lights to vehicles, explaining "With their 1/4"-20 threads you can use Matthews tapped Baby Pins to attach almost anything. Add a few Knuckleheads, and an articulating arm, and your options are significant. Building a car rig in 20 minutes was a big deal for our unforgiving schedule. These tools helped us create interesting perspectives to better tell the story-on a tight schedule with minimal resources-plus, the entire feature production kit fit in my Jeep."