Rainbow Tribe is a heartwarming story set in Bemidji, Minnesota, about a middle-aged adult in crisis (played by JAG’s David James Elliott), who reunites with his best friend when he returns to the summer camp of his youth. His troubles seem to multiply when he is joined by a rag-tag group of 10-year-old campers. Through their individual struggles, however, the group collectively overcomes their personal problems, ultimately experiencing one of the best summers of their lives.

Written by Daniel Frisch and directed by Chris Watson, the $2.5 million film was shot throughout 10 locations, “many of them doubling and tripling other locations, with half of the shooting days at overnight locations,” notes Frisch. “We shot one week on a stage at Renmar Studios, then did 12 days of overnight locations in Crestline and Big Bear, [and at] Camp Edwards and Calvary Christian Camp. The total shoot was 24 days, done entirely in the month of August, 2007.” For DP Shane Daly, whose credits include Alpha Male, Love Me Still and Psych 9 (www.shanedaly.co.uk ), the tight schedule meant that he had to move very fast, despite shooting on 35mm. “Also, most of our leads were children so their working hours were restricted,” he adds.

So what specific lights did he use? “The director and I decided that Rainbow Tribe would be best serviced with a glossy ‘studio’ look and feel,” says Daly. “For the day exteriors and interiors I manipulated natural light as much as possible, and where necessary, embellished with HMI sources through big soft frames. For the night exteriors, I used older tungsten lights, such as 12 and 24 Dinos, and Chinese lanterns. The night interiors and studio work was also achieved with these lights.”

To shoot, the DP chose Panavision cameras with spherical Primo lenses. “I felt that soft light and sharp lenses was appropriate for creating images to tell this story, so the perfect sharpness and contrast of the Primos complimented the broad, gentle light sources very well,” he explains. “The Primo zooms share a similar MTF as the primes so I could stay on the zooms and work more quickly most of the time. The zooms are obviously slower, so in very low light situations I had to stay on the primes. But as often as possible, I chose to push the stock a stop rather than drop back to primes, as the grain increase was negligible. 

“The day-for-night sequences were the most challenging. I suggested we shoot day-for-night, as the location, our budget, and our schedule would only allow me to light a small area. But underexposing daylight locations to be graded in the DI later gave literally miles more location value, and allowed us to work faster and longer with the children during their allotted hours.

“It’s very hard to pull off; the sun constantly moves, and I tried to exclude the sky in the frame to minimize any replacement in post. With a bit of finesse in the grade, I think these scenes will standout. During one night on location, I showed director Chris Watson how bright the moonlight was, even deep in the woods, and he agreed that we should grade the DFN footage to match the look that we saw that night.”

Asked to sum up the overall experience, Daly doesn’t mince his words. “It was a very tough, very stressful shoot, but that is the nature of lower budget features,” he says. “We had some lovely people in the crew and Chris and I particularly linked arms to achieve the days and create something beyond what everyone expected of us. I think that there's nothing for nothing in this business, and I suspect that for all our hard work we'll be rewarded by a special ─ hopefully successful ─ film.”

CONTACTS:

Renmar Studios
www.renmarstudios.com

Panavision
www.panavision.com