We have been deep into capturing season 5 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel after I heard the seven phrases that no digital camera assistant ever needs to listen to.
“We’re recreating a shot from final week.”
I steadied myself. Recreating a digital camera setup is troublesome on any manufacturing, and much more so on a present like Maisel, which thrives on lengthy takes and sophisticated setups. It’s important to recall actual measurements—digital camera top, lens measurement, focus distance, filtration, tilt angle, digital camera settings… the record goes on—and the duty of recording all that data falls on the shoulders of the second digital camera assistant.
Me.
I might already see our digital camera operator Jim McConkey coming for me, asking, “What lens have been we on final week? How tall was the digital camera? What was the lean?”
Instinctively, I turned and ran. I wasn’t quitting my job or operating off set to dwell out the remainder of my life within the wilderness, I used to be heading out to the digital camera truck to retrieve the large binder with my digital camera experiences for your complete present.
Then I remembered that the binder wasn’t wanted. I already had the data I wanted in my pocket. Extra particularly, on my cellphone, as a result of I used to be utilizing ZoeLog.
What’s ZoeLog?
I’ve used loads of instruments on set, however that is my favourite by far. Pronounced zo-ee-log, ZoeLog is an iPhone app that’s a digital camera reporting and log system that permits a number of customers to rapidly see detailed digital camera data for a lot of totally different tasks.
It really works offline in the event you’re caught on location and not using a cellphone sign or web entry, and it’ll routinely add your data to the cloud when your gadget comes again on-line. And it’s particularly helpful for VFX shoots or when it’s essential see what one other crew is doing whereas your present is capturing in two areas directly. It was a necessary instrument on Maisel and it was seen in a single type or one other by the entire manufacturing.
ZoeLog is called after its creator Zoe Van Brunt, a former digital camera assistant and operator. As soon as, I needed to attain out for help by the app’s FAQ web page and I used to be shocked when the precise Zoe Van Brunt replied! (One thing that made the opposite digital camera assistants a bit of jealous.)
So who is that this mysterious programmer? How did she create this app? When did she get the thought for ZoeLog and simply how had she turned it into her major enterprise?
Let’s discover out.
At first
“Paper log books have been by no means notably environment friendly or dependable,” Zoe tells me over the cellphone. “You could possibly lose them or they might get broken. Or you have got it in your again pocket and you are taking it dwelling. Then you must begin a brand new one. So the thought was to have only one centralized database that everybody on the identical job might entry at any time.”
I nod, undoubtedly not trying on the six-or-so deserted log books I’ve sitting in a drawer subsequent to my mattress. I used to be shocked to search out out she didn’t have an accent—I’d heard from one other digital camera assistant that Zoe was British and that she lives in England. Neither is true. She lives in California.
“You already know, digital camera assistants generally deal with you just like the Wizard of Oz,” I inform her. “I keep in mind I needed to attain out to you for a help challenge and the opposite ACs have been jealous. They stated, ‘I need to speak to the Zoe too!’ That’s how they referred to you, as the Zoe.”
She laughs. “It’s humorous. I began renting out my carts to different digital camera assistants, and I used to be over at Panavision dropping off with anyone and so they immediately stated, ‘I simply realized you’re the Zoe that made ZoeLog! Oh my god!’ I nonetheless assume that’s hilarious.”
“So, how are you coping with your newfound celeb?” I joke.
“Yeah, proper!” she cries.
The following step
“So that you had this concept, what was the next step? Did you must educate your self easy methods to code?” I ask.
She thinks about it earlier than answering. “I’ve at all times been a giant nerd. I used to be writing little video games in BASIC on my outdated Apple 2GS again within the 80s. I’ve at all times had an curiosity in that, however it was by no means an expert curiosity.”
“After I was in faculty finding out movie, I had this sense that there was completely no assure that this could pan out. I may not truly get any work, particularly as a trans particular person. I undoubtedly misplaced out on loads of jobs. So I felt prefer it was essential to develop another marketable ability.”
“So whereas I used to be in class, I additionally took some pc science courses simply to get a bit of little bit of a basis in that.”
I pause to take this in. My favourite app was partly created as a result of this good girl thought she may not be accepted in our business. As I course of, Zoe tells me about her first foray into app growth.
“I used to be engaged on the present Home, M.D. because the movie loader, and the A digital camera assistant Dan Urbain needed to know if I might work out a system the place I might use a barcode scanner to scan the precise barcodes on all of the tools, and maintain my very own log of what’s going out and in. That manner, we’d have a document that’s as detailed because the digital camera home’s document needs to be.”
“I might have finished it in Excel, however I acquired the concept that it could be good to make one thing that was a bit of bit extra environment friendly. So I made a database program that might maintain observe of what every merchandise was. I known as my program Gear Tracker.”
This amazes me. “So that you had a handheld barcode scanner and every little thing?”
Zoe laughs. “I had two! And on the finish of the season, we had zero lacking gear.”
Quick. Simple. Accessible.
“So, seeing what I used to be capable of do with Gear Tracker,” she continues, “it wasn’t too far-fetched to ask myself ‘Can we simply have a database of our digital camera log entries?”
However making a digital camera database was not a straightforward activity. Zoe had talked to a couple buddies who have been experimenting with comparable concepts, however their strategies required a cumbersome on-set server, and their digital camera data needed to be manually entered with a keyboard.
“The important thing takeaway was that it was more durable to make use of than a easy log ebook,” she says, “and I felt like that was the most important hurdle with ZoeLog. Nobody’s going to make use of it if it’s more durable than writing in a log ebook.”
After cautious consideration, Zoe determined to create her program as an iPhone app.
Breaking the code
“To require assistants to have their laptop computer on set would simply be a barrier that might make it more durable to make use of,” Zoe explains. “However in the event you needed to sort issues in with a keyboard then persons are not going to make use of it.”
She started writing ZoeLog in Goal-C, just for Apple to immediately introduce the Swift programming language in 2014. Taking this in her stride, she ended up instructing herself a wholly new programming language whereas additionally juggling full-time work on reveals corresponding to Clear and Grace and Frankie.
“It took a extremely very long time,” she remembers. “Computer systems don’t know easy methods to interpret. They’re very literal with directions. There are all these various things that should go proper which are simply counterintuitive from a human-thinking perspective.”
After which there was the added problem of constructing an app that was sooner than writing on paper.
“What turned actually essential have been the customized keypads for each subject,” Zoe reveals, “and auto-filling the proper suffixes and automating as a lot as attainable. Simply making an attempt to make it so you’ll be able to enter knowledge into ZoeLog sooner than you’ll be able to write it.”
The following few years have been spent coding at any time when she might discover the time. However tv work is intense and filming schedules might be erratic and unpredictable. Finally, Zoe’s spouse sat her down to speak in regards to the app.
“She noticed I used to be engaged on this factor that predated our relationship,” Zoe shares, “and she or he informed me ‘Hey, you’re employed on this factor on a regular basis however you by no means get something finished. You might want to work out a schedule so that you just dedicate sufficient time engaged on it you can truly full it.’ So we did that, and later that 12 months I used to be lastly capable of launch the primary model of Zoelog. That was in 2017.”
A brand new manner of working
So is the present model the identical because the one in use as we speak? “Sure and no,” Zoe admits. “In case you strip out all of the digital camera report stuff then sure. There weren’t very many new options that got here out for a very long time, as a result of it was nonetheless only a log ebook.”
“It didn’t export PDFs. It didn’t do digital camera experiences. It was very barebones in that manner. However largely the keypads that you just see, the look of the particular log view, it was just about the identical. Principally, the looks of ZoeLog remained the identical till 2020.”
2020, as everyone knows, is when Covid-19 modified the way in which movie and tv are made around the globe. Immediately, there have been new protocols meant to restrict person-to-person contact.
“It wasn’t till then that the dialog began about how we’re passing backwards and forwards these paper digital camera experiences,” Zoe remembers, “and folks needed to scale back the quantity of direct contact as a lot as attainable on set.”
As soon as once more, it was Dan Urbain who reached out to Zoe and urged her to work on an answer.
“Dan was nice. He stated to me ‘I do know we’ve talked about digital camera experiences up to now and I do know it’s one thing that you just’re not tremendous psyched about doing, however we’re coming into this case the place persons are searching for an alternative choice to paper experiences. I feel that you must take that chance to implement that into ZoeLog.’ And that was convincing sufficient.”
Zoe went to her pc to deal with her new purpose. Whereas the remainder of us have been binge-watching Tiger King, Zoe was determining easy methods to retrofit digital camera experiences onto her app. That fall, she emerged from quarantine with a brand new model of ZoeLog, full with digital camera experiences.
Tech Help
Immediately, Zoe’s finish of the cellphone line goes silent. “Sorry. I simply acquired a help e mail. Only one second…”
Getting this temporary inside look into the day-to-day operating of ZoeLog is revealing. Zoe is the solely one who works on her app. She handles the entire programming, updates, and technical help. If you ship an inquiry by ZoeLog’s FAQ web page, the message lands straight in Zoe’s inbox, and also you get an actual response from Zoe, a residing, skilled digital camera assistant.
In a world of chatbots and AI textual content mills, her private contact is exceptional.
“It’s not an emergency,” Zoe shares, when she resurfaces. “That’s at all times the calculus. I attempt to reply as rapidly as attainable, but in addition I strive to not let it interrupt what I’m doing until it’s an emergency.”
“Initially, on the web site, the help e mail interface was a typical ‘Inform us what’s happening and we’ll get again to you as quickly as attainable’ and the emails that I might get could be much more derisive and unfriendly and combative, as a result of so far as they knew I used to be some large company.”
“I used to be faceless, and I wasn’t an individual. That didn’t make me really feel excellent. So I modified the way in which it’s written on the web site to be ‘I will get again to you as quickly as attainable. Ask Zoe a query.’ That’s how I modified it, and after I did that the emails turned very totally different. Individuals turned lots friendlier, much more understanding after they knew that they have been emailing an individual.”
“I nonetheless get some ‘Why do I pay for this?’ emails,” Zoe laughs. “It’s not fairly often. I feel there’s this false impression that I’m getting wealthy off this app. I’m barely making sufficient cash. I’m making lower than after I was a digital camera assistant, for certain.”
However there are benefits to being the top of a solo operation. Not too long ago, Zoe integrated her app into the Frame.io platform and located it very straightforward to execute all of the programming modifications herself.
“I feel I had the benefit of being one particular person on this scenario. Body would ask ‘Can we alter such-and-such for no matter purpose’, after which a few hours later I’d say, ‘Okay right here you go! Right here’s the brand new beta model.’ They usually’d say, ‘That was actually quick!’ I assume it didn’t must undergo as many individuals as it would at a giant company.”
Zoe loves the Body.io philosophy. She thinks each firms share a standard purpose.
“Body.io and ZoeLog are an extension of the identical sort of thought course of,” Zoe muses. “Why can’t we enhance on a few of these older methods that possibly aren’t serving us in addition to they used to?”
The highway forward
As for the long run, Zoe has large plans.
“My largest precedence now could be getting an Android model on the market,” she confides. “However the issue is that I additionally don’t need to keep two fully totally different code bases for ZoeLog.”
Sadly, iPhone apps and Android apps are constructed in another way. iOS apps are constructed on Swift, a coding language distinctive to Apple, whereas Android apps are typically constructed on totally different languages.
“I can’t simply switch all of it from the iOS model to the Android model,” Zoe clarifies, “and I don’t need to simply duplicate what I’m doing for Android. I need to make each variations higher. Individuals ask, ‘When is the Android model going to be out?’ Not but. However I promise I’m engaged on it.”
Customers additionally are likely to ask Zoe so as to add options to ZoeLog.
“Photographs,” Zoe says. “Lots of people assume it could be nice if ZoeLog had photographs. And I perceive why they really feel that manner. Nevertheless, there’s loads of explanation why ZoeLog mustn’t have photographs.”
Primary, she tells me, is safety. Scene numbers and lens knowledge aren’t that worthwhile outdoors of manufacturing, however behind-the-scenes photographs may very well be seen as a tempting commodity. Motive quantity two is bulk. ZoeLog is a lean and imply utility meant for use offline and on the go. She doesn’t need to add something that might lavatory down the quick-use nature of her app.
Cellular apps needs to be cellular
“You possibly can’t activate Instagram when you haven’t any sign, proper?’ Zoe requested. “If ZoeLog had footage, all these footage must be in your gadget, in any other case you wouldn’t have the ability to have a look at them. And a manufacturing with a number of cameras goes to have 1000’s upon 1000’s of entries.”
“That’s 1000’s of images in your gadget. And I don’t need to add a function that’s solely out there on-line if I can keep away from it. As a result of, in the event you can solely entry the photographs on-line, you’re going to be in a scenario the place you’ll be able to’t entry that picture, and that function is ineffective.”
“Our jobs are actually arduous. The very last thing I need to do is make them more durable.”
Additionally, there are already many apps and software program in the marketplace that combine photographs right into a manufacturing’s workflow. The Magic Viewfinder apps, for instance, can help you take and add photographs to a challenge out of your cellphone, and they’re already conveniently built-in into Body.io’s C2C workflow.
“The entire philosophy behind ZoeLog is, ‘If it’s not simpler, why am I doing it?’ As a result of our jobs are actually arduous. The very last thing I need to do is make them more durable. Every thing I do is to attempt to enhance and make issues simpler.”
The vacation spot
“Do you assume we’re all going to grow to be a hive thoughts on set?” I ask, half-seriously. “Will all of us finally be plugged into the identical challenge on the similar time, making 1,000,000 selections as one large entity?”
“I don’t know what the long run goes to appear like,” she replies. “Look, we’re nonetheless utilizing the identical expertise to maneuver a digital camera round as we did seventy years in the past. It’s nonetheless a digital camera on a dolly. Positive, we might use movement management for each shot if we needed to, however it doesn’t make sense. There are particular issues that simply good outdated dry erase goes to resolve.”
“For instance,” she provides, “there was a second the place folks have been significantly pondering of use iPads as slates!”
“No!” I groan. It’s too quickly to even joke about. “So what recommendation would you give to those who have an thought and need to develop a instrument or an app of their very own?”
“Break it down into smaller elements,” she responds instantly, “as a result of once you have a look at an thought on its face and also you’re pondering ‘How do I even try this?’ it’s normally since you’re it as a complete. It’s important to have a look at it and say, ‘What’s absolutely the minimal I must do to get this began? And that’s the place it’s essential go from.”
“I feel what’s nice about digital camera assistants is that we’re skilled drawback solvers. All digital camera assistants do these issues the place your digital camera operator or your DP says, ‘I need to do it this manner, how can we try this?’ And then you definately go away and you work it out.”
“As you remedy every particular person half, it makes all the opposite issues much less large.”
“I feel it’s only a matter of reapplying that mentality to different issues and breaking down issues into their constituent elements. Then, as you remedy every particular person half, it makes all the opposite issues much less large and the options are a bit of extra clear.”
“Make issues that you just need to use,” Zoe provides. “If you wish to use it, another person goes to need to use it too.”
The ties that bind
Having now “met” Zoe, I really feel a mixture of feelings. The primary of which is gratitude. It’s comforting to listen to that somebody has finished the identical work you do, and is now working to make issues higher. Not only for her, or me, however for everybody.
However I additionally really feel proud. Like I’m a part of a legacy and there’s an invisible thread connecting me to others, that we have been all working collectively in direction of an analogous purpose. And that’s to make issues higher on set. It feels good to be a small a part of that group effort.
Earlier than my name with Zoe, I might by no means have suspected that app growth was something just like the multi-year journey that ZoeLog went by. It’s made me have a look at the apps on my cellphone and surprise what tales lay behind all these little logos…
It’s additionally inspiring. I’m undoubtedly going to maintain Zoe’s recommendation near my coronary heart: break issues down into smaller elements, and attempt to make issues that you just need to use your self.
It’s good recommendation.
Featured picture: Zoe on the set of American Princess. Picture credit score: Sarah Terry
