Second Unit Psychedelia

A few weeks ago I was asked by a director friend of mine, Jay K Raja, to direct second unit on his short film The Drop. I'd never done second unit before, which on larger productions generally consists of shooting establishing shots of buildings or closeups of signs and such. When he explained what we were going to do, I couldn't wait to start.

Essentially, Jay handed myself and cinematographer Boa Simon a fish tank, some neon blinking lights, a number of inks, and both a 35mm and a RED camera - and said, "it's a trip-out scene."

So for four days, Boa and I played with ink, water, and light. You've probably seen footage of ink hitting water and making interesting shapes. Well, they wanted something a little more ... psychedelic. And after four days with a fish tank and inks, you start to get creative. I'm fairly certain you've never seen this kind of footage.

Below is a small sample of what we shot (password is "drop in"):

I'm really happy with what we got. Some of it just looks too weird - like computer graphics. Trust me when I say it's nothing but light, ink, and water. Pretty great for a second unit shoot!