Adam Savage backstage at Hamilton in San Francisco.

The props master takes him on a tour of some of the backstage areas and shows off a lot of props. Of course there are lots of other little things you can see in the background.

Tons of great tips and tricks in this video. Really blown away. Love the trick Eric used to fix a chair leg, used CA Glue (Cyanoacrylate aka super glue/krazy glue) and then just wrapped it in FiberFix!
 
And the foam box to make it light. So many great ideas there. Champagne glasses are also great.
 
As a retired cameraman, this video is hard to watch despite showing some cool tricks. Following action like this with a handheld camera requires considerable skill. To be continuously out of focus as this camera operator was, caused me to cringe every time there was a search for sharp focus. A wide angle lens with its greater depth of field would have made focusing much less of a struggle for the operator. The gold standard cameraman for this type of handheld work is Dick Holden, the original operator on "This Old House." Dick's skill makes it appear he's using a Steadicam but it's a wide angle lens and incredible talent that guides the viewer on a silky smooth journey through an old house.
 
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As a retired cameraman, this video is hard to watch despite showing some cool tricks. Following action like this with a handheld camera requires considerable skill. To be continuously out of focus as this camera operator was, caused me to cringe every time there was a search for sharp focus. A wide angle lens with its greater depth of field would have made focusing much less of a struggle for the operator. The gold standard cameraman for this type of handheld work is Dick Holden, the original operator on "This Old House." Dick's skill makes it appear he's using a Steadicam but it's a wide angle lens and incredible talent that guides the viewer on a silky smooth journey through an old house.

I haven't watched it yet, but I guarantee that the reason it's all out of focus is because they used a DSLR or large-sensor camera of some sort and had the lens wide-open. Short depth of field is a nice effect, but really...you gotta get it in focus sometimes. The This Old House shows (and essentially every remote show on TV in the 80's thru 2005) were shot on 2/3" tube or chip cameras, that while they could make pretty pictures did not offer very short DOF unless you pulled some tricks. (Which I often did.) I really like Adam Savage and most of his stuff, but I think he's poorly served by some of the kids he has doing production for him. Standard disclaimer: I was in broadcast TV for 35 years, so GET OFFA MY YARD, you meddling kids!! :p
 
I haven't watched it yet, but I guarantee that the reason it's all out of focus is because they used a DSLR or large-sensor camera of some sort and had the lens wide-open. Short depth of field is a nice effect, but really...you gotta get it in focus sometimes. The This Old House shows (and essentially every remote show on TV in the 80's thru 2005) were shot on 2/3" tube or chip cameras, that while they could make pretty pictures did not offer very short DOF unless you pulled some tricks. (Which I often did.) I really like Adam Savage and most of his stuff, but I think he's poorly served by some of the kids he has doing production for him. Standard disclaimer: I was in broadcast TV for 35 years, so GET OFFA MY YARD, you meddling kids!! :p
Yes exactly and the lens was probably a $5000 Zeiss prime which may have added to someone’s illusion that a high budget feature film was being shot. What they ended up with was a show that looked like it was shot by a 15 year old volunteer at the local cable access channel.
 
Video #2 is out (there are supposed to be 4 total). This time he's talking wigs and costumes with King George.

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Great stuff, thanks for bringing this to light for us (late to the party as always).

I like that the great Adam Savage, knower of all things, looks at the small print on the handbills and newspaper and says "Oh, you've got Greek text here".
Sorry Adam, that's called Lorem Ipsum. That dummy text has been in use for centuries, in fact, it was already old in Hamilton's time. Read about it here.
 
This is my favorite video so far. Adam's excitement about what a modern console can do just makes me smile. I am blown away by the mixing style, and I really liked how Head Audio, Kevin McCoy, has laid out his cues in the script. Really nicely done!
 
impressive!
 
Fun to watch. I wonder how much Adam actually knows. I also feel bad for the board op who clearly was running around and is sweaty right before the one take interview.
 
Another great video. I learnt something new about audio today (not that hard to do really when it is your weak point) Looking forward to the next one.
 
I kind of want to show this to the 8th grader who runs our sound board the next time he complains about fading out one song then fading in the next one :twisted:

Another interesting look. Keep them coming!

edit: Also, Kevin is a badass - playing that board like a boss.
 
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And in the final video we learn about custom built mic booms...
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