“Airplane mode” – interview with Colt Seman

Hello Colt, we have seen some photos on Instagram about your new film, it looks like a crazy comedy! Can you tell us something about the story?

Airplane Mode is a film about a group of people flying to Australia for a social media convention. Koala air is no normal airline and the craziness will ensue.

Where are you shooting Airplane mode?

Airplane mode is being shot at RED Hollywood studios and where we constructed a whole plane to be built on stage. RED studios stages gave us the power to do whatever we wanted.

When did you start to work on this film?

We started on this film a year ago when it was just in conception with David Dinetz, Dylan Trussell, Logan Paul, and Jake Paul at our house. In that time it we raised the financing and make the craziest story ever. Working on the film since day one has been a treat in learning the whole creative process of a film.

Is there already a date when we can see it? We can’t wait too long!

No Date has been set yet but when it is, everyone in the world will know.

Moving to the technical point of view, you’ve chosen a Lambda nodal Head and a Maxima Head. Can you tell us in which cases you use one or the other?

CARTONI allowed us to tell the story better. Being in such tight confined spaces, the Lamda 25 was small enough to let me reach the lens into places no other system could. Low dolly shots in-between the aisles were a challenge. The Lambda made it all possible while moving around our plane set. The Maxima head was build to be a precise and smooth system. I have never felt a camera head to be that precise which let me move the picture image smoothly and graciously to where I wanted my lens to land.

What is the aspect of Lambda that you like most? Would you recommend to use it to other DP?

Lamda is a tool that has its place, no other system in the world works as easily and perfectly. Shots can be designed and shaped better because of the that system.

At the NAB Show 2016 we’ve just introduced the Lambda 25 and Lambda 10, for lighter cameras, did you have a chance to see or try them?

Smaller lambdas built for today’s ever-evolving cameras be better balanced and you as a DOP have a larger field of view in creating beautiful images.

And what about the Maxima? How is it to balance extreme long lenses?

I was on a commercial shooting Starbucks Worldwide campaign and we lived on the 24-290mm. being a large and heavy lens I needed the Maxima to really balance my camera out. You can make fast and precise camera moves in getting your shot.

From an ergonomic point of view, how do you find the Maxima?

Maxima were built for the DP and camera assistants in mind. Large handles to access the camera and make fast adjustments. Allowing you to do you job right and not have to worry about missing your mark. At the end of the day it’s about making great content and it gives you that ability to do so.

Do you have any suggestion to improve Lambda & Maxima?

I do have suggestions from my operators, camera assistants, and grips. I will get all there suggestions and compile them together for you. So far you make one hell of a system.

Last but not least… shooting a comedy can be really funny and we have seen already some cool BTS videos and photos! Can you tell us something funny that happened on the set than you will remember?

Comedy’s are really fun to make and there is some much around you that is funny. We had a mechanical baby on set that crawled and looked something out of a scary movie. Hiding the doll behind individuals and turning it on would make anyone jump 10 feet in the air. I probably jumped 12 feet when it happened to me.