Our first feature film!!! Well not really, but a first for Ohio CineMotion.

Going all the way back to 2023, this began when we got the call from production to provide the lighting for the feature film, Lost and Found in Cleveland.

With that, Ohio CineMotion’s very own co-owner and gaffer, Patrick Ryan, was also given the reigns to head up the electric department. Along for the ride he added our G&E girl-wonder, Milana Scarlato, to the team to assist in DMX tech support.

At this particular time, our company had yet to do full feature run, so the most challenging part was honestly… just committing to it. Working a movie can potentially take your operation out of commission for that time, due to the long days and demanding schedule.  Plus most movies carry very flakey commitments, budgets tend to be lean, and the producers are crustier than usual.

(Just kidding. We love you producers!)

Though the biggest risk was turning away our core clients. This was not an option, so in order to take on both, Patrick and I needed a plan. And it was the tried and true, divide and conquer!

The strategy was pretty basic on paper, though challenging to execute. Patrick took the helm of the movie while I stayed back to shepherd our clients.

The movie’s producers were actually a great help with this, in an indirect way. They kept a clear line of communication throughout pre-production, letting us know when schedule changes were coming, which allowed us to stay nimble with scheduling other work.

This was also at a point in the company where our equipment inventory wasn’t as robust, so the movie ate up all our vehicles and lights. It's hard to do shoots with no light, trucks, or people, so this meant we needed to outsource pretty much…everything!  

I equated this hurdle to awaking our “producer brains”. Budget, schedule, coordinate, and then execute. Or, as it turned out: just solve a whole bunch of logistical problems while simultaneously putting out random fires.

In hindsight, this was an amazing opportunity for our growth because it forced us to strengthen these under-appreciated skillsets, that much further. None of this is particularly ground breaking in terms of running a business. However it was a moment that stood out highlighting the less creative work that is necessary, and its importance.

The shoot itself went really well, from the lighting vantage point. Our biggest challenge was with the DMX connectivity. For speed and budgetary reasons, we couldn’t hardwire all our lighting fixtures to DMX, so things needed to remain wireless.

When working in wide open public spaces, like the Playhouse Theater and the West Side Market, there can be frequency interference with the transmitters, which doesn’t give you 100% reliability. That is the dice you roll in such a scenario, but luckily in this case there weren’t many on-camera lighting gags, which demands fast reaction times from all wireless devices, so things worked out well.

All-in-all, this was a great experience and one that we are proud to be connected to.

We’re so glad they chose a CLEVELAND based lighting company to work on movie titled, “Lost and Found in CLEVELAND.” Like most movies with Cleveland in the title, Cleveland is the butt of the joke, but we’re kind of use to that and probably best vented about in another post.

But seriously, it was a lot of fun and we had a great time working with the many talented creatives. We’re truly proud to help bring this to life!