My 1st plastic surgery shoot (I lived!)

B

billt

Member
I got an assignment to shoot one of the Dr's in the same suite as Dr. Rey of Dr. 90201.

It was a good introduction for me as it was a very quick and easy procedure. I shot a woman getting a saline implant inserted into her upper and lower lips. It's a new procedure and took less than an hour.

The procedure itself was pretty straight forward and mercifully free of blood. *For those with week stomachs do not read on.*

Actually it wasn't bad but I don't want to offend anyone.

The Dr. began with a local anesthetic. Once the woman's face was numb he opened a path into her lip with a scalpel and proceeded to insert a pair of scissors and cut a tunnel through her lip. Once the canal was created he was able to insert the saline implant and inflate it to a predetermined size, kind of like a sleep number mattress.

It was pretty surreal and I was grateful to have a b/w viewfinder to help remove me from the procedure. But you do have to keep peaking with your other eye to get a sense of what's going on.

The biggest challenge was exposure. Once they swing in that intense surgery light you either expose for the Dr. and let the patient go nuclear or expose for the patient and let the room go dark. I had to dial in ND just to shoot around F8.

It was a first for the producer and myself and we kept checking in with each other to make sure we were ok. My audio guy was a season regular on Dr. 9 so this was a walk in the park for him.

My hats off to all you surgery shooters.
 
For some reason,this has never bothered me.I used to shoot for CNN's medical unit and for an outfit called Medstar that did medical procedurals.I also spent three weekends in Cook County hospital's emergency shooting gunshot wounds for PBS.
I find it fascinating that someone would have the knowledge and chutzspah to enter the human body and correct something in this grand design.
The only thing that bothered me was when a team at Baylor decided to show us a new heart procedure on a dog.They screwed it up,and this healthy yellow lab died right in front of them.
If you don't like blood,don't shoot childbirth.Bloodier than any gunshot wound.
 
The worst I ever shot was a brain tumer being removed. It was really kind of interesting and I don't have the stongest of stomachs.

I've lost count of the number of botox injections and other similar things I shot for one show I worked on.
 
I shot a face lift once - eyes - cheeks - etc... That truly was one of the most difficult things to watch. There is something about cutting up a person's face that is more personal...than seeing it done to other body parts. They used a laser to burn - either the skin or the fat - and that smell made me queasy. Maybe it was just a bad day...cause I've shot a few surgeries, and not had a hard time at all. The face lift was probably the worst.

From what I remember, I've shot a knee replacement, open heart surgery (bipass), stent implants, two live births, one C-Section of conjoined twins, a separation of conjoined twins, women's urinary tract repair (couldn't show much of that.) I think there's a few more, but I cant remember.
 
The trick with the lighting is tight shots. Get wide shots of the room, but avoid the medium shots of the doctor and the surgery. Not only does it get you around the iris issues, it intensifies the action.
 
I can't believe that people choose to go through any surgery that isn't medically neccesary, like plastic surgery...moreso surgeries like facelifts and the like. Pain, sickness, etc...I personally don't think it's worth it.
 
I shot a little baby boy getting circumsized. That was uncomfortable. Little wuss kept cryin the whole time.
 
BlueWing said:
Total Knee replacement surgery.

It was like woodworking shop, but with less blood.
Click to expand...

HAHAHAHA! Hate to see your woodworking shop! :D

I've shot a few, open heart surgery on a sheep being the strangest. It was done for medical research, a new tool they were testing to repair heart valves. Sadly, to make sure they did the procedure correctly, they had to kill the sheep to remove the heart to inspect the repair.

I could never shoot a facelift, that's just waaay too creepy for me and I have a pretty strong stomach for that kind of thing. I remember TLC used to have a show called "The Operation" or something like that, might be the one F11Vid is talking about. That show was pretty interesting. I could watch knee replacements, even brain surgery, but no way could I watch or shoot a facelift. I'll let Eb handle that one.

Warren
 
facelifts?

I reported on a dog facelift once... didn't shoot it but I was standing right behind the camera. English bulldog with a real wrinkly face, apparently moisture gets down in the wrinkles and promotes infection. the vet just pinched up one wrinkle in his fingers, took it off with scissors and sewed everything up... had a natsound break of the dog snoring under anesthesia but the ND made us take it out.
 
I shot a breast reduction surgery a few years ago. It required some discreet shooting and a final shot that involved some overexposure to not offend the "sensitive" viewer. There was was some blood but it didn't bother me.



Anytime there is a traumatic injury in my house, the wife passes out and I get to step in.


Maybe I should of been an EMT......
 
Did sound for about 20 episodes of the cosmetic surgery show "Skin Deep" Saw more boob jobs and liposuction than I care to remember. Worst procedure was a nose job though. The surgeon used a small silver hammer and chisel to break the bone through a small incision in a nostril. After a couple of taps i hear a thunk and knew that was the exact moment that the bone broke. Brrrrr!

Did an open heart surgery once too.

Blood doesn't bother me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top