THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS: AN INTERVIEW WITH MARK LAFLEUR AND OLD FAST GLASS (Part II)
Founder of Old Fast Glad Mark LaFluer
Our continued conversation with Old Fast Glass founder and cinematographer Mark LaFleur
THE RESULTS OF CREATING
ML: I’ve always had a lot of different dreams growing up. They’ve always been, one way or another, about making something. I thought I wanted to be a chef for a while. I pursued building furniture. I played music. We’ve written hundreds of songs with the bands I’ve played in, and it’s an amazing feeling. As a cinematographer you are essentially in that control, obviously answering to a director, but essentially in control of the image. I get so much satisfaction from the perspective of how something looks. If you feel emotional when you look at an image then I’m helping the story. At the end of the day everything I’ve ever responded to when it comes to work has something to do with creation.
GIVING BACK TO THE INDUSTRY
ML: I've been to rental houses where you walk in, and it's a windowless warehouse. It feels like no one cares at all about what the experience is. I do like the way the building (OFG) feels, the vibe of the people that work here, the process of working with us versus other places. We are part of your team. It has fulfilled me in that same way as a cinematographer creating images. I feel like I'm just sort of creating another experience for people, and helping them to create their images.
The most obvious way ( we are giving back) is the lens library, the lens testing, and some of the educational stuff that we do. Those are very much linked to starting the company, that is launching our first lens tests. I was doing tons of research over the years of what lenses I responded to, and finding good lens test footage was nearly impossible. If someone would shoot something in their backyard they would have no data of how they shot it or if it were a rental house it was just a camera set up in the rental house and some lenses on it. I don't know if they were shooting it for their clients or for marketing. It felt like there was no place you could go to just see what all these lenses really look like, and in an environment where you can trust what you're seeing, along with data that shows you what you're seeing.
It was meant to be educational, but our lens test has a certain aesthetic. We wanted the test to have an iconic look with a color scheme and an a nice image to look at, something that looked a little more real world. People responded to it and In 2019 we did the anamorphic lens test and that one got a crazy amount of attention. We then did a big follow up with a full frame lens test. We worked with Sharegrid and they built a quad player so you could play four lenses at once. The side by side really let you compare them. We wanted people to see they could trust us and that these images aren’t manipulated in any way. Love it or hate it, here they are. Here are the lenses and you can see which one is perfect for your project. It wasn’t a shoot out to see the best lens, instead it was to show you as many lenses as we could possibly compile. There is no best, or worse.
So many hours went into it, and we are continuing to do educational workshops, but still we didn't know what it would lead to or how many people would know us for them. I had a good feeling that they'd be popular only because I knew there were a lot of people, like myself, that were looking for footage comparing glass. We’ve had some big cinematographers like Greg Fraser saying they love these tests. That’s because of these hours of testing we’ve provided mean they don’t have to do it. When we were working on the anamorphic project, Greg Fraser actually came and sat with our editor because he was preparing for a movie, and knew he wanted to shoot anamorphic. We had tested every lens you could find outside of Panavision. It was really nice for him to be able to sit down with the editor for two or three hours and get a good taste of everything. To me, that’s what its all about. Narrow down the lenses and go test them. Trust the footage we provided. It continues to help people make their decisions. love the relationships we have with filmmakers.
“ I think one of the reasons that people respond to what we're doing is the trust part of it”
I had been thinking about naming it Old Fast Glass for a while. At that point, we were just lenses. We didn't have cameras or accessories, so the name really made sense. We had our first brick and mortar in late 2016. I was basically a consultant for sharegrid, giving testimonials of sorts to what the owner experience should be like. I helped them with those early stages of the user experience. From the beginning I was obviously renting lenses out. The lenses I bought were ones that I considered good for my own projects. They weren't purchased as an investment. I wasn’t thinking to myself, “Oh, I'll buy these, these will make this much ROI”. That corporate mentality wasn't the motivation. If you have enough money and you can buy all the great gear, you'll probably do okay as a rental house, but there's no fun in it for me doing it that way. I didn’t have endless resources of money to buy everything so I exclusively bought what I would want to shoot with.
This allowed me to approach it from a cinematographer's perspective which sets a tone of trust between us as a rental house. I think one of the reasons that people respond to what we're doing is the trust part of it. I want to know what your project is, and what it is you are trying to do. What do you need to get what you're trying to do? I can suggest using one lens as much as I can advise against another. If it is not right for your project, you're not going to have a good experience. I think that's the thing that's really worked for us.
After the shoot is over the response we get regarding their experience, and the recommendations we gave, is that this was great. It was perfect. It worked. We love the look. There's no point in me, trying to recommend something for any other reason than them having a good experience. It creates repeat clients. I want them to always be able to trust my answer to any questions, so that’s why I’ve always been approaching it from a cinematographer's perspective.
MORE THAN CLIENTS
ML: I have people that come here that are genuinely friends. That probably sounds cheesy, but we see the same people here week after week. We know the camera assistants, we get food for everyone, we know what bay they prefer. This is what I mean by the vibe we are trying to create, we want to give you a concierge but also we want you to feel like you belong. We want people here that like what we’re doing , and know they are going to be taken care of. I’ve had clients that started with us from when they were in film school and now they’re represented and shooting huge commercials. We had clients premiere stuff at Sundance, and it’s jus been amazing to see people that were picking up gear from my apartment now shooting huge stuff. We’ve grown together like a family.
When I talk to employees I always have the same speech: We all have a job to do, but I want people to find it enjoyable and make us feel inviting. I think our clients are a big part of that too. I don’t want our staff to work with a client who’s angry or treating them like shit. I want everyone to be respected. When I walk by a prep bay I hear AC’s talking to clients . It’s always positive, and never frustrating. This business always has stress, and we’re always troubleshooting something, but the fact that we do have repeat customers makes me believe that people genuinely are excited to prep here. They know they have to spend a whole day working. At least this part of their production is going to be really enjoyable. My staff feeds on that which makes their day more enjoyable. Often my prep techs are trying to get their foot in the door as freelancers. We’ve had people hire staff straight out of the prep. Sometimes they just realize they need to hire a second on prep day and one of our techs get asked about their availability. That is the vibe of our place. I”m used to dealing with a 100 stressful things, but my employees are laughing and enjoying themselves. We are creating an environment where everyone can feel lit.
CHANGES IN THE INDUSTRY
What’s been interesting, and this may sound cocky, is that we’ve really brought attention to vintage lenses. A lot of people are interested in lenses, of course, it’s not just us, I just think we did a godo job with the lens test and with marketing to really reach a broader audience. I think that other rental houses are trying to copy what we do which is a total compliment. We’ve had companies that do rehousing tell us that rental houses from one country or another are saying they are the “Old Fast Glass” there. It’s the biggest compliment that I could ever receive. People on the other side of the planet are responding to what we’re doing, and I love that because I want everyone to appreciate these lenses. We don’t want some sort of exclusivity to that. Honestly, it’s inspired me to find even other lenses out there. Stuff I’m hoping we’re going to come out with in the next two years will be gaming changers. As the industry moves from film to digital, anamorphic lenses got lost however with the release of newer sensors the request for anamorphics blew up. We saw people get exhausted from funky anamorphic lenses and people started appreciating modern lenses, but the movement now seems to be finding more vintage glass. We treat lenses like a painter treats colors. Let’s get a s many interesting choices out there. I like that change in the industry. Sony, Panasonic, Red, Arri, they’re all amazing, and you get fantastic images out of them. Lenses really are where you get the most creative choice, and we are shifting the industry into how you get a very specific look. Cinematographers can finally be at a point where they can say “I want something very specific” and I know how I can get it. It’s nice to know that people are exited about what we are doing.
