An Interview With DP Graham Sheldon About Capturing the D&D Web Series ‘Goblin Mode’

No Film School: Can you tell us about the origins of Goblin Mode and how you became involved with this new D&D project?

Graham Ehlers Sheldon: Dan Casey, who is both in the cast and an Executive Producer, originally approached me about this 20-episode show created in partnership with Realm and Geek & Sundry (owned by Legendary). I have worked with Dan numerous times over the last half decade plus and it's exciting to be working on a series at Legendary Digital Networks (Legendary famously just released the excellent Dune: Part 2 earlier in 2024 with Warner Brothers).

The first thing that drew me to Sagas of Sundry: Goblin Mode was the central premise of following a bunch of lovable underdogs as they explore a vast new world and stretch their newfound freedom from a necromancer. I instantly loved that idea and saw lots of potential for an engaging long-form story.

Our talented cast includes Amy Vorpahl as DM, Danielle Radford and Jason Nguyen alongside Dan Casey and we have several secret guests throughout the season. Which, I will not speak of here because those guests are SECRET!

Prior to Directing Goblin Mode I worked as Director of Photography on Dimension 20: Neverafter directed by Michael Schaubach and I have to thank Michael for his patience and guidance in bringing me into the wide world of TTRPGs. That was a lovely crash course in making a series like this.

NFS: What are the challenges of shooting long-form Tabletop Role-Playing Game (TTRPG) actual play content like this?

Sheldon: The first challenge from the production perspective is really the amount of recording time. This show has a live to tape feel. While there is editing (helmed by our fantastic head of post, Matt Caron) the idea was to let the cast go on a seamless adventure with minimal interruptions from production.

To that end—I had initial concerns about camera overheating (which never happened once on any of our FUJIFILM camera bodies) and simply having enough media. I’m also very careful to have double backups (dual recording) on shows like this for redundancy.

What worked for us was recording internal ProRes 4K and external ProRes 4K to an Atomos Ninja Ultra. This was not my first time using an Atomos product, but I have to say the external recording never skipped a beat or lost a frame over a month and a half of filming. I'm a big believer in the Ninja Ultra system here.

Storytelling in such a long format is also a challenge and for that we had Amy Vorpahl to help lead us on this adventure. Amy is a fantastic Game Master and watching her guide this adventure was an absolute pleasure. We had some sense of where the cast might go, but many of the lighting queues were improvised live (using image based lighting from Quasar Science) as the cast made different choices.

Much of the pre-planning involved story conversations between Amy and Story Producer, Rin Ehlers Sheldon, as we worked out the various production, lighting and camera related concerns—all a normal part of the pre-production process.

NFS: What cameras (and how many) did you use for this project and why?

Sheldon: We used four FUJIFILM X-H2S cameras and a X-H2 mounted in the lighting grid pointed down paired with SIGMA X-Mount lenses. We shot 4K most of the time—especially needed for post punch-ins to get single shots on the side of the table for a final HD export.

There were a variety of reasons why I picked the FUJIFILM platform, but the 4K, added redundancy of recording ProRes both internally and externally to Atomos SSDs and the small footprint of the camera packages were all big reasons. FUJIFILM also has had wonderful color for my entire career and I was excited to work with FUJIFILM color science.

Michael Bulbenko from FUJIFILM was kind enough to provide key advice on the camera workflow and now I can’t think of doing this project with any other camera system in mind.

We also used Teradek TV to stream all the camera angles to offsite story folks, HMU and other departments as necessary. Teradek TV recorded all the camera angles to the cloud to help with continuity from both a story and lighting perspective. I intentionally consider the spacing of various departments on shows like this to avoid the feeling of having a large crowd in the middle of the soundstage all the time. This could be a perspective left over from my time in theatre.

Timecode from all cameras was easily synced up wirelessly by Atomos UltraSync devices and CONNECT modules on the back of our Ninja Ultras.

NFS: Like Dimension 20 and other Geek & Sundry shows, the production elements are a huge part of the presentation. Can you tell us about how you set up the responsive lighting that we see in the episodes?

Graham Ehlers Sheldon: The lighting of this show is something I’m proud of because you can have a certain number of lighting queues in mind, but what do you do when the cast does something entirely unexpected?

For this, we use software called Assimilate to feed video content through multi-pixel LED fixtures from Quasar Science called Double Rainbows.

Luminair, paired with an Apollo Bridge, would wirelessly control all the key lights (over wireless DMX) and other specials throughout the set. The majority of the key lighting came from Gemini 1x1 Litepanels fixtures.

As the cast would improvise—I would mix various looks from Assimilate and Luminair together. This can become a bit of a rabbit hole for continuity, but I could quickly play back the Teradek TV stream to make sure I was using the right looks for the right spots in the story.

Image based lighting is relatively new, but on a fantasy show like this I was absolutely blown away with the variety of lighting looks that we could create with a button press or two.

NFS: What does the future of TTRPG content look like to you? What would you love to see evolve for this type of content?

Sheldon: TTRPG shows are continuing to explode in popularity as evidenced in a recent profile in Time and sold out live show performances at venues like Madison Square Garden.

To me, they represent the purest form of long form storytelling in a modern content environment where short form videos more often get the buzz. They also ask something from audiences—they request your participation on the adventure. I love that.

I’m most interested in ways to marry the technology with the story in an organic and improvised way and lighting, practical effects and even LED volumes all show promise here for the future of this format.

‘Goblin Mode’ is also on the shorter/more approachable side when you look at overall runtimes and that’s why I think this series is a great bridge or starting place for those just now discovering TTRPG shows. Head on over to Geek & Sundry’s YouTube channel and give it a watch!

NFS: If you had to give advice to anyone looking to shoot their own long-form content (TTRPG or other), what would that be?

Sheldon: If you have a story to tell and the will to do it I think it’s time for you to get started. Don’t get hung up on the technology and use what you have access to (mobile phones and affordable action cams keep getting better and better, for example).

Work with good and kind people and you will naturally support one another through the tricky moments and understand that if the cast & crew finds the creative process to be a joyful one then this joy will inevitably carry over to the content being produced.

It’s a scary thing to put yourself out there, but remember that the hardest job and the most rewarding job is to create something.

NFS: What's next for Goblin Mode and the Geek & Sundry channel?

Sheldon: Sagas of Sundry: Goblin Mode is out now! Comment on the Geek & Sundry channel and tell us what you think. We all read that feedback and try to engage with viewers of the show whenever possible. We made this for you!

Fingers crossed there will be a Season 2 of Goblin Mode, but I know the plan for Geek & Sundry is to continue being the go-to spot for tabletop games and that isn’t going to change anytime soon. I was a fan of the channel before I ever got to work there and I can tell you the team behind Geek & Sundry are gamers through and through and love the heck out of what they do.