production blog

← Me with Red.

If I had a crisp C-note for every time I’ve been queried about shooting with the Red I would have owned one by now with all the accessories. Today, beyond mere testing of the camera, I actually got to shoot some footage. I shot a couple of vignettes/skits for director (and in this case, actor as well) Greg McDonald. Simple stuff really, all outside under reasonably contrasty conditions. The shoot took place in the Great Burbank outdoors (97° and humid).

So how did the camera perform. We did get a several warnings about the heat level of the camera which were solved by shading the camera and turning it off when possible. But, by and large the camera worked wonderfully. As would be expected, batteries didn’t hold up as long as they would if it wasn’t as hot as it was. The camera’s layout and button functionality perform very nice under practical conditions. I’m still a big fan of the False Color metering system but I need more time under various lighting conditions in order for my interpretation of what’s on the monitor to become second nature. We did have a problem with the audio board (couldn’t record to some tracks) but that will soon be addressed when the camera gets a new audio board. The lenses we used were both Red Lenses - 18-50mm and 50-150mm both ƒ3. I look forward to seeing the footage under better conditions to better evaluate their performance. We shot using the Red Drive - no lost footage to report, which is good. We did shoot some slow motion footage at 72, 96 and 120 frame-per-second. And for what it’s worth, we shot in 4K, 2:1 aspect ratio (protecting for 16:9), using RedCode36.

All in all, it was fun and educational. I can’t wait to have a longer project to really put the camera through its paces.

↑ Photo taken durning playback. Like in “Austin Powers” , the skits played with framing that gave the, er…, wrong impression of what’s going on. Don’t read too much into the fact that we shot in the Valley!

23 Sept 2008

It’s cut and ready to see - here’s a link to the music video. I’ll also post it on my resume page in the coming days. Turned out very nice. I’ll likely still add a few more touches to the color correction. Enjoy.

15 Sept 2008

Just finished a music video for the band Autumn Tragedy and their song, “Ignis Fatuus”. Shot in a warehouse space in Corona. The project was directed by Jonathan Bowen with whom I also shot the music video for the band Winded earlier this year.

The following are frame-grabs from the shoot. I’ve been playing with some looks, so while they’ve been affected, it isn’t the final look of the project. A million thanks to the crew for all their help today! Can’t wait till this project is edited and we can go to grading. It’s gonna look good!!

Who says the production community isn’t making an effort to go green.

(more…)

Found this image online and I had to share. While I didn’t shoot it, I wish I had.

(From Apartment Therapy via Unplgged)

2008 Sept 21:

← (far left) Director/Actor Corbin Bernsen // (far right) Jim - Corbin’s personal assistant // (middle) Jim’s girlfriend whose name evades me - opps! // and some girl who happens to be looking at them.

It was a good night for a screening.

“Donna on Demand” screened tonight as part of the Temecula Valley International Film and Music Festival. We, unfortunately, had to screen from a DVD via a less than optimal video projector so the image was soft from the blowup, a bit too much contrast, somewhat washed out and was distorted a bit. That said, it looked better than expected and none of the shots look egregiously out of whack so it’s likely no one in the audience was the wiser.

Like every screening with a new audience, it was great to here them respond to the film. At the end, Corbin was pummeled by questions from the audience.

Can’t wait for what’s next.

2008 Sept 7:

Donna on Demand” will be screening at the Temecula Valley International Film & Music Festival. (That’s a mouthful!?) The festival runs from 17 - 21 September.

Our screening will be on Saturday the 20th.

Can’t wait to see it on the big screen with the cast, crew and an audience that knows little about the film.

“Donna” is a movie I shot last year. It was directed by Corbin Bernsen, who is also the lead actor, and also stars Adrienne Frantz, Susan Ruttan, Jeanne Cooper and Dan Lauria.

Done and Fun.

The short film I shot with director Clay Delauney is finished and soon will be off to the folks at Sundance for their consideration. Visit the demo reel page of my site and select watch | NARRATIVE REEL clips.

Both “The 20 Second Rule” and “TomThumb” have been recently uploaded and revised. We still have a few minor tweaks to “The 20 Second Rule” but watch it now and enjoy where it is.

Like I said, this project and “TomThumb” are now on there way to the Sundance Film Festival. Wish us luck.

One last thing, watch the credits at least until the section about “No animals were harmed…” near the end!

Click here to read an earlier post about this project.

At long last, it is finished. “TomThumb” - a short film I shot for director Clay Delauney - finished up sound a couple of days ago in anticipation for submission to Sundance. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

The project can be found on my narrative demo reel page. Just click on the thumbnail image that looks like our boy in this frame-grab.

Otherwise, here’s a direct link to the project: CLICK HERE

Click here to read an earlier post about this project.

Isn’t comedy funny!? Or I hope it is.

Anywho, the last day of shooting the short film of “Bruce Lance” (the title is still a work in progress) is done and now let the editing begin!

We got more funny stuff and the anticipation is building to see the final project finished. Here are some frame-grabs to hold us all over in the meantime. I’ll try to get some more in the coming days.

These shots are from Magicopolis in Santa Monica where we shot some interviews and these “performances” on stage.

Above, “Bruce Lance” (Sorin Bowie) and his beautiful “assistant” (Regan Alvord).

I love this program. VelaClock for the iPhone just came out with a update that now includes sunrise, sunset and twilight times as well as the azimuth data of where the sun and moon will rise and set. It’s a great addition since it’s one of the most frequently asked questions on set. You can only get data for the current date, but their iTunes product pages states that soon they’ll be offering the ability to choose a date in the future. That’ll be a welcomed addition. The only thing that would make this program just about perfect is data for where the sun or moon will be in the sky at any time of the day as well as data about the length of the shadows. That would be very welcomed indeed. If you’ve got an iPhone it’s a great program at a very reasonable price.

Here are some frame-grabs from this weekend’s shoot of “The 20-Second Rule” directed by Clay Delauney and written by Josh Nicols. It’s gonna be great - really great!!! The fantastic cast was led by the very funny Jay Laisné.

The three-day shoot was shot using two Panasonic HVX200 cameras both with Letus35 lens adapters. We used Nikon lenses (25mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, and 135mm) rented from Sammy’s. Just about everything was exposed for ƒ2.0 and framed for a 2.35 aspect ratio.

I’ll write more in a next couple of days. Till then, thank you to all the nice folks who gave of their time to this project. I think it’s gonna be fabulous. Ah, the questions you’ll have after seeing the following frame-grabs!

Favorite quote from the show’s call sheet:

“They won’t let me return the ball gag!”

And now after quite a long absence, that moment of Zen:

From my phone after the second day of shooting. It still hasn’t been found!

6 Sept 08: Follow-up to the case of the missing scorpian…

A political ad I did the motion graphics on (for Jeff Cole Production) has been mentioned on the political blog, “Flashpoint”.

click here : to view the ad on the website OR…

you can simply watch it here.

I can’t wait to get more images from this show. For now these will have to suffice. Bruce Lance is a short film about a magician who doesn’t do magic. It’s a bit of a spoof on the “Mindfreak” - punk rock magician who you either love or hate. Shot like a “Behind the Music” episode, using a Panasonic HVX200 camera in and around the Los Angeles area. The project is directed by Justin Viar and co-written by Justin and lead actor, Soren Bowie.

A mySpace page has been created (click here). Take a look, post a comment and get ready to have your mind blown. Snippets from the show and a trailer will be available shortly. The episode one should be done in a month or so.

↑ : Jessica preps the “stub” // → : We’re about to interview “Lance”

↑ : That’s some dandy coloring!

↑ : The “real” magicians - frame grab.

This is the “hush-hush” project I posted about in June. It’s called “Coeds” and it’s a 1/2 hour pilot. A short teaser has cut and posted on YouTube - here’s the link:

You can, of course, watch it here.

It’s going to be pitched around town. With luck, you’ll see it on you television very soon. Until then…

Visit the YouTube link and watch it, tell your friends to watch, and don’t forget to leave lovely comments with pretty words and glowing plaudits.

So far the response has been very positive. Congrats to Andrew (director).
Let’s get ‘er done, home biscuit!!!
Whew, whoo… Go Me!

Well, not really a park, more like a cemetery. Hollywood Forever holds screenings during the summer - it’s the seventh year I think. We live right around the corner so, the wife and I decide it was time to get out of the house and visit. So far we’ve seen “Blue Velvet” and “Valley Girl” - it’s like an episode of “I love the 80’s”!

A little something the wife threw together… some grilled salmon, some truffled mac & cheese, mashed sweet potatoes, steak and chicken with sautéed onions. Nice!

Aaron bringing the “Heineken? F#¢k that shit! PABST BLUE RIBBON!”

After some sparkling wine, it was time for the wife’s raspberry margarita with a little nectar of the gods - St. Germain (elderberry liqueur).

The view at the end of the night.

On a hot summer night it’s worth a visit. This weekend: “A Clockwork Orange” and “Get Carter”.
www.cinespia.org for more information.

Part of my nightly routine is to check out the want ads just to see what’s going on in the world and hopefully find that “diamond in the rough” project I might like to apply to. Tonight I came across this ad in Mandy and had to giggle. I’m sure they mean “swing” position - one who works in multiple departments. Yeah, that’s it, I’m sure… I should have check to see if it was shooting in the Valley!

“The Real Reason Guns are Dangerous” (AKA “Go Fish”) is up on Cracked. Cracked is a comedy website and Guns are Dangerous is a short/skit directed by Justin Viar (a name you’ve seen before on my blog). We shot it in one day using a Panasonic HVX200. Many thanks to Josh and Tom for your help with the show. Funny stuff and more to come.

You can also watch it on Funny or Die:

// watch Go Fish

// watch All Broken Up
It’s another skit, this time with the ladies. Check it out and don’t forget to vote.

You know the story. It’s CineGear

↑ My “best in show” goes to MIC’s DMX lighting control hub and accessories. It’s so much more than a flickerbox. One of my favorite features is you can have an actor turn on a light on a practical light on set and a series of preset lights will turn on as well. No more missed cues. Or a sensor that you can aim at a light source, say a candle, and when the candle is blown out the sensor activates lights to come on or off.

→The other big winner is Leader’s new onboard monitor. The monitor offers the usual testing screens like a waveform and vectorscope, but it also offers what they’re calling “false colors” for determining exposure of a shot. The way it works is that

↑
→

↑ Rosco is expanding its product line of light pannels.
→ Not it’s not a new Pokemon.

↑ Silver Lake’s hope for competing in the speed camera arena.
→ Here’s an idea whose time has come. Rosco recently introduced a polarized camera filter/window gel combo that allows you to control the amount of

↑ LTM’s new disc brake for large head light and it can also be retrofit on older lamps. It’s very easy to engage and release and holds super tight. A great idea.

↑ Beebee is introducing a mini.

With the temperature well over 100°, when we weren’t in the air conditioned tent this was my other best friend. Thank you Mole Richardson.

↓ I’ll write more tomorrow but for now, click on the image to see the collection of Red One cameras present at this year’s CineGear Expo. Can you find yours?!

While things have been painfully quite, there’s still things to do…

I just finished shooting a presentation for a pitch, one that I can’t reveal too much about just yet. What I can say is that It’s a comedy, being shot like a reality television show. I did a bunch of research watching shows like Campus Ladies, Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Hills, Reno 911 and of course, the Office. It’s quite a thing to think in terms of how to make it look “live” and real while capturing comedy which is by it’s very nature a contrivance. I especially got a kick when shooting some of the scenes and adding a little bit of camera movement to make sure that you can “feel” the camera’s presences. Other times the aesthetic meant shooting with one of the actors, a prop or set dressing placed at the edge of frame to give the shot a more voyeuristic feel. Another device we used was when panning from on actor to another but slightly behind the delivery so as to be catching up with what’s said as would normally happen in real life - reacting to the scene instead of having forethought as to who will be speaking next.

We shot 24 pages in roughly four days using three Canon XL2 cameras and shooting handheld. One day at UCLA, half a day at one home and two and 1/2 days at another home in the Valley. The grip/electric package was very simple: Kinos, 1200HMI, Arri light kits (practical and as props), shiny boards, China lamps with 250W photo floods for daylight and 200W clear utility lights for night, etc. As part of the storyline (the story includes an element of a college news cast), we incorporated Flip cameras. They’re small video cameras whose footage can easily be plugged into a computer and downloaded as quicktime files or viewed on a television directly. The idea for using them was that while our cameras captured their interactions from the outside looking in, these cameras would capture their going-ons from the inside looking out. It also gave some of the actors comedic “business” in the background while other action happened in the foreground.

↑ Mike Wade (Miles) just before
→ Aaron (UPM) awaits the results - sorry, no big money, just whammies!

↑ Sound department: Pyxz & Chris H.
→ Actors Ryan Michael Oman (Bryce) and Mike Wade (Miles) having fun before the start of day one.

↑ Tess Lynch (Chaz) looking smashing!
→ Nick Pasqual (Jimmy) and Bear Badeaux (Sleestack) dink around with the Flip cameras

↑ China lamps in full force
→ Sarah Rodenbaugh (Cindy) preps

↑ Me and director Andrew Powell prep a scene
→ The monitor room - Andrew (dir), Reg Powell (producer) and Chris Powell (composer)

↑ Sarah (Cindy) readies for her net newscast
→ Rosie R. & Justin V. (camera operators)

↑ The cast
→ Krista G. (production designer)

↑ The cooking head cams. Nice!

↑ Roll your mouse over the picture.

(more…)

My wife knows how I do love gadgets, especially those having to do with photography. She found this bottlecap camera mount online. It’s a 1/4′-20 thread with an adjustable (15°) swivel head and a rubberized base that fits snugly on a plastic water bottle cap. I love this thing.

dynomighty.com

And yes, the bottled water I get comes shaped like a flask.

Well if you’re seeing this blog entry from my website and not the blog directly, you’ve already noticed the change to the site. It was time. I needed a method that made the site easy to update and give it a level of continuity. So here it is. I had written most of the code for my site by hand but opted instead this time to find a program to do most of the work. In this case I used RapidWeaver. The way it works is a bit limiting but I can live with that for the convenience. I still have a few changes to make but you get the idea.

For what it’s worth, it’s optimized a screen that’s bigger than 900×600 on Safari and Firefox 3, but as far as I can see, it works with all browsers. Let me know if you find any typos. Enjoy.

All things must end. After nearly ten years of having it around, I tossed my first and only camera assistant toolbox in to the recycle bin. I keep the belt and ditty bag but the box must go. Still trying to figure out what to do with the changing bag (could make a nice tent for a small dog!). Goodbye old friend - may you be recycled into some useful piece of gadget.

As I mentioned some time ago, the short film I shot for director Mark Mollenkamp called “Night Light”. It’s currently screening as part of the Tribeca Film Festival. I’m in New York and I’ll have an update in the next couple of days. In the meantime, you can check out the trailer here.

↑← Me and Mark at the Short Film party. I love the fact that Mark was “whoring” me out to the other directors.
↑→ Mark just before making a strike at the SAG party. Nicely played and the free drinks were great too! Oh so many free drinks.

All in all, it was a wonderful experience for both Mark and me. Lots of great contacts and hopefully some opportunities for the future.

Ah, your moment of Zen…

I think that this time it really is finished. The last shot of an all night shoot ironically turns out to be a sweet golden sunrise and a start to a bright, hot summer California day. Right now I’m so tried it hurts to keep my eyes open. On the drive home, I would swear that all the cars around me were driving at least 30 miles faster than me. Home long enough to pack and then head out to the airport for a light to New York for the TriBeCa Film Festival.

I’ll write more in a couple of days - I’m still recovering.

OK… it’s been a couple of weeks now and I think I’ve recovered. So here are some pictures and some info on these end of days. For these last two days of shooting I ended up operating the camera so I didn’t get to shoot very many photographs.

First off, here’s a little press that showed on Reelz Channel show, “Dallies”.

↑← Wow blood… cool. That’s Makeup Artist, Jessica, putting on the final touches.
↑→ It was an ice bag for a banged up knee, but for me, this photograph looks as though it’s life-sized.

↓← Here’s the sunrise I mentioned. That’s the last shot of the show’s photography.
↓→ Me and 1st AC Delfina calling it a day.

For anyone really geeky (like me) here are the locations where we shot the movie.

View Larger Map

So, that’s it — it’s all done. Now just waiting for the final color correction. Till then, a million thanks to the crew that stuck by the show and by me. You guys are great and I love ya.

All quite on the Nevada front. With Apple and Avid no-shows at NAB, attendance seemed significantly smaller this year. But it wasn’t without some good things to see. Here’s a short list of the products I saw worth writing about.

Red, Red, Red. Yes, let’s start there. I had a chance to see more footage from the Red. The folks at Red showcased footage provided by owners of the camera and two teasers for upcoming movies by Steven Soderbergh, “The Argentine” and “Guerrilla”. Not gonna lie, the stuff looks great - it was projected from a Sony SXRD 4K projector. They announced two new cameras which you can read all about on their website. Promising future indeed. Looks like I might have a short film next month with the Red - I look forward to shooting it and writing about my experience.

↑ The new Panasonic VariCam 3700. It offers 1920×1080 image capture at 4:2:2 in AVC-intra 100 recording to five P2 slots. It can also output 4:4:4 via duel-link. Nice, but perhaps too little, too late.
→ Fuji is hoping to introduce a 64GB P2 card this fall. At 720/24pN that’s 160 minutes. Very useful.

↑ & → Angénieux’s new Red ready lenses, the Optimo DP: 30-80mm T2.8 Less expensive then their regular cinema lenses but they claim that they’re significantly better than the Red lenses. We’ll see how that claim stand up when they’re released later this year. On the left is the 17-80mm T2.2 Optimo WA.

↑ While most are hankering for the Red, I’m psyched to see the new Aaton Penelope. It’s a 3- and 2-perf camera that with a little training can be switched in the field in a matter of minutes.
→ P+S Technik 3D rig. The photo shows the rig with SI-2K Mini cameras also offered from P+S. What’s cool about the rig is that it’ll accommodate different camera makers and can be adjusted for SteadiCam and handheld shooting.

↑ Direct-to-print has been a buzz word for some time in Europe and now might see the light of day in the US. It means taking your project and film recording directly to you print. It’s great for, say, printing one copy of you film for a festival release. But its uses shouldn’t be considered so limited. The Cinevator by the Norwegian company Cinevation can print in real time - a 120 minute film will take 120 minutes. That’s a far cry from when it would take overnight to print a film. Technicolor in Burbank purchased two and this one pictured is heading for Tunnel Post in Santa Monica after the show. I’m trying to arrange a test with several different cameras.
→ Green continues to be the thing. The fluorescent globes are from Photoflex. The CoolStar150 CFL is a 150w fluorescent fixture which they claim produces about the equivalent of a 450w tungsten globe. The color temp is roughly 5500K and they’re using a Mogul E39 base. I’ve noticed that the Mogal base is becoming quite common with lighting manufacturers. They also offer adaptors to go from Edison E26 globe (household standard in America) to the Mogal as well as a bi-pin G9.5 to Mogul.

So that’s the tech stuff now for some useless stuff. Ever see a 24 oz. steak dinner.

That is one big slab of meat. Surprisingly tasty for only $24 (Whiskey Pete’s in Primm). You might be wondering if I finished it? No, not even close. Made for a good breakfast though.

It’s been a while since I had something for our little moment of Zen… but I found something.

I did all I could to not slap him and ask, “Why?! This isn’t Comic-Con”. In case you can’t see it, it’s a kitty.

Band: Rockchild ( mySpace page )
Song: Winded
Director: Jonathan Bowen

It was a fairly quick start to the shot. I met with the director a couple of weeks before shooting and within a few days, we took a look at one building near the Warehouse District. It offered a great view of Downtown and the building had a great “aesthetic of decay” but was lacking what we needed for the narrative portion of the video. When the UPM (Aaron R.) came on board, he suggested Willow Studios - a place he’d shot at recently. For what we would have paid to do the production design at the other location we got a location with several pre-existing sets already dressed. It worked out better than we could have hoped.

The video breaks down to performance footage shot by day and night and a narrative element also shot by day and night.

LIGHTING PLAN & SUN PATH

↑ ↑ My shutter speed/foot-candle cheat sheet (click to view).

↓ ↓ My notes for the lighting of the performance footage. The notes are just that, notes. The shiny boards were focused and moved around as needed and the notes on camera placements for A- and B-camera changed slightingly too, but you get the idea. I always get a kick when I see the lighting plans realized on set.

For the night performance, we danced around 80-120 foot-candles. This accommodated the higher shutter speed we were using - usually around 1/120 or 72°. All the MolePARs were aimed straight ahead with the globe’s patterns spread horizontally. All the lights were plugged into 6K Magic Gadget Shadow Makers on a fairly fast and random flicker. For the day performance, we used shiny boards to edge light the members of the band and a 1200HMI to fill faces.

We shot with two Panasonic HVX200 cameras to capture as much coverage of the performance footage as we could using. The editor was on set downloading the footage was soon as a scene or block of footage was shot.

↓ → The next image indicates where the sun would be in the sky at given times of the day. I used SunPath to generate the coordinates and Intaglio to create the text on the map from Google Earth. It’s a quick visual indicator of where the sun will be without breaking out a compass.

↑ ↑ Day performance with downtown skirting the background.

↑ → Jib shots. Rock on!!

↑ ↑ Night performance on the roof above LA.

↑ ↑ Now that’s a damn sexy shot.

↑ ↑ The show’s other rock stars, Key Grip Dwight S. & Chief Lighting Technician Josh D.

↑ ↑ Trust me, she looks so much prettier when the curlers are gone.
→ → The director and 1st AD, Josh G. talk about what’s next. The decision? Lots more cool stuff!

↑ ↑ Someone save Josh!!!

View Larger Map

Map of where we shot - Willow Studios.

All in all, it was a fairly smooth running show.
This video couldn’t have been a cool as it was if not for the generous support from Luka Grip & Lighting. Thank you for all your support on this and previous productions.

Luka Grip & Lighting : +1 (818) 565-5580
The gear: 2-Ton Grip Truck, 600Amp Genie, MolePARs (MFL), Barger Baglight 6K, 5K Junior, Kino, Arri Light Kits, 1200HMI, 5x MG Shadowmaker

(more…)

The show “Dailies” (Reelz Channel) visited the set of “Dead Air” to do a spot about actors who turn to directing. A little of the behind-the-scene from “Dead Air” can be seen on the spot. Here’s a link to view it: Reelz Channel

If you blink, you’ll miss me!

↑↑ Listening attentively during our safety meeting for our helicopter shot atop a building in downtown.
L>R: Josh (2nd AD) / Chris (Producer) / Justin (B-Camera Op) / Chris (Sound Mixer) / Corbin (Director) / me / Patricia (actor)