production blog

Today, I’m shooting the last of the pick-ups for “Dead Air”. It’s about a dozen shots. Here the one I thought was the most fun. They needed a shot of what appears to be blood flow.

↑ A snippet of the footage.

Here’s the “home-brew” way I did it. Into a good quality, clear freezer bag goes:
_ 25 ml red food dye
_ 250 ml of water
_ 150 ml of rice bran oil.

Use a good quality bag because if any of the dye gets out, it’ll ruin just about anything it touches. Also, you can use just about any oil - I chose rice bran oil mostly because I like the color. Get as much air out of the bag as you can. The bubbles you see are from the air but also a result of the old adage, “oil and water don’t mix”. To get a more convincing look, I folded the bag with each half getting part of the mixture. This gave it depth.

Once that was done, shake up the mixture a bit to get the oil to breakdown into smaller drops. Then slosh mixture from one side of the bag to the other. (If you have a Food Saver, try using that to get all the air out. You’ll need to then make your oil/water mix more 50/50.)

I backlit the bag using a LIte-Panel - if you front light it, you’ll likely get reflections on the bag. In this example, I put the Lite-Panel on a table. Over it I put a clear plastic box, then a sheet of 250 diffusion (to diffuse the LED lights), then the bag of “blood”.

On the lens goes a 10x macro lens adapter. The camera was set to ƒ2.0 and the shutter ranged from 1/48 (180°) to 1/250 (35°).

If you haven’t seen it on someone else’s blog or on YouTube, here it is. I love industry humor. Enjoy.

Hey all. I’ll be out of reach for the next few days while I shoot a promotional spot on an aircraft carrier. If you need to reach me, well you likely can’t. I don’t know if I’ll have internet access and much less cellular service while somewhere in the Pacific. If you do need to reach me, your best bet will be by email but don’t expect an answer before Wednesday evening. Wish me luck - I’m bringing my water-wings just in case!

Update:

OK maybe not… I’ll know more later today.

Update 2:

So it seems we’re back on. See you all after Wednesday.

Update n:

Ahoy there matey. It’s off again. The “why” doesn’t matter - at least not now. So maybe in a couple weeks I’ll get my chance to land on a carrier by an arresting cable or being catapulted off. Next time swabbie.

…or at least I’m fairly sure I didn’t pay for it!

I got a package from UPS today. I thought it was some filters for my still camera and so I didn’t bother to open it until later in the evening. When I did, I was surprised to find inside the box was another box labeled Polaroid. It made sense that a photo dealer might be recycling boxes but the box seemed a bit large and heavy for a couple of filters. I opened the Polaroid box only to find a Pogo. It’s a small, portable printer that can print photos directly from a phone or computer via bluetooth or you can hook it up via USB from a camera. That’s it. Yeah me!

I remember filling out a “sign up and win” form on the Polaroid website not long ago after reading about the product on some website, most likely Gizmodo. I figured, why not. If I get junk mail, it’ll go to my gmail account.

See Polaroid isn’t dead. The Pogo is not great, but it’s not awful either. I can totally see taking it on vacation and leaving photographs behind for friends I visit. To be sure, it doesn’t have the charm of a Polaroid picture as I remember it. I miss the shake, the placing of the photo under the armpit, and the joy of seeing the photo reveal itself like a slow wake from a heavy sleep. Let’s see if it grows on me.

Just finished a set of spots for greenwala.com and produced by Jeff Cole Productions. The spots were directed by Clay and are a parody of the “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” spots. In our case it’s Hybrid vs. SUV and Locally Grown O Delauney rganic Tomato vs. Mass Produced Tomato. Funny stuff. Should be done very soon.

→ Two for one. Bottom camera has a 35mm lens for the wide-shot and the top has a 50mm for the medium shot.

→ The close-ups are also shot on the 50mm lens.

↑ A producer’s job is never finished.
→ Posting in the bathroom. Should we be worried!? Touch nothing and someone, get me some gloves!

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21 Oct 2008:

I got word today that the spots are all but finished. We’re doing the color correction for the remanding five spots next week. Can’t wait to share the final spots and can’t wait till they’re all on the air. Bully!

13 Oct 2008:

I just finished a series of commercials for director Tony Hope. The spots are for Time Warner Cable and are called “I Am Time Warner Cable”. It’s been a while since I’ve done spots with them. A couple of years ago Comcast and Time Warner Cable purchased and divided a great deal of Adelphia Cable territory and at the time decided to outsource most of their commercial work. That may be changing back with these six spots. Here are some pictures from the shoot. I’ll be posting the spots as they become available to me.

↑ Really dude! → Bluescreen day

↑ I love sliders, I really do. I’m not talking about burgers (although I love them too). The slider I’m talking about there is a 24″ sliding camera support platform. Here we needed to shoot some shots with minor movement - perfect tool, although not very pretty. → Just say no to 1/3″ DOF. We used a Letus35 with Nikon lenses. She looks great and the shot is so much the better for it.

↑ Here we did a shot that goes from a TV screen, along an outstretched arm holding a remote, to finish on an over-the-shoulder, two-shot of folks on a couch watching the TV. We needed to under-sling the camera and the jib helped us reach out over the couch as we dollied back to the final mark. Great shot! → Me and the camera. Proof I was there.

↑ Clay Delauney (cam op) ready to do a “Steadicam like” shot. This rig and our experience level with it made it less than perfect but its imperfection made the shot work.

↑ We shot a day on a white cyc. These shots will be black & white. → We had to pick-up some of the black & white shots in an office. Surprisingly it worked just fine.

↑ Two in the morning at high noon. → How we shot it. I’m back to using China lamps. Notice the slider on the desk. Love that slider!!!

↑ I got tagged! Payback for my tag on Clay. Payback for the payback will be severe and with extreme prejudice! Watch you back Clay - the back of your shirt!

I love to read but hate reading books. I don’t like holding them, forcing each half to stay open and flat, turning pages and needing to have the lights on, etc. When I got my iPhone, while excited to have eBooks available I wasn’t sure I would be able to read on a small screen (I was hoping to someday get a Kiddle or something). But I gave it a try and loved it. I’ve read one book so far, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde. With that book done, it’s time to move on to another classic - or rather an emerging classic… “Zombie Survival Guide”!

So far it’s a great book. My friend and director Clay Delauney suggested it to me. It’ll be a great resource the next time I shoot a zombie film. I love how “as a matter a fact” it is. I’ve read enough military and survival manual to appreciate how appropriately it’s presented. It’s not written “tongue-in-cheek” rather there’s a seriousness if not sincere quality that give it authenticity. Like a good movie, you’re easily able to become immersed in the book.

I was also surprised to find out that the writer is the son of Mel Brooks. He is also a high school classmate of my wife. Small world.

So remember…

I just got news that the music video I shot for Jonathan Bowen and the band Rockchild screened at The Other Venice Film Festival. Nice! Congrats to Jonathan and thank you young Will Wallace for the heads-up!

← 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.

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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.

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