↑ 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°).

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.

→ 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!

The stage we shot in was smaller than I would have liked but we shot some plates of the 12′ wide white, paper drop-down seamless without the actors to use as “set extensions”. I wasn’t sure that using the Letus for this show but it worked out and it’s a noticeable difference.

We shot with the camera set to 1/24 shutter, ƒ4 and with the taking lens set to ƒ2.0. The set was lit for 70 foot-candles on our actors and 115 foot-candles on the seamless. Thanks to the folks at Post Modern Studios for getting things set-up for us.

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!

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!

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.

Here are some project specs:

We shot using two Panasonic HVX200 cameras with my “reversal” settings.

Generally, we shot dancing around a ƒ2.5 (~40fc), 1/120 (72°) shutter and +6dB gain.

We shot using tungsten lights, but we did have (unexpectedly) two skylight windows at one end of the room. Oddly enough the room had a green cast which worked well for the look I’m placing on top of the raw footage which is more brown. Fortunately, as you can see in the frame-grabs, we still see a bit of green in the shot which is good because I do like it. Just about every shot is lit from a backlight or some rear three-quarter light from a gaggle of 1K and 650w Fresnel lights and surprisingly for me, no diffusion.

(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.

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).