last weekend.

So last weekend was another 2 fun filled nights of shooting. This time in Sonoma and this time I worked on 2 separate projects. TTBC and the short Pit Stop. On saturday I had to pick up Melissa, the lead of TTBC, from the Oakland airport. Then I had to bring her to the set which was in a really nice house up in this little town right next to Sonoma called Agua Caliente. It was dark as shit and we totally got lost.

After that, we got out by 10 cause Melissa is a sag actor and she needed a 12 hour turn around between work days. I travelled over to Sonoma to do some pick ups of my friend Zack's short.

Sunday was a little more of the same except we were pressed for time. Since we went over the night before we then had to start later. I kinda feel bad cause if me and Melissa didn't get lost then we wouldn't have lost like an hour. We had to rush cause Melissa had to go straight back to the airport and go home right when we finished shooting.

Crazy weekend.. I'm glad class was mostly lecturing today cause I am so tired. At least I got some cuddling in today.

I'm in full swing this year as my services are still in high demand. I have to thank George for everything he's done for me. He always refers to me for everything that he's working on. I can't thank him enough. He is truly one of my most valued friends and kinda like a mentor.. kinda like Mr. Miyagi from the Karate Kid, except swap out the karate for some, (said in a the gayest way ever) Faboulous!!!

sooo busy

Today I have to work on a couple of scenes for Tick tock boom clap. Yesterday I got a call from Sara the Director and was like, "our driver hurt her back so can yo pick up Melissa from the airport?" Aint no problem for me but damn i need five bucks for toll money haha. In preparation for wrangling the talent, I cleaned out my car. that thing was a mess. I found a banana underneath the passenger seat.. no, not a banana peel... but a banana. I guess that was the smell that everyone that has ever been in my car was complaining about. I guess I just got used to it.

So my girlfriend brought over season one of Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Damn, why didn't I ever watch that show before? Like 5 minutes into the pilot episode I was hooked.

drunkumentary and hope

A lot of stuff has been going on. Damn I almost feel too busy. I'm afraid that I'm going to get burnt out soon. I had a 2 hour meeting with Adam and Matt about this little project called Drunkumentary. Its a doc about a film crew trying to complete a short film, from script to screen, all under the influence of alcohol. this is going to be really insane. We all feel that this is a project with enough juice behind it to really get done and have a good chance to get into a real festival like sundance.

I started to get some work doing real estate videos, basically its a quick video to help sell a house and pretty much its just a bunch of panning inside the house.. I did two so far but damn I have to redo them cause I kind of fucked it up. I never did a real estate video before in my life but I went to the guys office and he played the video and told me all the changes he wanted in it. fuuuck. Well now at least I know whats they're looking for.

Damn I gotta work tomorrow for my class and then head out and do the house shots again. I'm gonna be busy.

As for projects I have a few going. Like a rap video (hopefully), try to reshoot Googley eyes (hopefully with electricity). and the theres the Jane Grim script with Dyan and George. Hopefully they'll have time to do it. And there is one more week left for Tick Tock Boom Clap. hmmm... theres a lot of hope in this last paragraph haha.

Tomorrow is gonna be a busy day, hopefully there will be some cuddling and maybe some Ben And Jerrys. haha

shooting the sex scene

Shooting a that short in Sonoma made me realize that this was technically my first sex scene. Pretty much the guy comes home and finds his gf in bed with another guy. pretty simple. Everyone on set was of course as professional as our funny bones could handle.. theres nothing funnier about making your younger brother act in his first short film by having to fake hump a half naked girl. He answered his phone in between a take and said "Bro, I'll call you back , I'm in the middle of my sex scene"

Blasting light across the hall was working wonders in contrast with the dark room. The thing with cameras is that to achieve the look you want you can blast as much light as you want in a scene then stop down the camera's aperture to compensate and get that tone just right. in the picture above I blasted a 2k down the hallway. He was getting silhouetted so with the help of movie magic I frosted a small 300 with the barn doors cracked just a bit and shot it into the doorway. Silhouette gone and problem solved. its trickery I know but in actuality it makes sense cause the white door could easily reflect and make the light seem to wrap around onto his face.. I hate how movies are so fake.

I was really digging what I managed to accomplish with my lowell pro kit. I really took the time on this short to really mess with the lighting when I could. So for this shot above Zack (the director) wanted them to look illuminated by the doorway and everything else in shadow. at first I thought I could get both effects by having the 2k but I felt a little mentally handicapped (the PC term for retarded) after I was fiddling around with the the lamp for like ten minutes. Eventually I settled for the 300 and flagged off the areas surrounding them.

Geeking out on gaffing stuff is hilarious to me. It was pretty much a comfortable mood amongst the crew but eventually everyone was laughing after everything started to become "thats what she said" jokes.

I just noticed a lot of the lingo would lose some of you the numbers like 2k and 300 refer to a light's wattage. the higher the number, the more powerful the light. Yeah film has an entire language to it. Its kinda like Italian, but dirtier.

Oh yeah, Bamboo Chimes... a little inside joke for the girlfriend... love you.

another short

I got lost coming home from Sonoma.... i know thats like one town away from Vallejo haha. Downtown Sonoma is a really nice place. It seriously felt like Hill Valley in the 50's. That was a Back To the Future reference if that blew over your head.

I really enjoyed this short cause I had a blast lighting the scenes. I finally bought bulbs for my kit and I was ready to go.some of the stuff came out really nice. Also that slider I bought is so sick. It just adds that little cinematic look without taking away from the point of the story. Something I feel a lot of amateur/aspiring/student/dumbass filmmakers are overlooking.

I got a lot ahead of me. I can't wait to get burnt out. (insert sarcasm)

a few days off is good... but wait.. school is starting. Noooo!

So we wrapped the first half of the film. We actually shot the second half of the script first. No film is ever shot in chronological order anyway. I finally have another day off to just relax. I think I might be filming another scene tomorrow but I have to keep checking my emails for the exact call times. It'll be way more chill cause we'll be dealing with smaller casts.

Got some cuddling in lat night, looking more for some of tat tonight. Watched The People under The Stairs last night. One of my all time favorite movies.

I probably mentioned in other posts before this but I am really looking forward to this new years schedule of projects. hella awesome.

I'm gonna eat spaghetti.

This is the cast and crew. I'm not in it cause im taking the picture. But thats ok, thats how I like it haha.

One more day of shooting.

Tomorrow is the end of the first half of shooting for Tick Tock Boom Clap. Theres a bunch of other days scheduled but thats TBA.

I'm so tired. I think I've driven about a thousand miles since day one. I'll be able to have an exact number when its all said and done.

The Acting for Camera class that I work for is about to start next week. Its gonna be a little different cause I'll have a more active role in terms of teaching. damn....

This year is off to a great start. Just worked on a feature length film and I have a ton of stuff lined up for the rest of the year. Among other things, I'm in love with the most beautiful girl. Cheese factor aside I'm not afraid to say.

I finally did my laundry haha. I was running out of clothes to wear to during the shoot.

These kids toys are harder than they seem.

post shooting depression

It happens to the best of us. you work on a shoot for a few days and you get used to the action. Then when things slow down you find yourself with loads of free time.

I'm glad I don't get affected by that.

School starts next week. ehhhhhh. I gotta get to work. On school and as many projects as I can. damn I need to get busy.

I'm glad that all my favorite current shows are back from the winter break. I need to catch up on everything now.

I can't wait till Breaking Bad's new season comes back to tv.. probably in the summer.

Bidness cards

Haha. my rubber stamp finally came in. So that means I'm doing a little factory line in the office. I finally have bidness cards. I cant even recall the many times I needed one. so unprofessional.

I think the hard days are done

This shot was taken at around 10pm on day 5. it was about 40 degrees out here. the cast and crew was freezing their asses off. This reminds me of when I worked on this film called Streets. That was like 2 weeks of cold weather.

the dance studio. We're done at the theater so the next few days is gonna be here.

This shoot is going really great. All the really difficult parts should be over with.. Sifting through the photos, I really like this shot here. I shot this for the entrance of the theater doors. Most plays have stills to let them know what they're about to get into. I was in the copy shop printing some of these photos out and some of the customers and workers were complimenting me on my photography. Its funny cause I never really had any interest in photography but it seems that I'm doing a lot of it these days.

On my day off

To day is the first day off from filming. I shot the last five days, and then I shoot for the next 6 days. Then theres like a week after that sometime in february. I am so tired.

Out of all the people on set, and besides the child actors, I am the youngest person there. All the film crew guys are older gents with loads of experience. The funny part is that theyre all a bunch of character too. One of the cool parts of production is the lingo. Everything has a nickname, it just makes things easier to say.

I had to drop a deuce on set so they're like "Where's Jaime?".. "Oh, he's getting batteries"

So today is all about rest, catching up with the world, cuddling and Shawshank Redemption.

Heres a link to the facebook photo album for all the pictures I post

day 1... I'm dead

I am too tired to write about the first day of shooting... So I'm just gonna post these pictures

Captain Hook's other job is being a 2nd AC.

Peter Pan!!!!

Tiger Lily

also this is what happens when you put the craft service table in the same room as the equipment room. The crew goes nuts.

Also this is the rigging for when Pan flys. We're all gonna have a chance to fly when we wrap shooting.

bored

Rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock.

I recently rearranged my room. I put my punching bag back in the office. Pretty cool. I don't even know what I'm talking about. hmmmmm. I am so bored. I start working on an indie feature on wednesday. I gotta prep for that.

I watched a news report today about a middle school in Oxnard CA, and during the standardized testing schedule, a class was watching a movie and during the movie a 7th grade girl gave an 8th grade boy a blowjob... of course the news report said it was "engaging in an oral sex act".. dude, we all know that guy was getting a hummer. But the crazy part is that the teacher just ignored it and some kids even recorded it with their phones... WTF. kids these days. I guess 12 is the new 13.

2010 dslr reel

So I made the jump to DSLR late in 2010. Here's a bunch of really cool shot that I picked out. The way things look now the 2011 reel is gonna look pretty sick.

2010 reel from Exploding Toys on Vimeo.

Hahahaaha

This is really funny. I go to ask my google bar a question. I wanted to type in "Why does Tim Roth lean all funny in the show Lie To Me?" and this is what the suggested questions were.. I just had to post this shit.

I really like the Michael/ Toby question.

resolute

Write/start/finish more scrpits

produce more shorts

get on more projects

get paid more for what I love and do best.

organize and clean

participate in radical honesty

win an award

play even more music

make a film that matters

make my mum proud of me

fly

get punched in the face