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.