The Fino

I had this stencil in my room for a while. I never did anything with it so I figured I just put it up in the office haha.

Tomorrow

Is gonna be hectic. I shoot Googley Eyes tomorrow. and tonight is gonna be my night to get everything and everyone ready. As I write this I'm watching an episode How I Met Your Mother. One of the best shows out right now. I'm looking around my office and I see all my equipment laid out in front of me. This is gonna be crazy. Every shoot I try to up the ante. With my cast and crew I'm looking at an 11 people. Damn I have to feed them. I guess 5 dollar pizzas are gonna have to do. haha. There's that small part in the back of my mind where I know I'm forgetting something. I better not be forgetting something.

I finally watched Inception the other day. I thought it was a good movie. I see why people go apeshit over it but I think it was overrated. I'd really like to see how the original vision Nolan had for the story. This movie is basically like the movie Momento, if Momento was directed by Michael Bay. It pleased the commercial audience with all the action in it but I really felt that it was paced just too damn fast. I really liked that the film didn't treat its viewers like idiots by explaining every little detail to them, it gave just enough mindfuck to make you want to watch the film again.

Cameras!

In the now years of production experience I have had the great fortune in working with so many different cameras. I've seen them evolve drastically. I've seen the trends. I've seen them all really, well, just the ones that matter.

The first real camera I bought was the Panasonic dvx100b back in 2004. I think. This thing is the industry workhorse for standard definition. So many shows and independant films were made with this thing. I just with they kept the variable frame rate option that made its predecessor such a ground breaking camera. I chose to get this camera because of its then cheap price tag of 2500. which in retrospect, was a fucking rip off. I still have this camera but I barely use it much.

The last picture is of the dvx, you can't really notice cause the lcd screen is out but mounted to the dvx is the Letus 35mm lens adapter. At the time 35mm adapters were bridging the gap between independent low budget filmmakers and high end quality cinematography. I jumped on the 35mm adapter hype a little too late cause I got rid of that thing to purchase my Canon T2i...

When DSLR camera started coming with HD video options it changed the world of filmmaking. Nowadays there are hundreds of shitty looking short films with amazing quality. I think it did a good thing. No longer were filmmakers edging out a decision when it came to judging the look of a film. it made the highest quality of digital imagery available to kids. Everyone was now an equal playing field. I currently own a T2i. In my area I'm not the only one, but its what you put in front of the camera is what makes you a good filmmaker. (I'll get to that in a later post)

The cameras pictured are the Canon xha1, the Canon 5DmkII, the Canon 7D, the Panasonic agdvx100b and the HMC150.

I've worked with canon xl2's, GL1's hvx200's, sony hvr's and a bunch of other random stuff. I just ned to find pictures of them . All those names and numbers sound greek to most people. But for those in the know, thats pretty respectable.

Film. A love/hate relationship

I've been neglecting this blog for a bit. Just been so busy. I've been getting a bunch of new equipment in the mail lately. Finally got a quality slate.

In the beginning of January I'll be working on a film called Tick Tock Boom Clap. Theyre located in the Santa Rosa area and its gonna be a big production. Along with the various crew tasks I'll be working on Continuity and taking production stills and behind the scenes footage for the film. That'll be really fun. Its actually something I wouldn't mind doing on a production. The shoot is from Jan 4th to the 16th, then another week in february. Damn I'm gonna be tired.

http://www.roaringmouseproductions.com/

game time

Being 7 days from a shoot I start to go crazy with the producer hat. Therre are so many things running through my head right now. I still need to lock down all my actors. All my locations. Props. Costumes. My crew. Logistics. Equipment. everything. And I still need to finalize my shotlists. Damn. I'm going insane.

Theres a school film festival coming up in a few days. I helped out on a short there so I'm interested to see how it turns out. Most student film festivals are so horrible. They're so bad that they're funny. And thats pretty much what I have come to expect the last few years. Damn, did I just say years?

So I wrote a short film that I'd really like to get going. I've written it in mind with both my THEA 50 instructors Dyan McBride and George Maguire. Hopefully they'll think the script is good and they'll wanna do it. That would be just insane cause they're both SAG actors.

Coffee and dvds

So tonight marks another sleepless night. I'm burning copies of my student's work onto dvds. I'm playing a shitload of guitar. Ideas are running through my mind and I can't type fast enough to jot them all down. These are the times that I thank myself for insomnia. Creativity flows, I'm at a good place in life right now. I'm motivated and I have the resources to not waste it.

boxes

There are so many boxes in the office. All the new equipment is cluttering up the place. I'm still waiting for some sd cards. I'm finally seing the pros and cons of buying online vs. in stores. I'm constantly checking the mail and every time I hear a large truck rolling by I just have to check. Its been making me paranoid haha.

So I'm in the works of getting this Googley Eyes short going. Hopefully our shoot date is dec 17th.