j-blog!

a gaggle of kleigls

2011-12-29T17:16:00.001-08:00

ktxl fox 40 was getting rid of some old tungsten lights. I was more than happy to swing by and pick up a few for the school.

To find the perfect Christmas tree...

2011-11-27T23:42:00.000-08:00

This weekend we went up to Pollock Pines to secure a Christmas tree.

After about an hour wandering through the forest, it occurred to me to turn on my GPS tracking program on my G-phone. I captured the second hour of wandering. After two hours and about 2 1/2 miles of uphill, downhill and through the sticks all the way we found it...

But it's not about the prize, it's about the journey:

3d camera pan kludge

2011-11-13T15:25:00.001-08:00

I wouldn't even go so far as to call it a hack. my 3d web camera's lens is too narrow so I strapped it to a fan to make pan back and forth.

Snake!

2011-09-16T13:47:00.001-07:00

I'll give this one right of way...

48 hr 3D project

2011-08-12T21:31:00.000-07:00

A little while ago I had a chance to work on a 48 hr project. I swore I'd never do one of those again but an old friend Erik Espera called and invited me to crew. He's a hard one to say no to but he not only assembled an all-star crew, but also wanted to try and shoot it in 3D, possibly the first 48hr film to be shot in 3D. I couldn't resist the offer, so I said yes.

I originally signed on as a camera operator when the original DP Eric Maddox, decided it would be too big an undertaking to be both DP and the stereographer for the shoot. He decided to focus solely on the 3D technical and he asked if I could take his place. Of course I said yes but it was quite a courageous decision for him to turn over that creative controls in order preserve the integrity of the film. I applaud that, I don't think I could have been able to do that. And as it was turned out it was the right decision.

Working with the 3D rig was incredibly complex and required constant fine tuning - a full time job in itself. Every time the camera was moved, even if just lifting it off the dolly and setting it on the ground required about 20 minutes of adjustments. Yes, this slowed things down a bit but on the upside 3D actually benefits from less coverage. You actually should linger longer on shots and cut less frequently in order to give the eye more time to adjust, so it evened out. We had to cut out quite a few beauty shots I wanted to get in order to keep all the scenes with minimum coverage. But then, what 48hr film doesn't have that happen...

Here is a link to the film and a BTS featurette:

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/stereoscopic-3d/last-man-standing-3d-anaglyph/
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/stereoscopic-3d/behind-the-scenes-of-last-man-standing/

Thanks to Erik Espera, Adobe, and every person who worked on the crew to produce such professional results in such a short time.

My New Favorite Thing... Posterini

2011-07-10T21:49:00.000-07:00

I found this website that will let you take a picture and build a movie poster out of it. It's not that bad, I crapped this one out in less than two minutes. Imagine if I spent three! The picture size is limited to about 1k resolution, but I'm talking with the developers about increasing it to a larger size. Right now it's free, but I could see charging for a larger sized option. Here is the site:
http://www.posterini.com

Philo T. Farnsworth

2011-07-09T11:24:00.000-07:00

What I did for my summer vacation:
I went to visit the Philo T. Farnsworth museum in Rigby Idaho.
If you don't know who Philo is, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKM4MNrB25o
Unfortunately we got there at 11am and missed the Philo boat...

Yellowstone

2011-07-05T21:57:00.000-07:00

We went to Yellowstone park for a vacation. I took advantage of the dark skies to shoot some long exposure timelapse. Below is a test shot. In the crossed lines you can see the blinking lights from a jet flying East to West. The other solid line is the International Space Station. The white cloud in the background is the milky way.
Click to see a larger image.
Canon 7D 30 second exposure at ASA 5000, 8mm lens at f3.5

County Fair Judging

2011-05-21T17:59:00.001-07:00

judging short films for the county fair.

In the background you can see the other judging stations: Arts, Crafts, Photography, ect.

In the foreground is my judging station: a DVD/VHS/TV combo along with entries and forms. I have to say the high school student project compare very well to our 1st year college projects. Perks of the gig: pair of passes to next week's fair. I'm hoping for a demo derby experience...

NAB 2011

2011-04-19T12:50:00.001-07:00

blinky lights - always good.

I bought a boat...

2011-04-09T21:09:00.001-07:00

Well, a kayak actually. $40 on Craigslist. It's looks a lot better from 15' back than it does once you get up close. It's old. Lots of bumps and bruises but it seems to stay afloat (so far). If it doesn't go underwater, I'll do some live streaming when I take it out on the lake.

My New Favorite Thing...

2011-03-13T17:45:00.001-07:00

My new favorite thing is "The Big Score". It's a streaming radio station that plays film scores - Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, John Williams, et al. It's great to have on in the background but can be a bit dramatic during dinner. Oddly enough, the business and programmer is near by in Antelope.

Here is their site, scroll down 3/4 the way to "The Big Score".

http://www.gotradio.com/MusicRoom.mvc/All

Oakland Goodwill Clock

2011-03-04T19:49:00.001-08:00

We had an hour to kill between field trip locations, so I stopped by a goodwill store in Oakland. I found this 1970's era wind up wall clock. The face and case are 1970s faux american colonial style. Too tacky to use in in real life, yet not tacky enough to be cool. It was $9.99 and had nice mechanical movement under the face, so I bought it with then intent of making a cool steampunk exposed movement style clock. We shall see once I rip it apart.

Field trip to Chater Camera and DTC Grip Electric

2011-03-04T18:47:00.001-08:00

I took the cine and advanced cine classes on a field trip to DTC grip electric and to Chater Camera in Oakland. John Chater and some of his staff were nice enough to keep the shop open a couple of hours to accommodate the students. The even set up for us several note worthy cameras to play with including the Panasonic AF100, the Sony F3, the Arri Alexa and the Phantom Flex - super cool. There were also other gadgets like the Hot Rod GH2 PL mount and more lenses than you can shake a siemens star at.

John Chater demoing an AF100.

We shot footage from all cameras and John set up a very nice impromptu Phantom demo. Some splashed water and a flip of the hair at 2,500 fps. I'll put up some footage soon... it's flipping amazing.

John Chater giving a great overview of cameras and cinematography and business advice and...

A very quick setup for the Phantom demo. Student Tiffany Ireland stood in with a Joker 400 as the only source backlight with bounce fill. Simple, elegant.

More cameras filming than at 2nd grade recital.

Here is the video: awesome.

You can see a much cleaner version on Vimeo here: http://vimeo.com/20728422

The obligatory water splash @ 2,500fps.

As I get older, I find I look more and more like a bird.

At DTC I found 50+ students waiting for me - far more than I figured would make the trip... I guess that says good things about their dedication and bad things about my planning skills
.
The tour was led by operations manager Dan Mode.

Inside the shop they got a chance to see a fully equipped rental house.

This is the group. This is what I get to look at all day...

;-)

Upstairs was something almost as menacing...

same.

2011-01-30T17:01:00.001-08:00

jogging

2011-01-30T16:28:00.001-08:00

jogging while blogging while blogging while jogging. Android is cool.

cool shoes

2010-09-15T23:16:00.000-07:00

I got some cool shoes.

I like to run, but my running Nikes were just no good. Too much padding - it felt like I was running in clogs. Feet should not go numb while running. In an effort to find a more subtle shoe, I found online references to the "Vibram Five Finger" shoe or as I like to call them "Monkey Feet Shoes".

http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/
Those are cool, but expensive, hard to put on, and just too goofy.

They remind me of the kung fu shoes I wore in High School:
I did find a reference to someone recommending running in the Feiyue kung fu shoes.

Super thin sole and very flexible. I got a pair off EBAY for $20 with shipping. I love them, and I love running in them. It's like running barefoot with soles. It feels like wearing socks. I ran off track on dirt and gravel and even a bit on river rock, no problem. Super cool.

Bluffs

2010-08-26T15:31:00.000-07:00

I went out to the bluff overlooking the river this weekend and shot some timelapse. (These are all straight out of the camera, uncorrected.)

I also went out at night and shot some star and moon shots - I wanted to get some timelapse, but my battery in my remote died - ugh. I'll reschedule once the daylight savings time falls back and it gets darker out sooner. It was also a full moon. I'll try it again with a half or new moon. I do like the way the moon reflected off the water, that should look great in motion...

Kentucky - lightning bugs and bolts

2010-06-22T23:11:00.000-07:00

Went back to Kentucky to visit relatives and attend a wedding. While there I had an objective to capture fireflys on camera. I tried before but my camera wasn't fast enough (400ASA f3.5) This time I brought my 7D and tried with 6400ASA and an f2.0 lens.

While taking these pics a storm moved in. The thunderless lightning pulled me away from spending more time on my quest. The lightning was so frequent it seriously reminded me of the fight scene in "War of the Worlds"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JJDQGRGWsY&feature=related

Here is my clip. Just after I shot this, all heck broke loose with hail, rain, winds and flooded streets. Cool.

(pending upload)

Jay's Class

2010-05-17T12:57:00.000-07:00

If you've ever wondered what it's like to sit through one of my 4-hour classes, this may give you a glimpse of the experience...

It's 2 hours of one of my classes distilled down to :30 seconds of audio bites and set to motion graphics.

Produced by Jeremy Kashatok

Stereo Realist

2010-03-03T06:28:00.000-08:00

I found my beloved Stereo Realist! It was in a box in the garage. I thought I sold it on ebay in film school to pay for food and gas. I'm hoping to put on a 3D demo/symposium soon and was lamenting the loss of my favorite camera. This makes me happy.

From Wikipedia:

This is why you hire a pro...

2009-07-23T16:37:00.000-07:00

One of the projects we are working on at the school is to make a commercial for the Sacramento Zoo. I'm working with one of the students, Casey Neal, to create the storyboards. She is very talented, and I expect to see her working for Disney or Pixar in the next couple of years.

For your entertainment, I've included a comparison between my original storyboard drawings and her final product.

This is why you hire a pro:

Click on them for an even bigger laugh. My favorite is the giraffe...

I Heart Fox40 Moos

2009-03-15T12:42:00.000-07:00

The final project for the cinematography class is to shoot footage that will eventually be used for an on air promo for KTXL, the Sacramento Fox affiliate station. The footage will be edited and will air in time for the final class, one week. We'll see how it turns out.

Pink Fluffy Headphones

2009-02-28T21:17:00.000-08:00

I love shopping at thriftstores. It's the best non-sequitur lifestyle possible. I had to stop hitting thriftstores because I was spending so much money. But we went in to a goodwill today. I was tempted by the hand painted portrait of Tom Selleck, complete with unbuttoned shirt exposing his chest hairs, and the artistically misplaced left eye. It was a copy of this picture: I still may go back for it. The one thing I did buy was a pair of pink fluffy headphones, similar to these:

Why you may ask?
I teach an editing class, and I keep a spare set of headphones for students to use when they forget their own. I call them the "painphones". They went through the wash (don't ask how, it was after a long shoot...) and have lost most of the padding. They still work, but are fairly uncomfortable to wear. Even still, there is always at least one student who has forgotten to bring headphones and is willing to put up with the pain. I'm hoping these new headphones will bring a new level of shame to the process.

The only problem I see is when (in the inevitable future...) I forget my sennheiser headphones and have to use these on a professional shoot. I'll let you know how that works out.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-15T16:41:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my wife and I and some of our friends went to a dance onboard the aircraft carrier Hornet (now a museum in Alameda). It was an opportunity to dress up and have fun.

Here we are in front of an F8 Crusader.

Working on our waltz...

SF across the bay

Brrrr it's cold!

New Year

2009-01-02T00:45:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since my last post (6 months...)

For those that follow, sorry for the delay. A lot has happened in my life, all of it good.

I've been teaching production classes at the Art Institute in Sacramento full time and have been very, very, very busy - but I love it. It's great to be among so many amazing students with the passion and dedication for film, and I'm honored to be a part of their education.

Here is a pic from the lighting class:

Cinegear 2008

2008-07-09T10:42:00.000-07:00

This year Cinegear was HOT! Litterally. Record breaking heat. I heard it was 106 in Burbank. Free waters and other beverages were running out as soon as they arrived and the slushie machines couldn't get the slushies to turn to slush.

Aside from the heat, this was a great Cinegear. Personal highlights are:

Sitting on the tram shuttle next to Garret Brown. (personal hero)
Catching a glimpse of a large Sleestack temple on the back lot.
Having dinner with my friends from filmschool days- Koji Kojima (union AC), Eric Petersen (union DP), and Aaron Rattner (producer, thinking about the union.)

As far as highlights from the show goes, here are my top pics (not in any order):

The Redlake “Phantom Killer” high-speed camera.

This camera purports to be a “Phantom Killer”, and with the specs and footage they presented, it should be. 1,000fps @ 2,352x1,728, 16GB onboard memory, onboard battery, 1,000 ASA, Nikon lens mount, and MUCH cheaper than the Phantom. However... They had a couple of cameras on display and I asked if I could see a filming demo. They said “sure!, come back in two hours”. I did. They said their model wasn't ready, it was too hot (in truth, it was). I suggested throwing flower petals, or using myself as a model, but they said to come back tomorrow at 1pm. I did. They said they were not ready, so I called them on it, mentioning that I had just come from a Phantom demo where they filmed and played back footage of a quarter flipping. They said they could, but because they just had prototypes, they didn't want to try in case something went wrong. Well something did go wrong – their marketing. Grrr... What could have been an “A” product, get's an “F” in my book. Well, at least an incomplete...
www.Idtvision.com

They did make arrangements for an in-house demo. My best man, good friend, and union DP Eric Petersen will be doing the test drive. Check here for updates:
www.eric-petersen.com

The ACME Lighting and Grip waterproof (submersible!) Komet LED light.
This one gets the best demo award. A daylight balanced LED light that is completely waterproof. A must-have for ENG or as an under-water lighting effect.
Acmelightingandgrip.com
Kometled.com

Coolest demo of the show.

The Movie-intercom LightingFX Tools multi-use flicker boxThis is an amazing flickerbox, not only does it flicker, but it can be used to control larger sources (HMIs for lightning), fake fluorescent flicker, and as a remote trigger for off-screen lights to “sense” when a practical light is turned on or off (inline like for a lamp, or visually like blowing out a candle) Rumor has it that Wooden nickel will be renting them. Call Brian and ask.
movie-inter.com

This clip shows how the flicker box senses voltage from a practical and uses that to control large fixture lighting. Notice the lights in the background turning on and off as the bulb in the foreground is wiggled.

This clip shows how the flicker box can use an optical sensor to trigger larger fixtures. Notice how the light tuns on and off in relation to the flame.

The Bebee Lights 6k HMI x4 remote control condor light.
What's great about this light is that you can just rent the light and crane, you don't need an operator. Each of the four lights are independently controlled with a joystick, and you can aim them with a video camera and see where they are pointing. Very cool for the independent production.
Nightlightsbybeebee.com

Here is a movie showing how you can “see” where the lights are pointing.

The new Leader Cinezone Waveform/Vectorscope.
This new waveform monitor/vectorscope also shows the image in the false-color Cinezone, very helpful.
leaderusa.com

Here is a quick clip that shows what the Cinezone monitor looks like.

Rosco's new polarizer window system.

By putting polarizer gels on the windows and a rotating polo on the lens, you can “dial” in the amount of ND on the window from clear to black, and yet the light still comes in and lights thru the window. Imagine going from interior day to interior night with the turn of a wrist. Very cool. Very expensive - $900/roll, but for the right application...
Rosco.com

In addition to the list above, the seminars this year were very, very good.

The post production panel with Jeffreey Stansfield, Philip Hodgetts, and Larry Jordan.
This was a great panel discussion, and they went over many things I had been wanting to learn more on, including storage and archiving of digital material.

The waveform/vectorscope seminar put on by Leader Instruments.
As my friend Eric Petersen said: “Finally, a seminar where I actually learned something!” This seminar went over how to properly read a waveform/vectorscope and how to setup up a camera properly.

The Nip/Tuck discussion with Chris Baffa, ASC.
This discussion went beyond the nuts and bolts of the normal cinematography discussion, in to the psychological reasons behind the cinematographic palate, as well as producer/client relations. Very, very useful. The talk went almost an hour over and I didn't even notice.

The lighting workshop with Paul Cameron, ASC.
This discussion was hosted by Paul Cameron at the Mole Studio. Here he showed how to light with an eye for realism and beauty for the HD format. He went into some of his lighting creations and techniques as well as discussing trends in the industry.

Again very, very informative, and it made me a bit sad when it was over and I had to board my plane home. Good job, well done Cinegear 2008.

Here you can see Paul showing two custom Jem Balls, used for "urban" shooting. One is fitted with an industrial high pressure mercury vapor light, the other fitted with a high pressure sodium vapor light.

Here is what it looks like on the monitor.

Here is a setup trying to replicate the look: a 4x with a bedsheet, and 3 layers of various strengths of CTO and CTS in front of a 2k.

Here is a quick clip showing Paul Cameron discussing the sodium and mercury fixtures he had built into Jem Balls:

The Nut Tree!

2008-05-20T11:13:00.000-07:00

I got to do a spot for a favorite childhood destination: The Nut Tree!

For those who don't know, the Nut Tree is sort of Northern California's Knott's Berry Farm (before Knott's got big and the Nut Tree went away)

The Nut Tree is back and bigger than ever and I had a great time doing a 2-day commercial shoot for them. This was about as great a shoot as one can hope for. Great client, great actors, great crew and a great location. Easy and fun. Most fun for the kids. Imagine spending two days at a theme park, riding rides and eating ice cream...

The first shot (and most challenging) we did was to mount a camera on the roller coaster. For this shot I used an Aiptek HD video camera. Key Grip Justin Coupe helped me mafer clamp the camera to the stem of a bogen tripod which was ratchet-strapped down in the front care and pointing back.

The AHD is a consumer camera and has no Iris control, it is a fixed iris at f3.5 and uses shutter speed to control the light levels. I had to tape on 2 37mm ND9 Filters in order to knock the shutter down to something that would intercut with our main camera.

Here is the final spot:
http://emrl.com/j/downloads/NT.mov

Here is a beta run on the coaster to make sure everything is secure (notice the monkeys in the front):
http://emrl.com/j/downloads/JCoaster.mov

NorCal PET/CT commercial

2008-02-27T18:50:00.000-08:00

This latest shoot was for the Northern California PET/CT Center, a non-profit high end medical imaging facility. This is a great facility that saves many lives every day through highly accurate imaging. I wanted to give the spot a very hightech glossy look, but also to keep a warm approachable feel to it. We shot it in 720p with the HVX200. I originally wanted to go for a glossy, colorful, C.S.I. Miami look with shallow focus and blurred foreground images. I wanted to use a 35mm lens adapter, but that was unavailable at the time, so a lot of the look had to be done in post.

You can see a copy of it online here:

http://www.emrl.com/j/downloads/NorCalPET.mov

Here are some before and after shots from the location scout and final screen grabs:
This is the doctor's office. We used the Century .6 wide angle lens adapter and a dolly in. For lighting, we turned off the overhead fluo, and dimmed down the overhead tungsten can lights. We also filled up the light panel with x-rays, strategically placing light and dark sheets to control the light. We also bounced into the upper corner just out of frame on camera left, a 500watt fresnell spot in with half CTO, to help provide a little bit of color contrast against the bluish xray prints. You can see it wrapping around the "doctor " above. Also notice the heavy prismatic bluring off on the sides, meant to emulate a defocused lens. There is also an ND grad placed sideways to darken the wall to the right. In the closeup shot on the spot we used a piece of beveled-edge glass (I picked up from a stained glass shop) to make some nice in front of the lens optical effects.

This next scene is from the waiting area. I wanted it to have a very cold, uncertain feel. We used the exesting overhead Fluo, but draped a duva teaser on the end to keep spill off the wall, in order to make a nice soft overhead source shining down. We also used a 2' 4-bank kino with CTB to light from down the hall. There is also a de-focused region and a dark vignette applied in post.

This is the main scanner room. For this shot we turned off all the lights except for the overhead fluorescents which have a nice "looking at sky and trees" fake stained glass image over them. We used the same 500w fresnell in the same config as in the doctor's office, you can see the golden light coming in from the left. We also place a 2' kino with full CTO on the floor behind the scanner to light up the cabinets behind. Finally we added a 200w fresnel with red gel shooting into the scanner tube from behind and below, to add a little high tech feel.

The last shot was a medium shot of the talent. For this one we used an ND grad at the 8-o'clock position to darken the white picket fence in the foreground, as well as a linear polo to darken the sky. We also used a shiny board for fill to help combat the harsh noon sun and overhead branches.

HDCAM EX

2008-02-13T15:30:00.000-08:00

HDCAM EX

We had opportunity to demo Sony’s new HD camcorder, the HDCAM EX. We had a commercial shoot scheduled that day, so we took that camera out instead of the HVX. Here are my first impressions, starting with the good:

It has a better viewfinder than the HVX, and a better zoom preset. Unlike the HVX, you can preset the zoom speed in increments from 1-100. We made extensive use of this, you can actually tell the difference between a zoom out at “6” versus a “7”. It also has a cool “flip” built in lens cap.

It records on Express SxS cards which are much, much cheaper than P2 cards.

Battery life was great. We shot all day with one battery.

Now the bad:

First of all, it looks like a Proboscis Monkey. Ugly. Why does Sony load on all that equipment to the mic mount? Weird.

There is a feature that sounded good, it’s kind of a feathering that can be applied to the zoom or focus, instead of a hard stop. That’s cool, but the interface was typical Sony: buried in sub menus. We spend 15 minutes messing around with it on set and it never worked like we hoped. From the website, it sounded like it was a feather that you turn on to the zoom. In reality, you have to preset the zoom (or focus) in and out and the amount of feather, you then hit a button and the camera performs the pre-recorded maneuver. It never really worked right for us.

The camera records at 720 and 1080p. It also records at variable speed from 1-30fps and 60fps. It’s important to note that you cannot overcrank in 1080p, just 720p. This may be a bit of a disappointment if you are expecting to shoot in 1080p.

The last important note is that it does not have a standard A/V output jack, it’s some weird proprietary connector. NG.

One concern I had was the recording format. Sony chose to go with a long GOP 4:2:0 format. I only shot with this camera, so I can’t report how the image held up in post, although I heard it pulled a key pretty well. It was a bit of a pain to upload the images to FCP, Sony or Apple needs to do a bit more there. I did check out the images and they looked great. Still images are stunning. Motion images have a bit of a stutter. Sort of like the way the old XL1 rendered motion in “movie mode”

Still all things being equal, I’d pick up this camera over the HVX.

Panny: it’s your move.

Cloverfield

2008-01-16T08:47:00.000-08:00

Got to see a screening of Cloverfield last night, thanks to a pass from this guy. It was fun. Good movie. Not a pivotal film, but worth the money. Go see it on the big screen. Ironically enough, even though it was shot handheld on an HVX (genesis for effects shots), it plays well on the big screen. I imagine viewing it on a smaller screen would accentuate the smaller recording format.

I’ve been tempted…

2007-12-31T11:29:00.000-08:00

Every time I’ve been in Blockbuster I’ve been tempted to pick up a copy of one of Asylum Films knock-off versions of the recent batch of summer blockbusters. I know they’re gonna suck, I’m just curious to see just how bad they’re going to suck. Asylum is one of those production companies that cranks out knock-off films.

Here is their most recent release, “Alien Vs. Hunter”. No doubt released in time to capitalize on the trailers for the new “Alien Vs. Predator” sequel. Although why you would want to make a crappy knock-off of a crappy studio film is beyond me.

Here is their release of “Transmorphers” next to the more popular “Transformers”. Perhaps “Transmorphers” is based on a knock-off Chinese cartoon from the 80s…

They also have a movie titled “I am Omega”, skillfully blending the recent Will Smith blockbuster “I am Legend” remake with the Chuck Heston classic “Omega Man”. Nice.

When I was working in LA, I’d met several grips and electricians who worked on Asylum productions. They all worked on one, learned their lesson then moved on. I too had hoped to work on an Asylum film and learn my lesson, but never had the opportunity. Alas, I can only watch the productions and enjoy them from the viewer’s perspective. Perhaps some Saturday afternoon soon I will have an Asylum viewing marathon.

My new HD camera

2007-12-14T13:41:00.000-08:00

So I got a new HD camera, but it's not what you think...

My consumer miniDV camera finally died, and I needed to buy a new personal camera. The trouble is I wanted to future-proof my purchase, as the 2009 analog transition is looming large. Unfortunately the cheapest consumer HD cameras are still around $600. Way too much for something I will likely drop in the water or leave on a train on vacation.

Enter Aiptek.

Aiptek (who?) has a couple of "hybrid" still/SD/HD flash card palmcorders out for very cheap. They have the GO-HD which does 720p and has a 3x optical zoom lens for ~$200. I almost got one. The problem is that it is autofocus and has a tendency to search for focus. NG. The other model is the A-HD. This is a fixed focus non-zoom camera, and it sells for ~$120. I picked one up. For $120 it's pretty darned cool. It records to .h264 mov files which is awkward for editing, but great for storage. I can record an hour of 720p onto a 2gig SD card ($20), and the quality is not too bad either.

At any rate, I decided to do a comparison between the AHD and the HVX200. The results can be seen here:

http://emrl.com/j/projects/AHD/

Red One

2007-10-22T16:17:00.001-07:00

Well, actually it’s Red #21.

Saturday I had a chance to attend a RED Camera demonstration by Torrey Loomis of Silverado Systems. They have 2 Red Cameras, serial #s 21 and 22. The presentation only briefly discussed the camera, and instead spent most of the demonstration going over workflow and software. That seems to be the biggest end of the equation: post. We may have opportunity to shoot a spot in the next couple of weeks, but it’s all dependent on if we can make the workflow work with our Final Cut set-up.

We shall see…

The Mysterium revealed!

Jay Jib 3.0

2007-10-04T16:56:00.000-07:00

So I think I may build another Jib.

This one will be my 3rd. The first model was highly successful. It’s main beam was 4” square aluminum tubing and was 8’ long. It was designed to fit on a Mitchell mount tripod (which were in abundance at my filmschool). It was simple and robust. It was strong enough to hold a fully loaded BL4 no problem. It also got a lot of use. At one point I lent it out to a friend, then another, then another – it spent 6 months floating around film school before I called it back for a feature. I’d occasionally see it on shoots around campus at random times. That worked out good for me, it wasn’t easy storing an 8’ hunk of metal in our 1 bedroom apartment. I eventually had to get rid of it due to storage issues.

Once we bought a house (with a garage!) I once again got the bug to build a jib. The 2nd version was to be built of tubular aluminum pipes and “T” joints. It worked great on paper and in my head. In real life – not so much. After building the fulcrum I decided not to proceed as the tolerance was just too loose.

After renting my friends Cobra II crane, I’m now inspired to build a new Jib. I’ve decided to model it after the Cobra II design, but with a few changes (upgrades in my book)

First, I’ve decided to build a junior mount base. This will eliminate the single most expensive part of any home built jib – the tripod. Instead I can use any common junior or combo stand. I can also extend the combo stand up for big height if needed, something you can’t do with a tripod.

The second change is to incorporate a lazy susan bearing into the base, this should (hopefully) allow for easy pans.

The third change is to have the option of a locked level, or a hand operated tilt mechanism. This picture shows it in locked position, but you could unlock and use the guide bolts to determine the level.

I’ve never liked the way the Cobra relies on the tripod head to tilt the camera. It has always seemed a fairly wonky setup - putting all that weight on a fluid head, then tilting it up and down. My design is similar to Agung’s design, and it seems a much better way to do it:

http://www.homebuiltstabilizers.com/MembersRigs/Jibsncranes/agungmardiyantojib/main/camcrane-08.htm

Here is a final shot that shows the back end where the weights will be mounted. I plan on filling the aluminum tubing with wooden dowels at this point and at the fulcrum to make it more rigid.

Well, hopefully it will work as good in life as it does in my head!

The Jazzman

2007-10-01T16:54:00.001-07:00

So my cat (Jazzman) brought home her 7th trophy mouse head last night. She left it on the back porch. It’s kind of gruesome. She eats everything but the head and spine. It’s better than the alternative, which is to have 7 mice and their offspring running around my house. Good job mousebreath. In case you haven’t seen this before, here is a small clip of her in action when she was smaller and cuter:

http://emrl.com/j/downloads/jasmine1.mov

Oh Yeah...!

2007-09-10T13:47:00.001-07:00

That's all I've got to say...

Deer

2007-09-10T13:27:00.000-07:00

This is one of the great things about living in Sacramento. I try to go running 3 times a week, and it’s really nice to have an asset like this:

This is the bike trail alongside the American river. Actually, it’s the horse trail alongside the bike trail, and it’s 30+ miles long. I’ve seen wild turkey, quail, snakes, cranes, and deer like this one:It's a young deer standing next to a white egret (It's like a big crane) in the river.

I’m not going to take it for granted, especially when compared to the gravel oval track at the elementary school is my alternative.

Demo Derby-O-Rama

2007-09-07T09:36:00.000-07:00

This last weekend was the state finals for the Demo Derby at the State Fair!!!!Always a great event. Below is a video clip from my new cell. OK, it's grainy, small and short, but it's new technology for me, so I think it's cool.

Even though the state finals were last weekend, I'm still looking forward to this: It's a benefit for the Rio Linda Public Library, and should a bit more "authentic" than the swanky affair put on at the Cal Expo last weekend...

Iran

2007-08-21T11:01:00.000-07:00

I ran 8 miles along the American River bike trail.

Sunrise Blvd. to Old Folsom. It may have been 7 because the trails are unmarked, but I think it was 8. At any rate, I think that's the longest distance I have ever ran. woo-hoo. We will see how far I go next weekend.

(Update: The next weekend I ran 9 miles. My goal is to get to 10)

Koval’s Trade Market

2007-08-15T14:23:00.001-07:00

Just finished post on a spot for Koval’s Trade Market. This was a branding spot for a new food store who is competing with Whole Foods and Trader Joes, while offering prices comparable to Raley’s or Vons. This a great opportunity to have a new business with no image history and create their public perception from scratch. We decided to go with a glossy, visually appealing ad. We shot it in HD with the HVX200, with a 35mm lens adapter using an 28-105 sigma zoom lens. We also had a .5 wide angle adapter we put in front of that for some semi-fish-eye shots. The spot turned out nice.

(update: 8/16/07) Here is an h264 version: http://www.emrl.com/j/downloads/Kovals16by9.mov

Here are some set shots:

Setting up for a dolly-out shot in the cheese Isle. Mike on Dolly grip, and Jeff Bloch on lights. In the foreground is Mark, the store liaison.

Here is the shot.

Jeff operating the jib for the opening shot.

Here is the shot, starting in a tight CU of the Koval's logo on the basket, then pulling out and up over the store.

Changing lenses in the wall-o-foods aisle.

Here is the shot. The wide angle adapter adds nice barrel distortion, vignetting, and chromatic aberration.
Working with talent in the hot foods section.

Here is the final shot, splitscreen with a CU of the hot foods.

Failsafe - 10x10 challenge

2007-08-08T10:37:00.000-07:00

This last week I worked on a short film for a 10x10 challenge. (10 minute film in 10 days) I’ve always questioned the desire of people to do those, I mean if you are going to go thru the effort to make a short film, why limit yourself to one where you are under prepared and don’t have enough post time?!? I guess it’s like what I went through at film school. I always said I would never again partake in such an exercise, but last week… I did.

Why? For me it was an opportunity to work with friends, some of whom I hadn’t worked with in several years. We shot for 3 days, but I could only do the first 2. Unfortunately for me, they were night shoots that turned into overnight shoots... also I say, never again…

At any rate, I get to see the final film tonight, hopefully it will turn out as good as it looked through the lens. I also got to work with some great people and some great equipment. Here are some set stills taken by Andy Pischalnikoff (http://www.doctorlegacy.com/):

Night 1, an airplane hangar in Lincoln, CA.

The Director, Eric Espera.

Night 2, night interior and exterior. Here I am building my new light, a 7’ 1k softbox. It took a while to build and rig, but once it was set, we were lit for the scene.

Setting the light 20’ up with a mafer clamp on to a 2x6 beam. The light had a safety cable, I wish I had one!

Once the light was set, it was worth it.

Another angle with the director and myself in the corner.

I got to fly a glidecam, yea! Always love that.

A Dutch camera trick my friend and SoCal DP Eric Petersen showed me on my first film. Thanks Eric!

Antique Trove - The Musical!

2007-08-06T11:29:00.000-07:00

I've just finished post on a 1950's Technicolor style musical commercial for a local client. The budget was small, and we put way too much work in on this spot, but it was just too much fun to stop…

This is my Father playing the roll of “The Dad”

And again, showing the lighting setup.

Here he is in the final composite.

This is a frame grab from the final edit, staring Susan Fore.

You can view the spot online here at: www.emrl.com/j/downloads/AntiqueTrove.mov

New Music Videos

2007-07-16T16:51:00.000-07:00

The new music videos for Freex and Olson Olson are done! The Freex video was for the song “Box”. It was shot inside a 7’ box.
You can download it here (9 megs):
http://www.emrl.com/j/downloads/Box.mov

The Olson Olson video is for the song “En Passant”. We shot the performance footage on a white cyc stage at The Studio Center in Sacramento. The narrative footage was shot in HD with an HVX200 (for the slow-mo) with a 35mm adapter. We shot near the American River and in a Safflower field outside Davis.

You can download it here (13 megs):

http://www.emrl.com/j/downloads/EnPassant.mov

Here are some location stills:

Shooting on a bridge over the river.

Hunting butterflies in a field at 60fps.

Trying to figure out the HD->SD in camera downconvert workflow.

Justin, Guitar.

Tom, Drums.

Wading thru the safflower field. I had to wear shorts that day, Ouch!

Directing Jennifer, the singer. Note Justin with playback.

A snake slithered by during the shoot. See if you can spot it's cameo in the video...

If I lived in springfield...

2007-07-10T12:09:00.000-07:00

...this is what Siobhan and I would look like:

Super cool. I made it here:

http://www.simpsonsmovie.com/main.html?cid=us&deeplink=avatar&deeplink2=undefined

Yellowstone!

2007-07-05T14:23:00.000-07:00

This last weekend was my father in law’s 60th birthday. We celebrated the event at my in-laws cabin up by Yellowstone. Siobhan drove up the week earlier with her mom. I left after work Wednesday and picked up my cousin-in-law Zach at the train station. From there we picked up a rental car at the airport for the long drive (for only $150 for the week, it was well worth it not to put the miles on my car…)We drove through the night, stopping at the Red Lion in Winnemucca, Nevada.

We got up early with the hopes of making it to Rigby Idaho by 4pm. Why Rigby Idaho? Rigby is the home town of Philo T. Farnsworth, the inventor of electronic TV capture and Display. He came up with the idea in the 1920’s while plowing his families potatoe (Quayle Rules!) fields at the young age of 14! Rigby Idaho also houses the Philo T. Farnsworth TV and Pioneer Museum. They are open from 10am to 4pm, and I’ve missed them before. We hauled our little Chevy Colbalt as fast as reasonable and made it there by 3:45. Enough time to pay the admission ($2) and enjoy the simple homage to someone who changed the world with and Idea in a potatoe field. The museum was nice and quaint, but I think Philo deserves more…

After the Museum we drove up to the cabin and got to visit many relatives from Kentucky, including Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Grandpas and Grandmas. A rare opportunity.

The next couple of days we spent touring the park. It’s basically too amazing to go into details. Amazing geology (geysers) , wildlife (buffalo) , and food. (buffalo burgers) If you’ve never been, go. Give yourself 3 days.

The only unfortunate part of the trip was the demise of Mammoth Hot Springs. Mammoth Hot Springs and Old Faithful are the parks two big draws. About a year ago, there were some earthquakes and the springs dried up about 98%. The whole hillside used to be a rainbow of intense colors. Now it’s dried and cracked and looks like the moon:

http://www.nps.gov/archive/yell/mammothcam.htm

On Sunday my cousin and I went canoeing along Henry’s fork of the Madison River. Very nice. A little shallow at times, but crystal clear. That afternoon Zach, my wife and I left back for California. After consulting with the GPS, I discovered that by swooping down past Salt Lake City, it only added 10 minutes to the total trip. I always like to drive a circular route rather than straight and back if I can. I was surprised at how nice that part of Utah is – absolutely picturesque. Soft green rolling hills leading to rocky peaks. Nice. After swinging through SLC, we hit the Bonneville Salt flats just as the sun set. Magic hour in a truly alien landscape. Totally cool. I’ve always wanted to shoot a music video or SciFi there. Again if you have never been- stop by if you can. I wouldn’t budget 3 days though. After about 3 minutes you get the point.

http://www.utah.com/playgrounds/bonneville_salt.htm

About 10 minutes past Bonneville is Nevada, and the first town – Wendover. Like any border town in Nevada, there are Giant Casinos. We stopped at Paradise Beach or something like that. Huge. Big as any Vegas casino. We ate at some aquatic themed restaurant. Shrimp cocktail and ribeye – yum! We stayed the night about an hour past wendover in some town I can’t remember. It had two hotels and a gas station. Next time we will just stay in wendover.

Cinegear 2007!

2007-06-25T16:50:00.001-07:00

Cinegear: Wooooooo!

Sorry, just a little excited. This weekend I went down to LA to visit a friend and attend cinegear. My good friend and best man picked me up at LAX and we headed over to the Expo. I've missed the last 3, so I was excited to see what's new. Afterwards we stopped by Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles - YUM!

Here are some pictures from Cinegear:

Socal DP and best man E. G. Petersen at the Briese lighting booth with their 11' umbrella reflector: http://www.brieseusa.com/index.html

Element labs was also impressive. http://www.elementlabs.com/ They have a 5 phosphor led light that does near full spectrum lighting. Most are white LEDs only, some use RGB lights to make white, These guys add Magenta and Yellow to fill out the gaps. They also make a *very* cool led panel display that can be as large as a building and can display full color motion imges. This display was showing a quicktime movie off of a lap top.

Here is Eric getting a closer look:

Some other items that caught my eye:

A 58k light from the people at photosonics. No, not 58k color temp - 58 thousand watts. 58 1k bulbs packed tightly in a 2'x3' box! This thing can only be turned on for 10 seconds max before it starts to melt the diffusion screen.

http://www.photosonics.com/soft-box-lights.htm

Dragon Grips was cool with their ladder platform and cross beam-less dolly track:

http://www.dragongrips.com/

These guys had a cool aesthetic for a rental house:

http://www.monsterlighting.com/

The Nila LED lights were 1,200 Par HMI equivelents, with less power and almost no heat:

http://www.nila.tv/id6.html

And this is where old steadicam ops go to retire...

Olson Olson music video

2007-06-11T16:54:00.000-07:00

This weekend we began production on a music video for the band "Olson Olson" The first phase of production was on the white cyc stage at the studio center in Sacramento. Two weeks from now we begin production of the narrative scenes. The band helped out by painting the stage. Nothing teaches respect for the white cyc than painting it. In fact, the only errant footprint that day was one one of mine...

Loading the "Shabby Chic" Piano into place.

The final product, good as gold.

I went to the movies.

2007-06-06T09:59:00.000-07:00

I went to the movies this weekend and saw two really good films.

The first was the cheap theater screening of 300. I was wary of this film because of all the hype and the strong visual treatment, but seeing how this was a mythic tale, it went well with the film.

The second movie was "knocked up" Everyone over 16 should see this movie. Good film.

It's interesting to note that upon reflection of the amazing cinematography in "300", I realized that I went through the entire 2 hrs of "knocked up" and never noticed a shot, angle, movement, or lighting setup. In retrospect I'd say that "knocked up" has the better cinematography. Not once was I taken out of the story - not once. That's what makes for good cinematography, telling the story.

Demo Derby Season!

2007-05-29T18:06:00.000-07:00

This Memorial weekend we took some time to enjoy the Sacramento County Fair, and the chief attraction: The Demo Derby!!!

It's nice to be able to get up close.

The moment before. I hate digital camera shutter lag.

Watch the dirt fly!

How did this happen? First time I've ever seen something like this happen... Can't wait for August and the State Finals!

The House is Done!

2007-05-15T18:06:00.000-07:00

The remodel of the house is done!

mostly.

I still have some trim to put up and some windows to work on, but it's done enough to put on the market.

Here are some pics:

Strawberry Festival

2007-05-03T22:35:00.000-07:00

We were supposed to make a standard “still picture with motion graphics” commercial for the Strawberry Festival. I wasn’t satisfied with that. We decided to do something a little more interesting...

You can download a 3-meg h264 version here:

http://www.emrl.com/j/downloads/2007StrawberryFestival.mov

(There's just something a little disturbing about a giant strawberry enjoying a cannibalistic meal of a smaller strawberry.)

Paris

2007-04-08T17:49:00.000-07:00

Sunday, April 8th

We got up early (5am) to take a tram and catch our flight out of Germany. ;-(

Siobhan was smart enough to book a 5 hour layover at the Charles de Gaulle airport. That gave us just enough time to take the shuttle into town for a quick climb up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. This has the best view of Paris, even better than the Eiffel Tower, as from here you can actually see the tower in the view!

After that we strolled down the Champs Elysées and found an outdoor café for lunch. Siobhan had a crepe, while I had ordered a hot dog. What I got is something different. It was a baguette split open with a frankfurter inside and covered in cheese and baked. It was good, just different. The mustard was definitely good. The French know how to do mustard.

We hurried back and caught out 747 flight back. This flight was via Air France. Air France sucks. I will just leave it at that…

Munich

2007-04-07T16:46:00.000-07:00

Saturday, April 7th

We caught a bus tour to take us up to the alpine region above Munich to visit the Neuschwanstein Castle built by “Mad King Ludwig”

This castle was the final castle built buy King Ludwig II of Bavaria. They called him “Mad” because he spent so much of his country’s fortunes on extravagant, fantastic castles. Castle Neuschwanstein (“New Swan Stone in German”) is the most amazing, quintessential castle example you can imagine.

Not only was it the inspiration for Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty castle at Disneyland, it also inspired Mel Brooks.

After the Castle we returned back to Munich and did quick rickshaw bike tour of the city, followed by dinner in a Hoffbrau house of roasted pork knuckle and dumplings… Mmmmm!

Milan

2007-04-06T16:55:00.000-07:00

Friday, April 6th

This morning we took the train from Venice station (on the island this time…) to Milan.

Once we got into town we visited the galleria, an outdoor shopping district covered in 1860 with a glass and steel dome, and equipped with the newly invented electric lights. We also took a spin on the mosaic bull oysters for luck. Seriously.

Here is a cool VR:
http://milan.arounder.com/city_tour/IT000005334.html

Next door was the Duomo, the second largest gothic cathedral in the world.

After that we visited the Castello Sforzesco, a gigantic brick castle, built just in time for Napoleon to take it over.
Here is another cool VR:
http://milan.arounder.com/city_tour/IT000005332.html

Finally we stopped off at the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie to visit Leonardo’s (Davinci, not the Turtle…) Last Supper. We were surprised at how low-key it was. First of all, the church itself is located on what once was the outskirts of town, not in the city center. Second it’s a fairly small church, and the fresco itself is not in the church, but in the unadorned building next door, the dining hall for the monks. Third, it was not crowded, although this may be due to the need to buy tickets months in advance. These are all in contrast to the Mona Lisa, housed in the Louvre, surrounded by hundreds of gawking tourists pressing themselves up against the protective glass, cameras flashing away…

It’s amazing the painting has survived at all. Read the quick paragraph of it’s amazing volitle history here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Supper_(Leonardo)#Damage_and_restorations

Here is a great VR Leonardo’s Last supper:
http://milan.arounder.com/city_tour/IT000005341.html

Italy is interesting. One thing always strikes me is how everything is in an advanced state of deferred maintenance. Cracks in the sidewalks and abundant weeds. Broken and unwashed windows. It’s like that everywhere across the country. It’s more third-world than the former Soviet states of Hungary and Czech. All the train stations are left over construction from Mussolini himself. Interesting.

That evening we took an Air Dolomiti flight back to Munich and tok the tram into town to our hotel.

Venice!

2007-04-05T10:44:00.000-07:00

Thursday, April 5th

A city like none other in the world, for so many reasons. There are only two modes of transportation: walking and boats. No cars or bicycles. Also, everything here is old. Hundreds of years old, which is just a great atmosphere. Unlike other world cities, Venice has no real “must see” or “must do” sites. It’s more of an even experience, all over the place. You can walk in *any* direction and it’s all just as fascinating. It’s not like you are likely to move away from an important area, you just find a new interesting area. There is no pressure, you just go and experience. And when you get hungry, you will find a place to eat. Simple. Easy. Plus for us on a personal note, this is where I asked Siobhan to marry me, so we have those wonderful memories to remember.

Here is what we ended up doing:

In the morning we made our way to San Marco square (the “pigeon” plaza you always see in the movies) and took a tour of the “Doge’s” palace, the seat of government for the Venetian empire.

Very fascinating, plus we got to cross the “Bridge of Sighs” (Under which I proposed to Siobhan as we rode in a gondola)

Afterwards we went to tour the Church at San Marco Square, but the line was too long. That’s ok, we can do that next time! We noticed another tour for bell tower was very short and decided to take that. We weren’t expecting the amazing view from the top, panoramic over the entire island and surrounding lagoon.

It was from this point (although the tower was rebuilt after a collapse in 1902!) that Galileo demonstrated his “invention” of the telescope to the Venetian government.

After that we shopped and ate and ate and shopped and shopped and ate and eventually capped the day with a sunset gondola ride under the Bridge of Sighs.

Pictures lifted from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venice

Day of Travel: Czech to Germany to Italy

2007-04-04T13:51:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, April 4th

Today was a day of travel. We drove from Prague to Munich thru some freshly snow dusted forests – beautiful. Once back inside Germany I pulled out my Kraftwerk CD. “Autobahn” on the Autobahn – nice. The perfect accompanying score…

Near Munich we stopped off at Dachau and toured the memorial. A bit of a more somber experience.

We dropped off the car at the Munich airport. We started with a brand new car, and took it from 4km to 1969km in 6 days. Bye bye car, it was fun, but it will be nice not to have to worry about parking or freeway passes…

We walked out on the tarmac to our “Air Dolomiti” flight. I love boarding the plane on the tarmac, it feels like more of a travel adventure and less like a commute flight.

After a short flight over the Swiss Alps we landed at the Milan airport. For some reason, the Milan airport is not in Milan. It’s about an hour away. We took the airport shuttle bus into town, but with the evening commute traffic, it was slow going. So slow we missed our train to Venice. There was one other that we were able to take. The only problem (unforeseen and unmentioned) was that this train did not take us directly to the island as our first train did. Instead we needed to catch a second train at the Venice mainland station. Well, once we arrived there and disembarked the train, it was evident we weren’t on the island. We figured out we needed to board the connecting train just as it pulled out. In fact, the last train out for the night. D’oh. Hmm… what to do? We went to a hotel across from the station and asked. They pointed us to a bus stop that had busses that went across the bridge every ½ hr. Thank goodness… We caught the bus with about a dozen other passengers and rode it in. About midnight we finally crossed the “Ponte Degli” on foot over the Grand Canal and found out hotel – Whew!

Prague, Czech Republic

2007-04-03T10:05:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, April 3rd.

We left Vienna early and head3ed for the Czech Republic. It a was a lot easier to get out of the city than in. Our route took us off the main autobahn and on to a winding 2-lane highway thru a lot of small villages. This was like stepping back in time before the 1992 soviet break-up, not much seems to have changed. It was nice to see more of the true Czech country, rather than the “designed for driving comfort” rest stops of the Autobahn.

We stopped in a small town for lunch and I successfully ordered (pantomimed) an eastern European style hot dog for myself, and a chocolate crepe for Siobhan.

We made it into Prague with little difficulty and checked into out hotel, the “Hotel Mucha”

http://prague.hotel-mucha.tobook.com/Czech-Republic/Hotels/Hotel-Mucha?citypname=Prague

Prague is a very art Nuveau city, and Mucha was one of their biggies. Even if you don’t recognize the name, you have seen his work:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mucha

We had a great room, on the 6th floor, the top floor, and had the hotel’s only rooftop balcony.

We took the subway out to the hill top castle and after quite an up hill hike, had the most spectacular view of Prague. We then hiked down and visited the Charles Bridge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bridge

We also stopped near there and had an amazing meal of goulash and stuffed peppers – Yum! Hungary and Czech has had the best food by far this trip. After dinner we visited the “Medieval Tortue Museum”. Jack Bauer meets Monty Python – Ouch!

At 9pm we caught the ringing of the gian mechanical astronomical clock, with a parade of animated saints and nobels, and with death ringing the bell. Very cool.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Orloj

A sizeable crowd had gathered to watch too. It’s cool to think that crowds have been gathering here to watch the show since 1490!

At the clock we met for a night time walking tour - “the ghosts of Prague” Very fun.

Vienna, Austria

2007-04-02T23:04:00.000-07:00

Monday, April 2nd

Two things about travel:

First keyboards are different. I have to keep looking up and down t make sure I didn't just type "kezboard" or put in random Ö's or Ä's, so forgive me if something is weird.

Second, It's just plain un-American to charge to use the bathroom.

This morning we left Budapest early. It took about 3 hours to travel (including a great Tesco stop) to Vienna. It took almost 2 hours to park and reach our hotel. We got lost and asked a guy on a bike for directions and he told us to turn left then go a couple of lights, then turn right, then.. well... best of luck!

After we found our hotel and checked in, we toured the local cathedral, big old and smokey. Siobhan noticed a sign for "catacomb tours" It was only 4 euro, and was totally worth it. Just like you would imagine catacombs under a cathedral from the middle ages. Think stacks and stacks of bones from black plague victims. No pictures allowed as it was a working graveyard.

After that we took the subway to the giant 1879 Ferris wheel. This thing was huge. Instead of each spoke holding a bucket or bench for 3 people, each spoke held basically a wooden train car.

Last we caught a concert-opera-dance performance of Mozart and Strauss. Now, I can appreciate Mozart, but I enjoyed Strauss. I guess it's analogous to appreciating a fencing match, but enjoying a demolition derby. I also relates to the tact that I couldn't help visualizing the dancers as two overweight auto mechanics performing the same moves. Very entertaining.

Budapest, Hungary

2007-04-01T16:24:00.000-07:00

Sunday, April 1st

This Morning we went on a walking tour with Louie.

We walked up to the hill to Buda Castle and saw several famous statues and the presidential palace.

To get back down to street level we got to take the Budavári Sikló, or “Castle Glide” funicular. Built in 1870, this is the oldest funicular we’ve been on, including the Montreal and Santa Cruz funiculars.

We then crossed the famous chain bridge and walked to the St. Stephen's Basilica for a 360 degree panoramic view high above the city from the rim of the dome.
We then had lunch at a traditional Hungarian restaurant and had gulyás! Boo-yah!

Last we stopped by the “House of Terror”.

A museum dedicated to remembering the victims of Soviet and Nazi torture and murder. The was probably the best museum I have ever been in.

Salzburg, Austria

2007-04-01T15:23:00.000-07:00

Saturday, March 31st

It was such a wonderful experience to awaken in the most beautiful setting on earth next the most beautiful girl in the world! We took an alpine hike to a nearby waterfall and came back down past the church graveyard with the Beinhaus or “Bone House” in English.

It’s a room where they dig up their dead and put their decorated bones after 10 years in the ground.

Afterwards saw a film crew in town shooting a tourism spot (w/ a full 35mm Arri package from Arri Munich) You know you are in the most picturesque location when you see the film crew choosing it as well…

We then left for Salzburg and toured the famous salt mines, complete with wooden miner’s slides and all! Way fun.

We then took the longer than expected drive to Budapest. Note to self for future reference: Add 1 hr for every 2 when using European Mapquest directions. We got to the Hungarian border just after sunset. Crossing the border was different, lots of police at the old soviet style border check. I was a little nervous, but we got through with no problems. Hungary has a 130kph speed limit, so we were able to make up some time, that however was lost as we got lost repeatedly in town. Street signs are like the remaining Easter eggs after all the hungry little kids have scoured the yard: hard to find. We met Louie Petro, an old friend from film school and went out for a quick bite at his favorite restaurant since he was a kid, a hamburger stand next to the towns main trolley turn around. On his recommendation, we had hotdogs. These were great, but different from American hot dogs. Instead of the bun opening like a book, these were a tube with the bottom closed, like a cup. You pour the condiments and then drop the dog in.

Hallstatt, Austria

2007-03-30T18:27:00.000-07:00

Friday, March 30th

This Delta flight was better. Due to it being an international flight, the movies and games were free. Decent movies and crappy games. Except one. A type of “trivial pursuit” that you can play real-time in 20 question rounds against other passengers. It’s great fun to lean over and watch the player in 34E cringe as you just beat him out of a common sense question!

We got into Munich airport and had a 2-hour difficulty in getting our rental car. Apparently they won’t let rental gars go into former soviet block countries, even though they are EU nations. Well, we had to rent from a special company, pay extra insurance, and get a larger car, an Opel Astra, not a VW Lupo like I’d hoped. We also had to buy a 7 euro road permit for Austria and a yellow safety vest before we could enter the country.

The Drive thru the Alps in Austria was AMAZING. Mountains rising nearly vertically on either side for hours after hours. We made our way to Hallstatt, the most picturesque “village by the lake at the base of the snow covered peaks” ever!

We found a B&B at the edge of the lake and got rooms looking out to the lake.

For Dinner we ate at the Gasthof Zauner restaurant, a 110 year old restaurant in town.

I had “Reynanke”, a local fish specialty from the lake.

After dinner we strolled thru the town and listened to a string group practicing in the church for their spring concert.

Atlanta

2007-03-30T18:01:00.000-07:00

Thursday, March 29th

We left last night and took the Delta red-eye to Atlanta. Delta has a Jetblue style dish network 30 channel TV deal going, but their system also includes on demand movies and videogames. The trouble is that the movies and games are $5 to watch/play, and the dish network TV shows only work while taxiing. Nice try, but I will take Jetblue with their blue potatoe chips anytime. (Quayle spelling intentional)

This morning we me my uncle David at the airport and went out to see some of the sights of Atlanta.

The one thing I noticed off the bat is that Atlanta is currently under a pollen siege. Literally every inch of every horizontal surface is covered in a yellow film. I’m glad I don’t have allergies.

Our first stop was to see the “Cyclorama”, a slightly post-civil war era circular painting that gives a 360 degree view of the battle for Atlanta.

Very cool except for the WPA era “enhancement” of adding a model diorama to the foreground to liven things up. Kinda cheesy. On the way out I got my picture taken with the “Texas”. (a very important civil war locomotive which I will hopefully go over in the future.)

After that toured the Fernbank Natural science center and they had a great display of Lizards.

Then we headed back to catch a second redeye, this one to Munich.

No Comment...

2007-03-28T23:18:00.000-07:00

I'm going to offer these up without comment for a variety of reasons. Although they may create more questions than answers, I think they speak volumes for themselves...

Avid Timeline

2007-03-15T21:25:00.000-07:00

So I'm teaching a friend to cut on Avid and opend up the timeline for the Cognito music video. Remind me not to take on an edit job like this again!

Google Sketchup

2007-03-12T22:03:00.000-07:00

OK, I found a cool program, Google Sketchup. It's basically a “CAD for Dummies”, but it has a lot of cool features. There are user created elements you can download from Google like building, cars, trees and people, there is even a “film” section with dolly track, a chapaman dolly, a triangle jib, a techno crane, and even sandbags! The best part: it's free.

Here are some sketches I came up with for a proposed set for a music video we have in the works: (the white things are hanging kino bulbs)

Weekend in Tahoe

2007-03-05T17:11:00.000-08:00

Siobhan and I had a much deserved getaway weekend in Tahoe. It was the perfect weekend to do so, it had snowed 3-5 feet the week before, but the weekend was comeplely sunny.
Here is a quick summary of our activities. The pics below are from the vendors websites. I am still waiting for my film to come back from the lab, and will update the pics when they come in. (Yes, I still shoot film…)

We stayed in 1920s era logging cabins converted to hotels at the “Rustic Cabins”
I would highly recommend this to any chain, ski lodge, or casino hotel. Rooms start at $59 are nice and private and a step back in time.
http://rusticcottages.com/

That night we ate at near by Italian place “Lanza’s”, and wholly cow! Probably the best Italian I have ever had. I had the Chicken Cacciatore, a whole half chicken! Dang that was good!
http://www.tahoesbest.com/Restaurants/lanza's.htm

After that we took a paddlewheel cruise of the lake onboard the “Tahoe Queen”
http://www.zephyrcove.com/cruises.php

Then we did a sleigh ride at the “Borges” sleigh rides:
http://www.sleighride.com/sleigh.html

SP Auction

2007-02-05T18:46:00.000-08:00

The latest spot I worked on was for Sacramento Public Auciton. The cool thing about this spot was the location - inside a hangar at the old McClellan AFB. It's about 5 blocks from my house. My dream of riding my bicycle to the shoot almost came true again, except for the fact that I was providing the camera, tripod, MB, etc... But at least I had a 3 minute commute. The spot turned out well. The location was absolutely beautiful, an industrial building with neurtal tones and soft diffused light. The natural lighting was so nice, we only had to break out the kino 2' 2-bank on a couple of closeups, that's it! I even got a chance to flex my muscle in After Effects on this spot. It was a bit of an effort to time out each of the windows to the beat. Well, you can see for yourself here:

http://www.emrl.com/j/downloads/SPAuction.mov

I'm also using the h.264 codec. It's quite nice, but not everyone has it. If you don't, you can download a free player at www.apple.com/quicktime

Oh the Kitchen...

2007-01-26T21:59:00.000-08:00

The kitchen is getting close! If all goes well this week I will be buying the cabinets and installing them and next weekend installing the granite countertop!

Here is a shot of the kitchen with the tiles removed and leveling compound in place.

Here it is with the new tile!

Swing-Away Mod for Formatt FM-500 Mattebox!

2007-01-08T22:26:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics from a modification I made to my Formatt FM-500 Matte box to mount on rails and have a swing-away feature. (useful for “checking the gate” on my DVX…) Here are some pics:

Here it is in "Swing-Away" mode:

Here is a shot of the Rail assembly:

Merry Christmas, Happy Festivus!

2006-12-22T21:24:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas, and Happy Festivus!

What am I doing? Working on the house... We bought the floor tile and I was about to lay it down when the wall heater died. Yes, during a record breaking cold weekend, our heater died. Thank goodness we have a fireplace, and thank goodness for presto-logs!

lately...

2006-12-12T19:21:00.000-08:00

been working on the kitchen... the walls are sheetrocked in and should be painted this week. Hopefully this weekend I can start laying the granite tile floor, then we can finally get the stove and fridge out of the living room!

Prayer photos

2006-11-28T13:29:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of more set photos from the "Prayer" shoot:

This shot is Gaffer Jeremy Moore scaling a power pole to mount a 1k. Handy having those baby-sized pegs...

We put the light up with full CTS to simulate sodium, which worked well. The cool thing about mounting to the existing pole was that when shot the wide establishing shot, it totally played as a working practical!

Here is a CU w/ the sodium light:

This scene was easy to light, just a little skirting to the existing fluo fixture...

Here is the crew shot at the hospital scene in the former McClellan AFB hospital.

Binary J

2006-11-16T20:45:00.000-08:00

Hey I found a cool site on the net that takes a picture and converts it to ascii art. There are lots of options, but in this case I opted for "random binary greyscale" (click the image to see it bigger...)

Prayer of a Righteous Seed

2006-11-15T00:38:00.000-08:00

We've completed shooting on a nice little short film called "Prayer of a Righteous Seed" We shot it on the DVX at some very nice locations, including a great little church with nice stained glass windows, and here below at the American River.

Time Lapse Edit

2006-10-26T17:24:00.000-07:00

I've compiled some of the time lapse stuff I've been working on into a 30-second file.

It is downloadable here: www.emrl.com/j/downloads/TimeLapseEdit.mov

It's 13.5 megs

DIY 15mm support rods

2006-10-18T18:47:00.000-07:00

So I went ahead and made myself a set of support rails for my camera. I’d been wanting to build some as they are extremely expensive, but I don’t have access to a metal shop, and couldn’t figure out how to build some of the items. That is until I found these:

http://ebusiness.ilsco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=1&categoryId=192

These are electrical connectors that just happen to be exactly 15mm – the industry standard width for support. They are made of aluminum, so they are lightweight but strong. Perfect, especially at $5 a pair! (If ordering I would get the TA-250)

So I went ahead and bought all the parts and pieces, then found Cavision came out with affordable (~$160) and well made rods:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=335222&is=REG&addedTroughType=search

I’ve also seen these very affordable rods at ~$90!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Rod-Support-Tripod-Spacer-for-Century-Mattebox-Sunshade_W0QQitemZ140014946081QQihZ004QQcategoryZ79322QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

So why put myself thru the grief of a DIY epic when I can buy some well built rods for an affordable price. That’s what I though until I got tired of looking at all the raw materials just sitting there – potential unfulfilled. Well, two weeks later I was able to put them together, and I’m quite happy. I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t already have the pieces, but since I did, I’m quite happy. Below are some pics. I plan on blacking the aluminum and bluing the steel parts, but I thought I’d grab some shots so the parts are easy to see. The rods are 14mm, so they are a little small, but work just fine when clamped down. (It’s darned near impossible to find affordable SS or Aluminum 15mm rods in the US!)

The Studio of Tomorrow

2006-09-20T18:05:00.000-07:00

After two years, we are finally finishing production of a short film I crewed on. As luck would have it, two days of production were filming in Oakland.

I jumped at the opportunity to work with some long-time friends on what is quite possibly the best short film I have been associated with. Lots of cool people on this shoot, and I can’t wait to see an end result. I’m sure you will see something, as this project should be verry good. My job was Key Grip, I got to work with old friends Eric Petersen, who gaffed, Aaron Rattner who produced, as well as many new ones, including the director, Teddy Newton (of Pixar fame!) Life is good when you are working on a great project with a great crew, thanks guys for the opportunity!

I got to make my second cameo – look for the back of my head in the final edit!

Demolition Derby – State Finals!

2006-09-06T22:52:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the demolition derby state finals, a two day event at the California State Fair. For those who have never been, you may snicker but everyone I bring to the derby gets hooked – guaranteed. This year was no different. The first night my wife and I went with her best friend Tala and her husband Mike. Then next night I brought my friend Erik Espera. Here are some shots:

Dinner - Fair Food!!!

Derby participants...

My Wife and I.

Erik and I.

The aftermath...

Everyone's a winner!

It couldn't be that easy...

2006-09-01T23:14:00.000-07:00

So I’m experimenting with timelapse with a digital still camera for a promo shoot I‘m doing. I wanted to mount the camera to the front of my truck, and since it has a brush guard, that should help with additional mount points. But how to do it…? I’ve done lots of carmounts before, hostess tray, hood mount, even the doggie cam mount which worked very well. But I’m not near a rental house for such equipment, so how to mount on to the front of my truck… I could clip a couple of mafirs or cardilinies, then bolt on an “L” bracket and mount the camera to that, with reinforcement of course… So I went to take some measurements of my grill guard to figure it out when I saw this:

No way! Could it be this easy?!? The brush guard has two mount points for off-road lights. This goes against the second law of thermodynamics! All I had to do was unscrew a $2 garage-sale tripod head (thanks mom for that find!) and screw it on to the mount point:

Put the camera on, safety cable it to the grille and off we go, easy!

Below is a grab from the sequence, I put 2 ND.6 filters on in addition to the internal ND filter to help the camera take a slow picture for lots of motion blur:

It's been a while...

2006-08-29T21:56:00.000-07:00

It's been a while, and just in case anybody was wondering, here is what I have been speinding most of my free time working on:

We have no kitchen. It's stripped down to the 2x4s and concrete floor. Even the ceiling is torn apart. I'm removing the soffets, adding new outlets for the dishwasher and garbage disposal, and extra outlets for the counter, and new lights above. We are getting new cabinets from Ikea and I am installing a black granite tile counter and floor. Right now I really miss home cooking...

LawnMiser

2006-07-17T17:20:00.000-07:00

This spot was for “LawnMiser”, a device that measures the moisture content in your yard and adjusts the sprinklers for optimal saturation. The client wanted an attention grabbing spot, and that’s always good to hear, but how do you convey the technical aspects of the product without sounding clinical?

The concept I came up with was to show what would happen if someone built (Rube Goldberg style) a contraption to do the same thing. One neighbor would have the eyesore contraption, while the other would have the elegant end effective LawnMiser.

Here is a rough sketch of the device:
(click to enlarge)

As the water from the sprinkler fills the umbrella with water, it pulls an arm down.

As the arm moves an indicator dial moves from “dry” to “wet”. While the umbrella moves down, the other end of the arm moves up, pulling a rope, this rope, attached via pulleys, pulls a boot (mine) up. Simultaneously, as the arm moves, a pair of scissors (connected via cables and pulleys) is pulled closed, eventually cutting the rope, thereby dropping the boot, falling on a valve, shutting off the water supply to the sprinklers.

What’s amazing is:

a) I was able to build this thing out of parts lying around.

b) It actually kind of worked. (almost, would have…)

As I was putting this thing together I also thought it would be cool to dis-assemble the unit 98% and with the help of fishing line, film it falling apart. (although we did have a collapse during production that set us back about an hour…) As it turned out, I’m glad I did because even though it wasn’t in the original storyboards, It fit in very well at the end of the spot to bring home the point.

At any rate, you can download a copy of the spot here:

http://emrl.com/j/downloads.html

NYC -> SLC -> Home (Monday)

2006-07-13T14:25:00.000-07:00

An over-crowded shuttle ride took us to JFK and the famiar Delta terminal. Our flight ot Salt Lake City got in early (!), but the flight to Sacramento was overbooked. We volunteered to sell our seats for a later flight and found ourselves with a 7 hour lay-over. What to do?

We thought about taking the free Mormon tour to the tabernacle, but the pressure to join would be too strong. We decided to catch the public bus into SLC and see an IMAX movie at the mall. We got bored while waiting for the public bus and rented a car instead. We headed up north a bit to visit Antelope Island. It’s an island in the middle of the Salt Lake, connected by a 6-mile causeway. We picked a beach in a cove and I took off my shoes, rolled up my pant legs and went for a stroll. I walked out about 100 yards but it only went up to my knees. There are no fish in the lake, but there are brine flies. Billions of them.

They hatch in the lake, but are blown to the edge of the shore. There are so many of them, they turn the white shore black. They don’t bite, but they do flock around you. With each step you walk they fly off like waves on the ocean. Way cool when walking barefoot.

On the way back we drove past a parked “It’s a truck-It’s a boat-It’s a truck” thing. I’ve seen them in Monterrey, London, and Dublin, but Salt Lake City?!? I mean it, those things move s-l-o-w, what could there possibly be to see?!?

Ireland -> NYC (Sunday)

2006-07-13T12:47:00.000-07:00

Today was our last day in Ireland :-(

We dropped off the rental car and boarded our plane at Shannon airport. After a 3-movie flight across the Atlantic we landed at JFK. We took a shuttle to our hotel, dropped off our bags and caught the tram and subway into Manhattan (a 1-hour ride on the “E” train). We exited on the last stop, the World Trade Center station.

It was powerful to see it in person, I only wish I could have seen it before. We headed on foot (East?) toward the water to catch a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty. It wasn’t more than a block before I spotted a 9-light and a 12k on a condor. Hmmm… Then a Panavision NYC truck, then a crowd. Turns out they were shooting “Spiderman 3” and setting up for a stunt shot. I talked to a grip who was rigging a process trailer with a frame of truss and a winch to do wire work of a person (Toby?) being pulled off a moped while driving down a Manhattan street. Way cool, but I’m on vacation and this feels a little bit like work.

We passed a hotdog cart and bought a pretzel and a Gatorade (What no crab juice?!?) then took the subway to the pier section and caught a 2hr cruise around the island. We got a nice close view of the Statue of Liberty. The sun set and we watched the lights of the city turn on as we came back to port.

Once we docked, we walked the short distance to Broadway. It was easy to tell, just follow the lights… From there we headed up to 53rd street and caught a glimpse of the famous Ed Sullivan Theatre and the even more famous Hello Deli. Unfortunately they were closed :-(

Our next stop was to be the Empire State Building, but to get there was a bit of a walk, and we were fast approaching a 24hr long day, so we hailed a human powered bicycle rickshaw cab ($20). Riding down Broadway at night under the lights – so cool! Siobhan was a bit nervous with all the weaving in and out of traffic, and the taxis honking at us and all… But I wasn’t nervous, after all I’m sure our driver was experienced and knew what he was doing… right? Turns out he was a new citizen from Azerbaijan, and he had only been in the country for 3 weeks – D’oh!

We arrived safe enough and while the lobby of the Empire State Building was magnificent, we decided not to pay the $16 to go up to the top. It seems the top was in the clouds, and visibility was zero. People coming down said it looked like a big grey wall…

Exhausted, we made it back to the subway for the 1hr return trip. Instead of taking the tram though, we decided to take a taxi to get back to the hotel. It turns out our driver was driving an “unlicensed” cab. It was just a guy and his car, no meter. But oh well, we had a pre-arranged price ($10, same as the tram) and got back to the hotel soon enough. (Bed!!!)

Enniskillen (Saturday)

2006-07-12T14:41:00.000-07:00

After a nice Irish breakfast we left our farmhouse B&B and drove south to visit the “Marble Arch” caves. This cave was carved underground by a river. It’s fairly big and has some good formations, but what makes this one special is the length. The tour is about 1km, and part of that was by boat. Totally Cool.

Afterwards we drove south and got to the cliffs of Moher in time for the sunset. For dinner we walked down to the beach and found a pub. I had my last bowl of Irish Stew (damn good!) and we listened to the band for a while before catching the sunset.

North Ireland (Friday)

2006-07-11T17:51:00.000-07:00

Today was our most event filled day. We had a full Irish Breakfast which included Bacon, Eggs, Potatoe Bread, sausage, has browns and something called “black pudding”. I don’t know what it was, and I don’t want to know till I get back. All I know is that it was black with whitish things in it, it was mushy and about the size of a hockey puck, and tasted like liver…

Our B&B had an amazing location, we woke to a panoramic view of the ocean and sea cliffs. At the end of the driveway was a cliff about 300’ above the sea. Attached to the cliff was a small island peninsula, and on top of that were the ruins of an old castle. We explored that for a while then went on the see the “carrick-a-reed” rope bridge. This rope bridge was built by fishermen in the 1600’s to allow access to an island for fishing salmon. The bridge dangles above the crashing waves below. Totally fun.

Our next stop was the “Giant’s Causeway”, a weird geologic formation of hexagonal columns of rock about 2’ in diameter that vary from about 1’ to 6’ tall and form a jetty that leads out into the ocean. Hard to believe, too weird to describe.

We had lunch in an old 1-room schoolhouse converted into a pub. I had “Steak and Guiness Pie” and Siobhan had her favorite: “Cheese and onion toasty”

That afternoon we went to castle Dunlace. It too was built out on a rock in the ocean, but this one was a massive, and was connected by a bridge to the main land that (back in the cay) was a drawbridge that could be raised to ward off attackers. It also had several large cannons (salvaged from a nearby shipwreck) pointed at the bridge so if any invading army tried to set up their own bridge, it would be blown to bits. This castle was in partial ruin, but it started in the 1700’s when on stormy night part of the rock island gave way and took the backside of the castle with it, including the kitchen and several of the servants.

After that we stopped by the city of Derry to visit the old walled city center. North Ireland in general is more economically depressed than Southern Ireland, but it shows most in the urban areas. There was lots of graffiti, but it was mostly political. I also saw several building sized murals that had political themes. Before leaving Derry, we stopped at a mall and bought some socks and underwear. (I was beginning to run out…)

That evening we drove to Ennikskillen. On the way there we passed a fish and chips place that had a packed parking lot – a good sign. It was to go only, so we took our dinner to the next town and hand an impromptu picnic on a riverbank next to a stone bridge from the 1600’s (common)

When we got to our B&B, the owners let us use their computer to update the blog. When I asked if they knew what a blog was (they were old…) they said yes, they were following their son’s blog as he climbed Mount Everest.

What?!? Yes, he is climbing Everest and they are using sat phones to update their blog to raise funds for cancer research. Whatever ego my blog once had…

Ireland- Dublin > Newgrange > North Ireland (Thursday)

2006-06-24T11:50:00.000-07:00

This morning we got up early (7 AM), had our breakfast and drove down to Trinity College to look at the Book of Kells, an 8th century illuminated manuscript. Nice fonts. The college is also famous for Samuel Beckett, who (if you have ever seem him) looks like he just tripped a 220V circuit.

We then caught an "Its a truck, its a boat, its a truck" tour of Dublin and some of its waterways. Way cool...

We left Dublin and headed an hour north to visit Newgrange, built in 3200 BC, predating the Pyrimads. As cool as this was, I was deeply annoyed at the administration of the tour and the visitors center. It turns out that you can't but admission tickets at Newgrange, you have to drive 15 miles to the visitors center. Then you take a shuttle bus to Newgrange, see the sight, then take the shuttle back to the center. Very annoying. What should've taken an hour, took 3, but then while waiting for your bus you could always get something to eat at the visitor center coffee shop or shop in the gift shop...

We then headed up to Northern Ireland. I was unsure what kind of security check point they would have at the border, but really the only thing that you could tell was a slight change in the pavement quality and the prices for gas changing from Euros to Pounds.

I'd hoped to stop at a pub in Belfast for dinner, but our extended stay at Newgrange prevented that. So instead, we caught some mall food before it got to late. It was kind of wierd being in a shopping mall in Northern Ireland eating mall food listening to 80s classics by Lionnell Richie.

We made it up to the coast just as a storm started. Tomorrow is a big outside day, so we shall see...

Ireland- Dublin (Wednesday)

2006-06-24T11:46:00.000-07:00

After breakfast and a bit of a nap, we walked down Oconnell Street and crossing the Liffey river we went to the Christ Church Cathedral to see Dublinia, medieval museum. Plenty of Monty Python material here!

After that we stopped by the Dublin Castle before catching dinner at a pub. The world cup is going on right now and everywhere there is a TV, it's on the game and there is a crowd about.

After dinner we went straight to O'donoghues Pub to listen to some traditional music. On the way back to the hotel, we passed the post office, the home of the 1916 uprising. You can still see the bullet holes in the marble columns outside.

Ireland Cork->Waterford->Dublin (Tuesday)

2006-06-23T14:17:00.001-07:00

Today was our longest driving day of the trip. We had our breakfast and left Kilarney about 10am, stopped at a Texaco with a long slopping wall covered with grass and apark on top of where you pump ?!?

We drove to Blarney Castle just ourside of Cork in Southern Ireland. After a quick lunch we went to the castle. The castle was big, taller than bunratty, but rough and unrestored. It's a well organized tourist spot with Space Mountain sized lines, but instead of a roller coaster, you get to kiss a rock. I did. So did Siobhan. So did thousands of other people that day. Yuck. I'm just glad it was raining. The castle was cool, but even cooler was the walled garden. This place was magic, with sets straight out of of the Lord of the Rings, The Brothers Grimm, and the Princess Bride. Trees that seem alive, secret stairway tunnels carved thru solid rock, mysterious stone circles. Totally cool.

Afterwards we drove along the coast to the port town of Waterford. We visited the crystal factory before heading north to Dublin. This part of the country looked suprising similar to Norcal's Central Valley in the spring time. Lots of cows, oak trees, and gentle rolling hills covered in grain.

We arrived in dublin at 10pm.

Ireland - Killarney and the "Ring of Kerry" (Monday)

2006-06-21T11:43:00.000-07:00

Please forgive any spelling or punctuation errors, as we are trying to type these in on the fly at internet cafes along the way, that plus the european keyboard is slightly different, causing \ when I should shift and # when I try to hit return...

The next morning we got up for breakfast, I had a hearty Irish breakfast of hash brown potatoes (everything comes with potatoes, it's mandatory), beans and a grilled tomatoe. We then went back to sleep and woke up at 2pm for a total of 16 hrs sleep! It made a world of difference to feel rested though...

We headed out to drive the "Ring of Kerry", a circular drive around a peninsula. The first village we came to was Killorglin. There we strolled through the town and had lunch.

We continued the drive, which ofcourse is amazing. What the 17mile drive is to Monterrey, the Ring of Kerry is to Ireland. Most of the Ring is comprised of about 7-10 major sights with and amazing drive inbetween each. However, along the route are numerous side-trips that can be even more amazing.

The next stop was Caheriveen. This was a side trip we took to see a pre-historic stone fort built about 900AD. It was a couple of miles off our main route, and along the way we took a wrong turn and found an abandon castle, not in the guide books or on the map. It looks to have been built about 1500AD, but it was half collapsed, and half covered with ivy. It was totaly out of "Highlander".

The rest of the day went like that, discovering hidden fishing coves, ancinet monuments, and quainter than you can imagine villages. Literally every kilometer is something to make you say "OMG" and get out of the car and explore. It got dark about 9:45 and we were able to catch a fish and chips place in a seaside village before they closed. We got back to the B&B about midnight.

Ireland- Shannon Airport to Killarney (Sunday)

2006-06-21T03:18:00.000-07:00

After an overnight flight with about two hours sleep, we landed at Shannon Airport in southwest Ireland. It is better for jetlag ans scheduling to fly overnight, but it is always a jolt to stumble groggily out of the airplane, over to the Avis desk, pick up the car, then find yourself driving down a high speed freeway is some foreign country. I still can't believe that they let you rent a car, without giving some kind of driving test. On our first honeymoon, we drove all over England and Scotland, so you would think that I would have it down, but how far did I make it before driving down the wrong side of the road? Less than 1 km! The car coming at us just kind of stopped and looked.

We rented one of those micro cars, literally a nissan "micra". Its a four-door that is smaller than any US two-door. Although, I'd love to have my Discovery here, this car makes it a lot easier to park and take super tight turns.

The weather here is overcast with occassional rain, with highs in the low 60s, as opposed to Sacramento which is in the high 90s.

Our first stop in Ireland was Bunratty castle, a refurbished castle and a recreated village. I thought that it might be cheesy in a 6th grade field trip kind of way, but it was totally cool imagining life here before the industrial revolution. We ate lunch on site and got back to the car when jet lag caught up. Siobhan and I took an unplanned 45 minute nap in the parking lot. Something about a warm car...

We stopped at a grocery store to buy snacks. Its interesting to note that not only are you expected to bag your own groceries, but you also have to pay for the bags.

After about an hours drive, we made it to our B & B. It was quite cute and clean. We unloaded and headed into the town of Killarney, where we found a pub and grabed dinner. I had Irish Stew and Siobhan had a baked potato stuffed with chicken and mushroom. After that hardy and delicious meal, we made it back to the hotel and crashed for the night.

Flight to Ireland

2006-06-21T03:04:00.000-07:00

We left early this morning and took a combination trip that layovers in Salt Lake and NYC. JFK airport is HUGE. Our connecting flight was on the opposite end from our arrival, and as we took the moving sidewalk of the future, you could discern what era each section of the airports were built. It was a rainbow cascade of 60's-70's-80's-90's-2k architecture.

This place is so huge, there are colonies (exageration) of birds flying about. There was one large pidgeon that would fly about 1' over people's heads. It looked like it was having fun. I certainly was having fun watching it. There were also 2 finches stealing moss from the pot of a large fake ficus plant. They were taking turns picking long strands and flying off to some unseen nest within the building. Imagine getting trapped and lost inside JFK airport (Tom Hanks), then finding someone else (of your same species) and hooking up to start a family...

Lanphier and Associates

2006-06-06T20:24:00.000-07:00

This spot was for a bankruptcy attorney center. The client provided a script that… well, read like a lawyer wrote it. It hit as many bullet points as possible that the :60 and :30 second versions would allow. I took their main points and wrote a script with a more emotional appeal. Instead of featuring a spokesman, it featured a young mother who got herself into financial trouble. The idea being that any potential clients would identify with the more “human” character.
Here are some storyboards from the livingroom scene:

Now on to the 35 adapter… I’ve been working on a 35mm lens adapter (static design based on Edwierdo and Marleen’s designs) for the DVX for a couple of months now and I finally have a working prototype, although it has a few flaws. I only used 5 micron aluminum oxide to grind the ground glass. 3 micron is preferred, but at the time I ordered parts I couldn’t find any online. I was worried about the grain, but after checking the footage on a hi-res monitor, I’m very happy. The problem I have is with vignetting. Part of the problem may be caused by the lack of a condenser lens, but the main problem is due to the +10 diopter. It’s an achromat which is nice, but it’s not strong enough, and only 42mm wide, as a result, I get some hard edge vignetting around the corners. I have plans to use a 50mm +16 or +20 achromat, but that will be a little while before I can make that modification. Once I get a decent working unit, I will post about it. The lens is a 50mm f1.7 minolta, and tests show that the frame matches the 35mm sill frame closely. I really wanted to use the adapter for some of the shots in this spot, the “dark moments” as the main character is faced with financial problems. Fortunately the vignetting plays into that feeling, the dark corners make it feel like her world is closing in. Also, the spot will be letter boxed, so most of the hard vignetting will be blocked out. Here are a couple of screen grabs from the living room scene, one is a slow dolly in, and the other is a rack focus (love that shallow DOF!) from the actor to the phone. Both of these were lit only with shiny boards from outside the windows.

Here is the lighting diagram for this scene:

This next still is from the lawyers office. It’s shot clean, without the lens adapter. Lighting was natural light from the windows and modeling with 2 500watt PAR64s with full CTO, and a back light with a 75watt reflector bulb in a Lowell light with full CTO and on a dimmer to dial it in. Also below is a behind the scenes still that shows the parcan set up. We were on a second story location, so shinyboards were not an option.

This set still shows the ambient light and one of the PAR64s with full blue.

Top of the World Update

2006-06-02T21:32:00.000-07:00

Update:

Here is some of the time-lapse footage, it is ~1 meg and 5 seconds long. The image size in the camera was set for ~1000x700 pixels, so the option exists for a slow push in or push out as well as a pan, but here is the footage with no color correction or movement in post:

http://emrl.com/j/downloads/I5.mov

Top of the World

2006-05-31T21:01:00.000-07:00

The other night I had the opportunity to shoot some footage from the top of the largest office building in Sacramento. I shot some shots of the Capitol and other local landmarks.

I also set up a digital camera and did some intervalometer shots of the capitol as the sun set, and some time-lapse of the freeways. The camera was a Cannon powershot G5. It’s a point and shoot 5mp camera, but it has some nice features and the ability to be controlled by a laptop which is nice.

The intervalometer shots were taken with auto exposure settings, as a test to see how smooth the transition would be. The time-lapse shots were taken with a 4 second exposure at 4 second intervals. I will post some motion shots once they are compiled in After Effects.

The Emmys

2006-05-23T23:08:00.000-07:00

This last weekend my wife and I had opportunity to attend the Northern California Emmy Awards. I was nominated in a category, and although I didn't win, it was quite an honor none the less. The event was held in the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, with a dinner reception afterwards at the exploratorium. After dinner, most of the attendees danced the night away to a collection of the most annoying wedding dance music, but went exploring instead. It was fun to play in the Exploratorium in a tuxedo and evening gown without any of the usual 4th graders hogging the exhibits! Well I hope we are able to attend next year...

Fidelity Monitor

2006-05-10T20:19:00.000-07:00

We just wrapped shooting on a spot for "Fidelity Monitor"
http://www.fidelitymonitor.com/
Sort of an investment advisory newsletter for the Fidelity Mutual Funds.

The concept is an investor is wandering thru the road of life (a white cyc) and is plagued with options for investments by print and TV advertisements (flying CG elements)

He stumbles across a mailbox with the newsletter inside.

As he reads it, the confusion is removed.

Now enlightened, he then ascends the growth chart (stepstool) of success. Note Post production supervisor Rey Jaraba supervising the stepstool of success...

We shot the principal photography in 3 1/2 hours, but spent a day and a half lighting the set. I paid more attention to lighting the floor this time and I am much happier with the results. Uncorrected right out of the camera looks great! We also shot some blue screen material of talking head TV investment advisors that will be turned into CG elements flying around him.

Music Video: "Cognito"

2006-04-26T20:06:00.000-07:00

I shot a music video over the weekend.

The artist was “Cognito” and the song was “Shift Kits”

http://www.cognitomusic.com/home.htm

It was a crazy production with crowds and motorcycle stunts and lots of off speed shooting. I volunteered to cut the video as I did a lot of in-camera stuff that needs to be treated a certain way, and I would be nervous about turning it over to an editor I was not in close contact with, so we shall see how it turns out. I’ve got just under 2 weeks to get a finished cut as the new album is out now and they want the video to go out with the promo kits. Below are some raw, uncorrected screen grabs from the first location. I will post a production journal in the “projects” section of my website soon.

Emmy Nominations

2006-04-24T22:18:00.000-07:00

The :30 promo "busy people" got nominated for an Emmy! It's up against 2 other nominations from Bay Area stations, so wish me luck... The awards are in SF on May 20, it should be a gala evening and great chance to dress up and have a night on the town. Should be fun no matter who wins, but wouldn't it be a gas...

http://emrl.com/j/downloads/amnews.wmv

Skateboard Dolly

2006-04-19T21:39:00.000-07:00

Just finished my DIY skateboard dolly. It measures 29.5" x 36".

It rides on 12 skateboard wheels that are built to run on standard 24.4" wide track.The frame is two 3/4" plywood sheets screwed together to make a robust 1.5" base. It's stained with IKEA black stain.

I originally used walmart skateboard wheels (4 for $5, cheap!) but they were just too bumpy. Even on the track it was just unusable. These things are so sensitive, that a blade of grass on the track can ruin a shot...Real skateboard wheels are expensive, so I saved my favor for a secret santa who just happens to own a skateboard shop in Louisville. (woohoo!) Real wheels and bearings make *such* a difference! I had to add like 60 spacers to make the newer, bigger wheels fit, but now it's smooth as glass.

It's also much lighter than the MSE Doorway dolly I have access to. (try lugging that thing up a hillside or getting it on a roof top!)
Since these photos were taken I have added black handles inline with the wheels, it makes carrying much easier.