On The Mountain

We finally were able to shoot a spot I have been wanting to do for a long time. This is a promotional spot for a series reporting on snow and ski conditions in the Sierra. The concept was to shoot the talent in all white winter clothes against a white cyc, sort of inspired by the overstock.com spots. In this spot there are 2 variations. The first is a pure white cyc set, but in post we will add playful stylized icons of mountains, trees, and skiers. In the second variation, we hung sheetmetal frames from the grid. Inside which clips from the show will be treated with a look and inserted in post. The camera dollied out, and the talent did a walk and talk in between the frames. Should look great, I will post clips once it is finished.

A test shot with the floor almost painted. Note the homemade softboxes on the 2ks.

Rey Jaraba standing in for our talent. Rey is doing all the post work on the spot. That's a lot of work considering each of the frames will have different semi-transparent video as the talent walks behind some and in front of others. Oh yeah, did I mention this is a dolly shot too? He just rolled his eyes, but I have faith he can pull it off.

The Bathroom is Done!

Well, it took almost 12 months, but the bathroom remodel is finished!!!



The old toilet. That was the first to go.
Next was the sink and cabinet. I hate particle board, the thing was just falling apart.

The old shower/tub enclosure, with the brass trim and smoked glass sliding door.









The pink and peach "Cultured Marble" tub. It's odd, but I find very little culture in cultured marble.











My favorite phase: demolition! It was a pain having to hand carry the shower enclosure fragments thru the house and into the dumpster, until about the 5th trip when I looked up and noticed the open window.... duh.


Our shiny new toilet on our shiny new tile floor!!!








We had to strip the old bathroom down to 2x4s and the concrete slab foundation, then build it back up. We did everything ourselves, from laying the tile floor and walls, to soldering in new copper pipes.


We were going for a 1920's style bathroom. Lots of porcelain fixtures, wite trim and wainscotting.

We installed a white tile bath enclosure and an octagonal wite tile floor.

A nice detail shot of the tile enclosure. I recycled some of the extra border and floor tile to make a pattern across the middle of the tile wall.

This is my favorite feature, the overhead shower. My wife and I always are annoyed by low shower heads, so when installing ours I wanted to raise it up higher than normal, and since I had not only the walls, but also the ceiling removed I thought: Why not bring it all the way over? It makes for the best shower I've ever taken. Guests describe it as "warm rain" or a "warm waterfall".

My wife painting the finishing touches on the bath cabinets. The wall cabinets were designed to be mounted onto the wall, but by recessing them in about 4", they seem to open up the room a lot, and not dominate as they would otherwise.