This is why you hire a pro...

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

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

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!

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

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: