Prague, Czech Republic

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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...

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!

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!

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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!)