My New Favorite Thing...

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

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

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.

jogging

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

cool shoes

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

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

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

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

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...

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:

Cinegear 2008

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!

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