New short film, "WATER" is online :)

Heres the link

http://www.vimeo.com/8916528




After a week of wind and rain, my next short film is online. Shot almost all in Golden Gate Park this one introduces the wide-angle lens to my camera.

Birds eating are all shot at 60 f/s and slowed down to 24 in Cinema tools. The first couple shots with the birds I just wasn't getting close enough and the payoff wasn't that good (example is near the end the four shot of the black birds on the wide). A great look for landscapes, but not for detail. I was going to switch back to my long lens then I thought what would happen if I took my camera off the tripod and put it on the ground (left the plate on) and brought the birds to me; pleasantly surprised with the results. With some bribes to entice the birds to eat in front of the lens the only problem was I didn't bring enough bread!

All movement is actually done on the tripod. It's this new trick I learned using two legs. I took a behind the scene video and I'll show you guys later how I did it. All with two lenses. At this stage I wouldn't want to bring out more because it would take me away from focusing on what is truly important, a good shot!

My next one will be back with people but lets not rush ourselves, enjoy this piece and hopefully I'll inspire you to take out your camera this weekend :)

Three new steps before transfer

As much as I dislike pigeons and do believe they're rats with wings, I'm grateful for how camera friendly they are (IE - The Godfather Pigeons in my film "City Life"). They were great practice today with the Tokina 11mm and excited about the footage I got for my new short. On top of that I put that sucker really low and shot most of it in 60p. Below is a screen grab from FCP (no altering)



Problem is that I also shot a bunch of 24p. So when I batch render to 422 via MPEG STREAM, I'll mess up the transfers on half them. Today I'm starting to go through every clip on my CF card and do three things BEFORE transferring to my computer: Label, ID & Delete

The latter will save me HD space with junk thats out of foucs (yes, it happens to me too). Figured I deleted about 20% on this card. While watching and labeling I'll note if it's 60p & tag that on the end, if not just a clip description. Run MPEG with the right settings for each group and you're in business!

Not only that but once you get the files into FCP ( or any other NLE ) they're nicely organized and logged.

Exclusive trailer - "Voro"

If you gave this man a camera and told him to film a pile of dirt & throw a soundtrack behind it, academy & other award conciderations wouldn't be far behind! Illustrating my point is his new trailer he just release, shot the RED camera.

http://www.infinitemirror.com/trailer.html

Keep an eye on him as he's a rising star in Hollywood. I'll keep you guys posted when the film is released.

How to stop the Rain:

Be prepared! This week, weather forecasters have called for some of the biggest storms of the season. Some descriptions will have you believe the Almighty himself is poised above us with a giant bucket of water, ready at any moment let it out! Awesome, rain is fun. Rains cool. And makes great video.

If this camera can survive Antarctica,

http://www.canonrumors.com/2009/12/7d-antarctica/

it can survive some measly Bay Area rain. But I've discovered how to make it stop, prepare for it! Out of the two storms i've managed to bring out only the sunshine! Theres two more this week and i'm begging you person/enity in charge, make it rain as hard as you can. This camera can capture cool rain shots. So how well prepared am I? Like a true D.I.Y'er. What little drops it did do today my shower cap + rubberband DIY set up worked. Got beat up in the wind but no biggie. It will only last a day before being tossed. I did discover that for tomorrow I'll need to make one for each lens - on location changing the bags becomes a pain . But I find that this set-up works well for a quick solution to the elements. It also allows variable lens (like the kit one) to expand/retract freely.

First film with Canon 7D !

All the research and near purchase of the Sony Ex1 and it has come to this. A camera which has reinvigorated my love of film making and photography (where it all started at Academy of the Arts way back in the last century!).

While this work doesn't represent the best, it does show my first swings at a finished project from A - Z and can't wait to see the progress through trial and error.

Enjoy :D

http://www.vimeo.com/8698346

New Lens & Testing 'Day for Night'

Ah, so the elusive and reputable Tokina lens has finally arrived! Seriously, this bad boy of glass is outta stock in almost every store that doesn't want to gouge their customers! Funny buts it's bigger and beefer then I expected. With the clutch to engage/disengage focus this will be a different beast then the kit lens. Below is a picture at 17mm on the glass (~27mm due to crop factor).

This also leads nicely to my next update. I shot a bunch of test footage today as I want to explore the best option to transfer footage from Day to Night. I shot about 4gb of footage all in a dizzying array of factors including shutter speed, aperture, shooting sky (supposedly a big no no) I'll post back with the results of my test. Will play with the footage in Apple Color.

In case you're wondering why I'm going through all this, it's to gear up for my next short film!

Why I'm here

Better late then never is my motto and I won't let any new technology pass me by; like a blog.

Whilst I make a rough render of my San Francisco montage (why Imac, must you go so slow - did you catch me eyeballing that new 27" model? Just window shopping!) I'm here fulfilling a resolution. Woo Hoo.

The purpose of said blog is to chronicle my adventures and tribulations in the film making world! Freshly reinvigorated with my latest toy, the Canon 7D, I plan on making short films and you will be the first to know about them, and all the behind the scene stories about how I use the latest in technology to make it magical.

Stay tuned as I promise our journey will be fun and informative