UPDATES
So it is now 2009 and I have not really kept up with this blog for 2 years, but have discovered that people do look at the blog so decided I should attempt to catch up with the times.

I have been busy working mostly on documentary productions as a DP and have traveled the country as a camera/sound operator for market research projects as well. I have also been on larger shows as a 1st AC.

So my recent experiences have been more related to using available light or at least minimal lighting setups and also lenses. I'm Planning a trip to NYC this summer to work on some big shows so that I don't loose my touch with the more elaborate light plots.

My latest personal project is a portrait of a local character named Tommy. Which I shot with the Panasonic HVX200 and sometimes used the M2 Redrock DOF Adapter.

I also have a feature that I am soon to begin production on if I can just work out one bug in the script.

I am gearing up for a lot of portable filmmaking with my production van and laptop to document this America I live in now. Strange times. For this project I may can only afford the Canon HV30 but its size is favorable and the picture it produces is hands down the BEST BANG FOR YOUR BUCK.

There are several other projects in the works big and small that I will use to frame a working knowledge around for this blog.

At this point some of the things I hope to write about include the changes that come with tapeless workflow, depth of field adapters and new affordable camera systems such as the Canon HV30, Canon 5D Mark II and Panasonic HMC-150.

Another area I may address is the importance of content. It seems we get so bogged down in all the technical know how stuff that we loose sight of why we are shooting what it is we are shooting. And this, I believe, is much more powerful than any lens or camera or software.

We now have reasonable access to the means of production so it will be interesting to see how we use it.

SHOW THIS FRIDAY

Pigeon

TOMMY

Here is a framegrab from the Tommy documentary.
(acquired with the HVX200 and M2 DOF Adapter)

INTRODUCTION
This blog will serve as a resource to collaborators on all variety of projects that I find myself invovled with. It also gives potential clients a look at some of my work. It is simply a record of experience. For now its' theme is independent filmmaking with an emphasis on more affordable production scenarios.

The primary type of projects I am involved with relate to independent low/no-budget filmmaking. I have been active as a film/video maker since around 1990 and am currently practicing as a Director of Photography for short narrative projects being produced in Alabama. So far these have been mostly Horror movies in nature.

I am absolutely fascinated with the fast changing expansions in no budget filmmaking via digital technology advances.

Linear and non linear editing is where I began my professional pursuits in the field. Knowing what can be done after image/sound acquisition helps me tremendously in achieving the hope of a certain moment in a project.

After 15 years of experience ranging from a public-access sketch comedy show, corporate video, weddings, car commercials, reality television, documentaries and now about 15 short narrative projects I am a FIRM believer in concentrating ones' effort at the top of the process. "Fix it in post." is a scary phrase in my opinion. Although, these days, you usually can fix it in post; I believe that if you can get it right at the lense - why not?

The reply: time.

Sure.

But if you do have the time, do all that you can to make it LOOK and SOUND as close to or beyond the caliber of your vision. And if you planned well - at the tip top of the process such as writing/methodology - you'll have SOME time (even with all the planning, time is a gift that seems a fancy for chaos and thus a bit of a luxury)

So with that as my first post I'll begin work on gathering thumbnails of some of my work and supply helpful links to fellow filmmakers taking part in this whirlwind digital revolution.

CLICK HERE TO SEE A COMMERCIAL WORK

Some of my other commercial experience includes work with The Learning Channel, The Food Network, Walmart TV, HGTV, U.S. Space Camp, Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, The Dream Network and AmSouth Bank.

This is one of my commercial shoots with the Virginia Realtors Association. I ran the B camera getting all the close up coverage. Hope you have fun taking the tedst!

LIVE BURN WINS SPECIAL JURY AWARD FOR DOCUMENTARY CINEMATOGRAPHY AT SIDEWALK '06

FILMOGRAPHY

-Interplanetary (Current Project: Birmingham, AL)
Key Grip/1st AC (feature Super 16mm Sci-Fi)

-Ruby Ribbon (Current Project: Birmingham, AL)
Technical Director, Cinematographer (short experimental stop motion drama)

-Cup of Joe (Current Project: Birmingham, AL)
Writer, Director, Cinematographer, Editor (short comedy)

-Live Burn (2006: Birmingham, AL)
Director, Cinematographer, Editor (short documentary)
Special Jury Award-Best Cinematography Documentary Sidewalk Sept 2006

-Don’t Worry (2006: Birmingham, AL)
Lighting, Star, Additional Photography (short drama)
{48hr competition} Best Editing, Cinematography and Directing; 1st Place for Sidewalk Scramle Feb 2005

-Muckfuppet (2005: Birmingham, AL)
Lighting (short comedy-drama)

-Golden Age (2005: Birmingham, AL)
Associate Producer, Lighting, Additional Photography (short horror)

-The Talisman (2004: Birmingham, AL)
Director of Photography (short sci-fi)
{48hr competition.}

-See You On The Other Side (2004: Birmingham, AL)
Director of Photography (short musical horror)
{48hr competition} Best Cinematography, Editing, Directing & Original Score; Audience Choice Award and 1st Place for
Sidewalk Scramble Feb 2004

-The Girlfriend (2004: Birmingham, AL)
Director of Photography (short horror)
A.C.E. for Cinematography Sidewalk 2005)

-Who Is Colin Cherry (2003: Birmingham, AL)
Lighting and Sound (short comedy)
{48hr competition}
Audience Choice Award Short - Sidewalk 2004

-The Little One (2003: Birmingham, AL)
Lighting and Sound (short horror)

-Survivor On The Quad (2000: Tuscaloosa, AL)
Editor (feature documentary)

-Harbinger (1996: Tuscaloosa, AL)
Writer, Director, Camera, Editor (short sci-fi narrative)

-Nihil (1995: Tuscaloosa, AL)
Writer, Director, Camera, Star, Editor (short action narrative)

-The Backdoor (1994-1997: Buffalo, NY)
Writer, Guest Star, Director, Editor, Camera (cable access sketch comedy)

-Turkey and Cheese (1994: West Nyack, NY)
Writer, Director, Camera, Star (short comedy)

CUP OF JOE (an insane comedy)

Cup of Joe is my latest creative endeavor. I wrote this short with my friend Stephen McClurg over the fall of '05 and went into production during the spring of '06. I am currently in editing with this project. It will run around 20 minutes when complete and I believe will make people laugh hard. These behind the scene stills were taken during production over summer '06 by Julia Lewis.

Stills courtesy of Julia Lewis

CUP OF JOE in post production FINALLY!

MUCKFUPPET

Muckfuppet is the latest project I have worked on as of now. I did lighting (not a surpirse - one day I want to do lightning...one day - oh wait I actually did do lightning for "Sewing a River" - well geaaaooollie...what do ya know).

To read and look at more accounts of this shoot go to Muckfuppet.com and then click on the updates link up top. Wade and Kenn have a really nice account of the day with pictures too.

Anyway, it is a 15 page script that we shot in 1 day. It is a conversation over a couple of cups of coffee about unconfessed love. It is written and directed by Ken McKracken, shot by Chance Shirley and stars Scott Ross and Melissa Bush. This shoot went really smooth and I feel that the footage obtained will work great to tell Ken's story. I'm excited to see it whenever it gets back from the lab. Oh yeah we shot it on Super 16mm 500T film stock with Chance's "old reliable" Aaton. Chance never used sticks. It is all shoulder/handheld "Law andOrder" type material.

All of theses stills were pulled from footage shot on a DVX that day. These are not from the movie. We have to wait on the lab for those.

Enjoy!

Blind Shadows may be "typical" but I like 'em...typically

Some big shots

A Few Moments with Melissa Bush

The "Dolly"

The Background

Ode to Chance's Shoulder

A few moments with Scott Ross

McKracken is Kracken

Here's Ken. Keeping it real with the slate.

Deep Focus

Here's a candid frame I pulled off the DVX stuff stacey was shooting. You can see a 1K in the top right frame. That's Melissa's hairlight. I almost put up a hairlight with CTB for scott but decised that the windowlight was taking care of it for me.

An approxiamtion

This may be similar to what the Super 16mm footage will look like color wise and framing(?) Above Scott I rigged a 300W with diffusion, the sun is coming through the window to blue the back of his neck and a 1K with CTB is sidelighting the extra's back (frame right).

Chance...taking a chance.

Scott is in "the zone"

Here's Scott waits for his lunch date. And Chance warms up his shoulder for a long day with the Aaton.

Melissa doin her thang

Here's Melissa Bush during the first few takes of Muckfuppet. I framed this up with the DVX and set the white balance to 32K so it gives an idea of the color's we may could expect to get out of the film stock. Of course those colorist fellows can make it look neon pink if they want to. You can see the bluer blind shadow playing in her hair. That CTO 1K is popping her ear a little. I suspect that the white glare on the coffee cup is sourced by the 1K shooting through the blinds. Nice smile.

LIVE BURN - OCTOBER 29th 2005

As it happens, I share a passion for filmmaking with one of firefighting. I've been a volunteer firefighter off and on since 1992 starting in West Nyack Fire Dept, New York (2 years) then
Duncanville Volunteer Fire Dept, Alabama (3 months), then East Milton Fire Rescue, Florida (6 months) and now am about 10 months into service here in Rocky Ridge Fire Rescue, Alabama.

This past weekend our department participated in what we refer to as a "Live Burn" with Harpersville Fire department. This is where a house that has been sold and/or donated to the city and slated to be destroyed is used as a fire structure for training purposes.

Instructors lit controlled fires in certain portions of the house throughout the day and rotated groups of trainees through different evolutions of the firefighting process to help familiarize them with conditons one can expect during aggressive interior attack/rescue operations. Yes-it's hot. But after an excercise such as this a firefighter has a little more experience in reading smoke, fire and heat conditions inside and outside the structure to know where the fire is, when to put water on it, how it will react to water and air and when it's too hot. It is a discovery of behaviors and threshholds.

Due to a very frustrating arm injury I was unable to partcipate with firefighting operations. That is unfortunate. Instead I made the best of that limitation by filming the experience. So the unfortunate has fortune after all!

I shot this with my friend's DVX 100A. I have been using the 100 for the most part and must say - there is a difference. There are many more options for digital signal processing in the menu. I found that some of my standard tricks took a little extra sniffing around in the menu to make work. I would say that white balance is more important with the DVX 100A. It seemed to have much more of a relation to the color temperature setting in the menu than it does with the 100. The gain works during 24P photography with the A whereas it does not on the 100.

So what am I going to do with this footage?

That is a good question. Whatever I do with it will need to be cleared with my Chief out of respect for my department.

I have a few ideas about documentary and narrative productions painting the firefighter's tale from my perspective. Most movies I have seen about firefighting take the high road and focus on the glory, excitement and drama. Now that is there but, as with most things in life, there is a lot more to it than that. There is a lot of mundane activity and oblong psychology that goes along with it.

It is funny I mentioned glory, excitement and drama because I actually have cut a short montage of this footage and - oh boy is it OVER THE TOP but it sure is a fun ride.

So here's some still captures right off the camera - no color correction.
ENJOY!

LIVE BURN STILLS

FIRE & WATER

This group of frame captures contain water and fire together. I really like the way the colors of water in shade (it kind of goes to blue -diffuse sunlight) and fire complimet one another. Not to mention the 1000 shutter speed giving each droplet of water it's own character.



After seeing scramble winner, "The Peanut Business", I have really wanted to play around with water elements in conjunction with shutter speed. The regimented mist playing over image content almost makes it seems like a painting. This is soemthing that you canalso see inAkira Kurisawas "Dreams" during the peach orchard resurection. I should also say that in still form these images take on different life than when in motion. The way sun rays play against the mist and cast shadow through thicker water streams -very compelling.








I should also mention that I had favorable conditions in terms of natural lighting. The front of the structure was facing away from the sun so that as I shot towards the flames I was getting good edge and backlight effects (as above-nozzle)

Golden Age or Rot In Hell (working title)

Soon I will be putting up some frame captures for this short I've been involved with. It is a 70's style short directed by Chris Carr and lensed by Chance Shirley. Ive been, you guessed it, lighting it when I can. This is being shot on Super 16mm.

It's refreshing to work with film again. The last time I did before this, save a little fun with Adam Wingard for the opening credits of Homesick, was back in 2000 during a short 16mm project I wrote and directed called "Might As Well". That project is still not finished and has a really intriging back story to it. That will be a grand series of posts for later when the project comes back to life - and it will - corpses always do in movieland.

During that, our DP Ned Boggin, showed me the ropes on lighting for film and 'gripology'. It was more detailed than what I got out of 16mm film school with Bolex's and Scoopics - we were shooting on an Arri SR2.

Anyway - all that to say - Golden Age is film. And there are some things I would like to touch on about lighting for film versus video and when I have time to load up the still captures I will point those things out. 'Til then...

Sidewalk Film Festival...getting better everytime!

Sidewalk Film Festival was AWESOME! Here's me outside the Carver Theatre following the screening of "Sewing A River" and several other Alabama Shorts. Great Block!

THANKS SIDEWALK!

I , myself, have only been to one film festival...Sidewalk. But, from talking to filmmakers from all over the country this weekend who have been to dozens of festivals over the years it is clear that Sidewalk Film Festival is truly a wonderful example of how a festival should be conducted.


The slug this year, "Film For The People" really does capture the perception experienced filmmakers (the ones that I spoke with - which amounted to about 6 from out of town) have of Sidewalk and its' character as compared to othe festival experiences they have had. Repeatedly, filmmakers would be impressed with the accessiblity and hospitality that Sidewalk Staff and volunteers empowered to all participants of this weekend's event. They would describe other festivals as being a little more selective as to who could see what movies and how. Whereas, with Sidewalk, a festival goer could move about as they please, on foot, with no pretense; even leaving a block in the midddle to catch another show if seating was available. For the filmmakers, they were also pleased with the fashion in which they were hosted whereby transportation from event to event, screening to screening and hotel to hotel was carefully coordinated so that they could really enjoy the entirety of the weekend without complication.

THANKS SIDEWALK!!!

The Girlfriend wins 2 A.C.E. awards (Acting & Cinematography)

The Girlfreind was screened Saturday night around 10:30 and the response was fabulous! I had seen our picture about 5 times previous to the screening and this viewing by far was the most enjoyable. Perhaps it was the fact that it was on a big screen with 300 audience members clenching each other in anticipation of the next scare. Great work Adam! His edit decisions and use of sound was, once again, very rewarding and effective.

GOOD WORK TEAM BLOODJET!

It just seemed to make more sense to me during this viewing. The narrative actually made sense. My folks even got it! That is a true testament since they are not really into that kind of narrative. There were several moments where my mom held the festival guide over her face. She would turn to me, "Oh Chris, I don't know if I can sit through this." But in the end she enjoyed the scares.

I saw several couples holding one another closer and closer as Spencer's character hunted for "The Girlfriend". I even had a jolt at one moment,. Adam said he did as well.

AWARDS ARE WEIRD
Don't get me wrong. I do have an ego like everyone else and definitely enjoy getting awards. But man, I was pretty nervous (awe - isn't that cute - yeah, I may be 30 but I'm 12 at heart, I'm a sensitive little guy). Anyway, I guess the weirdness is that Filmmaking is such a collaberative effort and being in the limelight gives you the chance to say thanks to all the people who make everything click together. Well, last night I had the chance and all I could think of to say was "Thanks, We worked on it it together...thanks" Then Adam said, "Thanks" and then we got the hell off the stage, cause that was just weird.

So here I would like to mention a special thanks to Adam for giving me the chance to influence his work and work together with him. The cinematography in the Girlfriend was what happens when Adam and I put our heads and hearts together and it is what it is because we worked together.

Also, everyone in TeamBloodJet! really make it happen. It really is a family of folks empowering one another to make that final movie happen with effectiveness. And we are a great combination. I look forward to working with all of the folks from Bloodjet in all sorts of different capacities and permutations. Each person from this group has their own spectacular talents and I think that over the next year we'll be mixing them up in all kinds of fun and innovative ways.

So, RIDE THE SNAKE!!!!

The Girlfriend

"The Girlfriend" is a short that I had the priveledge of lighting with my faithful band of filmmaking enthusiasts, Team Bloodjet! It's kind of like a sci-fi/horror Twilight Zone type narrative directed by Adam Wingard and written by Evan Katz.

Team Bloodjet! began pre production last summer on this picture that runs about 1/2 hour. Most of it was shot at a friends house over the course of one weekend. The shoot also utilized a modest amount of rear screen projection and a location shoot day at a remote gas station.

The music is put together by a powerful trio: Justine Leigh, Hugo Marx and Producer Kyle McKinnon. It has a definite Ennio Morricone ambience to it and adds a really intriguing punch to this abstract exploration of human (and non-human) realtionships.

Synopsis:
Nic reluctantly brings his new and anxious girlfriend, Mallory, along for a weekend visit with the family. To make matters slightly more awkward, a sneaky, alien assualt on the roadtrip home leaves Nic, and his enticing sister, wondering just exactly who it is that he brought home to meet the parents and who truly is the host of this final visit. Dinner anyone?

Here's a frame from the simulated driving scene in The Girlfriend. That bluesmudge is the effect of a screen being projected onto in the background. This was done, sort of on the fly. We just drove around in Carter's car hanging the DVX out the windo to get streaks of lights passing by the lens. Any motion is going to help sale the illusion. Also wanted to fill that negative space in the windows from moment to moment.

This is Maggies reverse in The Girlfriend. I had an Arri 650 with CTO and spotted onto the cieling so that the "fall off" portion of the spot was playing in the background to fill the space. I also had a dimmer on that lamp. Again the tablecloth was white and bounced light from a 1K dangling precariously above the table with a monstrocity of blackwrap and diffusion clipped to it.

Dinner with the alien

This is the awkward dinner scene where the new girlfriend (who isn't quite herself after a disturbing attack at a pit-stop during the journey home) is introduced to Mom, Dad and Sister. This was lit with a 1K from above with a whole lot of blackwrap and diffusion. The tablecloth was white and helped to bounce, filling in the eye areas and giving a sort of subtle, eerie underlit effect.

Where's my Girlfriend?

This was the last shot at this remote location. I lit this with a 1K w/ CTO at the top of the staircase, a 650W tota w/ 1/8 CTB in the kitchen and another 1K with Full CTP outside the window.

DVX 100 is a winner!

Rebecca (sister) and Nic (the boyfriend) have a heart to heart.This shot is a testament to the DVX 100's friendliness with practical/natural lighting. After a location scout Director Adam Wingard and myself agreed that we could use just the practical 60W lamps that were already present naturally for this scene which I think actually turns out to be one of the more eye catching of the bunch.

Make Up Artist Johnathon Thorton's handy work below

Here is a SMALL taste of some of make up artist: Johnathon Thorton's work (he's out of Montgomery, AL) I tell you what. I don't know that the ligthing does his work justice in this particular instance. When I saw this guy come out of make up I thought was looking at the walking dead. It looked so real I could smell it. Another interesting point on this shot: this was a cut in from a scene shot elsewhere. It cut together convincingly.

The Girlfriend

Stephanie Schnorbus, the Girlfriend in "The Girlfriend" She recieved an A.C.E. at the 2005 Sidewalk Film Festival for her performance.

The Dynamite of an inline Dimmer Switch

This was lit with a combination of a 300W lamp, barn doored with CTO to match the warmer practical bulb which was powered through a dimmer switch. This helped light the front edge of Stephanie's profile and accent her silhoutette to seperate her from the background.

Dimmers are great for bringing out the pre-existing appeal of a room's interior design while staying within the technical parameters of a camera's sensitivities to light indexing. After plugging in an inline dimmer switch to the lamp I could turn the bulb's intensity down to prevent blow out/digital clipping directly around the bulb's position behind Stephanie's face. This allows for the camera to register the texture of the lamp shade and still have the lights' illumination to the wall.

I picked this trick up from Allen Rosen, a veteran Lighting/DP out of Tuscaloosa/Birmingham area who has been lensing professionally for probably over 20 or 30 years. If you ever need a PRO, Allen is a great guy to work with. He keeps real busy with reality television shows. The dimmer switch is something I saw him use a lot for all of these interior design shows.

Into the void

This was just a 1K over hanging via C-stand with CTO and diffusion. Crafted light to fall off at bottom of stairs.

Documemories by Julia Lewis

All the following behind the scenes stills were captured from a DVD that Julia Lewis created that follows the exploits of Team Blodjet!. The project is titled "Documemories" and is really well done. Each project has its own section and a montage of stills and video that were captured during filming. During Bloodjet productions Julia is always sneaking around with still cameras and DV camcorders doing impromptu coverage. She also got stills that were captured on film by Justyne. Thanks Julia!

Here's the most prominent trick I learned from him that night. Poor man's track: hardwood floor and sandbag.

Carter, Kyle and John on scaffolding used to rig light for exterior shots.

Here's Stephanie doing make up for "The Little One"

Stephanie and the babysitter in The Little One, Maggie Henry.

Carter prepping blood works for "See You On the Other Side" Scramble Winner. He built a contraption (on the roof) that enabled spurting abdomniable blood effects during the death of the exgirlfriend.

Very Effective! Stephanie just loved all that corn syrup and hersheys syrup in her drawers! I'm sure.

Carter on set of "The Little One". This was the night I met Carter. He was probably the first Bloodjet I worked with directly. He knows how to "handle the pole" He He

Thank God for "go getter producers"

The burial of the ex in "See You On the Other Side". I lit this with a 1K in Kyle's treehouse. Then put a party blue on it and a branch was rigged for shadow effect. Producers Kyle McKinnon and John White were running all over the place this Scramble weekend. This is the fruit of one of their many labors. They dug this grave while we were finishing up shots of Stephanie dying from stab wounds to the abdomen.

Here's me struggling with the XL1 during the last shots of "See You On the Other Side". At this point Adam had begun editing and handed the camera over to Kyle and myself to finish up this last scene with a Second Unit. This was my 2nd time to shoot with the XL1. The first time was durig the video taping of the removal of a colostamy bag in a shakey mobile home. Just keeping it real! Anyway. I do not like the ergonomics of the XL1. Sorry but focus is a monkey. In my opinion, I came up short on this scene. I made a lot of simple mistakes. I didn't get a good White Balance so the Party Blue registered more like Blacklight making reds go neon orange. Also when I set the lighting I didn't notice that the camera's gain was at plus 6db which introduced digital grain to the shots. So in retrospect I probably needed to push the light closer to the scene and obviously needed to concentrate more on a proper white balance. Thus is the waysof 48 hour movie making competitions. Live and learn.

More of the burial. Producers Kyle McKinnon and John White headed up the creation of this body bag while we were wrapping production on the roof "Kill scene" in Southside.

I LOVE THE DVX

Should I be ashamed? I feel like a real dork now. Man...what a looser. I think I'm head over heels. Goodness. I realy am a goober. A goober. Damn. 

Leftside View 

Rightside View 

Covering Bands is fun

I'll post some stuff from time to time on bands that I like to cover. I really enjoy the process of shooting shows. Now, I get crazy with it. I mean I am in the lead singer's face with the camera. But usually I cover my friend's bands so they know how I can be when the camera comes out.

Here are some stills from a show I covered that Rudy Banes Shut Down did back in January. It was a house show. I put a 1K outside the window with some CTO on it and a 300W clipped on a book shelf behind the band. The walls were white so the 1K bounce back in to fill (a little). I shot this stuff at a 250 shutter speed I think so it has a really neurotic feel to it. I also used the manual zoom a lot to make even more crazy. Keep in mind these stills are captures from a DVD so there are encoding artifacts present - the original Mini-DV footage off the DVX looks better of course. Take a look.

Here's part of the artwork for their latest albulm. You can buy it from them via credit card at their website. I have a link to it over on the right...over there...look...look to your right...do you see it? Press it...see what happens...it's crazy...it goes to there website...technology. 

Adam...drum control.... 

There's Pak....keepin' it real... 

There's Pak...pluckin' along... 

Dave...gettin' his point across... 

The DVD

Here's a menu I did for a DVD of footage I shot at a show in January (Auburn Show) 

Rudy Banes Shut Down Show Coming Up! July 3rd at Sakura

Check out their website. Link to the right...

SQUAREFEST

Here's some more footage I captures with the Canon GL1. This is the drummer from Fry Cook out of mobile. This was a show put on in Auburn at The Coffee House. My good friend Ryan who is the Bryan responsible for "The Squares" put on this super dooper event called "Squarefest" where, I don't know, like 10 (maybe more) bands played all day. They were from all over Alabama. Some of the bands included were The Immortal Lee County Killers, The Good and Rudy Banes. It's been a while. Ryan...what other bands were there at that show? Comment?  

 

 

 

 

I shot this in frame mode and kicked the shutter speed up pretty high. Shooting into the sunned windows. I like to push the limits on DV equipment. Clipping is good sometimes. Film can't do that. DV can though and maybe....just maybe...that's a good thing. 

Fry Cook was a lot of fun 

What's "The Squares"?

Here are a few examples of The Squares comic strips. One of several that Ryan puts together. I got these from The Harbinger's web page. It is a paper they were published in back in 2000 (Mobile, AL) 

 

 

DOWNRIGHT

Here's Steve Lewis at 4th and 23rd in T-Town. This was shot with my good friend Michael Toohey's Canon GL1 using frame mode. I did not set up lights. In fact this was an impromptu shoot. I just played off the stage lights. Backlight is great. Those shades sure are "taking care of business" too. 

Steve Lewis' mouth from Downright show. 

New Year's Eve Show at The Arena (2002?)

Here's the drummer for Downright on New Years Eve 2002 I think. They covered the entire Beastie Boys Check Your Head albulm that night. And they did it right. You could have popped the albulm in and hit play when they started the set (non-stop set) and they would have been pretty close to synched up to it as it plays-sampling, interludes and all. Awesome "Mystery Set" as they called it. 

NIHIL

So this is the first longer form (more than 10 minutes) project I did while in college at the University of Alabama during the Fall/Spring '95/'96 . This was not a class project this was just for experience. This was shot on VHS. This was also one of the first times I used a light kit. It was a lowell similar to what I have now except with no gels. Not that I knew how to use them then anyway. I cut this with 2 VHS editing VCR over the course of a few months.

Rarely was a tripod used to shoot this thing. Pak Nichols shot a lot of the chase scene. He doesn't remember doing it, but he did. That involved shooting from a racing Mazda Protege while either I or Co-Director Matt Terry was driving.

At one point during production the police intervened to insure that we weren't really chasing each other all over campus with guns.

There was not a formatted script just an outline of scenes on a piece of paper which you can see coming out of my back pocket during certain moments of the elongated chase scene.

This guy hacked money from the Fat Man... 

This character is played by Steve Lewis. Front man for the popular musical sensation DOWNRIGHT here in Birmingham. 

The fat man is ticked and hires an indebted assasin to kill the kid. The Fat Man is played by Pak Nichols who is actually the star of several of the early sketches I did for a sketch comedy show that aired via cable access in Buffalo NY. Pak is now playing base with Rudy Banes Shut Down and painting like a mad man down in Monkey Town.  

That's the assasin, Tommy played by myself. 

Tommy likes his gun.... 

And so poses with it a lot in this 30 minute action movie. 

Of course there's a catch. The Fat Man hired this German assasin to kill Tommy after Tommy Kills the Kid.The assasin is played by Matt Terry who helped direct the project and came up with its' name. 

So Tommy chases this guy for a really, really, really, really, really, really, REALLY LONG TIME! 

There he is passing the Denny Chimes on UA Campus. 

He finally kills the guy and catces up to the Fat Man. 

Justice is served. 

SURVIVOR ON THE QUAD

This is a feature length documentary that I edited back in 2000. We had 70 hours of footage covering this week long event. I cut it on a Media 100 system with limited space so it was a linear/nonlinear edit process. The narrative was broken up into days. So I would cut 1 or 2 days and then lay them out to tape, delete media, redigitize and move on to the next few days until the entire narrative was cut. It was a "survivor" of a project. It involved 3 months of editing. I have to say that in the end I think the narrative is somewhat more compelling than the actual show. Because it is feature length you get to know the characters more. It was shot more like a documentary than a show so it kind of ping pongs in style. Neat learning experience.  

So what was Survivor?

Here's a little more about it from the back cover of the tape case. May want to click on the jpg in order to read it. 

The Hamster Race 

Kamama's Camp Site 

Blindfolded event... 

 

It's kinda like "Hands on A Hard Body" except you don't keep the rock. 

The ROCK 

Getting soaked... 

Pretty girls... 

A long hike through riverbeds...(probably a little too long) 

Teamwork... 

Construction Race... 

Water Torture! 

Friendship? Betrayal? 

Supplies in crates for each tribes' week long challenge. 

Canoe Race... 

Determination... 

 

Turkey and Cheese

Here's a poster design I did in Photoshop for a video short my good friend, Neil Katcher, my sister - Kenda and myself created back in the summer of 1994. This is one of several short videos I made with friends in West Nyack, NY that was shot with a VHS RCA camcorder.

We did everything in camera using the audio dub feature. This made for an entirely different production methodology. We shot the story in sequence. It was fun playing ping pong between locations but also made the acting (if you want to call it that) more easy to stay consistent. Because of the limitations of the fly erase head onboard the camcorder we only had 3 or 4 takes before we would have to go back and shoot the last shot over again. I really enjoyed this way of doing things.

The summer of 1994 was a good summer for hobbie video making. My friends and I put together a "curriculum" of video excercises using the aforementioned methodology until we got it down to a science. In fact there are several other videos I will post thumbnails from during this period. It really made me focus more on blocking, line delivery and composition much more. Where does the shot start and where does it end. Rehearsal was usually essential and storyboarding also helped to nail the takes.

Turkey and Cheese was a culmination project. Neil and I wrote it Friday afternoon and began shooting later that night. My sister got into the mix Saturday afternoon. If I was in the shot Neil operated camera. If I wasn't in the shot I operated the camera and if both of us were in the shot my sister operated the camera (her footage was some of the best shot in my opinion - her acting was strong too) There was a chase scene at the end that my Father shot.

We shot all through the night Saturday and all the way up to the screening at around 9pm Sunday night. It was alomost a SCRAMBLE. The video runs about 15 minutes and is still one of my favorites.

AS A SIDE NOTE:
Neil Katcher is the creator of a new stage performance program called MORTIFIED. I put a link to that program at the top right portion of this blog. It was featured on NPR a while back and is pretty funny! It involves people reading their most embarrassing and intimant journal entries from the past to complete strangers. Check it out...

Arik Sokol "standing in" for dead dad with Spencer ( a little disapointed) during the bedroom scene. This is the match cut mentioned earlier. 

Johnathon Thorton doing his thing. 

Johnathon Thorton with 2 of his new friends. 

Carter using the sound rig that was designed and built by himself and Hugo. It inludes a labtop, several wireless mic systems, I believe some sort of preamp and other stuff. It is fairly self contained. And enables nonlinear access to tracks recorded on location. Very Nice! 

The crew waits behind the counter as a shot is taking place. It was sort of like a stake out. You can see the sound team (Hugo and Carter) in the back listening. Arik is considering a nap. 

Here's the musical trio that brings Bloodjet work to "the next level". From left to right Hugo, Justyn and Kyle. 

Director Adam Wingard in contemplation. 

Adam Wingard doing his thing. This is the simulated driving scene. 

Adam Wingard getting the framing just right for the driving scene which was simulated in a garage using rear screen projection. 

Here's a light stick we used a lot for "The Little One" You can remove or add up to 4 bulbs to control the amount of light. It's warm 2800 light but does the trick for close ups and mediums. This was my first time work with Adam Wingard and I learned a lot watching him work that night. 

LONG LOST FRIENDS

It has come to my attention via several carefully worded comments that an old friend of mine has found this blog. For him and all others that may wonder to this dreadful place I would like to point out that if you would like to keep in touch you can click on the "view my profile" link and send me an email direct to my personal email account. This way I can actually respond to these beautiful ideas that keep popping up.

Some big shots

Here is a diagram of this technology that can be installed to the DVX which will bypass the DV compression process that occurs when recording to tape. It is called Andromeda and there is a link to their website on this blog. They have some really nice stills captured with this method. It makes the DVX an HD camera.  

 

 

WHAT IS SIDEWALK SCRAMBLE...

About a year ago the folks over at Sidewalk created this event called the SCRAMBLE. It is basically a 48 hour movie making competition. People from all over are welcome to organize a SCRAMBLE team and face the challenge of creating a short movie from writing, shooting and editing within 48 hours. It takes place over the course of a weekend beginning usually around 6pm or 7pm Friday night and finishing 48 hours later that Sunday night. Each SCRAMBLE event has different rules to insure no team has cheated and written a script ahead of time. For example, teams must include certain props and sometimes even lines of dialogue in their picture. Lately there have been genre stipulations (example: musical horror).

WHY I LOVE THE SCRAMBLE

For local filmmakers this event has really stirred the creative juices. Nothing like a little friendly competition to push the envelope. When organizing a team a filmmaker learns a great deal about the nuts and bolts of filmmaking - where are we going to shoot, when are we going to shoot what, what in the heck are we shooting, what MIGHT we be shooting, who are we shooting, who's running sound, what camera are we gonna use, what are we going to eat, will we sleep and when, who's gonna edit this thing, what are they going to edit it on, when will they do that, where will they do that, what lights are we going to use, how many cars do we need, music anyone?, where are we going to come up with costumes, what kinds of tool are we going to need to build that thing...etc..

There's a bunch of stuff I left out but you get the idea. In answering all of these questions relationships are introduced, formed, strengthened and tested. And if there is one key to good filmmaking, and anything for that matter in life, it is good relationships. These relationships happen between the filmmakers, families, business owners and the people on the streets sometimes. I think I'm going to cry....maybe later.

So filmmakers get a chance to work together under certain conditions. Over time teams have mixed company and begun to build upon each others' tactics and strategies. All of this helps to maintain, perpetuate and improve the skills that Birmingham filmmakers have. These skills stay with the filmmakers as they do other non SCRAMBLE projects. Also, all those relationships travel with the filmmakers as well from project to project building and sometimes breaking on themselves.

Not to mention for the general public this event is a nice departure from the norm. To see a gaggle of folks with a camera and a crazed look in their eyes frantically pulling together some sort of diabolical scene on the city streets is...well...refreshing in my opinion. It also turns into an interesting screening event with awards that public seems to enjoy.
The filmmakers can get feedback on there work after the screening.

And, most tangibly, after 1 event Alabama claims sovereignty over a large collection of new short movies. I think the last SCRAMBLE event produced around 40 new shorts.

3 SCRAMBLE EXPERIENCES

Below are a collection of stills that I have yet to explain. They are from 3 different SCRAMBLE entries that I worked on, "Who is Collin Cherry?" (Pros/Cons), "See You On The Other Side" (Team Bloodjet!) and "The Talisman" (Lucid Pictures).

The Talisman

The Talisman is about a paramilitary operation to retrieve an enchanted ancient artifact that goes wrong. Here, Kevin Wayne scans a mining cabin for potential life threats as he tracks the escaped test subject.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See You On The Other Side

This is Stephanie (the ex-girlfriend) running from Steve (the Stalker ex) on the roof. This scramble entry had to be a musical horror. It turned out like a sort of music video. The ex-girlfriend sings the tragic love story as she is stabbed to death by her ex - the chorus being " I fell in love...with trouble."

 

 

 

 

Cheri Ellis explains how "wonderful" things are in Colin's world.

Who Is Colin Cherry?

Jennifer Price cracks me up This is a mockumentary about the legendary Colin Cherry. An artist of impressive caliber; according to his entourage. We spend the weekend with this production team as they prepare for the big performance, learning the nuances of their working relationships.

Here is a layout I did for the Colin Cherry DVD. 

ADVICE ON SCRAMBLING

Well, here it is finally.

I worked on three different teams for three different Scrambles. Only one of the three teams actually successfully mad teh entry deadline - Team Bloodjet!

I was present during production for all three.

The first "Who Is Colin Cherry?" I was a grip.

The Second "See You on the Other Side" I was the lighting/DP

The Third "The Talisman" I was the lighting/DP and camera operator

So my perspective is from a production standpoint. Which is funny because what I have to talk about is mostly related to post production.

THE MOST INTERESTING...

Both projects that did not get turned in on time had the same reason why. And I have heard this issue from other teams as well. So - the lesson is learned.

The problem - mastering the edited project to tape and/or DVD so that you have something to turn in ON TIME!

Production went relatively smoothly on all three projects. Sure, it was fast paced and tense at moments but overall - we got 'er done.

Some informative facts -

"Who is Collin Cherry?"

wrapped principal photography around 1am Sunday.

"See You On the Other Side"

wrapped principal photography around 11pm Saturday.

"The Talisman"

wrapped principal photgraphy around 9pm Saturday.

The point is. There was plenty of time to edit each of these projects. And all three of these projects were ready to watch - from the computer they were edited on -

It was getting them to a deliverable medim that stopped the show.

So to prevent this from happeing to your team I would suggest testing out the procedures with the same equipment that you will be using to master to tape in advance of the whirlwind 48 hour blur - that is the scramble.

I would also suggest installing a failsafe - a VHS (or a dependable realtime DVD recorder) deck that is hooked up to your system and ready to record in the blink of an eye. At 1 hour from the time you plan on walking out the door with your project to deliver it - stop the editor. Give them 10 minutes to make necessary adjustments and then play your sequence out to VHS or DVD. This way you've gotr something in the event of catastrophe.

A New Chapter In "Filmmaking History 101"

Ahh...technology. I couldn't say whether I love it or hate it. But it has definitely been a blessing to those of us creative types who enjoy a carefree approach to filmmaking.

These days you can get a tremendous bang for your buck when it comes to digital video. This means that more and more aspiring filmmakers are getting there hands on the tools of the trade.

The tools themselves are becoming more and more intuitive requiring less and less technical expertise. People are shooting on a whim. And with affordable PC or Mac based workstations they are editing whimsically too. So what does that mean?...(really not much in the BIG BIG BIG PICTURE, but for the purposes of this somewhat focused BLOG thing here - it means... something)

It means that there is going to be a whole lot more content out there. And a whole lot more of that content may leave quite a bit to be desired.

Technology cannot replace Talent. TNT baby! (man that's so cheezy) But for those of us who are talented (and I am, if I do say so myself) technology enhances the performance of the project.

So the good content is going to get better and the bad content is going to get worse.

Cinema Verte has a hard-on in its' grave right now.

So what does this do to the "Filmmaking History 101" textbook? It adds a new kind of filmmaker to the mix (probably several new kinds actually).

I don't know what to call it - maybe a hobbie filmmaker on steroids?