…when (and how) you might get your next gig.

Last week I shot a secret project for a corporate design firm. All shot on the Canon 7D.

It all started when a buddy of mine called asking if I knew if my dolly and jib could pull off a 180 pan (while tilting downward), with a dolly move, then a crane down, all the while tilting from the full tilt up 90 degrees to reveal the subject. Hands down I said he would need a PeeWee dolly and several offsets off the arm. Better yet with a few extensions you can sit high enough to operate while doing the move.

Long story short, he asked me if I wanted to help rent the dolly, setup the gear and operate the camera. I also ended up directing the lighting.

So in the end I was the technical Director of Photography. Odd how that happens.

The camera setup.

Shooting green screen of the talent's hands as they "manipulate the future".

The shots look great and the dolly setup and camera moves worked like a charm. Hopefully, if the project goes public I can share the results.

Thanks to Chris for being the dolly grip and electrician for the show.

In my earlier post, I talked about how I just got back from working on a feature film shoot in China,  called “Little Sister”.

"Little Sister"

Well the film is finished and is premiering at the Toronto Film Festival. So if you’re in town in September go check it out! Unfortunately, I’ll be out of the country in south east asia for some shooting and documentary research.

Let me provide a recap to my involvement in the film.

One of our village camera rooms

The “Little Sister” production rented my camera as the “B cam” and I was going along for camera support and to help shoot VFX plates for the production. For 3 months (57 shooting days) the production traveled from 5 different remote villages through out south west China and finishing just outside Beijing. It was an intense shoot.

When I arrived, I quickly learned that the VFX shooter I was to work under had a scheduling conflict. The director, Richard Bowen, quickly put me “in charge” of acquiring all the VFX shots. I can remember Richard handing me a backpack full of camera gear saying, “I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”

So for the first half of the production I was on set following the shooting and  taking copious notes for all the shots that needed VFX background plates. I measured, recorded tilt, lens, aperture and focus data in my camera log. All the while I helped support the two RED cameras and data backups on the shoot with my crew, Samuel Lam, Max Chan and Megan Olinger.

Some of my camera notes and sketches

More notes and sketches

Then about 40 days into the shoot I would ship off to a remote location in the Baoshan Mountains 8,000 feet above sea level. Probably the most amazing village I’ve ever seen. My task here was to shoot the distinctive mountain range that would be inserted into the background of the various scenes. We where effectively making five different villages look like one. The key aspect of that illusion would be our “hero” mountain range.

Baoshan AKA “Stone City” 7.47998658898007,100.4338788986206

Shooting the mountain range in "Stone City"

For 10 days I would get up before sunrise, throw on a 40 pound pack filled with camera gear and hike up 500 vertical feet up the mountain and shoot. Then with some planning I would hike down the mountain and hit various spots along the village and river to cover the various background shots needed. I would hike one thousand vertical feet every day, up and down stone stairs, along steep farm tiers and irrigation channels to find the perfect shots.

During the heat of the day (and it was HOT) I would huddle up inside my shady guest room and test my shots by comping the shots I had taken that day with footage from the shoot using Motion and or After Effects. Weather, sun angle and camera angle where all important factors in trying to get the shots to match. Hiking back to the same place 3 or 4 times wasn’t out of the question – just to get the shot I needed.

All and all it was an amazing adventure.

To end, here are some of my photos (and a select group of other crew photos) from the shoot:

So I’ve been slowly updating my www.infinitemachine.com web site and have made some pretty big changes. Certainly, still more to go, but I wanted to get the structure up and running as soon as possible so I could get the site working for me.

I’ve had some great feedback given to me and given that I’m quite busy, I’ll work on changes as I go. If you have any feedback let me know.

Some of the new ideas and goals I had for the site:

• Show how I can contribute to the visual elements for film production.
• Illustrate a visual development  in stages and how each step the creative process can work with each other.
• Preview examples of artwork as well as a cinematography and how that affects each development step.
• Discuss how I can be a part of any one of these steps in part, or in whole.
• Provide a “story” to each image to further illustrate the process.
• The site should work on a creative level, as well as on a rental equipment level (even though that’s not my primary focus).

The sum total of these goals should show that I have a broad range of experience in visual storytelling; both in development and execution.

And just because I like to include images with each post, here’s a new image I made up for the new site:

This image shows how precise you can be with SketchUp as a pre-production and planning tool. I used SU to plan how the dolly track and jib combo would work (or even if it would work) as it dollies back out the Oakland City Hall main doorway. I was also able to figure out how the sun would hit the stairway and what was needed with an overhead silk to knock out some of the direct sunlight as it changed throughout the morning.

Today I redesigned the Bull’s head in an attempt to make it look more aggressive and less puppy like. I think it turned out nice and creepy.

As a follow up to a previous post:

Whoops, I Accidently Made Something in SketchUp…

Here are some pictures from the shoot:

I’ve always loved Passion Pictures work since I saw the Gorillaz, “El Manana” music video, but this one makes me want to move to the UK, stalk them and director Pete Candeland, eat their livers and BECOME THEM. Yes, I said it.

Click on the image to see the cinematic…

… How did that happen?

On Sunday I have a complicated shot that I’ve been planning for weeks now. I took measurements and built the Jimmy Jib Triangle that we’re going to use as well as the basic measurements of the location.

The shot will have a dolly run of about 36 feet, moving the jib from the foot of the stairway, out through the door and on the front entrance landing.

The SketchUp Jimmy Jib model has fully articulated parts so you can rotate the jib arm head separately from the base, as well as a functional remote head.

I guess I gotta build the RED One cam in SketchUp now…

]]> http://www.giantmonster.tv/giant/?feed=rss2&p=694 0 http://www.giantmonster.tv/giant/?p=683 http://www.giantmonster.tv/giant/?p=683#comments Fri, 19 Jun 2009 06:58:21 +0000 monsterzero http://www.giantmonster.tv/giant/?p=683

I’m traveling up to Sonora to shoot a short film/music video. I thought I’d share some inspirational reference I am using from the film, “There Will Be Blood.”

I’m sure no one noticed, but I’m back. Since my last post a lot of things happened. Primarily, FACEBOOK happened. That has been my one stop for posting things. But now I’m ready to start posting some substantial content here on my blog first and then share it on my FB account.

So you heard it here, giantmonster.tv first, FB second. That is, at least for the more interesting stuff – no one else want’s to hear about what I ate for lunch do you?

Here’s the rundown so far -

Yunnan

Since my last post, I’ve shot 2 music videos. Been to Hong Kong and back twice, shot a short on Hong Kong, worked on a feature film production in south west China, had some art published in a hot rod book, and shot a commercial that’ll be broacast on ESPN several times a day for a week.

Here are some pictures from the film shoot in China:

FB Photos 1
FB Photos 2
FB Photos 3
FB Photos 4

More updates to come!

Just picked these up!