Photo of the Day - #10 "Left Behind"

"Left Behind"

As I strolled down the boardwalk I turned my head to view the many games surrounding. Skee Ball, Basket Ball, an Arcade, and Darts. If I had walked 10 feet further I would have found a Merry-go-round as well, but someone stopped me. A smile is all it took. Dead in my tracks. She looked over her shoulder. The girl that was left behind. The world that was slowly being blurred out had been a vacant one. Not a soul dared venture into the carnival today except me and her. My gaze stayed and she moved ever so slighly. A twinkle in her eyes. My breath stopped as the sounds of the cawing crows tunneled futher away. In this land of forgotten mindless competition I found something. She raised her dart ever so slightly and posed for the camera. As I snapped the photo her smile slowly dropped. She turned back to the game and threw her blue fire. I watched, but she didn't dare look back. A crow landed near me and cawed silently as she stepped away. If I had walked 10 feet towards the merry-go-round I would have found a girl left behind. A lost soul in the world. A survivor of the war we call reality.

Photo of the Day - #09

"abandonment"

Bluewater Wireless Commercial Finished

A few weeks ago I was flown up to Tacoma Washington to shoot a series of short commercials. The first one will air on TV in a few days. This is a comedy one focused on the store. Bluewater Wireless is a cellphone company that also has four small cafes spread out across Washington. The other two commercials are focused more on the cell phone aspects of these stores. These will be uploaded as soon as they are approved.

Bluewater Wireless Commercial (1 of 3)

I've been out of town

Since last Thursday, I have been out of town swimming for my school at our SCIACS championship meet. It was a great meet and I ended up taking 3rd in the 200 breaststroke, breaking our school record and getting a cut for the nationals meet in March. However, now I am back and I have tons of work to get done.

Within the next week I should have the commercials done for Bluewater Wireless which I have been working on for the past month. A few weeks ago they flew me to washington to shoot these short commericals.

I will be starting the photo of the day back up tonight when I get some free time to upload a few photos. Also I have a few reviews for films coming soon.

Keep checking back for more updates

Hubert Selby Advice

I recently watched a documentary on Hubert Selby. If you do not know who this is, he is the writer of many popular novels that explore the human nature. His most popular are "The Last Exit to Brooklyn," and "Requiem for a Dream" which was adapted by Darren Aronofsky.



Hubert was a great writer but had a terrible life. He somehow came out always looking forward. Towards the end of the documentary he has a little segment about how he lived after kicking drugs and alcohol. He said to always say yes. Don't be a downer and push away things. Try everything and do everything you possibly can. He explains that many of the jobs/events he said yes to ended up being something he was not fond of once attending however he thinks that his life greatly improved when he started saying yes.



Another interesting comment Hubert brought out. He said that all of his inspiration did not come from the drugs. Once he cleaned up he realized that everything he wrote down comes from the darkest corners of our heart and he was able to articulate these ideas once he became sober. An interesting take on this kind of writing because many believe that you must have a really messed up life or be on hard drugs to open your mind to these dark realms.

If your interested in more about Huber Selby I would recomend watching the documentary. It was not shot the best and is very traditional, talking head interviews etc, however it has some very strong messages. "Huber Selby Jr.: It'll Be Better Tomorrow"

Photo of the Day - #08

"Traverse"

Advice from David Lynch

Inland Empire is David Lynch's newest film. A documentary was made while he was shooting this film. It's an interesting documentary following Lynch in an observational way rather than following the traditional expository sit in a chair and talk method. You see how a filmmaker who knows what he wants work. I learned a good deal from just being able to watch his interactions with crew members and how he gets in a mindset to shoot a film.

The biggest piece of advice I found is something that people often forget.

Lynch says that you will always want more. When making a film there is always that camera, that location, that actor, etc, which will make your film perfect. He says that you must take what you have right now and make the best of it. You will never make movies if you cant accept that you cant have everything. This is coming from the mouth of a perfectionist.

My advice is make your film no matter what. Money, location, actors, equiptment, crew, anything, should not be a hindrance. If you have a vision and you can imagine a way to make that vision transfer to the big screen then go out and make your film. Personally there are many times that I have a script which demands tons of money or shots that aren't possible for me however I make it work. I might not have every single thing I want for that shoot but I still go out and make the film. Currently I am working on 1-800-Suicide and I wanted to set it in the 60's. The issue is that will not be possible with the budget I have. However, I'm not going to stop production because I don't have the money. I'm going to make the film and if someday I do get the money to shoot a 60's film noir then maybe I will revisit this script. In reality I will end up taking what I learn from shooting this alteration of my script and probably work on something else, making that piece stronger.

Something to think about.

Photo of the Day - #07 (O Eternity)

"O Eternity"

"My great surfeit of human beings - that choked me and crawled into my throat; and what the soothsayer said: 'All is the same, nothing is worth it, knowledge chokes.'
A long twilight limped ahead of me, a tired to death and drunk to death sadness that spoke with a yawning mouth:
'Eternally he returns, the human of whom you are weary, the small human being' - thus my sadness yawned and dragged its foot and could not fall asleep
For me the human earth transformed into a cave, its chest caved in; everything living became human mold and bones and crumbling past.
My sighing sat upon all human graves and could no longer stand up; my sighing and questioning croaked and choked and gnashed and lashed day and night:
- 'alas, human beings recur eternally!'

-Thus spoke Zarathustra

Photo of the Day - #06

"Astray - 1. away from the correct path or direction 2. morally questionable behavior"

Photo of the Day - #05

"Decent"

Photo of the Day - #04

"Isolation"

Photo of the Day - #03

Today it randomly started pouring down rain around 2. The rain reminds me of what it was like back in Washington. Here is a photo from a few months ago back in Tacoma.



"Seabird"

1 - 800 - Suicide Coming Soon + Other Projects

I am currently working on revising 1 -800 Suicide. I will be shooting this film within the next few months. I've been so busy and had to put on the back burner for a while. My hope is that I can experiment with 8mm on this film. I have shot on super 16 however 8mm has always been an interest of mine. One of my professors is going to loan me all of his personal equipment so all I would have to do is purchase the film. (Still super expensive) I'm not sure if I want to spend the money now to get film or just save it and put it all towards Cain Rose Up when I start that in September.

I currently have a few other projects that are about to go into production.

This weekend I will be shooting a documentary about underground hiphop with Sunspot Jonz and the Temper Twins. This piece will explore how hiphop today is mostly crap and about the same things, drugs, girls, and sex, whereas these artist that many don't know about are creating music with a postive message.

Next Tuesday I will be ventruing into the adult entertainment industry to interview a pornstar agent. The day will involve tailing him with a camera as he works with clients while also doing a formal sit down interview.

Editing wise, I need to finish a commerical I shot two weeks ago. I was flown up to washington to shoot a commerical for Bluewater Wireless.

Other then that I have a few film ideas that I've been throwing around. Once my schedual opens up a bit I hope to start working on them.

Photo of the Day - #02

"Winter on the Waterfront"

Photo of the Day - #01

A new thing I am going to start doing is uploading one photo every day. (A photo of the day!) These are all photos that I have taken. My philosophy is this. You must be able to master the art of still photography if you want to become a skilled cinematographer. The two forms are not completely the same as many people think. Each come with their own set of problems and hardship when presenting and idea. It is so much harder to tell a complete story in one frame. With a film you are able to combine images in many different ways to evoke certain emotions and give a person a window into another world. With a photo you have one shot (literally) to do this. I will be

I will be adding some information about the photos or a concept relating to the photo at times. These ideas or techniques are things that will apply to both film making and photography.

I thought I would start out with a self portrait.


"Self Portrait"

"Annie" Production complete!

After a rough 12 hour day the production of "Annie" is complete. I'm surprised we got through so much in 3 days. We shot two days a couple weeks ago and one day this weekend. Yesterday we shot 5 pages of pretty much all action. I think its going to come out looking pretty good.


The look: For this section of the film I was going for a dark look. Lots of contrast. The scene is in a bathroom as two people are about to be executed. One breaks free and starts a fight ending in a bloodbath. The location we shot at was a long hallway of stalls with sinks at one end. Our main protagonist was huddled in the corner under the sinks while her husband fights the Russian mob. The main source of light is coming from the doorway. All the lights are off so I had to find a way to light this scene and make it look like the only source is the sun outside. To do this I brought a couple of 2K's in. By refracting the light I was able to brighten up the entire room while making the doorway seem brighter. I still did not have enough light though. I wish I had access to some brighter lights. I brought in a Rifa for closeups creating a greater contrast on their face. The biggest issue was lighting down the long hall. I wanted to have it fall to dark however there are a few sections where action plays out down there and there is one short scene of dialog. It ended up being really dark and in turn really noisy since we were using a digital camera.



Overall production wasn't the best. A director needs to be clear, he needs to be direct, and he needs to instill a type of trust from his crew. I did not see this on the set. I think if he had a few more shoot days things would have gotten better. We crammed 12 pages into 3 days of shooting.


Visually the biggest issue I was having on set was minimizing grain. Even with the 2k's pumping in light I could not get my image light enough to get rid of the grain. This is why I like to shoot in the daylight and outdoors. With the HVX200 you can get some amazing colors and contrast on a image if there is enough light. My goal is to figure out the best way to keep my clean image while shooting night scenes. The beauty of the HVX (like the DVX) is the ability to control most of the image settings in camera. This allows you to reduce your grain contrast, over saturation, etc in camera while shooting. While some functions are not as good as others you options are completely open to what you can do. Right now I am reading Barry W Green's book on the HVX and it takes you through every little piece of the camera. I'm hoping I can find some good techniques that will help me with my grain issue while filming in the dark.