I wish my editing was done.
I’m waiting to line up more gigs, cause I got a great one, but everything else seems to be during that time. Is there are international time to shoot a film? Apparently so.
I’m not complaining, I’m looking forward to this upcoming shoot, but it’d be nice to get a couple more in before then.
1. Red is my new favorite color.
2. Jack In The Box closes earlier then I thought.
3. Having great people to work with is so incredibly helpful.
So to expand a little bit.
1.) I got the opportunity on Thursday to do my first official shoot with the RED One (#973) thanks to Sandust Productions. It’s an amazing camera and the footage is shockingly great. However, if anyone out there wants to shoot with one, you absolutely, positively must hire a tech to come with the camera. While I highly recommend Dusty, use who you have to, but have someone who knows the in’s and out’s of the camera. There’s absolutely no chance we would have had a successful shoot if Dusty wasn’t there. His knowledge of the camera was invaluable.
2.) After the shoot was over Dusty and I headed to a Jack In the Box to transfer the footage to my hard drive and get some dinner (8:30 lol). It was taking forever for the FW800 Red hard drive to transfer from it through my MacBook Pro to my FW400 hard drive. Obviously there was nothing we could do but wait, but after a while we noticed we were the only ones in there. Thats when the manager came over and informed as that while she wasn’t kicking us out that we needed to wrap it up. In calculating the time to do the transfer we told her we’d be out asap and it was looking like 10:30. She smiled and said the power in the sitting area goes off around 10:15 or 10:30. Now that would have absolutely screwed us as my hard drive had to have power. So like two gentlemen betting on horses we paced back and forth as time ticked away. We even helped the staff put up chairs so they could sweep and mop. Our footage finished at 10:31 with no problem, just some more gray hairs for myself, lol.
3.) First off I don’t like asking people to help for free, but I was left with no choice for a couple of reasons and so when I had two gentlemen show up to help, I was incredibly thankful, yet nervous as to skill level. I was so happy to see that they knew what they were doing and enjoyed it. The shoot could not have been done as successfully with out them and I truly appreciate their hard work. Not a single complaint, always jumped up to help, I never had to look for them and they always took on more work then was required. Great, great guys.
Pics coming soon, promise
See you/talk to you/hear from you soon.
So I’m surfing the net, trying to get a better understanding on what the state of tax/investor incentives are around the country when (sadly) I read what Texas has in place currently.
5% of a budget*
And what does Michigan have?
42%*
So if I make a film* in Texas my investors can get a whole 5% back, but if I do the production in Michigan, they can get 42% back before it even gets distribution?
42%???? Texas has got to keep up. We have wonderful, hard working crew here, talent out the (insert pseudonym for butt), however that’s not enough to keep the accountants happy. We need to keep up with other states and keep our crews here. Keep our crews working, keep the infrastructure growing, and keep the economic stimulus of film production hog tied to Texas.
Wow, hogtied? I promise Texans are not hicks. Seriously.
* - of course there are stipulations for the credits/rebates/etc.
Found this wonderful quote and just had to share.
The late actor George C. Scott once told an interviewer that if he were ever stranded on a desert island there would be three things he’d need to have: food, shelter — and a grip.
Lol. After having worked with truly gifted grips I have to agree, if you need something done, the grip takes care of it.
These past two days (Saturday and Sunday) I had the pleasure of working on a project called “The Ballad of Friday and June.”
The short follows June (see below) as her career as a ukelele performer falls apart.
Her only friend is Friday, her dog. (see below).
Here’s a couple of more pics from the shoot. Had a lot of fun and we made a 3 day shoot into 2 - without sacrificing. That made it even better.
DJ Coughdrop (he steals June’s performance time at the Bar)
Here’s myself and the camera. We used the Letus (old school, not Extreme) and in this we did a reverse shot from DJ CoughDrops POV as June walks in and sees a crowd jamming to CoughDrop as he spins.
I was very lucky to be able to attend a private screening of this film a few weeks back when I was in Austin and I truly enjoyed it. Immediately afterwards I had a hard time understanding what my take on the film was, and to be honest I couldn’t (now) tell you a favorite scene, etc. But what I can describe is the overall emotion it provoked in me and still has me thinking about.
This - What is happiness? Well, duh, that’s what the film’s about, so hopefully it has something to do with the question, but it’s pretty interesting how weeks later, I’m still smiling because I know I’ve found my happiness.
As anyone who has hung out with me before March of this year, you will know that I truly, absolutely, unequivocally loathed my “real” job. I tried to do my best and always worked to be successful at it. However in late February it became clear to me that I would continue to be an angry, unhappy, and ultimately sad person, husband and perhaps worse of all - father, without a significant change.
So a change was made, and now I’m truly happy in my career, struggles and all. I finally had to dive in head first and hope that I came up swimming, which I did.
Thank goodness.
And that life changing experience, that “moment of clarity”, that idea of truly pursuing what will make a person happy is what “Happiness Is” reminds me of. The idea that the best thing a person can accomplish in their life is the pursuit of happiness.
Trying to do better, to find fulfillment, etc. is what being human is all about.
Enjoy the trailer below.
It’s been a while since I posted and wanted to give everyone a quick heads up on the world of Texas indie filmmaking. I did a gig in Austin for four days and met a lot of great people. We absolutely invaded an apartment and in that apartment was Sebastian. Sebastian was nice, never mean to anyone, but he scared all of us.
Of course he is a Mastiff and plays a central role in the film, but he still scared me to death, lol.
I finished that gig on Sunday at 8pm, loaded up my gear and drove back to Houston for a 7am call time
at the Improv on a different job. I ended up in the electric department on that job and had a blast.
If anyone has ever seen Office Space, I am Peter. And proud of it.
For all you readers out there that think I’ve fallen off the planet I haven’t, just been working. I had a four day gig in Austin, now I’m finally back in Houston for a week long shoot. I always enjoy learning and once I catchup on some much needed sleep I’ll share what I’ve learned.
So Friday morning I got up at 6, drove to Austin, had three meetings, then went to PA on a set for a night shoot. The shoot was a blast, everyone was in good spirits even in the rain showers, and everyone was courteous with one another.
Then at 7 in the morning I drove back to H-town. I’m not writing this for a pity party, but rather to give some of the wonderful crew a boost.
The difference (to me) between Texas crews and other crews is this: We had a crew member (not PA) that wasn’t being utilized, so he (with permission) got a (very) short break. Being a PA I went to him and asked if he needed anything. He said he wanted to work, that’s all. So here’s a guy that although he’d been going at least 10 hours at that point and ‘finally’ got a break, he was upset that he didn’t have something to do that could help the production.
That’s a love of his job that I hope I have for the rest of my life. Everyone helped one another, if someone asked for help they found 2-3 PA’s at their side within minutes.
Again, I had a blast and I appreciate the hard work everyone did, even if I was just a PA. I also appreciate the “get it done” attitude of the crew. When something was asked of them they did it, they didn’t need to know the in’s and out’s of why, it just got done. It was neat to see someone ask for something and then see them turn around and it was done. It’s not always (hardly ever) like that and it made me want to work that much harder.
On a side note,
And at the end of the week I’ll be heading back up to Austin for a gig, then *hopefully* starting the next week on another one in Houston.
A shoot in Houston, imagine that.
