Boston- The Saga Continues

Hey everyone, sorry for not posting in a while. Here is a day-by-day account of my Boston Adventure.

Aug 15th- Fly Out
Woke up late so I missed my 7AM plane in Longbeach by 10 minutes. By the time I was checked in they had already stopped taking baggage so I couldn't get on- a great start to my first big job, right? But not to worry, I caught the 10AM flight, and after hanging around for a bit, getting some coffee and some breakfast, I left the lego-like airport of Longbeach and was on my way to the east coast. The flight was uninteresting, I wrote my thank you notes from the party and had all-you-could-eat snacks on Jet Blue because they don't serve meals:(
I landed around 6:30 and was picked up by Stephanie, Rob Meyer's(the director) mom. She drove me the scenic route through Boston to the (rich)suburb of Newton. Besides Rob Hauer(the DP) I was the first guest to arrive. [NOTE- there are two Robs on this project: Rob Meyer the director and Rob Hauer the Cinematographer. So Rob Meyer stayed Rob Meyer and Rob Hauer became Malibu Rob because he surfs] I met Rob Meyer and two producers, Travis and George, both from Harvard's film program. Malibu Rob and John Meyer(the director's father) were out scouting for houses for the exteriors. Since I was the first to arrive, I got my pick of beds. The department heads were put in the same room, all the way on the top floor across the hall from Malibu, who was stuck on a cot in the small workout room. Sharing the room with me was going to be Brian, the key grip also from LA, and Connor, a buddy of mine from college who was going to be 1st AC... we dubbed our room the "crew room" because out of all the rooms, ours was the only that had people who were NOT being trained to be above the line.
Malibu Rob and John Meyer got back from their scout, we had a quick meeting before I went to bed, I had pick up in the morning with Brian, who was arriving later on that night.

Aug 16th- My Birthday
I woke up to Dunkin Donuts coffee and breakfast, the food that would greet us every morning for the next 14 days. Though we missed our Starbucks, Brian and I were immediately impressed by the quality of the food. We got our printed directions and began our great adventure in Boston as we stepped out the door on our way to High Output, the ONLY big rental house in the Boston area.
Now, when I said adventure, that is exactly what I meant. It was the first time I was to get lost in Boston, but only the first of four total times to come. See, as far and Brian and I could tell, they don't like to label their streets in Boston, and when they do, they like to add as many numbers as possible. For example;
Worchester St. is also Route 9 which we took to I-95 South turns into 128 South... which we then too to I-93 North!? So a 20 minute drive turned into an hour and a half, but we had fun getting lost.
We finally got to High Output and found that half the stuff we requested wasn't there. It turned out that half the stuff we requested they didn't have, and half the stuff we actually got wasn't very good. Brian and I realized how spoiled we are in LA where you can get anything you need or want for a movie at almost any rental house, and if one guy doesn't have it, five others will. Oh well. I honestly forgot that it was my birthday until I had to sign and DATE the pick sheet at the rental house. We arrived at HO at about 10AM and drove away at 7:30PM... I have never been to am equipment check out that took so long and I hope I am never at one again. We were so lucky to have this guy Joe show up and help us. Joe was put on the grip and electric crew, he's a friend of Rob's from NYU. He worked so well that Brian made him his best boy grip. We then started the adventure back.
We arrived just in time for dinner. By his time, more of the crew was arriving, including more producers, the sound team(Tom and Andrew- both from NYU), and later on the camera team. Connor was flown out to New York the day I flew out and spent the 16th at Panavision New York checking out the package and training the 2nd and 3rd ACs, both of which had little or no camera experience. It was good to see Connor and meet the rest of the camera team, Isaac(2nd AC) and Aurora(3rd AC) from Harvard. The house was almost full with more then 15 crew members stay at the Meyer's house in various rooms. It was awesome because it was fulfilling my dream of living in the Muppet house, we would all get up and battle for the showers and then come down stairs for our breakfast and coffee. The next day was the start of the DAY 1 so we all ate dinner and went to bed early.

Aug 17th- DAY 1: Lawn Exteriors
The first two days of shooting were what Malibu called "high grip- low electric" days. The first two days were all exteriors and there was not power available so it was a bunch of bounce board and overheads(6x6, 8x8, and a 20x20 which could be broken down into a 12x12). The first day was slow because we didn't have a full G&E team, it was me, Brian, Joe, and this great guy named Fred, a local guy with a bunch of theater experience. The first day was exteriors of the main character's front lawn and house and some conversation in the front yard. It took us all day and we were literally fighting the sun in the last hours, but we made it.
We got home and during dinner, Stephanie and the producers surprised me with a birthday cake. Everyone was surprised I didn't tell anyone that my birthday was the 16th(but it never came up in conversation, so...) and also that I was only 22 years old. People exploded even more when they found out that Connor was turning 22 on the 22nd. In fact, we had a running joke that would follow us through the production because Brian made the comment, "I have a callus that's 22 years old!" Connor and I were officially the youngest people on the crew besides the PAs, and people were amazed that we were the heads of our respective departments. Well, after the cake and a bit of birthday banter, we asked if anyone else was going to have a birthday or anything during the shoot besides me(and Connor)... it turned out that we were to have three birthdays and one anniversary during the ten days of shooting in Boston. After cake, we all went to bed: one day down, nine more to go.

Aug 18th- DAY 2: Park and Process Trailer
By day two, the G&E team was starting to form itself. It was again high grip/low electric as we were shooting at a local park. It was on our way to the park that we had our second getting lost adventure in Boston. But we got lost in one of the richest neighborhoods in Newton... I'm talking houses with little guest houses that are still bigger then the house I grew up in... plus some land. So we didn't mind getting lost. It was on day 2 that we also discovered a peculiar distance reference to the native Bostonian vernacular. It turns out that when they say phrases like, "around the block," or "up the street," or "a bit up the road," they really mean ten minutes through the neighborhood, five minutes on the local route and then a quick hop on the "pike" where we'd go one or two exits and then work our way through another neighborhood until we got to the location. With the lack on signage compounded with a three ton truck hauling a five ton equipment package that has a top speed of 60mph, these were the makings of a great adventure!
But even as we broke for lunch, the shooting day had only started. As we scrambled to finish the park scene, we had to divide our resources and start working on the process trailer. The process trailer in the rig that holds the "hero car" where the actors sit and are pulled along by another car. We had a small old fashioned Volkswagen bug on a flatbed tow trailer and we constructed a low frame around it with the speed rails of the 20x20 frame. Let me explain- the grip truck(a Budget rental truck) we got had a bed of only 16ft... so we couldn't fit a 20ft piece of speed rail in it. So Brian and I ordered four 12ft pieces and four eight foot pieces to put together for make a 20x20. These pipes were used as the rigging frame on the trailer. The funny things about this trailer is that fact that neither Brian, Rob Meyer, Malibu Rob, or myself had ever worked on a moving process trailer before... only the poor-man's process which is in a dark studio where you shake the car as if it is moving. The other funny thing about the trailer is that the bad two posts were too tall, so you could see them through the car if you looked from the camera position on the hood. So... we cut them. I am sooo glad I brought my mini hack saw... but High Output was not happy that we returned their speed rail pieces cut in half- hahaha. We rushed, but the first night of the process trailer worked. The first lights I put up on this shoot and they did they job and looked beautiful. We only had a really noisy, exhaust pumping little put-put generator, so sound couldn't get anything usable, but it was ok. We ended up doing a better job the next time we did the process trailer, but we also had a lot more time to work on it.
This was also the first day working with Angus... now Angus is going to become a Hollywood legend due to me, Connor, and Brian. Angus is a tall, muscular, tough looking Boston guy who can fix anything with a hammer and his bear hands. He drives a van and is a carpenter and we think he spent some time in or around jail and he went to Yale and he does theater and other performing arts including dance and we all dropped our jaws when he would emerge from his van with anything that we needed... like black wrap or a sledge hammer or a 120v to 240v extension adapter or long surgical needles... but that story will come later. Basically, Angus popped up at the most random, yet appropriate times to save us. It seemed that he grew a little every day of the shoot until on the last day he was ten feet tall and had arms the size of tree trunks and scared a car into fixing itself. Well, by the end of day two it had been a long night, but we did it, another day in the can, another day closer to the end.

Aug 19th- DAY 3: BAS Meeting
Saturday the 19th was the first interiors of the shoot... and they turned out so much more complicated then we had originally anticipated. We were shooting the Boston Aquarium Society meeting scene in the local Newton community center. The good news was that we had a lot of circuits to pull power from and we were using a lot of Kino Flos, so we weren't drawing too much power. Another good thing about this day was that it was a walk-away, when you can leave the equipment on set over night... so no pack up! Yay! The best shot of the day was the dolly move across the audience as a senior member of the Aquarium Society gives a slide show presentation... it was very Spielberg, where we pass the audience and cross the light beam of the projector and ended on the presenter and he stood up while changing to the next slide... very funny looking, too.
It was a slow day, though because we were using lights, so it took twice as long because you have to find power, set the light, move it into place, adjust it, and then the grips come in and shape the light with flags and nets and silks, etc. But we had an amazing addition to our crew, this guy named TJ. He was an actual G&E guy, is in the process of getting into the local union out there and had the right attitude. His and Fred were the two local guys who got us through our long days and Brian and I told them to come out to LA because they would do soooo well out here. They both are hard working, know their stuff and have perfect attitudes! So if anyone is doing something in Boston, you NEED to get TJ and Fred, they are the nest guys out there(you'll see why later). Anyway, we got through it and were ready to go for the next day at the same location.

Aug 20- DAY 4: BAS Meeting and Process Trailer 2
So we get back to set the next day and realize how much of a mess we left our stuff. So we took some time and organized most of it. We started off with a cool dolly shot with a pedestal up on the dolly. We were ahead of schedule in the morning because we were using a large soft source that didn't have to be moved around so we just had to move around some small Kinos to make sure the light wrapped around our subjects faces. With the bleach bypass and 2-stop push process that we're doing on most of the footage, we needed to make sure our contrast ratio was a little lower then we would normally do because any shadow on their faces will really get crushed. So we had to train our eyes to make sure the light wrapped around our actor's faces a little more then we would normally do.
Anyways, of course we were not ahead for long... it started raining. Luckily we got to get a jump start on the process trailer rig. We got a better, quieter, more power generator for this rig and we added more lights to simulate street lamps. But as the rain started, work was slow because we had to cover the rig with a tarp. On top of that, we had an HMI outside during the heaviest downpour. But things were fine because we got a 4x4 gel frame and made a tent for the lamp and we kept the ballast inside. The best part about that day was that I made a cameo in the background as a member of the Aquarium Society, the worst part was that out little Dedo light kit stopped working and one of our smaller 200w lights blew a bulb, so our lights were dropping like flies.
And then as if the rain and broken lights weren't enough, there was a camera jam. I heard it jam as Connor cut the camera during a take, he turned to me and said, "yeah, I heard it too." So Connor opened it up and started working on it... Brian and I just stood there for about five minutes watching him work before realizing how bad it was so we cleared the room and told the AD to give people about a 20 min break. Brian and I also left the room because we could tell that Connor was getting frustrated.
Then we got the call over the radio that the camera was fixed. I just remember coming into the room and Connor turned to me, the stress wearing deep on his face, and he said, "I did things to this camera that you should never do to a camera..." Now, normally this would have been a perfect place to put a funny joke about what Connor does with cameras, but I could tell that he was not joking around. It was like he had just completed a very risky surgical procedure on a patient barely clinging to life support. I later found out that the jam was even worse then Brian and I had originally thought, apparently when Connor pulled the trashed film out of the camera... it kept coming out because so much of it was jammed. I saw the cut film and that camera chewed up those sprocket holes, punching holes all the way down the center of the piece of film. The only one there assisting Connor was Angus, who saved the day again by providing Connor with some needles he needed to use in order to extract the shards of film. Connor said that Angus disappeared to his van and came back with large surgical needles used to stitch up large wounds or something. The crappy thing is that Connor had to use these to get the small pieces of film out of the gate, and you should never put anything metal to the gate... but Connor had no choice. The good news is that the camera was ok after that and when they checked the gate on the take after the jam, it was the most beautiful gate Connor has ever seen.
And then, after all that, we did the process trailer at 1AM. So Connor, Fred and I piled into the bed of the pickup truck that Angus was driving, pulling the process trailer behind us as we dimmed the lights simulating street lamps up and down. It was a lot of fun, even though we were so tired, it was a good way to end a long hard day.
But the night was not over, there was yet another Angus story... by now he's about 7 1/2 feet tall. So we are done with the trailer, the actors have gone home and most of the crew is already back at the Meyer's house... but Angus, Rob Meyer and I had to go back to the community center to make sure everything it cleaned up and put together. We get there and the camera van is sitting there with Isaac and Travis just sitting there. Travis looked upset and tired... but Angus hopped out and walked over to the car and got info from Isaac as to what the problem was... they think it was the battery, but tried jumping it and it didn't work. Angus then disappeared around the corner to his van. Isaac, seeing Travis's exhausted expression, joined us and jokingly said, "Don't worry about it, nothing we can't fix with a hammer." Just then, Angus appeared from around the corner with a hammer in hand. He rolls over on his back and inspects the underside of the engine. He starts banging away with his hammer. He yelled something and Isaac tried the ignition... no luck. Angus bangs some more and Isaac tries again. Some more banging and Angus gets out from under the car and then has us jump the van... it starts, of course... Angus touched it so it worked. So we went back to the Meyer's house and got a good night sleep because the next two days were our biggest days... the New England Aquarium.

Aug 21st- Day 5: New England Aquarium
We got to sleep in a bit this day, but Brian and I had to get up and go scope out the Aquarium early. It is a good thing we did because we needed a lot more banded cable then we originally thought. Good thing Fred was there to help me as my best boy electrician. We ended up taking a long time to run our cable but we got it together once the genny got there. We decided to swap our plans for the aquarium and do the lighter stuff at the top of the tank the first night and do the wide shot on the second night.
We ended up getting extra help, two people who were "grips and electrics" and who were getting paid showed up to help... but they didn't know anything! So at a certain point they were just dead weight because they were actually making us work slower. And they were getting paid, too, which I couldn't believe! On top of that, the architecture of the aquarium made it really hard to move from one floor to another quickly.
And then we went outside for the jib shot of the kids getting dropped off and walking towards the aquarium. It was good to be out of the aquarium... but we were so tired and drained... but the shot will look amazing! Well, that day we moved slow and it was a long, hard shoot... but we drove away around 4AM.

Aug 22nd- DAY 6: Aquarium 2 and Connor's Birthday
We al slept till about 2PM, had our coffee and headed out to the aquarium for day 2! This time we had a game plan, knew the lay out, and were even permitted to loud in a bit early. We had a new guy helping us, a guy from he local union, also named Phil. He knew his stuff, but he was really slow and was mopping around all day. He was quiet and wouldn't really work all that hard, and he seemed to be complaining under his breath all the time. He ended up taking off before we wrapped, he just kind of left without telling anyone...?
Anyway, it was a long day, but during lunch, Connor was given a cake like I was... only his was pink and had roses on it- hahahah! We all had a good laugh at that. We also celebrated John and Stephanie's wedding anniversary. We came back from quick lunch and plowed through the rest of the shots.
We moved down to the basement for the final scene... this is where everything went wrong and then good at the same time. First of all, everyone was exhausted at this point. We all were getting frustrated form having too few experienced hands and too much gear. We were shooting against a jelly fish tank and Malibu called for a gem ball or small china ball... and I realized that we didn't have the small gem because it was on the process trailer and never re-packed it... and I didn't have any sockets for the china ball to give some ambiance for the wide shot. So Brian saved me by helping me rig up a gem ball socket in the small china ball... and Malibu was getting frustrated, too... and he usually keeps his cool. We scrapped the china ball idea and just shot it in silhouette against the tank; I was embarrassed for not being prepared... and Malibu was worried about shooting the over-the-shoulder shots and not fitting the Kino's close enough to the tank to light them. Then, I made up for not being prepared by pulling a brilliant move with the Kinos. I pulled the bulbs and wires out and taped them to the tank just out of frame and it got the lights close enough to the tank and gave the actors enough light. Not only did the lights give them "enough light" but the lights made the scene look gorgeous! it is going to be one of the most beautiful scenes in the movie, and is, in fact, THE most important scene in the movie. It made me feel a little better about messing up earlier. After we got both over the shoulders, we packed up and headed home around 5:30.

Aug 23rd- DAY OFF: Boston for a Bit
To... Wednesday was our day off... but we all slept in till about 2PM again. We didn't end up leaving the Meyer's house until 4PM and took the T into Boston. We got out on Boston Common and I was excited to tee the Old State Building and I wanted to go over to the gardens and see the Make Way for Ducklings statues, but the guys wanted to get some food and beer. Connor, Malibu, Brian, this guy Nick(another NYU student who we wrangled into G&E) and I were the only ones who decided to go into Boston, so we caught a cab to the Black Rose by Faniuel Hall. I got the lobster and the other guys got food and dinner. It was pretty good, considering it was completely fresh and only $15. We decided to go out to another bar or walk around or something other then sit around after eating... so we went to the bar next door. We didn't mean to... we just walked down the street and Connor said that it looked like a happening spot... but it wasn't all that good. Connor and Malibu tries talking to some girls, but all the girls they ended up talking to were cold to them, it was funny.
We left around 11:30 and headed back to the T. We ended up getting lost on the T because they have long platforms and two different trains stop at either end, so the B and the D(which we needed) were on the same platform... just on opposite ends. Anyway, it took us a bit of time, but we finally got on the train and we ended up talking to these college kids on the train. They flipped out when we told them that we were working on a movie, it was fun. Anyway, we ended up getting off at the wrong stop and had to get picked up, but it was yet another adventure in Boston!

Aug 24th- DAY 7: Pond
So, it's kinda funny that the day we drove to our furthest location is the say that we DIDN'T end up getting lost. We drive all the way out to this pond, that was actually more like a lake. We get off the major turnpike and onto some side streets and then eventually onto dirt roads. As we neared the cabin that we were shooting at, Angus appeared in his swim trunks and sandals carrying a little dog. The first things out of his mouth were that the dog had been skunked a few days earlier and that he did not name the dog... which turned out to be a male named Precious.
So we get out and set up for the first shot, a dolly through the woods as our young lead actor pulls a wagon with his old dog in it towards the pond. Today was easy, just two set ups: the dolly shot and then a jib shot by the dock. We bang out the dolly shot and then move down to the lake. In this shot, the boy pulls his dog down the dock, ties a cinder block to his collar, hugs him good bye and pushes the wagon into the lake. It sounds morbid, but it gets explained at the end why he does this.
Anyway, there was a real dog there, he was so old we actually thought that he might die on set. We replaced him with a prop dog for the actual pushing in of the wagon. Angus, who's parents own the cabin and property we were shooting on, was out on his little Boston Whaler with precious at the bow cruising the lake making sure people stayed out of the shot. He was like a regular lake pirate, it was hilarious. So we do the wide before the wagon is pushed in and we set up for the big dunk and we are all ready to go with the prop dog and Angus on stand by(he was the official water safety wagon-puller-outer guy, too). So I joke to Angus, "Don't let precious see this, he'll be traumatized." We had a laugh and then we rolled the take... Now, I had read the script, I helped set up the shot, I knew it was coming but I was not prepared for the actually sound. When the actor, Jeremy, pushed it in, we all started laughing under our breath... and then we realized what we were laughing at and it just kind of sunk to the pit of our stomachs. It was one of the most morbid things I have ever witnessed. Precious lost it- he thought it was a real dog. After we cut, Angus let go of Precious who ran up the dock, leading the charge to go save the drowning dog.
Then, after the wide, Rob, Connor, Malibu and me got on this little floating dock with a $100,000 80lbs Panavision camera and shot the reverse close-ups. That was scary and very exciting for some reason. After that, we packed up and went back to the Meyers... but not before getting lost again! I ended up driving back with Connor in the camera van because there was no one else to help navigate for him. We ended up loosing the other cars at the toll booth on the pike and took the first Newton exit. We circled for a bit and then found some cops to get directions from. They gave us perfect directions but we still ended up getting lost on the last street, Chestnut, the cross street to the street the Meyers live on! We went from one end of Chestnut to the other looking for their street and then finally found it. Maybe people who drive with me get lost... hmmmm.

Aug 25th- DAY 8: Dining Room
The next day was Friday the 25th, it was supposed to be an easy day, but of course it wasn't. We were shooting across the street at a neighbor's house. Connor, Malibu and Rob Meyer left early to go back to the aquarium to get some pick up shots... I had Connor pick me up a penguin for Karolina because we didn't have enough time to build our elaborate crane system that Brian, the sound guys and I designed to lower me into the penguin pools and get one. So I made Conner do my dirty work, haha.
Then the rain started in the morning and our one and a half estimate turned into a five hour setup because we had to tent all the windows in the dining room so keep the sunlight out and we also had to hang Kino's outside the windows as well. We also built a menace arm, which it a heavy duty stand that you attach a boom arm on so you can boom in a light. This one was tricky because we had to avoid the chandler, not hit the 100 year old molding around the doorways, and still get our lights directly over the dining table. We hung a gem ball to bring up the over all ambiance of the table scene and then had a 300w shining straight down to give some hard light bouncing off the white table clothe and fill in under our actor's eyes. But after the long set up be moved quickly because we didn't have to move any lights, we just used bounce boards when we moved around for the coverage.
And Malibu Rob is the kind of DP who always pushes his crew... who doesn't settle for anything less then a beautiful shot. There were so many times that Brian and I would have said, "ok, let's shoot it, it's good enough." But Rob always asked to add a light here or move this around, and even though it was more work for us, after seeing the final shots we realized how worth it the work was. The shots turned out beautiful! For the wide of the dining room we set up directly in line with the table so you had the father at the head and the mother and three sons around the table. The table was framed between two windows that we added some plus green gel so we could have light that resembled green street lamps and then in between the windows were two practical table lamps on hand squeezers(small dimmers) that we dimmed to about 60% so the lamps were nice and orange. I was watching the video tap and I could just imagine how the shot will look after the processing, with rich but slightly muted colors and deep shadows, all because Rob kept us performing to our very best.
So the rain let up a bit as we wrapped so we brought stuff back to the Meyer's house and repacked the truck. The solids we used to tent the windows were soaked, so we let them air dry in the garage... ewwww. High Output was going to charge us cleaning fees for sure.

Aug 26th- DAY 9: Pick-ups
The next day was super easy... for real this time. We literally set up in front of the house, in the warm sunshine. All we had to do was set up a small overhead silk to create diffused sunlight instead of direct hard sun. Then, Rob Meyer left to go scout the next days location... he was supposed to bring me but forgot because I was in the truck setting up the 12x12. So Luke, a PA, drove me...
And yet another adventure of getting lost in Boston began. See, we had two versions of directions, printed ones from Mapquest and then handwritten ones from Stephanie explaining our printed directions. Despite some confusion and a bit of trial-and-error, we got through Newton and onto the pike just fine, we even go to the right exit we needed to, but we turned the wrong way on the right street. We were looking for Church street, but found Church Lane instead, which was not the right street. We ended up in the wring town and doubled back a few times while on the phone with Stephanie. We decided that we should start over from the highway exit so we doubled back again and called Ruth, another PA, who was sitting at the computer following our every move on Google maps(the only maps I use now!). She navigated us through the turns like our own personal navigation system and we found the location for the last day.
Which was a tiny basement that we were going to fill with fish tanks. The good news was that we were planning on using mainly Kino Flos and also, the owners of the house labeled their breaker box so we knew what breakers controlled what outlets and circuits. There wasn't a lot of room, but we could get away with seeing some cables and some lights because it was a basement and our lights fit into the scene.
Luke and I made our way back to the Meyer's house where I found Brian lounging on the couch watching Deadwood. We were both told that they were just doing pick-ups and they didn't need us... which was fine by us, we needed the rest. So we just sat around and snacked before we all had dinner.

Aug 27th- DAY 10: Basement
Today was the last day of shooting, and we caravanned out to the last location... and got a little lost after the exit... again :) But we did arrive at the location and started setting up... preparing for the rain, as well. This was by far the messiest our stuff would get. But the scene was going to look amazing, the art dept hung some practical lamps, little clip lights with silver bowl hood and they were giving a little bit of a lens flare in the camera that reminded my of Indiana Jones! If we had been shooting on anamorphic lenses we would have been getting those awesome looking anamorphic lens flares with the circle around the light and the horizontal lines coming out of the sides like in any Spielberg movie, but it still is going to look amazing!
We needed more light in one of the fish tanks and I pulled another brilliant Kino move here. I had Fred and TJ strip the bulbs like we did for the jelly scene and we taped the bulbs to the short sides of the tanks. Everyone(even Malibu) told me the we would see it, but I said that I just wanted to try it. So we taped the bulbs vertically to the short sides of the tank and because of the water distortion and the angle of incidence, you could not see the bulbs on the glass, only the light in the water! I had seen this trick done on Baz Luhrmann Romeo and Juliet and I had always wanted to try it. Everyone was amazed and the scene looked gorgeous because of it, I have to say!
It was a long day, but there was no slacking off because we could not put shots off... it was the last day so we HAD to keep going until we were either done or out of film... as things would turn out, both would happen. We also found out that it was Fred's birthday, bringing the total to three birthdays and one anniversary! We all, well- G&E at least, got our second wind after a lunch/dinner of pizza and we zoomed through the next shots and got every shot that Rob wanted to get. We employed my Kino flow bulb trick on all the rest of the coverage, taping them to the sides and bottoms of all the tanks to pump up the tank light. We even brought in the jib arm and did a jib shot inside the tiny basement! I have video, I'll post it because it is unbelievable! So we wrapped and everyone left except G&E and a few others as we packed.
We all made our way back to the Meyer's house for the "wrap party" which was just all of us sitting around, eating sushi to keep with the fish theme, drinking beer, wine, and soda for me. Before the end of the night(because most people were flying the next morning like I was originally supposed to but had them change my flight to the day after so I could help Brian return the equipment to HO) we all exchanged contact info... I ran out of business cards to give people! The leather folio and business card holder I got from the party really came in handy and I carry my cards with me EVERYWHERE now! it was kind of a sad good by but the good news is that most of the NYU guys still had projects to shoot and I have been invited on to two of them, one is shooting in New York, the other is shooting in Miami!

Aug 28th- Drop Off
Brian and I woke up early, which was hard considering how late we stayed up the night before, not to mention our sleep schedule for the whole shoot. We organized the truck and loaded up all the heavy power distro cable and headed out to High Output(which Brian appropriately dubbed Ho). We got lost again, missing our on ramp to the pike, but it was a good thing because we needed gas for the truck and found a diesel station right after our missed on ramp. So we turned around and made our way to HO in record time.
This was the strangest drop off I've ever seen, we unloaded and did our own count of our gear, which didn't;t seem like we were missing too much: all cables and grip stuff and lights were accounted for! They told us that we could go and that we didn't;t need to wait around as they checked everything...? So we took off and hung out at the Meyers house that evening. There was talk about maybe going to see a movie, but we were exhausted and just lounged on the couch until dinner. We had a leftover medley from the shoot days before, so it was all the best food! We sat around at the table, it was Brian, Nick, Rob Meyer, john Meyer, and Stephanie Meyer eating good food and enjoying good conversation.
It was at this time that I realized how good Malibu Rob Hauer is going to be. I had seen his reel which was amazingly beautiful and that was how I got the job in the first place. but Rob Meyer was telling us that Malibu was the reason we got the free film from Kodak and free camera from Panavision! It turned out that Kodak might not have given us the film, but one of Malibu's old professors from NYU with connections at Kodak told them that they HAD to help these guys out and that they would not regret helping out someone as talented as Rob Hauer who was going to be, "the next great American cinematographer." So Brian and I both agreed that we were going to try and stick with Rob Hauer(who lives working with Rob Meyer) as long as we could. And Connor told me the evening before that Malibu liked working with me, so that was a good sign. Both Rob's are going places, I can tell, so I hope I can keep working with them.

Aug 29th- Fly Back
We got to sleep in a bit and got picked up by Lindsay, an assistant at John Meyer's office who had picked up Brian at the airport when he flew in... Brian had a crush on her and was talking about her the whole shoot so Nick and I gave him the front seat- hahaha. So we got a ride to the airport and Brian and I got some food before I boarded my plane... this time I ate before I got on the plane and brought a sandwich with me to make up for the lack on a meal.
The plane was not packed and the guy sitting next to me had a puppy as his carry on! The puppy slept most of the way there but didn't make any noise at all, so cute! When he gave her some water, she licked his leg, I'm sure Karolina would have wanted me to bring the puppy back for her... oh well, she'll have to settle for a penguin.
I landed no problem, back at the lego airport of Longbeach and Ely and Susie Feinerman picked me up. We drove all the way to Hollywood, I told them stories about my adventures in Boston and how I was glad to be back in LA. it was good to be back in LA.

So here is a quick summary of my adventures:
-Celebrated 3 birthdays and 1 anniversary
-Got lost a total on 7 times
-Ran over 600 feet of feeder power cable in the aquarium
-Shot in the rain 3 times
-Had Dunkit Donuts coffee during breakfast for 14 days in a row
-Pushed a prop dog into a pond
-And only tripped too circuits the whole time.

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
Don't take rolling stands on location except for a few high rollers because they are hard to pack, easy to trip over, and can't be used on any other surface but a flat surface. A few rollers are ok, but I would reserve them for stage work, not location.

Boston- Day 3

Wow, sorry for not blogging in a while. I don't have internet connection here, let alone time to write. So here is a quick update, I promise I'll write a very detailed blog once I get back(I've been taking notes). So I flew out on the 15th, I missed my 7:00AM flight so I took the 10:20AM one. Rob Meyer's(the director) mom picked me up from the airport and we went back to their house where I spent the night.

The next day, my birthday(the 16th), the key grip(Brian) and I drove to High Output, the rental house we got the gear from, to pick up everything. We got lost, so the 30 minute drive took up 1 1/2 hours... and we were there from 10:30AM to 7:30PM... so it was an all day thing, checking equipment and making sure we got what we needed. Dinner was around 8:00 and we were about to go to bed when the camera truck came up, so I stayed up and said hi to Connor(the 1st AC) who I recommended for the job. I knew Connor from SFSU.

The 17th was day 1, no lights, only grip. We shot exteriors on two houses. It was a slow day because of a small crew, but we were coming together. Especially because we all woke up and had breakfast as a crew; we're all staying at the Meyer's house. Day 1 was fun, a little bumpy, but we'll be ok.

Today was more grip and no lighting, exteriors, easy because all we had to do was use bead board to add a little fill. Then the fun stuff, our tiny crew was cut in half because we had to rid the car trailer that was going to pull the picture car. The first lights that I got to put us for this thing turned out very successful!

But I am tired, I'll post pictures when I get back. Good night.

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
Crew eats first! Let your crew eat first, I know it feels rude to be the first in line, but the crew NEEDS to eat first because they are the first ones that HAVE to be back on set. So the next time you are directing something, make sure the crew eats first, cuz chances are that they will keep working even after you call lunch.

This Weekend...

Sorry for not blogging in a while. I was up north in San Francisco for the weekend. Becca showed up early on Thursday with her parents, they thought our apartment was super cute. We left around 8:30 and made it about 5 1/2 hours, not bad. It felt soooo good to be back in the bay area. People just seem to age better up in northern California. We dropped Becca off at her place and then cruised on over to the condo, finding Joe there on his lunch break. We hung out for a bit and then we went downtown to meet up with our friend Chris and his girlfriend Jen visiting from Texas. I got Karolina some roses and surprised her at work.
We went to Foley's for a bit and then Karolina and I took the bus down to Calafoods on California St. while Andrew, Chris, and Jen waited for Eric Olney, who was barting into Powell station. We all met back at the condo and made a big Italian dinner. Becca came over, completing the group which included Joe, Adam, Andrew, Chris, Jen, Laurnan, Karolina and me. The food was good, the conversation was better, and even Sofia was having a great time! We all went out to Edinburgh Castle for drinks for a bit, but nobody stayed out for too long.

Friday was relaxed. Karolina had work, so I went into Alameda to get fitted for my suit! I was excited! I picked out a black fabric with muted pin stripes, very fashionable. My dad and I drove out to Spenser and Matt's office, a totally awesome brick building in Oakland with a tiki-style lobby! I gave them the Mole shirts and some other stuff for the van, they were excited. I hung out in Alameda for the rest of the day and then met up with Karolina at Crate&Barrel... she made we wait with here till it was time for her to close the registers at 8:00! I went home and ordered Chinese food from the Wok Shop! Yay! We went to bed early...

...and woke up early on Saturday. I ran over to school real quick to get some flash cards from Ben and then I met Karolina down town to go shopping for my birthday. We ended up getting me some jeans(I told her she didn't have to) from Macy's and then we met up with Joe at Powell. We barted in and finished setting up for the party. Everyone came and hung out, it was a lot of fun. There were sooooo many people there, everybody came! We hung out, talked, ate good food, and then played Pictionary towards the end... Joe and I lost; came in last place, but it was fun. Then Karolina, Laurnan and I got a ride back into the city from Sam.

We got up kinda early on Sunday and loaded up the car when my Mom came over. She drove up to Andrews and we loaded up his car with my computer and a bunch of Crate&Barrel stuff that Karolina got for us. We left around 12:30... and it took us 10 hours to get down to LA because of a fire on the grapevine. So we got in around 10:30, so we unpacked and then just went to bed.

Today, Karolina and I woke up way late and walked down to Mann's for a late brunch. We went to a crepe place and then walked around looking at the handprints, the stars, and the shops. We met back up with Andrew on our way back. We went to the Grove and got some more stuff from Carte&Barrel (see a pattern?) and walked around a bit. Then Karolina and I hung out at the apartment watching TV and her Netflix DVD of (gag)Laguna Beach. Well, time for bed, I got a flight early in the morning!

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
When raising or lowering a stand(c-stand, light stand, or any other stand) remember this: raise from the top, lower from the bottom. So raise starting with the top raiser and work your way down through the other raisers. When you lower the stand, start with the bottom raiser and work your way back up.

The Arclight is Worth the Eleven Bucks

But I don't know if Miami Vice was... hah, today I did nothing until 2:30pm. I slept in, the plumbers came over in the morning to finish installing the new pipes to our shower, and I finally got off the couch when Andrew got back from his internship. We ended up going to McDonald's to try their new Snack wrap thing and then we walked across the street to Border's before making our way to the Arclight Theater.

The Arclight is like this living memorial celebrating cinema. You walk into the windowed lobby and look up at the towering ceiling held up by curtain-draped walls. A giant screen with the movie titles and show times compliment a gigantic clock, reminiscent of a European train station. There is a cafe and lunge off to the right side and a small gift/memorabilia shop to the left. Under the large clock are two ticket desks... get this: you actually choose your seat, like you're going to the opera or ballet or something! You you get your ticket and walk between the two ticket desks and turn right past the giant hanging curtain(as if you're going back stage) to make the ascension to the top of the giant avenue like stair case... or you could take the long escalator at the left. We walked. Once at the summit, you give your ticket to the attendant at the ropes and either stand in line for concessions or go into your theater. We went in, found our numbered seats(only two other people were in the theater when we came in... we were early) and sat enjoying the big screen in front of us.

Andrew went to get us popcorn and candy for the show while I sat and listened to the movie score that was playing over the sound system. There is no "pre-show entertainment" like other theaters, just a simple screen and a magical movie score. As I sat there I realized that I had always thought it would be so cool to do nothing else but work on movies and go see movies... and that is exactly what I am doing. Andrew came back with the food and we discussed musical scores and how lucky we are to be doing what we had only drempt about when we were little kids. There is an usher stationed at the entrance to the theater who shows you to your seat, and right before the show starts, an Arclight employee comes out and addresses the audience, letting us know that we are about to watch a print of Miami Vice, which will run 2 hours and 14 minutes and that there will be an attendant stationed at the side if you have any questions or comments. He or she will tell you to sit back, relax and enjoy the show. The lights dim and the projector springs to life projecting twenty-four still frames of film per second, bringing motion to otherwise motionless material. We sit back, relax and enjoy the show.

However, when the lights came up, Andrew and I sat there trying to shake off the inconsistencies of the movie we had just viewed. It was an ok movie, it definitely wasn't a Collateral and for sure was NOT a Heat. The major issues were #1-it was super long, a lot of the close up inserts that added artistic slants to some scenes could have been cut way back, #2-the music was a disaster. I am never a fan of using music with lyrics in a movie that is trying to be serious and there were at least three Audioslave songs in the picture. I AM or was a big Audioslave fan until Mann used I Am the Highway in that one part of Collateral... ya, that made me mad. And the music cues were really bad, too. #3-the accents were very think, I missed a lot of lines because I could not understand them sometimes, #4- the quality of video kept shifting... within the same scenes! One shot would be good quality digital and then the reverse would have all this digital noise in the shadows, then cut back to good digital. I wouldn't have minded if the whole thing looked grainy or the whole thing looked smooth or even in it switched every other scene, but right in the middle of a scene? It just got distracting. The super grainy video got me nervous cuz it was like home video... so for me it was "real" but it should have bee consistent. And finally #5- the whole story was up and down, timing wise. I was into it one minute, then the next I didn't care, then I was into it again... up and down, up and down. But Dion Beebe did do a good job shooting, well, at least half the film... cuz the other half looked like they just got a minDV Sony Handycam and ran around videotaping the actors playing guns. I give it a 2 out of 5.

But on the bright side, I got my box of business cards today, and we finally have pressure in our show... but no showerhead yet.

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
Don't shoot digital if you want it to look like film.

More Boston

Today we had that class from Brook's on the stage. We ended up doing power distribution: we ran banded cable, 2/0 and 4/0 cable and we showed the difference between spiders and distro boxes and lunch boxes, etc. It was good because I did a pretty good job testing myself- getting ready for Boston.

Speaking of which, I read the script today and met the Rob, the DP. We looked at the locations, went over the equipment list, and he walked me through some concept photographs. It turns out... we're shooting in the new England Aquarium! So we have a huge dark space and a small budget to light it up... but the only thing that I am really worried about is not having enough cable.

We're even shooting in the penguin pools, so I am under orders to get bring back one of these...

...and I want to bring back some of this because they are sooo good......and I'll have to definitely ay hello to these guys for sure because I haven't seen them since I was a little kid.

So I came home from Mole and hung out. I stopped off at Amoeba Music to see if I could find the new... well, only Swell Season Album. I had almost given up hope when I stopped at the information desk. It took the girl a while to find it, but it turns out that the album hasn't been released in the US yet! Yay! That means I can get when it does come out!

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
A good rule of thumb for the number of sandbags to put on a stand is this: the number of raisers= the number of bags. So if you out up one raiser, you use one bag, two raisers: two bags, and three raisers means three bags. Not everyone does this, especially because on student shoots there are only so many sand bags, but just keep it in mind.

I'm in Love

I have fallen in love... with a light called a carbon Arc light. Sorry, Karolina(don't worry, I still love you), you now have some competition. My favorite Mole light used to be the beam Projector... but Larry turned on the Arc today for this British director and... oh, man, I have never seen a light so pure in color temp! And this light gives you the most amazing shadows that I have EVER seen! If you are up against a wall, you can't get a sharper, cleaner shadow but the further you move the subject away from the background the shadow goes soft but still maintains it's form! There is not flicker, it's closer to daylight then HMIs, it runs on safer DC power, and it is simply gorgeous... but it does smoke and it is kinda load. But there is no bulb! It runs off a positive and negative connection of two carbon rods, creating an arches flame! There is no reflector because the two carbons get so hot they create a pin-point light source that so bright it doesn't need a reflector! This is where the term striking comes from because you literally have to strike the carbons like a lighter.
So I only want to hear you guys say striking if you are striking a Carbon Arc light.

Today I turned in my first time-card for Mole! Yay! I get my first check on Wednesday, it's not gonna be big, but it will be there. Larry and I got stuff together today for the class tomorrow... after playing with the Arcs. Brook's Institute is coming in for a power distro class, which I need to may close attention to because that is what I'll being dealing with in Boston.

I got off Mole and Andrew picked me up and we went home. The plumbers are still working on the water situation in our building. It all started with us getting cold water, a little extremely hot water, and nothing in between from our shower and has now grown to replacing the entire length of pipes on our side of the complex. But it's ok, we'll deal with it.

Andrew and I tried to finish the Rob Altman movie The Player... but it was just bazaar and we had other things to do and we just didn't really care because it was kind of boring... so we ended up just watching TV.

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
Tie all cables with a square knot, not a quick-release type knot. The reason you want a square is it's strong and self enforcing and it is also easy to get untied quickly. To undo a square knot easily(even if the rope is wet!) all you have to do twist the ropes and push them towards each other. To learn how to ties a square knot(right-over-left, left-over-right), check out the website bellow:
http://www.animatedknots.com/

Green Screen and Boston

So I was working on that USC shoot this weekend. Saturday we did pre-rigging for the green screen. I used my Mole discount for the first time, Andrew got some gloves and we got 2 rolls of green screen cloth. So the pre-rig was easy, we got out of there by 12:30. We came back to our apartment building to find that a new automatic gate to the garage! Totally cool! It was a push gate before... they changed it just for us- Andrew and I are convinced!

The best(and worse) part is, that night, I got an email from this DP I met at Mole. His name is Rob Hauer and he's from NYU. Anyway, he offered me a position gaffing for him... in Boston! They are going to fly me out, pay for lodging, transportation, food, and a small stipend for the total of 12 days. The bad part, is that the shoot begins on my birthday... which is right in the middle of when my lovely girlfriend comes down to visit me in LA:( I know, sad. I am bummed. But, here is the thing, I figure, some of the money I get from the shoot will pay for a plane ticket back up to SF so I can visit her! And I am going to spend all the time I can with her when I go up to SF next weekend. Besides, she is super cool and understands how big of an opportunity this is for me; she's the greatest! I may just get her a puppy!

Today was fun, one of the smoothest shoots I've ever worked on! Chris, the gaffer, was great to work with again. He was the DP on the "Rock You" music video a few weeks ago. And the DP, Nicola, was awesome, as always! And I am probably going to help her on a shoot in September. The shoot was long, but fun... there was nudity, but we kept it professional. And it was green screen, so it was easy because we only had to light the subject.

I owe you two tips cuz I forgot one last post...

PhillM tip-of-the-day #1:
When working c-stands or light stands, try to address them from the back because they are easier to operate this way and the key grip or gaffer will give directions oriented left or right based on you standing at the back of the stand, like "lamp left" or "lamp right."

PhillM tip-of-the-day #2:
I'm sorry, I know a lot of you know this, but FYI- when dealing with c-stand, make sure that(when operating the stand from behind) have the "fat" knuckles on the right. This way, the weight of the flag or whatever is in the gobo head will make it self tighten, as a safety. If the knuckles are on the left, the weight may make the gobo head un-tighten and it might fall. Fat knuckles on the right- say it with me!

Who Wants to be a Superhero?

Ok, ok, ok... Andrew and I discovered the COOLEST show on TV. It's on the Sci-Fi channel on Thursdays at 9:00pm and it is called... drum roll please... Who Wants to be a Superhero? It is full of awesomely cheesy special effects and corny missions that the superheros have to complete... but man is it addicting!

Today was a lazy morning. We are having issues with our shower head, so the plumbers were here fixing the shower. Andrew went to his internship and then he picked my up and we went to Studio Depot and Mole. I had to get my picture taken for my ID and we also had to pick up some green screen fabric for the shoot this weekend. Andrew also picked up a pair of some nice, new Setwear Hot-hand gloves, my employee discount making it very much worth it. I mean, who can say no to the smile of that guy who let me use his picture on my ID?

Tonight I went to Roscoe's with a director friend of mine, Patrick Newman. He's the Events Coordinator for the Cinema Collective up at San Francisco State University(my good ol' alma mater) and he just finished shooting his first film this summer. I was privileged enough to read the script before shooting began and was also fortunate enough to get to grip/gaff on a couple of days of shooting. Here is his trailer, and all I gotta say is: "Michael Mann better take some pointers from this guy! Wow!" [Patrick, you can use that on the DVD box if you want]

thursday

I stayed up a little late last night watching the Daily Show and Colbert Report, so it took me a while to get going in the morning. But I got to Mole on time. Today was slow, everyone was gone. See, I work in the Art Department across the street from the rest of the plant and show room and Studio Depot and everything. The only people who are regularly there are Larry, Pat, John, Phil and now me. Well, john had jury duty, Pat is getting married, Phil had a funeral, and Larry was back and forth all day. So the phones kept ringing and I kept having to open the door every time someone rang the bell. But I managed to get the sound stage in working order, back to normal.

I cut out early because Larry couldn't think of anything else for me to do. I came home and relaxed and did email stuff. While I was making dinner, I got the sudden urge to write a script, so I started. I am now on page 6 of my Don Q idea... we'll see if I finish it.

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
When addressing any sort of power issue, always address it from the front, "like you are gonna shake hands with it," as Larry says. So when you are coiling cable, plugging in something, or turning on or off a breaker, stand in front of it and address it head on.

My First Grip Show

Today was pretty cool. I got to Mole in the morning and Larry and I finished getting the set ready for the LACC class that was coming in at 1pm. Larry took some test pictures of me with the caterpillar-soft-light-snoot-thing we created. It worked pretty well. Maybe we'll work on a smaller mobile prototype, who knows?

The class was really good. Their teacher had already gone over grip stuff in one of their classes, which was cool because today was my first grip show. I did a little talk on c-stands and gripping and the other equipment. It was ok, I guess- I haven't had to teach anyone in a while and I was a little out of practice with the whole standing up in front of people thing since I graduated. But it was alright. We turned on the beam projector

We had a 1K globe in the biggest beam projector Mole makes, a 20K. So, in theory, with this globe in it, you could plug it into a household circuit! That is a big light to use in a house- hahahaha. But it made a nice, focused shaft of light. We used Fog-In-A-Can diffusion spray to show the beam more. This is, by far, my favorite light Mole makes. So we had a good class and then wrapped for a bit. I am going to clean the rest of the stage tomorrow.

I got home and relaxed for a bit... I was so relaxed that Andrew had to practically pry me off the couch so that we could go to the store and get groceries. We made soft tacos for dinner and Tim came over and hung out. We watched some baseball and then played Scene It? I came in third out of... three. But it was fun. Then, after Scene It?, we played some Sega! That's right, we played some Sega Genesis! Tim and I kicked major shell in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Hyperstone Heist and then we played a little Ghostbusters for about thirty second... it was boring. Then Andrew and Tim ripped each others pixelated hearts out in Mortal Combat. After they got tired of that, we sat around and watched Andrew play Kid Chameleon while we had a very stimulating discussion about video game history. We then baked cookies and watched the Daily Show.

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
A lot of natural and "special atmospheric" elements such as rain, smoke, fog, and steam need to be backlight in order to show up on film. Conversely, you can hide these elements by lighting them from the from.

You Know You're Addicted to Starbucks When...

You know you're addicted to Starbucks when you start to notice them on almost every corner. I don't mean noticing that there is a Starbucks on practically every corner, I mean looking for them on every corner; when the green and white logo start jumping out at you when you catch it out of the corner of your eye as you drive through Hollywood... or when you think it might be a good idea to get some Starbucks to go with your dinner(who drinks coffee at dinnertime!?) You know you are addicted to Starbucks when you find yourself thinking things like: "I'm bored.... maybe I should go to Starbucks," "Man that pizza was good... but now I feel like some after-pizza Starbucks," or "Time for bed... better get some Starbucks." Don't get me wrong, I now love Starbucks, it is my new favorite food(hahahaha). I knew I was addicted to Starbucks when I had a little conversation with myself that went like this:

EXT. SUNSET BLVD -- DAY

ME and MYSELF walk east on Sunset Blvd in sunny Los Angeles. We are heading home from a long day at Mole at about 3:00pm.

Me:
"Hey, look: a Starbucks."

Myself:
"So? They are everywhere, especially down here."

Me:
"I could go for some coffee right about now."

Myself:
"What!? It's like three in the afternoon."

Me:
"But I need energy."

Myself:
"No you don't, you're on your way home."

ME and MYSELF stop at the corner, the light has turned red.

Me:
"But I'm thirsty."

Myself:
"No your not. And, besides, coffee isn't a thirst quenching kind of drink."

Me:
"But... I need something to carry, something to hold in my hand."

Myself:
"..."

ME hold hand out as if holding a cup of coffee.

Myself(Cont'd):
"...what does that even mean?"

Me:
"But... I... everyone else has coffee."

Myself:
"You can't afford spending money everyday on Starbucks."

Me:
"But it smells so good."

Myself:
"You don't have any cash on you."

Me:
"...but..."

Myself:
"Look, we're almost home, you can have some cold water when we get there, you need water anyway."

Me:
"Ya... I guess you're right."

ME and MYSELF cross the street as the light turns green. They continue walking home, moving on to the next block."

Myself:
"Of course I'm right, I'm always right."

They get to the end of the next block and wait for the light. ME looks across the street.

Me:
"Hey, look: a Starbucks."


Does that every happen to anyone else? No? I'm the only one? Hmmmm.


Today Larry and I played with the lights... seriously. We wanted to set up for tomorrow's demo with LACC so we lit the set. Larry and I built an extra half wall with a window for the set because we wanted to use the big 20K(Larry's idea)! I also got to see the inventive side of Larry. He had seen a gaffer friend of his make a large scale snoot out of black foam core that had slots for diffusion frames(or... in theory, to color correction or other gel). So we got four 4x4 floppies and made a tunnel using the ground as the floor of the tunnel. We then put a 4x4 frame of diffusion at the two ends and in the middle. We then got a 4x8 piece of foam core and poked holes in it and put the pins of the frames through them. It was crude, but ended up doing the trick. I could see how much fun Larry was having and I could totally picture him back in the 60's and 70's inventing Mole fixtures like the Softlight, Nook light, and Mickey Mole.

We also decided to test the differences between a 1.2K tungsten single par light and a 1.2K HMI par. Larry had heard that they could be interchangeable if you were in a pinch. So we set both lights up next to each other the same distance from a wall and threw some full CTB on the single par. We found that the HMI gave about 1 stop more light then the single par and you didn't need to gel it(like we did with the single par)... but the HMI did require the ballast, it may need to be gelled if the color temp was way off, and is much more expensive to rent then the single par. So for a tungsten source with a full CTB(which cuts the amount of light by almost half!) it definitely held it's own. You can't really control the single par like you can with an HMI par because the HMI comes with lenses to spot or flood the light, but the single par is definitely usable. Larry and I plan on exploring the possibilities of these lights, and I am super excited because, for some reason, I have a feeling that we're going to discover... something. I can't put my finger on it, but I am very excited.

Oh, and today Larry taught me how to change the bulbs on the big "Maxi-Brute" nine-light.

And after that he showed me how to use these things called shutters that I guess a lot of the new "younger guys" don't like to use... or don't know about them? They basically are a super efficient way to dim the light without actually using a dimmer and lowering the volts(that brings the color temp down). Shutters are literally a metal frame with metal shutters that are opened and closed to block the light or let it through. They work so well, they cut ALL of the light off when closed all the way. If I get on a job that asks for dimmed light, I am going to insist of getting some shutters, they work soooo well.

Man, I tell you, working at Mole is like working at the Wonka candy factory! I PLAYED all day with the lights today and got paid for it! Amazing!! Today was a very productive day at Mole. I can't wait to bring all this info(and eventually these toys) back up to San Francisco! I came home and relaxed, watched some TV and now I am setting up our new wireless router. Well, actually, I didn't do much... I just kind-of plugged it in and Andrew's Mac did the rest:)

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
When plugging a 2K light into a circuit(either a household circuit or lunchbox/distrobox) as a rule of thumb, plug it into the top circuit. This tells the other electricians that the circuit is used up and to not plug another light into it. Also, as a rule of thumb, if it is a 1K or smaller, then go ahead and plug it into the bottom one so the other electrics know that there is still some room on the circuit... but also make sure to check with the best boy electric first so you can make sure that you have enough power for the next light you want to plug in... but that's a whole other tip in itself.