Wow... I Feel Special

Hahaha, so I just needed to share this. I feel so special because I got a call from Larry to check in with me over the weekend about the upcoming shoot and I told him that we are picking up on Thursday the 3rd and he said that we was gonna go over to rental on the 2nd and help the guys pull the gear for me! The VP of Mole is going to help pull gear for me! He said he wants the best gear they have, so he's going to inspect it himself! hahaha I promised him that for my first big movie with a real budget I will have Mole charge me double the normal weekly rental rate because they already cut me an incredible deal with the lights and genny and everything.

I love Mole.


PhillM tip-of-the-day:
Try to avoid the term "Inky". A lot of people missuse this word... they usually mean a small Mole light like a Mini Mole or the Midget. But Inky means different things to different people so I would jus stick to the manufactures names like Mini Mole, midget, Tweenie, Betweenie, Teenie, etc. yes, it's more work to memorize the list of names, but you aren't making movies because it's easy, are you!?

Oh yeah...and Sundance

Oh yeah, and that film that I went to Boson for with Rob Hauer, Aquarium, yeah... it got into Sundance this year. I was gonna go but decidied to wait until next year when Heart of the Argos gets in.

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
This is a good quote from the crest of Bazmark, Baz Luhrmann's production company. It says: "A life lived in fear is a life half lived." I find it fitting because I am very nervous about this feature in Morocco... but having all my friends as the crew, knowing they will work as hard as they can for me is keeping me at ease.

New York, LA, SF and Morocco

Wow, things have been crazy! I hope everyone had a good Christmas, I know mine was very eventful. So, let's see... what is there to get caught up on...

I was just in New York again, working with Rob Hauer, my cinematographer and Brian, our Key Grip, and Fred, my Best Boy. We were working on an NYU 2nd year project called The Boundary and we were working with an actor named Alexander Siddig, who played the prince in the movie Syriana. He was amazing to work with! New York was sooooooo cold- we arrived just as that huge snow storm hit the midwest. There was snow on the ground at JFK and it snowed the first 2 days we were there. It was really cool because we had about 5 days of prep before filming so we got everything together and finalized the crew and equipment.


If you want to see pictures from the shoot you can see them here:
http://www.flickr.com/gp/15005161@N06/q57X91

Then Joe and I got back and started on a USC thesis film called The Harvest for our friend Andrew Russo who was the cinematographer. Man, it was a hard shoot because the miscommunication among the producers and also the lack of support and appreciation for her crew displayed by the director. But a good thing did come out of it.

As we were on our way out of LA we got a call from the lead actor from the film asking us if he could pass our names along for a film he is doing. I said yes and he handed his phone to the producer... it turns out it is a feature shooting 1 week in LA and 4 weeks in Morocco on the west coast of Africa! Joe and I were not expecting to get it at all... but we eneded up meeting with the producer and we met the cinematographer and now the producer is writing up the contacts! So I am Gaffing and Joe is Key Gripping a feature that is taking us to Morocco!

The director is the 2nd unit director/cinematographer for Roland Emmerich who directed...well, just take a look: http://imdb.com/name/nm0000386/ Skywalker Ranch invited her up there to finish all the post sound up there FOR FREE because they know that her next film with be a $100 Million film with Roland Emmerich! The production designer did the production design for 21 Grams and Moulin Rouge! So big names...

Anyway, i need to head down to LA now to finalize the equipment and stuff. Lots of work ahead and I am nervous but very excited at the same time!

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
A good rule of thumb I just learned is to have 1 lunchbox for every distro box you have on set.

The Matarrese Twins are on IMDB!

Joe finally got an IMDB credit! The credit is from a great movie we did that has been doing incredibly well in the festival circuit called Keys! It won Grand Jury Best Film prize at the New York Film and Video Festival and has been accepted to and winning at many other festivals across the country and soon across the world! Check out the film's credit: http://imdb.com/title/tt1141654/ I am also pleased to say that it was filmed entirely 100% in the SF Bay Area!



Check out Joe's credit!

http://imdb.com/name/nm2836008/

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
If you want to make a shadow with a hard cut on a wall or object, sometimes I prefer using a silk instead of a solid flag because that was atleast a little bit of light gets through so you see some details in the shadow. I learned that from Isidore Mankofsky ASC. Pass it on.

Hear of the Argos Lives!!! ...again!

Here is the new Web Intro Video for Heart of the Argos! a lot of the behind the scenes video was from my little digital camera! Yay!



PhillM tip-of-the-day:
Remember, try not to over light! See what you get when you light the space rather then the people in the space... does it look more realistic?

Ringo Starr

So, today Joe and I worked on Ringo Starr's new music video for a song called Liverpool. Ok, so I am a Beatles fan, but not as hard core as most people... however, I do find that the more i listen to them the more I like them. But this shoot was an AMAZING experience.

First of all, Joe and I are pushing a cart down the hallway because we have to move our gear to the floor above us and all of a sudden a bearded Brit with sunglasses pops out of the elevator and sneaks past us as we attempt to squeeze the cart through a doorway. He smiles and says, "Oh, looks like we're all set up and ready to rock!" All I could do was laugh, smile and utter the word "yeah" as the drummer from the Beatles passes us and goes to set. A woman who happened to be coming out of the office door next to our cart walks past him and turns around and asks me with a look of disbelief, "is... is that Ringo?" I smile and nod, half amazed at the man who just passed and half amazed on the effect he had on everyone who comes within 15 feet of him.

Then, we get on set we do a few short little shots to the opening of the song, all about 20 or 30 seconds long... and then he gets on stage with David Stewart to perform the whole song and... wow!


We all kind of stopped working and just stood there watching them perform and then a chill came over Joe and I at the same time as we realized that we were watching a quarter of THE BEATLES play for us, standing less then 10 feet away, a song about The Beatles! I am serious, I could not help but smile widely and move to the beat of the song! I could feel a cold sweat come over me and our legs actually went a little weak and I think this happened to most of the room because we all were either staring at the stage with stupid grins on our faces or looking around at each other as if to say: "can you believe this!?"

After they performed a few takes and stepped off as we re-lit, Ringo passed me and I told him, "(smiling)that was amazing..." He smiled as gave me a light jab in the arm and replied, "Oh, good. Thank you." Then, after Ringo was wrapped, we all got to take a big crew picture with him and Dave Stewart! I hope to get a copy of it very soon, I'll post it as soon as I get it. but for now, here are some of my own pics:

Me in Dave Stewarts office next to an MTV Music Award and Grammy!

Joe being a stand in for Ringo!

Ringo on the left and Dave Stewart on the right.

Lots of flags.

Ringo and the Red camera.

Ringo's new album cover?

Joe and our favorite italian producer, Paolo!

PhillM tip-of-the-day: If you get an opportunity to meet a famous person, take it, even if it is unpaid. because you never know when you will get to meet them again, and next time it might be too late(like with Laszlo Kovacks).

SF Filmmaking

I was recently u in San Francisco for a week to work on an SFSU thesis film and, boy was it fun! No- it's not what people are used to in LA but it was still great to work on. Joe and I had our 2 favorite crew members on it, Justin Plummer III and Martin Strauss- Justin was my Best Boy Electric and martin was Joe's Best Boy Grip. They both worked with us in these same positions for Heart of the Argos and they will continue to work with us on whatever we do up in SF.

Here are a few pics from the shoot and our trip:

I miss this city...

They set this whole thing up by themselves!

<>This is a good one of Steve and and even better one of Satuski!

Satsuki assisting Erin with her eye patch.

Yes, Erin knows she has that tape on her eye...

The buddhist temple in Oakland.

The orignal owners of Joe's Icecream Parlor in Geary Ave.

The edge of the world.

Crew rocking it old school!

We ended up not doing much for Halloween, but that was fine, the Castro was canceled this year and we were so tired from the shoot anyway that we didn't even bother going out. Joe, Bianca, Laurnan, Karolina and I stayed home and watched Sleepy Hallow and ate dinner, it was nice and relaxing.

We have also decided to begin preliminary work on the studio, we will be starting the LLC and business accounts so we can start saving money for the space we want to get up in Oakland. We are also starting to develop a couple of feature scripts to have ready by the time Argos is in festivals. Oh, speaking of festivals, Two men in Suits, our film we had in the New York Film and Video Festival won Best Action Film and that film, Keys, won Grand Jury Best Film of the festival. Hahahah, so the two films with the Matarrese Brother's name on them won best picture awards!

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
Remember, you can't beat the sun with any light... so you might as well use it to your advantage by trying to time your shooting schedule accordingly to work best with your location.

Travel Pictures

I have gone through all of my pictures and have found some great pictures from my trip to New York. Here are a few panoramic pictures I took:



<>



PhillM tip-of-the-day:
Some students asked my today for advice on choosing film schools and I told them this, in the end: film school is film school and the same complaints people had at San Francisco State are the same complaints I hear from people at USC, NYU, Columbia, Full Sail, AFI, UCLA, Chapman, Brooks, Art Institute and so on. Of course these schools(and complaints) are different in degrees, but I found that the trick is that what ever school you go to- you will get out of it what you put into it. Yes, some schools have many sound stages, or top of the line lights or cameras, or even a backlot... but sometimes the less you have the better you have to be to be successful. This means that it is possible to come out with a degree from a state school having gotten a better education then from USC, AFI or NYU... but it's up to you to make that happen.

Max's Movie

Hey everyone, this is a movie my friend Max shot. It's a pretty dark story, but I love the black and white and the music is really amazing!



PhillM tip-of-the-day:
It's not who you know, it's who knows you.

Heart of the Argos Comes Alive!

Here is the highly anticipated sneak teaser for Heart of the Argos. It was taken from the video tap as we filmed the picture. So please ignore the cross hair and TV Safe lines and enjoy...



or you can see it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8diw0115WI

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
Remember that there are a million and one ways to make an eye light, but try to always get a source(light) hitting your subject from somewhere in the area of where the subject is looking... this will provide you a nice little hot spot right in the pupil.

Still Making News

Check it out, the Cinema Collective, SFSU Cinema, Heart of the Argos, and DTF/Quandary all wrapped up into 1 great article appeared in the SFSU X-Press, with full color picture and everything! read about it here:

http://xpress.sfsu.edu/archives/arts/008731.html

And here are some of my favorite pictures(in no particular order) from behind the scenes of Heart of the Argos:

Me as a storm trooper.




"Aren't you a little short to be a stormtrooper? ...oh, the uniform."




Charles in the hallway, one of the many long impossible jib shots that I am very proud of.




Me, the 416 and my Spectra Pro IV light meter(I'm all about the brand name)




I love this picture of Peter in the cockpit during our pre-light. I'll be very happy if the film looks anywhere close to this picture.




Sound and camera in tight quarters.




Spenser with the Arri 416.




A great pic at the warehouse we used as a soundstage. Look, you can see Andrew in the background(wearing Red), Patrick video taping behind the scenes on the right, and Brian and Erin on sound in the middle.




Phill says what!?




I'm on TV!




Andy cam(and he thought there were no pictures of him)!

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
An efficient set is a neat set. make sure that you coil your excess cables to the light(or to whatever it is running to). You always want the slack to go to whatever is more likely to move(not the generator) so for example, the extra cable from the light should be coiled neatly under the light stand, the extra 100 amp bates going fro the distro box to the lunch box should be coiled next to the lunch box, and the extra banded cable going from the generator to the distro box should be put in a figure 8 next to the distro box.

Heart of the Argos... post

So it has been about 3 weeks since we wrapped Heart of the Argos up in SF. We are now moving into our heavy post phase of telecine, editing, animation, music, sound, and CG effects work...

Anyway, here is a little video that Patrick Newman put together that introduces the crew... I get a lot of face time and I also appear topless in the beginning of the clip... so it muscles and 1/2 nudity offend you, please avert your eyes.


We just got a CD with all of the behind the scenes video clips and pictures and I'll be posting them soon!

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
This sounds silly... but seriously, try to be aware that on set there is usually an on set photographer or videographer documenting the production... so don't go walking around in a towel like I did:)

Robot Chicken Star Wars

These are super funny clips from the Robot Chicken Star Wars Episode(Dad, you'll think the last one is funny)...















PhillM tip-of-the-day:
HMIs are flicker free at any frame rate that can be divided into 120(as in 120v)... this includes 24fps.

Heat wave!

Wow, it is sooooooooooooooooo hot here in LA! For the first time in the year that we've lived here in Hollywood, we've had to turn on our air conditioning! The heat made this weekend semi-miserable because I was working thursday through sunday. I did a short zombie horror movie in Burbank(the valley gets even hotter then Hollywood) in a tiny little apartment. but I soon got acclimated to the heat and sweat and it was fine.
Then, Sunday, I did pick-up shots with Nicola for that USC thesis i shot back in Feb or March. We were out in San Gabriel(even further inland and hotter!) and the entire neighborhood was blacked out. So we drive to 2 Home depots(the first one was out of gennies cuz the blackouts) to rent 2 small gennies to run our lights. The power came back on, thank goodness, so we were able to use house power after only 2 shots.
Anyways, I just got an email from Karen Holmes, my favorite teacher at SFSU, because I had heard she was retiring!!! In her email she explained what the situation and the good news is that she WILL continue teaching, just not in the same way... much to my relief. She also sent me a really cool picture that I'd like to share.



PhillM tip-of-the-day:
I have gotten in many disputes with people over this, but, trust me, I am right, I have seen it and I have had the experts tell me- HMIs WILL flicker if they are not run on a quartz-synced putt-putt generator that can maintain 60 Hz. Believe me, it is devastating to find out your shots are unusable because of HMI flicker. The good news- all modern Honda putt-putts are quartz-synced.

Dang... (and IMDb)

Dang, so New York, then China and then finally an excellent week up in SF for Heart of the Argos! So much has gone on since I last posted! And I got on IMDb! Check it out: http://imdb.com/name/nm2645700/.

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
Please, please, please remember to try and stay quiet about commenting on the lighting and color of any monitor that is on set. The monitor(even if it is correctly calibrated) is not an accurate representation of color, contrast, or illumination. Old timers will get mad and will be insulted if they hear people(especially if they are not the DP or gaffer) comment on how "dark" the image looks or how "the color doesn't look like that by eye".

Heartbreak of the Argos

Wow, I am super excited about the sci-fi film we all are working on called Heart of the Argos! But we have run into some problems... We've been wiring in all the fluorescent bulbs and other tiny lights we are using to light the space ship and the set has really been coming to life! Here are a few pictures.


Peter's eye light while in the cockpit... looks good any way the characters turn!



Peter in the cockpit area.



Amazing art in the cockpit.



Cool cables in the hallway.



Spenser working on the mechanic's bay through the door.



Spenser and Matt working in the mechanic's bay.



Dillon's eye light from the lights in the mechanic's bay.



The layers of the mechanic's bay.

The set looks amazing, I am super proud of all of us for being able to fit all of this in such a small space. I got chills when we realized that we were actually going to have camera moves and shots that litteraly match the concept art drawn by Spenser and Matt from months ago!

The only hard part is that with the amount of light we are dealing with and the small space, we have discovered that the nice new camera that we want is now more of the camera that we need. See, besides it being the perfect size and weight for Spenser to hand hold it through our tiny set(and he'll be hand holding it a lot, the new lenses for this camera will enable us to not have to bring the light level up(which would destroy the lighting ratios we've already established) and we risk what we call "shooting blind" because of the view finder systems in the older cameras(we won't be able to catch the boom mic or even the top of the set if it is in frame because the light level is so low... but it will show up on film!)

But we are so close to getting the money for this camera that we're willing to make sacrafices...

So Spenser and Matt and I talked about all the ways we could shift around funds to find $2,000 more dollars to ensure we get this camera and lenses. What we decided on was we would pull the money from the food budgit(which I know Sam is against) but we'll just have to find a way to get free meals.

So if anyone out there has any ideas on where to get free meals(my parents have generously agreed to BBQ for us one night and Spenser's mom is making us one or two meals) please email me:
pmatarrese@gmail.com

Here is a little taste of how the ship will look in an example of what is basically the opening shot of the film:


PhillM tip-of-the-day:
Always wrap any spiced wire(where you join two wires together) with electrical tape. Also, try and use wire buts whenever possible, they are easier, faster and safer.

Cats

This video made me and Andrew laugh so hard we cried:


PhillM tip-of-the-day:
Careful when you type in cute kitties into Youtube, you'll be sitting there for hours watching videos. It's dangerous.

NYC pics

Here are some pics from NYC:

The Brooklyn bridge (yes, I walked over it).

The empire State Building (yes, I went up it).

The Flatiron Building near Madison Square park.

The Ghostbuster's Building- now home to FDNY Ladder 8.

The greenscreen at the NYU Todman soundstage... last day of the shoot.

The Imagine memorial in Stawberry Fields, Central Park NYC

Me and the Empire State Building.

NYC Public Library... as seen in Ghostbusters

A shot from the set

Me in Joe's apartment(all the way up on 160th street) at night.

NYC!

Me and the two PAs who came down from Boston: jenna and Luke(both from Rob Meyer's shoot we did in Boston)

Brian and Me on the mean streets on New York.

Fred and Me in the subway.

The subway map and me.

Safari Phill.

Taxi sunset...