Daze in the Desert: Take 2

For a second time I have found myself out in Lancaster, CA in the desert near the Kill Bill church for a film, this time it was a UCLA thesis with my cinematographer Rob Hauer. This is only the 3rd project that I have worked on with Rob, however, our relationship as a gaffer/cinematographer team is very strong already. This is the same guy who took me to Boston to gaff a film only 2 weeks after meeting him and who, on every visit to Mole, has made Larry sneak up to me and tell me, "so you know you have a cameraman for life now, right?"

This shoot was alot of fun. We met some great people, including a 1st and 2nd AC who are almost certain to join the team under Rob. We stayed six Days in Lancaster and just finished up today with 1 day in Burbank. I was super pleased with the footage because we successfully made 12 hours of changing sunlight look like it was late afternoon/magic hour for 3 days! Rob and I tried a new tenting approach that we had never tested(tenting in the desert under direct sun and still expecting it to match the background!? That's crazy!) and on top of that we used only mirors and shinny boards with sunlight almost exclusively! We also got to use a Shotmaker tow truck(what the real guys use) for the car shots!

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
Household fluorescent bulbs can only be dimmer to abuot 50% max with a regular household dimmer.