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.