NY, SF, LA

Well folks, I am back in LA after being in New York City for three weeks and then up in San Francisco for a few days. New York was fun, the shoot was exhausting because we were doing all overnights but if there is any city in the world to shoot all overnights then New York City is the perfect city.

Here are some pictures of me from the shoot:
PhillM and Art Director Megan Lyons with their mustaches.

PhillM taking a meter reading at the jewelry store set.

PhillM taking a meter reading with lead actress Emily Young at Clinton Diner in Queens(where they shot a scene from Goodfellas).

PhillM during one of the many night exterior scenes on the twinkling streets of New York City.

After a long and fun three weeks I flew back home to LA, still recovering from my backwards schedule and jet lag and then set off for a quick road trip up to San Francisco with Pam. We stayed in Alameda for two nights with my parents and brother and I had a lot of fun showing here the city I grew up in. We went to the Alameda theater on a date to see GI Joe, I gave her the grand tour in my dad's electric car and she got to meet some of my grade school friends for drinks at McGee's.

Then we went over to San Francisco for the afternoon and night. I showed her SFSU first and then we made a giant loop around the city starting at Ocean Beach, heading through Golden gate Park, across the Haight and around Pacific Heights and the old neighborhood of our apartment on our way to Nob Hill. We got to the Fairmont Hotel to get checked in(we had booked a room online) but the hotel was overbooked for the night!! So they comped us a free night at their sister hotel across the street, the Stanford Court! We spent the evening on my favorite walk through the city down California and through China Town to North Beach where I showed her Coppola's and City Lights and then we ended with dinner at my favorite little Italian place called Franchino's(the gnocchi in tomato sauce is amazing!). Then we met Sam for drinks at Vesuvio down the street.

We decided to stay an extra night in SF so we booked another night and spent the day around Union Square and then the SF MOMA, then a movie at the Metreon. We met my friend Rich in the Mission for dinner and drinks at a great mexican restaurant called the Velvet Cantina. After dinner we walked over tot eh Elbo Room and met Rob and his girlfriend Stefanie for drinks before heading back to the hotel.

Then we left SF as early as we could get up and stopped by Alameda real quick before heading down to Monterey for the day. We sent the rest of the afternoon at the Monterey Bay Aquarium(the best aquarium in the world) and had a lot of fun seeing all the animals and exhibits. Then we started our long journey back down to LA.

And now I am back in LA finally. I did a day at Mole doing a new scene from that feature, Division 123, that I did just before New York. Larry showed me the ASC Member's newsletter(the internal newsletter for only members of the ASC) and pointed out an article about Isidore Mankofsky ASC where he mentioned me:) I think the quote said something about the 1st AC(a friend of mine) and his "young gaffer, Phill Matarrese" should be commended for their great work and good attitudes on the film we did together. I thought that was pretty cool and exciting; Larry said he's going to try and get me a copy of it.

It's been a crazy month of travel and work and I look forward to the next adventure.

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
A good and cheap way to build background depth for night exteriors is to shoot on a long lens and let the background lights go out of focus and become glowing orbs of light. A string of christmas lights placed behind the subject at a distance works well if there are no lights available in the background. But make sure they are not bunched up(maybe even tape over a few of them so there are less spots of light) so the lights look more organic and less like a string of christmas lights. A hand full of bare light bulbs dimmed down also does the trick.

New York Summers

It's summer and again I find myself in New York City for an NYU thesis film. Rob asked my to come out for this film a while ago, it's a short musical titled "Manhattan Melody" about a young girl who gets voluntarily kidnapped by a handsome bandit. The movie takes place over the course of just one night, so we'll be shooting almost primarily during night time, which will make the schedule a little grueling. To make things even more interesting, the budget is pretty small as in the case of most student or independent films AND we have a lot of night exteriors that require fairly large lights- but not to worry, Rob and I are embracing the idea of using available lighting and doing our best to work with what we have. It will be a fun challenge for us.

I am staying at my friends, Brett and Emily's, apartment up in Harlem. They have a really cool place with a great view(and have a very comfortable couch). We had a balcony BBQ last night, it was amazing. I've been prepping the film here and there... we went on a location scout the other night and yesterday Rob and I met to finalize the grip and electric list. Things are coming together, we'll see if we can pull it off.

Today I went on a little walk about through Manhattan. I started by taking the subway to Central park north and walking my way all the way through the park. I had never been through the north side of the park and it was amazing. There's a public swim center as you enter the park from Harlem and then softball fields further south. As I passed the fields where some guys were warming up one of them asked my if I wanted to play softball... I was very tempted to play but I had to get downtown to drop my film off from the night before by 2pm. After the fields I made my way down to Conservatory Pond and watched the RC sailboats float around the water. I continued on and attempted to re-visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art but it's closed on Mondays... maybe next time.


I finally made my way downtown, stopping at Grand Central for a picture and then made my way back down to the NYU area. I was aiming for the Lomography store on 8th street(where I got 120 film for my Holga) to drop my film off at their lab there. I stopped by the photo store right next to NYU to quickly compare prices and the prices were exactly the same but the guy at the photo store could develop them for me in two hours so I quickly finished my roll and dropped the film off.

I wasted some time around Strand book store looking for a James Elroy Fletcher poetry book(I'm finally finishing Round the Bend and each chapter starts with an excerpt from one of his poems) and then tried Barnes and Nobles... nothing. Then I got a bite to eat and wasted some more time before picking up my photos and then headed back uptown to Brett's place. It's a little weird being here with Pam back in California, but I am getting lots of ideas of places I want to explore more with her when she moves back out here in September.

And now we're off to go visit Brett at work, he bar tends at Bruckner bar just over the Harlem river in the Bronx. Tomorrow we do check out, hopefully it will go smoothly. Either way, it's an adventure.

PhillM Tip-of-the-Day:
Wet downs can help you with night exteriors because all of a sudden the amount of hot spots in your frame doubles due to all the reflections off the water. We plan on using this a lot(the forecast calls for rain) in the film to help us with our many night exteriors.

Downtown Holga Adventure

I recently went on a Holga adventure to Downtown LA and Chinatown with my friends Mike Di Ricco and Chris Babers. We headed out a few hours before sunset and walked around Chinatown(though we were distracted by the DWP fountains) until the sun went down and then I shot a roll of night shots. I was nervous because the only other night or long exposure stuff I shot did not come out very well. But this time I was more prepared and had a great location to capture. Here are some of my favorites:


Old Chinese Man





Zen Under South Grand





Dumpster Divers





Chris Babers Broken Frame




You can see all my Holga pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/15005161@N06/sets/72157621011302401/

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
There is an old saying, "Sometimes the best light on set is the one that you turn off." It's true. Sometimes the best lighting I've done is the result of turn lights off rather then turning on more.

Holga Roll

I recently went down to Venice Beach and shot a roll of 120 Color Reversal on my Holga Toy Camera. Here is what I got:

































More to come... You can see my Flickr set here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/15005161@N06/sets/72157620735867109/

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
Recently I have been using small fresnel units with all the full scrims in it right in frame to create little hot spots out of focus in the frame. These lights don't actually light anything but they create depth in an otherwise dark and flat background. If you take the barn doors off or fold them all the way back then they look like out of focus practical lights in the background... but try using long lenses so you can really through them out of focus.

Are You Prepared?

NYC Feb '09

I am in New York prepping for an NYU thesis short film shooting near Boston. I'm staying in Brooklyn and working on logistics and planning for the film with Rob and the Director, Sara Colangelo. Most of our actual prep will happen in Boston itself once we're up there with the equipment, so for now it's mainly been planning. I am excited because I get to bring Fred Young, my Best Boy, out from Boston and I always love working with Fred. He became my Best Boy for the first thing I ever gaffed(was also in Boston, an NYU Thesis named Aquarium and was the first time I worked with Rob- http://phillm.blogspot.com/2006/08/boston-saga-continues.html)


Rob and my friend Pam and I went out to Coney Island to take pictures with Pam's pin-hole film camera(a camera that uses a tiny hole the sine of a pin instead of using a lens to collect light and expose an image). Rob and I are really excited to see how the pictures come out; I'll post them once we get them developed. I've decided to shoot more film any chance I can get to help promote the Film Re-Revolution as well as hone my skills with the medium. We walked along the pier and then after we took our pictures we went to the Worlds Famous Nathan's Hotdogs of Coney Island while we were out there- yum! The line was long but worth it for my first time out there. We also celebrated Rob's 30th birthday on Valentine's day at this restaurant bar at the Tribeca Grand Hotel. It was fun, I got to meet a lot of Rob's old friends including his good friend Topaz who is a director he worked with a few times. Rob and I both dressed up a bit- got lots of compliments about how dapper we looked. The hotel actually reminded us of a hotel we saw in Shanghai that was open air in the middle and all the hallways of the floor above looked down at the ground floor and bar. I have noticed that every bar or restaurant in New York seems to have candles on the table, the lights dimmed down so they are orange and $4 cokes. it was expensive but I guess you are paying for the atmosphere, too.


Pam's birthday was the 16th so I went to the movies with her to see "He's Just Not That Into You"... which was surprising good. I convinced her to spend the rest of the day hanging out with me shooting film. So we went to Kodak and bought a few little daylight spools of black and white film, borrowed a Bolex 16mm camera and went out and exposed film! Then we went to a bar in her neighborhood called the Pencil Factory to get drinks with all her friends and fellow NYU classmates. I saw a lot of people that I worked with in Louisiana, which was exciting. Hopefully Joe and I can get some work from this, a lot of the directors seemed excited that Joe and I were twin Gaffer and Grip team.

Tomorrow we are heading up to Boston for a quick tech scout and then we prepare for equipment pick ups on the 23rd at NYU and then we get the gear from High Output in Boston on the 24th and start shooting!

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
Even though fire light is hard light, sometimes I'll take a few artistic liberties and use a few 1K zip softlites dimmed down on flicker boxes to create my fire effect. The softlites are still very directional but are soft enough to smooth the light out and wrap around the face a bit to create a prettier light. I also end up gelling the lights with overlapping colored gels(oranges, straws, ambers, reds, etc) and put the units close together to create multiple shadows.

Adam

I worked on a short USC thesis, title Adam last May as soon as I got back from China. I was nervous because I was so rusty after being away from LA and off set for three months. Luckily I was very excited about this film and the approach we took with it. Jon Miller, the Cinematographer, had told me that we didn't have a ton of money for lights and we couldn't do much lighting anyway, which I was very excited about because I wanted to use this opportunity to apply some of the things I had heard abut from Jim Plannete(one of my gaffing heros) about Domgma 95 and the "Cinema Minema" approach to lighting a scene.

Here are two clips from the film:
Clip 1:



Clip 2:



This film would not have been possible without the understanding and cooperation from the Director, Kyle Burns, the camera, grip, lighting and sound crews, all the actors and the entire production staff. We all collaborated to make sure that we created the images, sounds and performances that we were happy with to tell the story. I am very proud of this film and hope you all get a chance to see it sometime in the near future.

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
Good lighting should be invisible. If you can make it look like it wasn't lit then you're on the right track. Instead of working against the existing light, try to merely augment and add to the lighting that is already there in your location. It saves you time and headache to make the is already there wrk for you and not against you.

Through the Eyes of a Producer

I am a gaffer by trade. My opinion of "producers" up till this point was not a very complimentary one. My idea was that all producers did was look for the bottom line and ignore any of the artistic decisions made by the director or department heads. I thought of producers as people only interested in the dollar amount, constantly trying to find ways to cut corners and save money, even at the expense of the creative choices.

Now that I have done a lot of producerly work for this film I have come to realize that producers do a lot more then just worry about the budget(though that is a huge part). I have been doing things like arranging meal donations, calling cast and crew to maintain the flow of information, schedule the shoot days, balance the budget, arrange transportation and contact the equipment vendors and film labs. In this short time I have learned so much of what I thought I already knew about the entire production process that I wonder how I ever thought a production was possible without such knowledge.

My work station, which normally consists of some carts with lights on it and my tool belt with my light meters, is now a mobile command center complete with laptop, cellphone and lots and lots of paperwork. I get up early and spend most of my time checking and replying to emails and returning phone calls. I get up early(ish) and get coffee and go over to the dinning table that is now my desk and spread out all my papers and go through my to-do list for the day. I do constantly check the budget to make sure we aren't spending more money then we have, and I seem to have become a little bit of what I hate because I keep telling people, "we can't spend it, we have to cut things..." I now see WHY they are always looking at the bottom line and it frustrates me but I understand it at the same time.

I am constantly on the phone, constantly putting out fires and trying to accomplish as much as I can in the short amount of daylight hours there are in a business day. It's a lot of work but it is exciting and I like the feeling of accomplishing a lot of tasks in a short amount of time.

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
You will find that a lot of people want to participate and get involved with your project, all you have to do is be able to ask. This is a hard thing to learn how to do, I am still learning it. But if you can get past the fear of asking for things then it seems to come easier.

Star Wars: Retold (By Someone Who Hasn't Seen It)

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
Safe speed to shoot fluorescents(in a 60hz system) are: 24fps, 30fps, 40fps, 60fps, 120fps.

Fundraising

We have been doing fundraising for Gweilo and we'd like to thank everyone who has contributed, we would not be able to do this without you. We are just a few thousand dollars short($8,000 to be exact) of our goal and right on the cusp of production we are doing one final push to help us get to the number we need!

Here is a list of some ways you can donate to help the students:

•Building materials
(wood, paint, props, glue, etc...)

•Meals during production
(30+ people)

•Craft Services
(healthy snack food and drinks for the crew)

•Money
(tax deductible through SFSU)

•Basic materials
(pens, note pads, paper, etc...)

For more information and to see the progress we have already made, please visit our website at: http://www.distantthunderfilms.com/gweilo/

Film Test

We shot our film test today at Lee Utterbach Cameras here in San Francisco. We were testing three different 35mm film stocks: Kodak 5229 500T Expression, Fuji 8582 400T and Fuji 8573 500T Eterna stocks. We chose a lower contrast stock for the look of this film to help blend and smooth out all the vibrant colors and lights we plan on filling the market place with.

We did an "Over/Under" test where we over exposed the films and under exposed the films by a selected amount to see how it reacts to being over lit of under lit. We also tested out some colored gels that we plan on putting on some of our lights for the bulbs in the shop.

We sent the exposed negative to Deluxe Labs in Hollywood to process and print for us and they will send it back to be screened by us. The reasons for these film tests is to help the Cinematographer and Director choose the film stock(which effects the look) for the project.

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
It is important to see these film tests projected in print form to help you make an accurate decision based on color rendering, contrast and grain. If you have the option to print and see print dailies- always, always, ALWAYS take that option. You'll be glad you did.

Gweilo

We are in the middle of prep for a new short film we are doing in association with the Cinema Department at San Francisco State University. The art department is hard at work building the sets, designing and collecting props and constructing the flats. Everything in this film is being designed and constructed from scratch by the students. We are busy working with Kodak and Fuji to find a film stock that will work for us and we have also been working with Deluxe Labratories in Hollywood who will be doing our film processing. Here are a few pictures so far:


The interns hanging out at the art space during a production meeting.


All the hand crafted flats, constructed by Evan Wade.


Bottles collected by the art department for the liquor store shop.


The producers hard at work doing an amazing job stretching every one of our dollars. I have a new found respect for what they do.


Director Joseph Matarrese and Composer Victor Paredes work on some of the songs for the website, trailer and film's soundtrack.


Some of the amazing costumes created for the film by Valerie Galindo, Costume Designer.

For more pictures: please click here:http://flickr.com/photos/15005161@N06/sets/72157608661642321/

For more information on this wonderful project, please visit our website for more pictures, information and updates: http://www.distantthunderfilms.com/gweilo

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
A positive attitude is infectious. Moral must be kept high because it helps promote productivity. Don't forget to take the time to smile and give positive re-enforcement to your fellow crew members!

Congratulation, Brian Corral!

Congratulation to Brian Corral who just got swarn into IATSE Local 695, Hollywood Sound Union! We're proud of you!









PhillM tip-of-that day
Remember to always bring a compass when you are tech scouting. It helps to know which way the sun is moving.