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.