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.