moviecookie

My Hunt for a Film Camera

2012-02-08T22:20:00.000-08:00

So recently I've been hunting for a film camera and for those of you who are asking "Why would you spend your money on a "Dead" format" listen up. Film in general will most likely never fully disappear. And for those of you who say "Digital's better" guess what. Every single bit of digital equipment has been designed on one idea. TO REPLICATE THE LOOK OF FILM!!! Though digital may have a lot of perks the truth is that it owes a lot to the film era. Now don't get me wrong I own a T2i myself and know that digital is the future of filmmaking but the reason I want to own a film camera is cause well, there's just something about a film camera that's so fascinating. To think that this was how it was done when filmmaking was just in its infancy. Maybe it's my love of history I don't know but I'm gonna find a way to own one of these suckers if its the last thing I do.

2012-02-02T10:09:00.000-08:00

I've been busy producing a thesis film called "The Giraffe That Knew Too Much" by writer/director Eric Tosstorff. He is in the masters program here at SVA. Last week we met up with a master student from NYU who owns three RED cameras. My writer/directer Eric is also VFX artist who was able to trade some side work to borrow these cameras. We are shooting with cinescope anamorphic lenses. We are starting production the first weekend of March. We will shoot 10 pages in three days. Currently, I'm in contact with the NY film commissioner to try and lock down two locations.

Please take a look at our kickstarter campaign and help us spread the word to help us reach our goal!

Two weeks ago I gripped and PA'ed on my professors set twice. She is producing a short called "Frog Kisses" for the NY comedy festival. They got a permit to shoot on the Staten Island ferry which we rode from Manhattan to Staten Island and back and forth until we wrapped. It'd be nice to win the festival - fingers crossed!

About three weeks ago I went location scouting with my producer Lorenzo Zanini to find a location to shoot a scene from my film called "The Haircutter". My friend Kriste moved to NY from California a little while ago and Lorenzo and I visited her on the upper west side. While walking to her apartment we noticed this amazing location to shoot this pay phone scene. We'll be able to get away with the scene without needing a permit which is nice. I'm also really excited for this shoot.

Headshots and Resumes and Emails Oh My!

2012-01-31T18:23:00.000-08:00

So I've been working like a mad woman for the past week.

I posted some casting calls for my film Disquietude, Jay's film Oriental Crutch and Andrew's film All Fun and Games. I first posted on NY Casting, leaving separate ads for each. I got decent amount of submissions....
Scheduled who I can,
but then after a weekend of waiting for Mandy to post my ad for my scheduled Saturday Casting Call it was finally posted....

and my casting email box EXPLODED.
I woke up to find that 50 emails were pilled up after one night. I frantically began to juggle the task of emailing them individually with a Hello Insert Name Here (thank god for copy&paste), watching reels, and stare at some headshots wondering "Why did this 40 year old woman submit for a 18-24 age range?).

Oh and this what I send to the actors I approve for auditioning:

Hello Jane!

Thank you for your interest in the role of Monica.

The audition date is February 11^th from 3:10pm to 7:00pm.

The audition will be held in Room 402 at the School of Visual Arts (Main Building)

The address is 209 East 23rd Street between Second and Third avenues on the East Side.

The Closest subway is the 6th (get off at 23rd street).

Make sure you bring the following:

A picture id (you will need to sign in with the doorman).

A headshot/resume

Please email me at chrissyvarleyproductions@gmail.com with your audition time preference.

Sides will be available the week of the audition.

Looking forward to meeting with you,

Chrissy Varley- Director

Pretty simple.

Anyway, I was glad I used gmail for my new casting account. I was able to tag certain conversations, I know I wouldn't have been able to organize this well with my yahoo account.

But overall, my casting for Saturday is about 70% booked (its from 2:30 to 7)

Casting is coming along for February 9th. I really want to get feedback from Jay and Andrew about certain actors I'm not quite sure will be what they are looking for. I will bring in my laptop in class on Thursday so everyone can take a look.
Then I will finish the bookings!

Also, I wanted to post two other ads on Mandy for All Fun and Games & Oriental Crutch but I would have to pay 56 dollars.

I still think they should be posted. So hopefully Jay and Andrew can post the ads and maybe link the notices to my email somehow. Still need to figure that one out.

Mandy really has it going on. Great results. Just word to the wise: They charge 26 dollars per ad if you want to post additional calls after your first one. (its a 30 day rule kind of thing).

Anyway, I'm going back to work on the casting. I'm kind of addicted to this gmail account right now.

-Chrissy

Rang De Basanti

2012-01-31T14:49:00.000-08:00

I just recently re watched one of my favorite movies. Rang De Basanti (2006) is a Bollywood movie about politics and corruption in India. The film shows a group of friends who spend their time fooling around. One of the guys in the group is a Flight Lieutenant who's plane crashes. When politicians put the blame on his "careless" flying despite his clean record. India's political corruption is highlighted in this movie and the group of friends fight the system with harsh measures. From the start, India's history is blended into their present day lives. A British girl comes to India to direct a movie based on her grandfather's diary about the revolution. The film shows the relation between the previous revolution and the issue at hand.

The characters presented in this film are charismatic and hilarious. The audience gets to become a part of the group of friends and bonds with each character. The film utilizes every person to help with the story. We fall in love with the characters and the fact makes the ending even more heart-wrenching.

The story moves quickly and each scene is necessary and adds to the idea of this time in India. Whether they are Indian or not, the audience gets to see India in a different light. The people are neither poor nor rich and they still take on an issue as heavy as corrupt politics. I do not live in India, yet when I watch the movie, I believe that the people in a nation have the power to save the nation and with the right measures, it will change.

The movie as a whole is a perfect package. There is the perfect amount of jokes and drama. They mix history and present day to create one story and emphasize the fact that history does repeat itself. The bitter sweet ending makes the movie one to remember. Although it is a work or fiction, viewers can take a lot from it. It promotes nationalism and keeps audiences hopeful for the future of their respective countries. If you're looking for a excellent Bollywood movie to watch, this is one of the first ones you should watch.

TERRIBLE MOVIE I SAW

2012-01-31T13:02:00.000-08:00

This weekend I watched a terrible movie called Grave Encounters. My friend Lauren said that our friend Taylor has a scary movie for us to watch. So i was like okay I have not seen a scary movie in a while so this should be good. When Taylor came over she told me that its really scary and that it was in some film festival. I was looking forward to watching it. I put the movie in and even turned off the light so we can be more scared. The movie started out with a man telling us that what you are about to see is from 72 hours of footage that has been cut together for time. and that this is real. So we now see footage from this guy who is the host of a show called Grave Encounters (go figure) where this guy and his "team" go to haunted places and spend the night there looking for ghostly creatures and haunted signs. He puts on his fake over dramatic host voice when the camera is rolling. The are made to look like they were shot on a hand held camera by the camera guy for the show. There is constant zooming in and out and after it happened for a while it was making me really mad that I wanted to start grunting. Seriously if this was a REAL tv show then the camera would not be constantly zooming in and out when he is shooting stuff that is supposed to be cut together to be on tv. REALLY it would not be possible to edit it together anything good enough or find a good shot to edit something decent together. So they are at this old abandoned mental hospital in Maryland. So I was a tad intrigued because i've been to Maryland before and I live close to it. The crew walks around the hospital with a dude who is the caretaker of the place and he shows them all the places where bad things happened to residents and some places that seem to be "haunted". They even bring in a psychic or some dude that "communicates" with the dead. He went with them into various rooms and told the camera that he was feeling deep disturbances. After he said that he and the host laughed. We were watching the "uncut and unedited" version so we saw what they would have edited out for the tv show. The team has the caretaker lock them inside until 6am the next day. They set up cameras and talk around trying to make something scary happen for them to film. I waited for a long time for something to happen. It was so boring. They were just sitting around or walking up and down the hallways. Finally stuff starts happening. Little "scary" haunting things start happening to the members of the team. But it was not exciting at all. The dude never shows up to unlock the door and let them out and when they burst through the door it leads to another hallway. OH NO they are trapped! :O After waiting for something big to happen for a while things finally start happening to them. One dude disappears, another gets pulled into a bathtub filled with blood, they find the dude that was lost and he is wearing a hospital gown and has gone crazy (and he kills himself by jumping down an elevator shaft), the dude who "talks" to the dead gets killed by some invisible thing in a hallway. The thing that bothered me is that we are seeing this through cameras that they are carrying around. Oh yeah EVERY time something freaky and haunty occurred they would run and the quality would get really bad and skip around and the video would get choppy. That ONLY happened when something scary happened. I mean come on now. I've been waiting forever for something freaky to happen and when it rarely does in this movie I can barely see it cause the quality is bad. I would rather see this from a camera watching them film this. Not from their point of view. I might have been scared if I could see the scary stuff. Okay so the host and this really annoying camera girl are left. The girl starts dying and is eventually taken away by a cloud of smoke. The host of the show eats a rat, and continues trying to find a way out. He comes to a room where lobotomies were performed. And what do you know!? Creepy doctors jump out and perform surgery on his brain. He talks to his camera afterwards thats how the movie ends.
THIS MOVIE SUCKED AND WAS A WASTE OF MY TIME. Don't waste your time.

Boyfriends.

2012-01-31T12:27:00.000-08:00

This is a video I made last year in Florida. It's entitled "boyfriends" as a tribute to being happily complacent with just constantly being around your broz doing dumb shit. It's an original song by our rap collective Bobcat and the Planejets. My friend Harrison produced the beat and is coming up heavy on the electronic music scene. He's always looking to score and do music for projects.

Here's the video:

and here's how to contact my boy for music: http://soundcloud.com/bobcatandtheplanejets

End Rapewave

2012-01-31T12:12:00.000-08:00

I've tried to express this to peers, but I'm instantly denounced as a "shit talker" or a "hater" just for voicing my opinion. I could not stand the new film "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" on multiple levels. This film is disturbing in the least cinematic way possible. It literally made me sick to my stomach, especially since I saw it with my little sister.

About an hour into the film, the female protagonist is forced to perform oral sex on some creepy man who obviously has a lot of money. It's evident that this act is committed for the girl to obtain payment, but it is so unnerving. There is no sense of boding revenge, although it weakly comes back around to the man about 2hours into the film. She receives a check from him, tazes him and sticks some makeshift candlestick in his rectum. Whoopty-fucking-do. Where's the payoff in that? Is the rape negated?

The way the film is paced makes it feel as if the whole story builds up to this brutal, sweaty, degrading rape scene. It made me sad. It's like this kind of shit is to be expected in modern cinema. Im not naive enough to think these kinds of actions don't occur in real life, but why must it be graphically depicted in every other movie made nowadays? It just seems as if people, especially film critics, instantly interpret anything that's gross to be edgy and controversial. It's hard not to sound like I'm going on a poorly researched diatribe, but this film did nothing but dishearten me. This film is a slap in the face to all women. And they seem to love it, judging by Internet acclaim and potential Oscar nods.

I might be even more alone on this one, but I feel like "rapewave" has partially taken over the entertainment industry. Fuck Law and Order. Fuck CSI. Fuck these depictions of hypothetical mutilations that accumulate money and returning viewers. I'm out.

Preproduction, CES, and Cameras

2012-01-28T13:22:00.000-08:00

In the pastfew weeks I have been doing some preproduction for my film, mainly locationscouting. Since my film takes place in a small restaurant, I have been incontact with a good friend of mine from high school. His parents own a chain ofpanini shops on Long Island called La Botega. I still have yet to get completepermission, but hopefully everything will pull through fine. If it does notwork out, I can ask my cousin who owns a pizzeria called Cinellis, however itis much further away and it would be harder to transport people and equipment.If that does not work out, I am kind of shit out of luck and have to use adifferent screenplay, but hopefully it won't come to that.

In JanuaryI have also been trying to keep up with the events at this year's CES, ConsumerElectronics Show. Even though there is some really cool technology coming out likecomputer/touch screen windows and 4k8K TVs, I could not help but notice how manycompanies are developing towards 3D. It is nice that they have also developedTVs that do not require glasses to view the 3D, but it just feels like one biggimmick. It is way too overpriced and overhyped. Personally I think it is justa way to get people to stop pirating and go see movies in theaters, but quitefrankly is not working. I digress though.

I have alsoread about some new cameras that we might be seeing come out soon. One thingthat really caught my eye was JVC's plans to release a 4K camera for only $5000,called the GY-HMQ10. Exciting name isn't it? However I am very skeptical aboutits functionality considering it will have a fixed lens and will be compressingthe footage to H.264. There will be though another model that will enable interchangeable lenses and have a larger sensor. Nonetheless I am anticipating further coverage on thiscamera. There have also been rumors of the next Canon 5D, or possibly 4K DSLR, beingdeveloped right now. There is still very little information on it though and itis hard to tell what kind of specs this camera will have as of right now.Speaking of DSLRs, Canon has also recently released the Canon 1D-X. The bestfeatures I have seen for this camera is how high the ISO can go. It is 51200for photo and 25600 for video. On the photography side it has 14fps continuousshooting as well.

2012 is avery exciting year for technology and I cannot wait to see what else is furtherdown the road. 4K video has really sparked a huge amount of competition and itis really turning out well for not just professional filmmakers, but indiefilmmakers too since the prices for these high-end cameras just keeps dropping.We finally get the performance and image quality we have desired from prosumercameras at decent prices. Hopefully by the time I graduate, and the yearsfollowing, I will be able to get hands on experience with some of these greatcameras.

Casting Call for Jay, Andrew and Chrissy!

2012-01-27T09:26:00.001-08:00

DISQUIETUDE, color, HD, sound, SVA undergrad student short. Drama. Seeking: MONICA: female, early-mid twenties, sensitive yet guarded, intuitive, has dark side. No nudity. Synopsis: Monica has a nightmare that the world will end tomorrow; no one believes her and she has become crippled with fear. Meanwhile, there are flashes of what she could be doing if her fear wasn’t in the cards.

ORIENTAL CRUTCH, color, HD, sound, SVA undergrad student short. Drama/Comedy Seeking: NATE: male, mid 20s, optimistic, caring, playful. No nudity. Synopsis: Wade, an overly analytic young man, returns home from a romantic failure. With the help of his friend, Nate, Wade begins to understand and overcome his insecurities.

ALL FUN AND GAMES, color, HD, sound, SVA undergrad student short. Seeking: MATTIA: male, twenties to early thirties. No nudity. Synopsis: A prank in a small restaurant goes horribly wrong. Send all headshots and resumes to Chrissy Varley, chrissyvarleyproductions@gmail.com. No Pay. Meals, accommodation, transportation and DVD copy provided.

Foley Project

2012-01-26T14:29:00.000-08:00

2012-01-26T11:59:00.000-08:00

Folly Test - Barfly

Cody Kussoy
Andrew Abballe
Raashi Desai

Bukowski Remix

2012-01-26T11:52:00.000-08:00

foley project. Recorded by mia, mikey, n connor. Edited by barbie allen.

mine wouldn't embed either.

http://youtu.be/s6P-B-XBofg

stupid youtube

2012-01-25T10:58:00.000-08:00

so the project can not be embedded on websites because it matched third party content and stuff. its because its a clip from a movie of course. so i just posted the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta-_hya8Gv4

Hi! Nice to meet ya!

2012-01-20T18:49:00.000-08:00

Well. I'm new. Nice enough of an opener for ya~?
Haha, in all seriousness, I had a splendid time today. Learned a lot (more so than I ever did in my previous production class, but that shouldn't be of fault.. maybe just a litttle?) and gained some pretty sweet experiences. Earlier this day, I met with the crew of lovely ladies and together, we decided our desired scene and got to work! Such excitement and dedication to our work can be noted in this photograph (Credits to Meaghan Cleary via mobile phone camera):

(The crew in the Mezzanine Basement of the George Washington, from left to right: Marissa Grinstead, Jay Choi, and Chrissy Varley)

We went into a dank basement where the trash of the building is brought to in order to find a secluded area with enough material to makeshift our needed sounds. Marissa brought down her laptop with our foundation clip in order to refer to before attempting to record our sounds. This was smart.

The crew assumed different roles as we alternated with each planned sound. Sometimes, Meaghan was the subject to work footsteps and other times Marissa utilized her own boots to create new sounds. Because of such our recording equipment have been changing holders.

In terms of our environment? It held the most suitable atmosphere for our base of operations. At least from a production stand point. In terms of preference? Well, not gonna lie, the place smelled like piss - Chrissy refered to the odor as "vermin piss." Perhaps she was right. What sensible human would let loose among piles of trash ... well, practicality never made much sense anyway.. Time to time, the garbage man would walk through the halls to collect trash, but it did not take long, for we discussed and planned a little more extra for the readied sound test when he would pass on through. We also worried about ambient noises and voices from nearby rooms would get picked up by the boom, but we need not worry so much.

Nevertheless, I believe we all had a wonderful time! Creatively coming up with unique sounds that fits with the scene and working together to record in efficient time was awesome! Then it came to wrap up time, so we gathered our belongings and equipment and headed on up to Marissa's room in the George Washington to record our final sound. At that time, tragedy struck..

We lost our files! Or they never recorded? Or.. eh. I don't even know. But it was saddening. But we didn't let it get us down! Which was sweet. So we took a small break and after we collected our cool, went straight back to work. Totally blitzed our entire recording. This time we knew what to do so we recorded two or three times for each sound, but we perfected our mastery of sound and got work done! It was awesome!

It was my first time working with these ladies and while we ran into a turmoil, we totally made the situation turnabout and save the day! If anything, the actual production aside, I had a good time getting to know this crew of people. Twas a real productively bonding experience! I can't wait to work with these girls again and have yet another good time!

First blog post complete. Electronic Journalism, Yeah!

Foley Fun

2012-01-20T16:19:00.000-08:00

Here's my group recording foley today in the George Washington building.....Lots of good hard work and not-so-clean fun today guys!!! Can't wait to see everybody's in class:)

Hey Guys!

2012-01-12T17:43:00.000-08:00

Thanks for welcoming me to class! If you have any questions I am always available by email at ashleyg814@sbcglobal.net

Looking forward to helping out this semester :)

Bad News

2012-01-01T19:32:00.000-08:00

I recently got some bad news, it doesn't directly effect me but it kind of bothers me. A close friend of mine informed me that one of his friends hung himself the morning of the 31st. I knew him vaguely, worked on a set once with him, saw him around school a couple times, so i wasn't really close with him. It's sad though I mean I knew him but it's not like I was his best friend or anything. It's curious though how death can send shockwaves through your veins. When I heard my friend say that to me on Facebook I was strangely confused, I didn't believe him at first. Thats expected but the feelings afterward were strange. Even now for instance I'm getting a slight headache writing this I don't know why.

I'm not depressed just confused. I mean this is a very close friend of mine whose just lost someone. And I also know a lot of people who were very close to this person and maybe I'm just worried how it will effect them. It's a strange thing having known someone before they ended there life. It's a strange feeling really, but in the end you have to move on with your life and forget the past after all it's a new year. And if someone decides to end there life thats there mistake and it should never become someone else's.

Whats New

2011-12-30T19:51:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd keep up to date with whats been going on. Over the past month at my internship I've learned a lot about the documentary the production company is currently working on. It's called Motor City Rising, and follows a handful of people tyring to keep the art scene alive and thriving in Detroit. This past summer they filmed all around the city, and now their editing it. The whole doc is really interesting, I've been able to watch a bunch of the different interviews and the stories are great. A couple people they follow are a young man struck by cancer who raps and does standup comedy, the song writer/collaborator of Eminem, a deaf rapper, a professional graffiti artist, and a DJ. It shows how even though Detroit has a bad rep for being run down and dirty, their are a bunch of new different types of artist rising up and trying to build the city up again with art. I encourage everyone to check it out once it's completely finished because it really is amazing. I'll post more information about that when it comes closer though.

On a second note, this past week I went back home over break and saw a bunch of my friends from home, including my friend James who currently goes to Full Sail University in FL. The school has mixed reviews, I know, but my friend's been there since June 2010 and loves it. He graduates with a BFA in Film this March. Anyway, this past November for his final project him and some of classmates shot a 35mm short. It's called Mystic Rain, and was shot the school's studios and back lot. This January and into February their editing on Avid, when it's finished it should be around 15 to 20 minutes long. The whole shoot consisted of 4, 12 hour long days. My friend co-wrote and directed. The film is about two guys that head out to go clubbing but end up at gay club and don't even realize it. It's supposed to be campy, and from what my friend says should turn out really well. Below, I posted a couple pictures from the production and a vimeo time lapse. Enjoy!

Mystic Rain Production Time Lapse from Vimeo.

Let me entertain you.....

2011-12-20T21:14:00.000-08:00

So though I do watch little TV really, (however I’m thinking about going on a TV spree this winter break if I find the time and desire to… I really do wanna check out some shows like Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire, Mad Men…) but I have found a show I keep coming back to each week, and I even can’t decide if it’s good or just ludicrously entertaining… The new show created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck is called American Horror Story, shown on FX on Wednesdays at 10pm. The series is in its first season and is about a family from Boston, who move to California into a mansion that unbeknownst to them is undoubtedly haunted by its former owners. The Harmon family move to Los Angeles in hopes to reconcile with a muddy past and make a new start after the mother Vivian, has a miscarriage and the father Ben, has an affair with a much younger psychology student. The two have an intelligent and yet troubled teenage daughter, Violet, who becomes friendly with one of Ben’s psychiatry patients he sees in his home, Tate, who intrigues Violet with his solemn nature and attraction to darkness… Tate has a dark secret, like most of the characters that we meet, whether dead or alive, as we go on with the series. I don’t want to give anything else about the plot away, but I assure you, you’ll be in for a creepy and twisted viewing. The creators, Murphy and Falchuck, who had been working on more light hearted projects like Popular and Glee, wanted to do the opposite of what he worked on previously, deciding on a horror genre, its objective trying to really truly scare its viewers. With me, they proved successful- its approach of shots is carefully chosen, using great suspense like that of Hitchcock to provide the best freight within the scene... The costumes are appropriate with the characters’ time and personalities, the atmosphere is built as dark and ominous, and the characters’ emotions are profound, and while their actions may be absurd, they still prove to be all the same pretty easily sympathized for…. Nonetheless, I give sympathy quite easy in general I suppose, and so I also admit to its absolute outrageousness and its pieces of distinct camp. With the writing set aside though, the lighting is absolutely beautiful and the editing is really extraordinarily sharp. Honestly, the story could really go in any direction and I would still be excited to see the next episode just for the photographic viewing of the place and characters. I am indifferent how I feel about the series as a whole, though I do like that its influences derived from the older show, Dark Shadows( a great gothic soap opera my mom use to watch when she was young, shes made me watch the seasons with her but its wonderful, check it outttt- now Tim Burton is going to make a movie version I think)... So, while I believe American Horror Story could sort of flop at any moment, I’ll be prepared and ready and regardless, I’ll continue to watch.

Minor Update

2011-12-19T15:24:00.000-08:00

   Nothing much has really happened since last my blog post, but I guess I’ll just talk about a lot of the small stuff that’s happened. Finals were not that bad. I finished my paper for Film History a couple of weeks ago so I could focus on the interview. The finals for Literature and Writing and Editing were not that bad either, except for the written part in Editing. Some of the questions really caught me off guard. I also helped Mikey shoot his interview last week. He interviewed a Holocaust victim who travelled all over Europe in order to evade the Nazis. She was a sweet elderly woman. One of the main issues on set was that the boom mic in Mikey’s sound package did not work. Whenever we plugged it in, it would make loads of static. I’m not sure what was wrong with it, but I know it was specifically the boom mic that was messed up since the lavaliere worked perfectly fine. Despite that hiccup, the shoot was fine. As for my own interview, it’s pretty much done. I just need to tweak a couple of things. My cousin and I are trying to make a business grow, so please tell your friends, like us on FaceBook, subscribe on YouTube, and if you’re really interested order a custom longboard from us at AbballeBoards@gmail.com.
   As an update about my Hackintosh, it’s still running amazingly. The only really big problem I had was that Mac OS X Lion had trouble recognizing my wifi card, which was a genuine Apple-branded wifi card. That was super ridiculous considering Apple software should be able to recognize it’s own native hardware. Go figure. Anyway I ended up having to reformat my Mac partition on my hard drive and install Snow Leopard. Thanks, Cody, for letting me borrow your installation CD. Once it was installed, the wifi card worked out of the box. Another problem I had was installing one major update for Windows 7. For like a week, it was not installing. I kept getting an error that it could not find the boot drive for Windows 7. Then one day, out of the blue, it suddenly updated, hooray. I have not come across any other major issues since then. I always hear die-hard Apple fans saying that it’s not worth the time and effort of building a Hackintosh. They complain about “instability”. Well I, for one, can testify that it is VERY stable and powerful. You just have to know what you’re doing.
   I hope everyone has a good break. I’m going to be visiting one of my sisters down in New Orleans. She has to live down there for a year since getting a job at AmeriCorps. I hope to take a lot of nice pictures and videos while I’m there. It’s too bad my family has to drive there. It’ll take like 22 hours in total, but it should be fun nonetheless. Anyway can’t wait to see everybody next year!

interview problems and film school

2011-12-18T10:16:00.000-08:00

Class Trip to Panavision

I filmed my interview of my Grandma Margaret over thanksgiving break. Of course something would go wrong when doing so. First my fill light burned out before I started shooting. The production office did not give me any extra light bulbs. So I had to improvise with my grandma's desk lamp. The picture did not look as good as it did before but it came out okay. My friends who watched it said the lighting was great. I'm glad it came out well considering I guessed on the entire thing. They didn't give me a light meter either so I would adjust the lights based on how it looked on camera. Another problem I had was during the middle of the interview, my sister (who was doing sound) said there was something wrong with the sound. I put the headphones on and I can hear the sound going in and out. So we grab my grandma's battery tester and sure enough one of the batteries in the sound thing was dead. So i grabbed a battery from the microphone and replaced it. The sound worked well after that. I decided to use the little mic and attach that to my grandma instead of using the boom mic. She was just sitting there the whole time so there was no point having someone stand over her with a mic the entire time. Thank goodness Chris showed us how to set up that mic the week before. I think my interview came out pretty well considering I was basically alone. My dad and sister were there to help but they didn't know that much to be effective.
That brings me to my reason for questioning my place at SVA. When Chris assigned us our project next semester I was scared shitless (pardon my french). We basically have to do everything ourselves. I have been alone on all my individual project and they have come out well out of pure luck. I had no idea what I was doing on either of them. I almost had a panic attack because I was worried that my film would come out bad on my first individual project. I feel like on this next project I will somehow end up alone. I am so scared. This has made me consider not continuing film school. I think I will finish this semester and seriously consider what I want to do. I wish I could jump right into directing. It would be so much easier and less stressful if I could find a script, have someone produce it and put a crew together for me. Editing things make me wanna bang my head against a wall at times. I can put something together that's not bad but I'm not the best editor out there. The feeling of being alone on projects and having no idea what to do really worries me. I don't wanna get by purely guessing. That is not the way to make a good movie. Sure it comes out good. I don't feel super good about my work that I have magically made well. I need to talk to my parents about my future at SVA. I am living my dream but my dream may not be right for me.
I'd feel so stupid if I met someone, told them I am a film major, and they ask me about a classic movie that I have ever seem. Everyone (even people that aren't film majors) have seen more movies than me. This also makes me wonder if I am good enough to become a director.

Experimental Experiment Ex Ex Ex

2011-12-12T16:50:00.000-08:00

My eternally gracious father, not jesus, my actual dad, sent up his GoPro HD camera from Florida. He feels the product is not easily navigable, thus leaving him flustered trying to shoot he and his friends while surfing. Agreed, this product is far from Pro-sumer level and many consider it a gimmick, but it really offers so much more than it's credited. The ability to try out new movements with this camera is my favorite thing about it. It can be attached almost anywhere and its shockproof case provides peace of mind during any kind of action oriented shoot. I recently put this camera at the bottom of a pot in my dorm and tried about 50 ways of pouring different liquids above the lens. My arms, face and hands constantly kept getting in the shot, but I finally figured it out. I positioned the lens so that it could capture enough light to show the selected liquids dispersing throughout the water. This is the first time I've ever wanted to show people something I've shot. It looks beautiful. I captured it in 60 fps and slowed it down in post. I do not think I could be happier with the end result. I'm debating on trying different colored juices or if I should just do it in post. I think really pulpy orange juice is going to look dope. Here's a screen shot from the titles in my interview project. All in all, for 200 bux I don't think you can find something more exciting to shoot with than a go pro.

Slutty Robots and Evil Dinosaurs

2011-12-11T13:12:00.000-08:00

So, I did not get into Sundanceyland, however, I did get a very encouraging rejection letter, basically saying my film was definitely considered and that they like my work and suggested I try again next year-which is exactly what I'm gonna do. Cause like, there where flaws to my film, there was a lot of cool imagery and editing and it was a cool film over all and I'm quite proud of it considering it was just me and my friend, and I did all the work, and it turned out as well as it did-plus it was just an amazing learning experience. Anyways, I got my project approved for Kickstarter.com (thanks teach for the info!) so hopefully I can raise enough money to rent out a place for the summer to shoot the flick-cause this time I have an actual crew, with more than just two actors: and I've learned so much from my last film, and the short I'm working on now for Cannes, I'm just really excited to shoot this mutha fucka, and get into the short film section of sundance next year. It will happen, I will make it happen, and if it doesn't, then I'll just use my knowledge I gained from these next two films, and try all over again. AHHahahahahah. Because life is sssooo short and I don't want to waste it doing shit I don't care about. So, my short for Cannes, the thing I'm working on now, is starting to come together fantastically. I've shot a bunch of shit over the semester, but none of it was good enough, so I'm just taking the best shots and putting them in the start of the film as thid flash of images, like a montage of pretty images leading up to the start of the film, which I'm shooting tonight. Basically, it's like this kid at an art school, freaking out because he feels adult hood lingering and he's not where he wants to be and he hates his school and where he is, and he's just freaking out-and he has a kind of brake down and talks to his friend about it, and his friend and only half listens. Then it goes into this other story with this girl on christmas brake excited cause this kid is coming home, and she's been waiting all semester just to see him, and then you find out it's the kid from the first story and it seems like they're gonna meet and be happy, but when she reveals her feelings he's like,"oh sorry, there's someone else-I thought we're just friends, Bla bla bla." Then it ends on a kind of happy note, with the two main male leads (one of whom is a tranny) getting drunk and letting loose a little. It's nice. It should be done soon, and it looks real cool, and I'm excited to finish it and post it and see what comes back. Also, I'm gonna post the previous film I made, the one that almost got into Sundance, to some easier competitions, just cause I feel like it could definitely get in, and that would be something.

Aidaannnn

Shame

2011-12-10T19:06:00.000-08:00

So last Thursday after class I saw the Steve McQueen Movie "Shame". Now it was an amazing movie but one warning. Don't bring your parents with you cause its gets pretty hot and nuts near the end. The movie is the story of a sex addicted man named Brandon and how his perfectly ordered life is turned upside down when his sister comes and lives with him. The most beautiful scene of the movie is when Brandon's sister sings a slow jazz version of New York, New York. Which is the theme for the second trailer for the film. A lot of these scenes are done in one take and one camera angle. So on the technical end not all that impressive but in the form of story and acting out of this world. Seeing the fact that Brandon is a sex addict you can just imagine some of the scenes that were in this movie and why it was rated NC-17. As I said before not a movie to see with grandma and grandpa (might actually get them killed if you do). But other than that the acting is incredible. And the emotion and feeling of the movie is one that has heart to it.

The Right Way to Do a Trailer

2011-12-07T23:20:00.000-08:00

I'm going to see this movie tomorrow. Watch this trailer and tell me I should not be excited.

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi404332057/

2011-12-06T16:27:00.000-08:00

"The Roommate Connection" was a 6 page script written and directed by my friend, Sven. It tells the scandalous love story of a women and her roommate, Tim. The women is involved with another man but when he leaves town she finds out her true feelings for Tim which leads to a messy ending!

On December 4th I helped Sven shoot "The Roommate Connection". We shot on location from 11am-12:30am. We had a bunch of fun but it was definitely a long day. We had a cast and crew of 8 people. Sven wrote and directed, Cameron was our DP, Lorenzo did sound, I helped with lighting and stared in the film as well as Patrick and Vanessa, Paige helped out with make up and blood, and Emily doubled as our script supervisor and production assistant.

The film was shot in our friends apartment in the West Village. We used the Sony HMC-150 along with some basic three point lighting. We used a boom for all the dialogue and we even got a wheelchair from the production office to utilize as a dolly. Prior to shooting we sat down for a table read in the living room. We read through the script together and planned our shooting schedule for the day. At around 12:30am we wrapped the final scenes. I'm expecting Sven to finish the edit within the next two weeks. Look out!

Below is a still of me acting in the film.

MLG Providence 2011 :: Press Shoot

2011-12-04T20:42:00.000-08:00

On November 18th Major League Gaming held the 7th Major League Gaming National Championships in Providence RI. The event lasted three days and thousands of spectators and players traveled from 27 different countries to participate and watch the event.

I do video/motion graphics work for a company called Quantic Gaming. They sponsor several professional gaming teams. Ranging from Call of Duty, Battlefield, League of Legends and Starcraft 2. A few of the teams they sponsor were competing at MLG Providence so Quantic brought me along to provide a media presence.

It was nonstop work for the entire weekend. I got too Providence around 12pm on Friday, I had barely any time to stop at the hotel before I was getting my gear together too shoot. On Friday I decided to go with just my 7D a couple lenses and my rode video mic that I use for the 7D. I started off by shooting a meet and greet event that Quantic held for one of the Starcraft 2 teams they sponsor. It was organized just a day in advance and more than 300 people lined up to sign autographs and meet with the Korean SC2 players.

After about an hour and a half of shooting the meet and greet we packed up and walked over to the actual event.

When I got there I was handed a press pass because of my association with Quantic. This gave me access to the press room where you were able to sit down with your computer, import footage, update social media sites, on site edit and upload your videos. I met a bunch of people from the industry up there who have been doing this much longer than I had. I saw quite a few really awesome DSLR rigs that seemed to work really well.

Once I had taken the time to visit the press room and do a bit of importing I made sure my batteries were charged and my cards were empty before I made my way down to the floor.

It was really overwhelming being among thousands of other people trying to figure out what was most important to cover at any given time. Of course my main focus was too cover anyone playing under the Quantic Gaming tag. Even narrowing it down that way was really hard to manage because Quantic was supporting three separate call of duty teams, a Korean Starcraft 2 team as well as an American Starcraft 2 team. So while I'd be focusing on trying to get an interview or highlights of one person, someone else might be on the other side of the floor playing the game of their life.

So Friday I began shooting around 2:00 pm and didn't stop moving until 1:30 AM and even then that was only to go back to the hotel room and start trying to edit videos.
I was able to get 3 videos done and uploaded by Saturday morning.

Saturday I went to the event with much better knowledge of what to expect so this time I brought along with me the Panasonic HMC-150 and a sound kit in addition too the 7D. The 7D was used for most of my B roll footage because the event was so dark that it seemed to be the better option for just run and gun shooting. The HMC-150 was used for interviews with fans and players. I had a small issue with the audio, one time I over recorded it a bit and got a lot of crackling. Other than that it worked out pretty great. I was able to effectively cover the event the best that one man could.

By the time the event was over I was pretty shot. I didn't sleep until 5 AM on sunday and then got up at 6:30AM to catch the Amtrak back to NYC.

It was a great experience and really helped show me what I need to improve on when it comes to quick and effective shooting.

Here is the video I made for the fan meet and greet.

From Interview to Web Series

2011-11-30T23:12:00.000-08:00

So over thanksgiving break I completed the shooting of my interview. Only one problem, in my opinion it's really quite good and a I have a hell of a lot of footage that I still want to use. So I decided to make a Web series off all of the footage I have. The interview itself focused on My Uncle Steig who served in Vietnam. My crew was beyond amazing in that after i got the footage back I really didn't have to do much to make it look good. I got my crew simply by trading 100 feet of film for a couple of great cinematographers. My web series will be called "When My Uncle Went To War". I still need to work things out with the footage I have now but after it is shown in class I will start to put up the web series on youtube. I would put it on Vimeo however my footage is in GB not MB. I will probably post the link on here to any who want to check it out.

21 Jumpstreet

2011-11-30T21:21:00.000-08:00

Okay, also maybe I can share in writing my agitation for the fact that there will be a 21 Jump Street movie... The 1980's show was precious and wonderful and there is no need to grab back and remake it into the big screen just yet I believe... I think maybe it would even be a good idea to try that show again in a few years possibly, but either way big screen or TV, although the concept of young looking cops going undercover as high school students sounds exciting, it will also be a wonderfully timeless objective situation where I think a movie being let out is just a few years too soon. I am going to see it anyway obviously, but my hopes are set rather low…. Maybe Johnny Depp will make a cameo though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLoKtb4c4W0

Releases March 16, 2012.

Cameraman.

2011-11-30T21:14:00.001-08:00

So recently I watched this really amazing documentary I think you guys might enjoy, (especially those thinking about going into cinematography!!) called Cameraman, the Life and Work of Jack Cardiff. The documentary is focused on the late great British cinematographer Jack Cardiff, who tells us about how he started way back in 1918 as a kid actor at the age of five in silent films… He first worked on movies as a camera assistant and “clapper boy,” clapping the slate between each take…He then made his way to handling the camera, being made camera operator, eventually graduating to director of photography. He is particularly associated with The Archers production company, the dynamic partnership of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger who made a great contribution to British cinema with a number of original stories and finished films through the 1940s and 1950s. The Archers did this cool trademark where when they finished a film and the archer’s bullseye appeared on screen before showing the film, if the bullseye landed in the middle, it meant that Powell and Pressburger were happy with their work…sometimes though it would miss the bullseye indicating their unfinished feelings… Now Cardiff is one of the most recognizable and celebrated cinematographers of all time and has worked with some of the greatest minds in the history of filmmaking. He passed away at ninety-four years old of natural causes and worked on movies until at least ninety-two years old… This guy did what he loved basically his entire life and almost pretty much worked until the day he died doing it too- it’s pretty incredible... Cardiff was the first ever to shoot a film in Technicolor in Britain, (and maybe in Europe?) on the 1937 production of Wings of the Morning. In the documentary, Cardiff reveals how he uses great painters’ use of light in art as an influence in shooting his film... When watching his work, you can really see the reflection of that influence- he creates striking shots carefully using light and shadow that certainly draw techniques of expressionism and baroque art to mind... The Archers’ and Cardiff’s film, Black Narcissus literally looks like a Vermeer painting- its beautifully written story and tone set for each shot will blow you away! Scorsese adds notable comments throughout the documentary about how he has been influenced by Cardiff and the Archer productions... He describes watching the films as the feeling of “being bathed in color,” and I definitely would agree with him in that fact. Cardiff is honored for his passion and work, as he should be, for it is quite an experience to watch his films…check it out!:)

(Black Narcissus- 1947)

Interview and Internship

2011-11-30T20:16:00.000-08:00

Over break I was able to take out one of the cameras, and bring it back to Maine with me for my individual interview. Although bringing it on the plane was kind of a burden, I was lucky I didn't have to haul the lighting and sound stuff with me too. For the project I decided to interview my dad, which isn't the most creative or exciting choice I could of made but he talks about a lot of interesting stuff since he's a camera guy. This is also where I lucked out since I was able to use all his lighting and sound equipment back home. Overall, I think it went really well. I set up the 3 point lighting, in my living room with no problem, and was able to breeze through B role and the actual interview which is pretty rare for me. The picture isn't the best quality, but hey it gives a taste to what the set up looked like and how weird my dad is. Also, for once I didn't have any problems, even when I was importing the footage onto my computer and drive. So now I'm hoping post will work out just as smoothy.

For my second part of my post, I also recently just started an internship. The company's name is Working Pictures and is based out of NYC. The production company basically works on everything, documentaries, commercials, TV, feature films...they shoot, pitch ideas, write, and edit. So far my position there has entitled mostly running errands, proof reading some scripts, and transcribing a lot of quicktimes. Nothing really exciting, I know. But since all their really working on currently is editing a documentary they just finished filming called Motor City Rising, theres not much for me to do. However, once they start filming again in January, I get to go on a lot of their shoots and help out, along with also getting to do some post work myself. They're also really chill and I get to pick my hours and what days I can come in which makes it a lot easier to balance with school and a job. So yeah, It's pretty awesome.

A few brief Reviews and a Quick Musical announcement

2011-11-30T19:38:00.001-08:00

I watched a few movies this month, two that stuck out to me were Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds”, and “True Romance”. I also finished the third season of “Breaking Bad”. Let me begin with my analysis of Hitchcock and his directing. The opening of “The Birds to me was incredible, within the first 30 seconds of the movie we learn so much. He reveals the location (very cleverly might I add, He displays a poster saying “ Los Angeles” to show were we are), He then reveals a disturbance with the birds prior to any major problem with them. Im not going to narrate the entire movie but what i will say is that he is defiantly a visual genius and the audience fully understands what they are seeing at every given moment in that film. Second I suppose Ill discuss “True Romance”, which I’m sure all of you have seen, and if you haven't you should rent it as soon as you can. It was an incredible movie, and I don’t understand how I hadn't seen it before this weekend. If I learned anything its that Quentin Tarrentino should write more movies. I mean don't get me wrong, he’s certainly a good director or at least an original one, but after watching that movie I think he should write more movies that he doesn't also direct. A lot of his movies aren't my taste. He definitely has a unique very signature style but it’s an acquired taste that I don’t think Im very fond of. Onto “Breaking Bad”, this show has had me captivated since the 1st episode, and at first I thought, Im not into this, but it wasn't until the ending left me hanging that I realized I was addicted to this show....thats a pun because the show is about meth, in case nobody got that. This show has incredible cinematographers, amazing writers, and fantastic actors. If there is one thing I can specifically point out is that the lighting is usually really well done all of the time, and recurring locations always have a certain look to them. The show also has a very specific almost aquamarine filter over it for the opening of the show, which is usually a premonition of later episodes. The lighting also shifts for the two separate life our main character leads, for instance the lighting is higher key when the situation isn't as risky, as our character shifts lives the light begins to start getting lower key. The set design and well planed camera angles are also signature to this show. They play around with extreme close ups as well as angles and focus, making it interesting to watch, though on occasion they manage to over do it.

A QUICK ANNOUNCEMENT!!! I am also offering to do the musical scoring to anybody who needs music in their films, I’ll be putting up adds around the school to further inform people about this. If your ever interested in having music written specifically for your shorts or even features, inform me and Ill be glad to help!

Interview, Hackintosh, and Lytro

2011-11-30T10:47:00.000-08:00

So a couple of weeks ago I shot my individual project. It went pretty well. I interviewed my cousin Robert who I help build custom, handmade longboards. We call our small company “Abballe Boards”. I wanted to use this interview as a way to help market ourselves so we can sell more of our boards. I used my Canon T2i for the B-roll and I must say, under great lighting, it produces an amazing image! My jaw dropped at how close the quality came to the HMC-150, and at times, I thought even surpassed it. The only problem on set was that I accidently stopped recording on the T2i when we did the interview a second time, so I’m going to have to be careful when editing. Here’s a short comparison of the two. It may not be accurate considering they are different angles but, it’s still nice to see.

Another endeavor I undertook last week was to build a “Hackintosh”. It is a custom built computer that can run both the Mac OS and the Windows OS and yet still be faster and less expensive than any prebuilt Mac Pro out right now. I saved up some money over the summer and I was finally able to build it. I have both Lion and Windows 7 installed and dual booting right now so I don’t have to worry about OS-specific software. The total build, including monitor, keyboard, etc., cost $1600. That’s almost half of the starting price for a quad-core Mac Pro, and it has better specs. The only downside is that you have to be somewhat tech savvy and it can be unstable if done wrong. It requires some very specific parts, brands, and models to run correctly too. However there are many guides and templates to help you choose what to buy and how to install the software. The best website I found to help build this was tonymacx86.com. His guides are great and the recommended parts he offers are the best for the price. There’s also an online forum on his site where people can help each other solve any issues that may arise when building.

Something else I discovered in the past month was a point and shoot camera that allows you to take a picture and adjust the focus afterward. That is crazy. It’s called the Lytro. I don’t how this technology works and I’ve never even tried using it, but I think it’s truly amazing especially for a consumer product. Its starting price is $399 and can be ordered off their site lytro.com. That may seem a little expensive for a point and shoot, but that depends how much you feel the focus feature is worth. I guess over time, once it develops more and other camera companies pick up on it, the cost will go down too. There are some gallery examples on their website to show off the focusing feature as well. I think they are also developing a DSLR version of this, so I can’t wait to see how that will turn out.

'11 Demo Reel

2011-11-22T21:06:00.000-08:00

The 2011 Demo Reel is a montage featuring a collection of work i've produced this year. The song is a track from the artist Banobo. This was shot in California, Texas, and New York. Most of the footage was shot with a Canon T2i. We used a bunch of different Canon lenses. Some other footage came from the Panasonic HMC-150. This footage is an example of work I've written, directed, acted in, scored, and post produced. I edited this video with Final Cut Pro X. I used footage from 9 other short films I produced this year. All motion graphics were done using Photoshop and Motion. This sequence is key framed, retimed, and color corrected. I've had the pleasure of working with a bunch of wonder and talented people from all three states. Without their help this demo would not exist. I'm looking forward to the 2012 demo reel. New York has a bunch of opportunities and I believe this next year will be a good year for film.

I've found my past time

2011-11-16T19:25:00.000-08:00

Time lapses are probably the greatest things ever invented. Just going out, finding a beautiful shot, setting the camera up and hanging out with a friend is one of those things you have to do in life. It's so relaxing. Watching the shot afterwards is very rewarding. Even if you end up not using the footage it's a great experience. If you like people watching, you'll love time lapses. Time lapses are also great because all you need is a camera and a friend or two to pass the time with. I definitely recommend finding a time lapse buddy and going out to shoot even if it's just for fun.

The 3rd Olsen Twin.

2011-11-11T13:32:00.000-08:00

I like being confused when I watch movies. Not in the sense that I favor a poorly developed plot, but I like when characters are shrouded in mystery without too much exposition. Subtle shit means more to me than thousands of explosions and Ryan Gosling effortlessly smashing every skull he comes across in the duration of 2 hours. That's why Martha Marcy May Marlene now holds a special place in my heart. If you haven't tapped into the blogosphere lately, you may be unaware that the other Olsen, Elizabeth, stars in this film. She does a wonderful job. She portrays a woman that has just fled a cult and seeks refuge at her affluent sister's lake house. Her descent into insanity is gradual, uncomfortable, and occasionally hilariously deadpan. She attempts to adapt back to societal conventions, but keeps angering the people she is living with and sincerely cannot understand what she's doing wrong. Martha can't shake the strange, subconscious mind trip bestowed on her by the cult leader, Max (John Hawkes/Teardrop from "Winter's Bone"). I've done a horrible job of describing this film, but just go see it. It's disturbing, but not gruesome. The last shot gave me the most intense goosebumps I've had in a theatre since 2Fast 2Furious (JK). See it.

Film Camera Cons

2011-11-04T09:24:00.000-07:00

When this happens to you 3 times in 1 shoot, you kind of give up on it, and thats what i did. Film cameras are cool in all but its just way to expensive to use. Thank god for digital and how much cheaper it is to use. unfortunately i cant pass this class without handing in the individual project. So i guess ill give film one more shot and hopefully it turns out to be a good shoot.

Cameras, Rigs, and Dog Attacks!

2011-11-03T05:30:00.000-07:00

(The images shown have nothing to do with each other. The first is a camera rig I made, the second is a picture of our crew project. )

The first image is a steady cam rig. Its constructed from PVC pipe and adapters. It works really well considering its a DIY rig. It gives enough room for the camera inside, which sits on top of the T adapter and it screws into a standard 1/4-20 tripod screw. I shoot most of my stuff with a small DSLR (Olympus EPL-1); which is a great camera, if you can afford a good lens! Unfortunately I cant so it remains a decent camera in my opinion. The rig was built so that the person operating the camera had a great control over the settings and the focus. He could keep both his hands on the rig and at the same time, the camera is close enough for him to be able to change any settings with the stretch of his fingers.

The second picture is of Mia shooting with our *DIGITAL* camera. We went on location and the cost of our project was .......wait for it $0.00! Can you beleive it? Last time we went on set it cost us a total of $120.00 for only 4 min of footage, 2 roles in which were completely destroyed due to minor......speed bumps. We shot a total of 25 min on tuesday and I beleive on Wednesday we got up to 40 min or something around there. We also witnessed a dog attack in one of the dog parks we filmed at, a small teacup Yorkie attacked one of the owners that were walking their K-9 in this park. She shook! She twirled! She Screeched! But the only thing that unlocked this little pooches jaws from her pierced leg was a small old woman; who resembled a kneeler elf, she then smacked the small dog with what appeared to be a beating stick. After that incident we moved a long to filming buildings and such . It was a long day on the set. I felt dirty and smelly when I got home that night. So much pee, so much poop! sooooosoooosooooo many dogs.

Antartica

2011-11-02T10:27:00.000-07:00

So, yeah. Anyways, like, I've been working on this film for the short film section of cannes, and it's turning out pretty darn swell. It's cool cause like it's just a bunch of vignettes that mildly connect. I mean, it's not like a linear plot-because I don't have the actors or just people for it. So, instead, I just film ideas that pop into my head, and they're just like different stories, but not really stories, ore like experiences. It's kind of like my version of Gummo, and all I'm really trying to do is get beautiful shots of things and create a believable reality made up of actual experiences and ones I just imagine or whatever. At any rate, it looks really cool, and that's all that really matters to me; and it's good practice. Here's a picture from it.

This is from a scene in the movie, I'm pretty sure.It's like this girl walking through the underbelly of the Georgio Washington, which is just a cool place to film. Most of the movie takes place in the dorms, since it's easiest that, and a lot of my experiences have happened in here? I'd like to shoot some stuff outside though, it's be cool, I probably will. Just for variance. But then again, I filmed ssssoooooo much of my last film outside, Id like to get a lot of practice filming inside, so I'll probably just stick with that. Arnyways, speaking of my other flick, I hope-and pray everynight, that it will get into Sundance. I need to get in there like a fat kids needs..... something. Anyways, you should root for me because I'm a good guy?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaidan

things i've never seen

2011-10-31T14:01:00.000-07:00

Filming at Union Square Park

Last Location for Filming

These Pictures are from my individual project, Finding Your Way.

I realized something a few weeks ago. The only super hero movie I have seen is the Dark Knight. Which is a wonderful movie. It is probably one of my favorites. The reason I have not seen any other super hero/comic book movie is because I used to think they were stupid boy movies. Since I have been at SVA my opinions on certain types of movies have changed. I really need to see the old Batman movies. I may as well watch some other super hero movies as well. X Men, Spiderman, Captain America etc. Another genre of movies I would never have dared to watch is the Star Wars series. I was completely against them my entire life because I had nerdy neighbors that would dress up as star wars characters and have light saber fights all the time. So I was not going to watch anything associated with that freakiness. But now ever since we watched "the worst star wars movie" in editing class I am curious to watch the movies from oldest to newest just so I can know the story. I can't take those weird space creature characters though. I don't think I'll be hooked. Something that has been occurring a lot since i've gotten here is people constantly pointing out that I have not seen many movies for a film major. All I have to say is that I can't do anything about that now and that I am watching movies that I have never seen before every week. I was picky before I guess. Oh well. I love movies. People need to stop hating.

Green Screen DIY

2011-10-30T16:28:00.000-07:00

The pictures above are from a few weeks back when I was taking pictures of a product designed to make using console controllers easier. The setup in these photos didn't quite workout. I didn't have a green screen handy when I first started shooting so I went across to the good will next store and bought a green dress. I took some scissors cut it down the middle and tacked it up on the wall. Overall it worked very well as a green screen once I got the lighting down.

Initially I was shooting video and had the controller strung up with fishing line, I intended to take the line out in post. After a few tests I decided to instead by a lazy susan and take around 30 pictures as I spun the lazy susan a very small amount each time. It worked out perfectly for what me and my partner planned on doing.

What's your favorite scary movie????

2011-10-30T15:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, like a lot of normal or maybe more dark hearted persons, I am insanely in love with scary movies. I’ve always had a great love for horror and have always loved the feeling of being frightened. When I was younger, I wanted to slay vampires like Kristy Swanson and was fascinated with the history and myths of witches, vampires, ghosts, and magic… I believe in the devil and am terrified by ideas like The Exorcist, but I am also scared by more simple ideas- for instance in life, one my biggest fears has always been birds. I think they are beautiful animals for they are incredibly smart and some of the oldest creatures in this world, but its been a fear of mine for a long time…my mother used to own this evil parrot, it freaks me out they fly (they really have got us humans on that one), had some interesting experiences in the past, and they happen to be everywhere- you will probably see me at some point or another this year duck or cringe in the street due to some poor pigeon’s passing for it is the single thing I think that I would change about New York City…but anyway, my mother used to watch movies with me all the time and because I had an older brother who did not censor what he watched around me and I was a pretty tough-cookie I guess, she thought maybe it would be okay to show me Hitchcock’s The Birds at a fairly young age. I will not disclose anything about the film because if you’ve not seen it yet, well then you MUST as soon as you’re done reading this because it really is wonderful, but to this day a particular scene will forever stick in my mind. I watched it again recently for the first time in a very long time and it is amazing, but still gives me the creeps…

Anyhooo, we all know Halloween is just the absolute BEST time to watch scary movies. Whether it be a good ghost tale, a witch movie usually involving sisters and worship of Satan, old sexy vampires, out of this world visitors, man’s crazy creations, psychopathic slashers, or the classic teenage horror flick, I am totally down for it all- though some are definitely more noteworthy than others, every single shape they may come in, I believe are pretty much worth watching at least once. My favorite two movies to watch around Halloween though are (note: they are NOT the scariest, I have my scary favorites, but these two are just my ultimate favorites) Wes Craven’s Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream. I think the teenage horror flick is one of my favorite subgenres of horror not only because I am a product of the nineties, but because it presents something spooky out of average adolecenthood- a time in a person’s life that is already very unsettling internally, without psychos and homicide, and yet also a time when one should feel really comfortable within their surroundings and what they know because they are on their way to approaching adulthood before long. We also live in a time when it should be natural to use what we’ve seen in the past to save us from future events, should any horrific objective situation occur… That is why l I love when the teenage horror flicks revert back to previous horror flicks, the characters reconstructing and analyzing the structure of scary movies, within the scary movie itself. Wes Craven is widely known for this, and I was especially impressed with the new Scream, Scream IV. I won’t give anything away at all, but it’s as wild and pleasing as the first- it is just so much great fun, GO SEE IT WHILE THE GREAT SPOOKY SEASON IS STILL HERE!!!

So, while I was re-watching all the Scream movies last night in the spirit of the holiday and was laughing pretty hard at the second one (I have to say its not too bad for a sequel at all), Randy, the movie geek who sort of advises the gang on how to get out alive throughout the films, makes up rules on how to survive a horror movie. So, I thought I would share a few tips from my last night’s Screamathon, some of Randy’s good spirit and advice:

HORROR MOVIE SURVIVAL RULES- SCREAM I, II, III, & IV

What we can learn from Scream…

1. YOU CAN NEVER HAVE SEX- sex equals death

2. YOU CAN NEVER DRINK OR DO DRUGS-the sin factor

3. DO NOT SAY, “I’LL BE RIGHT BACK” because you won’t be…

4. WATCH OUT FOR THE PARTY- guaranteed setting for third act blood bath

SEQUEL RULES- Scream II

1. THE BODY COUNT IS ALWAYS BIGGER

2. DEATH SCENES ARE MUCH MORE ELABORATE- MORE BLOOD MORE GORE, MORE POPCORN

TRILOGY RULES- Scream III

1. SUPER KILLER- the killer will be much more difficult to kill

2. ANYONE CAN DIE- third-act, meaning important characters, everyone is up for grabs

3. THE PAST WILL COME BACK TO BITE YOU IN THE ASS

FOURTH FILM, SCREAMAKE- SCREAM IV

1. THE UNEXPECTED IS THE NEW CLICHÉ’

2. AND VIRGINS CAN DIE NOW

3. MODERN AUDIENCES GET SAVY TO THE RULES OF THE ORIGINAL, SO REVERSALS BECOME THE NEW STANDARD

4. NEW FRONTIER, MAKE ART AS IMMORTAL AS YOU- THE INTERNET

So I hope everyone had a safe and spooky weekend!!! Writing this has only got me into the mood to watch some more teenage horror...now I'm gonna go turn on some I Know What You Did Last Summer :)

My Reel

2011-10-30T11:08:00.000-07:00

The video above is a short compilation of work I've done over the past half year. The work comes from a few different short films and Documentary work I've done in the past and a lot of the motion graphics is from some of my freelance editing/visual effects work. Any of the shots that you see me in were shot by my buddy Zach Walsky, he also helped me shoot the dolly shots that are midway through the video. All of the video here was shot on a 7D, the motion graphics was done in After Effects CS5.

The dolly we shot with was extremely simple. It was two long pieces of pvc pipe, a single piece of plywood with two triangular pieces of metal both having skate board wheels attached evenly down their sides. It wasn't perfect, but for a quick trip to home depot I was satisfied. I've got some pictures of it which I can't seem to find at the moment but I will post them eventually.

First PA experience

2011-10-30T09:05:00.000-07:00

Over the summer I was able to PA on an episode of Travel Channel's Man Vs. Food Nation. My dad is a professional cameraman, so I was able to join him on the shoot. (Hes the guy with the camera on the bottom right) The episode was shot in a couple restaurants in the Portsmouth, NH area. I joined the crew on 2 of the 5 shooting days, and had many different jobs. On the first day I mainly helped setting up with lights and getting release forms signed. Then when it came time to actually shoot the challenge scene (the one in the picture) I got to stand with the director and be his assistant, which was a really exciting experience. The second day I went out with my dad and the sound guy and basically just went around getting B role of all the places they shot at. I even got to set up some of the shots. It was a really fun time, and I learned a lot. I had my name featured in the credits and was able to do some networking. I also discovered the perks of lunch break, and if your on the crew your food all day is paid for, definitely a plus.

When the walls go up around you what do you do?

2011-10-29T22:18:00.000-07:00

People come to SVA with stars in there eyes and stardust clogged up in there ears. It's a great place don't get me wrong the teachers are fantastic the knowledge and experience you gain here helps you long in the future. Now I knew when I came to this school it would not be flowers I'd be walking on all the way. And that some of those flowers would be concealing broken glass. But knowing and experiencing are two different things. When you know something you pretend your experiencing it. But when the thing you were pretending about actually happens its a whole other ballgame cause this is the point were make believe becomes reality and reality as well all know is a bitch.

But what do you do when it feels like the whole world is tearing you apart piece by piece. Well what I do is I write, some of the best stories are the most simplest and are also based on the writers actual life experiences. It's not always clear but most stories are formed in the heart and soul before they reach the mind. Now for all of you who know me you've probably noticed my attraction to things that most people would find horrifying and depraved. It's interesting that I can watch a young man or woman being torn apart by some infamous slasher killer while eating a hamburger and not have a problem while during my childhood years I was afraid of some of the simplest elements of horror. As I can vividly recall I walked out of some Disney movie because the film featured vampires and at that time I had an extreme phobia for things of that nature. There was even a time when I watched an episode of CSI and was so horrified by it that a swore I would never watch it again. Even though only a few years later I would become an avid fan and watch the crime drama almost religiously. What changed? Why did my fear of horror simply melt away? Well though I will not bore you with some diatribe of my personal life lets just say childhood is a right of passage it's a miracle if you can make it through with receiving a few scars.

But those scars make me what I am. They me a writer that wants to show the world a darker version of the world. Because we all are very much intrigued by the things that we don't understand. Because when people put there heart, soul, and mind into a story no critic can shoot that person down.

Bollywood

2011-10-25T13:27:00.000-07:00

I am from India. To be more specific, Mumbai. Mumbai is the home in Indian Cinema also known as Bollywood. Although I spoke marathi as a child, over the years, I learned hindi by watching Bollywood films. I learned to understand and appreciate them for their unique style of story telling.

I'll admit, hindi films and I have a love/hate relationship. Lately, it is hard for me a find an Indian movie that I truly love. Most of them I find to be over dramatic, redundant and unnecessary. Regardless, when a Bollywood movie is good, it is really good. There are a bunch of movies that I love enough to watch many times.

Many of you may already know the Bollywood movies are like musicals. The first aspect that gets recognized is its soundtrack. I may not love a hindi movie, but most of the time, I love the soundtrack. The difference between a Bollywood movie and a musical is just that the songs in the movie basically never have anything to do with the story.

For the sake of this blog, I'm going to talk about one of my newest favorite Indian movies, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (meaning you don't get to live life twice). This movie follows the story of three friends on a road trip through Spain. Each of the tree chooses an extreme sport that the other two must try as well. This movie gives the viewer a wonderful feeling that it gives me. Each song is catchy and each character is lovable. Arjun, the workaholic, Imran, the prankster, and Kabir the sweetheart, all click well and make the story more entertaining. This movie is a comedy and keeps audiences laughing.

Everyone should give Indian films a chance. They should also get some suggestions before choosing where to start. I would love to recommend some wonderful Indian movies and I hope that everyone watches Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara because as I type this, I really want to go watch it again...

2011-10-25T12:38:00.000-07:00

This weekend I key gripped for Gold Street Collective, a group of SVA juniors who started there own company. We shot with the Fs-100 and Cannon 7D. We used Zeiss prime lenses and we had a Glidecam Steadycam. The shoot was for Savvy Styles.

The Cut I Wish I Had In Class

2011-10-24T14:01:00.000-07:00

Here's the complete version of my individual project.

Paper Lantern Lighting

2011-10-20T16:13:00.000-07:00

Fate's Decision

2011-10-19T13:31:00.000-07:00

My Individual Project for my production class.

A Series of b&w 16mm Films by Cody Kussoy

2011-10-17T09:23:00.000-07:00

During the month of October ’11 I shot three films. All three of these films were shot on an Arri-S 16mm film camera in New York City. I had each of film developed at Pac Lab in the lower east side of manhattan. Pac Lab has a friendly staff and they offer discounts to students. After each reel was developed I transferred the film to a mini dv tape at the school. I then imported the footage using the tape deck at school and copied the video files to my external hard drive. I was stoked to take the footage home and chopped it up in Final Cut Pro 10! I obtained the music for all these films off of this awesome royalty free website you can find by clicking here. I compressed each video in compressor 4 then uploaded each video to my Vimeo and YouTube page. Feel free to share with others, laugh historically and say “I could have made better films with my iPhone 4s, dude. It shoots in 1080p!”, be entertained by three short b&w films, or watch half the video then press command-Q. Enjoy!

2011-10-16T20:45:00.000-07:00

So last weekend I shot my individual project, it went pretty good I feel. However, theres always going to be stuff that doesn't work out perfectly. I ended up running out of time and had to shoot towards the evening, resulting in less sunlight than I probably needed. After transferring it I noticed all the shots I did that day ended up being a little dark, but whataya gunna do? I finished up shooting the next day when there was a lot of sunlight, probably way more than I needed. So all the stuff on that day I realized after transferring it was a little too bright. Once again, whataya gunna do? Film's already processed, deadline approaching. As of right now I'm still in the process of editing it, which I'm finding to be a hard time trying to tell the full story all in under 1 min. But I guess thats what lots of revisions are for, so I'll keep cutting. Overall I've got a pretty good feeling it'll turn out alright.

Film vs. Digital

2011-10-15T10:00:00.001-07:00

The Dark

2011-10-15T07:37:00.001-07:00

Since we did a class on lighting this week I thought I'd show all you guys something that was done by some SVA alumni and current Students that are from my High School. This film was completed in 39 hours for the 48 hour film festival in NYC, It won 2nd place.

Behind the scenes of The Facebook Mime

2011-10-13T18:54:00.000-07:00

I shot my film "The Facebook Mime" last weekend. We shot in Mahopac, NY at my boyfriend Rich's house. Shooting this film was such a wonderful and exciting experience. There was the best energy on the set, and it was great to see everyone, cast and crew really had a lot of fun. Even when I was loading the camera, and fixing everything for the shots, I always heard laughter. I think that really showed in my film. All of my actors really took the characters I had written to a new comedic level. I honestly couldn't asked for a better cast. Plus, my younger brother Steve and his friend Ryan (second year at SVA) really helped me out with working with the lighting. I learned so much from this project. I learned not to rely on white index cards to be seen, because they tend to over expose when they are next to a window. Also, I need to work on what I choose to focus on in a shot. But overall, I think it came out pretty nicely.

My Story

2011-10-12T21:23:00.000-07:00

So this story starts off with a young and naïve film maker named Mikey Condoleon. Now this young and un knowing kid decided to start filming his group project. Without the proper preparation or the correct method on how to work a camera of this status the young filmmaker proceeded. The sunlight was quickly dimming and the lightmeter was rapidly used. The film was rolling, everything had gone according to plan, then..... "click".....clickityclackityclackalackalack......no one heard the noise...or did they? It was foreign to them regardless, it ment nothing "keep rolling!" Then click! "We mustve rolled out get ready to load the next one!" We open the camera to remove the film, and SPRINGGG!!! All of our precious film had been feeding into the body of the camera, and now its all gone.... The story above is a description of our first group project. All this, was due to the fact that...we simply did not know. I always like to learn from my mistakes but for B & H's price of nearly 30 bucks a role, learning isn't so fun.
I've decided that for my next project I will certainly take a lot more preparation time and be aware of any strange noises that the camera makes. We plan to re-shoot and this time, take mind of everything that is going on technically; such as checking the light meter and setting the "f" stops constantly, and measuring the distance from the camera to the actors, then setting it on the camera to focus, and most importantly....loading the camera correctly. I truly do love working with other aspiring filmmakers though, for the fact that we work and learn together, its a group effort, there for its a group success (that is if its good) or If not, a group failure.
Personally I think the idea of working with other people is one of the best things that we can do as film makers, its a clash of ideas a group of small dots combined to form one image. I've always been fond of the idea, I mean is there even a way to work alone when it comes to film? Maybe, but I certainly don't think so.

I really aspire to achieve a lot by attending SV A but due to my multiple mishaps with our beloved Ari S 16mm I’ve been finding it harder and harder to stay enthusiastic. I have been working really hard on redeeming myself with my individual project and hopefully the results will show in the screening. I’m an editor more then anything else but id really like to learn all the ins, and outs of this field and be as flexible as possible with my work choices, I beleive flexibility is money. Anyways I look forward to working with all of you soon and expect to see all the amazing work you can all produce.

Here's to Haggis

2011-10-12T17:31:00.000-07:00

I finished my individual project. I hope everybody likes it. The song from The Third Man fit very well with the video so I put it in. I also hope it's ok that it turned out a minute longer than it should have. I cut out as much as possible without ruining the story.

Leaf

2011-10-12T16:02:00.000-07:00

Today I shot "Leaf," my individual project. This shoot was hard because I tried to do it by myself. Getting the leaf to move across the scene was probably the most difficult part because of the wind. I think next time ill try some fishing line. Another hard part was trying to portray the movements of a leaf with a camera. Also focusing and getting the proper exposure was hard because I never knew where the leaf was going to end up. Lessons learned on this shoot.

History: A tale of History

2011-10-10T20:26:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna be blunt. James blunt. Jk, but 4rill guise, FCPX is the bee's knees. I'm bout it. I don't care if it lost its industrialized light grey display. Having to delete blank space on the timeline is a strange feature, I must admit, but it's really the only bone I have to pick with it ATMLOL. It flows, it feels continuous. Media feels more accessible. There are no strange arbitrary errors, no more incessant rendering, no more scouring for randomly offline media, it's just there bro. Give it a chance, quit recitin' what you read on the 1-star app store reviews. YEEN EVEN GOT AN EXTERNAL MONITOR, Y U CRYIN?

this is what I did in class today.

Doin Some Commercial Work

2011-10-09T18:41:00.001-07:00

Hey guys, so of all aspects of film making post is my favorite. I've been free lancing for a few months now and recently I came across the opportunity to do some work for a company called Kontrol Freek. ( www.KontrolFreek.com ) Me and another editor teamed up to help produce a few different videos for the company. Originally I was shooting video of the product on my 7D in front of a makeshift green screen. I had the controller hung from the ceiling on fishing line. I was planning on taking the wire out in post. So finally after shooting all the footage I go to import and as Im about to show my partner he comes to me with the idea of doing a flash animation instead of a video. Which once he described it, seemed like an awesome idea. So I ended up not using any of the footage I shot Hah. Instead I took roughly 30 pictures, in each the controller moved slightly so that it turned into a stop motion animation when you ran through the pictures. We took each picture and masked them out in photoshop. Then imported all those into flash and made a really nice animation where you can turn the product in a 360, zoom in, examine the front, back, left and right. As well as include important bullet notes about the product. You can see the animation here -

http://bossjacoby2.deviantart.com/#/d4c16mt

As a part of the package the client wanted, we also did a video including a voice over from one of our friends that wrapped up the message the client wanted to convey.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0XOGY5ZOjs

Living the Dream

2011-10-09T12:16:00.000-07:00

This is a short film I shot in San Francisco, California.

Starring and Written by - Garrett Roads

Music by - Matthew Gragg

Shot, Directed, and Edited by - Cody Kussoy

YouTube

Here's to Haggis

2011-10-08T17:00:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody, I just did my individual project earlier today. It was about a hobo named Haggis who finds a group of bank robbers. They had just stolen money from a bank, but something happened and they get into fight. While they fight, Haggis sneaks to their bag of money and takes it from them. He manages to run off and escape with the money and becomes a millionaire. Almost everything went smoothly during the shoot, except for some reason the camera would stop sometimes while rolling. What I'm thinking was that the wire couldn't connect properly with the belt in certain positions. It would work fine wrapped around the tripod but not around my waist. Go figure. I only have one more small scene left to shoot tomorrow. It's only one shot so it should be very quick. I also like using the Arri S a lot, but I cannot imagine shooting with film very much in the future. For me, the cost and hassle is just not worth the look it gives. Digital cameras make the entire process so much easier, faster, and it's a lot more flexible while shooting, and in-post. Speaking of which, here's an interesting article I found by NY Times:
Article

Tiger o' clock

2011-10-08T11:07:00.000-07:00

So, movies, good stuff right? Perhaps. The reason I decided to go to film school was because mid way through high school, after fighting my parents tremendously-I crippled into the idea of attending college, and I chose film school because it seemed better than going to actual college........ I love film, it's awesome, bad films, good films, beautiful films, I love them all. I definitely watch far more bad films than I do good ones, but that is a mixture of their being very few good films released these days, and it's just fun to watch bad films: it's awesome to see someone take the forms and executions of something you devote your life to and just fuck them up terribly. And it happens all over the place, in all sorts of movies. I think it's highly encouraging as an artist to watch shit things because if they can do it-and do it so horribly-then you should be able to get the chance to do it as well. Even though it may very well never happen because, despite as desperately as you might try at something fate can just utterly deny you-which is just terribly fucked up-terribly so. But that's sort of the beauty of film making, because you can express that in whatever terms you like. And if you happen to be very talented-like myself (I boast because I have very few good things in my life so boasting makes me feel better about that fact) than it's just like the most amazing canvas of expression. To truly take advantage of it you sort of have to be willing to learn and do all the parts yourself (editing, mixing, shooting, etc) but if you do, a film isn't just some lame three act blow job fest full of crappy one liners, logical inconsistencies, unrealistic characters, and inchoate imagination, it's beautiful expression of life-on your own terms, however you may have felt it, or wanted to feel it. Which is nice, because life is not at all like that.

sssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttttttttttttt-aidan

16mm Telecine

2011-10-06T19:22:00.001-07:00

16mm Film to Video Transfer from SVA Film/Video on Vimeo.

Here's the link I promised.

Sony FS-100

2011-10-05T20:28:00.000-07:00

Alaska Road Trip with the Sony FS-100 from Zak Melms on Vimeo.

This is a great example of shallow depth of field directly related to size of sensor. I love this little camera.

Color Temperature Scale

2011-10-05T20:23:00.001-07:00

What Not to Do When Buying Audio Equipment

2011-10-04T14:01:00.000-07:00

A while back I had broken the 3.5mm external microphone jack on my Canon T2i, but only recently have I noticed that it was broken. I had installed a plug-in that allowed me to view the audio levels on the LCD screen. When I would plug in my boom microphone, it would either only record the left channel or not record at all. I also noticed, after further inspecting, that the wire for the microphone jiggled while inside the audio jack.

My first thoughts were, “How could I work around this problem without having to spend a lot of money getting it repaired?” I decided to purchase a portable audio recorder, an Alesis Palm Track to be specific. It was one of the cheaper recorders offered by B&H at $80. When I got home, I immediately tested it with my microphone. However as soon as I plugged it in, the audio levels on the Palm Track went straight down. The problem was not with my microphone though as it still worked on other devices.

I then reported the problem on the Alesis help forum. The next day one of the forum moderators replied by asking what model microphone I had. So I responded, but I was waiting for about a week and no one ever got back to me. I said to Hell with this and went to my local Best Buy to see what they had. To my surprise there, there was a $40 recorder that had an external microphone jack. I bought it as fast as I could, went home, and it worked perfectly. I then went to download the files, however to my dismay, I had not checked how to retrieve the files before I bought it. This recorder did not have a USB, San Disk card, or anything. I could have kicked myself at this point.

The next day, I went back to B&H to see if one of the employees could help me with the first recorder, the Palm Track. I brought my microphone with me this time as well. We tested the recorder with a different microphone and it worked fine. He said the most likely reason why my microphone did not work was that it was just not compatible with that specific recorder. We then tested a similarly priced recorder and my microphone worked amazingly on it. I then returned the two other recorders and got my money back.

I was being very foolish when I was searching for an audio recorder and I have now learned my lesson. Even though everything worked out in the end, I encourage other to avoid this hassle by:

Initially bringing your external microphone to test it before purchasing. Places like B&H will let you test most products on display.
Read the box carefully before buying.
Do not wait too long for customer service to respond, especially if you have projects coming up.

This also applies to any product really. So just be careful when going shopping, do some research on the products you are thinking about buying, and just use common sense.

Devices of Death

2011-10-01T16:01:00.000-07:00

Movies always love to surprise us whether it be a twist in the plot, the climax to a suspenseful scene, or the split second action of some horrific and diabolical machine designed with one purpose in mind, KILL. Now when you think of horrific instruments of pain and suffering your mind will probably jump to the long drawn out film franchise known as the "Saw franchise" in which the writers call the murderous devices used to kill people "Traps".

This idea of some macabre machine killing you in a way that no human could do is an idea that goes back to movies like "Cube" and "Indiana Jones". In "Cube" a group of people must find a way out of a structure made of square rooms. Some of the rooms are safe while others are rigged with booby traps each with a unique style of killing its victim. This point is rammed home in the very first scene were an unknown victim is diced literally by a flat cage of wires.

In the famous "Indiana Jones" films booby traps were one of it's many classic trade marks next two the hat, the whip, and a fear of snakes. The famous boulder scene is probably the most memorable trap in movie history.

Traps build suspense and all in all are interesting in the sense that a writer sat down and thought, "Ok now how should this person die?"

Hellooo!

2011-09-30T20:49:00.000-07:00

Heyyall- I’m Meaghan Cleary, I look forward to working with all of you this year and throughout our time at SVA together! I am positive it will be a pleasure and we will create some wonderful pieces. I believe I want my focus to be cinematography in my years at SVA, but ultimately I would love to direct or write something I am really passionate about. However, this year is also my first experience ever touching editing and though it is early in the game to say, I have taken a liking to it. I would like to dip my toes into some acting too perhaps in the future, but we will see about that in given time… I am excited to explore further to really figure out my niche here, but I know I want to learn as much I possibly can about every element it takes to create and give life to stories that will make audiences think and feel-zeeeee great beauty of cinema :D.

Although my heart will always belong to Johnny Depp- absolutely foreverrrrrr and alwaysssss, my belief is that Kevin Spacey is the best living working actor of our time. His talent is undeniable and his dedication even more so- he is the man. I want to hear people’s ideas on who they may believe to be the greatest current working actor of our time.

Here’s a little video from Inside the Actor’s Studio that I think you guys would enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKKDKAKNH-k

The Christopher Walken and Al Pachino killll meeeeee…

Johnny Depp is number two in my opinion, but this man takes the cake:)

Blogging for the first time

2011-09-30T15:17:00.000-07:00

Hi! I'm Marissa Grinstead! This week was my first time using a film camera. It was hard at first but after Chris showed me how to work the zoom and a few other things it was pretty easy. I actually enjoyed it. I think I would like using film cameras if the film wasn't so expensive and editing the film wasn't so hard. It just seems too expensive and too much work for me. I have only used digital hand held home movie cameras. I am on my third one! My first one was the size of a brick (and weighed as much as one) and one day I had it on my tripod and it fell onto the concrete side walk. Something inside broke so I could not film or play back any of my tapes. I have not watched those tapes since 7th grade. I wish I could but it is too expensive to transfer tapes to dvd. I am going to try to look for a Hi-8 camera on ebay soon so I can watch my old tapes back. I had the camera for a good amount of time. My second camera was gifted to me for my birthday and I used it for two to three years and it just stopped working well. And finally my last camera was given to me on my birthday again and it uses a memory card! So nice to just stick it in the computer instead of playing back everything that I shot to import to my editing program. When I figured out how to import videos to my computer I used windows movie maker. It got the job done but after a while I wanted to do some better effects. I purchased some fifty dollar editing program from best buy, installed it and when I looked at it I was so confused. I had no idea how to use it. So that never got used. But later on I ended up buying Pinnacle from best buy. I had a great time using that program. In my final cut pro class some people who used final cut pro 7 seemed to be amazed at some of the new features final cut pro x offers. I was not amazed because my editing program I used before offered those features and I know how to use them. I guess I am a tad prepared to use FCP X. My group and I are going to be filming our crew project this week hopefully. I think we are going to have fun as long as the weather is nice to us. I was a little worried about doing my individual project, but after using a film camera I am feeling confident about being able to get it done. I just need to fix up my treatment and get a crew together. I was worried about getting an actress but I think I am going to get a friend since the girl in my treatment is basically walking and doing a few facial expressions.

In need of your assistance.

2011-09-30T12:28:00.000-07:00

I'll hopefully be purchasing a video camera next week, but I'm unsure which one. I've had extensive experience with the panasonic HVX200, but I'm not too hip to the idea of $600 extra for p2 cards. I really dig the HMC-150 and HMC-40 because they're cheaper, lighter and shoot on SD cards. I don't know much about the DSLR game, but it seems everything is being shot on that lately. I just kinda like for my video camera to look like a video camera. What do you guys shoot on? Which cameras have given you the least trouble? I doubt I'll be doing much other than making music videos and skits for vimeo, but I'd like them to look good. Input plz.

SPOILER ALERT!

2011-09-30T11:39:00.000-07:00

First off, I’d like to thank you, reader, for taking an interest in my blog! This is will be my first blog ever. I’ve always wanted to start one, so I’d especially like to thank my Intro to film teacher, Chris, for giving motivation! “No blog, no grade.” I hope some day I have many fans and followers. Now, on with the actual blog.

About two weeks ago my new friend Tom and I went to go see the movie Drive. Despite the fact that each ticket was thirteen expensive dollars, it was a hole in each of our wallets well spent. To write about the movie’s excellence but not about any of it's thrilling scenes would be rather difficult. Therefore, Making this particular post a spoiler. So I warn you now, if you have not yet seen drive, and do not want the amazing, surprising scenes spoiled for you, do not keep reading. Thank you for reading thus far! And trust me, Drive won't let you down. I hope you come back to read after you’ve seen it. Have a nice rest of your day!

Alright! If you are still reading this, you don't mind the movie being spoiled (which is a bad decision, let me tell ya), you've already seen Drive, or you're Chris and you have to read this to grade me. Hi Chriiiiis!

So, as I was saying, Drive! There are four factors that I believe made this movie tickle my fancy: The casting/acting, the soundtrack, the cinematography, and the script (Yes, basically all aspects of film).

The star of this film, Ryan Gosling, is one of my favourite actors. He plays a very mysterious character, “Driver.” From his looks to his skills, Gosling made this movie what it is; his actions are simple, sleek and stern, and extremely believable. A great example would be the scene when he walks into the women’s dressing room of the gentleman’s club to find “Cook.” He pulls his hammer from his sleeve and almost hammers Cook’s bullet into his forehead, when the cellphone with Nino on the other line is given to him, and he anxiously, yet very calmly talks to Nino; shaking and sweating immensely. Gosling cannot be replaced by a paper bag for this role. Even Irene played by British actress, Carey Mulligan was perfect: simple, quiet, and stunning, a perfect match for a hard ass like “Driver.”

The soundtrack was amazing. Very retro and went perfectly with the movie. The sexiness of the song “Ticking of the Clock” by The Chromatics went along with the sexiness of L.A. and the intensity of the opening scene. And the song “A Real Hero” by College was perfect for the end of the movie. It related to Gosling’s and Mulligan’s romance story really well.

My favourite scene in this movie where cinematography really stood out in the best way possible was “the elevator scene.” The slow motion in this movie, especially this scene intensified moments and feelings and added to the beauty of this movie on a somewhat emotional level. This elevator scene was the most surprising for me. The scene begins in slow motion as the elevator door closes. Three characters Gosling, Mulligan, and Gosling’s killer are all on board. When the camera shoots to a shot of Gosling pushing Mulligan behind him, I thought he was going to begin fighting right there and then, but instead he turns in slow motion to Mulligan, the lights make a noticeable dim, and kisses her for the first/last time. Then finally the lights turn back to the way they were, he moves away from her and looks at the killer. The slow motion stops as he BASHES the killers head onto the wall of the elevator, throws him on the ground, then stomps his face in. After, the doors open, Mulligan steps out, the camera cuts to Gosling’s bright red, sweaty, sad face, then back to the elevator doors closing on Mulligan. As cheesy as this scene sounds, it was (pardon my English) fucking amazing. And no words were spoken, for no words were needed! Which brings me to my last factor. The script.

Drive seems to have very little verbal communication, but really has just as much as any other amazing Hollywood film. I think this is what really made this movie. The fact that you only feel like this movie has little script because Gosling rarely ever says anything. This proves that the viewer was in his shoes, on his side for the whole movie. I loved how Gosling and Mulligan didn’t need to talk. Their relationship didn’t need words, which put them in their own world. I really noticed this when Mulligan’s husband came home from prison and he speaks to Gosling for the first time. How awkward Mulligan’s husband looks and how talkative he is clashes with Gosling and Mulligan.

This movie is the best one I’ve seen since Lion King when I was four. If you haven’t seen it, but you’ve read this blog, shame on you! But still, go see it. Comment please! I’d love to chat about the movie, and maybe find out more than I don’t already know about it. Like the symbolism of the scorpion! By the way, I’m saving up my money to buy that Jacket. It’s the only thing I want for Christmas. Thanks for reading!

Kodak Cinema Tools

2011-09-29T16:27:00.000-07:00

Hey all. I just downloaded the kodak cinema tools app for android/ iphone. It has a DoF calculator, film time calculator, glossary for film terms and a lab and transfer house locator. Check it out. It's pretty awesome.

Crew Shoot Fail.

2011-09-28T08:52:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday 5:30pm, dusk at the East River my group set up to shoot our crew project. We brought along all our equipment supplied by SVA, and a couple actor friends to help out with the shooting. In the beginning everything went smoothly, loading the camera, running the light meter, setting up the tripod, things were good. We switched off with camera duties so whoever in our group wanted to shoot for a little was given the chance. The location was also perfect and we got all our establishing shots and first couple scenes with no problem. Then at the end of the 2nd role of film, things went bad. After opening the camera we found all the film we had just shot bunched up in a giant tangled mess, awesome. On top of that the sun was beginning to set and all are light was getting lost. So on that note we decided to pack up, as a result putting off finishing our film for another day.

In conclusion, yes, there were a lot of great shots from that day. But also a lot of pains with losing our film/daylight. But hey, it was our first real shoot so something had to go wrong, and in the end it was a learning experience for our whole group.

"A New York Minute"

2011-09-27T19:39:00.000-07:00

On September 22nd 2011 our class was given an assignment to shoot a short scene. It was a group project which was shot on 16mm film. We were given a script, a camera, film, three lenses, a light meter, and a tip-pod. We quickly delegated responsibilities to one another. Who was going to play the role of director, cinematographer, and who was going to act? Rushing out of the class room in a hurry, anxious to start, we found a side street that was perfect to shoot on. Our director and cinematographer gave us and idea of what they were going for, which was simple, short, and concise. I knew exactly what I needed to do as an actor in order the make the film come out well. We began shooting the takes and before we knew it we wrapped. The shoot was fun and easy. Luckily we didn't run into any problems. High five and great job, team!

Mathiew Graggs + the MeOws on Mute

2011-09-27T19:14:00.000-07:00

On my way from San Francisco to New York City I made a pit stop in Austin, TX for a week and a half to visit my dear old friend Matthew. We spent most of the week staying up until 6am and sleeping to 5pm just to avoid the heat. I felt as if I was a vampire. Matt and I also shot a music video for his a song "Blue Moon" off his new record "UpCat DownBeat". We shot for a total of 5 days capturing around 16 gig's of HD footage daily. We shot the entire video with a Canon T2i and a Canon 50mm lens. I had ruffly around 80 gigs of footage that was cut down to about a four minute video. The video was cut and color corrected using FCP7, the title's and composites were done using Motion. I had an amazing time visiting my friend and making him a new video. Enjoy!

Band: Mathiew Graggs + the MeOws on Mute

Song: Blue Moon

Album: UpCat DownBeat

This is a single off the new and highly anticipated sophomore full length record "UpCat DownBeat". The record will be released September 9th on iTunes. Hard copies will be pressed and distributed by the band. For more information visit their Facebook or Twitter page.

Violin by - Kaitlyn Knapp
Mixed and Mastered by - Sedric Pieretti at Royal Palace Productions

facebook.com/mathiewgragg
twitter.com/mathiewgraggs

Terra Nova

2011-09-27T15:00:00.000-07:00

Last night, I got to watch the Terra Nova two hour premiere on Fox. I loved it! By the way, not going to say too much about the plot and characters, I don't want to give everything away. Moving on, the one thing in my mind while watching the show was "how expensive was this budget?." Then I remembered Stephen Spielberg was the executive producer, and he is richer than God. Made sense. So after I watched this wonderful piece of television, I was curious: how long did this take to make, how much did it cost and at which location did they shoot? Well the budget reached 20 million, which is pretty high for a television show. Also, it was shot in Australia, and FOX actually ordered 12 episodes instead of just the pilot, which is very unusual. An episode takes eight to nine days to shoot, but the post production length is MUCH LONGER (thanks to the CGI): six weeks. That's quite a production.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the set up, and the show completely sold me after these five things:
1. DINOSAURS. you have already captured me. I will pretty much watch anything with dinosaurs in it.
(Side note: After reading some reviews today, I have seen a lot of negative commentary of the look of the dinosaurs. But c'mon, it's pretty good working around a television budget. Plus, is there really any amazing television out right now in comparison? Sure, the comedies are pretty good. But I feel like its one CSI/Law&Order copycat after another. But let me stop myself before I go on a rant.)

2. A WORLD AFFECTED BY MEN. According to Terra Nova, in the future we can hardly breath because of air pollution, there is no sunlight and to have an orange is a delicacy.

3. SKYWALKER RANCH BLUE MILK. They were drinking blue milk. What an obvious nod to Star Wars. Nice.

4. CONTROLLING THE FUTURE/TIME TRAVEL Because of the terrible quality of life on earth, there is a machine where they can transport a certain amount of people at a time, back time millions of years ago.

5. PILGRIMAGE I love the idea of starting a new civilization, which is why I sat through every episode of A&E's reality show The Colony. Plus, they are stuck behind these protective caged walls, which kinda looks like a jail in paradise...

Terra Nova is exciting, moves quickly and frankly, is a breath of fresh air. Definitely has a lot of potential. I suggest that everyone should watch this show!

There will be an encore on FOX Saturday, October 1st 8:00 pm. I suggest setting your DVR! =)

-Chrissy Varley

on a lighter note

2011-09-25T22:56:00.000-07:00

who watches tim and eric? do you feel it provides social commentary or just nonsense? They kinda paved the way for uncomfortable/meticulous editing and sound design techniques. Personally, I love 'em.

favz: http://video.adultswim.com/tim-and-eric-awesome-show-great-job/cinco-i-jammer.html

http://video.adultswim.com/tim-and-eric-awesome-show-great-job/please-touch-me.html

Just Don't Get It, bro

2011-09-25T20:17:00.000-07:00

Does anyone legitimately give a shit that The Lion King was re-released in 3D? It's a gimmick, and I'm well aware it's done solely for the money. Why can't these past successes just ride out their dvd fame quietly? Let somebody else have some screen time, Simba. It's just disheartening that dope ass new stories could be told, yet regurgitated herp derp tales plague the box office. Don't even get me started on the Madea series.

Best version of Batman that doesn't have a Christopher Nolan Budget

2011-09-24T20:12:00.000-07:00

http://www.batinthesun.com/

Cellphone follies

2011-09-22T17:47:00.000-07:00

So me and my group went out today to shoot a short scene that Faulkner gave us. i thought that it was gonna suck because ive never used a camera like this EVER. but it actually was fun, the only thing i didnt like about it was the limit of shooting we could do since we only had a 100ft of film. the process of each shot was pretty tough but it was a good experience, like figuring out the lighting and the F stop.

Something about the Saw Franchise that you actually can respect

2011-09-17T16:20:00.002-07:00

Though it was a pretty drawn out film franchise you gotta admit that making of these Traps is insane this one was probably the craziest they ever did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpgnqwxgf3U&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Furl%3Furl%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%253Fv%253Dbpgnqwxgf3U%26rct%3Dj%26sa%3DX%26ctbm%3Dvid%26ei%3DaCt1TrP6Iqnq0gGfofHcDQ%26ved%3D0CE4QuAIwAw%26q%3Dthe%2Bpendulum%2Btrap%26usg%3DAFQjCNH-lPL7u1nqGXXNm9XV1kC8AKXhWg

Great site to see some awesome Opening Titles

2011-09-17T16:20:00.001-07:00

http://www.artofthetitle.com/

Let the Game Begin

2011-09-17T16:12:00.000-07:00

Hello my names Connor Hassler. I want to learn Editing, Sound, Writing, and Directing in my four years at SVA. I'm interested in learning how to make trailers, opening credits, creating sounds, etc. I hope to get to know you all and work with you.

Great camera shoot off

2011-09-16T09:39:00.000-07:00

The Great Camera Shootout 2011: Episode 1 ~ "The Tipping Point" from Steve Weiss on Vimeo.

Hey

2011-09-14T17:05:00.000-07:00

Hey, im josh. from long island. i like film. i would like to go into cinematography. looking forward to working with you all. good luck.

Intermittent Motion

2011-09-06T05:55:00.001-07:00

Click image to view in motion

pirates of the caribbean 4

2011-04-28T20:47:00.000-07:00

on another note i am SO excited for the new pirates of the caribbean movie. I have been obsessed with the pirate movies since the first one came out. I love Kiera Knightly's role as the elite lady turned pirate as well as Johnny Depp's role as a drunk swashbuckling, illegal captain of the Black Pearl. In my opinion its just the right amount of action, love and drama with a few explosions thrown in. On the other hand because of my extremely high expectations for the pirates series i feel that i may be let down by this fourth movie, i mean look at Shrek. The first movie was great, and the second wasn't too bad, but then it all went steadily downhill way too fast. Fingers crossed that the same doesn’t happen to the Pirates of the Caribbean.

Production Still from Ashley's film

2011-04-28T20:30:00.001-07:00

SOUND MIXING IN STYLE!

2011-04-28T20:29:00.000-07:00

Seeing as how this year is over and this is the last blog, I figured I'd try and share some knowledge I learned with you outside of the classroom. For starters, don't drink actual beer WHILE you're shooting. Yeah it looks better to have real beer in cups, but that just usually leads to a slower work ethnic. Secondly, if you're using a DSLR, like a 5D/7D/T2i/T31/C3PO/H2O, be sure you know about your camera to the fullest. There's a lot of things that you can do and change but you have to know where and when to use them. Going out and just shooting everything is a good way to learn and the camera only weighs like 3 pounds so no complaining. Third, edit. Just do it. Don't let what you shoot just go to waste. Even a really shitty clip can be added with other equally as shitty a clips, and be turned into something awesome. Check out the plug-ins and add-ons to Final Cut because some things allow you to manipulate your footage like you didn’t think was possible.

http://www.revisionfx.com/products/twixtor/

This is a pretty sweet program that allows you to alter frame rate to any digital footage. Fourth, plan ahead because problems will arise. Don’t just solve a problem and not think about ways to prevent it from happening again. The best offense is a good defense. Lastly, use the “week ahead” method. When you get a due date for anything film related, make that due date personally one week before the actual one, if possible. This helps if the third thing ever occurs and your project goes astray.

Pretty much just go out and shoot as much as you can, stay inside and edit as much as you can or be stressed out and plan as much as you can because the best learning comes from doing.

These are from a commercial we did back in January.

Crazy 7D rig on a track dolly.

Epic John.

finishing the semester

2011-04-28T20:26:00.000-07:00

After what seems like a lifetime the end of our freshman year is here. I can't help but feel relieved by handing in my film after what seems like a months worth of sleepless nights and eventually beginning to loathe the footage that i spent hours scrubbing through. I am pleased with the end result, and of course there are a few things that i would want to change, but for the most part i really enjoy it. The whole experience beginning with writing the original script, to choosing the actors, filming everything and then finally putting the whole vision together through final cut. (because who seriously wants to use avid!?)

After watching nearly everyones films during class, i have to say that i am extremely impressed with the quality of work that everyone has managed to produce. Each film had its own unique story, paired with its own unique style of editing which created individual, original films. the process is exhausting but ever so satisfying, and i feel relieved that i still love filmmaking and want to continue next year, yes there was a moment when i thought screw this i'm going to be a doctor. But no i still have the drive for film and am excited to find and develop my own personal look as a cinematographer.

I guess that brings me to next year, i decided to be a cinematography major which is what i originally planned at the end of high school/ before SVA. I was stuck between editing and cinematography, the one thing pulling me towards editing was the fact that most editors can safely acquire a job, compared to a cinematographer whom is a little less safe in their career path. I guess that it comes down to who you know in this industry which is why i think that going to college is such an exciting experience, because we have the opportunity to form a crew that we can hopefully carry throughout college and on into the 'real world'.

At the end of freshman year i am really happy about everything that i have managed to accomplish, and i can't wait for the next year! I hope that everyone has a great summer!

A Few Screws Loose

2011-04-28T19:23:00.000-07:00

A few production stills from "Max and The Blue Sky". At the end of our second shooting day, Nathan and I had headaches so we gave each other temple massages. Intimate.

A few crew members, who will remain nameless, got really stoned after we were done with all principal photography. It was good times.

I was double dog dared to typed that last bit.

S'all good.

HAPPY SUMMER, ALL!

Be well :)

End of the Year

2011-04-28T18:43:00.000-07:00

It seems very abrupt how rapidly our first year in the film program at SVA. While working on my final project, I quickly began to realize how much harder and how much work I needed to put into it. Which was great at times because I love being challenged but it was also became extremely stressful. As time consuming and difficult as it was, I finished the year with some helpful lessons for my future shoots at SVA; 1) PREPARE FOR RAIN DELAYS. I had planned to shoot on this one particular day in the deep woods of New Jersey (ha) and the script called for the weather to be beautiful and sunny. It was neither of those things. It was depressing and shitty. Thankfully however I was able to scramble up some extra time and make it work; 2) EXTRA TIME TO EDIT. I had thought that I gave myself enough time to edit, but I was sadly mistaken. My plan was to finish shooting with about 2 weeks to edit. I factored in that it was only a 5-8 minute short so I'd only have to edit about two hours a night. However, what I did not factor in is how anal I am and how much of a perfectionist I can be. The last 4 days, between my laptop and the FCP lab I was editing for 6-8 hours a day. ALSO, I learned to give even more extra time when "finished" because you can not realize something is terribly wrong until the final export. 3)MONEY!!$!$!$!!. I spent much more money then I had thought I would let alone to disclose to this blog. I am usually an expert when it comes to most things green ;) but when it comes to gathering up money, I am a failure. In order to not have to dig deep into my own pockets I need to branch out more and find other sources of income. 4) SOUND IS IMPORTANT, BUT A HUGE BITCH. During some scenes, I had to film with out any sound equipment which led me to the highly attainable and accommodating Pro Tools Lab here at SVA. After filling in the silent parts of my film, it took FOREVER to make the sound match-up and sound remotely believable. Although I must admit I am pretty proud of the sound in the end product, which is saying a lot cause I am my fucking worst critic. 5) DON'T STRESS OUT WHILE. At the beginning of my shoot, I was chewing my fucking nails off. After an hour or so, I took a deep breathe and reminded myself that making movies are fun and to lighten up. Things will work out, and if they don't oh well. I found the rest of my days shooting to be easier and go by much smoother. All in all, it was a very beneficial year for my knowledge and learning about New York City and film, primarily due to Chris Faulkner. (The latter, not the former.)

Hanna Review

2011-04-28T18:34:00.000-07:00

This month I saw very few films in theaters, since I was very busy. One of the films that I did see was Hanna, an action film about a girl with enhanced DNA that gives her superior fighting capabilities. While the premise might have sounded somewhat silly and cliche at first (you know, the perfect assassin who takes on a bunch of highly trained dudes and kicks their asses...), but I found the film to be extremely well-done.

I started to like the film as soon as the title screen came up. It flashed for only a moment, a white screen with red lettering "HANNA." It was simple, quick, and lasted for the duration of the sound of a gunshot that had occurred in the movie. It did not take any time to say the names of the actors, and therefore did not distract from the story at all. It was dramatic, but not too dramatic. At that moment, I was hopeful about the rest of the film.

I really enjoyed the relationships between the characters in the film. I didn't find any of the relationships to be too overplayed; for example, Hanna and the vacationing British girl spent a good amount of time together, and their relationship was amusing and quirky. However, when the story needed to move on, it did not dwell on their friendship. It allowed Hanna to go on to her final encounter with Marissa Weigler without any drawn-out sentimentality. I also liked the way that Marissa Weigler and Erik Heller (Hanna's father) interacted. However, while the film was playing, I had a feeling that Marissa and Erik had had some sort of romantic history, and that Marissa's actions were partly fueled out of vengeance, not just a desire to fulfill her duty to her work. When the film ended, and no romantic history between Marissa and Erik seemed to exist, I was disappointed, because I thought that it would explain Marissa's passion to exterminate Erik and Hanna much more. However, this was my only complaint in the film.

I also enjoyed the fact that the film was shot in a variety of locations, most of which were incredibly beautiful. It was visually very appealing to watch Hanna journey across tundra, desert, and forest landscapes. I also really enjoyed the soundtrack. The film was very beautiful, both visually and auditorially. It was probably my favorite film that I've seen so far in 2011. Much better than Sucker Punch and Source Code, certainly...

Don Fall For The Trip

2011-04-28T16:55:00.000-07:00

These two photos are from two shoots that I had during the filming of Dont Fall For The Trip. The pool photo is actually at my house where we shot the intro. After we finished filming the pool completely filled, we decided to drain it, and skate it. Turns out its really fun. The photo to the right is at my friend house in new jersey and this is an angry women from the 2nd day of shooting. I asked her nicely to move her car and she called me a spoiled brat. She later abided and apologized for being a bitch. The whole day there were cars coming in and out of the shot so i had to tell a lot of people to move. She was the only one who gave me a problem and continued to talk shit while we were in the middle of takes.

Making my first film was definitely a lot more work then i thought, but it was also a lot of fun. I learned a shit load and im a lot more prepared for the next time I make a film. There were definitely a lot of problems that occured during filming, but over all everything turned out the way i wanted. One of the problems that happened was the main actor that I had bailed out on me the night before shooting at 10pm. I called the other actors I auditioned and one of them came through the next morning and saved the shoot. I would have acted if nobody was available but that would have sucked. The location we had for the second day got raided with air soft players and thats the reason we ran into the slut in the picture above.

Overall, the first year of film school was pretty rad, but i feel like i didnt do shit. haha time to relax! SUMMERTIME. peace for now.

NAB 2011

2011-04-27T19:08:00.001-07:00

Convergent Design's Gemini 4:4:4

The big news at NAB this year should give you an idea about where things are headed in the near future. So long as the camera companies comply, it may actually be possible to somewhat future-proof (so long as you are ahppy with a 1920x1080 image) any camera rig you might build.

Sound Devices PIX 240

Why? Because the sensors and recorders of camera systems are being separated from one another at the acquisition level. This means you may actually be able to pick your sensor, pick your recorder and pick your codec then mix and match at each level depending on workflow, budget or shooting style.

We're not quite there just yet, but the new combination monitor/recorders makes getting high-quality, workflow-friendly codecs into your edit easy. All these new recorders combine a monitor screen, SSD drive, HD-SDI or HDMI inputs, multiple frame rates, and common formats (Avid & FCP). Since you are recording the HD video output of the camera, you bypass the high compression common on most inexpensive cameras. Unfortunately, most inexpensive cameras weren't made with HD-SDI or HDMI outputs. But if you have an HD camera you already own, one of these new recorders could extend the life of your camera and give you a higher-quality original as well.

The newest contenders are the Sound Devices PIX 220 (HDMI-only) and PIX 240 (HD-SDI & HDMI), the Atomos Ninja (HDMI) and Samurai (HD-SDI) and the bad ass on the block, capable of 2K and 3D, Convergent Design's Gemini 4:4:4.

Just to give you an example of what you stand to gain, most camcorders record 8-bit 4:2:0 color sampling at 25-35 Mbps. Even the least expensive recorder mentioned above records 10-bit 4:2:2 at up to 220 Mbps. That's more than ten times the information of a standard HD handheld camera. The pricier versions (such as the Gemini 4:4:4 and the Cinedeck EXTREME)record uncompressed 10-bit 4:4:4. That's, like, 11 gigabytes per minute!

Party, Party, Party?

2011-04-27T14:32:00.000-07:00

As we all come to an end I figured I'd do a bit of blogging about my most recent production for the classes final assignment. The film is called "Brother's Party". As you may have guessed by now, there is in fact, a party involved. Shooting this project was a very informative learning experience, showing me a lot of what works and what can go wrong while working on any production.

First, I needed a place to shoot the project. Eventually I was able to find a nicely spaced two bedroom in Alphabet City. I wanted to find a setting with some texture. Luckily this apartment had just that covered in posters, graffiti artwork and general trash.

Due to the fact that our shooting location had received several noise complaints, one more would mean eviction for the residents. This meant turning my largely cast party extras into a small group of "party goers". With a strategically planned combination of tight shots and some audio effects I was able to pull off the party "feel", just without the party.

So after a couple of actors dropped out, a few locations obstacles occurred and some lighting kits were forgotten, I was able to wrap production on the project and begin editing with some lessons learned. I'm sure I will have no issue making it my duty to make sure the same things don't occur on any of my next shoots.

Cyrus Review and Final Words

2011-04-27T11:51:00.001-07:00

The year has come to an end... this year has come to an end?!? How?! It seems like only yesterday that I was sitting in the front row of our production class, all starry eyed and intimidated by Chris Faulkner’s beard and large biceps. This has been a huge year for me. It was almost exactly a year ago that I was sitting in my dorm room in East Lansing, Michigan (a place full of farms and football games) reading my acceptance letter to the School of Visual Arts as I jumped up and down. The move to New York was a big one for me. No one in my family has ever made a move like this before. So obviously it was a big decision whether I should stay at the school I was at or if I should transfer. But even once I made the move to New York, my parents would constantly check in to make sure the school was the right fit for me. It was almost as if they wanted me to not like it, like everything needed to be absolutely perfect. But I have to say, after a full school year at SVA, I am very happy at the school and I cannot wait to return in the fall and for the next three years. I have had amazing teachers and met some great people. I know that some of these people will end up being my coworkers on future projects outside of school. What am I at now? 255 words? You know, why don’t I do a movie review? I recently watched a very odd, very dark comedy called Cyrus. The film stars John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill, Marisa Tomei, and Catherine Keener. This is a really strange movie. It’s got all of the symptoms of a sweet indie romantic comedy, but the anger and dark humor of a troubled teenager dealing with his parents divorce. The film centers on John (played by John C. Reilly), a lonely and depressed guy searching for love. His ex-wife (Keener), who is also his co-worker and best friend, is getting married and she wants John to find love too. To speed things up a bit, there’s a party, John meets Molly (Tomei) and they start seeing each other. Unfortunately, Molly has a 21 year old son named Cyrus (played surprisingly well by Jonah Hill) who still lives at home. Cyrus and Molly have an incredibly fucked up relationship. He will not let her go and when John enters the picture, Cyrus will stop at nothing to make sure that he fails. The movie has some very funny moments, but be aware, this movie is not another John C. Reilly/Jonah Hill comedy. It is a dark and brutally honest look at modern families. I really recommend this film to anyone that isn’t scared away by dark comedies, but be warned that this film is not what you would expect it to be. Wow, I’m done with the blog!

"I'm Here" by Spike Jonze

2011-04-26T09:17:00.000-07:00

A while back I saw this short film by Spike Jonze called "I'm Here".

I won't really talk about it in detail because I would rather you guys just watch it; however, I will say that it really grabbed a hold of me in terms of the content. This passive lower working class of robots struggling every day to live and find happiness in some way in a cruel and uncaring world (Sheldon), collides with this free and fearless underground life of adventure (Francesca) to create these incredibly poignant moments in the film where I just really felt connected to the simple scenes where the two protagonists would exchange glances or have a dialogue. I completely fell in love with these memorable moments in scenes in parking lots or in random apartments. As well as that, and I think, maybe more importantly, the love story really grabbed hold of me as well. It's just so incredibly sweet and lovely.

Well, I said I wasn't going to talk about it and I did, blegh.

This is only Part 1, but for the whole thing in HD you can go here to this nifty interactive web site and check it out (if you're under 21, just lie like you do on the weekends to get into bars):

If you were wondering, (which you were) YES, that IS Andrew Garfield's voice playing Sheldon.

And now, a little Making Of action as well:

The whole film is just really beautiful.

It is the kind of film that I like to watch and would like to make.

I hope you guys dug it.

INSIDIOUS, END OF THE YEAR and SCREAM 4. OH MY!!

2011-04-04T15:08:00.000-07:00

I first want to say holy crap this year went by sooo fast. I don’t even know where time went and now I am writing my final blog for this class!!!! But anyway…. The other night I went to see INSIDIOUS at the SVA theater. I went with Paul and fellow horror buff Renee. I had very high hopes going into this movie. It was the first major horror film release of 2011… took long enough it’s already April. I had read awesome reviews (which don’t come often in the horror genre). Entertainment Weekly gave the film an A- and a lot of the horror blog websites that I check religiously gave the film 4/5 or 4 stars. The TV. spots for the film had critic’s quotes saying that this was “the scariest horror film in decades”. The trailers looked pretty good and this was from the makers of Paranormal Activity and SAW… Both respectable staples in the horror genre. INSIDIOUS is about a son that falls into a coma. After that the family starts to realize strange occurrences in the house. The tag line pretty much sums it up “it’s not the house, it’s your son”… This film is a combination of The Omen and The Amityville Horror (the originals). The film starts off really cool and “INSIDOUS” flies up on the screen with loud music and fire. It kind of reminded me of an older style horror film. It also had a kind of cheese effect ala Evil Dead or Drag me to Hell. It had a budget of about 1 million, which is not unusual seeing as how both Paranormal and Saw were made for under 1 million also. The shots in the film were awesome. That’s one thing that horror films miss. The camera did a really nice job in that respect but it also showed wayyyy too much. The suspense leading up to the scares was great but the pay offs were somewhat cheesy and showed too much. After finishing INSIDIOUS I didn’t care for it too much but I must say the film has grown on me. I say you should see this movie in theaters bc it is a much better atmosphere to watch this film… but go to a matinee, not a night show.. not worth the $12. The film made about 13 million opening weekend, which isn’t terrible considering the budget. Because this was from the makers of Paranormal and Saw a.k.a. sequel lovers, I wont be surprised to hear that Insidious 2 is on the way.

On a side note I am glad INSIDIOUS was released into theaters when it was. It warmed up horror fans. I can safely speak for genre fans when I say that we are eagerly waiting for the second major horror film of the year to be released.. yes I am talking about SCREAM 4. I have been following this film since the production began all the way back in ’07. Although I have been hoping for a forth film since part 3 came out in ’00. I can only hope that INSIDOUS and SCREAM 4 is the end of the dry period in horror. I AM PUMPED!! R.I.P. “Dry Horror Genre Slump” November ’10- April ‘11