Alright gonna type out a quick blog because John Skach told me to. I'm sure thousands have been waiting for this as well. I don't feel I merit a blog most of the time, or I don't feel stuff that happens to me or I do is all that interesting I suppose. Maybe it is and I'm just lazy.
Well shit where to start it's been a while since my last update now...I've been on and off busy with work. Wish I were busier for the summer won't lie, but I'm doing alright. Gaffed a Jose Cuervo spot yesterday...it's going to be an interactive web ad where you'll see a boring scene with a couple of guys who are bored, then if you click and pull the shot glass into the video area it abruptly changes into this party that is like TOTALLY FRESH YO with babes, awesome lighting effects, DJs, pandas, bubbles et al. It was actually a pretty fun shoot creatively with the big lighting switches. For how insane the schedule was I think we pulled off some great looking stuff with the time we had.
It was a great shoot and met a bunch of cool new people. However it was easily the hottest set I've ever been on, let alone the hottest I have ever been in my entire life for a sustained period of time. I mean it's mid July and we were on the top of a three story walkup with no a/c and running a bunch of 1k and 2k tungsten heads. It was easily, EASILY 110+ degrees up there. I was soaked with sweat all the way through, I mean completely drenched in my own fluids. It was disgusting. Sweat was dripping off my shorts and pooling on the ground around my feet because my clothes were so saturated. It looked and felt as if I had just decided to jump in the lake for a quick minute. My wallet is completely destroyed, everything that was non-plastic inside of it is completely ruined. Did you go to the bathroom at all yesterday? Cool. I did not.
There's a couple other projects coming up, there's a very slim chance I might be going to India (I put it around 25%) for a few weeks but if not that there is a feature Wes is likely shooting most of September that I may be gaffing if I don't end up going to the far east. We shall see.
Still grinding away the microstakes at Pokerstars. Honestly I thought I would have moved up by now but where I had a phenomenal month in May, June and July have not proved as nice to me. My bankroll is sitting at ~$2100 which I guess is a feat in itself as back in May it was ~$400. Once I get to $2500 I'll start mixing in some $12/180s until then I'm still grinding the $2/180s and $3-$6/45s and trying to learn and comprehend correct shoving spots and ICM a little more.
Well I hope this satisfies all my avid blog followers up there, and hopefully it will be a span of a few days and not months before my next entry.
7.29.2010
3.10.2010
...
The grind continues and it's going fairly well. The ol Sharkscope graph proves it:
It feels phenomenal to be playing well again, I have the ol vigor back. I went deep in a 2000+ $4 MTT field today but busted around 130th. One of these days...
I might stress that the above sharkscope graph is just one of several. Wouldn't want any haters to think I've only played 500 games.
There are still several leaks and fixes I need to apply to my game...I'm going to have a session sweated by Epdog soon so hopefully I can gain some valuable insight to where I am sucking. Always room to improve your game.
In other news there is a mouse in the apartment. He's the cutest lil guy ever! 'Until he craps everywhere and gives us e-coli' says Buzzkill Buss. Whatever.
It feels phenomenal to be playing well again, I have the ol vigor back. I went deep in a 2000+ $4 MTT field today but busted around 130th. One of these days...
I might stress that the above sharkscope graph is just one of several. Wouldn't want any haters to think I've only played 500 games.
There are still several leaks and fixes I need to apply to my game...I'm going to have a session sweated by Epdog soon so hopefully I can gain some valuable insight to where I am sucking. Always room to improve your game.
In other news there is a mouse in the apartment. He's the cutest lil guy ever! 'Until he craps everywhere and gives us e-coli' says Buzzkill Buss. Whatever.
3.08.2010
It was froggy today
You know a lot of people are hating on the Oscar nom for best cinematography and I feel some of it may be unwarranted. Correct me if I'm wrong but the definition is for 'artistic and technical achievement in cinematography'...yeah yeah even though Avatar was only 30% live action or what have you the stereoscopic format in which it was shot was a visual gamechanger. I can understand why it was awarded. Somewhat.
Things are slow this week. So when this happens I typically resort to e-mailing people like crazy, looking around for work and grinding online poker all day long. It's been going fairly well as of late -- I cashed out my entire bankroll last fall and threw $10 on a whim while bored one day in Hong Kong and have since built it back up. I might cash out again as with this free time from now into the forseeable future I want to take a trip to NYC. Because I never have, and I was so close to last December. I was hired on a shoot in Newark and when the plane landed we turned on our phones to find the shoot had been cancelled in mid-air. Talk about your
B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-BUZZKILLLLSSSSSSSSSS
so I haven't gotten an opportunity to go back since and I figure I might as well do it on my own for a couple days if I have the time. Nothing's in stone though the idea's just in the germinating stages.
My project for this week is to paint my bedroom. Yes, it may be a little late but I guess I'm tired of the white walls. Plus it will be something to occupy some time so I don't feel like an oaf.
Speaking of oafing I had a solid run today. Felt really great about it.
That's all I got, really.
Things are slow this week. So when this happens I typically resort to e-mailing people like crazy, looking around for work and grinding online poker all day long. It's been going fairly well as of late -- I cashed out my entire bankroll last fall and threw $10 on a whim while bored one day in Hong Kong and have since built it back up. I might cash out again as with this free time from now into the forseeable future I want to take a trip to NYC. Because I never have, and I was so close to last December. I was hired on a shoot in Newark and when the plane landed we turned on our phones to find the shoot had been cancelled in mid-air. Talk about your
B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-BUZZKILLLLSSSSSSSSSS
so I haven't gotten an opportunity to go back since and I figure I might as well do it on my own for a couple days if I have the time. Nothing's in stone though the idea's just in the germinating stages.
My project for this week is to paint my bedroom. Yes, it may be a little late but I guess I'm tired of the white walls. Plus it will be something to occupy some time so I don't feel like an oaf.
Speaking of oafing I had a solid run today. Felt really great about it.
That's all I got, really.
3.03.2010
Lightnings
Finished a 2 day shoot with One today for CDW, the computer company. It was an internal video the theme of which was CDW is the 'guy behind the guy' so basically running around to a bunch of different departments within the company and getting various sound bytes of random employees. A couple HVX's were the main cams and there was also a 7d floating around for timelapse. Eon Mora was a psuedo 2nd unit DP / AC. Didn't get much of a chance to see what he got but I'm sure he rocked it. C. BensonPowers and Shoemaker worked the lightning. Amanda made a comment to me about how 'you must hate that you're using that camera' but you know what, you can still make a solid image with an HVX regardless. It also depends on the delivery medium and budget too. I'm not a snob like that.
Not yet anyway...
It was a little harebrained when we were running out of time and I was being told that my lighting was too 'complicated' but alas I think I created and maintained a cool style throughout. I went with a slightly cooler color palette, to suggest the modernity of a computer company in today's age. A lot of the office areas had gray walls too so that helped. Some pics:
And here's a pic of the sick 3d rig I was using:
The interocular is a little off but whatevs.
There was a moment when I had a shot set up of a guy looking over a railing high up in the air, one of the agency guys standing next to me while shooting told me to snap zoom out really wide. So I do and there's the lighting setup. I say it's fine with me but the lights are in frame. He says oh don't worry about it. But you know when they see that shot on a big screen it will be 'well why are the lights in frame?' And then it could morph into being my fault. You have to be careful of things like this constantly. Everyone looks for a scapegoat and I feel most of this can fall on a DP.
All in all I think we got what they were looking for, which is good. I have to thank my crew for being flexible.
It's really got to suck working in an office environment like that day after day. I don't think I could ever handle that. Same goes with the warehouse. It's funny how the office and warehouse are so close to each other but the schism between them is so great, they're essentially separate worlds and yet right next door to one another. Kind of like a restaurant. Lorian the sound guy tapped me on the shoulder as we were doing a setup in cubicleville - there was this woman on a computer working in this ancient looking dos program, typing so furiously...words and windows flying in and out of the screen faster than you could keep track of. And she just sitting there, fingers flying on the keys. It seems like insanity to me.
Alright in other news, I discovered this website the other day called omegle.com, the basic idea is you start a chat with a completely random stranger. Me and my roommate saw the potential in this, so we started messing around with it. He ended up taking it a step above however. He discovered ANOTHER site, called chatroulette.com, same concept but it utilizes video chat along with the regular chat. Seems like a good idea, right? Here is what you will encounter on chatroulette.com:
Great stuff. Here's one I took:
That guy kind of looks like Corey Powers.
Anyway on that creepy note, I'm off.
Not yet anyway...
It was a little harebrained when we were running out of time and I was being told that my lighting was too 'complicated' but alas I think I created and maintained a cool style throughout. I went with a slightly cooler color palette, to suggest the modernity of a computer company in today's age. A lot of the office areas had gray walls too so that helped. Some pics:
And here's a pic of the sick 3d rig I was using:
The interocular is a little off but whatevs.
There was a moment when I had a shot set up of a guy looking over a railing high up in the air, one of the agency guys standing next to me while shooting told me to snap zoom out really wide. So I do and there's the lighting setup. I say it's fine with me but the lights are in frame. He says oh don't worry about it. But you know when they see that shot on a big screen it will be 'well why are the lights in frame?' And then it could morph into being my fault. You have to be careful of things like this constantly. Everyone looks for a scapegoat and I feel most of this can fall on a DP.
All in all I think we got what they were looking for, which is good. I have to thank my crew for being flexible.
It's really got to suck working in an office environment like that day after day. I don't think I could ever handle that. Same goes with the warehouse. It's funny how the office and warehouse are so close to each other but the schism between them is so great, they're essentially separate worlds and yet right next door to one another. Kind of like a restaurant. Lorian the sound guy tapped me on the shoulder as we were doing a setup in cubicleville - there was this woman on a computer working in this ancient looking dos program, typing so furiously...words and windows flying in and out of the screen faster than you could keep track of. And she just sitting there, fingers flying on the keys. It seems like insanity to me.
Alright in other news, I discovered this website the other day called omegle.com, the basic idea is you start a chat with a completely random stranger. Me and my roommate saw the potential in this, so we started messing around with it. He ended up taking it a step above however. He discovered ANOTHER site, called chatroulette.com, same concept but it utilizes video chat along with the regular chat. Seems like a good idea, right? Here is what you will encounter on chatroulette.com:
Great stuff. Here's one I took:
That guy kind of looks like Corey Powers.
Anyway on that creepy note, I'm off.
3.01.2010
Shout outs..
...real quick to a variety of people I work with most often:
One
Fantastic production company, fantastic people, great times. Excited to continue collaborating on bigger and better projects in the future, keep the adventures coming.
KMP
Run by the enigmatic Joel Edwards, great folks to work with and very interesting projects that usually require travel (score). Hoping to work with them as part of the cinema unit for ESPN Films later this year.
Lynchpin Pictures
Kelly Lynch is basically the man, a great filmmaker in every right and we've been collaborating on projects for almost 4 years. A couple of films have won awards at various film festivals. We're planning on remaking the WWII drama 'Common Ground' in early April, shooting with DSLRs.
Kwokman Productions
Kwokman works in the sports production industry and I was honored to travel with them to Hong Kong to shoot highlights for the 2009 East Asian Games, a fantastic experience I won't soon forget.
TMU Pictures
It's always exciting being on a TMU set, whether it be because of the airplanes flying overhead, shooting on top of a skyscraper, or explosions. I'm pumped to see Mike Chait helm 'Warbirds' this summer! Warbirds Offical Site
Blue Satellite
The guys at Blue Satellite are great to work with, props for giving me many nostalgic blasts into the past with high school dancery.
CapGun Collective
Website coming soon, very excited to see what's in store for this company!
That's all I got for now, I feel this was a very solid first actual post.
Oh, and real quick, amazing video of the day: http://vimeo.com/groups/33394/videos/9519939
Enjoy!
One
Fantastic production company, fantastic people, great times. Excited to continue collaborating on bigger and better projects in the future, keep the adventures coming.
KMP
Run by the enigmatic Joel Edwards, great folks to work with and very interesting projects that usually require travel (score). Hoping to work with them as part of the cinema unit for ESPN Films later this year.
Lynchpin Pictures
Kelly Lynch is basically the man, a great filmmaker in every right and we've been collaborating on projects for almost 4 years. A couple of films have won awards at various film festivals. We're planning on remaking the WWII drama 'Common Ground' in early April, shooting with DSLRs.
Kwokman Productions
Kwokman works in the sports production industry and I was honored to travel with them to Hong Kong to shoot highlights for the 2009 East Asian Games, a fantastic experience I won't soon forget.
TMU Pictures
It's always exciting being on a TMU set, whether it be because of the airplanes flying overhead, shooting on top of a skyscraper, or explosions. I'm pumped to see Mike Chait helm 'Warbirds' this summer! Warbirds Offical Site
Blue Satellite
The guys at Blue Satellite are great to work with, props for giving me many nostalgic blasts into the past with high school dancery.
CapGun Collective
Website coming soon, very excited to see what's in store for this company!
That's all I got for now, I feel this was a very solid first actual post.
Oh, and real quick, amazing video of the day: http://vimeo.com/groups/33394/videos/9519939
Enjoy!
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