Behind the Camera: It’s not about Beauty, it’s about what get’s the job done.

Hey guys, real quick… I just wanted to point out that if the audience doesn’t see it… who cares what it looks like? Just get the job done and do it well (and safely… ie: don’t hang lights using gaffe tape.).

We’ve had to do some pretty weird looking things that were still quite effective. Like these:

Review of TheCineCity.com

If you’re like me, you’ve spent hours perusing through websites looking for the best deals on the best gear. And as you may have noticed I enjoy getting that piece of gear that does what I need it to at a fraction of the cost of the big name brands.
When I heard about TheCineCity.com I began doing my homework. An Indian company building cheaper versions of branded products like Steadicam. Reviews of the site were usually “I was nervous to try the more expensive stuff… so I bought a matte box. It does the job.” there wasn’t much word on the other products.

Pacific Ride Home, Music Video shoot Recap

Holy wow… Hi blog. It’s been a while. And we have much to catch up on. How’re you doing? Sweet… I’ve been busy. We filmed a music video for Tim Lundy. Drove down to Cape Kiwandis in Oregon and had an early morning wake up call of 3am. Hit the beach at 6am and hiked up the cape with our gear.

Medford and Sons

I’m tired. August seemed to have snuck up on me like… Something very sneaky. I’m sitting in a car in Medford Oregon about to head home. It’s a five hour drive. I know this because we made the drive this morning.

I feel like I’m behind in blogs. Always behind. Not because I’m slacking but because I’m working. Finally! After all this time, I’m getting somewhere. Thank you for your support. Or if you’re new, thanks for checking me out (new peoples someone’s talking about me ;p ).

The Uncertain Art of Creating Sound Effects

Directors are good at having a vision…but they're not always good at explaining them. So when I get a list of sound effects to work on for an upcoming video, there is often a lot of room for interpretation. Sometimes I have no idea what he actually wants. Typically they read something like this:

"SFX List:
-thump
-generator activating
-camera start-up noise thing
-something that sounds like an energetic teleportation…thing. ?
-atmospheric sounds,"
etc.

To which I must ask multiple questions to figure out the scene or what he actually means (Where is the sound relative to the viewer? What kind of environment is it in? WTF are you talking about?!?!?). Sometimes it just has to be something that sounds cool and works with the action. Other times there is a more specific vision of his that I am after.

Dragon Ball Z: James vs the Computer

What child product of the 90’s didn’t grow up watching Dragon Ball Z? such an incredibly cheesy show, but so good.

The inspiration from this video came while I was still in Australia. My old laptop (the first MacBook Pro with an Intel dual core processor) was at the end of its life. I spent a lot of time aggravated, trying to get it working. I wanted to just blow it up.

Given some time, this concept grew and it was that simple.