09.30.07
Posted in Work at 11:38 pm by Rob Schultz
Alright, here’re some things:
-The feature I was editing last time I wrote about working isn’t done yet. The production may or may not have actually shot more footage that I haven’t even seen yet. I haven’t spoken to anyone on or about it in quite some time, and I’m somewhere in the middle of a color correction pass and finishing off some digital makeup fix stuff.
-Gripped on a short about ‘an intern for the Tonight Show.’ (carefully phrased, lest you think the short was for the Tonight Show, though the hope seems to be that they might show it or put it on some official website somewhere.) It was fun to be out playing with lights and things instead of sitting at the final cut workstation.
-Loaded on a music video, plus or minus an on-the-spot visual effect and some still photography (Indeed, I should add some photos! To the Internets!) What an excellent set. The team seemed to have a very good idea about what they meant to shoot. We were well-fed and promptly paid. Various crew memberswere treated appropriately to their position – which is to say, as the (digital) film loader, I was not ordered to move bales of hay or prepare the craft services table. Unsurprisingly, this treatment makes me much more likely to be willing to lend a hand when C-stands and sandbags need to move. Just a fine experience.
Those are the items of the recent past. Some portion of my self-something is based on Knowing Stuff. It’s good, I like it, I think it’s good. So totally failing is disappointing. Today’s little plague: That girl Erin from QU who looked like a 70s-era Piper Laurie. Last name totally eludes me, and isn’t important, and won’t benefit me after I remember (or if I’m lucky, some QU reader writes in to tell me). I just want information to…stay. It’s not even someone I’m likely to ever meet again, just, y’know, c’mon brain! I kinda thought if I wrote all this it would arrive in my mind by the end of the paragraph.
Then there’s this other thing I’ve got cooking, that isn’t going to be mentioned any more specifically than that. I figured before that if I told everyone about something I wanted to do, maybe I’d be held accountable and have to work a little more. Since Animal Crackers isn’t done, I’m going to try an opposite tack with this, since nobody I know is hip to it yet. I’ll just bring it up in past tense someday.
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06.23.07
Posted in Work at 2:10 am by Rob Schultz
In professional life, there’s only been one person who has ever called me lazy. (She was later caught sleeping on the job to the detriment of the production going on elsewhere in the building.) Nonetheless, I was sure feeling it this week.
Took days and days to slog through what should have been some much faster work. Then a very effective meeting with the director and we’re just about picture-locked. I have some animating and jazzing up of a couple scenes to do, and then we’re handing it over. The post-production audio will begin, as will the color-correction and VFX (re: painting out a couple more booms).
In order to do the CC I’m going to need a bit more hardware – I’m looking at a Dell 2407WFP and Matrox MXO combo. The trick will be finding the monitor in town, which will sure cost more, but save a week’s shipping. Whether or not that’s even important depends on other circumstances though…
I heard a term somewhere, sometime recent, that I thought was pretty good: “First-world Problem.” An example is “would I like to earn money at a decent job, or would I prefer to sit around lazily for a month, accepting that I won’t receive income because I have enough money to survive?” We should all be so lucky as to have such a problem, eh? The specifics of the rub are do I want to try and squeeze in a month-long gaffer job between this and the next editing gigs – and whether that will even be possible. It would mean doing the finishing on this film in one week, and just a couple days to prepare for the next one. Not doing it means having extra time to finish this if need be, possibly a chance to pick up a bit of an older project, and time for some writing projects that are brewing.
Turning down a show someone called me to do for the sake of laziness isn’t a real thing, but it soothes the conscience if I don’t take it because I can’t meet their schedule. It would probably be fun, so I’m still going to go hear the details on it this week.
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05.22.07
Posted in Work at 7:47 pm by Rob Schultz
(luckily, I copied this to the clipboard before posting, because the internets here have sucked so powerfully the past few days…)
So we shot through the weekend. Directed more b-unit stuff (secretly just A-unit working unpaid overtime) on Sunday. At some point chunks of crew passed the ‘let’s make a good film’ mindset on their way to the ‘let’s go home now’ mindset. I understand that the more hours they work they less they get per hour on a show like this, but why not do a respectable job, especially on the last day?
The flip side of that is feeling faintly like a sucker for being so concerned and runnng around the set rallying and fixing things when it’s not my film and not my job to do so. But I have, and although I couldn’t stop the film’s action setpieces from being turned into cutaways, hopefully they are better cutaways and more accurate to the previously shot dialogue that describes them.
Remember how filmmaking is like going to camp? Further evidence of this is in the in-jokes and quotes, some of which undoubtedly echo with slight variations at lots of similar camps/movies. To this end, I offer “El Pollo Loco is how a movie says it doesn’t love you anymore.” I went to one such restaurant once, and it seemed to be a taco bell-like fast foodery. But on sets it is represented as tubs of foul fowl, slaw, thoroughly frozen and steamed vegetables, and of course soft tortilla shells/wraps that serve no obvious purpose.
And as long as I’m putting off editing a bit longer, I might point out that I just saw some of TV’s Bill Maher. Strikingly unfunny individual. At least on his own show. Loves a good pander though. Now back to syncing audio…
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05.19.07
Posted in Work at 1:34 am by Rob Schultz
That’s Creative Utility Player. That’s me.
I’m editing the feature film Seducing Spirits. Wednesday I wrote three scenes and today I was directing second unit. In a 1-hour round trip, we shot 20 minutes worth, and got about as many setups as the first unit got all day. Sure, it’s exterior, no lighting, but it’s fast and hopefully good looking.
Also found that this company’s next feature begins principal in early August – looks like I’ll manage to stay employed for a while.
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04.16.07
Posted in Work at 11:46 pm by Rob Schultz
Hey, I’m getting my act together here.
Just landed a job as more or less an online editor, for a project shot in DV. The catch is that it was shot in a 24fps simulating camera mode, but isn’t really 24fps footage, and any other final cut pro settings you can think of were probably also adjusted into wrongness. Then there’ll be color correcting and some light VFX.
Also interviewed today for another post, as an on-set editor. That’d mean dumping P2 cards and assembling footage, while everyone else runs around making a movie. And because I’m tied up with one and then maybe the other of these things, I got to turn down some grip work for the week. Even with a current job, I find myself applying and checking the ads as much as ever, since I’m getting the best rate-of-reply to craigslist ads I’ve ever gotten…which is probably still less than 50%. I could almost start to fret about not getting the thing that comes next before remembering that I’ve actually got a decent gig at the moment.
And even though it’s probably paying what really ought to be the bare minimum acceptable amount for the kind of work being done, everything else thus far has paid so much worse that it seems like a ton of money. It’s got me thinking of all the fantastic things I can purchase now! I mean, I’m not trying to brag or anything, but I’m thinking of purchasing a bed pretty soon.
I’ve also made some things for people looking for someone to do motion graphics and titling. They’re not great, but it’s a little AEX practice here and there.
I also seem to be running around more, maintaining a steady diet of one episode of Homicide: Life on the Streets per night, and sorting through a lot of on-set photos and such. Those’ll find their way over to flickr soon enough.
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04.01.07
Posted in Work at 4:56 pm by Rob Schultz
So…Zombies Ate My Prom Date wrapped its principal photography a week ago. I was kind of sorry to see it go, but I’ll be glad to see it come back, in the form of a finished and hopefully fun to watch flick with monsters and such.
I put in a couple days on a short about what can happen when you’re drinking but can’t use your hands for anything except more drinking. It’s primary social circle was the Tonight Show.
Then there was another Cougars taping. They sort of paid me to sit and enjoy an hour or two of sketch comedy. One sketch, over and over, but still. (Karmically, this balances out sitting in a tiny apartment for two days under 4k watts of light for free).
After both of those AND the zombie movie, there was a short called ‘paranormalists.’ The PSCs of which include a school in Ohio and New Line Cinema. I don’t know if it was/will be any good, but I sure learned a lot. I learned about picking up a grip package from a rental house. I learned about the thorough use of flags and nets when presented with only three lamps, all of which are too strong for the small location. I learned that even google maps doesn’t get it right everytime. I learned how to build and strike down a PortaJib in 15 minutes or less. I learned that it can be important to make sure the co-workers one refers to the production will be reliable, and as a corollary to that, who will be the first to get axed by a production that suddenly needs to decrease its expenses.
Oh, and there’re the fortnightly question testing sessions for ODVD.
All of that is what I’ve been up to. Along with attempts to get to the Tomorrow Show (saw Scott Thompson last time I went) and ASSSSCAT at UCB on weekends when work doesn’t preempt ‘em. And yourself?
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03.24.07
Posted in Work at 12:40 pm by Rob Schultz
We’re at the halfway point in shooting this fine film, and after a week is about when it seems a crew will…I guess I was going for ‘gel,’ so to speak. They’ll congeal (or coagulate!) or else they’ll separate (or suspend!), in the sense of mixtures. That is, after a few days ‘in the trenches,’ the G&E crew (for instance) will begin to know the looks and styles the DP is likely to prefer. “Oh, okay, indoor evening scenes will always have the following tungsten lamps, and they’ll be on dimmers,” or “Okay, this scene is in the gym where the prom is, so a blue wash will come from this side, more color from the stage.” Perhaps shorthand is developed. Perhaps ne’erdowells have been sacked. And as a whole, shooting should be getting faster, as the team grows familiar.
BUT
Once your crew starts buddying up, and stops fretting about making a good impression and getting to know everyone else; there’s a certain danger to treating co-workers like old friends, instead of as a professional. The desparation of low budgets can keep on with crew that would have been thrown off bigger sets.
[That's where I stopped writing this one and probably went to sleep. I'm sure I was laying the groundwork for some kind of point I wanted to make, but by now, I've no idea what that point was. Ah well.]
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03.06.07
Posted in Work at 2:46 am by Rob Schultz
Working on a set is a lot like going to camp. The real world kind of falls away, outside news intake drops off, you’re thrown in with the other campers going through the shared struggle / way of life of trying to convert the script to footage… It’s got its own rituals – the things that are acceptable to discuss at different points of the shoot (so what do you do? where are you from? how’d you get here? What are you doing next? Got a card?) – inside jokes (“Anyone want an apple? We haven’t got anymore water, but there’s gum.”) and games. It’s an application of the rule Spider Robinson puts forth every few pages in a given Callahan collection – shared pain is lessened, shared joy is multiplied.
In this instance, I didn’t much like the movie, but I quite enjoyed making it. The wordy, oft-mumbled or drowned-out-by-helicopters script seemed to meander, with a handful of leads that…come to think of it, I was there and I don’t know how any of the subplots turn out. Hm.
Regardless, if I had to be at Lake Routinely-shut-down-by-police, curiously scheduled, upper-management-seems-vaguely-disinterested, I’m glad it was with the team we had. A routinely impressive art department, a crew with a common sense of humor and determination to make as much of the days as possible, and an AD team struggling to hold it all together. Extra special thanks to Danny the grip, Angel the Camera PA, Marina the beachcomber, Monty on production stills, Bill, and that bloody roadblock in MU/H.
In G&E we squeezed a lot from a small lighting package (so far, the smallest kit I’ve worked with on a show that had ‘real’ gear). Typically, we had our daylight or tungsten ‘looks,’ but every so often we got to rig something interesting. Photos should be on flickr in a few days, for the good stuff. And we learned some valuable lessons, like how many kinos can run on my 150w inverter (1×4′ + 4×2′ tubes on three ballasts, cube tapped into the inverter). I found that in particular especially interesting, since I was working on my kino-flo merit badge. (Requirement 6a. Change 2 4×4′ banks and 1 4×2′ bank of kinos from daylight tubes to tungsten. b. and back again. c. And again. d. And again. e. Once more, just in case.)
And now that it’s over, I’ve got a couple of days to re-integrate with the real world via laundry, paying off a production-sponsored parking ticket, and buying some food (since I can’t just eat on-set), amongst other miscellany.
Most folks tend to do alright with their co-workers out of necessity as much as anything else (shared grief? common enemies?), so you pick the camp you go to and you do even better. People who show up with the earnest intent to make a film will probably get along well with others of the same mind. And a movie doesn’t typically go on forever, so that means going to camp again and again (if you’re lucky) and throwing in with further teams, so on and so on. And we’re all in this business to make friends, right?
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02.03.07
Posted in Work at 8:42 pm by Rob Schultz
Today I met some of the Cougars. Specifically Casey McAdams and Troy Hauschild. Tobin and I helped them to shoot as much of a sketch for the pilot they’re assembling as possible before it was time to go watch basketball.
I found myself operating camera a lot more than I have in a while, especially for someone else’s thing. I guess that’ll happen when your sketch team and production team sums up to two (2) people.
I guess I won’t blow the sketch by describing it, but it does include Randy the dummy getting splattered across a windshield, because he was able to do more takes than Casey would have. Apparently (I missed it, operating camera and all) some women driving by saw one of the hits and freaked out.The cougars’ delight that we were so new to the city gave way to lots of helpful tidbits of advice. I hope they’ll come straight to us instead of craigslist the next time they’re ready to shoot. Sorry to the 75 other applicants who wanted the job – we were there first.
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