Friday, October 22, 2010

The toughest man alive


'Make It Or Break It' is going great. I have what can only be described as a kick ass crew. Greg Barnett is our stunt coordinator and the other day we had a boxing sequence. We needed a stunt guy referee and Greg just happens to know 'Judo Gene Le Bell, the toughest man alive' http://www.genelebell.com/.

We had him at the gym set and I had the chance to hear some war stories from one of the original cage fighters. Gene is such a nice guy and so fun to hang out with. The only problem was I wanted to spend my day learning some new MMA techniques instead of shooting our TV show. All of the fighters wanted pictures with Gene and he was nice enough to pose until we all got a shot. Greg's wife Barbie took this shot of me. Gene was only posing for a picture but he still put some power into his choke hold. If he had put any real effort into it he would have choked me out in seconds........

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Atlanta and a short visit home


Before I agreed to do 'Make it or break it' I had told Artie and Tim that I would shoot the second unit car chase sequence on a Pilot in Atlanta. So when I signed up for MIOBI I told them I would have to leave for 2 days for the prior commitment.

I had also scheduled in a long weekend so I could see Jill and Mike. I ended up merging the two together so after the second day of shooting in Atlanta, I caught a late flight home on Thursday night. I got to spend all day Friday, Saturday and most of Sunday with my family. We went to My Gym, swim lessons and the water park.

I'm at the airport now waiting to get on my flight back to LA. This time however, I only have 14 days until Jill and Mikey move out to LA with me for the next 7 weeks! Jill is looking forward to having some time off of work (something she hasn't had since I've known her) and all the West Coast family is looking forward to having my family a bit closer for a change.

7am call tomorrow at the stage and I woln't get in until midnight, good thing it's only a 3 minute drive.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

The West Coast and The Ghost


If you have a car don't even finish reading my post. Go on line and buy 'The Ghost PRO' radar detector. It is so good that it almost feels unfair. It makes it all but impossible to get a ticket. You just drive. When it beeps you calmly slow down (no more panic breaking) and by the time you even see the cop your doing the speed limit. It just reads further and faster than all types of police radar. And, it has a built in radar scrambler that prevents police radar from locking in on you for an extra few seconds. It is without question the best money you can spend if your going to do any type of long drive...

Speaking of long drives, I just got in to LA. I left Miami at about 8pm on Thursday night and made it to Santa Clarita Saturday night. My total drive time was 37 hours (plus two 5 hour motel stops) and my average speed (including gas and food stops) was 73mph. My back and but are a bit tired but the drive was actually easy and kind of fun.

My new home until December 21st is Santa Clarita studios. I'm doing 'A' camera / Steadicam on ABC's 'Make it or break it'. It's a 15 week shoot (ten x 7 day episodes). We shoot 5 in and 2 out and my new place is less than 2 miles from the stage, good stuff.

I was reminded of something when I drove across the border of Arizona into California. In Miami (or any other city in the US save maybe NY) I could pretty much read a book, watch a movie and eat a burrito all while driving ten times better than everybody else on the road... Not so in Cali. They definitely kick it up a notch in LA. They drive faster and better. They actually think about where they are going, travel in the correct lane, signal when appropriate, give right of way and most importantly, they don't travel in the passing lane. If you took ten Miami drivers and dropped them into the middle of an LA expressway you would instantly cause a 50 car pile up. Miami drivers just don't have the chops. It felt good to actually have to work to stay ahead of the pack.

6:30 am call tomorrow on the stage. Looking forward to it.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Homeward Bound...

The Jamaican Sandals 2010 odyssey is coming to an end! 5 travel days, 1 idle day and 13 shoot days. We shot at 4 different resorts, did aerials, under water work and lots and lots of steadicam. Just in video alone (there were also had 3 full time still crews working) they have close to 2 terabytes of video! I am exhausted and looking forward to seeing Jill and Mikey.

One more day and a wake-up and I'm on the 7am back to Miami!!!! No more jerk chicken, hooray!

Here's a quick video collage of some of the stills from the trip.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Jamaica Day 15???



I've lost track of the days... We have been to 4 (?) resorts since we got here. They added two days to the already long 17 day shoot. I'm down to the final few. We have a down day tomorrow and then 3 (?) more shoot days........... I am ready to be home!

Already have a Dr. Pepper commercial on the 2nd and some under water work shooting manatee for 'The Glades'. It also looks like Artie and I will be going to Atlanta for a 2nd unit for Tim Matheson. Looks like September is going to be a busy month too.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Jamaica Day One


Even though I'm surrounded by hundreds of thousands of dollars of high end camera equipment, all I ever seem to have with me is my cell phone camera.

I got up this morning at 6am and looked (for the first time) out my window. I always miss Jill and Mikey when I'm on location but views like this help keep my spirit up.

Finished the first half of the first day and so far this is a great job. The crew is fantastic, everybody has a great attitude and were getting some great shots. I took a quick dip in the pool and now I'm going to grab a power nap.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Jamacia

Off to Jamaica for a Sandals job for the next 17 days. Going with Gabe and John. Should be tons of fun, will update from the road.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

The Glades


Been having a blast working on 'The Glades'. We spent the day working at Oleta River State Park in the back woods doing a treasure hunt sequence. Working with Andy, Anthony, April, Marvin, Ben and the rest of the team.

It looks like the show is going to get picked up for another season so we would have 2 shows going in South Florida at the same time. Good stuff!!!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Burn Notice Season 4, 2nd Unit


Back on the set of Burn Notice today. After missing several episodes, I finally to got to crash some cars and blow some stuff up. It was a nice short day with some approach shots and then 5 cameras shooting the car getting blown up and flipping.

Everything went great, my crew kicked ass, we had good weather and we got a bunch of great shots, the editors should have a lot to work with.

Video to follow...

Monday, July 26, 2010

Music Video


Last Thursday Brett and I did a music video. It was a steadicam oner. We rehearsed about 3 times and shot 7 times. Of the 7 attempts, the dancers blew it 3 times so there were 4 keepers. The last 2 were the best and happened right at magic hour, take number 6 was my favorite.

We were using the director's RED with Nikon lenses. His lens of choice had an old 77mm filter stuck on the front. We tried like hell to get it off but it wasn't happening. Our grip grabbed some video on his iPhone while Brett took a hammer to the filter that was attached to the lens.

I spend a decent part of the day hanging out in the pool because I could. It was another one of those surreal days where you think, "am I really getting paid to do this..."

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Atlanta


In Atlanta with Anthony Mandler and Maz Makani doing two Drake music videos.

The really good shot was right in the explosion... So naturally I volunteered to be right in the explosion.

My AC got a great shot from his iPhone. He stopped shooting to come to my rescue but I actually kept rolling for another minute or more.

The video camera on the phone had a hard time with the sudden super bright light so it actually looks like the explosion was bigger that it really was. They patted the flames out and we kept right on rolling.

With action shots they always feel cooler if your right in the action. If it doesn't look a little scary to me while I'm shooting it, it definatly will not feel exciting when you watch it.

Me and the camera were fine and there was only a slight charring on the furni pad. I'm sure the shot will make the video, I'm looking forward to seeing it.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

'Step Up 3D'


Yesterday Brett and I did the Miami portion of a competition for Disney's new move 'Step Up 3D'. A dance team from LA, NY, Atlanta and Miami had half a day to shoot a one shot dance video to the song, 'Club Can't Hndle Me' by Flo Rida.

We did the Miami portion and they kicked ass! They had 40 or 50 members on their team with all kinds of dance from hip hop to break dancing to free running. They shredded 2 stories of an old wear house from top to bottom.

The videos from each of the teams goes on line Wednesday. I'll post a link when they are up.

It was probably the most fun I've had doing steadicam in years.

Friday, July 2, 2010

Nassau


Just finished the (hopefully) final round of phone calls and e-mails before the holiday weekend. It looks like we are all set to start prepping for Nassau.

We are heading over on Tuesday to shoot a day of aerials and a day of ground work for a movie called "Gulliver's Travels".

Going with Don, Larry, Brett and Carla Sosa... Should be a blast.