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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!!!

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...