mine

22 February – Day two is through.  My friend Toby IM’d me the other day saying he liked my “travelogue”.  I acknowledged his choice of words but it didn’t hit me till today how right he was.  This entry has less to do with cinematography than it does with travel.  Since there isn’t much to tell that is very insightful camera wise, let’s continue with the travelogue…

It’s funny to see that Miami – or at least the parts that we’re at – are very much like Orange County, California.  This job is really more like a five hour trip to the OC to shoot a corporate spot.  Everything is kinda new, kinda “plastic” and not really meant to last.  I think about my apartment in Hollywood with its crown molding, hardwood floors, curved archways and I know it’ll be around at least another 80 years if not more.

Even here at this exclusive resort, the walls, walkways, doorways, and exteriors have this false sense of grandeur.  I’ve been on locations in Los Angeles, San Francisco and even West Virginia where the architecture just seem to suggest it’ll be here another 100 years from now and maybe even get better with time.  I suppose it’s a good thing that virtual sets are coming into there own since the filmmakers of the future are gonna have little to work with with buildings design today.

But enough of that.  We ate breakfast this morning at the restaurant in the hotel.  A couple of things came up that made me laugh and feel concern.  Let’s start with a somber note…

A woman in the dining room fell ill.  Possibly due to high-blood pressure or it might have been a mild stroke.  To the credit of the wait staff there, almost none of the guests even noticed the paramedics who helped the woman and deliver her to the hospital.  Too bad for this elderly couple.  We were informed that they were scheduled to go on a cruise later that day.  I hope they can still make it.

On a lighter note, it seems that many folks from Great Britain take holiday in Florida. In the restaurant this morning there was a couple that came in with two kids.  I almost lost it when this woman spoke.  You see, my friend Toby is originally from England and from time-to-time he mimics his mother’s voice.  This woman sounds so much like Toby mimicking his mum.  But what really got me chuckling was the sight of one of her little boy’s head.  It was SO HUGE it was almost cartoon like!  I do understand that kids often suffer from “big head, little body” syndrome but this mellon was gigantic, mammoth, prodigious, one might say even elephantine and without a doubt, down right honking monstrous!!!  It was SO big that if it were to rain his whole body would be kept nice and dry!  I do hope all that mass works out to smarts, ’cause he’ll need it!

One last note of the great wait staff here.  They’re also very funny.  Last night we came in very hungry after a long day.  At the end of our meal our plates didn’t even have a morsel of food on them, our waiter say while clearing the table, “would you like to take the rest home?!”.  And today for breakfast, I got yogurt still in its container and needed a smaller spoon than the one I had on the table.  I asked for one and the waiter returned with the largest spoon he could find only switch it with right one.  It funny, right?!… or maybe you had to be there!

Oh, wait… information that might be useful!  I started using some other features in VideoScope that have come in a little handy.  The first is a two-point, IRE readout (IRE is the video amplitude expressed as a percentage or units above and below 0 – 140 total units: 100 above 0 and 40 below.  It’s now often called IEEE on digital systems).  It also has a picture-in-picture option that zooms a boxed area that the cursor controls.  Kinda cool, yes?!

Ah, one more thing.  It’s a “lesson learned” moment.  Always call ahead. I’ll say no more, but if you need a cab, call ahead.  If you need a room unlocked, call ahead.  Oh, wait!  I said more.  Doh!

So far the Brits win hands down as the funniest and most fun to work with.  Especially between the takes.  One guy in particular, talked about the difference between media groomed American executives and European executives.  According to him, Americans always use an “Auto Cue” (TelePrompTer) and always button their coat.  I thought they were the stuffy ones and we’re the casual kids from across the pond?!

Well we’re done, packed up and tomorrow we fly out.  We’re waiting for an approval on a video insert for a presentation tomorrow morning before we can leave this hotel for ours.  We’ll be on a plane tomorrow morning and home by noon.  I might write something else along the way or I might not.  Either way, stay tuned for another exciting episode…

(Salt Lake City)

(Somewhere over the Rockies)